Fanpulse: Fans weigh in on Commissioner Rob Manfred. And we ask: Why is Hinch the #1 most loved manager?

Welcome to SB Nation FanPulse, a survey of fans across MLB. Each week, we send 30 polls to plugged in fans from each team. Astros fans, sign up HERE to join FanPulse.

Here is the graph of the approval rating for A. J. Hinch.

Notice, not at any time did even one respondent express disapproval of Manager A.J. Hinch.

It’s not like that everywhere. Here’s the view of management from the New York Metropolitian area.

Here’s how the fans feel about their leadership in the Washington D.C. area.

And even in LaLa land, where the team is doing just as well as the Astros, there’s still some disgruntlement at the manager.

A. J. Hinch is the most beloved manager in baseball.

Why is that?

Winning, of course, but that doesn’t bring us all the way to UNANIMOUS APPROVAL, which no other manager has.

I don’t think it his animal magnetism or sparkling personal charisma. He’s no Billy Martin, or Yogi Berra, Tommy LaSorda, or Earl Weaver. He usually sits in the dugout looking like a Sphinx. He’s generally a very quiet, detached, unemotional guy. Even a little boring.

Here’s what I think it is. Chris Perry and I were talking about Little League coaches. He noticed a coach yelling g—damn it to six year olds! It’s no way to treat kids, and it’s no way to treat anyone. But baseball players in particular will never perform well with that kind of mental stress.

A.J. Hinch knows baseball inside out. But he is a master of the psychology of baseball, a much underrated aspect of the game in my opinion. He knows this is a game of failure, of peaks and valleys, and what makes him a GREAT COACH is the very calmness he exudes, a calm confidence in his players that that inspire confidence WITHIN the players.

Remove George Springer from lead off because he had a bad series aganist the Yankees?

HELL NO. Not Hinch’s exact words, but that was the message. “I believe in George Springer” was another way to put it, and George Springer returned that confidence with perhaps the greatest performance in World Series history.

I can see why the Dodgers don’t universally love their manager. He was out-coached in the 2017 World Series. In a series where baseballs were flying out of the park with suspicious regularity, A. J. Hinch threw away the book on how to manage a pitching staff.... and won. The book failed Dave Roberts.

Just as it is obvious that the Astros would not have won the World Series without Justin Verlander, I believe that the Astros would not have won the World Series without the coaching of A.J.Hinch.

The fans are right. A. J. Hinch is the best manager in baseball. That’s why he is the #1 most loved coach in baseball.

Here’s the polling data on the Commissioner Rob Manfred.