Article: Minnesota’s Managerial Candidates: External Candidates

[USAFChief]

 

This team is definitely not Gritty enough for Gritty.

But the play rhymes with Gritty, so it works.

[yarnivek1972]

And let's not project things and carry on a different discussion. This is a discussion on the search for a new manager. Let's keep these side tangents out of it.

I happen to believe that who the owner is and how he runs his team (and that includes the perception of how he runs his team) is extremely relevant in the discussion of the next manager. First, I guarantee Pohlad will have the final call on whoever it is. Second, interviews run both ways. The Twins are trying to decide who fits best. The candidates are trying to decide if they are a fit with this organization, and that includes the owner and his budget.

Edited October 19, 2018 by yarnivek1972

[Squirrel]

I happen to believe that who the owner is and how he runs his team is extremely relevant in the discussion of the next manager. First, I guarantee Pohlad will have the final call on whoever it is. Second, interviews run both ways. The Twins are trying to decide who fits best. The candidates are trying to decide if they are a fit with this organization, and that includes the owner and his budget.

This thread is about discussing potential candidates. Twins spending, calling the owners cheap and bringing up contraction is off topic. Period. Knock it off.

 

If you want to mention specific candidates and the odds of them wanting to come here because of specific financial information that you are aware of that would not being appealing to them, that is relevant, but this tired, old, generalization of who would want to come here because the owners are cheap is not going to fly.

[Riverbrian]

Hopefully the Front office is doing some recon during the process of conducting interviews. 

 

No matter who they hire... the interview is a great way to gain some inside information from each candidate's current team. 

[Old Twins Cap]

Well, it looks like the Reds, Angels and maybe even Rangers have finished up their process of hiring a manager, and it sounds like they took none of the Twins' leading candidates off the board.

 

Meaning, the Twins should likely be able to land their first choice.

[Rosterman]

I do wonder how much say the new manager will have in the ENTIRE coaching staff.

[ashbury]

I do wonder how much say the new manager will have in the ENTIRE coaching staff.

If the FO isn't ready to sign off on just about any coach the new manager wants, then they probably picked the wrong guy. (The converse statement might also be true, except that few rookie managers will turn down any opening at the major league level, so they have less leverage throughout the negotiation process.)

[Number3]

None of the names mentioned are familiar to me but I will say one more time relative to the interview process.

 

Interviewer question, "If hired would you consider yourself to be a players' manager?"

Answer, "Yes"

 

Interviewer, "Interview over, next candidate please"

 

Answer, "No, our collective job is to win ball games and I don't care to get involved in their personal lives or be a club house buddy. All I care about is what they do on the field."

 

Interviewer, "Ok you are on the short list".

[old nurse]

 

None of the names mentioned are familiar to me but I will say one more time relative to the interview process.

 

Interviewer question, "If hired would you consider yourself to be a players' manager?"

Answer, "Yes"

 

Interviewer, "Interview over, next candidate please"

 

Answer, "No, our collective job is to win ball games and I don't care to get involved in their personal lives or be a club house buddy. All I care about is what they do on the field."

 

Interviewer, "Ok you are on the short list".

Your candidate will fail as a manager.  That level of detachment will not work. A player's manager is not buddy.  The manager should have a rapport good enough that can correct mistakes without the player getting defensive and tuning the manager out.  A player's manager would have the respect of the players as a human being.  That is a hard thing to maintain. t is also difficult to do with a bad team. .  The trend towards younger manager rather than retreads who "know how to win" would show that the clubs are looking towards a people person who can understand the game rather than the master tactician  with less people skills.

[ashbury]

Your candidate will fail as a manager.  That level of detachment will not work.

Concur. An answer I'd probably like to hear is, "some players need a pat on the back and others need a kick in the butt, and even this can change during the course of a season. I believe I have the ability to tell the difference, so let me tell you about several examples from the last couple of on-field jobs I had..."

[nicksaviking]

 

If the FO isn't ready to sign off on just about any coach the new manager wants, then they probably picked the wrong guy. (The converse statement might also be true, except that few rookie managers will turn down any opening at the major league level, so they have less leverage throughout the negotiation process.)

 

Of course if the front office wanted to pick the coaching staff but also wanted it to appear largely to be the field managers call, they'd probably just hire Derek Shelton who in retrospect probably actually was the chosen successor to Molitor back when Shelton was originally hired.

 

The fact that he hasn't been named manager already when two other managerial spots have already been filled makes me think the front office is having second thoughts and might really be considering Hyde or Baldelli. Which I hope they are.

 

 

[Number3]

Per ashburyjohn

 

"Concur. An answer I'd probably like to hear is, "some players need a pat on the back and others need a kick in the butt,......"

 

Exactly-relative to their play on the field, not as a shrink analyzing personal issues or whether a manager even likes or dislikes a certain player.

[Brock Beauchamp]

Sounds like the Twins might be getting close on Baldelli and I completely support that hire. He's a former player (and a good one, at that) who has worked in both a front office and in the dugout. He's young, to boot.

[ashbury]

Exactly-relative to their play on the field, not as a shrink analyzing personal issues or whether a manager even likes or dislikes a certain player.

Some of the qualities in a good manager probably overlap the qualities in a good psychologist.

 

Are you thinking of a case where this has been an actual problem, where a manager has tried too hard to be like a shrink?

[yarnivek1972]

Sounds like the Twins might be getting close on Baldelli and I completely support that hire. He's a former player (and a good one, at that) who has worked in both a front office and in the dugout. He's young, to boot.

If true, it would be the first time the Twins hired someone as manager from outside the organization since Ray Miller in 1985. He would be just the third “outside” managerial hire since the Twins came to Minnesota. Gene Mauch and Bill Rigney were the only others not employed by the Twins when named manager.

[Richie the Rally Goat]

 

Sounds like the Twins might be getting close on Baldelli and I completely support that hire. He's a former player (and a good one, at that) who has worked in both a front office and in the dugout. He's young, to boot.

https://twitter.com/DWolfsonKSTP/status/1054434701119815685

 

edit: corrected the link

 

Sounds like Shelton could stick around too

Edited October 22, 2018 by Sconnie

[nicksaviking]

 

https://twitter.com/DWolfsonKSTP/status/1054434701119815685

 

edit: corrected the link

 

Sounds like Shelton could stick around too

 

Yeah, Shelton would arguably be considered the more qualified candidate based on experience so I wonder how that dynamic would work.

 

But I think Baldelli is my horse as well. 

[RatherBeGolfing]

 

If true, it would be the first time the Twins hired someone as manager from outside the organization since Ray Miller in 1985. He would be just the third “outside” managerial hire since the Twins came to Minnesota. Gene Mauch and Bill Rigney were the only others not employed by the Twins when named manager.

 

The Twins Country Club coming to an end

[oregontwin]

Why Baldelli instead of Espada? Seems an inside track on what the Astros do to succeed, might be an advantage.

[caninatl04]

So, what goes on in an interview? What kind of questions are asked (on either side)?

[Brock Beauchamp]

 

Why Baldelli instead of Espada? Seems an inside track on what the Astros do to succeed, might be an advantage.

It's not as if the Rays are chopped liver in the analytics department.

 

And Baldelli has experience up and down the organization as a scout, front office liaison, and a coach.

[ashbury]

Situations and Tendencies

Hired!

[jctwins]

 

So, what goes on in an interview? What kind of questions are asked (on either side)?

 

I heard somewhere they have software that simulates game situations and the outcomes of situations based on how the candidate responds, creating other game situations. 

 

Just an example of a specific tidbit I heard once somewhere. No source.

[USAFChief]

 

Situations and Tendencies

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCRCV_4CImo

 

"Situ-endencies."

[ashbury]

"Situ-endencies."

Ten-tions.

[AlwaysinModeration]

Ten-tions.

Which reminds me, why did the campers jump up and down?

Edited October 24, 2018 by AlwaysinModeration

[ashbury]

Which reminds me, why did the campers jump up and down?

[laloesch]

 

According to Wikipedia Meullens also runs a baseball academy in Curacao. Not sure if that's still true as the citation is old and the link is now broken, but that's a plus in my book. That sounds like someone who proactively looks to work with young baseball players.

 

Also he speaks five languages, including Japanese (he played over there for awhile).

 

That would be impressive.  Nihon-go (Japanese language) is EXTREMELY DIFFICULT to learn for a non native speaker and even harder to learn how to write.  Source (married to a teacher who taught in Fukoka, Nippon for almost 7 years)

Edited October 24, 2018 by laloesch

[AlwaysinModeration]

 

 

Which reminds me, why did the campers jump up and down?

That’s right. They wanted to get a-tent-ion.