Melvin Gets The Axe…

About two weeks ago, I wrote that the Diamondbacks were in trouble. Here is what I wrote about Melvin in that post:

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“Bob Melvin might be dead man walking. One of the more interesting prop bets is who will be the 1st manager to be fired? Well, if the Diamondbacks keep up their lackluster play it might be Melvin. I watched the recent series with the Giants and the Dbacks looked in a daze and uninspired.

Not only that but their are 2 big strikes against Melvin. One, the D'Backs have regressed since Melvin led them to a 90-72 record and a division title in 2007 and two, the rise of Carlos Quentin is really a black eye for Melvin and his ability to develop young players.”

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On Thursday, Bob Melvin went from dead man walking to just a dead man. The Arizona Diamondbacks fired Melvin and replaced him with their VP of Player Development, AJ Hinch. Rick Schu, who was the Diamondbacks hitting coach was fired as well. I have watched a lot of Diamondbacks games this year and I was not surprised by this move one bit. A move needed to be made.

Hinch replaces Melvin

The Diamondbacks have a great group of young talent. Under Melvin, this young group has regressed. Take a look at what this young group has done so far this year:

Chris Young – .177/2/7

Conor Jackson – .191/1/13

Chris Snyder – .204/1/5

Stephen Drew – .205/1/5

Chad Tracy – .221/2/9

Mark Reynolds – .255/7/14 with 36 K’s in 28 games.

That is just brutal. Only Justin Upton (.294/6/15/.375) has lived up to expectation so far. I mean take a look at Chris Young. This guy is 25-years-old and should be entering the prime of his career. Instead he was benched recently. How does it get to a point where one of the best young players in the league gets benched? That’s 100 percent on Melvin.

Now like I said, I agree 100 percent with the firing of Melvin. What I don’t agree with is the hiring of AJ Hinch to replace Melvin. The first thing I thought of when I heard the name AJ Hinch was a guy who never lived up to expectations coming out of Stanford.

I won’t hold that against him because most big league managers were average players at best. What I will hold against him is the fact that he has ZERO managerial experience. I am not even sure if he has even coached little league. I may have more managerial experience that Hinch. That is scary.

Doesn’t this sound a lot like the Florida Marlins situation in 2003? A struggling, young team that needing a kick in the pants. But they went out and hired Jack McKeon not a 34-year-old kid. I thought the Diamondbacks should have gone the Jack McKeon route. This situation called for an old sage type manager.

A Jack McKeon type, a Cito Gasten type or a Dusty Baker type. A type of manager who has been around the block a couple of times and is a no nonsense guy. I know those managers are few and far between but I am sure if the Diamondbacks tried hard enough they could have found one.

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. Since I picked the Diamondbacks to go to the Word Series, I am hoping for the later.