Minnesota Twins Introduce Paul Molitor As New Manager

They should sell hope. This team is, HOPEFULLY, about to turn a corner. The manager has an impressive background in baseball. The filling out the lineup part is the easiest part of the job. He's already talked to Jack Goin about ways to improve that. Obviously he hasn't been a pitching coach, but that's the purpose of the pitching coach.

 

There's no reason to sell anything but HOPE, at least until he has managed enough of a sample size to develop some opinions. 

He showed the fire for the job I was hoping to finally see.  I would say pitching coach is high on the list, followed closely by a re-adjustment of Joe Mauer's attitude.  What he said, I did not like at all.

I always have hope.  Like "I hope the Twins can find another outfielder".  Seriously, did they have no outfielders in the minors?  2 infielders had to play outfield on a regular basis?  Shezzzzz.. :-)

Good piece.  Maybe the biggest thing I see Molitor needing to learn is how to delegate and trust his coaches.  I sense that he has some very clear and specific ideas on how he wants to run this team.  The concern may be that his intellect and attention to detail may become a problem if he doesn't trust his staff to execute his vision.  

A good manager knows when to rely on his staff and when to insert himself into the conversation.   Will Molitor strike that balance or will he veer toward micro-management.  

Wow. Only 2 comments for our 3rd manager in nearly 30 years? Of course, everybody knew it would be Molitor because "his time has come" and he's a local legend. 

It's hard not to drink the kool-aid, but there are two things that bug me about installing Molitor (which I hope I'm completely wrong about).

1. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. I'm sure he'll bring his own personality to managing, but even if we get a new pitching coach its mostly a continuation of the old guard. The FO says they are sick of losing and we can't keep doing what we've been doing, so I'm a little nervous that they've chose to do exactly that.

and the biggest nagging fear I have...

2. Molitor was the guy largely responsible for player development and instilling fundamentals. Aside from the dreadful pitching, the biggest knock on this team has been the lack of fundamentals and lack of development of some players. Santana and Vargas were good this year, but Arcia continued to have the same poor approach at the plate. Molitor says they work with guys on this throughout the year, but the results were not very good. Whether it's Joe Mauer not being able to pull a ball in the air or Chris Colabello standing 4 feet off the plate for 3 weeks before Tony Oliva pointed that out... these are things that are on Molitor, Steinbach, and Brunansky as much as Gardy. 

More than payroll or free agent pitchers or high velo relievers, what this team REALLY needs is a better player development plan. You've got to improve on players' weaknesses as they advance because at the MLB level the competition can exploit those weaknesses. 

I'm curious, and probably could research this myself, but I'll be honest, I just don't have the time or will ... but still, are there, have there been, any other mlb managers who have never managed, even in the minors?  That just went from über coach to mlb manager?

Don Mattingly never had any Managing experience before becoming the manager of the Dodgers.  He spent several years a special instructor during Spring Training for the Yankees.  Then he became the hitting coach under Torre.  After Torre left the Yankees, Mattingly was a finalist for the manager's gig that went to Torre.  So Mattingly left and became the hitting coach for the Dodgers under Torre.  After Torre stepped down he became the manager. 

His only managing experience was a stint for the Phoenix Devil Dogs in the AFL (in preparation for taking over for Torre).

Mauer is fine. He is who he is. Mauer doesn't ask us to act differently. As long as he's not committing felonies...all I care about is can he give us more .320+ seasons.

But his average (and slugging) were down largely because teams did a better job positioning against him. 

Another question should have been-  "Why hadn't the Brewers, Blue Jays and Twins offered you the manager's job 10-15 years ago?

IIRC, the Twins job was his when Kelly retired, but at the time he wanted to spend more time with family and didn't want the rigors of a full time gig.