Here’s the latest on the Astros’ managerial situation after the firing of Bo Porter earlier today:
- Astros GM Jeff Luhnow says the team could hire a new manager before the end of the season, Evan Drellich of the Houston Chronicle tweets. Luhnow says the Astros will be looking for similar qualities in a manager that they were looking for when they hired Porter. He also notes that interim manager Tom Lawless could be considered for the job on a permanent basis if he expresses interest in the position.
- It certainly sounds like Lawless is interested, to judge from his comments today (via Drellich). “Oh, it was pretty exciting,” he says. “I got (word) yesterday, last night. Jeff called and wanted to know if I wanted to take over the team for the last 30 days, and I said, ’Sure!’“
- Porter has released a statement regarding his dismissal, thanking the Astros and the city of Houston for their support.
- One potential candidate to replace Porter could be former Padres star Phil Nevin, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale tweets. Nevin has impressed observers with his work this year as the manager for Triple-A Reno in the Diamondbacks’ system.
If Luhnow wants to go all the way He shoudl hire Brian Kenny. he knows everything about statistical baseball and believes managers aren’t really useful so he’s perfectly qualified
Except none of that is true, neither views represents what Kenny nor Luhnow think. The statistical data available in baseball shows that a lot of “traditional” strategies are often wrong. However, like most advances in sports knowledge, the players and field staff have taken (and are taking) the longest to catch up.
Porter was frustrated by Luhnow’s requests to follow the new (better, mathematically proven) way, so he needed to be let go. His antics regarding HBPs didn’t help much either.
What I said and what you read are apparently different things. I said that IF Luhnow wants to go full bore statistics driven management bypassing the traditional strategies that are bad and in theory keeping the good ones (if their are any) he should hire Kenny or implicitly someone like him because even the self assured Kenny would never jump on that horse. He has said often however he thinks managers are mostly unnecessary.
His antics regarding HBP escape me and I’m not particularly for or against Porter but if Luhnow wants a purely statistics driven manager he’ll have a long search
I think the guy should have won Manager of the Year for not being in last place with that team, in that division, after a move to the AL. Talk about fighting an uphill battle.
The primary reason the Astros aren’t in last place is that the Texas Rangers have had several catastrophic injuries. They are also a better team than last year (i.e. have better players), but Texas’ injuries are by far the largest factor.
In either case, Porter had nothing to do with it.
Phil Nevin? Is Jeter not available?
Underrated comment.
Lance Berkman?