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The Best Twins General Manager and owner - really a difficult task - the manager, the owner, the GM, the players - who do you blame? • Calvin Griffith. (1961 – 1984) It is not a long list since Calvin served as both owner and general manager. We won a World Series under Calvin, he moved the team to Minnesota, he insulted and lost Rod Carew. • Howard Fox. (1985 – 1986) He was a member of the Twins organization for sixty years. When he was traveling secretary, he had a fight with Billy Martin on the team plane. After Calvin sold the team he stayed on as team president for two years under Pohlad. • Andy MacPhail (Won WS twice in 1987 and 1991) Andy was the boy wonder. He was hired as VP for player development in 1984 and GM in 1985. He hired Tom Kelly, and traded for Jeff Reardon to close out games and pitchers Joe Niekro and Dan Schatzeder as well as outfielder Dan Gladden. Then after a last place finish in signed Jack Morris and we went on to another pennant while McPhail became Sporting News Executive of the Year. He then left for Chicago Cubs, which did not work out as well. Now he is president of the free spending Phillies. • Terry Ryan (1995-2007, again from 2012 - 2016) From Janesville, WI, Ryan had an unsuccessful career as a pitcher, but became a prolific scout for the Mets where he developed his reputation for player evaluation. He was smart enough to trade Dave Hollins to Seattle for David Ortiz, but did not keep him long enough to see his true development. Stuck with tight budgets he often dumped vets, but was savvy enough to trade for Shannon Stewart when the team needed him. In 2002 the Twins were the victors over Oakland in the playoffs, and he was named executive of the year while the team was the Organization of the year. He left with a good reputation, but returned in 2012 and lost some of his luster as the changing times caught up with him. • Bill Smith (2008-2011) was Ryan’s replacement. He was a loyal member of the front office and assistant to Ryan. However his star never rose and names like Matt Capps will forever stain his reputation. He was fired, the first GM to be fired by the team and Ryan came back. • Terry Ryan became the second GM fired by the Twins, but then there are not very many and perhaps the first one would have been fired had he not owned the team. • Rob Antony (interim 2016) A filler, not much to say. • Thad Levine (2016-present) Too early to tell. So how do I judge the best. We won world series under Griffith and MacPhail. Ryan and MacPhail both won Executive of the year. Average wins per season under GM Griffith 80 wins Fox 79 MacPhail 71 Ryan – first round 85 Bill Smith 83 Terry Ryan – second round 71 At the end of this look and after reading a lot of material I conclude that I cannot really judge. MacPhail looked like the Wonderman, but his teams could not sustain. Was he the best? He could not do it with the Cubs and he went higher in the front office with the Phillies who have not done well, but have now tried to buy the championship. Ryan has the best average wins under his first stint. Of course, this also reflects on the manager – these are the men who sign the players. They determine what the manager has to work with. It is really hard to figure out a really good metric for them. Was Calvin better than MacPhail – he has more wins per season – but long time Twins fans would faint at that decision. I am not going to do a best owner – Calvin is here and was the owner until Carl Pohlad bought the team and then son Jim took over. Not a lot to look at and not a lot of difference. One WS under Calvin, 2 under the Pohlads. One contraction threat under the Pohlads, lots of racist statements from Calvin. The average wins per season does not vary much between the two families. So I have no choice in this and only hope the next one is the best.

In 1989, the Minnesota Twins used their 52nd round draft pick to select a catcher named Denny Hocking from El Camino College, a junior college in Torrance, California. Drafted in a round that no longer exists, Hocking not only became the lowest-drafted player to play for the Twins, but he spent 13 seasons in the big leagues including 11 seasons with the Twins. Since his retirement following the 2005 season, Hocking has continued to have an interesting life in and around the game of baseball. Recently, I had the opportunity to catch up with Hocking who is now the manager of the Clinton LumberKings, the Midwest League affiliate of the Seattle Mariners.“It was opportunity that I made the most of. That’s all!” That statement from former Twins utility man Denny Hocking is certainly true and maybe even an understatement as he continues to work in the game nearly 30 years later. Hocking grew up in Torrance, California, were he was a great athlete. He had basketball scholarships to a couple of the California colleges, but he chose to stay home and continue playing baseball. He joked, “I thought I could play baseball a couple more years.” Hocking chose to play at El Camino College and pursue a degree in journalism. He played several positions on the field, but primarily he was a catcher. “I played everywhere but pitcher, shortstop and first base. I caught every other game. Catch, play right. Catch, play third base. Catch, play center. And I think every time the Twins came to see me I was catching. I think I was drafted purely on arm strength and athleticism..” Hocking was a very good athlete, and he had a very strong arm. It was enough to catch the attention of a Twins scout. “Draft Day was probably a little different for me than it was for Royce Lewis.” Hocking surmised. “I had no idea about the draft.” The MLB Draft was a little different in 1989. It wasn’t a big production on TV, and the internet wasn’t even covering it. I mean, the internet was still in its infancy. Hocking learned that he had been drafted when he “got something in the mail.” Hocking recalled, “You’ve been drafted in the 52nd round by the Minnesota Twins. But what does that mean?” Hocking acknowledges that he had no idea. “Minor Leagues? I had no idea. That week, we got in the car and went to Inland Empire which was San Bernadino at the time and watching a minor league baseball game. I drove up to Visalia to watch the Twins farm team play up there. It was the year that Chuck Knoblauch was drafted and he was there.” Soon after, the Twins scout came to the Hocking home and said, “Congratulations on getting drafted, but we don't’ want to sign you.” What? Not exactly a ringing endorsement for a drafted player, but when you hear the rest of the story, it does make a lot more sense. “He wanted me to go back (to school) and play shortstop, and I wound up going back and strictly played shortstop my sophomore year. Two of my friends who hit left-handed taught me how to hit at the junior college level. I was hitting left-handed for less than a year when I put an Elizabethton Twins uniform on and went and played professional baseball. It brings back a lot of memories” Back then, there was a system called Draft-and-Follow. Whereas currently teams need to sign their drafted players by July 15th, teams used to have until the following draft to sign their drafted players. In this example, Hocking could go back to El Camino, play the next spring and then sign with the Twins before the 1990 draft. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Right-handed pitcher Mike Trombley was a teammate of Denny Hocking for many years. Of the utility man, Trombly said, “Hock was one of the most talented guys on the Twins team. Switch-hitter with a rocket arm and a good glove. He could play so many positions. Why was he a 52nd-round pick? Simply put, he was overlooked.Once you saw him play, we all knew that. Hock was also a great guy in the locker room. Funny. Trombley also shared a store about Hocking. “We were playing a spring training game in Ft. Myers and (Jose) Canseco hit a rocket to Hock at second base. It skipped off the hard clay and hit Hock in the mouth. Trainer and coach ran out there to help him. There was a lot of blood. They couldn’t understand what he was saying because of the injury, but Hock was trying to tell them he had a dip in his mouth. Funny now, not so funny when it happened.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When you consider the round in which Denny Hocking was drafted, he really didn’t spend a lot of time in the minor leagues.He signed in May of 1990. In 1992, he had hit .331 with over 180 hits in Visalia. Not wanting him to be selected in the Expansion Draft, the Twins added Hocking to their roster. He spent 2013 in Double-A. He was ready to go home for the offseason after a solid season at AA in 1993 when his manager, Phil Roof, gave him some great news. “We were in the Double-A playoffs. I got taken out of the game, late in the game. I got to the clubhouse and called my girlfriend, who’s now my wife, and said why don’t you pick me up after the game tomorrow. Then after the game, the manager told me I was going to the big leagues in Texas, and I was like ‘What?’ I had to call her back and say, you need to get a flight to Texas.” Over the next couple of seasons, he went back and forth between Triple-A and the big leagues. However, starting in 1997, Hocking had a stretch of six straight seasons in which, as a utility man, he played in over 100 games. In fact, in 1999 and 2000, he played in over 130 games a year with no more than 65 at any one position. In other words, it isn’t like recent Eduardo Escobar seasons where he comes into the season as a utility player and winds up being an everyday player because of an injury to Miguel Sano or the suspension of Jorge Polanco. But Hocking earned the respect and the trust of legendary Twins manager Tom Kelly. “TK was always known to be super tough on the young kids. That’s one way to look at it. But the way that he really was, he wanted you there early. So, if we stretched at 4:00, be sure to be there at 2:00. I’d show up at 2:00, and I’d be one of the last guys to get there. When I played and Kirby was there, I have no idea what time he got there, but he was probably there at noon. He wanted you to be early. When you got to the field, don’t sit in your street clothes. Put something uniform on to start getting your mind ready to play a game that night.” Hocking continued, “He just held you accountable. I could rattle off thousands and thousands of things that he would hold you accountable on. I played for two managers with the Twins, both TK and Gardy, and they were both from the same cloth. You knew what their expectations were for each and every player, and as long as you met those on a daily basis, it was status quo.” Did knowing that make it hard to play for those managers, or did it become easy because the expectations were clear? “You just know how to prepare. I would walk into the field, walk into the clubhouse and look at the lineup, and if my name was on it, I’d say ‘OK, today’s my day to play.’ And if my name wasn’t on it, I would take it as, ‘OK, I’ve got six innings off today, but if it’s close, I’m going to get an opportunity to impact this game.” Hocking knew his role on those Twins teams and not only accepted them but took it as a challenge and performed. “I remember. I played a lot of second base when Todd Walker was there. Todd, I felt, was a very good defender, but I don’t think TK saw him like that. But Todd could flat-out hit. By May 1st, I knew my role. I was going to go in to play defense at second base when we were winning games. TK didn’t have to call me on the bench. Fifth inning would come around. I’m starting to stretch. Sixth inning, I’m really thinking about getting loose. Seventh inning, OK, he’s probably going to call on me soon because of the score. Todd would have an at bat in the seventh or eighth inning.” Hocking then said that it became a non-verbal communication between him and Tom Kelly at that point. As Walker was walking to the plate, Kelly would look down at the end of the bench, and Hocking knew to look down at Kelly. Kelly would nod at him, and that simply meant that Hocking would be entering the game as a defensive replacement the next half inning. “I knew why I was on that team, and he trusted me in that situation. And that’s what I preach to these kids. Be a trustworthy player. I know that if something happens to this team on a nightly basis, it’s not due to lack of preparation or lack of effort. Sometimes it’s just not going to work out.” In that series in Cedar Rapids, Hocking had a fielder that wanted to make a play. Ben Rortvedt lined the ball to the outfield. The fielder thought he could catch it and was going to dive. As it was happening, he realized he wasn’t going to be able to make the catch, so he just tried to knock the ball down. It got by him and a single turned into a triple. He came into the dugout and explained the play to his manager. Hocking told him that he would never be mad at a player who is trying to make a play. It can be a learning opportunity. The fielder was prepared, and he gave 100% effort, it just didn’t work out. Hocking gives a lot of credit to his manager, Tom Kelly, and the expectations that he set for his roster. Those are the traits that he has carried with him into his coaching and managing career. “I manage a lot, and I communicate a lot as I learned through TK and Gardy.” -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Running around the clubhouse during several of Hocking’s Twins years was first-year Cedar Rapids Kernels manager Toby Gardenhire. Ron Gardenhire was a coach through Hocking’s first several years, and he later became the manager, so Toby was able to get close to the players and learn from them. Hocking noted, “I remember Toby always running around, catching a lot of heat from the guys. He grew up in the clubhouse. I remember seeing that he got hired and thought that was awesome. I watch what he does, and I’m impressed. There’s a ton of talent in that other clubhouse, but I’m impressed with how they work and how they play for him. You can watch a team, and they take on direct mannerisms of their manager, and I see a lot of his dad in him. I think he’s got a bright future. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shane Carrier was with the Kernels when Clinton was in Cedar Rapids. He went to the same high school that Hocking’s daughters are graduating from. “I played the music in the batting tunnel when he would come and hit in the offseason.” Carrier said, “I was 12 or 13, and he would help out a bit. He was always around. He is a cool guy. He’s funny.” ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After the Twins let him go after the 2003 season, Hocking spent a year with the Rockies and a year with the Royals (splitting time between MLB and AAA). He had other options for the 2006 season, but he didn’t want to spend any more time in the minor leagues and it was important to him to spend time with his young family. When retired, he didn’t jump right into coaching. He knew the right people and got a job at MLB.com covering the Angels and Dodgers. He spent time on air with Jim Rome, and he later met Andrew Siciliano (Red Zone Network) and appeared on-air with him once a week for a 15-minute hit on baseball. It turned into a regular show on Fox Sports Radio, a job he held until the company had some layoffs after an ownership change. At that time, he figured he’d better get a job. A good friend of his was working in media relations with the Orioles at that time. He told Hocking that former Twins general manager Andy MacPhail was coming to Anaheim, and he could set up a pregame on-field meeting. That day, Hocking saw MacPhail in the dugout and walked toward him. MacPhail saw Hocking as he approached. “Denny Hocking… 52nd round draft choice… as a catcher.” Hocking responded to his former GM, “How do you remember me? Out of all the kids you drafted, and all the kids you’ve seen play in all of your years, you remember my draft round and what I was drafted as?” MacPhail answered him, “I remember the guys that did things the right way. That really made me feel good, and I said, ‘Well, if you think that way of me, I’m looking for a job to get into coaching.’” A series of e-mails were exchanged, and Hocking was named a hitting coach in Frederick, Maryland (Double-A). He noted that during those three years, “I would see my family for about ten days from Valentine’s Day to September 11th. I just couldn’t do it anymore. I had to be closer to my family. I just had to be closer to home.” He contacted the Angels. Since then, he’s coached in a variety of roles in the Angels and more recently in the Mariners organizations. This is his first year as a manager in the Mariners organization for the Clinton LumberKings. It’s not always easy. Part of why he returned was to be closer to his family, and now back in coaching, Hocking will again have to miss some important events. “The sacrifice that you make to be away from your family. I have twin daughters that will graduate this year. I will be back two days before they graduate, and I’ll see my son’s last days of middle school. I’ll be able to be there for important days like that. But.I’ve missed my daughters’ proms, homecomings, things like that. One of my daughters is currently training for the U20 National Team for women’s soccer. If she continues to do well and makes the cut,the World Cup is in France in August, and I will not be able to go and support her.” Of course, the other side includes the relationship and team-building that he can lead as a manager. “All I try to do is create a good environment and make these kids want to work and make them feel important and impact their lives. I see that. That’s the rewarding part for the crappy part.” It’s clear that Hocking has been influenced as a coach and a manager by his years in a Twins uniform playing for Tom Kelly and Ron Gardenhire. He has had a long and fulfilling career in baseball and clearly still enjoys it. Nearly 30 years ago, the Twins drafted him in a round that no longer exists. It’s a great reminder about hard work, being prepared and setting expectations. Hocking carved out an impressive big league career, turned into a radio voice for a few years and now is giving back to the game through coaching. Click here to view the article

Target Field is just a couple of hours away from opening its doors to Twins Fest 2017. It has been a busy couple of weeks for the Twins front office. The last two weeks have been busy with the Winter Caravan. Thursday night at Target Field was the Diamond Awards. And now Target Field will be full of people looking for handshakes, autographs, pictures and memories with some of their favorite Twins players. At the media luncheon in the Champion's Club this afternoon, Twins President Dave St. Peter gave his state of the team speech and concluded with the announcement that two players have been added to the team's Hall of Fame, Michael Cuddyer and Andy MacPhail.In this article, I'll briefly highlight some of the events and notes from the Diamond Awards and the media luncheon. Please feel free to ask questions below and I will respond as I have time. Michael Cuddyer spent 11 of his 15 MLB season in a Twins uniform. The recently retired ballplayer had some strong seasons in a Twins uniform. Overall, he hit .272/.343/.451 (.794) with 239 doubles, 45 triples and 141 home runs in a Twins uniform. He will be at Twins Fest this weekend. Recently, he and Torii Hunter and LaTroy Hawkins were named special assistants to the Baseball Operations department. Andy MacPhail became the Twins General Manager in 1985. He was very young then and helped put the final pieces together for the Twins 1987 and 1991 World Series Championship teams. Dave St. Peter announced that both will be inducted during Hall of Fame weekend at Target Field, likely in August. Cuddyer was named to the Hall of Fame from the players ballot. Dan Gladden and Cesar Tovar reportedly were second and third in the voting. In the non-player ballot, MacPhail finished ahead of long-time Twins coach Rick Stelmaszek and former Twins President Jerry Bell. OTHER NOTES Dustin Morse informed us that there will be 78 current, former and future Twins players signing at Twins Fest this year. He said that was pretty close to a record.Sid Hartman was at the media luncheon.Derek Falvey told the media that he and Thad Levine were in Ft. Myers last week at the Twins academy. They had two summits while there.The first was a scouting summit. He said all of the scouts were in attendance, including new scouting director Sean Johnson. As a team, they put in place a set of processes, what they were looking for, etc.There also was a hitting summit. It included new Twins hitting coach James Rowson, Jeff Pickler, Torii Hunter, minor league hitting coordinator Rick Epstein and all of the minor league hitting coaches. They discussed how to teach, terminology and more as a group.Falvey also mentioned that it was also important for both of those summits to come together. That way the hitting coaches could discuss with the scouting department what they are teach and what they might be looking for. It starts a conversation and encourages collaboration between MLB, minor leagues, scouting and front office.He said a similar pitching summit will take place in the coming weeks as well.Dave St. Peter discussed many goings-on with the Twins. Much more will be coming out in the coming weeks, but here are a couple of highlights.The Minnesota State High School League's championship games (four classes) will again be at Target Field on June 19th.Target Field will also host a regional RBI tournament in mid-July.Team USA and USA Baseball's 18U team will be headquartered here. They will play a game or two here before heading to Canada for the World Championships.He again reiterated that Rod Carew is six weeks post-heart and kidney surgery. There is a chance he will be released from the hospital as early as today. He will be on travel restrictions, so he won't be at spring training or opening day, but they're hoping he'll be around by mid-summer.Pitchers and catchers report on February 14th. Think about that. It's just 18 days away.There is a new video board at Hammond Stadium.Tickets to the Twins Opening Day game against the Royals on April 3rd will go on sale at 4:00 today.The remainder of the tickets will be available starting February 25th.The Twins will announce their full promotional schedule before the the 25th so that fans can see which games they want to attend.In mid-July, the Twins will hold a 30th anniversary of the 1987 Twins World Series championship.They also are planning a celebration of Rod Carew's Summer of '77 (40 years). The celebration of his MVP season and chase for .400 will include a bobblehead.The Twins recently announced that Billy Joel will be playing a concert at Target Field. St. Peter also mentioned that they are having ongoing discussions with several promoters and will likely have at least one more show this summer.He reminded the assembled group that the first college football game at Target Field will be played on September 23. It will feature St. Johns and St. Thomas. They anticipate drawing the largest crowd for a Division III football game ever.St. Peter credited Bill Smith and Dan Starkey for their work on the Dominican academy, a $19 million collaboration between the Twins and Phillies.They are changing the lighting at Target Field to an enhanced LED system. It will improve energy efficiency and improve the televised broadcasts.Also, the team is opening a Twins-themed restaurant at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport (C concourse) in early March.Twins FestI should point out that if you look at the Player Autograph schedule for Twins Fest, you'll notice that there are several FREE autograph sessions.Lots of the player interviews will air on 1500 ESPN throughout the weekend, so be sure to listen in to those if you're not able to get here in person.Winter MeltdownA quick reminder that the Twins Daily Winter Meltdown will be held at Brothers (near Target Field) on Saturday night. The event will begin at 4:30. Our guests this year will include Jack Goin and LaTroy Hawkins. Parker, John and I talked to them this afternoon.Diamond AwardsOn Thursday night, the Twins and the University of Minnesota collaborated with the BBWAA to put on a terrific show at the Diamond Awards at Target Field.It's a fun celebration of the positives for the Twins during the 2016 season (yes, there were some), and a way to help the Bob Allison Ataxia Research Center (BAARC) and the University of Minnesota. The dollars generated will help research to find cures eventually for diseases such as ALS, ataxia, multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, Parkinson's disease, and other neurodegenerative diseases.You can watch a lot of it on the Twins Facebook page. Much of it was shown live.It was nice catching up with some of the players at the event, Zack Granite, Stephen Gonsalves, Max Kepler and Brian Dozier.We had a Twins Daily table, and as was pointed out on Twitter, it was right by the bar. In addition to John and I, Jeremy Nygaard and Ted Schwerzler were at the table. Also, Mariana, the person behind Twins Latinos on Facebook, Twitterand Instagram sat with us. Be sure to follow her. Who knows? Give it some thought. Maybe next year we can get enough people to get 2-3 tables there.If you get out to Twins Fest this weekend and see any of us Twins Daily types, be sure to say Hi. And, if you are still looking for a 2017 Twins Prospect Handbook, they can be purchased at the FanHQ booth on the lower level of Target Field. Click here to view the article

When it was leaked that the Twins had hired 33-year-old Derek Falvey to oversee their baseball operations, it was easy to make comparisons to 1985, the last time the Twins went outside their organization to hire a new leader. That time, they found 32-year-old Andy MacPhail. But parallels between the two situations don’t end at the winning candidates' ages, and the challenges and solutions that MacPhail faced and came up with provide some interesting insight as to what we might see next.The Situation The situations are eerily similar. The year before, the 1984 Twins had a very successful year, raising hopes. In fact, they competed for a postseason spot right until they were swept in their last series of the year. ***This is an excerpt of one of several features from the Twins Daily Offseason Handbook. To read this and more, be sure to download your FREE Twins Daily Offseason Handbook now.*** (P.S. In fact, they lost their last six games, a streak which started when they were just a ½ game from the division lead. That included perhaps the two most heartbreaking losses between the years 1970 and 1992, and they were back-to-back. One was yet another blown lead by Ron Davis and then the Twins blew a 10-0 lead with Frank Viola on the mound. After that game, Gary Gaetti offered his appraisal of his own throwing error that led to a seven-run inning: “It’s hard to throw with both hands around your neck.”) (P.P.S. “Twins Worst Losses.” How did Twins Daily not produce that series in this year of all years? Apparently, it’s also hard to blog with both hands around your neck.) The success in 1984 raised hopes, because the team was filled with promising youngsters. Kirby Puckett had debuted that year. Kent Hrbek had been snubbed for the All-Star team. Seven of the nine starters in the lineup were 26 years old or younger. But 1985 started poorly. After winning their first two games, the team fell into a nine-game losing streak. (Again – sound familiar?) They rebounded with a 10-game winning streak, but on June 20th, they were only 27-35 and in sixth place in the division. Like this year’s team, a change was made, but in their case it was the manager who was fired. Billy Gardner was replaced by Ray Miller, and the team limped to a fourth place finish in the division, fourteen games back. By then, the new owner, Carl Pohlad, had determined that the organization needed to modernize from the decades-old management structure that Calvin Griffith had in place. But rather than fire team “interim” president Howard Fox, he looked for young blood to help evaluate things first. That included interviewing the relatively inexperienced MacPhail. MacPhail was probably best known for his father, Lee MacPhail, who built the Orioles powerhouses of the 60s and 70s. Andy didn’t exactly have high hopes about the interview. In Doug Grow’s book “We’re Gonna Win Twins”, MacPhail admitted, “I’d never managed anything. I was flattered they wanted to talk to me. I came in, I met with Carl and Jim, answered a series of questions, and went back to Houston.” Sure enough, the Twins didn’t get back to MacPhail for months. But in June, they interviewed him again once they got a better feel for how the baseball-side was (or wasn’t) working. In August, MacPhail was hired, but not as General Manager. The Organization MacPhail was the Vice-President of Player Personnel. That position still reported to Fox, but ultimately his position was closer to the one Falvey will inaugurate: examining, organizing and overhauling the ball club with a long-term view, instead of paying attention to the more immediate roster needs. MacPhail started with the scouting department, and that’s when the Pohlad’s fears were confirmed. Again, in “We’re Gonna Win Twins”, MacPhail recalled his reaction to seeing the Griffith-era scouting reports: “They had their scouting reports on little 3 x 5 cards,” MacPhail said. “And I don’t mean a 3 x 5 card for each player. Each card was for a whole team. It was just incredible. I don’t mean to put them down. That organization came up with great players over the years. But things were changing in baseball. I think the median age for their scouts was about seventy-three. They had two scouts living in North Dakota, which is not exactly rich in baseball talent. But they didn’t have anybody in Texas.” To clean up that mess, MacPhail plucked someone from another organization. He tapped the New York Mets midwest scouting supervisor: Terry Ryan. Ryan was also only 32 years old, but that wouldn’t be the most controversial of his younger hires. Adding New Blood At the end of the 1986 season, the Twins decided to make another change at manager. Ray Miller had never really worked out and so Fox designated third base coach Tom Kelly to hold down the position for the rest of the year. MacPhail was charged with finding the next manager for the 1987 season. ***To read the rest of this feature and more, be sure to download your FREE Twins Daily Offseason Handbook now.*** Click here to view the article

This post is part of a series in which Mark Armour and I count down the 25 best GMs in history, crossposting from our blog. For an explanation, please see this post. Andy MacPhail had big shoes to fill. Both his father Lee and his grandfather Larry are in the Hall of Fame as baseball executives. When the Minnesota Twins promoted the 33-year-old MacPhail to run the club, they surely took his pedigree into account.He lived up to his surname, and his surprisingly quick success cemented a wave of extremely young GMs, a couple with similar front office bloodlines. Coming out of college in 1976 MacPhail knew he wanted a career in a baseball front office and thought he had lined up a position with the Montreal Expos. Unfortunately, when the American League awarded an expansion franchise to Toronto that spring, creating a second major league team in Canada, the Expos were so dismayed with American League president Lee MacPhail that they rescinded the employment offer to Lee’s son. Andy quickly rebounded, taking a positon with the Cubs in park operations and player development. In early 1982, just 28, he joined Houston as assistant to general manager Al Rosen. New Minnesota Twins owner Carl Pohlad brought in MacPhail as vice president of player personnel in 1985 and one year later made him general manager, at 33 the youngest GM in baseball. The Twins had been mired in mediocrity or worse for the previous decade and a half; nevertheless the squad MacPhail took over had a number of talented young homegrown players, including Kirby Puckett, Kent Hrbek, Gary Gaetti, and Frank Viola. MacPhail made several moves to bolster his nucleus with veteran talent, trading for left fielder Dan Gladden and closer Jeff Reardon and signing reliever Juan Berenguer. The 1987 Twins crept up to 85 wins, but it was enough to win a weak AL West and beat the Tigers in the ALCS. When the Twins defeated the Cardinals in the 1987 World Series, everyone associated with the team became a regional hero, perhaps because other than the Minneapolis Lakers in the late 1940s and early 1950s (before the NBA was popularly established as a national league), no Minnesota professional team had won a championship in any of the four major sports. MacPhail was hailed as “Boy Wonder.” Despite his quick success, MacPhail recognized that lower revenue teams could only compete cyclically and that a team needed a solid crop of low-salaried youngsters and under-appreciated veterans who could ripen concurrently, leaving some payroll available to plug holes with free agents. Sensing the team was not ready to compete for a title, in 1989 MacPhail traded Viola, the previous year’s Cy Young Award winner, for several players, most notably pitchers Rick Aguilera and Kevin Tapani. The Twins fell to last place in 1990, but MacPhail felt his restructured team had enough talent and payroll flexibility to contend. Before the 1991 season he signed free agents Mike Pagliarulo, Jack Morris, and Chili Davis, while farm products Chuck Knoblauch and Scott Erickson came through with star-quality seasons. The team won 95 games, going from last to first in their division, and again prevailed in a seven-game World Series. More than two decades later, these two Twins World Series victories remain Minnesota’s only substantive men’s professional sports championships. During his stint in Minnesota MacPhail was brilliant at managing his payroll, recognizing when he had a team close to contention, and using his payroll capacity to acquire the right veterans. MacPhail’s success helped usher in a new era of very young GMs. Oakland had hired Sandy Alderson in 1983, and Texas had brought in Tom Grieve a year later—both just 35—but after MacPhail the minimum age fell even further. Dave Dombrowski and Jim Bowden were only 31 and Randy Smith just 29 when hired. Smith and Bill Bavasi, just 36 when he became a GM, were, like MacPhail, scions of successful front office executives. Somewhat surprisingly, other than by Alderson, the analytic revolution that was slowly seeping into baseball before Moneyball was not really embraced by this generation of young GMs. The Twins remained competitive in 1992, but fell off quickly thereafter as several players left as free agents, the pitching deteriorated, and several younger players performed below expectations. With rapidly increasing salaries throughout baseball after an arbitrator ruled the owners had been colluding to keep salaries down, MacPhail was becoming increasingly pessimistic on the future of small market clubs. “I can’t make it work anymore,” MacPhail said regarding even his successful cyclic approach to building a competitive team. After a player's strike shut down the final phase of the 1994 baseball season, the Tribune Company hired MacPhail to be president and CEO of the Cubs, one of baseball’s most venerable but long-suffering teams. As his title implied, MacPhail was responsible for the entire franchise and named Ed Lynch his general manager. MacPhail intended to build a “development-based” organization while at the same time bringing in veterans to keep Chicago competitive in a weak division. In mid-2000, after just one playoff appearance in five years, MacPhail jettisoned Lynch and assumed the GM duties himself. He got the club up to 88 wins in 2001, but the next July MacPhail named Jim Hendry the GM. In 2003 the Cubs won 88 games and qualified for the playoffs, where the team advanced to the NLCS, before losing a heartbreaking seven game series to the Marlins. The Cubs would not make the post season again under MacPhail’s reign, and he resigned after a disappointing 66-96 record in 2006. Certainly the Cubs suffered some bad luck—phenom pitchers Kerry Wood and Mark Prior pitched 200 or more innings only three times between them due to injuries–but the farm system did not deliver as expected and several prospects were traded away with little substantive return. In contrast, MacPhail was highly successful in the off-field part of his job, as attendance and revenues surged during his 12 years at the helm. MacPhail was not unemployed for long: In mid-2007 Orioles owner Peter Angelos brought him aboard as president of baseball operations, acting as a general manager with considerable authority. Baltimore had fallen on hard times since consecutive ALCS trips in the late 1990s, winning fewer than 80 games every year from 1998 to 2007, but MacPhail again hoped to create a “top echelon scouting and development franchise.” When the farm system appeared to be more efficient at developing pitching, MacPhail’s strategy evolved to “buy the bats and grow the arms.” Unfortunately, many of the young hurlers never progressed as hoped, and the Orioles lost over 90 games every season through 2011, after which MacPhail resigned. The next year Baltimore was baseball’s surprise team; they won 93 games and made the playoffs, mostly with a team built by MacPhail. Although he wasn’t around to enjoy it, MacPhail’s farm system and savvy trades for the likes of Adam Jones, Mark Reynolds, J.J. Hardy, and Chris Davis left the Orioles with a solid talent base. To read more about the history of baseball operations and the GM, please buy our new book In Pursuit of Pennants–Baseball Operations from Deadball to Moneyball via the publisheror at your favorite on-line store. Click here to view the article

#25 — Andy MacPhail This post is part of a series in which Mark Armour and I count down the 25 best GMs in history, crossposting from our blog. For an explanation, please see this post. Andy MacPhail had big shoes to fill. Both his father Lee and his grandfather Larry are in the Hall of Fame as baseball executives. When the Minnesota Twins promoted the 33-year-old MacPhail to run the club, they surely took his pedigree into account. He lived up to his surname, and his surprisingly quick success cemented a wave of extremely young GMs, a couple with similar front office bloodlines. Coming out of college in 1976 MacPhail knew he wanted a career in a baseball front office and thought he had lined up a position with the Montreal Expos. Unfortunately, when the American League awarded an expansion franchise to Toronto that spring, creating a second major league team in Canada, the Expos were so dismayed with American League president Lee MacPhail that they rescinded the employment offer to Lee’s son. Andy quickly rebounded, taking a positon with the Cubs in park operations and player development. In early 1982, just 28, he joined Houston as assistant to general manager Al Rosen. New Minnesota Twins owner Carl Pohlad brought in MacPhail as vice president of player personnel in 1985 and one year later made him general manager, at 33 the youngest GM in baseball. The Twins had been mired in mediocrity or worse for the previous decade and a half; nevertheless the squad MacPhail took over had a number of talented young homegrown players, including Kirby Puckett, Kent Hrbek, Gary Gaetti, and Frank Viola. MacPhail made several moves to bolster his nucleus with veteran talent, trading for left fielder Dan Gladden and closer Jeff Reardon and signing reliever Juan Berenguer. The 1987 Twins crept up to 85 wins, but it was enough to win a weak AL West and beat the Tigers in the ALCS. When the Twins defeated the Cardinals in the 1987 World Series, everyone associated with the team became a regional hero, perhaps because other than the Minneapolis Lakers in the late 1940s and early 1950s (before the NBA was popularly established as a national league), no Minnesota professional team had won a championship in any of the four major sports. MacPhail was hailed as “Boy Wonder.” Despite his quick success, MacPhail recognized that lower revenue teams could only compete cyclically and that a team needed a solid crop of low-salaried youngsters and under-appreciated veterans who could ripen concurrently, leaving some payroll available to plug holes with free agents. Sensing the team was not ready to compete for a title, in 1989 MacPhail traded Viola, the previous year’s Cy Young Award Winner, for several players, most notably pitchers Rick Aguilera and Kevin Tapani. The Twins fell to last place in 1990, but MacPhail felt his restructured team had enough talent and some payroll flexibility. Before the 1991 season he signed free agents Mike Pagliarulo, Jack Morris, and Chili Davis, while farm products Chuck Knoblauch and Scott Erickson came through with star-quality seasons. The team won 95 games, going from last to first in their division, and again prevailed in a seven game World Series. More than two decades later, these two Twins World Series victories remain Minnesota’s only substantive men’s professional sports championships. During his stint in Minnesota MacPhail was brilliant at managing his payroll, recognizing when he had a team close to contention, and using his payroll capacity to acquire in the right veterans. MacPhail’s success helped usher in a new era of very young GMs. Oakland had hired Sandy Alderson in 1983, and Texas had brought in Tom Grieve a year later—both just 35—but after MacPhail the minimum age fell even further. Dave Dombrowski and Jim Bowden were only 31 and Randy Smith just 29 when hired. Smith and Bill Bavasi, just 36 when he became a GM, were like MacPhail scions of successful front office executives. Somewhat surprisingly, other than by Alderson, the analytic revolution that was slowly seeping into baseball before Moneyball was not really embraced by this generation of young GMs. The Twins remained competitive in 1992, but fell off quickly thereafter as several players left as free agents, the pitching deteriorated, and several younger players performed below expectations. With rapidly increasing salaries throughout baseball after an arbitrator ruled the owners had been colluding to keep salaries down, MacPhail was becoming increasingly pessimistic on the future of small market clubs. “I can’t make it work anymore,” MacPhail said regarding even his successful cyclic approach to building a competitive team. After a players strike shut down the final phase of the 1994 baseball season, the Tribune Company hired MacPhail to be president and CEO of the Cubs, one of baseball’s most venerable but long-suffering teams. As his title implied, MacPhail was responsible for the entire franchise and named Ed Lynch his general manager. MacPhail intended to build a “development-based” organization while at the same time bringing in veterans to keep Chicago competitive in a weak division. In mid-2000, after just one playoff appearance in five years, MacPhail jettisoned Lynch and assumed the GM duties himself. He got the club up to 88 wins in 2001, but the next July MacPhail named Jim Hendry the GM. In 2003 the Cubs won 88 games and qualified for the playoffs, where the team advanced to the NLCS, before losing a heartbreaking seven game series to the Marlins. The Cubs would not make the post season again under MacPhail’s reign, and he resigned after a disappointing 66-96 record in 2006. Certainly the Cubs suffered some bad luck—phenom pitchers Kerry Wood and Mark Prior pitched 200 or more innings only three times between them due to injuries–but the farm system did not deliver as expected and several prospects were traded away with little substantive return. In contrast, MacPhail was highly successful in the off-field part of his job, as attendance and revenues surged during his 12 years at the helm. MacPhail was not unemployed for long; in mid-2007 Orioles owner Peter Angelos brought him aboard as president of baseball operations, acting as a general manager with considerable authority. Baltimore had fallen on hard times since consecutive ALCS trips in the late 1990s, winning fewer than 80 games every year from 1998 to 2007, but MacPhail again hoped to create a “top echelon scouting and development franchise.” When the farm system appeared to be more efficient at developing pitching, MacPhail’s strategy evolved to “buy the bats and grow the arms.” Unfortunately, many of the young hurlers never progressed as hoped, and the Orioles lost over 90 games every season through 2011, after which MacPhail resigned. The next year Baltimore was baseball’s surprise team; they won 93 games and made the playoffs, mostly with a team built by MacPhail. Although he wasn’t around to enjoy it, MacPhail’s farm system and savvy trades for the likes of Adam Jones, Mark Reynolds, J.J. Hardy, and Chris Davis left the Orioles with a solid talent base. To read more about the history of baseball operations and the GM, please buy our new book In Pursuit of Pennants–Baseball Operations from Deadball to Moneyball via the publisher or at your favorite on-line store.