With Steinbach as the "catching" coach hopefully that means they are getting rid of Butera.

 

Good luck... Unless they trade him. He is out of options. And might even be super 2 arbitration eligible...

If Butera is arbitration eligible I doubt he would even be able to reach 700k for next season. He would probably settle for 500-550k just to be able to keep a major league job. If we need a 3rd Catcher on the roster that will be the more efficient route to go while having Herman develop one more season in the minors and he will be less expensive for an additional year too.

Interesting that those yipping about the front office needing young minds with fresh new ideas are not complaining about the 50 and 60 year olds hired as coaches.

If Butera is arbitration eligible I doubt he would even be able to reach 700k for next season. He would probably settle for 500-550k just to be able to keep a major league job. If we need a 3rd Catcher on the roster that will be the more efficient route to go while having Herman develop one more season in the minors and he will be less expensive for an additional year too.

 

Herman is not a guy we need to be worrying about in regards to service time......

Interesting that those yipping about the front office needing young minds with fresh new ideas are not complaining about the 50 and 60 year olds hired as coaches.

 

Not exactly a whole lot of 30 year old managers in baseball.....

Interesting that those yipping about the front office needing young minds with fresh new ideas are not complaining about the 50 and 60 year olds hired as coaches.

 

Not exactly a whole lot of 30 year old managers in baseball.....

 

It's an interesting statement though, what do you consider "younger"? MLB has the highest average age of the "big four" leagues but currently has 9 managers under the age of 50 with 2 vacancies. The National league doubles the American by a 6-3 margin among those managers. Matheny is the youngest at 42 and despite the disaster which culminated tonight, has done pretty well. So have Davey Johnson and Jim Leyland on the other hand, the former being the leagues oldest manager and Leyland 2nd (along with Charlie Manuel).

 

Does age really have anything to do with it?

Interesting that those yipping about the front office needing young minds with fresh new ideas are not complaining about the 50 and 60 year olds hired as coaches.

were yipping about fresh minds and young ideas...new blood not the good ole boy yes men that has staled the team and org. for a decade or so

Interesting that those yipping about the front office needing young minds with fresh new ideas are not complaining about the 50 and 60 year olds hired as coaches.

were yipping about fresh minds and young ideas...new blood not the good ole boy yes men that has staled the team and org. for a decade or so

 

Bringing in a coach with specific duties of working with the catchers not a fresh idea? I do believe the core of the group brought together by Ryan won quite a few games. It was not maintained by Smith.

I think Gardy's job evaluation will be based on how well the club performs with the talent TR is able to assemble. This year was a fail, mainly due to the pitching staff injuries and other issues., so Gardy got this year. I do not believe he will survive again if the Twins assemble a passable pitching staff to be competitive. For hitting coach, I would give a D, since the Twins totally lacked the ability to move a runner from 2nd to 3rd after a no out double, too many punch and judy hitters trying to hit fly balls instead of grounders. This will be an area i would hope to see improvement next year. Varva lost the 'Twins way'.

I haven't been yipping about the age although when Cody Christie posted his piece about Molitor the other day, I did mention that I was hoping for a bit more youth when they looked for a new manager (ironically both Gene Glynn and Paul Molitor are older than Gardenhire).

 

It looks like Steinbach, at 50, is the baby of this group. But of more concern to me than age is that it appears that the Twins continue to look primarily within their own system or to their own "legacy" players without bringing in fresh perspectives. Glynn is really the only newcomer to the organization (at least he has experience outside the Twins system). I guess you could argue that Steinbach is a "newcomer" but he doesn't really bring anything new from the majors outside the Twins. I think that's what is most troublesome to me -- they don't seem to want to hire anyone who might challenge their belief system.

I think some may be instinctively being a bit harsh in their evaluation of these changes.Bobby Cuellar has had a couple of tours of duty in the Twins minor league system, but he's also spent a lot of time in other organizations, including duty at the Major League level with the Expos, Rangers and Pirates. People think Brunansky is an "insider" because they remember him playing for the Twins, but from the time he was traded in 1988 until he was hired to coach hitters for the GCL rookie level Twins midway through 2010, he was not part of the organization and from all appearances, he's been a great addition. Steinbach played for (and won a WS ring under) Tony LaRussa with the Athletics long before he even put on a Twins uniform. I think just labeling these three coaches as "more of the same" is being a bit short-sighted and unfair to them.

 

Glynn was brought in specifically to address the problem of AAA players not being fundamentally sound when they got called up, but he's not the only guy with experience outside the Twins organization.

I think it is the right move to keep Glynn at Rochester. I'm not looking at it from the opinion it keeps Gardy from having someone looking over his shoulder, but rather I see it as having someone experienced at AAA who knows how to develop players and has made Rochester into a much better team.