Tag: Ron Gardenhire

Watching Liriano

March 4, 2011 – I checked out Francisco Liriano’s first start of the spring on Field 3 this morning against a collection of Tampa Rays minor leaguers in a “B” game that started at 10 AM local time. I got there just as the Twins took the field and Liriano was throwing his warm up pitches. The first thing I noticed was that there was a very nice crowd already assembled to watch Liriano. The Twins keep denying that Liriano is being shopped but by my count there were at least 20 scouts there representing everyone from the Yankees to the Marlins and a lot of teams in between. There were 5 or 6 radar guns at the ready each time Liriano threw a pitch and Liriano threw 36 pitches in his first stint on the mound in a ST game. Francisco was wild and gave up 3 hits, a couple of walks and hit a batter and catcher Drew Butera went out to the mound calm his pitcher down several times. After his two innings were up pitching coach Rick Anderson pulled him aside and he talked and Liriano nodded and listened for several minutes and then Gardy joined in and he had a few comments for Francisco too. It did not appear to be an intense session, more of a “this is your first time out and maybe you can do this a bit better but all in all we are satisfied” type of a chat. I don’t know what was said for a fact because I am not a lip reader but I am just guessing based on what I saw of the body language of both Anderson and Liriano. I am sure that Francisco was disappointed in his outing and Anderson and Gardenhire were just trying to boost his morale. The big young right hander Deolis Guerra followed Liriano on the mound and he got beat around a bit, I know that Guerra is very young but he has been in organized ball since 2006 and he throws in the low 90’s regularly but he has to learn how to pitch, all he ever seems to do is throw it as hard as he can and hope that the batter misses it. Guerra is all the Twins have left from the Johan Santana trade but to me it looks like that trade will turn out to be a total bust for Minnesota. After Guerra left the game, another big righty David Bromberg took to the hill for the Twins and he too got hit around a bit. I left after 6 innings so I do not know what the final score of the game turned out to be, I had other fish to catch.

Questions everywhere

February 23, 2011 – I checked on the Twins on Monday and I stayed for about 1.5 hours but I walked away kind of bored. The position players still had not reported and the pitchers and catchers were going through their early spring routines. A few minor leaguers were taking some infield practice with TK, nothing extraordinary going on anywhere. Nishioka was as normal to this point, out on a field by himself, doing a little (and I mean little) running if you don’t count his side-kicks who apparently are his translator, nutritionist, and work-out guru. Everyone was looking for Justin Morneau and he was nowhere to be seen but he did eventually hold a news conference later in the day.

The Twins have so many questions as spring training begins, more questions than Alex Trebek has on Jeopardy. What questions? Let me list a few of them for you that come to mind right off the bat, not necessarily in order of importance. 2011 will be an interesting season at the ballpark, you can bet your bippy on it.

  •  Will Justin Morneau be able to come back from his concussion?
  • Can Joe Nathan become the same closer he was before he had TJ surgery?
  • Joe Mauer hasn’t even caught a bullpen session and he already has knee issues.
  • How will Francisco Liriano react to the trade rumors? He is not exactly a Rock of Gibraltar to begin with.
  • Can Alexi Casilla hold down a full-time middle infield spot?
  • Can Tsuyoshi Nishioka play in the majors this season and hold down a middle infield job?
  • Can Danny Valencia improve on his 2010 season without his head getting too big?
  • Can Denard Span bounce back from a poor 2010 season?
  • Can Rick Anderson make silk out of a sows ear in the bullpen?
  • Can Delmon Young repeat his breakout season?
  • Can Jim Thome last another season before his back gives out for the final time?
  • Can Jason Kubel bounce back and play the way he is capable of playing?
  • Will any Twins pitcher show some backbone and make some of those opposing batters dance in the batter’s box once in a blue moon?
  • When are the Twins batters going to quit crying that it is too hard to hit home runs at Target Field?
  • Last year the back drop at Target Field was repainted, after the season the trees have been or will soon be removed. What will Twins batters ask for next? A roof to keep the sun out of their eyes?
  • Who didn’t measure up last year in Gardy’s eyes? Scott Ullger as his third base coach or Steve Liddle as his bench coach? They swapped jobs going into 2011.
  • Can Glenn Perkins and Pat Neshek stay out of Gardy’s doghouse this year? I think they each have one strike left before they are sent packing.
  • Will Gardy actually let his players steal some bases this year?
  • Can the Twins ever get over the “Yankee” hump?

Fast and furious or slow and steady?

January 17, 2011 – After just one season of calling Target Field home, the Twins brain trust has determined that they have a need for speed. The Twins are coming off of a season where they stole just 68 bases. The last time the Twins stole that few bases was 25 years ago, back in 1985. Since the Twins started playing in Minnesota they have stolen a total of 4,343 bases or an average of 87 “swipes” per season. The teams all-time high for SB’s was 151 in 1997 and their all-time low was 32 way back in 1963 but that year they also slugged a team all-time high of 225 home runs to make up for it.

There does not seem to be any consistency to where the Twins finish in the standing based on their stolen base totals. Back in 1997 when they stole 151 bases, they finished fourth with a 68-94 mark. In their World Series seasons, they had 92 SB’s in 1965, 113 SB’s in 1987 and 107 SB’s in 1991. Here is a table showing the Twins top base stealing teams:

Rank Year Won Lost Finish SB CS
1 1997 68 94 4th 151 52
2 2001 85 77 2nd 146 67
2 1976 85 77 3rd 146 75
4 1996 78 84 4th 143 53
5 1992 90 72 2nd 123 74
6 1999 63 97 5th 118 60
7 2004 92 70 1st 116 46
8 1969 97 65 1st 115 70
9 1987 85 77 1st 113 65
10 2007 79 83 3rd 112 30
10 1998 70 92 4th 112 54

But will Gardy use the speed tool if he has the chance? The numbers tell me that he will not. If we compare Gardenhire and Tom Kelly we see that in TK’s fifteen seasons his teams swiped 1,699 bases or an average of 113 per season with a high of 146 in 2001. When you look at Gardy’s 9 seasons you end up with 859 stolen bases for an average of 95 per year with a high of 116. In TK’s final season as manager in 2001, his team ended up with 146 steals, the following year with Gardy at the helm his boys stole just 79 bases with pretty much the same cast of characters. So it will be interesting to see if the Twins burn up the base paths in 2011.

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  

 

Thanksgiving recollections

November 25, 2010 – For me, baseball started back in 1957 when I followed the Milwaukee Braves beat the New York Yankees in the World Series. My brother Stan (now deceased and probably talking baseball and watching some former greats strapping it on again in the big field in the sky) and I grew up like many other kids, collecting baseball cards and trading them, not thinking they would ever be worth anything. Back then, Topps were about the only card on the market in our small home town and they were a nickel a pack or six for a quarter and each pack had some awful tasting bubblegum that was hard as a rock, not to mention that the gum often ruined the card that was next to it. I always hated the Yankees so I always traded any Yankee card for any Twins card I could get my hands on. I wonder how many Mickey Mantle cards I got rid of. Of course I don’t have any of those cards today, my Mother saw to that while I was in the Navy.

But this story is getting off of its original intent and that is to talk about managers and ejections. Back then we had no TV so the only baseball action we could get was via the radio as I listened to Milwaukee Braves night games on my transistor radio and then when the Twins moved to Minnesota we finally had our own team on WCCO radio and I listened to as many games as I could. One of my favorite parts of listening to a game was when there was a disagreement on the field and one of the managers came out to argue his side of the play. I really enjoyed Halsey Hall or Herb Carneal telling me what was going on and then the big moment, the ump calls “you are outta here” and you could hear the fans cheer or boo depending on who was ejected. Those were the good old days for me, managers like Earl Weaver, Dick Williams or Billy Martin going toe to toe with the umps, the spit flying, kicking sand on home plate, flinging first base out into right field, slamming their cap to the ground before kicking it, and of course tossing a few bats and balls on the field as they exited the diamond on their way to the clubhouse for a cool and refreshing drink. You don’t see that manager passion that much anymore and one of the last of that breed left us when Lou Piniella retired from the game this year.

But maybe all is not lost, I recently checked with the Twins to see if they could tell me how many times each of the Twins managers had been ejected but all they could provide me with were the numbers for Tom Kelly and Ron Gardenhire as stats were not kept previous to that. We all know that Bobby Cox holds baseball’s career ejection mark with something like 158 but how is our own Gardy doing? He has been thumbed a number of times in his Twins managing career. According to the Twins, current manager Ron Gardenhire has been sent to the clubhouse on 52 occasions in his nine seasons as a Twins manager. Cox managed for 33 seasons and if you divide his 158 career ejections by the number of years he managed it comes out to about 4.79 ejections per season. Gardy has only managed for 9 seasons but he already has been thrown out 52 times and that averages out to 5.78 per season, almost one full ejection more per season managed than what Bobby Cox has accrued. Of course Gardy would have to manage many more years to beat the high ejection standard that Bobby Cox has established but Gardy could well be on his way, if Gardy managed for 33 years and kept up his current ejection rate and didn’t mellow, he could end up with 190+ ejections, is that something to look forward to or what? Go gettem Gardy! Oh by the way, Tom Kelly managed for 15+ season and was relieved of his managing duties only 5 times……….You gotta love baseball.

Gardy wins game number 800

September 21, 2010 – Twins Manager Ron Gardenhire won his 800th game today in the Twins 6-4 win over Cleveland and now has a career record as a manager of 800-648. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the last manager to reach 800 wins in 1,448 decisions or fewer was Davey Johnson. Johnson reached 800 wins in 1996 in his 1389th decision (800-589). The active manager with the fewest decisions to 800 career wins is Mike Scioscia (1452 decisions, 800-652). Congratulation to Gardy on a job well done!

Twins bring in another closer

Brian Fuentes

August 27, 2010 – The Twins announced today that they have acquired 35 year old left-handed closer Brian Fuentes from the Los Angeles Angels for a player to be named later (to be named by October 15). Fuentes had 23 saves in 27 opportunities with the Angels this season after leading the AL in saves in 2009 with 48. Fuentes, nicknamed T-Rex, had a 4-1 record in 39 games with an ERA of 3.52 and a WHIP of 1.20 to go along with 39 strikeouts and 5 home runs allowed. Gardenhire has stated that Capps will retain the closer role and Fuentes will be primarily a set-up guy but he will get some closing opportunities if Capps is used too many days in a row. This is Fuentes’s tenth big league season and he does have 186 lifetime saves pitching for the Mariners, Rockies, and the Angels. So now the Twins have ties to 4 closers if you count Nathan who is out for the year in Rauch, Capps, and Fuentes. Fuentes will be available for Saturday’s game so a roster move will be required, probably after today’s game against the Mariners. Fuentes has about $1.89 million due him this year but he will probably not meet the required 55 games finished to trigger his $9 million vesting option for next season. Sure looks like the Twins are “going all in” this year.

Slowey throws 7 no-hit innings

August 16, 2010 – It was an interesting afternoon at Target Field today as I watched the Twins beat the Oakland A’s 4-2 yesterday and in the process sweep the A’s and extend their winning streak to four. The Twins took a 1-0 lead in the third when Kubel hit a ground rule double with two runners on base and had the ball stayed in play the Twins would have scored a second run.

But it wasn’t long before I looked at the scoreboard to verify what I was thinking, Slowey still had not given up a hit and he was looking pretty sharp. Couple that with some nice fielding plays behind him, like the leaping grab Repko made in left in the top of the 6th inning and things were going well for Slowey and the Twins. As the game progressed into the 6th and 7th inning Slowey started to labor a bit but he still had a no hitter on the board after 7 innings and the Twins were still leading 1-0. In the bottom of the 7th Jim Thome hit a 3-run home run, a rocket shot to right field and suddenly the Twins were up 4-0.

Would Slowey come out to pitch in the 8th inning? At this point he had walked 3 A’s, hit one, and another A’s batter reached base on a throwing error by shortstop Casilla. His pitch count was sitting at 106 which is usually the end of the line for a Twins starter in recent years. I’m wondering if Gardy pulls him in the middle of a no-hitter. Jon Rauch was warming up. Slowey had skipped his last start on Wednesday due to a tender elbow. All signs pointed to Slowey not coming out to pitch in the 8th but still in the back of my mind I hoped he would. Then the bullpen gate opened and Rauch was headed for the mound. I did what my heart told me to do, I gave Gardy and Rauch a resounding boo! Then with one out Rauch gave up back-to-back doubles and the no-hitter and the shutout were gone. I gave Rauch a couple more boos for good measure.

I understood the situation, but I wanted to see a no-hitter, having never witnessed one in person I wanted to cross that off my bucket list but it was not to be today. As I sat on the bus that was taking me back to the Cty Road 73 Park & Ride I thought about what had transpired and I realized that I had nothing to be upset about. Long term this is probably the best thing for Slowey’s health but…….. this was a shot at a once in a life time event for most pitchers. Looking at it from Gardy’s perspective, it was a no-win situation but he took a tough stand and made the hard decision, you have to give the man credit for that. Like I said, it was a fun and interesting day at the old ballpark today and things like this are what make baseball the game it is.

Closer by Committee? What a Joke!

April 1, 2010 – You have got to be kidding. A closer by committee has not worked to any degree for any team in a long time. The only time that teams go to closer by committee is when they have no closer. Ideally the Twins would invest some of their Nathan insurance money and get a legitimate closer but if they foolishly choose not to go down that path, then the Twins should just pick their best closer candidate and put him in the closer role and leave him there until he proves he cannot handle the job. How is that better than closer by committee? It is a better option because then everyone has a defined role day in and day out. The relievers will not come to the ballpark wondering if they will be pitching the sixth, seventh, eighth or closing on any given day. The Twins had an outfield by committee last year and it hurt all their outfielders, you would think Gardy and the Twins brain trust would learn from that experience. I say name Matt Guerrier as your closer and give the man a shot. If Guerrier can’t do the job, I would send Crain out there next. The season starts Monday Gardy, do your team a favor and name a closer. What have you got to lose? Best case you find a closer and worst case is you find out who can’t close.

UPDATE April 2 – Twins manager Gardenhire has named Jon Rauch as the Twins closer and the Twins plan to go closer by committee is dead before it even started. Smart move Gardy!

Spring Training Report

February 24, 2010 – I went out to the ballpark on Monday morning to catch the first official work-out and had a good time. There were a number of people there but not a huge crowd by any means. It was easy to get around and view the different activities on the different practice fields. I saw Jose Mijares throwing so he obviously cleaned up his visa issues and he does look considerably thinner. Jon Rauch was throwing at the same time and boy is Rauch a physically imposing figure, he is what 6″11″? By the way, Joe Mauer was in there catching some of the pitchers.

I went over to the next field and there I saw Gardy and TK running a “pitcher cover first base drill”. That is kind of fun to watch as the pitcher throws the ball to a catcher. In the mean time a coach hits another ball to a 1B who then lobs the throw to the pitcher covering first. Over and over again the same old thing, but yet sometimes during the season it looks like they never practiced it before. Gardy and TK try to make it fun and you can hear some of the banter going on back and forth. One of the things they do also is to have the coach drop a ball somewhere next to the pitcher and the pitcher has to quickly find it, pick it up and get ready to throw to first, One time Deolis Guerra was the pitcher and all of a sudden all 10 or so of the pitchers threw their balls at Guerra at the same time, there were balls everywhere and everyone got a big kick out of it including Deolis who was laughing as he threw his glove in the air.

The next field had some batting practice for the catchers and other position players that had reported early. I watched Mauer and Cuddyer hit a couple of times and they were putting a good hurt on the balls.

I was in kind of a hurry due to other plans so I didn’t go over to the minor league fields to see what was going on there but obviously some of the boys had reported early and were doing some hitting and throwing the ball around.

It appears that the players come out for stretching about 9:30 AM and practice starts about 10:00 AM. They wrap up between 11:30 and Noon and that is the best time to get pictures and autographs. The players and coaches all seem very good about that. In the picture above you can see Cuddyer as he signs and signs and signs.

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