Rocco Baldelli Wasn't the Problem

In Falvey's statement to the fans he said we both failed,so why is he still there. He should have dismissed Rocco and been man enough to resign. When managers are changed more often than not they are dismissed,very few walk away. Rocco with his daily lineup shuffle and position changing with players turned this team into a losing team. For me please finish the job and relive Falvey of his job and sell the team.

I was pretty cool on Baldelli as a game manager. He slavishly adhered to analytics at the expense of using his intuition in some situations that called for it, especially with pitchers. And his total abandonment of the run game was baffling, with a team that hit so poorly with RISP. But Falvey is more culpable because he put this roster together, made questionable trades, and had too many top draft choices struggle.  A mid market team needs to hit on HOF draft picks. And then the Pohlads cut the payroll, making it even more difficult to win and making Rocco the scapegoat. I’m happy Rocco is gone, but Falvey should be gone too. 

Rocco wasn't necessarily the main problem, but hes still a terrible coach.   The combination of him and Falvey was disastrous as they are both absolutely terrible.  Maybe a good coach can help offset every terrible decision Falvey makes, but that's also a tough ask because everything Falvey does is really bad.

1 hour ago, sstolen said:

I dont agree. Article points out system weakness and systemic failure. Rocco helped to make Buxton season among teams greatest ever

 

 Rocco didnt create roster situations w handfuls of players batting 240 or below. He didnt mess up Royce's swing, Royce did. Truth is that players didnt come through...some without capacity to fo so and others simply didnt.

We all know he probably had to go...like Molitor a while back and others in the future..."gotta do "something"" right?

To credit him for Buxtons season is laughable. Then he gets credit for Outman, Wallner, Lewis and all of them. 

38 minutes ago, terrydactyls said:

But that's the driving force behind Twins Daily.  A place to expound on theories that are supported only by your vivid imagination.  😄  For example, there have been a lot of comments this year saying that the manager is/is not responsible for player development once they have reached the major leagues.  Most of these comments are very adamant about being the truth regardless of which opinion you hold.  No one yet (to my knowledge) has provided any factual evidence to support their position.  I would love to see a management organizational tree provided by the Twins outlining which positions are the final authority for different tasks (i.e. player development, hitting philosophy, baserunning, fielding fundamentals, etc.).  Might be helpful to back up your opinions.  I know I have opinions on with whom the final authority lies for these behaviors.  But I have no factual evidence to support my thinking so I refrain from commenting.

The comments I have made on ,player development have never said that the manager is not responsible. It is pointing out that after years of coaching and the player good at something perhaps it is not the coaching. Sorry people here can’t seem to grasp that concept. When somebody’s is stating an opinion and it is countered with there is no objective data, they should be providing objective data for their opinion. When you demand something of someone else and don’t provide it yourself, you should be called out for that. Sorry that is also a concept that people here will not understand 

Was Baldelli the main problem? No. Was Baldelli the scapegoat? Yes, he was. Falvey was the main problem. Falvey said he'll take personal responsibility for the failure. How did he do that? He fired Baldelli!? How is that taking personal responsibility for the fiasco? He should have resigned. Should Baldelli have been fired? IMO, yes. If Falvey doesn't resign, does it make any difference? No, it doesn't. Falvey signed Baldelli & Baldelli is very aligned with Falvey. Falvey will pick the next manager who'll most likely be like Baldelli or worse, especially if Falvey wants a say in the coaches the next manager will select. 

Whether his managerial moves were largely dictated by Derek Falvey or not, to declare that Rocco Baldelli was not at least a PART of the problem with the Minnesota Twins is just incomprehensible. He was simply a very poor in-game major league manager who should have been fired after the 2024 fiasco. That Derek Falvey brought him back at all (and then extended his contract) shows just how truly inept Falvey is at his job. Falvey needs to follow Rocco out the door, and the sooner the better. 

There was a typo in your title.  It was supposed to say Rocco wasn’t the only problem. 

The only Twins manager that was close to as bad as Rocco was, was Ray Miller.

Rocco's complete dependence on stats in every situation often failed. Scouting, drafting, stats are crucial. In game situations are dominated by variables that constantly change, impacted by each players skill set, field conditions,  weather, lighting, and more. He refused to consider this most times. His players often appeared unaware of game situations that many good local high school teams deal with easily.  The suicide squeeze bunt is a tremendous weapon he gave up due to stats instead of developing it for crucial situations as an ace in the hole. Hitters have to love to hit, relish each at bat and want to be in the batters box with the game on the line, ala Gibson or Puckett. Who was that person this year? Maybe Keaschal. Saw Zoilo and Jim Kaat in 61, been a fan since.

I guess you could call this a hot take. A steaming pile of a hot take.

37 minutes ago, nicksaviking said:

I'm not sure how his managing approach was "hands-off and laid back". He was very hands-on from what I could tell. Pinch hitting for left handed hitters in the 3rd inning. Pinch running his best hitters on 1st base with 2 outs in the 7th for a runner that was only minimally faster.

Those were technically minor nit-picks, his not forcing the players to learn basic high-school level baseball skills was his , hands-off BS, taking its toll.

Good article and thanks for putting on paper what many fans don't want to hear.  He didn't pick his team- but he did the best he could with who he was handed.  

I don't believe any living manager could have done any better when it comes to end of season records than Baldelli did.

To say Rocco wasnt the problem is nonsensical. You could say he wasn’t the only problem and I would say Falvey is a bigger problem but there is a mountain of evidence that most of his teams underperformed. The lack of basic fundamentals in the field and on the bases was inexcusable (and very damning on the minor league system) but Rocco made out the lineups and kept playing guys that constantly made mistakes.