Tag: Ozzie Guillen

Twins should give Paul Molitor his final ejection sooner than later

Paul Molitor

The Minnesota are coming off a 2017 season where they made an appearance in the playoffs for the first time since 2010 and finished with a 85-77 record. The Twins had such an up-beat season that Derek Falvey and Thad Levine had no choice but to sign manager Paul Molitor who was in the last year of his contract to a new deal. When the Falvey/Levine regime took over they were told by ownership that Molitor stays as the Twins skipper. With the team playing as well as it did, albeit most in the second half of the season, Falvey’s hands were tied behind his back, he had no real choice but to re-sign Molitor, probably not his first choice to manage the team under the Falvey/Levine umbrella. 

In 2018 the team has played terribly in spite of several free agent starters brought in to bolster one of the worst starting pitching staff in the big leagues. Why is this team playing so poorly and inconsistently? We could probably make a long list of reasons and not all necessarily the fault of manager Paul Molitor. But, he is the manager so the responsibility it totally his, it is his job to manage the team so that it wins ball games, Molitor has not done that.

Molitor is a Hall of Fame baseball player but managing is not his thing, he is best suited to teach and not to manage. I hope that Falvey and Levine understand that and have the gonads to let Molitor go and put their own man in charge. I know that Molitor was just signed to a new 3-year deal after last season but I would bet that Falvey and Levine were not behind the big push to get that done. 

Instead of starting to replace players the organization should replace the real problem here, the manager. This team needs a manager that has some bite and is willing to get this team back on the winning track by bringing a “in you face” managing style. The team need to start playing the game right and if they can’t, it should end up costing them money from their wallet or in terms of playing time. 

Ozzie Guillen

The change in managers should take place sooner than later, Molitor should not be wearing a Minnesota Twins uniform after the All-Star break. Who should manage the team? I am not paid to answer that question but I will tell you who I would hire if I was Derek Falvey. My new Twins manager would be Ozzie Guillen, a man with experience who has been there before and a man not afraid to tell players where they stand. Besides, if the team can’t give us some excitement at the ballpark, I know that Ozzie can.

This Day in Twins History – September 25

Jim "Mudcat" Grant9/25/1965 – The Twins Mudcat Grant one-hits the Washington Senators to win the first game of the DH, 5 – 0 at D.C. Stadium. Senators Don Blasingame‘s double in the 3rd is the only hit for Washington; it is the 4th time that Blasingame has collected the only hit for his team. This is Mudcat’s 20th win of the season and he becomes the first African-American pitcher to win 20 games in the American League. The Twins win the night-cap 5-3.

9/25/1985 – Bert Blyleven beats the Texas Rangers 5-1 at Arlington Stadium and the Twins rack up win number 2,000.

9/25/2000 – In only the second three-team doubleheader in the majors since 1900 and first since Sept. 13, 1951, the Cleveland played host to two different teams, beating the White Sox 9-2 before losing to Minnesota 4-3. It was the Indians’ third doubleheader in six days. By the time Minnesota’s players arrived at the ballpark for their 4-3 win in Cleveland on Monday night, the only trace that Chicago had used the visitor’s clubhouse earlier in a 9-2 loss to the Indians was a pair of white socks left behind by one of the White Sox players.

9/25/2006 – The Twins beat the Kansas City Royals 8-1 at the Metrodome and clinch at least a wildcard playoff spot. This is the first time in history that the wildcard has come from the American League Central Division. It has been an amazing run from a 25-33 start and 11 1/2 games out of first as of June 7th.

9/25/2008 – The Twins cap a thrilling three-game sweep of the Mighty Whities to reclaim first place in the AL Central. The team came back from a 6-1 deficit to win the game on Alexi Casilla‘s walk-off single in the 10th inning for a 7-6 victory. After the game, manager Gardenhire was quoted as saying “I can’t even breathe” while closer Joe Nathan said that “this was the most intense series I have ever been a part of”. On the other side of the coin, White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen sighed and said “We wasted 26 innings in this town.”

9/25/2010 – The Twins scored five runs in the first inning and another five in the fifth before dropping an 11-10 decision in 13 innings at Comerica Park. It was the first time since relocating to Minnesota in 1961 that the Twins lost a game in which they scored at least five runs in each of two different innings. It happened only one other time in franchise history. That was on July 1, 1907, when the Washington Senators suffered a 16-15 loss to the Highlanders in the first game of a doubleheader at New York’s Hilltop Park.

Manager longevity

November 28, 2010 – I thought it would be interesting to see where the Twins managers stood in terms of games managed and to also take a look at the last fifty years in the American League to see how many managers the various teams have had since 1961.

The Twins have only had 12 managers in their entire history and only two since Tom Kelly took over from Ray Miller late in the 1986 season. Kelly is still far and away the longest tenured Twins manager and on the other end of the spectrum, Cookie Lavagetto only managed the Twins for 66 games in their inaugural season but it needs to be mentioned that he coached the Washington Senators from 1958-1960 before the team relocated to Minnesota. Kelly himself has managed almost 30% of the games the Twins have played and when you look at Kelly and Gardenhire together, these two men have managed 48.3% of all the Twins games since 1961.

Rank Manager Twins game managed
1 Tom Kelly 2,384
2 Ron Gardenhire 1,459
3 Sam Mele 953
4 Gene Mauch 772
5 Billy Gardner 621
6 Frank Quilici 567
7 Bill Rigney 392
8 Cal Ermer 274
9 Ray Miller 239
10 Billy Martin 162
11 John Goryl 72
12 Cookie Lavagetto 66

When you look at the rest of the AL Central Division between 1961 and 2010 the longest tenured managers were Tigers skipper Sparky Anderson with 2,473 games between 1980-1995, Indians skipper Mike Hargrove with 1,227 games between 1992-1999, current White Sox skipper Ozzie Guillen with 1,135 games between 2004-Present, and Royals skipper Dick Howser with 769 games between 1981-1986.

Looking at the entire American League for the last fifty years, the Twins rank first, meaning they have had the least amount of managers per years played and thus have the highest average numbers of years managed per manager. I am not sure that means anything when you see the New York Yankees sitting at the bottom of the list with 25 managers in 50 years but it is still fun to look at. I didn’t count some interim managers that managed just a handful of games for their teams when the regular managers were away for a variety of reasons. It just shows that managers are hired to be fired and it is rare when a manager gets to walk away from the game by his own choosing. 

Rank Team # of managers Average years per manager Comments
1 Minnesota Twins 12 4.17  
2 Tampa Rays 4 3.25 Joined league in 1998
3 Detroit Tigers 17 2.94  
4 Toronto Blue Jays 12 2.83 Joined league in 1977
5 Boston Red Sox 18 2.77  
5 Chicago White Sox 18 2.77  
5 Baltimore Orioles 18 2.77  
8 Los Angeles Angels 22 2.27  
9 Kansas City Royals 19 2.21 Joined league in 1969
10 Cleveland Indians 23 2.17  
11 Seattle Mariners 16 2.13 Joined league in 1977
12 Texas Rangers 19 2.05 Joined league in 1972
13 Oakland A’s 25 2.00  
13 New York Yankees 25 2.00