You're Outta Here
Axed: Brad Mills fired by the Houston Astros after another lopsided loss
Brad Mills managed the worst team in baseball. And then got fired.
Brad Mills in happier times
Update: The Astros named Tony DeFrancesco their interim manager Sunday morning. DeFrancesco managed the club's Triple A team in Oklahoma City.
General manager Jeff Luhnow says the search for a permanent replacement begins now.
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The Houston Astros ownership has seen enough — Brad Mills is gone.
The Astros fired their manager as the clock ticked toward 11 p.m. on a Saturday night dominated by a Houston Texans' preseason game. Mills' final indignity? A 12-4 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks at Minute Maid Park that dropped Houston's baseball team to 39-82.
The Astros players left the clubhouse on Saturday night thinking that Mills was still their manager. But Mills' fate had been decided and he'd be informed of it before he left the ballpark. Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow told Mills in the manager's office that the club was letting him go.
The Astros sent out the official release at 11:01 p.m.
So much for waiting until the end of the season to fire the man managing the worst team in baseball. Or even waiting till morning.
The Astros will reveal the interim rest-of-the-season replacement for Mills in a Sunday morning press conference. Hitting coach Mike Barnett and first base coach Bobby Meacham also have been fired.
As CultureMap has noted many times before, Astros owner Jim Crane and Luhnow do not believe in dawdling once they've reached a decision. Mills wasn't given much to work with as Astros manager. But he seldom impressed with the little he had either.
"It's not any fun," Crane told CultureMap Thursday night at the Astros Wives Gala, the owner's most recent public appearance. "And it's certainly not any fun for the fans."
For more, stayed tuned to CultureMap.
