He's in Charge?
Houston Astros manager Brad Mills completely out of the loop on Roy Oswalt'strade demand
Roy Oswalt has officially requested to be traded from the floundering franchise that calls Minute Maid Park home. Of course, readers of CultureMap knew back on April 17 that the Astros ace was already talking to friends about his willingness to leave Houston.
Some people around here are a little slow on the uptake though. Including, apparently, Astros manger Brad Mills.
You know, the guy who's supposed to be running the team on the field. Well, it turns out that Mills is already so far out of the loop in the organizational hierarchy that he might as well be watching the 'Stros games from Tomball. It's come out that Mills found out about Oswalt's trade demand less than two hours before Friday night's game.
I think Yao MIng's baby had already heard about it by then and she'd just opened her eyes to the world. Which makes Baby Yao Girl much more aware and alert than Mills.
Oswalt agent relayed the pitcher's trade demand to Astros owner Drayton McLane on Wednesday. General manager Ed Wade was quickly informed. As for Mills ... you know, the manager ... no one bothered to tell him for several days.
It's never a good sign when your bosses start treating you with all the respect afforded to a Minute Maid hot dog vendor. Of course, it's an even worse sign when you're 15-27 as a first-year manager.
Hopefully, someone's told Mills that Kaz Matsui has been cut by now.