Owner indicates jobs of Garner, GM Purpura are safe. For Now

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Astros' performance disappoints McLane

Owner indicates jobs of Garner, GM Purpura are safe

PHOENIX — Astros owner Drayton McLane is disappointed at his team's performance this season, but he's not quite ready to make any significant moves in the clubhouse or with the manager or general manager.

McLane essentially gave general manager Tim Purpura and manager Phil Garner votes of confidence Thursday evening, saying it was a loaded question when asked if he had reached a point where he needed to evaluate his manager or GM.

"You have to work through what the problem is," McLane said via phone Thursday before the Astros opened a four-game series at Chase Field against the Arizona Diamondbacks. "Firing a bunch of people is not the solution. We need to get people playing. That comes through leadership from the general manager and the manager."

Purpura fired the Astros' hitting coach, Gary Gaetti, at last year's All-Star break and the pitching coach, Jim Hickey, at the end of the season.

Even though left fielder Carlos Lee has been worth the $100 million free-agent contract he got last winter, the offense has continued to struggle.

The Diamondbacks, San Diego Padres and Washington Nationals were the only National League clubs with lower team batting averages than the Astros heading into Thursday. Moreover, the Astros were 12th in runs, 13th in hitting, 11th in total bases, 10th in home runs and 10th in RBIs among the league's 16 teams.

The pitching staff has actually been good, considering Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte are gone and Jason Jennings has been on the disabled list most of the season. Pitching coach Dave Wallace has aided the development of rookie Chris Sampson and Wandy Rodriguez, who have stepped up and helped ace Roy Oswalt lead the rotation while veteran Woody Williams tries to get back on track and Jennings works his injured right elbow back into shape.

"We're all disappointed," McLane said. "We thought we'd have a better team. We thought we'd have a better offense."

Which leads to the question: How many hitting coaches can you fire before you evaluate the person who makes the lineup and the person who gives the manager the players to put in that lineup?

Responding to questions fans sent into chron.com, McLane tried to address the essence of the majority of the fans' concerns while acknowledging it would be pretty difficult to take the time to answer the 21 pages of questions he received via e-mail from the Chronicle.

As far as firing anybody?

"That hasn't been a consideration with me or Tim or anybody in our organization," McLane said. "Our whole motivation is to work with our leadership group — Tim, Phil and his whole coaching staff — to see what can be done."

McLane admitted he and his management team had hoped Adam Everett, Jason Lane, Luke Scott and Morgan Ensberg would rebound and be better offensively this year. The owner also defended his club's decision to send young righthander Jason Hirsh, starting center fielder Willy Taveras and righthander Taylor Buchholz to Colorado for Jennings, who hopes to come off the disabled list and start Tuesday.

Jennings, whom McLane liked even more because they were both Baylor Bears, dealt with elbow tenderness for most of the second half of last season with the Rockies.

After refusing to budge on the $12 million offer they made to Pettitte, who sought $14 million from the Astros, the Astros tried to acquire the Chicago White Sox's Jon Garland in December. Once that deal fell through at the final stages, the Astros focused their attention toward Jennings.

Ironically, a concern over Pettitte's surgically repaired left elbow was a reason the Astros were more interested in Jennings. Jennings, who made his second rehab start on Tuesday at Class AAA Round Rock, rejoined the Astros on Thursday and is optimistic about starting next Tuesday.

"It's feeling pretty good," Jennings said of his elbow.

Pitching hasn't been the Astros' problem, though.

"I'm disappointed we haven't played better," McLane said. "We've just got to get the team to play more consistently, and hitting is the No. 1 issue."

At this point, it doesn't appear McLane will add to the Astros' payroll.

"We have a big budget," he said. "We have a $96 million budget. Have you seen any trades in the last few weeks? Generally, this is way too early for teams to make significant trades. You have to face reality on how baseball works."

Fortunately for the Astros, they are in one of the weakest divisions in baseball. The Milwaukee Brewers, who entered Thursday night with a 6 1/2 -game lead over the second-place Astros and Chicago Cubs, are the only team in the NL Central with a winning record.

The division is just bad enough that the Astros might look good once they play more teams in the division.

"We've got to get the team to play better," McLane said. "The general manager and manager will look better when the team plays better."