The Chron's head-in-the-sand reporting on the Astros

It's summertime in Houston. Two things are going to be constants:

1. It's Hot.

2. The Chron is going to roll out pages of bad sports coverage and analysis, especially surrounding the Astros.

Exhibit A: Jose de Jesus Ortiz' mind-numbing tripe on the future of Carlos Lee...

They call him El Caballo. And if you want him out of town, you can get back on the horse you rode in on because Carlos Lee isn't going anywhere.

And he shouldn't go anywhere.

He's among the league leaders in runs batted in, yet some around town keep wondering why the Astros don't trade him.

First of all, he has a no-trade clause that he won't waive. He signed for $8 million less than the San Francisco Giants offered him because he wanted to be near to his prized Brahman cattle in Boling.

Ask Miguel Tejada. Ask Lance Berkman. Ask Wandy Rodriguez, Humberto Quintero, Hunter Pence, Michael Bourn and Jose Valverde what presence and leadership Lee poses in the Astros' clubhouse.

He's accountable before and after games. What did he do in his first season after signing his $100 million deal with the Astros? He played every game, won a Silver Slugger, was an All-Star and the team's MVP.

Before we start: Jose, It's called a leading paragraph. Learn how to write one that doesn't give the readers a migraine. Thank you. ("get back on the horse you rode in on"??)

The reason El Caballo isn't going to be traded is that, last year, the Astros overpaid for a middle of the road slugger with a questionable work ethic. It's not his so-called leadership (leader's run out ground balls), it's not his sparkling defensive play (Left field is an adventure) and its certainly not his stellar offensive numbers (when compared to the rest of the leagues sluggers El Caballo is is "eh"). Nope, there's just not an active market in the league for a slugger with questionable desire and an apparent inability to back away from the buffet. Oh yeah, and one that's still on the hook for around $80 Mil to boot. The one thing that Ortiz got correct is that Lee has a "no-trade" clause in his contract. He's not going anywhere.

Exhibit B: Richard Justice's defense of Cecil Cooper...

Day by day, this baseball season is becoming a referendum on Cooper's competence. This is ridiculous.

It's not always about the manager. Besides, Drayton McLane hasn't even finished paying off Phil Garner, so he's not likely to get around to firing this manager until he gets the last one off the payroll.

Besides, there's no way Cooper should be fired. Not now. Not next month. Firing another manager would make the Astros look sillier than they already do.

Cooper isn't the reason the Astros are buried in the standings. They're losing because they're a lousy baseball team, and they'd be lousy even if Bobby Cox was filling out the lineup card.

Next season is another matter. Cooper must understand his weaknesses and show he has the ability to learn from his mistakes. This season is his only free pass.

No need to make a decision now. By the time this season ends, we'll all know if he deserves another shot.

No manager (or coach) should ever get a "free pass" period. The fact is, if Cecil Cooper doesn't show some drastic improvement in his in-game decision making, there could be a very compelling case to be made that he's not manager material. Of course, the Astros haven't had a competent manager in the clubhouse since Art Howe. During the Biggio/Bagwell era the Astros had a lot of potential, and always lacked someone who could pull the right levers down the stretch. They also had weak managers who abdicated the clubhouse rule to the two stars. The foxes were guarding the chicken coop, and now that the foxes are gone its free reign. There's no control, no guiding force, no rudder for the ship, insert tired cliche here.

If Cecil Cooper can't (or won't) get control of the clubhouse and his players, then it wouldn't be out of bounds to broach the subject of a new manager. It still surprises me that he and pitching coach Dewey Robinson didn't get at least some of the blame for the Shawn Chacon/Ed Wade dustup. Remember, Wade asked Cooper and Robinson to call Chacon into their office, he left, and when he came back the two were still sitting there like Wally and Lumpy with no Chacon. "Gee, I don't know boss, we called the guy but he wouldn't come." The fact is Cooper should have been the heavy in this case, not waited for his general manager (who has a history of bad player relations dating back to Philly BTW {Something you won't find in the pages of the Chroncile}) to come in and play the role of enforcer.

That's the sign of a weak manager, one who's lost effective control of his team.

OTHER EYES:

HouSTONED Ballz.