Thursday night I had the opportunity to attend a Town Hall meeting with A.J. Hinch hosted by Bill Brown inside Union Station for season ticket holders. Since Hinch was not at Fan Fest I was very pleased to get to hear his side of things. A very likable guy, Hinch reminisced about the victories in 2015 and talked about plans for 2016 with the enthusiastic audience for an hour.
Hinch answered a question about his favorite moment of 2015
commenting on what he saw as the season turning point: An August weekend series
against the first place Dodgers. I remember kind of feeling iffy about that
weekend because we had gone 5-5 in the last 10 games and I didn’t know what to
expect from Fiers, Kazmir & McCullers. Fiers pitched a no hitter to start
out a series sweep. Hinch recalls turning to bench coach Trey Hillman and
saying “Our guys believe.”
The topic I was looking forward to hearing A.J. speak about
the most was first base. Calling this the only open competition at Spring
Training he continued “One thing that’s changed on our team… there are no
freebies. Someone’s got to win this job.” The only specific thing he said about
Jon Singleton was “It’s time for him to step up”. He mentioned opportunities
for Matt Duffy, A.J. Reed, Tyler White, Marwin Gonzalez, Luis Valbuena to all
try on the first base glove. Valbuena may be more favored at third base though
with Hinch saying that his defense at the left corner was very underrated.
Talking about the seriousness of production on the field for
the upcoming season Hinch stated “We have to earn our keep around here. We have
a culture here where we’re going to accept younger players. When they come up
here I don’t want the excuse of they’re a young player.” When discussing at
bats for all the talent that in the clubhouse Hinch said “These guys are going
to have to fight for playing time.”
A big topic of discussion among fans has been clubhouse
culture and team chemistry. Hinch when he first came to the Astros organization
said he hoped to create a culture of fun in the clubhouse and seriousness on
the field and the field ended up being fun too. Hinch said that while he is
responsible to set the culture, the players are responsible to take care of the
chemistry. With the core of the team returning he believes that the team
chemistry will be on point.
A few more quick highlights:
-Hinch is pissed that the Rangers have the Silver Boot and
he wants it back.
-He believes that this is going to be a higher production
year for Jason Castro.
-A.J. talked a little about the bench clearing incident with
the Rangers back in July of last year. Feeling the need to protect his starting
pitcher Colin McHugh, who Rangers first baseman Prince Fielder had in one hand,
he grabbed Fielders wrist and then Rangers manager Jeff Bannister felt the need
to protect his players. Hinch said, however, that kind of tension between teams can be fun.
Fun may be the best way I can describe the 2015 season. A.J.
Hinch said there is a high confidence that the team will be able to replicate
the success of last season as well as surpass it. Well, if that’s the case I
believe 2016 could be very fun.
Thanks to Eric Huysman from Climbing Tal's Hill for letting me tag along.
