Joe Posnanski of the Kansas City Star recently wrote an article giving credit to Ron Gardenhire as one of the best managers of all time. He admitted that he has since received many emails from Twins fans that want to let him know that he is crazy.
I think he is, too.
Some Twins fans will go as far to say that Gardenhire isn't even an average major league manager.
From Posnanski's perspective, as a Royals follower, Gardenhire is a great manager. From an outsider's point of view, the Twins are great. But from where I stand, one who has grown up a Twins fan, Gardy is average.
Here is one of his main arguments:
Gardy’s teams have won four division championships in seven years with what seems to be pretty modest talent.
From 2002 to 2004, the AL Central was a mess. The then-incompetent Cleveland Indians, the pitiful Kansas City Royals, and the Detroit Tigers who averaged 105 losses a year during that span all made up, in addition to the White Sox and Twins, one of the worst divisions in baseball.
Minnesota got to face each of those teams 19 times a season during that span.
Now let's get into that "pretty modest talent" comment. True, Minnesota didn't have great talent on their teams from 2002-2004. Like said before, they didn't have to work very hard to beat out the Tigers, Royals, or Indians.
It was a battle between the White Sox and Twins in the early 2000's, with Minnesota averaging a victory of around nine games from 2002-2004.
Did Minnesota ever have great talent? In 2006, they "captured lightning in a bottle", according to SBG.
They had the Cy Young winner in Johan Santana, a pitcher who out-performed him for half the year in Francisco Liriano, and career years from six players; Bartlett, Hunter, Morneau, Mauer, Punto, and Cuddyer. Minnesota ended up winning their division on the last day of the regular season, but were swept in the first round of the postseason by the Oakland Athletics.
Now here are some of my arguments:
Gardy has been helped greatly by the huge amount of talent in the bullpen.
One of the first things people concede to Gardenhire is his excellent ability to manage the bullpen. Maybe he deserves a little more credit than I'm giving him, but his "talent" in that department seems to have gone down in recent years.
Pat Neshek lost his 2008 season due to injury. This should come to no surprise to Twins fans given the way he was overused in the last few months of the 2007 season.
Another thing to mention is Gardenhire's absolute refusal to use one of the best closers in the game in anything but save situations. If the scoreboard shows a run differential of more than three runs, or it is not the ninth inning, Nathan WILL NOT be pitching. Totally ridiculous.
That is not old school, Gardy, that is just plain dumb.
Nick Punto
Any Twins fan knows the inside joke of Gardenhire's man-crush on Nick Punto. There is also the joke of renaming the Mendoza line as the Punto line.
Punto certainly has a great glove and is one of the best left-side infield defenders in the game today. His offensive line though, .246/ .314/ .322, should be enough to warrant his removal from the starting lineup day in and day out.
I would be the first to have Punto be a defensive replacement. Just NOT a starter. Punto played in 150 games in 2007, with a whopping 472 at-bats. He had 472 chances to prove that he cannot hit a baseball.
Veteran Love
Lastly, Gardenhire has a love for veterans. Even when the front office of the Minnesota Twins provides him with fresh talent, he still opts for the established old players.
Just look at Craig Monroe.
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4 months ago
Good article, I've had many a conversation with friends about this very subject! One of my good friends, and one of the best baseball minds I've ever known once said that the best thing a manager could be was "not an idiot". Everything else was ancillary.
Gardy is a players manager and he seems to get the best out of even mediocre players like Nick Punto. The best explanation I can come up with for why he is regarded as a top 5 manager by everyone EXCEPT Twins fans is that while everyone else tends to look at what Gardy does, like win division titles with subpar talent, Twins fans see everything he doesn't do, like use the bullpen effectively.
from 4 months ago
Thanks for the fast comment, Dan.
I agree. You put it great, "the best thing a manager could be was "not an idiot"."
4 months ago
If Gardenhire is getting the "best out of Punto," he should be fired, because Punto was far and away the worst starter in the game last year. Punto is by no means a "mediocre" player--he's worst in the league. "Mediocre" is for guys like Mike Lamb and Brian Bass. Not bad players, but not your first choice when you absolutely need something done.
Gardenhire lucked into a team with a lot of talent, and the country at large sees that as amazing--they say "he's winning with guys I've never heard of," but ninety percent of the time, they've never heard of them because ESPN has a tough time mentioning any single player west of New York City.
The article pretty much sums up everything I feel about Gardenhire. Too bad, because he seems like a great guy.
from 4 months ago
Thanks for the feedback. He is a great guy, just not a great manager.
4 months ago
Interesting to see a Twins fan's perspective on this. I've always had the utmost respect for Gardenhire, but maybe that's because the Twins always play the Sox so maddeningly well. Nick Punto certainly isn't the worst player in the world when he faced the White Sox...
But hey, from my perspective, I would have no problems with Gardenhire leaving the organization. Maybe that would mean Minnesota would stop piranha-ing the Sox to death...
from 4 months ago
Punto lost us the game last night. You can just call me Nostradamus.
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