Bill James on Art Howe

Jamesian humor

Bill James on Art Howe

Here’s another little known Bill James quote for you:

From This Time Let’s Not Eat The Bones, page 125

I suppose Art Howe was a productive hitter in 1978. He had a .293 batting average, which was still recognized as the basic measure of hitter effectiveness. His .343 on base percentage and .436 slugging percentage wasn’t much to speak of, but he was playing in the Astrodome. That helped him along to a 125 OPS+, a stat I still consider a pretty good measure of his effectiveness.

But was Howe a productive fielder?

It’s hard to say. It’s always hard to say when it comes to fielding. Even the best of our advanced fielding metrics leave you feeling unfulfilled, with more questions than answers.

Howe contributed to 51 double plays as a second baseman in 1978. That put him at 22nd among second basemen in major league baseball:

But is this because Howe was a poor second baseman? Is this because the Astros pitchers didn’t give up as many ground balls up the middle as the Red Sox and Mariners? Is there a chance that Rafael Landestoy at shortstop also deserves some blame for not playing the double play well?

Howe only played 68 games at second in 1979, playing at third for another 60 games or so. Houston had picked up Craig Reynolds from Seattle to play short and wound up switching Landestoy over to second. That might give you an idea of how effective Howe really was as a second baseman.

By 1980, Howe was playing first base, which, as somebody else noted here a few weeks back, is where you stick your poor fielders. Joe Morgan came over from Cincinnati as a free agent to make the double play combination with Reynolds.

The result? Astros second baseman were part of only 83 double plays in 1978, almost last in the league:

In contrast, in 1980 they were part of 95 — an improvement, sure, but not much:

Maybe Morgan at 36 was kind of old to be an every day second baseman.