Houston Press: Hire Frank Robinson!

The Houston Press is back to making fun of Richard Justice and the Chronicle, and throws out a replacement name for Coop:

Richard Justice is back on the Fire Cecil Cooper bandwagon, but this time, instead of Jeff Bagwell, he's back to urging Drayton McLane to hire third base coach Dave Clark. Clark has no major league managing experience, and he sucks as a third base coach. Yet this is the guy that Justice wants to be the new manager.

Drayton McLane has hired five managers since firing Art Howe, the manager he inherited from the prior ownership. Three of those five managers were first-time-ever managers (Terry Collins, Larry Dierker, and Cecil Cooper). The other two were guys who failed at multiple managerial stops (Jimy Williams and Phil Garner). Frankly, I'm tired of Drayton hiring first-timers, and I'm tired of him hiring guys who have failed previously. Dave Clark has shown absolutely nothing in his time as third base coach to indicate that he can handle a managing job -- Justice says this doesn't matter as sucking as a third base coach doesn't mean he'd be a bad manager. I say that if Clark can't handle getting a runner from third to home, then he definitely can't handle the proper time to make a pitching change.

Since Justice is throwing names out for the job, I'd like to throw out a name. I think the first guy Drayton McLane should call is Frank Robinson...

...And he has never managed a team to the playoffs. So he appears to be just another manager who has been given the opportunity to fail with multiple managing jobs.

But it's for this reason that he's the best possible manager for the Astros next season...

...Robinson was able to get Alfonso Soriano to stop pouting and to make an effort when he was forced to change positions, so think of what he could with the likes of Carlos Lee. And if Robinson couldn't command the respect of the Astros clubhouse, then it's just not possible to tame that clubhouse and massive changes elsewhere need to be made.