Big Ears and Alot of Integrity

There's no question the Diamondbacks hit quite a bit better in May than in April, and are winning slightly more often under cab-eared organizational advocate, Andrew Hinch. Beyond blind chance and brilliant advocacy, relative schedule strength may help explain why.

Here are the RPI ranks of Bob Melvin's 2009 opponents, followed by the number of games Arizona played against each. (For example, #1 represents the team with baseball's highest RPI, the Los Angeles Dodgers.) 2007's NL Manager of the Year began 12 and 17 versus this group, thus forfeiting his job.

# 1 - 5 games
# 2 - 4
# 5 - 3
#11 - 2
#12 - 6
#13 - 3
#26 -6

Here are the current RPI ranks of AJ Hinch's competition to date, against which the self proclaimed vessel of "alot of integrity" has earnestly gone 10 and 11:

#9 - 3 games
#11 - 3
#23 -5
#25 -4
#29 -3
#30- 3

Again, here's the simple ranks, side by side:

Melvin.........Hinch
1...................?
2..................9
5..................11
11................23
12...............25
13...............29
26...............30

Josh Byrnes, Sonora's square jawed Svengali, could scarcely concoct a cushier commencement for his floppy eared protege, short of arranging his Dbacks to play themselves (Arizona ranks #28 prior to today's extra inning win over the floundering Braves.) How has Andrew Jay Hinch, Esq. objectively fared to date? He's 1 and 5 against above average competition, and by "above average" we dont mean any of baseball's truly best teams, merely the Reds and Padres (who many projected to lose 100 games). The relatively good news is he's 9-6 against MLB's bottom feeders, six wins occuring on the road.

Contrast with the discarded Melvin, who was 3 and 3 against lowly Colorado, and 9-14 versus above average teams, including 12 against baseball's best (LAD, MIL, STL). Let's look at that graphically:

Manager....... v. abv ave teams......v. below ave teams
Melvin ..................9-14 ....................3-3
Hinch ....................1-5......................9-6

Twenty three of Melvin's 29 were against better teams, per RPI; just six of AJ's twenty one. None of this is to imply one manager is better than the other. It's way to early for that. But when paid spokesmen and the usual online apparatchicks eagerly confuse unsustainable hitting and wide open games against weak sisters for meaningful progress, some perspective is probably in order. According to the club CEO, the 12-17 guy with the Mgr of the Yr award got fired for his squad's five months of "gross underperformance", and suddenly we're chattering about progress because the new guy went 10-11 against the league's doormats? It's a long season and I'm not shutting the door on it, but neither am I that easily impressed.

After the Dbacks dispose of some kid tomorrow with a 9.72 ERA and no bullpen support, it's off to Los Angeles and San Diego. They're not big games in the traditional sense, but they're serious games against division rivals on the road, hinting at a truer early measure of organizational progress, if any. I've discerned this because I have, among other marketable and hard to find qualities, big ears and alot of integrity.