Astros Baseball: Major Offseason Changes Await Houston Franchise

Mercifully, the Houston Astros 2009 season is over.

74 wins, 88 losses; a very disappointing year in the National League Central.

For Houston, many moves are in order, but naming a new manager must be a priority.

Astros General Manager Ed Wade told MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart (the beat writer for the Houston baseball team) on Monday that he hopes to begin making contact with potential skipper candidates by the week’s end.

Dave Clark, the former third-base coach turned interim manager after Cecil Coopers departure from the dugout, is one of the names on that short list.

And if it were up to many of the players in the Houston organization, Clark would be the Astros skipper in 2010.

Those supporting Clark for the managerial position include franchise names such as Roy Oswalt and Lance Berkman, along with the young guns and up-and-comers like Michael Bourn and Hunter Pence.

“I think he’s got the right type of demeanor and presence,” Berkman told McTaggart last week. “I like him. I think he would make a great choice. We’ll see. I don’t know who the other candidates are, but if they ask me my opinion, I would say that Dave would be a great candidate. Nobody in here would have the least bit of problem with him being the next manager.”

The Wizard of Oz (Oswalt, for those unaware of his Houston nickname) backs the Astros first baseman, saying Clark would be a great fit for the franchise.

“I think Dave would do a good job,” Oswalt told McTaggart last week. “He knows the game well. I think the biggest attribute is he demands a lot from the players. He sticks with what he does best, and I think he would be great for this team.”

The Houston Astros front office, however, feels they have no need to rush along the managerial search process—with McLane expecting plenty of interest in the position despite the Astros poor overall record this season.

“I think there will be a lot of good candidates,” McLane told McTaggart on Monday. “Houston is one of the best five or six teams in baseball, the fourth-biggest city in baseball and has some of the best attendance in baseball. I feel there will be strong candidates because we’re a major city and have one of the best baseball fields. Our organization, in the 17 years I’ve owned the team, has the fifth-best record in all of baseball.”

For now, that leaves the rest of the Astros coaching staff in jeopardy—as they were recently told they are free to search for new jobs based on the uncertainty of what the future holds once a new skipper is named.

“I hope to bring some clarity to that picture sooner rather than later, this week or next week,” Wade said on Monday. “In some cases, we’re going to have to wait to fill some spots until after the manager is in place. In fairness to the guys that have been here, we felt it appropriate to have some type of conversation with them.”

The future of the Houston Astros franchise all depends on what kind of moves Wade and company plan to make over the coming weeks and months.

For the time being, Astros fans must just sit and wait this one out—along with hoping and praying that the front office can get Houston’s baseball team back into a NL Central race and back into the World Series.

It may take some time—and trust me, it’s going to be a long and hard offseason—but hopefully the Astros can keep some of the core guys in place (such as the four players mentioned earlier in this article) and surround them with enough talent to break into postseason play in 2010.

Putting a solid surrounding cast around the likes of Oswalt, Berkman, Bourn, and Pence sounds like a NL winner to me—only time will tell…


Denton Ramsey may be reached via email at [e-mail]