Know how many of the other 29 current managers fit that description?

None.

Teams occasionally hire managers with no experience. Ozzie Guillenwith the White Sox was one example, Joe Girardi with the Marlins was another. But Guillen and Girardi, at least, had been major-league coaches first.

Hinch, 34, was the Diamondbacks' farm director.

For all I know, he might be the next Miller Huggins. Hinch is a brightguy, a former major-league catcher who went to Stanford and had beenconsidered a rising front-office star.

He certainly is quite familiar with many of the young Diamondbacks hehelped develop, from shortstop Stephen Drew to third baseman MarkReynolds, right fielder Justin Upton to center fielder Chris Young.

But that doesn't mean he can manage.

This move smacks of the Billy Beane "we can put any yo-yo in there"approach to hiring a manager. Except the Diamondbacks think highly ofHinch. They are removing him from one critical position and puttinghim in another.

The D-Backs needed a change; I get that. Bob Melvin was the 2007National League Manager of the Year, but the team seemed to have gonestale; the offense stunk, the young players were developing too slowlyand the Dodgers' fast start put the team in an 8-1/2-game hole. Generalmanager Josh Byrnes and ownership had grown increasingly frustrated.New voices might help.

Changing hitting coaches would have been a less dramatic first step.Hiring Class AAA manager Brett Butler, who managed Reynolds, Upton andpitcher Max Scherzer at AA in '07, would have been more conventional.

Byrnes, signed through 2015, has enough job security to take such arisk. If Hinch flops, the D-Backs can always replace him at the end ofthe season. But this move will be questioned within the industry, andrightly so.

Strange hire.