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Houston Hopes Hinch Hire Helpful As All “H”

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  • Updated: September 30, 2014

The Houston Astros’ hiring of A.J. Hinch Monday (9/29) as their new manager gets the team’s 2015 season started in jet-propulsion fashion, a scant day after recording the final out in New York Sunday.

At the obligatory introductory news conference at Minute Maid Park Monday, Hinch acknowledged that the young and talented Astros are close to putting a contender together: “The arrow is pointing in the right direction,” the 40-year-old Hinch stated. “The talent is real here,” no doubt referring to just-crowned AL batting champ, second baseman Jose Altuve, OF George Springer, and a heralded minor league system perched to explode young talent to the bigs as early as this spring.

Press Conference attendee, General Manager Jeff Luhnow echoed Hinch’s optimism: “I think A.J.’s going to be the manager when we win the World Series.”

Taking over from interim manager Tom Lawless, who finished the 2014 season after taking over from fired manager Bo Porter, Hinch has most recently been the Veep of Scouting for the San Diego Padres. He also managed the Arizona Diamondbacks for parts of both the 2009 and 2010 seasons, compiling an 89-123 won-loss record.

A Stanford grad, the Iowa native was a major league catcher from 1998 through 2004, and won a bronze medal in the Atlanta 1996 Olympics as a member of the Men’s Baseball Team. He played for the A’s, Royals, Tigers and Phillies. In 350 games, he hit .219, and cracked 32 homers.

The Astros finished 2014 with a 70-92 record, after three consecutive 100-loss seasons from 2011 through ’13. Hinch will doubtless use his psychology degree to ensure communication with Luhnow remains smooth and lucid, something reportedly missing from the relationship Luhnow had with Porter.

The Astros certainly showed multiple signs of progress in 2014, improving by 19 games in the win column from ’13. With Hinch now on board, the Astros can look to bolster a still-sagging bullpen, work some of their young farm hands in Arizona Fall League and winter ball, and gear themselves up for a run at the playoffs a year from now. In fact, if you read between his lines, he even foresees a World Series appearance.

After all, at Monday’s news conference, he proudly proclaimed, “Do I want to shock the world? Of course I do.” A 2015 Series appearance by the Astros would certainly accomplish that! In fact, this reporter is happy to jump on board that prediction………just for the “H” of it!

Author: Brad Kyle

Brad was born the same year as rock’n’roll and Disneyland. Aging only slightly better than one of them, he’s a Houston native, and has seen countless Astro games, in all three Houston pro ball stadiums: Colt Stadium, The Astrodome, and Minute Maid Park.

His favorite non-Astro was Pirate legend Roberto Clemente, with 3rd baseman Bob Aspromonte his favorite Houston player as a kid, and Jeff Bagwell more recently.

Brad has spent professional time as a teacher, youth minister, radio personality, record store manager, entertainment booking agent, singer, comedy writer, and…..oh, yeah, sports writer!