Bring Back Hunsy

It's been a tough year so far for me and Astros fans and last night sure didn't help. They took a 9-4 lead into the bottom of the 7th against baseball's second-best team, the Angels. After Chad Qualls, Dave Borkowski, and Trever Miller (I know...who?) took the mound for us, it ended up as a 10-9 loss and in the process, sent the Astros back to 10 games below .500. While some might blame the manager or the players, I blame one person- Tim Purpura, the Astros GM, whom I will now refer to as Tim Poopura.

Poopura took the stand as GM after Gerry Hunsicker shockingly resigned after the 2004 season. While he was GM, Hunsicker was one of the best in the business. He's the one who brought Randy Johnson to H-Town at the '98 deadline, Pedro Astacio at the '01 deadline (back when he was considered good), and Carlos Beltran in June of '04. He saw Mike Hampton become a 20-game winner, and discovered one the of the best in the game today, Roy Oswalt. And oh yea, he signed Andy Pettitte and Roger Clemens in 2004. And then, Poopura took over....

I was fine with Poopura until the offseason where he failed to sign Carlos Beltran. Beltran loved Houston, he wanted to come back. He would have been a fixture in center and a much coveted threat in the lineup. He's the best five-tool player in the game today and passing on him created a huge offensive void the team could really be using today. At least we've now found Hunter Pence to play center, but he'll never be what Beltran could have been. Poopura then overpaid Clemens to join the team in June of '06. I still think he did this just to save his image. 'Hey, let me sign Roger and then everyone will be happy and won't notice the mistakes I've made'.

Fast forward to today and nothing has really changed. We still have one of the least intimidating lineups in the league, and as last night showed us, our bullpen is an absolute disaster (minus Brad Lidge and Dan Wheeler on a few nights). I won't even get started on what I think of Rick White. We have the worst 7-8-9 hitters in the league with Adam Everett, Brad Ausmus, and the pitcher. Everett and Ausmus are both the worst hitting players at their position in the majors. Going into the offseason, Poopura knew this, but he didn't change it. The Carlos Lee signing was about the only thing that I've applauded. He's done well so far and has won many fans over, as witnessed by the Los Cabillitos fixture out in left field. Bottom line: If things don't get better fast, Poopura deserves to be shown the door.