l was right there, and I missed it. Last Friday at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, I moderated the Baseball Analytics panel, and we made some news. Which I didn’t even notice. The Texas baseball writers noticed, though. Here’s Gerry Fraley, within a couple of hours:
Astros GM Backtracks On “Drunken Sailors” Comment
Last Friday, Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow referred to the Rangers as “drunken sailors” for their spending on young Dominican prospects. Did his remark deserve all the attention it’s gotten?
The Rangers wasted little time in shoving aside comments made by new Houston GM Jeff Luhnow accusing them of "spending like drunken sailors" on Latin American talent thanks to a new TV contract.
Luhnow left his first spring training as Astros GM to attend the Sloan Sports Analytics conference at MIT. On Friday, during his appearance, he made the accusation about the Rangers spending, presumably in response to the news Texas had signed Dominican teenager Jairo Beras with a $4.5 million bonus in the last week. That contract is currently being reviewed and investigated by Major League Baseball to determine Beras' true age.
I was there, and didn't think much about Luhnow's little joke. Granted, I didn't think much about anything; as the moderator, I was focusing more on survival than the news-worthiness of comments made by Luhnow and the other panelists (Bill James, Mark Shapiro, Rocco Baldelli, and Scott Boras).
It was a joke, though. Luhnow wasn’t accusing the Rangers of anything. In response to (as I recall) my question about the potential impact of an international draft, he was just going for an easy laugh (which he got). He was smiling, and we all smiled with him. Were there maybe a few sour grapes in there? Perhaps. But it’s like Charlie Dressen said: “If I can’t squeeze, where am I?” If the new general manager of a rebuilding team can’t get in a little dig at his vastly more successful and wealthy cross-state (and future divisional) rivals, then where is he?
But of course it turned into a thing. To the point where Luhnow felt compelled to issue a sort of retraction (if not the “apology” that’s been referenced in some places). Zachary Levine:
Luhnow later said he shouldn’t have used the expression and clarified the statement via a text message, saying the point “was more about the magnitude of their investment prior to future limitations. Not saying it’s a bad strategy but one that many teams can’t afford.”
Rangers officials were quick to brush the comments aside in their own remarks to the Dallas Morning News.Jeff Luhnow is one of very few GMs with an active Twitter feed. This makes him interesting. Jeff Luhnow is one of the few GMs who would skip a few days of spring training to appear on a panel at a conference devoted to modern statistical analysis. This also makes him interesting.
Every time someone does or says something interesting, we can beat them down for it. But then where are we?
For more about the Astros and Rangers and the month’s first Texas Baseball Controversy, please visit The Crawfish Boxes and Lone Star Ball.
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