Wednesday update: Gardenhire, DeRosa, Moses
Posted on November 18th, 2009 – 8:42 AMBy Joe Christensen
(*) The AL Manager of the Year announcement comes today at 1 p.m. (corrected), and though Twins manager Ron Gardenhire will be in the mix again, the leading candidate is Angels manager Mike Scioscia. Gardenhire has finished second for this award so many times, I’m losing track. The NL Manager award will be announced at 2:30.
(*) The L.A. Times reports that the Twins have spoken to Mark DeRosa’s agent, Keith Grunewald, who says a dozen teams have inquired, including the Dodgers, Cardinals, Mariners, Nationals, Giants, Phillies, Orioles, Rangers, Yankees, Mets and Braves. The Twins had interest in trading for DeRosa last offseason when he was with the Cubs. Grunewald told the Times that DeRosa is seeking a multi-year deal. (Hat tip TwinsGeek.)
(*) According to Baseball America, the Twins have a total of eight minor-league free agents:
RHP: Frank Mata (AA), Oswaldo Sosa (AA)
LHP: Reid Santos (AAA)
1B: Brock Peterson (AAA)
2B: Alejandro Machado (AA)
3B: Brian Buscher (AAA)
OF: Matt Moses (AA), David Winfree (AAA)
We’d mentioned Buscher and Winfree, but it’s worth noting that Moses was the Twins’ first-round pick in 2003.
(*) Teams have until Friday to set their 40-man rosters, which protects players for the Rule 5 Draft on Dec. 10. The Twins have some announcements to make, since they are currently at 35, excluding free agents Orlando Cabrera, Joe Crede, Ron Mahay, Carl Pavano, Mike Redmond. That doesn’t mean they will add five new players, as many teams leave themselves short heading into the Rule 5 Draft.
Update: The Manager of the Year announcements came at 1 p.m. (not 2, as I had written earlier), and Gardenhire did wind up finishing second to Scioscia in the AL, with Jim Tracy winning in the NL.
61 Responses to "Wednesday update: Gardenhire, DeRosa, Moses"
So, what you’re saying is Gardy = Susan Lucci?
I disagree with Scioscia being the leading canidate.
It shouldn’t take much to manage a team with a salary budget like the Angels into the playoffs. The Twins on the other hand, a team in the lower tier of salaries that also had a huge number of injuries, including key members of the pitching staff as well as Morneau and Mauer, would not have made the playoffs without Gardy. Given the choice of Scoscia v. Gardenhire, I pick Gardy.
sorry, meant to type Scoscia, not scosia.
Joe, some blogs are buzzing over some pictures of Target Field’s right field area to the side of the “overlook” and how obstructed the view will be. Do you have any insight into this from the Twins? Looks like it might be a big issue and a lot of fans are getting upset over the overlook being kind of gimmicky and screwing up the sightlines for other areas.
Mike Sciosia’s team controls the tempo of their games with intelligent, aggressive baserunning and situational hitting, plus intelligent, sound fundamental defense.
I am not sure the Twins(last year under Gardy) can say the same thing.
Sciosia’s team was better schooled, while Gardy did a great job at getting his team back on track at the end of the season after the Morneau injury.
The vote depends on what the voter values more.
My guess is that Sciosia will win it.
DeRosa would be a nice addition, but I just don’t see the Twins competing with so many teams for his services. They wouldn’t go three years with Casey Blake a year ago so it’s pretty tough for me to imagine them doing so with DeRosa this year. One of the other teams most likely will.
Ron Washington should be manager of the year.
“Ron Washington should be manager of the year.”
An excellent (and maybe the best) choice.
Jim Leyland should be manager of the year…er, well maybe for the state of MN anyway.
Leyland would be manager of the year…..as chosen by the tobacco industry.
I don’t always understand all the various complexities of minor leagues, rosters and players’ status lingo. I’ve learned some on these blogs and so forth, but probably as much wrong info as correct info.
Nonetheless, I usually just wait for various announcements to be made, then judge my understanding or reaction to said announcement with “hmmm”, “uhuh”, “ahhh”, “ohhh” or “yawnnnn”.
Once in a while a roster announcement will generate “Nice!”, “Sweet!”, “Crap!”, or “Sh*t!”
That’s my own inner valuation scale right there.
sane: The problem with MotY is that it seems like the goalposts get shifted around almost annually.
Sometimes the award goes to the manager who best rallied his team late in the season to get to the playoffs.
Othertimes it goes to the manager who was in control of the division from beginning to end.
In the years Gardy finishes second, it seems like sometimes he does the one…and sometimes he does the other. But then that year it was the one he didn’t do they wanted.
Oh, and with DeRosa…would that be to play 3B as he did with the Indians or 2B as he originally played?
I like your valuation scale, heetcpa, but what is the marginal change between “crap” and “sh*t”? It must be very technical.
My guess would be 3B, T. Punto would be better at 2B than 3B; not sure about DeRosa. With so many teams reportedly interested, particularly a lot of big market clubs, I think it unlikely that the Twins will land DeRosa.
“what is the marginal change between “crap” and “sh*t””? It must be very technical.
I think the quality is determined by the freshness….and that is measured by either exposure time or adhesiveness.
Wow!
I didn’t realize that I was a sh*t engineer.
Yes, boneyard, that’s a good question actually. I think that “crap” means only that “I” don’t like the move, but not super sure if its truely good or okay. But sh*t means that I’m pretty confident that it will be a net loss move for the Twins. For example:
Drop Jason Pridie = “hmmm”
Drop Slama or Delaney = “crap”
Drop Hicks or Revere = “sh*t”
Don’t sign Joe Mauer = “new word that hasn’t been invented yet”
“Exposure time or adhesiveness.” Now that was funny.
Heetcpa, you are a far nicer and patient person than I. I think I would start dropping F-bombs at the Slama/Delaney level and get to the new words that haven’t been invented yet at the Hicks/Revere level. At the don’t re-sign Mauer level, I would simply revert to Vizzini’s favorite word: “Inconceivable!”
Yeah, in reality me too with the F-bomb factor getting involved. I just tried to clean it up for purposes of this blog. But then “adhesiveness” was injected into the discussion, ha! Fortunately Sane didn’t go as far as strength and density coefficients…
In fact, I think on Sunday when Adrian Peterson was caught from behind and then fumbled, some F’s were bouncing around the walls of my home, ha.
“sane says:
November 18th, 2009 at 10:41 am”
Now there’s a guy who knows his sh*t.
Question is, does he know his sh** from his shineola? Also, sign Beltre Twins!
“Now there’s a guy who knows his sh*t.”
I may know it………
or I may be just shoveling it…
because I don’t know it…….
and I am actually just full of it.
Great stuff! But seriously I think the ONLY addition that the Twins NEED to make is getting a legit #1 SP and they can run rough shot through the central next season. I also have concerns about Nathan but he’s probably going to have to fail miserably before the Twins would even consider anyone else. I just think it’s a bad sign when your closer is scared to throw his FASTBALL.
I am with Benny and sane. Ron Washington should be Manager of the Year. He has done a great job the last three years, building a winner down in Texas.
shazel, I think Nathan might have been slighty injured or just plain wore out by the end of the year. But then again, if the Twins had been playing better early on he may have had a few more save opportunities.
“shazel says:
November 18th, 2009 at 11:35 am
Great stuff! But seriously I think the ONLY addition that the Twins NEED to make is getting a legit #1 SP and they can run rough shot through the central next season. I also have concerns about Nathan but he’s probably going to have to fail miserably before the Twins would even consider anyone else. I just think it’s a bad sign when your closer is scared to throw his FASTBALL”
I think any and all signs go up in smoke when said pitcher has surgery a week after the season is done….
Lets reserve judgement until we see what the repaired and rehabed Nathan can do
Washington has done the most with the least, but I think Scoscia is worthy as well. Scoscia’s teams play hard and you don’t see too many mistakes out of them (until they play the Yankees). I don’t have a quibble with either one.
I actually agree with shazel’s first sentence in his 11:35 post in the sense that a starter should be the priority over 3B and 2B. Bedard, Sheets, and Harden are interesting possibilities. Justin Duchscherer is also reportedly ready to pitch, and preferrably as a starter. You also don’t have the physical issues with him that you do with the others, although I wonder if Gardy is the manager for a guy with clinical depression. Also, he’s only made 27 career starts. Still, his numbers from ‘08 were sick. He should come cheap (and short term) if the A’s don’t re-sign him. Thoughts?
shazel,
I’m guessin Nathan’s cleanup surgery was to eliminate pain while executing certain pitchin motions. It may have hurt to throw the FB to the point where he couldn’t control his body like he needed to. In any event they did it for a pitching reason. Hopefully it works.
“…although I wonder if Gardy is the manager for a guy with clinical depression.”
Crying? Are you crying? There’s no crying in baseball.
I’ve been out of the loop since the twins lost their last game. This is honestly the first i’ve heard about nathans surgury. What did they cleanup his elbow or shoulder?
On a related note, I think Nolan Ryan should get executive of the year, for what he did to overhaul the entire philosophy of the Rangers pitching staff.
Finally someone had the billiards to take the “count” out of “pitch count”.
Bone chips. Elbow
Whether it’s Nathan or anybody else, if you go into a season with knowledge that your closer(s) will blow five saves, is that acceptable? Because that’s about the worst Nathan does so far, and to me that’s upper tier results.
Agree on your last two posts, heetcpa.
heetcpa,
The only one I’d rather have than Joe is Soria.
“Finally someone had the billiards to..”
I associate “billiards” with the collision of balls with each other and with the table rails.
Therefore, the use of “billiards” as a metaphor for the human anatomy equivalent causes me virtual pain.
But, back to baseball……..
Ron Washington has done a nice job. But I think a team should actually win something before its manager is considered to have built a “winner”. Just sayin.
I might agree that getting a true #1 SP “should” be the priority, but the chances are pretty much nil of that happening. There are only a couple of guys in that category available bye FA or trade and those guys are going to be wearing big market jerseys in 2010, as always.
True, but it does get the point across without being reviewed by the blogosphere dictionary police.
“But I think a team should actually win something before its manager is considered to have built a “winner”.”
~That leaves one manager per season.
“~That leaves one manager per season.”
Only if you narrow your definition of “winning something” to the winner of the World Series.
There are these things called Leagues and Divisions that can also be “won”.
But I think a team should actually win something before its manager is considered to have built a “winner”.
Rangers 87-75
Twins 87-76
“causes me virtual pain”
~I can’t imagine how bad you must feel after reading posts by the likes of BuntingTwin.
Oops, speaking of billiards, was that a low blow?
i always thought that sane had a doctorate in sh*t!
I guess the only thing keeping the Rangers from being a “winner” is not being in a crappy division like the one the Twins are in.
I don’t think winning something is a prerequisite, but your team should at least be in the hunt. The Rangers were definitely in the hunt late in the season. Washington did a fantastic job with what he had. I think that qualifies him. I’m nost saying he should win, only that I have no problem with either him or Soscia winning.
As for the Twin having no chance to sign a #1, I can’t agree with that, either. The Twins aren’t in the Lackey or Halladay sweepstakes, but they still have a chance to land someone good. Gambles like Bedard, Sheets, and Harden could very well land in small markets like Minnesota. Any one of those guys, particularly Sheets, could materilize as a #1 for a relatively low cost and relatively short term contract without costing a draft pick. That’s the kind of FA the Twins tend to go after. It usually doesn’t work, but these guys have more upside than the typical Twins FA signee. Bottom line is, I wouldn’t say the chances are “nil.”
WJ:
While their records were nearly identical, the Twins and Rangers had very different finishes to their seasons. The Rangers were not even contenders for most of the final couple months of the season.
And if you’re just going to use regular season records to judge “winning”, the Angels were 97-65… and 10 full games ahead of the Rangers. In a year that started out with one of their pitchers being killed in a car accident and went on to involve a number of injuries to key players.
Scioscia is MOY, imo.
“I guess the only thing keeping the Rangers from being a “winner” is not being in a crappy division like the one the Twins are in.”
~ WJ, according to today’s rules, you must define “crappy” if you want to use that word.
But I agree with the post:)
Scoscia is very deserving of MOY. As is Washington. Not Gardenhire, imo.
off topic I know but I am curious
it has been 3 weeks since La Velle has posted was he part of the employees that Star Tribune let go??
For the record, I consider a “winner” to be any team with a winning record. In 2009, 8 teams in each league finished with more wins than losses.
I think Scioscia will probably be the runaway winner, and deserves it. If you want to set him aside and say “who else?”, there would have been a few contenders. Girardi, Gardy, Wakamatsu, and Washington could all have cases made for them. Frankly, if the Tigers had won one more game in Sept, Leyland probably gets a lot of support.
I think La Velle is in a catatonic state due to his Bears.
Except for the collapse at the end, Leyland had his team playing very good baseball, also fighting through injuries to key players.
I think LaVelle went to Vegas and has taken the “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” theme to a whole new level… he stayed in Vegas.
Here in Chicago, the Sox fans are all in an uproar over Beckham not being ROY.
Speaking of the Tigers… it sure looks like they’re on the verge of an economics-induced full blown fire sale, and I’m sorry to see that happening. With half the Division (or more) in rebuilding mode, it will make for a considerably less compelling race next year.
WSox fans are never happy unless they’re in an uproar over some kind of perceived slight. I’ve never seen a fan base so wrapped up in perceptions of being disrespected.
Hey Joe check your times, Awards were just announced.
AL-MOY Scoscia
NL-MOY Tracy
No surprise
November 18th, 2009 at 12:21 pm
Whether it’s Nathan or anybody else, if you go into a season with knowledge that your closer(s) will blow five saves, is that acceptable?
Agreed, as long as 2 of the blown saves are not against the Yankees with 2 run leads.
Yep Sox fans here at work were might upset that Bacon didn’t get ROY.
Sorry but I didn’t think he deserved it.
