OCTOBER 30: All signs are pointing to Hinch becoming the next manager in Detroit. The parties are nearing an agreement on a three-year deal, report Lynn Henning and Chris McCosky of the Detroit News, one which could be finalized as soon as today. Jon Heyman of MLB Network (Twitter link) also hears that Hinch “is the choice” for the position.
OCTOBER 29, 9:51pm: There has been “substantial progress” toward a deal, reports Morosi, who adds that Hinch is in line to become the Tigers’ next manager.
OCTOBER 29, 8:23pm: The Tigers and Hinch are progressing toward an agreement, Buster Olney of ESPN tweets.
OCTOBER 29, 6:34pm: Hinch is the favorite for the job, per Morosi and Beck.
OCTOBER 29, 5:10pm: The Tigers interviewed A.J. Hinch for their vacant managerial position on Thursday, Jon Morosi and Jason Beck of MLB.com report. Hinch is one of several candidates known to have spoken with the Tigers as they seek a replacement for the retired Ron Gardenhire.
Hinch, a former major league catcher, gained major league managerial experience in the past with the Diamondbacks and Astros. His resume includes a terrific 570-452 record, three 100-win seasons and a World Series title with the Astros in 2017. However, a sign-stealing scandal has called into question Hinch’s accomplishments in Houston. The league suspended him for all of 2020 as a result of the Astros’ violations, and the team fired him shortly after that.
Hinch’s ban expired after this year’s World Series, so he is now eligible to return in a prominent role if a team is willing to hire him. The 46-year-old previously garnered interest from the White Sox as they sought a new manager, but they elected to hire Tony La Russa on Thursday. That leaves the Tigers and Red Sox as the only teams looking for managers, though Boston hasn’t shown any reported interest in Hinch so far.
Would be a solid hire for Detroit
It would be yet another bad look for baseball.
Why does MLBTR persist in calling it a “sign stealing scandal”? This is biased, false reporting. There is nothing illegal or scandalous about sign stealing. The scandal for the Astros is that they deployed technology illegally in a massive, organization wide conspiracy to defraud the league of awards and a World Series, destroying careers and costing people many millions of dollars along the way. For the sake of honest reporting, why don’t we call it the “2017 Astros Cheating Scheme” or something of the like. Call a spade a spade! Hold these organizations accountable for interviewing these convicted cheaters who should absolutely be banned for life from baseball and WOULD BE if we were in any reality other than Manfred’s bizarre alternate universe.
Beisbolista, right on!!!
The scandal for the Astros is that AFTER the commissioner sent out a memo spelling out that electronic sign stealing was against the rules, the Astros continued to use the system the rest of the season at home.
The Astros PLAYERS knew nothing about the new rules since Luhnow didn’t tell them.
The Yankees and Red Sox were fined for using similar systems in 2017, stopped using them in September, and there is no scandal. Even though the system the Astros used was actually brought there by Carlos Beltran FROM the Yankees where they had used it since 2015.
The fact is that until that memo in September, what the Yankees and many, many other teams did was not specifically illegal. It was a grey area.
…and yet whoever gets george Springer will be incredibly excited
If you believe the players didn’t know this was bad, I have some property in Kansas with an ocean view! Just gotta squint a little no biggie
I think they’re calling it sign stealing because they were stealing signs. That’s my guess anyways. They used technology to do it. There’s absolutely something illegal about using technology to intercept signs and relay them to your own team.
Ha ha. Blinders at its best
Yankees and Red Sox have been caught cheating numerous times and nothing is ever done, or they get a mild “slap on the hand”.
Yankees won 4-5 Championships cheating with players all roided up on drugs so they should be the last team criticizing the Astros..
Horse manure!
It was a players started and run scheme (Carlos Beltran): with a coach (Cora) anb one Executive (Asst GM Mike Elias now GM in Baltimore).
The Yankees cheated their way to 5 WS titles with Roided up players on drugs and nothing was done about it. It is a huge double standard..
Getting wired up the way Altuve did is nothing close to “gray area”, and that’s coming from someone who was thrilled when he hit that homerun off Chapman.
exactly
Cheating has been part of baseball for a long time and unfortunately it is why players were motivated to do steroids. The technology was eventually going to be harmful for the sport in some capacity. With that said, players have used many ways to cheat with corked bats, vaseline , nail files etc….many Hall of Famers so these guys got caught, punished and the game goes on. I think Hinch deserves a second chance.
Agree!
No, I agree with baseballista or whomever, not kaner
Yeah but that was at the same time when 28 other teams had roid players as well and it was undercontrolled.
Are you confused? Players were motivated by $ not cheating! The cheating was the steroids!
Nothing grey when your talking about $ billions, gambling and integrity. If it smells and quacks like a duck… There has to be a zero tolerance policy. Too much money involved and the potential for government intervention if the elections change the landscape. PED hearings 2.0 anyone should alleged gamesmanship issues continue and the league uses a bandaid when the league might be hemorrhaging .
A disgrace that he and possibly Cora will regain MLB jobs so quickly.
Fever pitch – y’all about someone without evidence! I can’t believe people actually believe that bs
Well said. Screw Houston and all their fans. Cheating scum.
Big man behind his keyboard
12isNOTalwaysbetter, and I suppose you believe the only PED users are the ones who’ve been caught.
Looie – just like you have “proof” for everyone you suspect used steroids. If you don’t have one spread of proof, keep your mouth shut. It’s obvious chapman is just the best closer in baseball…he closes the Yankees season every year!
Many other teams, based on your belief.
You are attempting to downplay the severity of the Astros actions.
Just because there us not a specific rule against something, doesn’t mean its ok.
Hinch should have been banned for 5-10 years at a minimum.
@Beisbolista it seems odd to me that you are so worked over the semantics of this when MLBTR is technically correct. The whole scheme was definitely a scandal by definition. And it definitely was about sign stealing because they were stealing signs in an illegitimate way. People who write about baseball have some creative freedom, and they have to assume the readers have some sort of knowledge about what’s going on. So saying it is false reporting to call it a “sign stealing scandal” is actually just you being dense. The author of the piece clearly intends what you mean so it’s probably best to look at it the way they meant it.
LOL about Chapman but I actually type with my mouth shut…
Did not know? Lol they knew.
Might as well call it the Cora/Beltran scandal then, since they were the ones who came up with the whole thing. RedSox used it to win the WS in 2018 with Cora at the helm. This was not limited to the Astros.
He clutched his jersey tightly closed and didn’t want anyone touching it, and immediately ran into the clubhouse to change the shirt.. There’s more, but I sense you’ll try to shoot down every fact I bring up. So enjoy your fantasy, the rest of the world know’s he is as guilty as sin.
Come on fever, please go watch the whole video, not the cut one the media shows. Great proof anyway!
Who in the history of MLB, after hitting an ALCS-winning walkoff homer, immediately runs off the field into the clubhouse without even pausing to celebrate a little with his teammates on the field? Guilty as sin. Hey you think I like acknowledging the Yanks should have won that series? You think I like acknowledging Judge should have been MVP that year instead of Altuve? Obviously no bias on my end!
Evidence?
Fever- it’s maddening trying to reason with you people that half way watch and then believe what the media and other morons are trying to make you believe. Please watch the full video. Altuve clearly celebrates with his teammates for several minutes. Stop the nonsense already. m.youtube.com/watch?v=NbDmAPife-s
Maybe he can help them cheat to .500
You mean the team that got to G7 of the ALCS with all their FA losses and major injuries? I know you were throwing up on how successful of a season they had buddy lol
Not sure I’d give him a job but I would definitely go with him over Cora. At least Hinch owned what was going on.
Cora owned it AJ NEVER did.
Well Cora was the ring leader and did it with 2 teams…
You should have quit while you were ahead. Cora was certainly the ringleader in Houston, but he was not involved in any cheating with the Red Sox. You are probably thinking of the Apple Watch Scandal, which happened under Farrell not Cora.
The 2018 Red Sox cheating was totally, 100% on the video guy who makes like $15/hr, and all of the on-field personnel are definitely above reproach
Yes, AJ did owned it. He hasn’t ducked a single aspect of this situation. Apologized and said more than once that he should have been the adult in the room and failed in that responsibility, and apologized for it. Out of all the people involved in the scandal, it has been Hinch who has been the most apologetic and forthcoming.
Hinch and Luhnow were made the “scapegoats”…
Other reports say that it was Asst GM Elias(now Orioles GM), Beltran and Cora
who were the ones who set the whole thing up and ran it.
Hinch should have shut it down if he suspected it.
That is what he apologized for.
His lack of supervision, not getting to the bottom of it, not shutting it down. Hinch said the buck stops here since he was the MGR. \
Hinch is a “class act”..
@sportsfan
Hinch is a class act only if that’s what you call a manager who cannot control the clubhouse. He proved he could not handle the responsibilities of the job. The Houston Franchise is tainted. Nothing will change that. Yeah, I want to hire the person who allowed it to happen. Sad times for the Detroit Tigers.
Not true. Why don’t you go and actually read what AJ said. His GM wouldn’t admit it not him.
They owned up after they got caught. Bang bang
I don’t care who owned up to it or not. Neither should be back so soon.
He probably preferred the CWS job but Reinsdorf hired his buddy LaRussa. Maybe Tigers get lucky?
La Russa is one of the best.
Maybe, he pulls a Jack McKeon and wins a Title as a Senior Citizen,
Hinch is a better long term candidate.
McKeon was “only” 72 when he won the WS, if LaRussa wins it next year he’ll be 77.
LaRussa’s ego and today’s players are simply not a good mix.
If being able to hire a pariah is considered lucky in Chicago, the definition in Detroit is different. Can’t believe even the white sox would have been interested in this failure.
Hiring Hinch would be so contradictory to the history of the franchise. They have always avoided acquiring controversial players. They just fired Bosio for his “monkey” comment. If Hinch is the best choice after losing control of the players in Houston, and claiming ignorance of the cheating, it says volumes about how poor the other candidates must have come across in the interviews.
It’s a plausible argument, but he’s a winning manager who has paid his debt to MLB. And he probably grew immensely from the experience. You’d think the Tigers would have pressed him on lessons learned and how to fix the problem.
Most people feel a 60-game suspension is not “paying his debt” when you’ve got someone like Pete Rose banned for life just for betting on his own team to win.
Rose’s suspension is an outlier caused by MLB blaming him for the fatal heart of attack of their one and only good commissioner.
They didn’t cut Jhonny Peralta when he was suspended for steroids. Also, they signed Kenny Rogers after he’d attacked that photographer and then he got caught cheating in the postseason with that brown stain (pinetar?) on his hand. I can’t think of more off the top of my head, but that defeats the statement that a Hinch hiring would be contradictory to the history of the franchise. Granted, I don’t like the fact that A.J. was caught up in the scandal in Houston and that he’s now “damaged goods” but would you rather have “Legandary Lloyd” manage the team? Or maybe a Brad Ausmus wannabe? Not me.
Hinch is not “damaged goods”. He took the fall for players and others.
Hinch oversaw a team of cheaters. He point blank lied about it and even mocked it in an interview before the lid was blown on the entire scandal. Zero credibility. Zero leadership. He’s a disgrace and shouldn’t be around any team. Highly disappointed that the Tigers would even be considering him. The last game I took my grandfather to be for he passed away was in Detroit. Had a ton of admiration for the team, but will lose all respect for them if they hire the guy that played a huge role in tarnishing the game.
I would agree with you on the franchise character part, but with Mike Illich dead, everything is okay all now
Or, hear me out, the Astros and Red Sox weren’t the only teams doing it…
Since we know the Yankees were using the system from 2015-2017 and were fined by MLB for it and that in the Commissioner’s Report on electronic sign stealing 9 other teams were called out for using a similar system until September 2017, that is a reasonable assumption.
Koamalu
There is absolutely NO EVIDENCE that the Yankees were using “the system,” as you call it, from 2015-2017. They got fined for ONE GAME in 2017 for illegal use of a bullpen phone. No camera. No cameraman. A phone, which is insufficient for a sign stealing “system.”
You spread these dirty lies constantly and I keep correcting you. When are you going to get some intellectual honesty? When?!! WHEN??!!
BS Yankees “won” 5 Championships with roided up players on drugs….cheating worse than sign stealing in my book.
Every team steals signs.
Astros got caught that is all.
I’d argue more teams had (and currently have) players on steroids than using a system akin to the Astros sign stealing. I’m sure all teams were pushing the limits of what’s legal but I don’t see any evidence to suggest a camera and signaling from the dugout scheme that was going on in Houston.
Koamalu is clearly confused. The Yankees used the replay room and signaled from second base (there was no fine for that because it wasn’t against the rules and we do know for a fact multiple teams were doing the same thing). The fine had to do with a bullpen phone which was discovered after the Red Sox accused them of cheating and it was never substantiated during the investigation. Unlike the lack of proof we have that every team is sign stealing, we do actually have proof of the prevalence of steroids in baseball. Anyone naive enough to say it was just the yankees is very obviously uninformed. If you want to call the into question the 5 yankee rings you’re calling into question every single championship since the mid 90’s at least. You think the Red Sox win without manny (who actually retired instead of serving his second steroid suspension) or Ortiz (who failed a test and everyone know was on steroids)? The Yankees are and were definitely guilty but let’s not pretend steroids was unique to NY…
Manny was guilty for sure, but he appeared to start using them much more when his skills were declining. The Big Papi steroid talk just needs to stop. The players agreed to voluntary tests and while Ortiz did show up on that initial list (with a 100 plus other players), it was never divulged what he tested positive for (most likely a supplement) and more importantly, he never tested positive one time after testing officially became part of the game. Ortiz was just a natural, great hitter and Yankees fans hate him for that. He never once broke any rules in MLB about banned substances, never got accused of being part of the BALCO or Biogenesis scandal and yet people to this day continue to call him a cheater. If he was on steroids, they didn’t work too well. Did you ever see him with his shirt off? Not a pretty sight!
deciphering signs is not cheating. Passing them on systematically outside of hand signals is much more than gamesmanship given how the league is married to fanduel or whomever they have financial relationships with.
Dorothy, why? I’m as big a Six fan as any and I’m on record that Papi cheated and should not be voted in to the HOF. His 2016 season was the best offensive year ever for a 40 year old and I believe he used even then. Sometimes seeing is believing and nothing else in my view explains 2016. I love what he did in 13 after the bombing, helping to bring the city together and for that he should be enshrined in the city’s local HOF but that’s it.
By the way, if you don’t work out consistently, you won’t have a chiseled body. PEDs though can still make your bat speed faster, your eyes clearer and the ability to recover quicker.
Beltran got his cheating ways from the Cards…BAHAHAHA Thanks for the laugh Mo!!
“Every team sTeAlS sIgNs”
Proof of this is? Do you have any?
This really isn’t a yankee/Red Sox thing. And I’m not taking anything away from Ortiz being a great hitter. But the guy did steroids. I’m pointing out a fact. Arod did too and numerous other yankee players, also a fact. If you want to delude yourself into thinking otherwise you can but it’s super naive. And the seeing him shirtless thing proves nothing. On that basis we should clear giambi too…
AJ never claimed ignorance regarding the cheating. He knew it was going on which is why he took a bat to the monitor that was being used to relay the signs. He hoped that act would be enough to stop it but he was wrong. His error was then not sitting everyone down to say enough is enough. That is what he should be faulted for. He has apologized and admitted his mistakes in this process. If you can forgive him and get past that, you’ll have a hell of a manger. If you can’t, someone else will hire him.
So if teams are already falling over themselves to hire Hinch, Cora, Luhnow, etc. then that reflects even more poorly on MLB as teams believe the wrong people were punished for their respective teams’ cheating scandal.
Or they simply don’t care as much as players and hardcore fans do.
“Well who cares if they made a little mistake… It was only the year they won the WS. It was only compared to the Black Sox scandal in terms of severity, and that was 100 years ago.” – Owners
^what he said
nah, just Hinch. Luhnow is a slimeball and Cora was involved in multiple scandals and possibly more directly involved in HOU’s then Hinch was.
It shows it wasn’t just the three isolated teams doing it. It’s why the punishment wasn’t too hefty considering the infraction was pretty serious. I’m sure some teams or players who were vocal didn’t have any system whatsoever, but it wouldn’t shock me if the majority of the league was doing something.
That’s the correct answer
The Astros penalty was literally the harshest penalty possible. We know from the commissioners report that 3 teams were penalized for cheating, the Yankees, Red Sox, and Astros, and that 9 other teams also had some system in place that they stopped using after the commissioner’s memo in Sept 2017.
12 of 30 teams that we are absolutely sure used some type of electronic sign stealing.
I mean the harshest penalties possible would have been suspensions to the players and possible lifetime bans, right? But the league wouldn’t want to go down that hole or there would be hundreds of AAA players filling major league rosters across baseball.
It isn’t that the league didn’t want to suspend players, it’s that the players wouldn’t talk to the league without the immunity. The players’ union wouldn’t allow it. What choice did the league have? Folks need to get over the players not getting suspended. It was never a card the league had to play thanks to the union.
Head in the sand approach works for Mo, like always. Do you even care about being dishonest?
You got that right, brother.
Those penalties were not possible.
#1 – Rules and penalties for players have to be agreed to in the CBA with the player’s union prior to a season. Going into 2017 electronic sign stealing was not against the rules. Players could not be penalized at all.
#2 – The stiffest penalty that the commissioner could give a team is what the Astros received.
READ the Commissioners Report. Even a small amount of research would show you I am absolutely correct.
Or continue to be a disgrace to your moniker. Its up to you.
Then why did the Yankees take MLB to court to prevent them from releasing the documentation of their ‘alleged’ cheating scandal? I believe the Yankees said it would cause harm to the team’s image if that report was released. Seems to be there was something much more damaging in there than the use of a phone in the dugout. The Yankees flexed their muscles to insure that report never saw the light of day. Sounds kind of fishy to me.
He;s using caps lock so it must be true. Mo is always good for a laugh.
Electronic sign stealing has always been against the rules.
Not to be picky, but can you cite the rule?
There isn’t one. There was a directive from the commissioner to the clubs.
This whole thing seems fishy doesn’t it? I mean you’re referring to an allegation that came up in an appeal to a court case against the Astros and the Red Sox. If the plaintiff had this info on the yankees why weren’t the Yankees brought up in the initial law suit? And the the Red Sox and Astros were cleared in the case so if they are correct about this letter being so incriminating against the Yankees why was everything against the Sox and stros thrown out? The whole letter thing honestly seems pretty dumb to me. I’m fine with releasing the letter but I would also like to see both of the Red Sox letters and the Astros letters that I don’t see you complaining about not being released.
At the end of the day this letter thing makes less than no sense to me. Why would the mlb do this entire investigation, lie to the public about the findings, and then put the actual findings down in writing in a letter but tell the Yankees not to tell anyone? Why the hell would they ever put it in writing if the intent was to cover it up?
We know the system they used in Houston came from the Yankees when Carlos Beltran joined the Astros in 2017. The Yankees had been using it since 2015 and continued until they were fined in September 2017.
The Red Sox were also fined for using a similar system.
The Commissioner’s report after the investigation into the Astros named 9 other teams that also used a similar system in 2017 but stopped in September after the commissioner’s memo made it illegal.
The teams KNOW that the Astros were far from the only team using electronic sign stealing and they know its not possible today.
No reason not to hire a good manager like Hinch.
Koamalu
Third time with the same lie in the same thread. You are a SERIAL LIAR.
Yankees were fined for having a phone in the bullpen in 2017. No camera. No cameraman. No evidence of sign stealing. That was it.
So what you said was a lie. Do you even care about being dishonest? I don’t think so, because I’ve corrected you before and you keep spewing the same lie with ZERO evidence.
This is the 3rd time you have attempted to say I am wrong, but have presented no evidence. I’m correct, so there is nothing you can say that will make you right.
READ the Commissioners Report.
Or do you WANT to continue to be a disgrace to the person you have taken as your name on here?
To slide right back into their previous, high profile gigs is not a good look. Especially with Lunhow and Cora showing zero remorse and Hinch barely showing more.
However, I can see hiring Lunhow as a scouting director or similar gig. His eye for talent and development are great and he wouldn’t have the ability to orchestrate a cheating scandal.
Hinch has knowledge to give young players. Should he lead them? No.
He wasn’t the one orchestrating it in Houston either
HInch and Luhnow (sp) were scapegoats.
Players Union made a side deal with Commish
Do Not Discipline the players (who started it and carried out the cheating).
Hinch may have owned up to what was going on, but the issue is that he let it go on in the first place. He was to weak to stay stop and put his fist down on the issue. That’s what’s wrong with hiring Hinch or Cora (Cora more than Hinch for that matter). There are plenty of managers the Tigers could test out, but just because Hinch led the Astros to an Asterisk filled WS, he’ll get the call too. Granted I guess this is a prime example of people deserving second chances…
It wasn’t against the rules until mid September 2017.
Actually, using technology to relay signs was already against the rules. Manfred’s memo sent to all teams after the Yankees/Red Sox incident was simply a reminder and a warning to cut it out.
His memo codified the rules.. There were no rules against it prior to that. Read the commissioner’s report. He says so himself. That is why the players could not be punished. The rules have to be in place prior to the season as well as the penalties and they have to be agreed upon by the MLBPA. The only thing that was against the rules at that point was technology like a phone or smart watch in the dugout.
If u cant use binoculars, u cant use electronics.
I think he would be a solid hiring for the tigers. He has experience working with a young team, and has managed in big moments. He didn’t even support the cheating his team was doing, and although he didn’t do anything about it, I really do think he’ll learn from that lesson and be even more in control. He might also be a way for the tigers to sign George Springer, who is someone they should seriously consider
There is no reason to sign him now when the team is several years away from contending… it would be wasted money.
Pretty sure AJ’s got the job. I just saw him at Home Depot buying some trash can lids.
Fun fact from mlb tonight: Tony LaRussa graduated from Law School before any of his White Sox roster was born. Of course, Bill Veck claimed he deserved all the credit for “pushing” Larussa through law school. Of course Veck,(especially after some adult beverages) claimed to be the brains behind the moon landing.
That is funny. Best post of the thread so far.
What the heck is wrong with baseball owners? There are so many good, hard working, non cheating options, some of whom aren’t even white.
Fffbbb- what is wrong with racists who always see color in everything!
Tigers in 2022. This move would help. Like it or hate it, he was a good manager. Not his fault his punishment was weak from the MLB.
Punishment was literally the harshest punishment allowed by the CBA and the agreement with the owners.
Doesn’t mean it wasn’t weak.
If it happened again today the penalty against the team and the FO/coaches would be the same. The only difference would be they can now penalize players with up to a one year ban.
If Hinch gets hired, please let him hire his own coaches.
If Hinch is signed to manage anybody other than the Tigers I will trash him. But if he’s my Tiger’s manager, he’s my guy.
Maybe he’ll add Donnie Kelly to his staff.
I will look forward to the rest of MLB whining about AJ HInch as he leads my Tigers to 100 wins in the next couple years. Baseball cannot be baseball without a relevant Detroit Tigers….one of the most iconic franchises in American, professional sports.
Little hyperbolic I’d say. Only in Top 10 of iconic franchises in MLB perhaps, before we even consider the other sports. Just my opinion.
Good fit for a young team.
I hope he gets booed in every stadium on the road.
Tigers need a guy like Hinch. He should not even be available but since he is, you grab him. Someone will give him a second shot and the Tigers are three years away from being over.500 & a possible playoff team. If he fails two years in, Tigers would be an ideal place to be. Think of the 2023 Tigers as the 2020 Whitesox. He owned it so give him a shot.
Hard to keep Hinch out forever but also hard for me to hand him a leadership role fresh off this scandal.
Exactly. 60 games. Less than a calendar year. Tons of other candidates. Wow.
His punishment was to sit out an entire league year. Not his fault that COVID hit and the league decided on 60 games vs. 162. He’s served his time; let the man get back to work and we can all see just how good of a manager he truly is. While there are some promising players in the Tigers organization, he’s going to have to manage his ass off just to get to .500 in 2021.
Bring back Leyland. His buddy LaRussa was rehired by the White Sox. Same division for the two friends. Leyland still has it, look what he did with team USA in the WBC.
Leyland was garbage. No manager in Detroit’s history wasted more talent than that bum.
Tainted!
Like a spoiled/unsealed can of beans.
That’s a whole wild bunch of blazing saddles.
Hire the best available man for the job. If that’s Hinch, so be it. It would validate the Tigers rebuild to have a premier manager take the job, like when Maddon took the Cubbies job.
It does go to show how much of a commodity a good manager is, think about it, both him and Cora will be forgiven and rehired, i mean does anyone see the red sox hiring ANYONE else? i wont be surprised if he gets a 5 year plus deal, lets be honest nobody else is knocking on the door, same with the tigers, lets stop acting like either of these 2 men murdered someone.. they were caught and they paid for it, move on, you can see the headline in boston now- red sox right the ship and give Cora a second chance’
Or, it just goes to show you how MLB teams are risk adverse.
Mike Illitch would never have hired someone like Hinch.
But he signed Kenny Rogers and kept on Johnny Peralta, so your point is?
If you hire Hinch, it would be a distraction. All the questions from the media would be about the Astros scandal. He would be accused of cheating. He is not the only good Manager you could hire.
He is just the best from what is out there.
Let’s not hire the best candidate because the media is filled with a bunch of losers! Great idea
Can’t wait to be stoked anytime something bad happens to this organization
No way around it. Simply a major embarrassment for MLB.
So, does Detroit furnish the trash cans, or does he have to bring his own?
Hinch to Manage with Cora as his Bench Coach.
Thinking it will be Donnie Kelly.
There are 2 kinds of people involved in baseball:
-The ones who wear uniforms.
-The ones who wear suits.
I’m increasingly convinced that the overwhelming majority of the ones in suit have no knowledge of what it’s like to be a fan, no understanding of common sense, and no interest in what’s actually good for the game, unless it relates to what’s good for their own wallets.
I mean, I really could not care less about the sign stealing scandal. Really, all the frothing at the mouth over it has seemed somewhat excessive to me. But I’m clearly in the minority. The fans clearly do care. They want retribution and failing that they at least want the right to be angry over this for a good long while yet. The fans and the media and a good number of players aren’t over this yet, and the suits should respect that. There’s never been any doubt Hinch would get another job. But this is too soon, probably by several season, particularly for a club that’s not ready to contend yet in a very competitive division.
In the end, Hinch will almost certainly never manage Detroit to the playoffs. He’ll use them to restore his standing in the game and then get himself another dream job. It’s a pity the guys in suits in the Tiger front office, the majority of whom have never either suited up on the field or sat in the cheap seats like real fans, are bright enough to see it.
Cheating pays!
In sports, … yes. That’s why it’s part of the game. Like it or not.
if you know the Astros weren’t the only one doing it, maybe not to the extent Astros did why do you all still crucify hinch and Cora? at what point do you stop complaining? they paid their debt. will you all not be happy until they are forced to vacant the title? seriously always dragging these guys. should they have said something yes but you all swear you’re perfect and they don’t deserve another chance f-ck! you all are sad honestly. wishing a team fails because of a smart hire but because of someone’s past they are forever tarnished a bunch of cry baby Hippocrates
It is so comparable to the PED era when it comes to people hating Bonds, but idolizing Ortiz. Both used, both were great players, but one gets a pass and the other doesn’t.
The players did apologize. ‘Fans’ and people with ‘High Moral Values who have lived a perfect life’ refuse to accept it. Athletes aren’t role models. They know the lifespan of their career is limited and they need to make as much as they can by any means.
As for commentator Mo, can you please tell me why the Yankees are in court to keep a letter sealed that will cause ‘Significant Reputational Injury’? If the team has nothing to hide then why not unseal the letter.
AJ HINCH says he was not involved in the trashcan scandal. It was the players, a few clubhouse guys and the guy who left to become GM in Baltimore (Mike Elias) according to other sources…Beltran and Cora were actively involved.
MLB HAD EXTREME PRESSURE FROM THE UNION
TO NOT DISCIPLINE THE PLAYERS.
MLB found “scapegoats”….
MGR Hinch and GM Luhnow were not the culprits in the scandal.
I believe them!
AJ Hinch is a perfect fit for the Tigers!
Wanna buy a bridge?
As a fan of the team and reading multiple reports he technically was involved. If he knew about it then that makes him involved and an accomplice. Luhnow knew about it too. How do you walk through that dugout and club house and not notice that? The Union did its job and negotiated immunity for the players. We need to stop getting upset about this. The Union would do this for any team/player if they were in the same position. Finally, without the union negotiating immunity Manfred would have ZERO EVIDENCE. All he would have is Mike Fiers who was upset that he got left off the playoff roster and WS roster and got non tendered at the end of the season and had to take a contract in Detroit (Sorry Detroit).
Players didn’t need immunity. They already had it. Baseball is a sport that is governed by a CBA and that means that Federal Labor Laws . Rules and penalties have to be spelled out in advance in that collective bargaining agreement. There was no rule against what the Yankees, Red Sox, or Astros did in 2017 prior to Manfred sending a memo out to the teams in mid September of that year and it was not added to the CBA until the 2018 season. Because of that no players could have any penalty for what happened in 2017.
Why “Sorry Detroit?” He did great here and the Tigers might end up with a useful bullpen piece after they flipped him for two nobodies.
‘Sorry Detroit’ because it wasn’t an ideal destination for him. If he pitched well he would have been offered arbitration by Houston, instead he had to sign with Detroit and play for a bad team.
I have absolutely no problem with affording people a second chance. Especially those that served their punishment.
My concern with hiring Hinch would be the fact it seems his clubhouse was completely out of control.
Tigers talked to a *lot* of candidates. Some good ones, too. If he is the guy they think is best qualified…well, Godspeed.
What a terrible decision for Detroit. I wouldn’t want that stain in my organization. Let alone the fact THE HE SHOULD BE BANNED FROM THE GAME.
If you knew more about Detroit you would know they likely don’t care about your tantrum and your tears might even fuel their happiness.
The one question on Hinch’s record will be the sign-stealing investigation, which MLB Investigation determined that he neither participated in nor supported the sign stealing — he damaged a monitors near the dugout twice to note his disapproval — but he also didn’t stop it.
Hinch took out a few monitors.
He was not actively involved.
But, he should have shut it down.
That is why he was made to take the fall for the players.
The thing with that though is if that’s how it played out, that’s why he shouldn’t be a manager again. When you lose control of a clubhouse to the degree that you can’t get your players to stop cheating that’s an inability to do your job. There are more effective means than breaking a few monitors and then throwing up your hands. Sit someone down participating of value to the team and let it be known they’ll stay seated until this ends. Rip into guys privately as a team. If that doesn’t work, contact someone in baseball yourself. Being a manager is more about being a leader than it is anything else.
The counter-argument might be he would have no support from the FO, which might be true. The culture in the Houston organization is garbage (no pun intended) from the top down. Force them to fire you, though for doing the right thing. Collect those checks. I can’t imagine a future employer looking unfavorably upon someone fired for trying to instill some class and accountability into their players.
Hinch just named his new bench coach: Oscar the Grouch.
That is really funny. I wonder how many will get it.
Rose banned for life but not fixing game outcomes – all those including Hinch eligible to come back after one year even though they fixed the World Series … I call BS
Couple points:
Rose agreed to and signed the lifetime ban to keep his secrets, and then reneged on it when Giamatti passed away unexpectedly. Rose broke the one rule you cannot break, and he agreed to the ban to protect his interests, only to spend 30 years denying it to anyone who’d listen. As if he was somehow the victim, and not the guilty party who signed the agreement to the ban.
The Astros didn’t fix the World Series, the Dodgers damn near won the thing despite the huge disadvantage of having their pitches relayed in real time to the Astros hitters. The Astros cheated to win the World Series. Fixing would have been making the results guaranteed, either by throwing games or somehow convincing the Dodgers to lose on purpose.
Astros could only steal signals at home, not on the road. The Dodgers lost half the games at home.
They aren’t even close to comparable, so stop bringing it up
The Tigers kept Miggy after he drank like a fish, but rode Avisail Garcia out of town on a rail for banging Prince Fielders wife…so apparently there is a line in Detroit.
Miggy has a way to go to be Bobby Layne however…
It’s incredible that every possible candidate has already gotten a job, and now the Tigers are forced to hire the guy who couldn’t keep his players from cheating. It’s good for baseball that all other candidates that didn’t lose their clubhouse (as a best case scenario, if Hinch is believed) have already been hired to other managing positions, because obviously they have if the Tigers are left with Hinch as their best option.
Nope, not one equally qualified person for manager left out there that didn’t either condone cheating via technology or merely have zero control over his players, being able to do nothing but shrug at their cheating. So AJ Hinch it is!
Let’s see how this pans out. I’m not convinced he’s all he’s cracked up to be. Let’s see how great he is without the benefit of “inside knowledge” about the opposition.
If the Tigers targeted AJ Hinch as manager all along, it seems downright disingenuous to interview all those other faux candidates.
There are rules involved and also sometimes a leading candidate can interview themselves out of a position.
At least Hinch never sounded like Luhnow. The evidence showed Hinch smashed the video equipment at one point and didn’t really want anything to do with it. It doesn’t excuse it, and one of the things about being a leader is that doing nothing about it sends a pretty strong message of approval to the perpetrators, whether he actually approved or not. He could have taken control of it with a “If I see any of this BS again you’re going to be riding a bus to Davenport before dinner, do you dirty low life SOBs hear what I’m saying or do I need to shove your head into that trash can and yell it again?” speech. I don’t think I’d hire him right now, but of everyone who got embroiled in the scandal he seems to be the best positioned for redemption.
A good “can” I mean a good hire!?*
Honestly, I forgot the Tigers were even a team…..
That was quick.
LOL Wow……you see a classy franchise like the Chicago White Sox hiring a Hall of Fame manager yesterday and hitting a grand slam. Then on the flip side, in the same division, it looks like the Tigers are going to hire a known and proven Hall of Fame Cheater. No wonder the White Sox are on the cusp of being a perennial contender while the Tigers are destined to be an under .500 team for the next decade. Hinch has never won anything without knowingly cheating. Just look at the results he had in Arizona. This would be a horrible hire,
Classy franchise like the White Sox? The White Sox sent out press releases to all their fans and had Hinch’s name on it instead of LaRussa’s name. So, that classy franchise that you praise had Hinch in consideration right up until the end.
By hiring Hinch the Tigers will be the one team in MLB that absolutely won’t be stealing signs.
Why are some folks upset at the Tigers about this? I get it that for some it’s controversial, but Hinch did his time and fufilled his suspension. He’s free to Manage again.
Don’t like it? Well, blame the MLB for not punishing him further.
Agree. But it is hard to punish him more than one year when the players actually using electronics to steal signs and transmit them were allowed to avoid any punishment. I get that was an MLB/MLBPA agreement, but you can’t punish the heII out of 3 guys (Hinch, Cora, Luhnow) when letting 25 more go free.
Completely agree with you Scott.
It looks like forgiveness is as dead as personal responsibility.