McTaggart's Q&A with Garner

And from a couple of days ago, McTaggart posted a Q&A with Garner. Some nuggets:

Drayton was not in this process, so I've no conversations with Drayton other than to see him here at the ballpark a few times to chat with him. First and foremost, being fired, there's nothing wrong with that. It happens in baseball a lot. I did not have any ill feelings I do know I've made changes when the club is not going right and in '07 things weren't going right. You have to do things to shake up the ballclub. I don't think Drayton had ill feelings towards me...

...I feel re-energized, I always bring an energy to a ballclub. But I think at this point after being out a little over two years, I'm re-energized and I think that's important to bring a can-do attitude to a ballclub and I can bring that. I'm always upbeat. You guys know that I can see a lot of good things even in a storm. That I can bring to the table: baseball experience and knowledge. I think there's some things that need to be done with this ballclub and for whatever reason I don't think it's where it should be. I think there's going to need to be a tough hand applied, and I think I'm very capable of doing that...

...We weren't playing well in '07 and I think any time your club is playing poorly it's hard to determine if the club's better than you're actually playing or it's about what you have. And so, I'll have to leave it up to the people that are evaluating and some p the personnel they've watched closer than I have the last couple of years. You can always use a year like the Astros have gone through as a good bounce-off point...

...I have not talked to Cecil yet. As a matter of course, I usually wait when things like this happen to good friends, but I will give him a call. I want to check with him and see how he's doing...

...Were we lacking in a team effort? It looked like that at times. I think those things need to be addressed. I don't know if that was a fault of anybody, but that's the way it appeared to me. I think those are the things that would need to be addressed. We need to get back to the team concept. Baseball is unusual from the fact of individuals play to get it done, but you need a team effort and you need to get where you're going. It appeared to me at times we weren't really sure we were playing for a team, for a single goal."