Worst series decision making wise of Hinch’s career...

I’ve been refraining from posting and have been trying to think about what happened logically instead of emotionally. That said, after sleeping on it I still have the same opinion I had after the game last night - this is the worst series I’ve seen from Hinch decision making wise. Apologies for adding to the negativity on this board right now and starting another thread complaining about subjective decisions but I have rarely criticized Hinch and I challenge anyone to find posts by me that prove otherwise. I’ve been a huge fan of his and have always regarded him as one of the best managers in the game right now. Yes I realize our offense did not so their part and left way too many runners on base but there were two awful decisions by Hinch that also significantly contributed to us losing the series....

The first was pulling Urquidy for James in Game 4 after 65 pitches, zero signs of him losing control of the game and the pitcher’s spot due up to lead off the 6th. In addition, we had a 4 run lead so why are you pulling him there? And even if you saw something or Urquidy told you he was done (no chance), how do you land on Josh James as your choice? The only way they were getting back into that game was exactly what happened - walking two out of the first three hitters which is the only thing you absolutely cannot do. And that wasn’t just a player not having it that night...he’s been walking guys at a alarming rate ALL season! Even Joe Buck could have provided that analysis.

The reason I’m bringing that decision up even though we won the game is because it played a huge role in last night’s loss. The stupid decision resulted in him having to go to Harris in a game he absolutely would not have been needed in otherwise. It was the second game/night in a row and guess who he struck out to end the inning with runners on 2nd and 3rd? That’s right...the guy who took him deep last night to put them ahead basically sealing our fate.

He overworked Harris - even if he wasn’t tired last night, they had WAY too many looks against him in a short time span and because of the Urquidy decision Kendrick got a free extra look at him and could absolutely have been the reason he was able to hit that pitch, which was in a good location, last night. He pitched in 5 of the games - I don’t care how good your stuff is, if you play a team as good as the Nationals, they are going to eventually get to you, especially when you’re a reliever who throws TWO pitches. This has been proven to be true time and time again. Unless the back of jersey reads Rivera or you’re a lefty specialist getting one out at a time, I don’t want to see any reliever pitching 5 times in a 7 game series.

The second decision was pulling Greinke last night. He hadn’t lost control of the game - he made a bad pitch to perhaps the MVP of the NL but he still kept the lead. I could present a pretty compelling case to pitch around/walk Soto there which is exactly what Greinke was doing - honestly I think Greinke might have more baseball IQ than Hinch or anyone else on the team for that matter. I guess Hinch would have rather watched Soto hit the ball off the fu**ing train (JV and Cole really blew that electric fastball right by him the whole series huh?) and tie the game than walk him. After all, it really worked out pitching aggressively to him down 3-2 with first open a couple innings later. I get the intentional walk isn’t a great move analytically but that doesn’t mean you can’t do what Greinke did and pitch carefully to him.

That said, I couldn’t come up with a rational defense for both pulling Greinke AND going to Harris there - if you are going to pull the “ace” that you traded solid prospects and agreed to pay $25M next year for around three months ago for this EXACT reason (and he was delivering for us), it better be for a considerably better option and the only pitcher on our roster who fit that description last night was Cole.

Finally, anyone who thinks his decision making wasn’t a major factor as to why we lost this series is kidding themselves. My first response to an argument that tries to convince me otherwise: what other manager in the history of baseball has pulled TWO different starters in the same WS (or hell even any playoff series) who had only given up one/no runs on two hits through 5-6 innings, had a pitch count under 85 with no health related restrictions (and on normal days rest), and had a lead small enough for the game to be tied on one swing? Answer that first and maybe I’ll listen to your argument...

 

I think his biggest flaw is his stubbornness and the fact that it seems like he has his favorites that he often overlooks analytics, which he and our front office are obviously huge supporters of, when it comes to decision making with them. Does anyone think he's pulling Verlander last night if it was him on the mound instead of Greinke?

Speaking of favorites, how is Reddick STILL starting meaningful games for us? It didn't factor into why we lost since we won all three at their stadium but it is hard for me to understand why he didn't give Yordan more time out in LF during the regular season while we had a commanding division lead. Further, would have given Brantley time to get more comfortable playing RF (he's only played LF/CF in the MLB) and would have given him the option to rotate guys in and out of the DH and maybe someone like Diaz gets hot. Instead, he keeps running out a guy who's put up a WHOPPING .412 OPS in the ALCS and WS games he's played with us since 2017. The same guy who has been the fifth worst outfielder (not just RF, all three spots) out of FOURTY EIGHT qualifying outfielders since the start of the 2018 season. We basically used a NL lineup at home as an AL team against a NL team running out an AL lineup...and ironically the difference maker was their DH Kendrick.

No one can tell me with a straight face it's just a "small sample size"...the guy flat out f***** sucks. I understand why our players and Hinch like/respect the guy because it isn't a case where a player got paid and then started declining a bit - he seems like a good guy/teammate and I'd love to have him as a 4th/5th OF at $2M-$3M but it's mind blowing how a team that is so analytically driven continues to run him out there game after game. If I see his name in the lineup card for opening day next year again I think I might lose it.