Arizona Diamondbacks Cut Ties With Byrnes and Hinch

A quick post here before I head out for the weekend.

One of my favorite Gorilla Monsoon sayings from back in the 80’s was when he said someone was “cleaning house” in the ring. It usually happened during a tag-team match or a battle royal when the fan favorite made a comeback.

My friend Justin and I have adopted the term and use it when someone completely cleans off their plate during a meal. Now I think the Arizona Diamondbacks can adopt the term “cleaning house” as well.

The Diamondbacks cleaned house on Thursday night as they dismissed manager AJ Hinch and GM Josh Byrnes. The Hinch move I can understand, but the Byrnes decision? Not so much.

When the Diamondbacks hired Hinch back in the spring of 2009, I wrote that “There will be no gray area with this move. Either the Diamondbacks will fall flat on their faces and lose 95 games or rise up and win 88-90 games under Hinch.”

The Diamondbacks fell flat on their faces with Hinch as their manager. Arizona was 31-48 this year and were 89-123 with Hinch leading the way. The Diamondbacks took a gamble on Hinch, and it just didn’t work.

Hinch had zero managerial experience before he was handed the job. He didn’t coach in the Majors or minors—I am not even sure he ever coach little league.

It’s very hard to ask a rookie manager to coach a young team. Very rarely does that work out.

As for Byrnes, I was really surprised he was let go. We have head some conflicting reports that Byrnes was let go because because he wouldn’t fire Hinch or because he didn’t get along with CEO Derrick Hall. Whatever the reason was, letting go one of the brighter minds in the game is a mistake.

Former World Series hero and Diamondbacks’ bench coach Kirk Gibson will take over for Hinch. No successor to Byrnes has been named as of yet.

Have a great Fourth of July weekend everyone!!!

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