Imagine my surprise, sitting in a Best Western in Macon, Georgia, and seeing that the Astros released Bill Hall. A couple of emotions to report:
1. I'm impressed Ed Wade pulled the trigger as "quickly" as he did. I mean, you could have made a case for this a month ago, but I didn't think it would actually happen until next season, if it happened at all. I don't know if Ed Wade isflexing nuts to show Jim Crane that he can cut waste as well as any CEO, but I like it.
2. But it's not as though Wade had a choice. Keppinger - in a limited amount of time - and Bourgeois had both done a much better job. I'm sure Wade wanted Hall to work out so Keppinger could be expendable, but in the end, we can chalk Hall up as another veteran free-agent signing that just didn't work out.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
