As if hiring a sabermetrically inclined general manager in Jeff Luhnow wasn’t proof enough that the Astros are becoming a new-school organization, Luhnow just used Twitter to announce the hiring of Baseball Prospectus analyst Mike Fast:
Ever hear of Mike Fast?Great work, will help us@whimsicalcookie@jluhnow are #Astros using systems like FieldF/X and HitF/X? Did #Cardinals?
— Jeff Luhnow (@jluhnow) January 24, 2012
Fast (who later confirmed the news) isn’t a household name in the baseball fan world, but in the baseball analysis world he’s a pretty big deal and the hiring is a very smart move by the Astros. And having a GM who’s so active on Twitter is pretty great too, although Luhnow may feel a little bit differently about interacting with fans if the honeymoon period gives way to another 100-loss season.