Astros: A.J. Hinch Should Be The AL Manager Of The Year

I still have to rub my eyes clean of what’s happening with the Houston Astros.

They’re back to their winning ways and they’re doing it in style.

You guys remember during the last weeks of the season when had our doubts that they’d make the playoffs?

They had skidded that bad and we had wondered that if the proverbial Cinderella’s carriage had turned into a pumpkin once again.

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But it didn’t — they won six of their last eight rolling their way into the start of the playoffs with the type of momentum that I’m sure we couldn’t imagine.

They’ve been largely a .500 team since about June — being up-and-down while there was no extremity on either end of the spectrum.

But there’s a reason for this resurgence of Astros baseball and there’s one man who is indeed an important factor to the franchise’s success as of late.

Yes, I’m talking about our skipper A.J. Hinch.

A guy that you couldn’t quite identify with the roll of your tongue — unless you were an A’s fan — he has become one of the prominent faces of baseball managers, all in one season.

Back in October, I wrote about Hinch when he was hired and my jaw dropped in regard to how quick he was hired after interviewing multiple candidates. Take a look here.

He must’ve wowed Jeff Luhnow, Reid Ryan, Nolan Ryan as well as the rest of the Astros’ brass in his interview.

Luhnow even went on the record indicating that he thinks Hinch would be the manager when the Astros go to the World Series.

Although we thought it was just flattery of the man he just hired, there may be truth to that revelation-esque quote that he gave the Houston Chronicle back in October.

Hinch has oversaw a 16-game win improvement over last year’s — the Astros finished 70-92 in 2014 — making their final 86-76 regular season record one to be proud of.

The problem with the past managers we’ve had since Phil Garner is that they’d either institute an unfavorable culture in the clubhouse or did not get along well with Astros’ management.

Cecil Cooper, Brad Mills, Bo Porter…I could go on and on.

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Hinch has figured out a solution to both dilemmas that past managers have had and is doing quite well striking the balance.

The players seem to have a connection with him and a level of respect that’s quite admirable.

He also instituted a clubhouse environment that emanates camaraderie and works quite well with the Astros’ front office.

Hinch does have experience working with prospects having being an experienced farm manager with the Arizona Diamondbacks.

He has nurtured top prospects like Carlos Correa and Preston Tucker, as he had a high-level of their empathizing what an experience it’d be transitioning from the minors to majors.

You’ve probably seen it but the “Club Astros” environment littered with disco balls, loud music and smoke machines that are prevalent in the clubhouse after an Astros’ win is something I know A.J. had a part of and really lightens things up for this team.

I had the opportunity to meet A.J. before the start of the season during a blogger’s round table at FanFest and his folksy, laid-back, you’d “have a beer with” type demeanor made it an enjoyable conversation.

He’s exactly what this team needs and you’d almost want to categorize him as a perfect fit as the Astros continue to be on the rise.