I like Gardy, but…
Posted on November 18th, 2009 – 3:13 PMBy Howard
Ron Gardenhire coming in second in the AL Manager of the Year voting doesn’t work for me.
That would be a little bit like Bill Smith coming in second for Executive of the Year because the front office finally got its act together and made the needed moves that helped get the Twins in position to win the division, with a day of extra labor. The Twins went for too long with their pretenders and were both lucky and good when it came time to make the changes that let them live up to being the contenders they were supposed to be all along.
Yes, everything came together in the final weeks of the season and the Twins looked pretty sharp in that surge to overtake Detroit. But it was more a case of some players finally playing up to their ability in concert with those who were having their best years ever (Mauer, Cuddyer, Kubel) keeping up their star-caliber pace.
Remember, this was the third-best division in the American League. Put the 2009 Twins in the AL East and they’re midway between Toronto and Baltimore Cleveland. Put ‘em in the AL West and they’re battling Seattle and Texas for runner-up honors behind California despite having better personnel.
Yes, Mike Scioscia deserved to win Manager of the Year. And it should have been unanimous.
The top three spots should have gone to AL West managers. Don Wakamatsu should have finished second for guiding Seattle from its pathetic 101-loss season of 2008 back above .500 while constantly turning wheels to put the right players in the right positions. Ron Washington of Texas should have finished third for an improved team that kept the heat on the Angels for so much of the season.
Gardy, at best, is No. 4. Maybe him, maybe Joe Girardi.
What does Gardy need to do to be a serious MOY contender? Win a game in New York? Limit Nick Punto to 250 at-bats? Play Delmon Young every day? Get rid of Delmon Young?
None of the above, really.
The saddest reality of Twins baseball in 2009 was that it continued its slide away from that horribly cliched mantra: Doing the little things right.
The Twins simply don’t. If I had a quarter for every time I’ve heard that line used about them — more globally than locally, which is fortunate — since last July 4, I’d be close to paying for a nice dinner out. How did the Twins bollocks up the postseason? On the bases in Games 2 and 3 were the most notable examples, and representative of so many other goofs during the regular season. Yes, the Yankees were so good and played so well that they put tremendous, error-inducing pressure on all of their postseason opponents.
But the Twins are still carrying a reputation for being better than that — and the challenge for Gardy is to get them back to deserving such accolades.
That has to happen because there’s anything but a guarantee that the excellent performances of this season will be replicated. Mauer could be the MVP (and a Hall of Famer) with lesser numbers, Justin Morneau will be a question mark because of his health, and how confident can you really be that Kubel is a 100-plus RBI guy on an annual basis and Cuddyer will keep cracking out 30 or more home runs.
To compensate, the front office will need to find the proper replacement parts through trading and the free-agent pool. And, even more important, the Twins will have to get back to being what they used to be — a team that sweated the small stuff and won because of it.
Combine that attention to detail with the dramatic increase in power (111 home runs in 2008 to 172 in ‘09) and a solid (not spectacular) pitching staff, and the Twins can churn out the results that should make Ron Gardenhire a legitimate Manager of the Year candidate. Better even than a second-place finish that wasn’t really deserved.
Gardy is a good manager, so it’s a very achievable goal.
56 Responses to "I like Gardy, but…"
I get a bit tired of hearing the “if the Twins were in the AL East, they’d be…” nonsense. You don’t know that. It’s like seeing a guy get picked off of first, and then the batter hits a double; the commentators always say, “Well, if that guy hadn’t been picked off, he’d have scored.” You don’t know that, because having the runner on first changes how the pitcher pitches, it changes the way the batter bats - NOTHING stays the same, so you can’t know that the batter would have hit a double had the runner still been on first. So you might say the Twins would probably be a middle-of-the-pack team in the East, but you can’t say it as if it’s a certainty.
Mike Scoscia, managing a team with the payroll of the Angels, SHOULD reach the ALCS. If not, he should be fired. The fact that Ron Gardenhire, managing a low salary team with a pitching staff wiped out by injury while missing Morneau and Mauer for parts of the season, wins a division and makes it into the playoffs at all is amazing. I wonder where the 09 Twins would have finished if Mike Scoscia had managed?
The Twins most likely would have a worse record if they played in the East. We all know how well they play against the Yankees and Red Sox (and to a lesser extent, the Blue Jays).
Howard, very well written. The Twins haven’t been fundamentally sound for a couple of years and need to get back to that. This includes throwing to the correct base, running the bases correctly, getting the bunt down, executing the rundown, tagging up on a deep fly to the outfield, etc etc etc. The Twins’ actions haven’t been matching their reputation.
I’m with Howard on at least 90% of his points, and the other 10% aren’t worth picking nits about.
I’m not really concerned about who finishes second in the MOY voting, but I am concerned about the Twins making far too many bonehead plays in the field, on the bases, and at the plate.
I’ve been to Spring Training each of the past few years and what I see is this… Tom Kelly and others working tirelessly with minor leaguers on drill after drill that stress basic fundamentals. I do not see the “big leaguers” with that same focus.
What would the Twins have done with Scioscia as Manager? Hard to say for sure… but I’d be willing to bet there would have been enough of a difference that the Twins would have not needed game 163 to win the Central Division.
Of course, how the Twins would have done in the East is irrelevant to Manager of the Year voting, isn’t it? I think the voting looks pretty much as it should. Scoscia did an excellent job through pitching staff injuries (not to mention an actual death). Gardy did very well with an undersupplied team and his own slew of pitcher injuries. Girardi? Meh. he has two decisions - when to sit Posada, and when to pinch-run Gardner. Otherwise it’s cruise control. The other two west division guys did nice jobs, but at least keep your guys in it into the last week, please.
With the kind of players one can buy for $115 million a year, how can Scoscia-managed team not have a winning record. Until they signed Pavano and Cabera, the Twins were in the $60+ million range.
So who else should be ahead of Gardy , Girardi, Francona Madden, face it Gardy got the most out of his talant and to be honest I thought he was going to win
When you talk about bonehead plays the names that come to mind are Casilla, Gomez and Punto. Alexi made several plays throughout the season that were just mind blowing - what was he thinking, and I think you can look at Gomez’s play as outstanding on defense but you just never knew if he was going to throw to the right base or try to stretch a single or whatever. As far as Punto is concerned, he has made some spectacular defensive plays in the field but the ones that stick in my mind are him getting picked off first or third (Arghhhh!) or something similar to that. The Twins truly need to get back to the basics.
Howard,
I think you’re too close to the trees here. You’re missing the forest. I can’t remember where I read this but, I did read that the Twins are 2nd in the ML to the Angels in manufactured runs. Other writers must see this. The Twins STRESS doing the little things right. They’re not always successful but they always try. The last few years they’ve failed a lot due to youngness and dumbness. But they always try. If you take Gomez, Casilla and Harris out of the equation it looks a lot better. How many times did we witness Gardy correcting / teaching in the dugout after a screwup? Heck, a lot of posters complained about it. Said he was hurting their feelings or something.
And finally. Payroll matters. You’re an editor. Or you were one weren’t you? How would the Strib do with the Mn Daily writing staff? Common sense says winning ML games becomes easier the greater your payroll budget becomes. I give this fact weight in evaluating managers. I’m sure the voters did too.
I couldn’t agree more Howard. And no, the Twins have not done “the little things right” for several years now. That’s a mantra left over from TK’s days that the nat’l media just keeps repeating because they are too busy following the East coast teams to be bothered paying any actual attention to our Twins. Remember, the Twins’ were predicted by most to the frontrunner to win the AL Central this year. Yet, it took a late season surge to get there. All teams suffer injuries, that’s no excuse for Gardy and I am sure he would not want to use it.
i despise the yankees, but watching the way girardi managed them the second half of the year and in the playoffs should have been a wake up call to the other managers in the league. he pulled out all stops to win games, something gardy seldom does, especially early in the season. i don’t know how often i have to deal with the frustration of an obviously struggling starter staying in one inning too long and blowing the game. if gardy managed every game like it was a must win game, the twins would have avoided playing 163 regular season games the past two seasons.
Yeah, the Twins do not “do the little things right” like they used to. The Angels (and that would be the LA Angels, not California, Howard) do. They were a very well-coached team. One other minor quibble Howard, how would the Twins have finished somewhere between Toronto and Cleveland if they played in the AL East? I get what you mean, though, and posters who argue that you don’t know what would happen if the Twins played in the AL East only have to look at the Twins’s 1-13 regular season record vs. Boston and New York to figure that out.
There’s really nothing Gardy does well as a manager. You can’t even argue that he is a “player’s manager,” because anyone that doesn’t play nice is jettisoned when the first opportunity arises, and the last time they were out of a playoff race, his centerfielder was taking swings at his first baseman, and hitting the son he never had.
Boneyard, the Twins actually went 2-4 against Boston this past year.
Howard, thank you for recognizing that the Twins do NOT do the little things right anymore with Gardy at the helm (much the same way Nick Punto does NOT “play the game the right way”; case in point, his arrogant ignorance of his base coach in ALDS Game 3). Honestly, at the beginning of the year, the Twins were probably supposed to win this division based on the talent they had and the other clubs in the division. The Twins did win the division. They merely achieved. They did not overachieve, and never will under Gardenhire. The last month of the season has caused Twins fans to put the blinders on regarding the first 5 months of the season, in which the Twins played frustratingly mediocre. In the end they finished barely over .500 with the runaway league MVP, batting champ, and modern triple crown winner in Mauer; Morneau, Kubel, and Cuddyer who each had terrific years; one of the best closers in the game….With all that talent, how is 3-and-done in the playoffs an accomplishment? It should be viewed as a disappointment. But apparently most Twins fans and the Twins front office are both content with division titles, and the national media sees that as a great achievement for Gardy. Just sad.
Boneyard–Nice catches.
Paul–The earlier versions of Gardy’s title-winning teams were both young and “did the little things right.”
“Remember, the Twins’ were predicted by most to the frontrunner to win the AL Central this year.”
that was pretty much based on the twins vaunted starting pitching taking a step forward.
“How would the Strib do with the Mn Daily writing staff?”
good one, paul. the reverse is thinking girardi did a great job “helping the yankees overcome all their problems” … yeah, deciding whether mariano rivera should pitch one or two innings is a real tough a problem.
Howard, absolutely perfect post!! It’s about time someone associated with this paper had the cajones to say such things.
I worship you, if only for a day.
And I myself have been caught. I do believe you’re right James, so that would make the Twins 2-11 against the Beasts in the East. Not a whole lot better outlook, though, is it?
Howard -
First off, I’m no longer DCTF, and if you want to remove my blog from your sidebar, you should go ahead and do that, since the blog died long ago.
Second, I agree that this year Gardy shouldn’t have won. But surely at some point in the past 8 years he should have, right? As many times as we may quibble with his choices, he’s still got to be one of the best in the AL.
One of the things that has always bothered me about MOY awards is that they’re so frequently based on expectations. “Oh, the Mariners aren’t supposed to be good, so Wakamatsu did a great job getting them above .500…” But that approach presupposes our expectation about the Mariners was correct. Far too often that lets subpar managers slip into consideration for the award. And far too often keeps elite managers from winning it (see, for example, Bobby Cox, who didn’t win Manager of the Year between 1992 and 2004 despite being the best manager in the NL that entire time).
I think Scoiscia deserved the award this year, and I think he’s probably a better manager than Gardy. But I also think it’s time Gardy got the award, and this wouldn’t have been a bad year for it. He led the team back from a near-impossible deficit, dealt w/ some major injuries in expert fashion, and ultimately overcame sub-par performances from a lot of players.
Plus, he even won an argument with an ump this year. If that’s not Manager of the Year material, I don’t know what is.
Gardenhoser is completely overrated as a manager. You can’t be a good manager in baseball and lose every single game out of 10 to one team… 0-10?! It’s a tragedy that so many people are in love with Gardenhour. He should have been fired years ago. The Twins will never be a playoff contender as long as Gardenhour is the manager…
I don’t know about other fans, but I’m getting tired of being swept in the first round of the playoffs every year the team makes them. It’s been played out, and Gardenhour is the culprit…
Fire Him!
Howard,
I agree generally with many of the points you make, but its seeems a little harsh on Gardy.
First, it should not matter that we are in the worst division in the American League. In the end (well, game 163 anyway), this team took care of its competition. Although the Angels had to deal with the shocking death of Adenhart, as well as with some injuries, Gardy had to deal with the Mauer/Mornean injuries, the pitching injuries and–oh yea–the fact that many of the position players that were on the roster were AAA caliber. Granted, Gardy chose to play some of these players over others, but it’s not as if the man had an all-star riding the bench.
If we are going to compare the Twins to the Angels, Yankees and Red Sox, it is only fair to note that Gardy should not be mostly accountable for the failure of management to field a competitive team at all 9 positions.
It is, however, fair to note that the Twins failed to play Twins-stlye baseball until it mattered the last month of the season. Importantly, they failed to play Twins ball against the Yankees (rarely bunting, not moving runners over and manufacturing runs).
Should Gardy have won the manager of the year? Maybe not. But I think he deserved it as much as Scioscia, and more than Francona or Girandi.
I had numerous spelling problems. I have, surprisingly, not been drinking. Yet.
Very confident about Kubel reapeating his performance. Not as much about Cuddyer. Look at his career. One good One not so Good year. That keeps repeating. Which means picking up his option year for 2011 was a great I repeat Great move! Next year. We will see I sure hope so.
Fortunately, Joe, Punto also is on the “every other year” plan, so he’ll have an “up” year in 2010 to make up for Cuddyer’s “down” year. 
OK maybe not quite even things out.
OT- Howard, when are the Twins blogs scheduled to go die along with their brethren for the Wild, Wolves and Vikings?
I see Jerry Z’s blog is scheduled to perish to the new format soon. When will the three Twins’ ones be consigned to the scrap heap with the others?
Russo had a tremendous following, one generating hundreds upon hundreds of comments and participation. Go see if you can find one with 30 or more now.
The Twins’ three blogs are the most popular and used and the community that has developed is the most cohesive and diverse of all.
When is the death sentence for LaVelle’s, Joe’s and your blog? Fist they got the Vikes (look at the comment numbers there vs. the old days.) Then they came for the Wild blog. Now they’re gobbling up the Wolves one.
How soon before these are killed?
Good point, JimCrikket. Punto is due for a great year. Or at least an average one.
It seems that every time Punto starts as a backup (2006 and 2008), he takes over an infield position and plays his pirhana-like best. But when he begins the year as a starter (2007 and 2009), he forgets how to hit.
So, whatever the Twins do, they should put Punto on the bench, at least at the beginning of the year. This means they need to get a Second Baseman (no, Alexi Casilla doesn’t count). I hear that the Marlins want to trade Dan Uggla……
Okay, I know that is way too much to hope for. But wouldn’t that be nice?
Mr. Howard, Thanks for your excellent post today. And to garner the ever-thoughtful Mr. Crickett’s endorsement makes me agree even more. This Twins’ dugout staff lives “on” the organizational reputation and not “up to” to it. But, they won the AL Central so no changes will be forthcoming. Rather than bringing up Bobby Cuellar to help work with both the young pitchers and the Latin contingent of players, they will go with the status quo and probably reduce the number of Latinos on the ML roster. Bye bye GoGo, Alexi, etal.. No need to replace any of the coaching staff. Like Gardy, they’re the best. LOL
Wow, Howard, you’ve really nailed it here. I think Gardy is a very good manager and whenever I see a comment to fire him, I assume the writer doesn’t know very much about the game. But you are absolutely right that the Twins don’t really epitomize the scrappy “do the little things right” image that’s been built around them. The way I see it is the Twins are pretty much saddled with a pitching staff with an ERA in the 4.00 - 5.00 range. To counter that, you can’t rely so much on manufacturing a run or two here and there and you’ve got to rely on boppers who can score 6 runs fairly consistently. That’s not small ball and it means that the Twins should be looking for guys who can move runners without an over-reliance on bunts and stolen bases. I think Gardy would look very good as Manager of the Year without the burden of having to teach guys how to do the little things.
Great post Howard, I agreed with about %95 of it.
“Gardy, at best, is No. 4.”
I agree. Ron Washington is the one who blew my mind. I never thought he would amount to much.
And yeah, more fundamental drills for the MLBers in camp next ST. Can Ullger do anything to help in this area? What exactly is he credited with in helping his manager?
Howard, so, so, so…wrong! Being the second best fielding team in the AL means they did some of the little things right. Do you watch a lot of other MLB teams? Not many teams do the little things right anymore. Granted, they do need some fine tuning in this area.–but, no overhaul, please. Yes, the team base running and fielding gaffes in the playoffs were unfortunate, but, this award is not about the playoffs. Gardy had the team competing when they needed to put it together–no Morneau, no Slowey, no Neshek, Liriano, Punto, Gomez, Young, et al, all having subpar performances, and, a rookie (Duensing) pitching big games down the stretch. Throw in a terrible starting pitching staff that had an atrocious ERA. Compare the resources and rosters of the Angels and Twins; it’s not even close who should win and who is lucky to compete. And, since when were career years seen as a negative for MOY? Maybe, Gardy and his staff had a little to do with that! Hell yes, he deserved to win or come in second. Perhaps, he should have had someone die on his team to win the award. He is a victim of his own success. So much so that he is annually taken for granted.
And, quit whining about playoff losses. Perhaps, only with the Oakland divisional playoff in 2006, were the Twins favored to win. They need to get better players to beat the likes of the Yankees.
And, Bobby Cox is not the best manager in baseball. He continually had the best talent in the NL and won 1 World Series. Tom Kelly made the playoffs twice and won two world series. Now, with mediocre talent, he has shown just how terrible he is as an in-game manager; Maddux. Smoltz, Glavine, etc. made his job real easy for almost two decades.
Iconoclast, I’d love to see Uggla’s bat in the Twins’ order… but his glove scares the hell out of me.
Howard,
One of the best pieces you’ve ever written. Summed it all up perfectly.
I’m with Howard 100% on this.
With Baker hurt/ineffective for the first few months, Slowey gone after the All-Star break, Perkins hurt/bad after the first month, Liriano bad all season, and Blackburn the only Opening Day starter to show any consistency- it’s a miracle the Twins won the division. (Especially with the Tolbert/Casilla/Punto/Buscher/Gomez black holes in the lineup.)
How much of the Twins’ success is a result of Gardenhire’s steady leadership is up for debate.
“So you might say the Twins would probably be a middle-of-the-pack team in the East, but you can’t say it as if it’s a certainty.”
The facts:
1)The Twins would have to play many more games against the teams they can’t seem to beat. (AL-East)
2)The Twins would get to play far fewer games against the teams they CAN beat. (AL-Central)
3) Their opposition in the AL-East (Yankees, Red Sox, Rays, Jays and Birds) will have better over-all records, making it harder to finish above them.
If that’s NOT a certainty, it is still close enough for me to bet the house that the Twins wouldn’t win an AL-East until the Pohlads outspend the Steinbrenners.
Gardenhire is the most over-rated manager in baseball. Step 1 is to put the best 9 players on the field. He can’t even do that right.
sane, I don’t TOTALLY disagree with you because there’s absolutely no doubt that the East is tougher than the Central. Clearly, it would be a more difficult division to win or even be competitive in.
That said, I don’t think you can just say “the Twins couldnt beat the Yankees so they wouldn’t beat them if they played in their division.” How you fare against a team you see 16 times a year vs how you do against them if you only play them 6 times can be quite different.
Add to that, if the Twins were in the East, one of the teams in that division WOULDN’T be, right? Which one is it? That would factor in to what sort of record they would have, as well.
As long as the Yankees can buy every player they want, they’ll always be the favorite in that division and any other team who might also be in that division will have to have all the stars align well to have any shot.
I don’t think the Twins would fair well in the American league East but I don’t think there is another team in baseball except for the Angels that would come in better than 3rd place if they played in the East.
Twins have played poorly against the East. Who knows why. Again, I don’t think they would do well but extrapolating small sample sizes is misleading. Do you really think they would go 50-112 playing against the East?
If you do then I can make the arguement that the Twins would go 108-54 if they were in the National league and likely end up in the World Series every year.
Sane, you are a manager, right? How important do you think the position is? I don’t know what is all involved but I mostly think it is overrated. I suspect there are thousands if not tens of thousands of people that could have managed the Yankees to a world championship and the same amount that could have managed the Twins to a division championship. There must be a lot that goes on behind the scenes but I know we all question Gardy’s decisions during the year and when he comes out of the dugout to argue calls it really looks like cheap theatrics.
I personally think Gardy does ok but would take Sciosa over him. We will never know just how good
Gardy is because we don’t know how well someone else could have done.
If Redmond had replaced Gardy in the last 30 games and the Twins performed the same way he would have been regarded as a genius. Who’s to say why teams get hot?
Yankees refer to the Twins series as the turning point in their season because they came from behind to win every one of those games. I do not discredit that. I believe baseball is a game of momentum and confidence and I believe series and seasons hang on such events. If Nathan doesn’t blow that first 2 run save whose to say the Twins don’t sweep the Yankees instead of the other way around? Yankees were to good not to eventually get hot but that doesn’t mean the Twins couldn’t have won a few more games where the difference might have been just one pitch per game that went differently.
Twins went 0-6 against Toronto but won 3 games against them this year and might sweep thme next year. Same goes for the Yankees. Who knows?
“you are a manager, right? How important do you think the position is?”
I am actually a coach, as HS team managers are the same age as the players.
The position of MLB manager is important, because a bad one can destroy the efforts of an entire organizations.
That being said, there are many competent people in the business who can do a good job, so those currently employed are all replaceable.
It is definitely not as irreplaceable as a good football head coach. (and staff)
Game scheming in football is far more crucial than any strategic decision-making in baseball.
To start I will say that Gardy did not deserve manager of the year. I say that because it just seems to me that he tries to over manage when he should just let his players play. His hunches seldom pan out, he should just name a starting line-up and batting order and let them play 90+% of the time. The constant shuffling does no one any good.
On the other hand, I am not sure how much you can blame Gardy for some of the strange and stupid plays that some of his players make. Sure, you can go over the plays time and time again but some players simply “do not get it.” Just trading Gomez will make Gardy a much smarter manager.
Boy oh boy. Seems like everyone has lubricated the keyboards for this blog.
Uhhh, let me rephrase that. The posts are all very long.
Sorry if we’re overtaxing your attention span limits, heetcpa
Howard, good to see you back in the mix. Couldn’t agree with you more on this one. Maybe Tom Kelly needs to have an increased role in spring training to hammer these points home because the message is not getting through. I just watched the replay of Punto’s base running gaffe in Game 3 and almost “up-chucked” my lunch!
Howard is right on this one.. i get sick of hearing about the little things as well. When in fact Gardy does not manage like that anymore. He never bunts or Hit and Runs like he did 02-04. This team is essentially a station to station team on the bases and waits for the long ball. There is NO WAY he should have been second. It was because of his weakness for light hitting players named Alexi and Nick that the Twins found themselves in that hole in September. He got bailed out by exactly what Howard said.. which were career years from Cuddy, Mauer, and Kubel. I have said it a hundred times.. Gardy can not manage a team with expectations, he thrives when nobody expects his teams to do anything.
Why doesn’t Gardy deserve MotY consideration? This is a guy who managed to keep his team in a playoff hunt despite missing his All-Star catcher for the first month and his All-Star 1B for the last month.
To me that means he made SOMETHING work with what he had.
If that’s NOT a certainty, it is still close enough for me to bet the house that the Twins wouldn’t win an AL-East until the Pohlads outspend the Steinbrenners.
Wouldn’t it also be fair to say that if the Twins were in a more competitive division they’d have to spend more to stay competitive within it?
When a majority of your games are played against teams like Chicago/Detroit/Cleveland/KC, you don’t get much opportunity to see how you fair against potential playoff rivals.
I think Dennis Christlieb’s 5:18 am post wins the day. The Twins did better than they should, especially considering the starting staff.
Gardy’s a good manager. But he and all the Twins players — except Cuddy, Kubel, and Mauer — can get better.
And we need better players at 3B and 2B and one starting pitcher acquisition who is better than all the current starters.
Who knows what Gardy’s role is in acquiring players/trades and/or burying players in minor league purgatory. Maybe a little, maybe a lot, maybe none. So the evaulation ought to be based on how he manages the team that’s been assembled. Painfully obvious mistakes? Oddball decision making? Grudges v. love affairs? Stubbornness that knows no end? There is no end to any of them and anyone who follows the Twins could give a dozen examples in each category. I don’t hate Gardy any more than I hate Punto. I just know their [very serious] limitations.
Gardy keeps getting a pass because everyone knows Bill Smith is an incompetent yokel. Almost every time I hear a valid criticism of Gardenhire the speaker quickly adds “of course if had the players…” He also gets a pass because the Pohlads are perceived as “cheap.” He gets too many passes. His playing Punto, almost defiantly, alone would make him NOT be MOY nor near the top. Gardy is a good guy, liked by his players, who clutches and freezes in big games. He never adjusts to the games but plays it right out of his “ole play book.”
So, in most of your minds, has Gardenhire ever done a good job as manager of the Twins? It seems as though this is the “Bash Gardenhire” show here. Tell you all what, give the Twins that $200 million payroll and then we will compare them to the Yankees and Angels! In the meantime, I for one, was pretty pleased with the incredible job Gardenhire and his staff did getting this team to the playoffs, regardless of how futile their post-season effort was. Personally, I feel thst Gardenhire should have won the MOY award because this Twins team had no business being anywhere near the playoffs! Let me repeat that for all of you hard-of-hearing (reading!) out there: this Twins team and NO BUSINESS BEING ANYWHERE NEAR THE PLAYOFFS! You tell me any other manager in baseball who could get their team to win 16 of their final 20 games with a starting pitching staff ERA near 6.00 and with 3 deadweight hitters in the lineup! Add to that the most productive hitter goes down for the last month of the season! The job Gardenhire did with this team was nothing short of a miracle! Nothing else to say!
