Jed's Back II (or: Revisiting the Worst Baseball Article of 2014)

(Not Hank) was was quick to report the news back on December 15, so this article isn't really focussed on Jed's return to the fold.  Rather, this article revisits the histrionics around the Jed Lowrie-Paul Clemens early-season "beanings", mostly because some of the trash written at the time was kind of priceless (and only accumulated in value with the passage of time).  Reflecting upon it lends itself to the idea that progress has been made, and will continue going forward.

We should start by briefly revisiting the Clemens-Lowrie incident in general terms, which this video does quite well.  The Astros were in the midst of a miserable start to 2014, having lost six of seven games during one stretch and six in a row in an entirely separate stretch.  On April 19, the Astros were well down early after Jarred Cosart lasted only one-third of an inning.   Jed Lowrie was up for the second time in the first inning with the A's up 7-0 when he unsuccessfully bunted against the shift for an attempt at a base-hit.  In Lowrie's next at-bat, Paul Clemens appeared to throw at him, but missed, with the ball going between Lowrie's legs.  Lowrie flew out to end that at-bat, then stood near first base and asked Jose Altuve whether the attempted leg-beaning was, in fact, an attempted beaning.  Bo Porter... uh...  "intervened" and politely "asked" him to stop talking to the Astro players, and "respectfully suggested" that he grab his glove and cap and return to his position on the other side of the second base bag.

The events of April 19 received some attention, but the incident was mostly forgotten after the Astros headed north to Seattle and took the road series there (partly because of the first of a number of strong pitching performances from Dallas Keuchel and Collin McHugh).  They darn near swept Seattle, but for Josh Fields giving up a go ahead jack to Corey Seager in the midst of a horror early-season stretch.  The Astros then returned to Houston for a return series against the A's.  Scott Kazmir hit George Springer in the first inning (with a two-run lead and two on) which kind of made no sense, all while Brett Oberholtzer was struggling - eventually allowing 6 earned runs in three-and-one-third of an innings.  Paul Clemens relieved, and in the seventh inning, hit Jed Lowrie square on the rump.  Clemens was the victim of a quick ejection, and after the game Bo Porter largely refused to comment further.  The hitting-of-batters continued on to the next day, when Jason Castro wore one from ex-battery-mate Fernando Abad, who subsequently stayed in the game, which also made no sense.  We are deliberately ignoring the Brandon Moss HBP's here, because everyone knows that a significant proportion of Moss' body mass spends most of his at-bat in the strike zone.  To say he sets up near the plate is being kind.

Lots of opinionated rubbish was written, leading to a trio of defensive articles published on this site revisiting the whole incident.  And, importantly, remember that at the time the Astros were miserable (on pace for 119 losses, donchaknow!!).  This led to fans experiencing flashbacks to 2011, 2012 and 2013.

Which leads us to the article which I consider the Worst Baseball Article of 2014, written by Will Leitch, and published on Sports on Earth.  Please check it out.

So here are the points made in Leitch's article, in a nutshell:

1. The Astros are currently bad.
2. They hired bloggers, just like Will Leitch, so they might be cool!
3. But they bottomed out on purpose, presumably to get high draft picks.  Emphasis not mine.  That ain't baseball.
4. Their manager is upsetting the applecart and ruining all the positive blogger-related stories, mostly because he looks like a "reactionary, delusional idiot".
5. After all, Bo Porter broke a rule on substitutions in 2013!
6. Matt Dominguez made a baserunning error that led to Bo Porter looking angry and staying quiet during a press conference.  Perhaps he is losing his grip on sanity.
7. Jed Lowrie then broke one of baseball's unwritten rules, which is really not breaking a rule at all, because he was trying to help his team to score runs.
8. Bo Porter started screaming at Lowrie.  Hey, someone from the Diamondbacks got angry when the Dodgers went for a swim, too!  A parallel, involving another struggling organisation!!
10. Porter then made Paul Clemens throw at Lowrie later.

(Note is made, at this point, that the order of the events is blatantly factually incorrect.  Leitch's account is: Lowrie bunted, Bo screamed, Clemens attempted to bean a couple of innings later presumably at the behest of Porter, whereas the actual order is Lowrie bunted, Clemens unsuccessfully beaned.  Bo screamed at the end of the attempted-beaning at-bat after Lowrie apparently questioned the intent.  Never let the facts - or the order of the facts - get in the way of a good diatribe.  After all, if one were to promote the argument that Porter was losing it, having him order Clemens to bean him after earlier yelling at him makes for a better story, doesn't it??)

11. A few days later, the Astros were down big again (they are useless, donchaknow), when Clemens hit Lowrie on the butt
12. Clemens said me made a mistake, and that it wasn't intentional.  Just tryin' to pitch inside!
13. Bo made cryptic remarks about "baseball taking care of itself"...
14. Which clearly indicates that this beaning was intentional the whole time
15. Throw in a couple of reactionary Lowrie quotes that reflect badly on the Astros.  The victim in the matter, after all, is bound to acknowledge his part in all of this, and view it all objectively.  He won't be at all defensive.
16. Porter is dangerous, people.  Like a toddler with a gun.  (Which is, of course, no laughing matter)
17. Perhaps all the losing has changed Porter's personality, or driven him insane.
18. Random Hitler reference!

Of course, the title of the article indicates that Bo Porter's priorities are merely misplaced.  He is more occupied with enforcing the unwritten rules of baseball, rather than addressing all the losing that the Astros are doing.  And if he straightened out his priorities and just concentrated on winning, things would be ok.  After all, that is how you wind up in a 7-0 hole in the first - by not concentrating on winning!!

Leitch is an interesting character, and this is also worthy of some comment here.  He is arguably most famous for his Deadspin days, where he positioned himself -  and the blog - as an outsiders' sports humorist.  He gained some notoriety by attacking the Rick Reilly's and Buzz Bissinger's of the sports-writing world, exposing lazy sports writing to the cynical masses, all while making the odd interesting sports scoop.  Throw in a little off-colour humour, and you have Deadspin.

The irony of this article lies in the degree of lazy hack-ery that Leitch uses here - something he used to eviscerate Rick Reilly for.  The narratives that are drawn upon, the series of events that was inaccurately portrayed, and odd reference that inevitably encourages the reader to draw an unconscious psychological link between Porter to Hitler are all examples of hack-ery in it's finest form.  The irony!

That said would hate to have to write for a living.  For a start, I would be very poor and hungry, such is the quality of my writing.  I imagine deadlines would be easy to meet when you write about an event - such as a game between the Astros and the A's - but opinion pieces would be much, much harder, and would not lend themselves comfortably to deadlines.  Sports on Earth is not about recapping games, but more about providing opinion.  So perhaps some slack needs to be cut here.  Writing for a living would be hard, and the more you write, the greater the chance of a clunker such as this being published.

And as an aside, Sports on Earth was always an oddly out-of-place button which always seemed to reside on various official MLB sites.  At the time that Leitch's article was written, it was part owned by USA Today and MLB Advanced Media.  However, USA Today pulled the pin in August due to a corporate restructure, and as a result, most of the writers were let go.  It is now run solely by MLBAM, and seems to act as a link between baseball websites and other sports in the offseason, while providing an... uh... offbeat commentary during the season.  Adding more to the irony, SoE was (at its launch) described as a intelligent addition to the MLB writing crew.  There isn't anything intelligent about this article, though - personally, I would prefer to read anything by McTaggart or Justice.  SoE continues to exist, albeit in a different form - and thank goodness, because without it we would never get "Gems" like this (which Leitch advanced as one of the examples of great creative sports-related writing on the site).

The sense of irony is only multiplied with the benefit of hindsight.  Firstly, it seems that Bo Porter was battling for his job, and his ability to communicate with his players seemed to be part of the reason why he had been put on notice.  I recall that some of the articles from around this time date the origin of the difficulties back to the off-season and early season, so perhaps Bo was under the pump when this incident occurred.  Note is made that this incident showed that he had no difficulty communicating effectively with the players on the other team.

Secondly, the Astros finished April at 9-19, sat at 12-27 on May 12, and was 17-32 on May 23.  From those three dates, the Astros recorded a 61-73, 58-65 and 53-60 record, respectively.  Nothing to write home about, but after this incident, numerous good on-field stories emerged, including Keuchel and McHugh's continued good work, Springer carrying the team for much of late-May and early-June, Carter's summer of power, Fields' change-up which he broke out mid-season, Altuve's batting title, and a solid late-season gut-check road trip against three contenders - Anaheim, Seattle and Oakland.  And it's not like everything went their way from May onward - they missed Springer and Fowler for extended periods, Crain and Albers either never arrived or were done, and large offensive black holes existed at first, third and left.

Third, and most telling, was that Lowrie returned to Houston as a free-agent in the offseason.  On a team-friendly deal.  As the leading middle infielder on the free agent market.  With multiple wealthy teams in need of solid middle infield bats.  With another Oakland A in tow (actually, following another Oakland A, but, as we have already established, never let the facts get in the way of a good diatribe).

So we get to end 2014 by looking at possibly the low point of the Astros season, at least on the field.  After a miserable April, they got much better despite missing a bunch of key players for extended periods of time, having awful production from key positions.  The post-April team was much more compelling and watchable, and the results of positive regression in a couple of areas, an improved 'pen, and some high-ceiling players on the farm arriving in the bigs will make the 2015 Astros even more watchable.  Which is great, because Texas / 5-state natives may actually be able to watch now.

Happy New Years, everyone.  With the arrival of 2015, we are now in the same calendar year as the 2015 baseball season!!

Celebrate safely, and my regards to both the readers, and the other AC staff.

On Bo and Beanings.

I was going to write only about Bo today.  Not about actually what he is doing at the moment, but how he seems to have changed compared to last year.  I always thought that Bo was the perfect manager for a rebuilding ball-club.  He seemed supportive, firm and fair, but was careful to ensure that whatever happened (hypothetically like, say, 110+ losses) there were lessons to be learnt.  Not only learnt, but internalised.  Lessons to be understood, but with the aim of improvement and upskilling.

This year, it has been a little different.  The 18 second pause (or 17 seconds, depending on whose articles you read) attracted a lot of press.  Then, in quick succession, #Buntgate (enough already!), a frustrating blown save (Qualls), a brief reprieve because the stories were positive about the Astros for two days, then another horrible blown save.  And now, #Beangate (actually, #Buttgate may be a better descriptor).  And the press is again overwhelmingly negative.

The first two games of the series have been brutal.  Brutal in the kind of eviscerating, frustrating and confidence-shattering way.  Losses that would be best described as a beat-down by someone much faster, stronger and more skilled then you.  But then, you claw your way back, and... it happens all over again.  Back to the pit of despair for you!

If this was 2013's version of Bo, I imagine that the lessons to be understood would be along the lines of the idea that baseball is nothing but a series of events, and a reminder to be in the best, most positive and relaxed frame-of-mind for each and every play.  Doesn't matter if you are down by 5.  Doesn't matter if you are winning by 1.  Treat it all as a bunch of individual plays all rolled together, do your best at each one, and remember that failure most of the time is often part of the game.  Zen-master Bo.

2014 Bo seems different.  He has an edge this year.  In 2013, Bo was thrown out of his first game on August 8.  In a brutal season - with offensive ineptitude, blown saves, entire series' where the team was not even close to winning, and culminating in a 111-loss season.  2013 was as bad as it is going to get, and Bo seemingly maintained a positive, upbeat and supportive stance.

This year, Bo has shown a lot more emotion.  He was thrown out tonight, most likely asking very reasonable questions of the home plate ump, the impressively tall Jordan Baker.  I think Ghandi would have been thrown out after Fernando Abad was not tossed for his contribution to #Buttgate.  It was an odd and un-understandable umpiring call, especially given the quick hook that Paul Clemens had been given the day prior.  Perhaps the umpires had dinner reservations, and didn't want another pitcher having to warm up.

Briefly, back to Bo before we head to the analysis of #Buttgate.  I don't know what is going on with Bo.  The only time I get to see Bo is on the rare occasions that I get to watch entire games on TV.  Most of my watching is highlight packages, and they (rightly) don't tend to concentrate on the managers.  I listen to him during interviews on the radio broadcasts, and he strikes me as focussed, supportive and articulate - articulate in a way that many baseball guys simply aren't.  Bo seems more than capable of making a subtle point through verbal communication, rather than 18 second press-conference pauses.

So, I don't know what is going on with Bo.  I think it is kind of like spotting an iceberg on a satellite image (like, for example the crowdsourcing attempts at finding MH370) and guessing the shape and weight of the whole iceberg.  You see a one dimensional image of the iceberg, only the tip is visible, and the conclusions that you draw must therefore be limited.  I see very little of Bo.  Goodness knows what is going on behind the scenes.  But I will say this: if he is under-pressure with his job, and gets fired, given this talent to work with, it would be an incredible shame.

In many ways, the 2014 Astros are worse than the 2013 Astros - at least the 2013 edition had some Veteran Goodness like Rick Ankiel and Carlos Pena to add some maturity and experience.  These guys have Dexter Fowler, Chad Qualls, Matt Albers, Jose Altuve, Scott Feldman and Jason Castro, and the latter two been injured most the the time.  Only the pitchers have even reached free-agency.  Most of the rest of the team are either practically or actually rookies.  This remains a seriously offensively-challenged unit, and given how fluctuant bullpens are, this years' more expensive and more experienced bullpen may be just as bad.  But that is a topic for another day.

Bo, hang in there.

These two games between the Astros and the A's have been significant for butt-beanings.  Nothing up around the head, thankfully.  The highest threatening pitch was the first HBP of Brandon Moss, which caught him on the jersey around his bicep.  Thank goodness no head-shots  - that would be really losing perspective.

The series started with George Springer being hit in the first inning by Scott Kazmir.  In isolation, this is the worst - the most obvious beaning of the lot.  Except, a beaning would have made no sense.  Runners on first and third, one out, first inning, up 2 runs, 0-2 count.  Kazmir had been having control problems... but goodness me.  Catcher set up low and outside, and Kazmir must have missed his spot by three feet.  Right in the knee.  If you were going to send a message by moving the feet or hitting the hotshot rookie, that pitch would have been perfect execution.  At least, on an 0-0 count, no runners on, up by 5, bottom of the 8th or something.  Who knows, I am not inside Kazmir's head, but I can't see a scenario where that is a deliberate beaning.  But if it was, it was brilliant.

The next inning, Brandon Moss was hit by an overthrown curveball on the upper arm from Brett Oberholtzer.  Again, Obie had some trouble with control early, and this wasn't deliberate.  Plus, the whole off-speed thing was a serious giveaway.

You would have seen or heard about Clemens' beaning of Lowrie if you are reading this article.  This was the next incident.  Many factors of this butt-bean would encourage one to think that it was likely to have been deliberate - the past animosity between the two, the count, the stage of the game, etc, etc.  But I imagine that Porter would have been pissed that the beaning occurred, unless he suggested it.  He would have been upset because: 6th inning, taxed bullpen, 5th starter (for all intents and purposes) going the next day, no Matt Albers for the last 2 days, Josh Fields also unlikely to throw because he has gone three days in a row.... plus the beaning pretty much ensures one, if not two, extra pitchers are needed.  That puts the Astros in a worse position, and possibly forces Albers on to the DL to get a fresh arm for the rest of the series.

Today's beanings started with Brandon Moss in the 9th.  Hit twice in one inning - I believe that this has only happened once before in the AL - Brady Anderson hit by Mike Morgan in May 1999.  But goodness me... have a look where Moss sets up his back foot.  If he ever led off a game, and the batters box was not a scuffed up mess, I swear that his back foot would be over the line by inches.  He is clearly trying to pull the ball, and pretty much daring the pitcher to throw inside.  This may be some karma from the Craig Biggio Era coming back to bite the Astros.  But both times the catcher set up inside, and both times the pitcher missed in and a little up.  Even the A's commentary team made a point of saying neither was intentional.

But then it got silly.  Abad clearly butt-beaned Castro second hitter of the next inning.  Look, for the sake of comparison, where Castro's back foot is set up.  No one on.  0-0 count.  Castro jawed to the bench afterward.  And somehow, Abad was not thrown out.  Wow.

The A's also managed to cede any moral high ground that they had before.  Prior to this beaning, this was clearly an Astros-Lawrie thing, as evidenced by the apparent lack of support shown to Lowrie by the A's broadcast team and teammates.  Now, by butt-beaning Castro, you are picking out the best player and throwing at him clearly and deliberately.  Now it becomes an Astros-A's thing.  If this goes on, that is the reason.

Obviously, there has been a lot written on this situation, in both the media and the blogosphere.  Many of these centre around "the Unwritten Rules of Baseball", and how stupid they are.  Many cite such bulletproof arguments as "isn't it a crime for grown men to try and injure each other by throwing things??" and so on and so forth.  My take on it is this:  The Unwritten Rules of Baseball are there for the players to manage their own behaviour.  They aren't for the fans, for the TV audience or anyone else.  It is a way that the players can stop douch-ery amongst their own kind.

That, to me, is the beauty of baseball.  It is, essentially, a series of confrontations with a limited number of outcomes inside a zero-sum environment.  Luck plays a big part.  Tiny, tiny things can make the biggest difference - a matter of millimetres when the ball contacts the bat, the kick off an uneven bit of turf on the infield, the effect that a breeze has on a fly ball.  So baseball isn't always fair.  And these confrontations are repeated over and over again inside a game.  And the games are repeated over and over again.  And sometimes you win, and sometimes you lose.  But you won't win them all, and you won't lose them all, and when someone wins, someone else loses.  There is no game without an opponent, and therefore opponents are worthy of respect.  And just because you win today, doesn't mean you win tomorrow.  So you manage each victory and loss with dignity and sportsmanship.  And respect the opposition, at all times, because everyone is only a freak injury or accident off never playing again, or never playing to the same level again.  (I loved Carlos Hernandez).

And when someone steps outside that, the baseball fraternity frowns.

And when non-players, and poorly informed people comment on the Unwritten Rules, that annoys me.  The rules may be stupid and illogical, but they are there.  And they are there for a reason, have developed for a reason, and are maintained for a reason.  You see, commentators are all pretty much outside the game (with very few exceptions).  We are satellites over the game, seeing the tips of icebergs.  We see very little of what is actually going on.  We know nothing about how far below the surface the iceberg extends.  Only those in the game really know the full context.

I am a doctor, working in a small area of medicine.  I know most people who work near me - very well.  I know who is good, and who is less good.  I know who is frikking dangerous.  I have a mental list of doctors that I would allow family members to go to.  And it isn't a long list.  I know my profession.

The players know their profession.  They know who the guys are the play hard and fair, and who oversteps the mark.  They know the classy players, and they know the self-obsessed players.  They know who rubs the opposition's nose in it, and who doesn't.  Who knows what is going on behind the scenes, or what other events may lie behind this incident.

So when Bo said "I think the game of baseball takes care of itself", then pointed out that George Springer's HBP preceded Lowrie's, this is what I think he was meaning.  He wasn't, as some have suggested, going crazy, or blowing a fuse.  At least I hope not, because that would be a tragedy.  There isn't an easily painted hero and villain here and suggesting otherwise is lazy.  This is a complex and fluid situation between two teams that play each other another 14 times.

And baseball will take care of itself.  As it has always done.