"In his previous life as Terry Francona's bench coach with the Boston Red Sox, Brad Mills would be called to action, not always to get a pinch-hitter to get loose or evaluate the merits of a pitching change, but sometimes for an unusual task. "Millsie," Francona would say in his Pennsylvania-bred accent that when contrasted against Mills' California blank slate really forms the only superficial difference between the two folically-challenged, artificial-kneed 50-somethings. "We want to work on that in spring training, write it down." It could have been anything from positioning to executing facets of the game, as if such things ever went wrong for a team that went 565-407 with two World Series titles in that span. But when they did, Mills would sure enough write it on a lineup card and save it for spring training. Mills recalled that story while sitting in his office at the Astros' spring training complex this week and taking a break from preparing for his second season as a major league manager. Year 1 – a well-documented slow-starting 76-86 campaign – featured more of those "write it down" moments than one could count. Busy winter Just like in Boston, he used the lineup card. And this offseason, while he was rehabilitating a knee that had been injured since his playing days, he added to his study. The estimate took a minute to coax out of him and never got precise, but Mills believes he watched 80-100 of the team's 2010 games since undergoing the knee surgery." Read more: http://blog.chron.com/ultimateastro...rove-astros-in-his-second-season-at-the-helm/
