Yeah I’d be really surprised to see Hinch opt out after this year, and even more surprised to see him fired.
Tell you this much: if Hinch does opt out I will despair for this franchise. Because that would mean something has gone so terribly, terribly in the front office wrong that he believes can’t be fixed.
Could be this, or it could be Hinch trying to maximize his pitching advantage because his team is in danger of being shut out every other night. The need to manage his staff throughout an entire season notwithstanding, were at the point now where we have to get a win right away, so he might be managing each game in that must-win-today, more, including matchups.
It used to be interesting and rare enough that you might never see one in a thousand games you attend. Now it’s just way too common and I support batters who make fun and take the piss out of that very unserious moment.
I saw him hit that laser into the first row of the LF stands on Monday night, and I was thinking, what if Mike Trout just decided he would hit as many homers as he possibly could this season? Even in a down year for homers, I wouldn’t doubt that he could hit 60 or more just by sheer force of will.
I was at the Toledo game in Louisville last night and I was reminded that the calculus for whether a pitcher stays in or comes out in a minor league game is very different from that of a major league game.
Can you imagine Derek Hill and Robbie Grossman having the same level of collision and both having to come out of the game? I guess that would mean Meadows and Harold would have to go to the outfield, Tork to first, and the pitcher bats. Yikes what a mess that would be.
Not me. My wife and I are driving through southern Indiana on the first leg of our southern driving trip, so we literally have nothing better to do right now.