A.J. Hinch hired as manager

Meh, Luhnow no longer has my trust, this hire doesn't impress me, hopefully something happens to change that. At least two years ago we were a bad team with management that seemed competent, now we are a bad team with management that is a laughing stock.

 

What kind of manager hire is "impressive"?

 

Whitey Herzog.

People complain about managers they've never heard of, people complain when it's a retread that they are familiar with. It's tough to appease people.

There's absolutely nothing complaint-worthy about this hire.

Yet.

 

Seems like a lifetime ago that this city was celebrating a pennant.

 

Don't like this at all they could have stayed with Lawless over this guy.

 

this was guy was a loser with the dbacks

 

I wonder if Gardenhire would have been interested.

 

This is Luhnow's all in move. If he hired a someone who didn't check all the boxes for his preferred manager then this great experiment would have been a giant waste.

 

Yea I have no idea if AJ will be a good manager or not. But this whole thing does seem more like an experiment than anything

Gonna be an interesting offseason

 

Bo Porter lasted longer with the Astros than Hinch did with DBacks.

Not even sure who the other candidates were, but if Hinch separated himself from the pack, it wasn't because of his resume.

 

How long does he let his pitchers go?

 

What part of the resume?

Playing experience? Check
ML managing experience? Check
Highly educated? Check
Front office experience? Check

Luhnow wanted someone smart enough to understand all the data the front office generates (Stanford degree) as well as know how important it is to integrate it (FO experience). Combined with both playing and managing experience and you get a perfect Luhnow guy.

The Astros weren't magically going to get a previously successful major manager who is data savvy. There's all of 2-3 in baseball.

 

.420 winning percentage, that's got to count for something, no?!

 

It's worked for the Texans... JJ, AJ, CJ, DJ....might be missing one.

 

New Houston Astros manager A.J. Hinch — fully aware of both the team’s recent, historic struggles and its roster full of youth and potential — proudly pulled on his No. 14 jersey at the introductory press conference Monday afternoon at his new home at Minute Maid Park.

“To wear this orange and blue is something I cherish,” Hinch said. “I want to bring a championship to the city of Houston, the fans of Houston.”

“Do I want to shock the world?” Hinch said. “Of course I do.”

Hinch, 40, who managed the Arizona Diamondbacks from 2009-2010 and most recently was a vice president of scouting for the San Diego Padres, takes over for the fired Bo Porter and interim manager Tom Lawless.

On Sunday, the Astros finished a 70-92 season, their sixth straight year with at least 86 losses.

 

Brad Ausmus instead of Bo Porter in the first place, again like I said, I'd love for this all to work but after the Aiken fallout and the leak last year, this management doesn't have my trust.

 

Players make a team better in baseball, not managers. Managers ultimately have very little impact. I'm really indifferent to any managerial hire.

They want a guy who's gonna follow the numbers, so he's just the newest implementation of the "system". Time will tell if it has worked.

 

So what does Brad Ausmus do specifically that makes him special? Is Detroit any better because of him? Who would have been an impressive hire today?

 

Love this

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Astros bringing back pitching coach Brent Strom as part of A.J. Hinch's staff <a href="http://t.co/O2cu9bojO4">http://t.co/O2cu9bojO4</a></p>&mdash; Jose de Jesus Ortiz (@OrtizKicks) <a href="https://twitter.com/OrtizKicks/status/516757597077000192">September 30, 2014</a></blockquote>
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