quote:
As an above poster stated, I don't think he's that great but I don't think he's that bad.
I'll put it this way...I don't think he's the problem.
I tend to lean on it's the players because I think you could insert Joe Torre, Tony LaRussa, or Bobby Cox as a manager and we'd still K a ton, Gmez would still swing out his ass, Castro would be atrocious, and the back end of the rotation would still suck a fat one.
This is where we fundamentally disagree b/c those other managers wouldn't have it and would be benching guys for being stupid.
This team makes tons of errors, tons of mental errors on the basepaths and has a horrible approach at the plate and they simply aren't afraid to be stupid; that's on the manager.
I just think Hinch is a weak leader who never goes after umps and whose team gets picked-on by that group constantly, the only message he has sent despite the Astros being one of the highest HBP teams in baseball is to essentially end the Astros' career of a pitcher who dared to throw at another player in retaliation last season. The fact that Eric Hosmer has never worn a fastball into his lower back for all of the Astros hit by Royals pitching last season (including breaking Springers' hand and dotting Altuve/Correa) is, to me, what sets Hinch apart from good managers who are playing the same game as their competitors.
I feel that this team has increasingly taken on the image of their manager...just kind of a weak-minded band of losers.
Again, we're 21 games into the season and they haven't won back-to-back games yet...this appears to be who they are and it's time to fire Hinch.
