The Astros announced that they have appointed Tony DeFrancesco as their interim manager. The 49-year-old was the skipper for the club's Triple-A affiliate.
Dan Radison has been brought aboard as the club's interim first base coach while Ty Van Burkleo will serve as interim hitting coach. At this morning's presser, Astros GM Jeff Luhnow stated that the search for a permanent staff will begin immediately.
The Astros cleaned house late last night, dismissing manager Brad Mills, hitting coach Mike Barnett, and first base coach Bobby Meacham. In total, the club went 171-274 with Mills at the helm.
In with the new…..
I read this as Terry Francona at first.
Good move for the interim manager role. DeFrancesco was in the Oakland system as their AAA manager and took his teams into the playoffs for 6 out of 8 years. This year, with the Astros AAA team in Oklahoma City, he was 67-60, with many of the same players who are now on the Astros roster. Luhnow’s press conference made it clear that what he wants is a change in culture — and that DeFrancesco will be with the Astros organization next year win or lose, but not necessarily in the manager’s role. The search for a new manager will begin immediately and will include DeFrancesco as a candidate.
Was going to post something very similar to your post.
Couldn’t have said it better myself. Great post.
How awesome is that they brought somebody from within the organization. Good move for the Astros and good luck to Tony D.
He’s just an interim. All teams hire from within when they fire their manager mid-season.
Thanks, I did not know this. But the guy below said that they will keep him next year. Not necessarily as a manager though
They should have hired Ron Stilanovich. Get someone to teach them the fundamentals like ERP and how to not lose a fly ball in the sun.
How fitting a AAA manager for a AAA team.
You’re in the middle of rebuilding the organization and you want to add a managerial search to the pile of headaches. Better to have fired Mills when the new ownership came in or during this winter rather than this classless move during a throwaway season.
The new ownership has come in, that is what this is about. New owner and GM want their own person in place. They decided recently that they would not renew Mills’ contract for next year, so they decided to remove him from the manager’s role now, rather than keep him as lame-duck for the rest of the season. I see this as classy, not classless.
They couldn’t hire a new manager when the new ownership came in because MLB waited until mid-November to approve Crane as owner. It was too late to begin a proper managerial search. Now they have plenty of time to do so.
Seems they are just as good at dismissing quality players as they are managers/coaches.
DeFrancesco was great in “Boogie Fever”. Not sure what he’s done since disco though.
Why fire the first base coach? Aside from being the bullpen coach, It has to be the easiest coaching position in all of baseball.. BACK!!
Teams pick the coaching staff, but each manager is usually allowed to name one member of the staff himself. AFAIK, Bobby Meacham was Mills’ guy.
When the manager gets fired, his coaching buddy gets fired, too.