Tim Heitman – USA TODAY Sports
With all the prospects and new additions preparing to suit up for the Houston Astros, it may seem odd that perhaps the most excited member of the entire organization is the second-year manager Bo Porter.
Porter has been setting the tone so far in the short time since players began reporting for spring training. He has been very outspoken about how stoked he is to see all the pieces that he and the rest of the Astros’ management have been putting together.
When the Astros picked Porter to manage their up and coming team, it came as not necessarily a shock but definitely an eyebrow-raiser. Here was a brand new manager with no experience managing at the MLB-level, and now he’s supposed to run a team of players and prospects with a similarly low amount of MLB experience.
While the move cannot be completely justified yet, it has all the makings to be one of the best moves the Astros have made in the four or so years since they’ve been rebuilding. Porter comes in much like a prospect with the objective of growing with the team and meshing them together as a formidable unit. Porter is going to have just as many growing pains as prospects like George Springer or Jonathan Singleton; it’s all just part of the process.
All that being said, it’s refreshing to see the approach that Porter is taking in managing this team of young talent. Whether it’s his goofy antics such as sneaking into Dexter Fowler‘s press conference and pretending to be a reporter or his genuine excitement to see his team become what it’s in progress to becoming, Porter may indeed may be one of the happiest managers in the game.
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