Smackdown!
 
Jimmy Williams became the second MLB manager to get the ax this season, after Arizona skipper Bob Brenly got the boot earlier in July. In both cases, additional changes were made to support and justify the moves: pitching coach Chuck Kniffin and bench coach Robin Yount (who resigned out of loyalty) joined Brenly on his extended vacation, while the Astros gave pitching coach Burt Hooton and hitting coach Harry Spilman their walking papers, too. It's a step up from the drastic purge last year, when 6 guys faced the firing squad before the All-Star break -- leading to Jack McKeon's appointment and magnificent finish with the Marlins...and not a whole lot else.  Unsatisfactory records prompted the Williams and Brenly moves, though I think impatience and unreasonable expectations had a lot more to do with it than managerial incompetence.
 
In the case of Brenly, he compiled a 303-262 record (and tell me that doesn't bear an eerie resemblance to knuckleballer Phil Niekro's career numbers) in 3 1/2 seasons with the Diamondbacks, including a World Series victory in 2001 and a playoff run in 2002. Brenly didn't do much in 2003 with a 3rd place finish and seemed to get called on the carpet for a series of questionable calls, but success spoils you, doesn't it? Richie Sexson's season-ending injury (after the D-backs traded a handful of major-league level players to Milwaukee) really signaled the death knell for Brenly: the team just couldn't put it together this year and puttered to a 29-50 record at the time of his dismissal. Really quite bad. And managers almost never have the luxury of working through a slump. Well, actually, there is an exception to that rule -- but we'll get there in a second.
 
In the case of Williams, he replaced Larry Dierker, whose Houston teams made the playoffs in 4 of his 5 seasons as manager and got dumped in a year (2001) the team went 93-69, simply because he couldn't light a fire under his players' asses to get beyond the first round of the playoffs. Williams was not the guy to replace Dierker, especially if the agenda in Houston was to go out and grab the jewel-crusted World Series ring. His Toronto (1986-88) and Boston (1997-2001) put together respectable enough records, but never made it past 2nd place in their respective divisions. Except, of course, when Williams was fired mid-season in 1989 and Cito Gaston engineered a turn-around and top finish for the Jays. Williams isn't the guy to take you to the playoffs -- he's the guy you fire to motivate the players to get there. 
 
Back to the exception to the rule -- which I like to call the Phil Garner Rule: managers will have the luxury of working through a slump if there is an awareness that they don't have the resources to succeed.  Garner, a universally well-liked guy, went 563 -617 in eight seasons with the Brewers between 1992-1999, with only one season (his first) above .500. Add two more in Detroit in 2000 and 2001 when -- this is very important, so I'm going to italicize it -- the teams had no reasonable expectation of contending and Garner cruised to 3rd and 4th place finishes. I love Lloyd McClendon so much that his name's the subject of this blog, but do you ever wonder why he's been allowed to continue to manage the Pirates this long? The Phil Garner Rule, of course. The same rule has just been invoked by Arizona; Brenly's replacement Al Pedrique is 2-9 since taking over the job and it would take a minor miracle for the Diamondbacks not to punt on the season entirely and move into rapid rebuilding mode. At the very least, Randy Johnson and Steve Finley will be gone -- so we know Pedrique's job will be safe for awhile.
 
Oddly enough, the Phil Garner Rule even applies to the hiring of Phil Garner as the interim manager in Houston -- even though there's an emphasis on winning NOW, a ton of older players on 1 year contracts on the team and Drayton McLane rented Carlos Beltran expressly for a pennant drive.  See, if Garner can't lead the slumping Astros to the playoffs, it's not his fault. He won't be back as the Astros manager, but it certainly won't be his fault. And if he puts it all together and kicks the Astros in the high gear, he's a light version of Jack McKeon; the media is beating the "Garner was saddled with bad teams before, lets see what he can do with talent" drum an uncomfortable amount. Not sure what's up in Houston; between the Killer Bs -- Biggio, Beltran, Bagwell and Berkman -- and the Clemens/Miller/Pettite/Oswalt rotation, they should be able to stomp on the competition.  I think people certainly want Garner to succeed -- we feel sorry for his Milwaukee-Detroit experiences because he's a likeable guy and a player's manager (as is Pedrique, who was well loved in AAA Tuscon). And maybe, if Prior's elbow doesn't heal and Milwaukee and Cincy stop surprising and the Cardinals stop snorting fancy pixie dust to get that high in the standings, Phil Garner might even be an exception to his own rule.