ashbury

J.J. Gardyhire - first player/manager since Rose!

Having been reminded of his skirmish with another minor league manager, I am less enthused about him receiving an early promotion than before. I'd like to see him put in about 3 more years, without drama that reflects badly on him or his organization, before entrusting him with the keys to the dugout. "Fiery" may be good, "ticking time bomb" is not.

I'm not an expert on using Twitter, but is the tweet in question still there? I couldn't find it when I finally got around to looking for it, and it wouldn't surprise me if a trusted advisor told him to withdraw it post haste.

I'll also note (now that this is a Game Thread ) that when Yost went to the mound, he talked to Shields, listened to what his pitcher had to say, then motioned to the bullpen. It's possible that Shields told him he was gassed. In the sixth inning that seems surprising, but there's little doubt in my mind that Yost went out there to listen. Choice of reliever remains debatable, but leaving in the starter might not be.

... if you're his brother. Just being contrary here - I like Ryan - but I'm not sure Gardy's treatment quite does what you hope.

I was in Houston in late July and took in a couple of games, and was amazed/disappointed that the city isn't getting behind a team that, while still losing, seemed fun to watch. Several exciting players, some good starting pitching, already on the major league team. I am virtually certain that the PA system was piping in cheers at appropriate moments, because it didn't seem possible the noise could have been generated by the number of fans I could see - but the roof was closed and maybe they do get enough echoes to get the sound level up by legitimate means, in which case playoff baseball could be rockin'. At any rate, Houston is IMO another cautionary tale for a front office that thinks the visibly-blow-it-up route is a good one for a rebuild.

Five. I'm looking for the link that supports this rule.

Conventional wisdom is that a winning season shows up in attendance the next year. That's what we see in their 2014 attendance. When the market goes that dead for that long, it may take longer to ramp up again. Maybe 2015 sees 2.5M? Cautionary tale for our own 4x90 loss team.

I suppose accountability means different things to different people. For some, it means punishment (or the constant threat of it). For others, it means making the team better.

Agreed, and that's not my objection. Actually I don't have a specific objection, except that almost nobody gets their first managerial job at age 58. Terry Ryan could probably explain why that is, and maybe finding the exceptional person is some kind of market inefficiency we should be exploiting. But since there are a lot of good candidates out there, I'm not inclined to buck the trend.

Nope, sorry, my interpretation, meant colorfully more than informationally. Do we have more precise information by now? / twice in two days I've done something like that. if people start taking my posts seriously, I will have to completely revise my approach... nah.

Lionel Hutz may want to look into this.

Myers had a bad year. I took a look and, except for his age-20 jump to AA in 2011 that went merely "OK", it's his first. Lots of good players have them, for reasons either not explained to the public or not understood even by the player. It will be a few years longer before we can get any reading on this trade. The arguments on either side aren't very different than two years ago.

Nice anecdote. Great to have on the staff. Not sure that it translates to being a manager. Their views might change the first time he has to tell them "No" and make it stick.

It will be a happy day for Twins Land, IMO, when Escobar is viewed as a great utility guy to have and is no longer in the discussion as a starter. I will be shocked if he's a starter on a playoff-bound team, whether that's the Twins or some other team via trade.

Fixed That For Myself

Fixed That For You

Two outfielders signed for $20M+ through 2017 and 2019 respectively, with declining defensive abilities, belong in LA. For that kind of money you could be going after a couple of borderline-ace pitchers as FA this year or next.

There's a billion ways the on-field staff could have done things "differently". 99% of those would have been for the worse. But unless Gardy is a Baseball God, there is some percentage of things that could have gone better if a different approach had been tried. This will be true of any manager, from the best to the worst. My view that Gardy should go was based on a dawning perception that there were not enough upside surprises to counterbalance the things that went wrong the past few years. Scanning through this year's players, and to make it brief, I'll assort players this way, in no particular order: Plus: Dozier, Plouffe, Hughes, Fuld, Perkins, Suzuki, Escobar, Santana, Vargas. Negative: Florimon, Nolasco, Mauer, Hicks, Deduno, Arcia, Parmelee, Milone, Willingham, May, Colabello, Pinto, "Kubartelett", Worley Omitted/Meh: Gibson, Nunez, Schafer, Duensing, Swarzak, Morales, Correia, Burton/Fien/Pressly Geez, it's not my intention to start an in-depth discussion - every one of these placements could be debated. The guys in my Meh category maybe should be given credit to Gardy and his guys, except that IMO the results either weren't strong enough to call a plus (Gibson) or else essentially any decent manager would have gotten similar results (the rest in the list). I give Gardy and his staff great credit for the guys in the Plus category. Plouffe's quote yesterday about Gardy believing in him when no one else did, even if a bit of hyperbole at an emotional time, says a lot to me - Gardy took two failed shortstops and found roles for them that allowed them to be major-league average or even a little better at 2B/3B - and major-league average is not a cheap commodity to be found on the waiver wire most times. Hughes is an obvious success story too. Kudos. It's the negative list that finally gets to me. Any individual case, you can say it's the player. In many cases, it probably is the player. And yet, each of these guys has some talent, and it's the manager's and coaches' jobs to get the most out of them. To find answers. Maybe Mauer's problems are unsolveable until the brain circuitry rewires itself just an epsilon more; maybe Nolasco was headstrong and only lately has responded to coaching; maybe Parms and Cola just don't have that last bit of talent to go from AAA to the Majors. Maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe. But going by results, I just can't defend the aggregate in this part of the list. The nice thing about changing managers is that the positives Gardy and coaches have brought will likely not be lost. Plouffe and Dozier should continue to be productive, likewise Hughes, likewise the others. If good staff are hired, some of the things they try may work with other players, and be added to those positives. I just thought it was time.

Perhaps it was not. TD members should all receive press credentials, so that hard-hitting questions can be asked of Twins management.

You're right. I finally got around to listening to the press conference, and nothing in the context about the "bosses" suggests that it came straight from them.

mnfireman, on 29 Sept 2014 - 8:05 PM, said: San Francisco has a terrible offense, but oh that pitching staff and defense. Minor aside, but in 2014 SF was better than league average in both runs scored and runs against. Considering their home park suppresses run scoring, it might even be that their offense has carried them this season.

I might be the only TD poster whose hat isn't in the ring.

Nobody over the age of 55, please.

Either way, it shows ownership took a direct role (note the plural in "bosses"). Whether that amounts to "forcing" it, as RB stated, is moot - but we know Ryan is deferential to his hierarchy, so a word once given is all it would take.