I am not as sure as most that Drayton McLane made the right move in firing General Manager Tim Purpura the other day. However, there is no doubt that Baseball Prospectus’ Joe Sheehan thinks that McLane screwed the pooch in canning Purpura. In this article ($) entitled “Tim Purpura Gets Screwed,” Sheehan lays into McLane’s management of the Stros:
Firing Purpura, as McLane did yesterday, is an act of incompetence. Not only was it Purpuraís workóhe ran the Astrosí player-development operations for seven years prior to becoming GMóthat built the pennant winner, but with the expensive problems he inherited and the meddling of McLane, it was impossible for him to move the Astros in the direction they needed to go. He was essentially a caretaker, needing to preside over a rebuilding process and never being allowed to do so, and heís now out of a job largely because his employer has returned to being completely irrational about what his team is.
Purpuraís performance as a GM was a mixed bag. He made his share of missteps, such as the [Jason Jennings] trade and the Woody Williams contract. However, he showed a terrific ability for making the smaller moves that add value at very little cost. In three seasons, Purpura made something-for-nothing pickups such as Mike Lamb, Aubrey Huff, and Mark Loretta. The player-development program he built continues to generate contributors such as Luke Scott, Wandy Rodriguez (check out his peripherals this year), Chad Qualls, and Troy Patton. If left to his own devices, I have no doubt that Purpura would have limited the Astrosí rebuilding process to a few short seasons, and come out on the other side with a team prepared for a long run of success.
Instead, heís out of a job. Tim Purpura isnít to blame for the Astrosí disappointing 2007 season, and that heís being fired for it is ridiculous. Drayton McLane set these events in motion by abandoning what had worked for close to a decadeóstaying out of the baseball staffís wayóand instead making his own bad decisions about what the Astros needed. McLane wanted a year-long coronation of Craig Biggio, and he got it. He couldnít have that and a contending baseball team, however, and his refusal to see thatóand his subsequent dismissal of Purpura and Phil Garner as scapegoats for his own mistakesóranks as one of the gameís great embarrassments of 2007.
Tim Purpura was one of the gameís top GM candidates when he landed the Astrosí job, and standing on the unemployment line today, he regains that description. If heís out of work for longer than a couple of days, the industry is making a terrible mistake. Purpura is a better GM than a dozen guys who hold that title at the moment, and I sincerely hope he gets an opportunity to do the job correctly, an opportunity that was denied him in Houston.
