Talk about the series here. Please no PBP in this thread. Unless otherwise noted all games are on CSN-H (for about 40% I guess). 9-19 Dallas Keuchel, LHP vs. Ubaldo Jimenez, RHP 6:05 9-20 Brett Oberholtzer, LHP vs. Zach McAllister, RHP 6:05 9-21 Paul Clemens, RHP vs. Scott Kazmir, LHP 5:05 9-22 Erik Bedard, LHP vs. Corey Kluber, RHP 12:05
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p><a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Astros&src=hash">#Astros</a> GM Jeff Luhnow said nothing had been decided about field staff for 2014, except manager Bo Porter would return, which was a given.</p>— Brian McTaggart (@brianmctaggart) <a href="https://twitter.com/brianmctaggart/statuses/380823580524564480">September 19, 2013</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Glad to see a little bit of a following still going on. I will follow no matter the record. I want the best and I'll continue wallowing in the stench with the knowledge that I'll be able to root root root when the good times come.
This is the most baffling, infuriating, unforgivable thing to me. We have an analytics-oriented front office that understands the value of men on bases and the detriment of outs, and they went out and hired a manager that was billed as complying with their philosophy. And yet, we consistently have young players running into outs. Not even close outs. They're simply giving themselves away for free, and we never see any punishment except for benching Jonathan Villar every once in a while. So who the hell knows? It feels like Villar and Altuve will continue to run into outs for their whole careers, and we're just supposed to live with it. At this point I'm hoping they figure it out next year or get replaced by others who will be ready by then. Check out these tweets by Morgan Ensberg (instructor at Lancaster A+ now): <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Base running:There's aggressive and there's stupid. Stupid is not understanding the value of your out.</p>— Morgan Ensberg (@MorganEnsberg) <a href="https://twitter.com/MorganEnsberg/statuses/380185446354923521">September 18, 2013</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Base running. I'm still haunted by it.</p>— Morgan Ensberg (@MorganEnsberg) <a href="https://twitter.com/MorganEnsberg/statuses/380332112601047041">September 18, 2013</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Livid. I am livid.</p>— Morgan Ensberg (@MorganEnsberg) <a href="https://twitter.com/MorganEnsberg/statuses/380877829346304000">September 20, 2013</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Base running is the easiest way to see a player's baseball iq. Why? It's a controllable. Livid. Livid.</p>— Morgan Ensberg (@MorganEnsberg) <a href="https://twitter.com/MorganEnsberg/statuses/380878667762520064">September 20, 2013</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Fact: I'm legitimately feeling anxiety thinking about the conversation #5 and #7 would have had with me if I did that.</p>— Morgan Ensberg (@MorganEnsberg) <a href="https://twitter.com/MorganEnsberg/statuses/380880094811541504">September 20, 2013</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Should the single A manager really be tweeting criticisms of the major league players, and really indirectly blasting the major league manager? He may be right, but it seems something that the Astros organization wouldn't appreciate.
As an instructor, it's not really clear what his role is, honestly. He seems to hang out with the A+ guys and constantly give them advice, but he doesn't travel much unlike other instructors. He's on payroll, I think, but his job is to criticize and instruct players. I can't imagine anyone cares as long as he's not using names.
That is A+, thank you. I think he was being critical of the players. Of course we follow that performance up with 3 errors. Another product of a young team.
Bo might not appreciate the *public* comments from Ensberg, but these sophomoric base running errors reflect poorly on his staff. Bo should be more concerned about fixing the problem. If Bo gets fired within the next year, **** like this will be the reason.