Welcome, Bob Allen!
The problem is – you are not the same Bob Allen that either the readers or I, the publisher, truly expected. You are Bob Allen, “The Other” – your own self-description in the e-mail I just received – along with with your apology for the misunderstanding. Here’s what you, “the other” Bob Allen, today’s columnist, had to say:
If you’ve lost faith in us, we don’t blame you, but go easy, if possible. We try. We just make mistakes sometimes..
Sincerely, Bill McCurdy, Publisher and Editor, The Pecan Park Eagle
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ASTROS PART WAYS WITH BO PORTER
By
Bob Allen—SportsMediaInk
Some said it came as a surprise. But those who frequent the media cafeteria and press box knew better. There were rumors. There was talk. There was speculation. And it all pointed to a change in leadership for the Houston Astros, at one level or another.
As recently as Sunday, before the last game of the Texas Rangers series, one media person was overheard to say that, “Porter is going to be gone. It isn’t a question of whether, just when.”
18 hours later, at about 10:30 AM, Labor Day Monday, the announcement was made.
Bo Porter, the man owner Jim Crane said would lead the Astros to the playoffs and beyond, was fired. Fired with little ceremony. Just fired. He had been Astros’ manager since the start of the 2013 season after working for the Washington Nationals as third-base coach.
Not only that, but the man who had shared coaching duties alongside Porter for the first 300 games of the New Era, bench coach Dave Trembley, was also relieved of his duties with the team.
The new victim, or manager, depending on how you look at it, will be Tom Lawless, a 35- year veteran of the game as a Major League player, Minor League manager and coach. Lawless served the manager at Triple-A Oklahoma City earlier this season while Tony DeFrancesco was on medical leave. Until yesterday morning, Lawless was serving as a roving infield instructor.
Trembley will be replaced by Adam Everett, who spent parts of 11 seasons in the Majors as a shortstop, including seven with the Astros (2001-07). Everett rejoined the organization last season as a Minor League infield instructor.
“Bo’s passion and energy are unparalleled, and his desire to win unquestioned,” Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow said in his announcement of the firing. “This decision was not made because of our current level of competitiveness in the Major Leagues. I recognize that our win-loss record is largely a product of an organizational strategy for which I am responsible. Rather, I made this decision because I believe we need a new direction in our clubhouse….We wish Bo and his family well, and feel he will be successful in future endeavors.”
That’s how these things are usually put. “Thanks, but, no thanks.”
Actually, few around Minute Maid Park, perhaps including Porter himself, really felt that he could or would last the long haul. And when rumors hit the papers last week that there were differences between Luhnow’s ideas and Porter’s strategies, the writing was on the wall. The only question was, were the rumors due to someone telling someone else something? Or did they stem from one of those Washington, D.C. style “leaks?” Whether or not the idea was planted or just slipped out, it amounted to a death knell for Porter.
In fairness to Luhnow, there were many who disapproved of Porter’s managerial style, particularly his undying reliance on the infield shift and the “lefty-lefty, righty-righty” use of his bullpen, a style that extended games to ridiculous lengths time-wise, and wore out pitchers before mid-season. But management knew what to expect when they hired him, so they needn’t go there.
The front office also has traded away many of the “prospects” they once bragged so loudly about. And for what? More prospects. When do they quit being prospects and start being Major League players?
Porter never had a real Big League team with Big League talent. And he wasn’t going to get one any time soon. Neither will the new manager.
The fact is that the problems with this team lie not in the manager, but with management. Right now, the Astros are the laughing stock in baseball. They have traded away significant talent, they seem to have no real direction, have spent no money, coaxed young players into signing long-term, low-paying agreements in return for a trip to The Show.
Also, their claim that the young players who have joined the team are an example of the progress the franchise has made is a totally false statement. In truth, the Jon Singletons and George Springers, are not products of Luhnow’s efforts, they are his inheritance from the previous ownership. Remember, Luhnow failed to get the team’s number one draft pick (and others) under contract.
And now they want to raise ticket prices?
Even the hiring of Porter was like a suit that never fit, not from his introduction to the team, to Opening Day last season, to Sunday after the Astros downed the Rangers 3-2 for their 59th win of the current campaign, eight more than in all of 2013. And they still have a month left.
So, this obviously wasn’t about wins and losses. It was about respect. The fact that there were differences between Porter and Luhnow simply meant that the GM didn’t like the way the skipper was running the team, either in the dugout or the clubhouse, where Porter was more of a high school Rah-Rah guy than Luhnow could be comfortable with. He deemed it unprofessional.
Thus, Luhnow, being of the higher rank, exercised his authority. Thus, Porter was canned.
The big fish eats the little fish.
Crane issued a statement the claimed, “This was not an easy decision to make. We wish Bo nothing but the best in the future. Jeff has my full support moving forward. Our goal to bring a championship to Houston remains.”
Since the Astros’ search for a new manager is to begin immediately, one is prompted to ask, “Who would be foolish enough to take this job?” Even great, Hall of Fame managers like Joe Torre, Billy Martin, Walt Alston and Casey Stengel got fired. And they all had great teams to manage. What poor guy would want to come to Houston knowing full well that his time would be in the hands of Jeff Luhnow and Jim Crane?
It seems a legitimate question since, later in the day, Luhnow indicated that the new manager would likely come from the original list of candidates in place when Porter was chosen. That means that all of those second, third, fourth, etc. choices must still be available. If no one else has hired them over the last two years, what does it say about them?
It probably says that they, too, will be small fish to be gobbled up at the whim of management.
Just remember, Mr. Luhnow, there is one who also outranks you. You picked the wrong guy once. If you do it again, you will probably be the next in the unemployment line.
Fool Jim Crane once, shame on you. Fool him twice, you’re fired.
The Pecan Park Eagle 
September 5, 2014 at 5:42 pm |
It’s a shame that egos and personality conflicts often get in the way of good business sense. I’m not here to defend Bo Porter; like most managers, he had good and bad qualities. He can be replaced. However, if the team is going to pursue the same guys that rejected it, or that it rejected, a couple of years ago . . . well, that’s just asinine. And it appears that Bob Allen “The Other” and I share the same opinion about Luhnow.
The Astros once had an outstanding G.M. named Gerry Hunsicker, who, as I recall, was fired by Drayton McLane due to a clash of egos and a personality conflict. Hunsicker is now a Dodgers executive, but he spent several years as Senior VP of Baseball Operations for the Tampa Bay Rays and I don’t doubt for a second that Rays GM Andrew Friedman benefitted from Hunsicker’s knowledge. Friedman is a GM who knows how to run a team in the way that Crane and Luhnow seem to want to run the Astros. He works on a shoestring budget, yet fields a competitive team every year because he runs an organization that knows how to draft and develop players. Remember that the Rays were many peoples’ World Series favorite until injuries to their starting rotation proved too difficult for them to overcome.
The key words are “draft” and “develop” since the Astros seem incapable of doing either one of those things correctly. Never mind that Springer and Singleton are products of the previous regime – they were held back by the current regime so that they could develop and have still failed to do so. Springer has shown more promise than Singleton in their time with the Astros this year, but both have been strikeout machines. They put Chris Carter to shame. Had Springer not been injured, he might have struck out almost 300 times this year (even though he was still in the minors during the early part of the season). Jose Altuve is going to have well over 200 hits but won’t score over 100 runs because the guys behind him strike out far too often. If a team is going to rely on nothing but the occasional 3-run homer, then it better have good pitching. So. . . what about all of the Astros’ hotshot pitching prospects? How is their development going? They gave up on Cosart and traded him already. Appel is a disaster. Oberholtzer is 4-10 with a 4.39 ERA. Maybe Nick Tropeano can do something here in September.
I agree with “Other” Bob about the nonsense of trading prospects for more prospects. At what point will we see any of our prospects become true major leaguers? If they keep being developed down on the farm the way they are now, then Astros fans will join Cubs fans in forever waiting for next year. Did I mention the Cubs? They look like they might have some true major leaguers coming up through their system now. Oh, well. There’ll forever be next year for us under the Crane/Luhnow administration.
September 5, 2014 at 6:46 pm |
When discussing Andrew Friedman, I also meant to mention that he found the perfect manager for his team in Joe Maddon. Maddon is unconventional in almost every sense of the word – and he loves to use offbeat motivational techniques – but he manages to squeeze the most out of his teams, and I haven’t ever read or heard any of his players bad-mouth him. Managers will take the opportunity for employment with lowly teams, which is what the Rays were, but I imagine they’d prefer to be allowed to run their teams as they see fit – as Maddon gets to do – rather than be puppets on a string (as Porter is alleged to have been; given Luhnow’s wording in his statement when he fired Porter, it is obvious that they didn’t see eye-to-eye, so there’s probably some truth to this assertion). I’d better stop extolling Friedman and Maddon now: I’m either going to be guilty of the sin of envy, or I’m inadvertantly going to talk myself into switching allegiances from the Astros to the Rays.
September 6, 2014 at 10:46 pm |
Continuing my comments:
The game we all love is the same on the field ( even if some of the new innovations aren’t to my liking), and the old saying, “Managers are hired to be fired!”, holds true, but there are other opportunities in this game!
We are grateful for all the years we have been involved in baseball and we still enjoy watching games both on TV and in person—–and it doesn’t matter who
is playing! (But Go Bucs!)