Minnesota’s Managerial Candidates: External Candidates

And let's not project things and carry on a different discussion. This is a discussion on the search for a new manager. Let's keep these side tangents out of it.

I happen to believe that who the owner is and how he runs his team (and that includes the perception of how he runs his team) is extremely relevant in the discussion of the next manager. First, I guarantee Pohlad will have the final call on whoever it is. Second, interviews run both ways. The Twins are trying to decide who fits best. The candidates are trying to decide if they are a fit with this organization, and that includes the owner and his budget.

Well, it looks like the Reds, Angels and maybe even Rangers have finished up their process of hiring a manager, and it sounds like they took none of the Twins' leading candidates off the board.

Meaning, the Twins should likely be able to land their first choice.

I do wonder how much say the new manager will have in the ENTIRE coaching staff.

None of the names mentioned are familiar to me but I will say one more time relative to the interview process.

Interviewer question, "If hired would you consider yourself to be a players' manager?"

Answer, "Yes"

Interviewer, "Interview over, next candidate please"

Answer, "No, our collective job is to win ball games and I don't care to get involved in their personal lives or be a club house buddy. All I care about is what they do on the field."

Interviewer, "Ok you are on the short list".

None of the names mentioned are familiar to me but I will say one more time relative to the interview process.

 

Interviewer question, "If hired would you consider yourself to be a players' manager?"

Answer, "Yes"

 

Interviewer, "Interview over, next candidate please"

 

Answer, "No, our collective job is to win ball games and I don't care to get involved in their personal lives or be a club house buddy. All I care about is what they do on the field."

 

Interviewer, "Ok you are on the short list".

Your candidate will fail as a manager.  That level of detachment will not work. A player's manager is not buddy.  The manager should have a rapport good enough that can correct mistakes without the player getting defensive and tuning the manager out.  A player's manager would have the respect of the players as a human being.  That is a hard thing to maintain. t is also difficult to do with a bad team. .  The trend towards younger manager rather than retreads who "know how to win" would show that the clubs are looking towards a people person who can understand the game rather than the master tactician  with less people skills.

Per ashburyjohn

"Concur. An answer I'd probably like to hear is, "some players need a pat on the back and others need a kick in the butt,......"

Exactly-relative to their play on the field, not as a shrink analyzing personal issues or whether a manager even likes or dislikes a certain player.

Sounds like the Twins might be getting close on Baldelli and I completely support that hire. He's a former player (and a good one, at that) who has worked in both a front office and in the dugout. He's young, to boot.

If true, it would be the first time the Twins hired someone as manager from outside the organization since Ray Miller in 1985. He would be just the third “outside” managerial hire since the Twins came to Minnesota. Gene Mauch and Bill Rigney were the only others not employed by the Twins when named manager.

Why Baldelli instead of Espada? Seems an inside track on what the Astros do to succeed, might be an advantage.

So, what goes on in an interview? What kind of questions are asked (on either side)?

I heard somewhere they have software that simulates game situations and the outcomes of situations based on how the candidate responds, creating other game situations. 

Just an example of a specific tidbit I heard once somewhere. No source.

Ten-tions.

Which reminds me, why did the campers jump up and down?

According to Wikipedia Meullens also runs a baseball academy in Curacao. Not sure if that's still true as the citation is old and the link is now broken, but that's a plus in my book. That sounds like someone who proactively looks to work with young baseball players.

 

Also he speaks five languages, including Japanese (he played over there for awhile).

That would be impressive.  Nihon-go (Japanese language) is EXTREMELY DIFFICULT to learn for a non native speaker and even harder to learn how to write.  Source (married to a teacher who taught in Fukoka, Nippon for almost 7 years)

 

 

Which reminds me, why did the campers jump up and down?

That’s right. They wanted to get a-tent-ion.