Sunday Notes: James Click Won’t Care About Houston’s Infield Positioning

The Astros inexplicably jettisoned General Manager James Click six days after winning the World Series. Jim Crane, whose reputation isn’t exactly stellar, offered Click just a one-year deal to remain in Houston — a veritable slap in the face given what the team had just accomplished. For all intents and purposes, the owner’s offer was an invitation to vamoose. Crane wanted Click gone.

With rumors of his dismissal rampant, Click fielded a barrage of questions regarding his future when he met with the media during this week’s GM meetings in Las Vegas. Not wanting to beat what was essentially a dead horse, I asked the highly-successful executive about something entirely different: Which position will be most affected by the forthcoming limitations on defensive shifts?

“My gut reaction would be second base,” replied Click. “You could make a credible case for any of the four infield positions, but I also don’t know how much it’s going to really change the game. We’ll still see teams shift as much as they can within the rules. We’ll see shortstops almost directly behind second base, or second basemen directly behind the bag. So the question becomes: ‘How much do those few feet really change the batter’s approach, and the result?’ That said, I do think we’re going to need more athleticism at all positions. Any time you’re not able to position a guy exactly where the ball is most likely to go, you’re going to have to be able to move a little more to get to those balls.”

Asked to elaborate on his gut-reaction choice of second base, the 44-year-old Yale University graduate and former Tampa Bay Rays VP of Baseball Operations said “They can’t play that shallow right field anymore, and in some ways they won’t have to make all the different throws from different angles, so we can cut down on some of our infield work in spring training. We don’t have to run drills where the second baseman is in shallow right field.”

Click won’t have to concern himself with Houston’s infield drills next spring, not after Crane’s logically-out-of-left-field decision to cut ties with his World Series-winning GM. Which isn’t to suggest that Crane wasn’t well within his right; billionaire owners have the power to both hire and fire. Moreover, they rarely have to defend their decisions, even the highly-questionable ones. Click deserved better.

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RANDOM HITTER-PITCHER MATCHUPS

Danny Murtaugh went 6 for 10 against Cliff Melton.

Melvin Mora went 7 for 11 against Brian Moehler.

Melky Cabrera went 19 for 34 against Mark Buehrle.

Albert Belle went 17 for 37 against Todd Stottlemyre.

Zoilo Versalles went 17 for 45 against Mel Stottlemyre.

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Scott Boras opined on several subjects when he addressed the media in Las Vegas, one of which raised my eyebrows. Referring to “the analytic bridge,” he said that “the creators of the analytic information are not effectively implementing and executing the information to the player.” Not entirely clear on the point he was trying to make — the Boras Corporation utilizes a ton of data — I later approached the powerful and verbose agent to see if he could clarify his comments.

“When you’re a great baseball player and are under a contract with a team, you have to execute that contract,” Boras told me. “So, all of a sudden the team comes to you and says, ‘These are our standards.’ The player says, ‘I get people out [and] this is how I do it.’ There is nothing negative about [the analytic information], but how it is presented, and the perception of the player to the information given, is hugely important. And that is misunderstood. The player thinks he has to forego what he does, and do something they want him to do. We’re seeing, ‘I’ve got to throw up in the zone, yet I’m a guy with a great two-seamer.’ I see it all the time. We’ve seen failure after failure, because of the fact that the strength of the player is eroded by the conceptual thought that analytics will make it better.”

Those comments raised my eyebrows, as well. Teams with a strong understanding of how to optimize pitchers’ arsenals generally aren’t going to push guys in the wrong direction. After pointing this out, I asked Boras if what’s he’s seeing and hearing is primarily an organization-to-organization issue, as opposed an all-encompassing one.

“People show value for what they’re hired for,” replied Boras. “If I’m the analytical staff, I want to show value, so I bring this intensity to my information. Then I blame the player for not following. And then there’s an organizational whisperer, if you will, that says ‘He’s not doing what we tell him to do; he could be so much better, but he’s not.’ The reality of it is, that information is actually deafening to the player rather than aiding him.

“Look, the game is not doing anything wrong. We just need better communicators, because [players] want to do what their teams want them to do. There’s that equilibrium where you need veteran coaches — people with great experience in dealing with, and communicating with players — to manage that analytic process.”

What Boras said makes sense. At the same time, I’m still unclear on exactly what point he was initially trying to make.

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A quiz:

The first pitcher to be named Rookie of the Year went on to win an MVP, a Cy Young, and a World Seres ring. Who is it?

The answer can be found below.

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NEWS NOTES

The Seattle Mariners have hired Dave Cameron as their Senior Director of Player Procurement. FanGraphs’ former managing editor had been consulting for the A.L.West club.

The Tampa Bay Rays made multiple front office moves this week, most notably hiring former Texas Rangers GM Jon Daniels as a senior baseball operations advisor. Promotions included Samantha Bailey to Assistant Director Baseball Operations, and Jeremy Sowers to Assistant Director of Major League Operations.

The New York Mets have hired Driveline veteran Eric Jagers to be their Director of Pitching Development. Jagers had been serving as the assistant pitching coach with the Cincinnati Reds. In related news, Driveline has promoted Chris Langin to Director of Pitching.

The Boston Red Sox have brought Jason Ochart on board as their Director of Hitting Development and Program Design. Ochart spent the last three seasons as a minor league hitting coordinator with the Philadelphia Phillies.

The Baltimore Orioles have added Cody Asche to their big-league staff. The former Philadelphia Phillies and Chicago White Sox infielder will be an offensive strategy coach.

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The answer to the quiz is Don Newcombe, who was honored as the National League’s Rookie of the Year in 1949. The Brooklyn Dodgers right-hander won both the MVP and Cy Young awards in 1956, and a World Series in 1955.

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Alex Anthopoulos has been a successful executive with multiple teams, most recently the one that won the 2021 World Series. I asked the 45-year-old Montreal native if he views the Atlanta Braves organization he leads as being more old-school, or more new-school.

“I don’t look at it like that,” answered Anthopoulos, who was a scouting coordinator with the Expos and Blue Jays earlier in his career. “We’re trying to make good decisions and make the playoffs. We want to win championships. First, you’ve got to make the playoffs, and if we get there, whatever school you want to call it… I’m happy to call it that.”

Atlanta’s President of Baseball Operations/General Manager had a similar response when I asked about the size of the organization’s scouting staff.

“I don’t look at it as a number,” said Anthopoulos. “I look at it as, ‘We have a staff, covering.’ I haven’t sat there and said, ‘OK, in 2021 we had X number, and in 2023 we’ll have X’. To me, it comes down to the coverage we have, the looks we have, and do we have enough of those looks? If we’re short, we’ll reevaluate. This summer we thought, ‘We don’t have enough looks on the Cape.’ Again, it’s all about getting the information and the looks. It might be changing the areas. It might be adding more scouts. I don’t think it’s a black-and-white thing.”

The Braves have drafted the likes of Vaughn Grissom, Michael Harris II, and Spencer Strider in recent years, and in-season trades played a huge role in last year’s championship. Regardless of its size, Anthopoulos’s scouting staff has done a good job.

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FOREIGN AFFAIRS

Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Choji Murata died earlier this week at age 72. A right-hander who logged 215 wins with the Lotte Orions from 1968-1990, Murata was the first Japanese player to have Tommy John surgery.

SSG Landers captured this year’s Korean Series, beating the Kiwoom Heroes four games to two. The Incheon-based club won the deciding game 4-3, one day after rallying from a 4-0 eighth-inning deficit to win 5-4 on a walk-off three-run homer by Kang-Min Kim. Notables on SSG Landers’s roster included Shin-Soo Choo and Juan Lagares.

The CTBC Brothers swept this year’s Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) Taiwan Series, beating the Rakuten Monkeys in all four games. It was the second consecutive title for the Taichung City-based team.

The Australian Baseball League season got underway earlier this week. Notable among early games was the Auckland Tuatara routing the Brisbane Bandits 13-2, with former MLB infielder Tzu-Wei Lin hitting one of the team’s three home runs.

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What has Peter Bendix been thinking about besides building a better roster for the forthcoming season? I asked the Tampa Bay Rays GM that question in Las Vegas, and his answer indirectly addressed peripatetic fatigue factor.

“Are the more balanced schedules going to lead to a lot more travel?,” Bendix postulated. “Is it going to lead to longer and more difficult trips? I wonder if it’s going to be spread out evenly, or if some teams are going to be more impacted, even disproportionately impacted than others.”

Per Baseball Savant, the Rays will travel 39,478 miles next year, as opposed to 34,320 this past year. The team-by-team breakdowns can be found here.

Bendix also mentioned the impact of rainouts. Because teams will be playing fewer series against division rivals, makeup games will sometimes be harder to reschedule. Off days will likely be lost.

As for not having to face A.L. East teams as many times in 2023, Bendix agreed that it could be advantageous. Although he did add a caveat.

“I think that’s likely to be the case,” acknowledged Bendix. “But you never know. Things change quickly in baseball.”

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LINKS YOU’LL LIKE

At Bless You Boys, Patrick O’Kennedy explained how the Rule 5 draft works, and pondered which players the Detroit Tigers should protect.

MLB.com’s Jim Callis, Sam Dykstra, and Jonathan Mayo teamed up to determine the toughest decisions for each team ahead of the Rule 5 draft.

The Atlanta Braves signed free-agent right-hander Nick Anderson to a one-year deal, and Kris Willis wrote about it for Battery Power.

On June 4, 1989, the Toronto Blue Jays rallied from a 10-0 deficit to beat the Boston Red Sox 13-11 in 12 innings at Fenway Park. Adrian Fung recapped the stunning comeback for SABR’s Games Project.

What is the Astros’ secret to enduring success? Hannah Keyser delved into that question at Yahoo Sports.

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RANDOM FACTS AND STATS

Cincinnati Reds pitchers walked 612 batters this year, the most in the majors. Tampa Bay Rays pitchers walked 384 batters, the fewest in the majors.

In 1962 — the first year both leagues played a 162-game schedule — Kansas City Athletics pitchers walked 655 batters, the most in the majors. Milwaukee Braves pitchers walked 407 batters, the fewest in the majors.

Detroit Tigers batters hit 209 home runs in 1962, the most in the majors, while Chicago White Sox batters hit 92. home runs. Both teams finished with 85 wins.

The Chicago White Sox stole 58 bases this years and were caught stealing 10 times. The Cincinnati Reds stole 58 bases and were caught 33 times.

Johnny Bench had 3,644 total bases and a 125 wRC+.
Yogi Berra had 3,643 total bases and a 124 wRC+

Joey Votto has reached base 3,505 times and has a 146 wRC+.
Edgar Martinez reached base 3,619 times and had a 147 wRC+

Bob Welch was named the American League Cy Young Award winner on today’s date in 1990. The Oakland Athletics right-hander finished the year 27-6 with a 2.95 ERA and 127 strikeouts in 238 innings. Roger Clemens, who was second in the voting, went 21-6 with a 1.93 ERA and 209 strikeouts in 228-and-a-third innings.

The Detroit Tigers signed Mike Hessman to a free-agent contract on today’s date in 2006, the third time they’d dine so in the last 22 months. A power-hitting first baseman who hit 14 home runs in parts of five big-league seasons, Hessman had 422 homers in the minors, and 14 more in Japan.

Players born on today’s date include Steve Bilko, a slugging first baseman who hit 76 home runs over 600 games while playing for six big-league teams from 1949-1962. His biggest seasons came with the Pacific Coast League’s Los Angeles Angels. In 1956, Bilko had 55 home runs and 164 RBIs, and in 1957 he had 54 home runs and 140 RBIs.

Also born on today’s date was Jim Delsing, an outfielder who played for five teams from 1948-1960. A native of Rudolph, Wisconsin, Delsing pinch-ran for 3-foot-7 Eddie Gaedel in 1951.





David Laurila grew up in Michigan's Upper Peninsula and now writes about baseball from his home in Cambridge, Mass. He authored the Prospectus Q&A series at Baseball Prospectus from December 2006-May 2011 before being claimed off waivers by FanGraphs. He can be followed on Twitter @DavidLaurilaQA.

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marcusthelionmember
1 year ago

1962 wouldn’t be the KC Royals but the KC A’s. Wouldn’t have thought this sort of correction was needed here… but, say hey, we all honk stuff from time-to-time.

Ashburn Alley
1 year ago
Reply to  marcusthelion

Wow you really like to look for things to criticize to show I guess that you are a genius. Relax there Marcus, no one cares.