Minnesotans want Ron Gardenhire to keep his job

[Parker Hageman]

According to a recent poll conducted by Public Policy Polling (h/t Fox9's Seth Kaplan), only 9% of Minnesotans would like to see manager Ron Gardenhire fired. In spite of his 122-182 record over the past two season a vast majority of those interviewed (57%) believed he should keep his job while another 34% had no opinion on the matter.

 

Had you been polled, how would you have responded?

[JB_Iowa]

Well, this Iowan would say fire him (or get him to retire). But a large problem with polls is always in the exact wording of the question -- for example, I think you'd get a different answer to "Do you want Ron Gardenhire to retire?" than you would to "Do you want Ron Gardenhire to be fired?" But I'm too lazy to go look up exactly how the question was worded.

 

And I don't particularly care what Minnesotans in general think on this question.

 

SOMETHING needs to change in this organization. The leadership is stagnant, stagnant, stagnant.

[DPJ]

I've wanted him gone for years...good a time as any to take him out back and Old Yeller the SOB.

[JB_Iowa]

I went back and dug through the links to find the actual poll question and responses:

 

Q17 (Twins fans: Would you support or oppose

firing Ron Gardenhire?

Support ........................................................... 9%

Oppose ........................................................... 57%

Not sure .......................................................... 34%

 

 

Given the question, I'm not surprised by the responses. A lot of people are going to have trouble with firing a long-time employee with an overall record of success -- even some of us here who want to see Gardenhire gone. We'd like to see a change in manager "finessed" with a resignation/retirement.

 

I think the response would have been significantly different if they had asked: Would you like to see Ron Gardenhire retire and the Twins hire a new manager for 2013?

 

People need to be very careful how they characterize the results of this poll.

[Boom Boom]

"Opposing the firing of Ron Gardenhire" isn't exactly the same thing as "wanting Ron Gardenhire to keep his job".

[greengoblinrulz]

Its a much larger question than firing him/not firing him.

IF not, what do you do with Gardy goin into his last yr of his contract?? Do you extend him after the last 2 yrs (which is what will happen) or let him play out his last yr. What do you do with his coaches, whom many believe the blame lies with.

This isnt an organization that does things differently regardless of whats happenning thru baseball. They believe their philosiphy is correct & will rely on 6 of last 11 yrs as division champs instead of being one of worst teams in MLB the past 2 yrs.

[Top Gun]

I like Gardy, but it's the coaches and the whole front office to take the blame. It has to start at the very top with Pohlad and on down the

line, but the manager is usaually the one that gets the axe.

[YourHouseIsMyHouse]

Gardy is fine going forward. He is very well respected around the league. Axing him would be using an accomplished manager as a scapegoat for the team's internal problems. It would be very unjust.

[gunnarthor]

Keep him.

[Mike Sixel]

Do the twins do the little things well? Do young players get consistently better? How do you feel about the tactics and strategies he uses day to day?

[twinsnorth49]

Do the twins do the little things well? Do young players get consistently better? How do you feel about the tactics and strategies he uses day to day?

 

Are those rhetorical questions? If not, then I think the Twins have done the little things right during many years of Gardy's tenure, a number of players have got consistently better and his strategy was fine when they were winning. The big difference in all these instances is the players, you come up with a strategy with Nick f***ing Blackburn on the mound.

[Mike Sixel]

Not at all, I think those ate some of the questions we should think about before answering. I do not think most people would agree on the little things. I am not sure about the other answers for sure or not.

[zenser]

I know the Twins don't fit the mold of a lot of baseball teams and the "what have you done for me lately" philosophy. The fact of the matter is that they aren't producing on the field. Guys are making mistakes and they are getting away from the fundamentally sound team we are used to. Maybe we need the same old message preached but in a different voice.

[twinsnorth49]

I know the Twins don't fit the mold of a lot of baseball teams and the "what have you done for me lately" philosophy. The fact of the matter is that they aren't producing on the field. Guys are making mistakes and they are getting away from the fundamentally sound team we are used to. Maybe we need the same old message preached but in a different voice.

 

Maybe they just aren't all that fundamentally sound, the manager is only as good as his players, at the Major League level if your fundamentals are not already sound then I don't care who your manager is. This club needs more depth, there is nobody pushing the players in front of them at a number of positions and it shows. Nothing like a trip back down to AAA to remember to focus on your fundamentals, Brian Dozier anyone? And he got pushed by Pedro Florimon, sheesh, now what?

[Coach J]

Do the twins do the little things well? Do young players get consistently better? How do you feel about the tactics and strategies he uses day to day?

 

There is indeed something wrong with this whole organization. It goes deeper than Gardy. I commented on this last year on the STRIB.. the Twins have not done the little things right since Jones, Hunter, Koskie, Mientkiewicz, and the rest of that group came up together. They were about as fundamentally sound as it gets. Most of them were above average defensively, excellent baserunners, and great situational hitters (hitting behind runners), and all of them could bunt. I remember David Ortiz saying in a SI article that if you came up with the Twins, you knew how to bunt. Where has that gone?? Anyone watched Revere, Dozier, and even Span try to lay down a sacrifice.. its painful. Last two years we have seen numerous blunders in the field and many many mental mistakes, basically just not knowing the game Something has happened along the way that this is not getting taught in the minor leagues. Would like to see this change, is this the managers job that this becomes a priority in the minor leagues... very fair question!

[Monkeypaws]

Gardy isn't a great manager, but he is a good one.

 

What he's lacked are the alphas that Kelly benefited from: Puckett, Morris, Viola, Gaetti, Hrbek; those guys wanted to kick your ass. Gardy has had Santana and Hunter; the MM boys are good players, but they lack the fire Kelly's boys had - add Gladden, Bruno, etc. to that list.

 

Hopefully Ryan can build that kind of team again.

[one_eyed_jack]

I like Gardy, and I think he's a good manager, but it's time for a change. Things have gone stale, we need a fresh voices.

 

There's no sense firing him now. The ideal situation, which will never happen, is that Gardy and the Twins mutually decide to part ways.

[Thegrin]

Of course I would oppose the firing of Ron Gardenhire. If you watch the games, how often do you question his decisions ? Rarely, I'd bet. (Now that Grey is gone.) Vavre and Anderson are excellent coaches. What makes you think that a new voice would improve anything. Change for change sake is rarely a good idea.

[one_eyed_jack]

Of course I would oppose the firing of Ron Gardenhire. If you watch the games, how often do you question his decisions ? Rarely, I'd bet. (Now that Grey is gone.) Vavre and Anderson are excellent coaches. What makes you think that a new voice would improve anything. Change for change sake is rarely a good idea.

 

---Well, blind loyalty in the face of poor results usually doesn't work out too well either. How many 90+ loss seasons are you willing to endure before you'd support a change? Gardy is a very good manager, but he's not entitled to a lifetime appointment here.

 

I'm not a knee-jerk "fire the manager/coach" guy. There's too much of that in pro sports today. Often times teams want to shake this up, but contracts make trades more complicated and difficult to pull off. So they fire the coaching staff. Not because it's the best move, but because it's the easiest.

 

That's said, when the same voice has been speaking for too long, people just stop listening. Change for change's sake can be change for the better. Look at the Whities this year. The Orioles have been a different team since Showalter took over.

[Ex-Iowegian]

You have to wonder sometimes if a different "look" might be part of the answer.

Easy to say that 'we' could go out and get Francona, but why in the world would he want to come here? Until some arms get into the rotation, and some solid defense is stabilized up the middle, oh, and a 3rd baseman would help, and.... on and on it goes.

Be careful what you wish for. Your solution might be even worse.

[Coach J]

Of course I would oppose the firing of Ron Gardenhire. If you watch the games, how often do you question his decisions ? Rarely, I'd bet. (Now that Grey is gone.) Vavre and Anderson are excellent coaches. What makes you think that a new voice would improve anything. Change for change sake is rarely a good idea.

 

How about pinch running with two outs and a runner on first in the 7th and 8th inning so then when the game goes to extra innings we have Alexi Casilla hitting instead of Josh Willingham or Justin Morneau?

 

Or perhaps bringing in Matt Guerrier in to face Alex Rodriguez with the bases loaded? ( A-Rod is something like 8-11 for 6 homers against him). No manager is perfect obviously but I would not really say Gardy is a strategic genius. He has had some puzzlers from time to time. These are just the few off the top of my head that kinda irk me

[Guest USAFChief]

Be careful what you wish for. Your solution might be even worse.

If a change is needed, you make it. Not making a needed change guarantees failure. There is no sense in worrying the change might be worse than the current situation, since by it's very nature the current situation has by definition been determined to be a failure. Otherwise, you wouldn't need to make a change.

[Thrylos]

According to a recent poll conducted by Public Policy Polling (h/t Fox9's Seth Kaplan), only 9% of Minnesotans would like to see manager Ron Gardenhire fired. In spite of his 122-182 record over the past two season a vast majority of those interviewed (57%) believed he should keep his job while another 34% had no opinion on the matter.

 

Had you been polled, how would you have responded?

 

No chance in hey to been polled, because of the (false) assumption that only people who live in MN are Twins' fans (and my position on how I feel about Gardy and his buddies is not a secret)...

 

But what really gets me and I think it is ridiculous is that the same fan/media base who drove Childress out of Minnesota wants to keep Gardy despite the fact (yes it is a fact, look it up ) that Childress' teams as a whole were more successful that Gardy's teams...

 

just sayin'

 

politics (and some lutefisk lefse tacos and tire commercials)

[one_eyed_jack]

But what really gets me and I think it is ridiculous is that the same fan/media base who drove Childress out of Minnesota wants to keep Gardy despite the fact (yes it is a fact, look it up ) that Childress' teams as a whole were more successful that Gardy's teams...

 

 

---I looked it up. 5 seasons. 39-35 overall record. 2 playoff appearances. 1-2 playoff record.

 

Sorry, not seeing the basis for the claim that it is a fact that these teams were "as a whole were more successful that Gardy's teams...".

 

[CDog]

But what really gets me and I think it is ridiculous is that the same fan/media base who drove Childress out of Minnesota wants to keep Gardy despite the fact (yes it is a fact, look it up ) that Childress' teams as a whole were more successful that Gardy's teams...

 

 

---I looked it up. 5 seasons. 39-35 overall record. 2 playoff appearances. 1-2 playoff record.

 

Sorry, not seeing the basis for the claim that it is a fact that these teams were "as a whole were more successful that Gardy's teams...".

 

 

Were you expecting anything else when you consider the source?

[SpantheMan]

No manager can magically transform his players in to something better than what they can be. Gardy can't make 5 AAA pitchers into a major league staff

[Wolfy]

Gardy should stick around a few more years and do what TK did; leave when it looks like things are on the right track again.

 

This team will be decent next year, at least to the point where they won't be out of things in July. .500-ish with a look at that last WC is approachable.

[Cody Christie]

North Dakotans want him to keep his job as well.

[UCLA_YANKEE_COLA]

How do you judge a manager? The Twins win when the players play well and they win less often when the players play poorly. The manager doesn't pull some magical strings to make the players better. Gardy does some things that drive me nuts. But I'd bet 29 other fan bases say the same about their manager. I don't know if Gardy should stay or go. Mostly because I don't think the manager has a whole lot of impact on the team.

[Winston Smith]

If the answer is the manager is only as good as the players then what good is a manager anyway? Isn't it his responsibility to make them better and put them in positions to succeed? Can anyone really say after the last 2 years that is the case? Division titles in the weak central make some happy but no playoff wins since 2004 says much more, imo.