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

“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.