Almost no question they were going to keep Strom, who was under contract for another year. Curious to see what they do for a hitting coach. Carter & Altuve made strides, but Dominguez & Castro went the wrong way, and Singleton was awful.
Need to hire Jimi Williams again, fire him, and see if history repeats. I have no opinion on the new hire, but wish him well. His success is now Houston's success. Go Stros!!!
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Have to wonder if the Astros looked at A.J. Hinch’s UCL before getting the deal done.</p>— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) <a href="https://twitter.com/EvanDrellich/status/516718867943419905">September 29, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
the same clown that allowed Appel to have a bullpen session at Minute Maid? How the hell does this guy get an invite back??!!!!11eleven
I've watched baseball for nearly 20 years and I still don't know who's a good manager and who's not. So I have no opinion on this hire either way. My favorite Astros manager, at least since when I've started watching, was Dierker. And he pretty much just let his pitchers pitch and hitters swing. I guess I am interested in how Hinch deals with getting his players to buy into the shifting. Correct or not, that is one area Ludnow has made an imprint on the team. It's his equivalent of Morey's paint-and-3s mantra.
Oh I know. Hiring someone who potentially has the same views as he does, what was Jeff Luhnow thinking?
Just as long as he changed his decision making process from when he hires Porter. Basically do the exact opposite of what was done before. "If every instinct you had was wrong, the opposite would have to be right."
In fairness... if the team isn't winning, wouldn't hiring a "sexy name" manager be a good thing? Honestly, its hard to get all excited about AJ Hinch. He may be a great hire, but when all we can go with is a checklist and his W-L record, is it that unreasonable to be somewhat skeptical? btw, was there something wrong with the interim manager that ended the season? btw2: given the short coaching lifecycles... this one will be coaching in the World Series?
