After a fifth consecutive loss, Astros' Framber Valdez questions defensive positioning
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Valdez, Houston's ace who struck out his 1,000th career batter, took issue with the team's defensive positioning during a candid postgame interview in which he claimed through an interpreter that 'baseball is a game of common sense.'
Common sense, in Valdez's words, is that left-handed hitters do not hit fly balls against him. No batters do. Valdez is one of three qualified major-league starters with a groundball rate higher than 60 percent.
Yet, in the sixth inning of Monday's 2-1 loss, the Astros positioned their outfielders in preparation for a fly ball from the left-handed hitting Nathaniel Lowe. The tying run stood on first base and, ostensibly, the Astros were in a 'no doubles' defense to prevent any fly ball from getting over their defenders' heads.
Instead, Lowe bounced a full-count breaking ball through the four-hole and into an unoccupied part of right field.
'When he hit the grounder, I thought it was going to be an out,' Valdez said through an interpreter. 'When I saw it went through, I said 'Oh, it's going to be a hit.' But then I saw the right fielder playing center field and, you know, we have a center fielder for that. I feel like the right fielder should have been playing right field. I was uncomfortable with that.'
The baseball reached the warning track before right fielder Taylor Trammell could secure it. Lumbering designated hitter Josh Bell, he of a sprint speed in the fifth percentile, scored the game-tying run from first base. Bell averages just 24.9 feet per second when he sprints. League average is 26.2.
'You have to do everything you can to score, and he did,' Lowe told reporters after the game. 'Really grateful for that, even though he's not a burner, but he touched the plate at the right time and we're happy scoring more than them.'
Valdez voiced his concerns without being asked directly about the play, but about the frustrations of pitching with such a small margin for error. The Astros have scored 21 runs in their past eight games while reeling from the loss of leadoff man Isaac Paredes. Five of the nine members of Houston's Opening Day lineup are on the injured list, including Paredes, slugger Yordan Alvarez and All-Star shortstop Jeremy Peña.
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'It was a little bit uncomfortable to be honest,' Valdez said. 'It doesn't make sense that was a double. It doesn't make sense that the right fielder was playing in center field with a lefty that was hitting.
'It doesn't make sense that the right fielder was playing all the way in center field. That should have been a single. That shouldn't have been a double. The runner should have been at third and not at home. I felt a little bit uncomfortable about that.'
Manager Joe Espada did not get asked about the play after the loss, but he held his news conference before Valdez conducted his postgame interview in the clubhouse.
Quality assurance coach Jason Bell and first-base coach Dave Clark are Houston's two outfield instructors and are responsible for positioning during games. Valdez said he did not approach the coaching staff with his concerns.
'I don't have to ask the coaches about that. I feel like baseball is a game of common sense,' Valdez said. 'With me as a lefty pitcher, they don't hit a lot of fly balls against me. If they do hit a fly ball, it's going to either be a home run or in front.'
Spray charts do show that, of the 26 fly balls Lowe has hit against left-handed pitchers this season, a large cluster have gone to either center field or right center field where Trammell was positioned.
Prior to Monday, left-handed hitters had hit just 12 fly balls off of Valdez all season, according to FanGraphs spray charts. Just two of them had been pulled at all into right field. For his career, though, the rare fly ball from a left-handed hitter did land in right center field.
'I feel the positioning, that wasn't the positioning it was supposed to be when it was a lefty hitter against a lefty pitcher,' Valdez said.
Valdez's candor came after he struck out 12 Nationals across seven otherwise superb innings, lowering his ERA to 2.62. Washington whiffed 22 times on the 45 swings it took against him. Seventeen of the Nationals' swings and misses came against Valdez's curveball, which finished all 12 of his punchouts.
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In three months, Valdez is scheduled to be the top starter available on the free-agent market. Nothing in the Astros' past suggests they will make a serious effort at retaining the 31-year-old homegrown southpaw and one of the team's most successful player development stories.
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