Minnesota Twins: Why Ron Gardenhire Is Overrated

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.