Review Gardenhire's job so far this year

[DaveW]

Gardy (and the staff) get an B+ from me at this point. Dozier's continue emergence, Arcia and Plouffes improvements all are owed to him and the staff, Rick Anderson gets a ton of crap on the interwebs these days, but it should be noted that he may have helped turn Hughes into something resembling a potential Ace. The bullpen management has been pretty solid thus far as well, and I give them credit for figuring out the CF roster disaster thus far.

[h2oface]

D. Continuing to start Correia, Nolasco, and Pelfrey (before the DL stint, of course). If anybody needed called out in the dugout, it was/is them. To continue to use them, regardless of salary, is not trying to win. Playing so many out of position. His disdain for the press in interviews when asked tough but good questions. His constant inability to notice the starter is done and putting him out there for one more inning when the team was lucky to get out of the previous inning with the game still in reach. Continuing to use Burton. Bringing Parmelee in to pinch hit with a chance to win the game, but bringing him in to bat against a lefty. Having been and continuing to leave Joe Mauer in the 2 or 3 hole of the lineup. Not realizing streaks and player hot or cold trends fast enough to use them to the teams advantage. These are just a few. It is the manager's decisions in game. This team needs new blood 5 years ago.

[Linus]

I'm so-so with Gardy. I generally think managers are overrated, period, but you can tell he really cares about winning. He is still grumpy after a loss and excited about a win - that rubs off on the players. I think his real strength isn't managing the game rather managing the clubhouse. His teams play hard and don't seem to have dissension in the ranks. I think he makes up his mind about certain things and certain players and sticks by that belief even in the face of contrary evidence. I hate that he uses 5 relief pitchers to finish 4 innings but his bullpens have been generally good over the years so maybe he knows more than me.

 

All in all, he's pretty much made a silk purse out of a sow's ear so far this year so he deserves credit. I think his best situation, however, is managing a veteran ballclub that is concerned about winning today and not developing players.

[Thegrin]

Another sign of his flexibility is the success Colabello & Kubel had in April helped carry the team to a .500 record. Now they are gone, and not likely to ever return.

 

I think Gardy looks at a guy and says to himself, "Hmmm, this guy looks like he can hit." He asks his old buddies, Vavra and Ullger (both ex-hitting coaches) and they say, "Yeah, I do believe this guy can hit."and he checks with Bruno and Bruno says, "Yeah, this guy does look like he can hit." So they put him in the lineup and keep them there and the guy hits.

 

Other times Gardy looks at a guy and says to himself, "Hmmm, this guy doesn't look like he can hit." He asks his old buddies, Vavra and Ullger (both ex-hitting coaches) and they say, "Yeah, I don't think he can hit."and he checks with Bruno and Bruno says, "Nope, this guy's doesn't have a clue." So they take him out of the lineup and gets rid of him and tries someone else. Isn't that the way its supposed to work? Isn't that their job ?

I like Parmalee. I pray for Parmalee. It looks like Parmalee is going to be sent back down cause it doesn't look like he can hit.

[Thrylos]

I'm confused by the Guerrier dislike...

 

I don't think that people dislike Guerrier. He is a very likeable guy.

 

Seriously: Based on what you have seen this season, who would you think would give the Twins a better possibility of winning? Matty or Yohan Pino? Matty or AJ Achter?

[Sam Morley]

My beef with Guerrier is 2008 when he had nine losses, mostly in the second half, as the setup man. Nine times he took the mound with a lead in the eighth, and nine times he gave up the lead. The Twins lost to the White Sox in the one game play in.

 

Guerrier has been fine this year, though he did lose a late inning lead in his last appearance. I don't have a problem with him being a piece in the bullpen as long as he doesn't become Gardy's automatic go-to late. Nobody who doesn't have shut-down stuff should be granted that role. So while I'm glad Guerrier's stats have been solid so far, I'm concerned Gardy will start going to him with impunity regardless of match-ups, ala A-Rod 2010 ALDS- sorry to bring that up.

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

Guerrier led the league in appearances in 2008. It's possible we see more of Guerrier and Burton in big spots this year. Gardy's got something of a gambler's chase in him, running Escobar out to center the night after his bad mistake, letting Kubel bat sixth right to the end. If Gardy was a football coach, and his team scored a touchdown on the final play, I have no doubt he'd go for 2 for the win instead of kicking the extra point for a tie.

[longstrangetrip]

I think Gardy has been OK this year, but having said that, his inflexibility hurts the team sometimes. Off the top of my head I can think of three examples:

 

1) Reluctance to employ defensive shifts. Yes, there has been more shifting this year, but still seems to be far below the league average.

 

2) Reliance on old truisms that are not necessarily true (Lefties will always hit righties better) rather than looking at actual data. It bothers me when he starts a player who is 0 for 18 against a certain pitcher because it is the correct R/L matchup.

 

3) Insistence on batting our worst run producer in the 3 hole. Mauer's RBI/AB rate is the worst on the roster, and to put him in this critical place in the lineup is folly.

 

Gardy has done some good things this year and the team is playing so much better than the last two years, but I'm ready for the Gardy era to be over.

[gil4]

He made the all-star team as a bench coach. A+

 

So that's the problem - we just have him playing out of position.

[StormJH1]

Overall, I think Gardy's been fine. The team "feels" better this year because it's a more dynamic team with young, inconsistent players in the lineup who are occasionally terrific. I felt almost cornered into play the contrarian when they signed Kendrys Morales, because it felt to me like a team that just wanted to believe they were buyers as opposed to sellers or rebuilders SO badly. This despite the fact that Nolasco has been mostly a flop so far, the rotation as a whole still can't strike anyone out, and they've been buoyed by a few unlikely breakouts/hot starts (Colabello and Suzuki) come to mind. And they're last in a so-so division with a losing record, so let's keep the praise in check.

 

Overall, I'm fine with Gardy's job performance. But I still get the sense that the team has benefits from things he didn't control directly (like Hughes being a bargain and Dozier being on a near 30-HR pace the past 365 days), and he also hasn't suffered as much as he should for some of the questionable decisions, such as the outfield defense situation.

 

I don't think this team hits well enough to sustain Willingham in left and a combination of Arcia and various infielders (Nunez and Santana) also playing tons of outifield without the proper pedigree to do so. And people say that's a personnel thing and not a "Gardy" thing, but I totally disagree with that because Gardy's influence is very strong on his need for a 3rd catcher and preference for hording "utility" infielders at the expense of multiple guys that can defend in CF and LF.

[jorgenswest]

I am not certain where the responsibility for 25 and 40 man roster should be put. Probably not on Gardy. It seems like when he wants a change on the 25, he goes through press.

 

I do think that the Twins feel they have the team to win now. The roster decisions from the front office and line up decisions from the manager demonstrate as much.

 

That makes it much easier to judge their performance than in the past few years of taking lumps with some struggling young players mixed with replacement level guys.

 

85 wins in 2014 or clean house. I think they will get there.

[DJSim22]

The grass is always greener on the other side. How do you know Achter or Pino would be better than Matty in the Bigs? How do you know Pino would be able to adjust to the role in the pen?

 

A big league manager's job is to win games, not to develop youth.

[WLFINN]

I am not certain where the responsibility for 25 and 40 man roster should be put. Probably not on Gardy. It seems like when he wants a change on the 25, he goes through press.

 

I do think that the Twins feel they have the team to win now. The roster decisions from the front office and line up decisions from the manager demonstrate as much.

 

That makes it much easier to judge their performance than in the past few years of taking lumps with some struggling young players mixed with replacement level guys.

 

85 wins in 2014 or clean house. I think they will get there.

 

 

This. I really think a lot of people think Gardy has more control over the 25-man and 40- man than he actually does.

[Kirby_waved_at_me]

On "The Ron Gardenhire Show" yesterday morning Gardy mentioned how he's glad he's not the one that has to make the 40-Man roster decisons. He was asked if the Twins need to be set with 30-35 reliable, major-league ready talent at all times in case of injury or poor performance from the 25 Man. Gardy agreed, and then stated that he wouldn't like to have make those kinds of moves / decisions and he is happy that others take care of that for the Twins.

[DaveW]

I give Gardy an A- so far, once again he is proving why he is a top 5 manager in the game. Hopefully the twins can keep it up and win him85

[nicksaviking]

This. I really think a lot of people think Gardy has more control over the 25-man and 40- man than he actually does.

 

Well when Ryan is in charge, I think Gardy's influence is limited to advice. With Ryan out, I suspect it is much more substantial.

[Fire Dan Gladden]

Gardy is doing ok, but (grumble, grumble, rip, rip)

 

The bottom line is that the Twins are playing better than anybody expected this year. Somehow they continue to stay competitive playing infielders in the outfield and having 2/5 of a starting rotation.

 

I am not always a fan of Gardy's in game choices and loyalty issues, but somehow he regularly wins more games than projected (last few injury plagued years aside). He tends to get more out of players than not. Players want to play for him. What else do you want from a manager?

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

On "The Ron Gardenhire Show" yesterday morning Gardy mentioned how he's glad he's not the one that has to make the 40-Man roster decisons. He was asked if the Twins need to be set with 30-35 reliable, major-league ready talent at all times in case of injury or poor performance from the 25 Man. Gardy agreed, and then stated that he wouldn't like to have make those kinds of moves / decisions and he is happy that others take care of that for the Twins.

 

That's our Ronnie, always stepping up to the plate, sharing the responsibility.

[Kirby_waved_at_me]

The context of that quote is that he's saying that making a 40-Man roster that A) has enough useful pieces that can help the major league team and protects the prospects that need more time in the minors but would otherwise be eligible for Rule V , etc. is not an easy task.

 

The tone of his comments were complimentary to the Front Office folks, and made the case that he's not pulling strings behind the scenes, but I think no matter what he says or how he says it, there will be some debate about how much he has influenced the roster moves for the Twins over the years.

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

I believe you. Link?

[Beezer07]

What's interesting to me in the "How much GM influence does Gardy have?" debate is that it shouldn't matter when evaluating how good of a job Gardy has done as regular old non-G manager.

 

I think he's done pretty well, with a few exceptions. I think he rode Colabello too long and Kubel WAY too long. I think Pinto should have gotten some more ABs, or at least gotten them in bunches rather than as infrequently as he did. I think Gardy was hamstrung when 2/3 of his outfield got injured seemingly simultaneously.

[Kirby_waved_at_me]

I believe you. Link?

 

It hopefully works better for you than for me (page is not displying correctly on my work browser) - The most recent show, 6/15, should be up.

 

http://www.ktwin.com/personalities/the-ron-gardenhire-show/pages/past-shows

[tobi0040]

What's interesting to me in the "How much GM influence does Gardy have?" debate is that it shouldn't matter when evaluating how good of a job Gardy has done as regular old non-G manager.

 

I think he's done pretty well, with a few exceptions. I think he rode Colabello too long and Kubel WAY too long. I think Pinto should have gotten some more ABs, or at least gotten them in bunches rather than as infrequently as he did. I think Gardy was hamstrung when 2/3 of his outfield got injured seemingly simultaneously.

 

Gardy's job is to win games right now. We are on pace for 77 wins. That seems realistic. We have a few more wins than we should but our roster should get better in the second half of the year. I don't know anyone who thought we would win 77 games. So he gets a very good grade.

 

I think the franchise as a whole gets a poor grade for not having a vision and not accepting where our franchise is. We are not contenders. So signing guys like Pelfrey, Kubel, Bartlett, Matt G., etc. are poor decisions. But that is not on Gardy. That is on Terry.

 

They say the coach has to win now and the GM is trying to win 2-3 years down the road. If that is the case, Terry should never have given Gardy these veterans to play. So to see other managerial decisions like playing a potential future SS in CF, hard to also put that on Gardy. It seems like the discussion and balance between now and the future has not been discussed or agreed upon. That is also on Terry.

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

It hopefully works better for you than for me (page is not displying correctly on my work browser) - The most recent show, 6/15, should be up.

 

http://www.ktwin.com/personalities/the-ron-gardenhire-show/pages/past-shows

 

Never thought to search the ktwin site - thanks.

 

You were right. Gardy gave a pretty good interview.

[Kirby_waved_at_me]

I do give him credit for being *mostly candid about how the team has played. He's pretty optimistic about this year's team, and you can kind of tell from this interview in particular that he feels good about their chances to remain competitive for the balance of the season.

[tobi0040]

On "The Ron Gardenhire Show" yesterday morning Gardy mentioned how he's glad he's not the one that has to make the 40-Man roster decisons. He was asked if the Twins need to be set with 30-35 reliable, major-league ready talent at all times in case of injury or poor performance from the 25 Man. Gardy agreed, and then stated that he wouldn't like to have make those kinds of moves / decisions and he is happy that others take care of that for the Twins.

 

Let's go up to 35 guys that can contribute right now so Gardy can have all the tools he needs. Which two from this list should we take off the 40 man and let leave open for other teams to poach:

 

Tonkin, Hicks, Pinto, May, Polanco, Vargas, and Kepler?

[Siehbiscuit]

Let's go up to 35 guys that can contribute right now so Gardy can have all the tools he needs. Which two from this list should we take off the 40 man and let leave open for other teams to poach:

 

Tonkin, Hicks, Pinto, May, Polanco, Vargas, and Kepler?

 

There aren't two that aren' going to be a part of the future. Kepler may be the only one. The problem isn't the prospects on the 40, but the "veterans" on it that have no place on ANYONE's 40 man. Deduno and Correia are blocking younger guys (Darnell, May & Meyer).

[tobi0040]

There aren't two that aren' going to be a part of the future. Kepler may be the only one. The problem isn't the prospects on the 40, but the "veterans" on it that have no place on ANYONE's 40 man. Deduno and Correia are blocking younger guys (Darnell, May & Meyer).

 

I am not ready to write off any of these seven guys. I am very interested to know why Tonkin was written off? Tonkin has a 3.42 ERA in 22 MLB innings with 19 K's. May was one of the 7 guys I listed so I am guessing you missed that as you indicated he is being blocked.

 

I agree with the sentiment of your other comment. The Fryer's, Hermann's, Kubel's of the world.