Rocco Baldelli Regaining 'Manager of the Year' Form, to the Dismay of Haters

I like Rocco's style of management. Laid back, praises the players when appropriate and does not publicly throw anyone under the bus. Articulate. Good manners. Minnesota nice. Rocco has much more info upon which to base his decisions than we do. Some of this info cannot be shared out of loyalty to the particular player or the coach involved and some info cannot be shared because it would give the opposing teams information they could use against the Twins in a game. Through experiences in my life, I have come to admire the man in the arena. Theodore Roosevelt wrote: "It is not the critic who counts; it is not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming. " Rocco is the leader on the field and in the clubhouse for the Minnesota Twins, my favorite team from even before the Senators moved to Minnesota.  I admire his persistent efforts to help my all-time favorite sports team achieve goals which we dream about. 

To me the way Rocco is using his bullpen is scary, it works well now, but will it work well when the overused pen starts to flame out later in the year.  Unless management plan is 

1. Alacla will be back

2. the rookies starters in Wichita will be in the pen later in the year. 

Both require faith.  This team could still fall apart quickly later in the year.  Good thing is the hitting is not at where it probably wind up.  But the only effect the manager will have is on bullpen usage.  And that scares me.  

1 hour ago, mikelink45 said:

I see this an an article to stir up your readers and based on the comments it is working. 

Yeah, I'm seeing a lot of unfamiliar names. Hey, people can jump into the comment sections as frequently or infrequently as they want. This topic in particular seems a little like, "I'm jumping on the Hate Train. Who's coming with me?"

I think it is fair to say, and ok to say, Rocco has improved - particularly with managing the bullpen. I also think Rocco, and this front office have learned how to better work together - giving each other what each other needs, working off the same page, properly aligning the whole system, pointing towards the same goals with the same processes. I feel much better about the coaching staff they've surrounded Rocco with this year, and our player development is beginning to show up in the results. We're coming as an organization is my take.

53 minutes ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

The thing is that the managing style and tacts of Craig Counsell and Rocco Baldelli are basically indistinguishable.

Are we sure that is true? Not saying it isn't, but it does seem the Brewers starting pitchers average more innings?

The Brewers also seem to have a different bullpen strategy, maybe that is because they have starters that can go longer, or just better pitchers. Not sure

I have quite a bit of family in Wisconsin and my companies head quarters are located there, and I do agree the Brewer fans seem to really like Counsell. And granted limited sample, most of the people I asked this morning, said they liked him because the games are enjoyable to watch with a combo of new age and old school baseball.

Again small sample but most of my friends and MN co-workers find that if the Twins aren't hitting home runs their brand of baseball is boring to watch, maybe that is the difference?

Yeah okay Nick, you like Rocco, we get it. Its okay if others don't. This screams brainwashed homer calling people "Doomers" for not liking everything about the current team. If I wanted that I would sit on the cult site that is the Twins subreddit.

Just now, Riverbrian said:

Rocco Baldelli Regaining 'Manager of the Year' Form, to the Dismay of Haters

Rocco Baldelli Regaining Year Form the Dismay of Haters?

Rocco Baldelli of the, to the dismay of? 

Rocco Baldelli Regaining of year to dismay haters? 

I'll finish working on this after I finish reading the front page and obits. 

Rocco’s a lumberjack and that’s okay.

Like all managers, Rocco has strengths and weaknesses, but people tend to overreact when things are going badly and when things are going well.  I think his relationship with players is extraordinary, and players hustle for him.  His game management is not top 10 in baseball, but he is a young manager who will get better, and I think he is improving.  But, it is way too early to evaluate him this year.  My biggest concern this year is his bullpen usage.  Right now Smith, Thielbar, Duffey, Pagan, and Duran are all looking like they will be making 60-70 appearances this year.  I know starters may begin going deeper into games, but I think it does raise concerns about the stalwarts holding up for a full season.  Let's have this discussion later in the summer.

33 minutes ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

The Brewers rotation is vastly superior to the Twins. That's why their starters go longer. The Twins' rotation would have many more innings logged if they had Burnes, Woodruff, Houser, and Lauer in it, too.

As for the bullpen, the only noticeable difference is the closer, as Hader is a strict one-inning reliever. But that's not surprising, as Hader has a pretty steep drop-off after one inning and he's literally the best one-inning reliever in baseball so that approach makes a ton of sense. The Twins do not have Josh Hader.

So the question becomes will he/they adapt when the pitchers get better? or not, and I guess that is a faith based question.  I tend to believe what him and the Twins are asking from their pitchers at all levels leaves me to believe they might not ever change what they are asking.

I am not a fan of Rocco and I haven't been since the 2019 season, but I respect how he has managed the Twins so far this year to a record that was required if they wanted to complete for the postseason against the competition they have faced so far and with all the injuries. Will it hold, I sure hope so, I am skeptical but optimistic.

Was he deserving of the manager of the year in 2019 ,, 

Between Rocco,  cash and boone ....

Boone's yankees  had extensive injuries to their core players and found great depth to win 103 games ... deserving 

Cash had the worst stadium  to play in and one of the lowest payrolls  and great coaching abilities  to be creative in using his players to win 96 games   .... deserving  ....

Rocco's first year as manager and the team performs ,,, BUT most players performed and had career years .... undeserving because he had no experience prior to 2019 to evaluate his tendencies toward coaching , then we saw his real coaching abilities in the playoffs in 2019 and 2020 ,,, he coaches the same as in season as he does in playoffs  and you just can't  do that with the better playoff team ....

Dobnak pitching in front of a bunch of Yankee hecklers instead of odorizzi did not make sense and that's not just on Rocco but his FO that he has to follow their plan ...

This is my opinion ,  eye and hearing test , FO and Rocco cannot manage the team , I don't believe the BS  from any of the 3  ,,, they'd make better politicians for all the errors of there ways ....

Baseball was a great game and it's losing its popularity because of the new game of analytics  ,,, 

Why can't we have both in the game , old and new school  baseball 

1 hour ago, Squirrel said:

The thing that always kind of annoys me is what was mentioned in nick’s article … the attitude that Rocco is to blame for the losses, but no credit is given for the wins. While hate is a strong word and not one I’d use here, it would seem to me that the blame/no credit process is about disliking the manager no matter what. If the manager is the only one responsible for the losses, they are responsible for the wins, too. But I don’t really think either is true. I’ve often said that I don’t think the manager affects the outcome all that much. Players who can execute and getting players who can execute … that’s on the players themselves and the FO for assembling the team. The manager today relies on a committee of people to come up with a game plan. This committee does a very good job, from what I can see, at making sure that the players are prepared with that plan. The players then need to execute that plan. 

Yeah your take is pretty much my take.  Players have to execute in order to get wins.  Bundy and other pitchers have said in the past the scouting reports they received are incredibly detailed and the coaches very helpful in their development.  It takes a village to prepare players and win games these days.

That being said there have been head scratching moves made so I get the frustration.  At the end of the day though the manager has to have faith that a player will perform when called upon.  Every player is going to have a bad day at the plate or on the mound.  Not all decision are going to work out.  I think Rocco performs the main function he needs to and that is giving confidence to his players and not blaming players for poor performance but giving them tools to try and get better.  I have never seen so many comments from players about the the good vibes in the club house.  He must be doing something right.

1 hour ago, Dave The Dastardly said:

Hate is a pretty strong word. "Dislike" or "confusion" over some of Rocco's decisions might be more appropriate. Rocco's belief in the mythical "100 pitches" and now the "third time through the batting order" schtick vex us old-timers and some of his batting line-ups defy all baseball logic even for the young-timers. I don't like any of those things. Doesn't mean I hate the man.

As far as Manager of the Year, bring that up after the All-Popular (Star) game and let's see where the Twins are in the standings. I hope they're on top, or at least in contention. If they are I will have less dislike for Rocco's methods.

Agreed.  It always amazes me that people push one another into different camps if you don't agree with them and this article does that to a tee.  If you are not 100% behind Baldelli being manager of the year and a fantastic manager you "are a hater," lol.  Talk about labeling.  The author goes even further making nebulous statements about a large portion of the fan base this, fan base that, because they don't totally buy into the homer hype of Baldelli.  That happens all the time in sports franchises and is not unique to the Twins.  We saw this with Tom Kelly, Ron Gardenhire, etc., and for good reason.  It's not unique and it's called freedom of thoughts and ideas.  Once you shut down alternative ideas and perspectives because you don't agree with them you are boxing yourself in and shutting off constructive feedback that could actually help the team, and that's when things stagnate.  We as fans should know this from the Gardenhire era.  Sure the Twins won several division titles, but they stagnated and never made any headway in the playoffs because they stopped improving and got complacent.  I as a fan want the Twins to win World Series and if that means showing the manager tough love because he CAN improve i will.  And for the record i think Baldelli is a decent manager, but he's still quite young and has room for improvement.  My two cents and no author is going to shut me down by calling me or anyone else "a hater" for having a different perspective.          

33 minutes ago, chpettit19 said:

Rocco is always a fun topic. My main view on him is that those calling for his head wouldn't be happy with his replacement anyways. Not because those fans would just never be happy with a manager, but because he'd be replaced by someone who would make basically the same decisions. There may be a small difference here or there, but the complaints about short starts and ever changing lineups wouldn't go away with a new manager as those are organizational strategies. Unless Pohlad fires the entire organization and decides to bring back TK and TR this is the new normal for the Twins. So I'd suggest fans who don't like it at least try to educate themselves on it and start to accept it or they're just going to keep being angry. It's not changing anytime soon. ed decision. 

 

Who is currently calling for Baldelli's head as manager?  I'm not seeing it.  And it's perfectly legit to "complain" about a strategy that is not conducive to playoff success.  A team might be able to consistently get away with short starts during the regular season, but in the playoffs that doesn't work against stronger teams and effectively wears down the pen.  It is a valid criticism.

I find it quite ironic that an article like this comes out after the Twins win and the players performed making it look like Rocco made all the right moves. Would it have made the column if Gordon wouldn't have executed the bunt? Or Cano imploded? Or Duffey would have blown the 9th. How many times has Rocco asked anyone to bunt before last night? I don't remember one, but now he's a genius? How many times has he wasted a pitcher on any given night by having them throw 2 , 4 or 5 pitches and then goes to someone else the next inning? A Lot! Easy part of the schedule right now followed by a run against the best of the Eastern division. Well see how great Rocco is when his team plays against the best. So far he's hasn't looked any thing like a MOTY against the them, (Dodgers & Astros).

It doesn't matter what sport, or what team, there's always going to people who don't like the coach/manager...and there's always going to be people who do like the coach/manager. That's a given and it comes with the territory. Depending on the players and how a team is constructed, the same coach/manager could be a lights out genius for one team...or a crash and burn idiot with another. How many times have we all seen that? Surround the guy/gal with quality players, and they'll probably do very well. Surround them with stiffs, and they'll probably fail miserably. We seem to be in the middle there somewhere. We're not great, but we're not total crap either. Would it be nice to win some playoff games and go to another WS? Hell yeah it would. Is it going to happen anytime soon? More than likely, no. A lot of things would have to break our way for that to happen. I don't think Rocco is going to single handedly get us there either. I think Rocco is a work in progress. He's still learning how to do this job. He didn't go through the minors managing here and there, gaining experience. He's not "old school" by any means. He's not a whole lot older than a lot of active players. He's definitely "new school". Do I agree with some of the decisions he makes? Nope, not at all. I think he tends to lean too much on those nice little pieces of paper he has in front of him, instead of what I would call gut instinct, or even common sense. Maybe that's good, maybe not. I'm not smart enough to figure all of it out. I am willing to give him some time to see what happens, and what he develops into. He seems to have a pretty good relationship with his players/team, and that's a plus. You don't hear anyone on the team griping and second guessing him...that's our job. I'd see what happens this season and probably next too. Maybe the choice will be a lot clearer by then. Maybe Fal-Vine will decide that Rocco needs to go bye bye? Who knows? I don't know that there's better choices out there to bring in here anyway. 

Nick's Mark Antony defense speech for Caesar. I dig it.

On the plus side, Rocco respects the game and the people involved in it. He's not a showboat. He does his job with diligence and treats people with dignity. the Twins have bounced back from a terrible season nicely. Rocco's ability to connect with and respect the players was cited by Correa as a reason to come here. All of that is clearly in his favor.

However ... his outcomes so far fall short of what anyone could call greatness. He can keep a team together very well over a long season, but when the pressure's on, whether in the playoffs or in a regular series with the big boys of MLB, the results just aren't there. I'm not sure if it's his fault, but he hasn't yet helped his team make it happen. There appears to be something missing when a burst of toughness is needed from this team.

Has he earned some slack? Yes. I think he and the FO have. I've dialed my criticisms way down. BUT, I don't blame the skeptics out there. There's another level for this team to unlock, and if he can't do it, it's reasonable to demand that someone else try.