SPILLING INTO THE MAINSTREAM
Growing frustrations with Astros manager not lost on the national media
Aug 8, 2023, 5:15 pm
SPILLING INTO THE MAINSTREAM
Daryl Morey was general manager of the Houston Rockets from 2007 to 2020. During Morey’s tenure, it’s true that the team never had a losing regular season record and won several division titles. But in the long run, the Rockets never won a Western Conference title or NBA championship while Morey called the shots.
Yet there was a saying around Houston media circles … “in Morey we trust.” Perhaps it was because Morey was a wisecracking quote machine, was always available for interviews, and knew how to work the room.
Now let’s have a look at Dusty Baker’s record as Houston Astros manager: three American League Championship Series appearances, two World Series appearances and one World Series championship (and aiming for another Fall Classic).
Yet nobody’s saying “in Dusty we trust.” In fact it’s open season for sniping and moaning about Baker’s stewardship of the Astros. Some sample comments from social media this past week:
“This Astros loss is squarely on Dusty Baker for putting out the stupidest lineup I have seen all season.”
“There’s a reason Dusty Baker has been fired four times in his career.”
“Another loss because Dusty Baker refuses to put our best lineup on the field.”
“Dusty Baker continues to set lineups like we’re in Week 2 of spring training.”
“Dusty Baker is the single worst decision maker in baseball. I’m actually speechless.”
“Goofy ass old man.”
Like I said, three Conference Championship Series appearances, two World Series appearances, one World Series title, and fans are still all over Baker’s butt. But why?
I’ll let Fox baseball play-by-play announcer Joe Davis explain why – straight from last week’s Fox national telecast of an Astros-Yankees game.
Davis said: “There may not be a wider gap in opinions of a player between a fan base and a manager than there is about Martin Maldonado. Astros fans are clamoring to have Yanier Diaz catch more. Dusty Baker is steadfast that Maldonado is his guy.”
You’ll never hear anything like that on a local Astros broadcast because Astros game announcers are employees of the Astros - and they’d like to remain employees.
But thanks to Fox and announcer Davis, now the whole country knows what’s been driving Astros fans batty all season. It’s Maldonado’s bat. He’s hitting an anemic .177 with lots of strikeouts and stranded runners. Diaz, a rookie, is hitting .276 with more walks, fewer strikeouts, more home runs and RBI than Maldy despite having fewer plate appearances.
Baker’s explanation: Yanier has trouble hitting lefties.
Astros fans might say that Maldonado has trouble hitting lefties, righties, pitching machines, tee ball, coed softball, whatever. His career batting average is .206 and he’s still having a down year.
For all the talk of Maldonado’s defensive wizardry, he’s leading the league in passed balls and the man they call Machete is below the league average in cutting down base stealers. So far he’s thrown out 13 of 67, or 19 percent, of steal attempts.
Diaz has no passed balls and has thrown out 10 of 28, or 36 percent, of potential base stealers in his limited action behind the plate.
But what about Maldonado’s genius for calling a game? Pitchers Justin Verlander and Framber Valdez love the guy.
Fans wonder, though, if Astros pitchers love watching Maldonado bat in late innings of close games and striking out with runners on base. As for calling a game, there’s no rule in baseball that says only catchers can call for fastballs and sliders.
In fact, when Roger Craig was managing the Giants to the National League pennant in 1987 he called pitches from the dugout. It’s not that rare, actually. You often see young or inexperienced catchers peering into the dugout for pitch selection. Maldonado could call the pitches from the bench.
Here’s one I’ll bet you didn’t know: One season late in his career Cal Ripken called pitches for some Baltimore Orioles pitchers from his infield position. Ripken knew opposing hitters’ habits and tendencies better than anybody on the O’s coaching staff.
When DeMeco Ryans became coach of the Houston Texans before last season, the two-time Pro Bowl linebacker brought his swarm defense with him.
It’s an identity the Texans have embraced as they prepare for their second straight trip to the divisional round of the playoffs Saturday where they’ll face the Kansas City Chiefs.
“You really can’t go out there if you’re not about it,” Ryans said.
And while every member of the defense has bought into Ryans’ aggressive style, there is one player who epitomizes it like no one else.
“Will every time,” cornerback Derek Stingley said of defensive end Will Anderson Jr.
Anderson, last year’s AP Defensive Rookie of the Year, has taken his game to another level this season and had 1½ sacks last week after piling up 11 in the regular season.
He described what playing swarm defense means to him.
“Do whatever it takes to get the ball, attacking the ball,” Anderson said. “We’ve got this saying in our D-line room; ‘who gonna pop it off?’ Whoever pops it off first, that’s swarming. Like who’s gonna make the big play? And I feel like there’s a lot of guys on defense that pop it off, who swarm.”
The Texans intercepted Justin Herbert a career-high four times, including one which was returned for a score, in last week’s win over the Chargers after he had been picked off just three times all season. Houston’s four takeaways in the first week of the playoffs are tied with Philadelphia for most in the NFL.
That performance came after Houston ranked fifth in the league in the regular season by forcing 29 turnovers.
Stingley, who had two of the interceptions last week a day after earning AP All-Pro honors, shared his mindset on the team’s defensive mentality.
“It really just comes down to if I was to tell you this is the last time you’re gonna do something, how you gonna do it,” Stingley said. “It’s simple as that. Just do that every single play.”
Ryans said there’s really no secret to why his team has such a knack for forcing turnovers. He believes it’s because he has good players, and they emphasize it in practice which translates to games.
“That’s our main thing that we go into every week is talking about attacking the football, taking the football,” Ryans said. “Because we know, when you take the football away, it just raises your percentages of winning the football games… it’s the defense helping the team win the game.”
While all of Houston’s takeaways last week came on interceptions, Stingley was quick to point out that those picks wouldn’t have happened if not for the pressure the defensive line put on Herbert. The Texans sacked him four times and hit him another nine in the 32-12 victory.
“The defense starts with them up front,” Stingley said. “They’re doing their job and it just makes it easier for us on the back end.”
Anderson said with each turnover, the defense got more and more amped up and was pushing each other to see who the next player would be to force one.
“That’s just that swarm mentality and we just feeding off each other,” Anderson said. “This person can’t do it by themselves so who is gonna be next and that just generates that contagious energy.”
The Texans were the fifth team since 1963 to have at least four sacks, four interceptions and an interception return for a touchdown in a playoff game last week. The past three teams to do it all went on to win the Super Bowl, with Tampa Bay doing so in the 2002 season, Baltimore in 2000 and San Francisco in 1989.
This Texans team would love to keep that going. But first they’ll need a win Saturday to put them in the AFC championship game for the first time after losing their previous five divisional matchups.
“That’s what you come here for,” Anderson said. “That’s what they’ve been rebuilding for is moments like this… we’ve got all the right pieces, we’ve just got to go out there and make it happen.”