JB_Iowa

What was the deal with the phone call that lasted forever?

Am I correct that the 2 they fired were a 64-year-old white man and a 60-year old African-American while the gentlemen they retained (even if reassigned) were all white and younger than 60? A call to the EEOC is probably in order.

One interesting thing about this. Can someone clarify for me. Does this mean that the Twins are increasing their ML staff? Wasn't infield/outfield instruction previously handled by coaches?

I hadn't read the news conference notes until now. So Ullger and Vavra are still at the major league level. This is so pitiful. I hope the White Sox take a long look at a position for Stelly. And that White and Liddle find positions they'd like as well. Look up the word scapegoat: their pictures should be there soon. What a joke this franchise has become.

Look, just because Vavra and Ullger aren't coaches anymore doesn't mean that they won't have a huge impact on this system in their new positions (in fact, they may actually have more of an impact). And I bet that they didn't take much -- if any -- of a pay cut. Similar to the Bill Smith 'termination' last year, this is wholly intended to get the fan base to buy season tickets. It has very little to do with genuine change in this organization.

I liked the "interim" tag. It gave me some hope that they still might decided to overhaul this organization and inject new ideas, energy and talent. We continue with "Back to the Future" and basically no hope that the Twins will ever be interested in doing anything except lining the Pohlad's pockets by being competitive in the Central.

This just reeks of cheap. Too cheap to pay off Gardenhire for next year and a new manager too. (May be the same thing with Anderson, who knows?) Meanwhile, other than McWane, all the same people in the front office (who fed Smith the info on which to make his decisions) all appear (yes, I know that could change) to be left in place. So far this whole thing is just a bad joke.

I was looking at this from an historical perspective not just 2011 to 2012 -- and only looked at 2005-2012 ignoring his partial season in 2004. In comparing BB/PA in 2012, Mauer walked 90 times in 641 appearances -- 14% of the time. This was his highest walk rate ever but in 2008, he walked 13.27% of the time so I didn't think that the increase this year was out of line statistically. But on SO/PA, Mauer struck out 88 times in 641 appearances or 13.7% of the time. Prior to this, he averaged SOs in 9.9% of appearances with the highest rate prior to this year being 11.55% in 2005 followed by 11.41% in 2011. (His average SO rate is lower than it would be if you took the mean, I think, because he had incredibly low SO rates in 2006 & 2008 -- about 8%). So I still see the jump in SO to be more significant than the increase in walks. Yes the walks are somewhat higher than in previous seasons but the increase isn't as significant as the increase in his SO rate. Also, 2011 really was an anomoly for him because his SO rate was significantly higher than his walk rate -- the only year in which that happened. He turned that around in 2012 but his SO rate this year (13.7%) is basically 18% higher than his prior highest SO rate (11.6%). That's why I wondered what Parker saw happening here.

I agree that the execution of all of this was egregious. As for Gardenhire, I've wanted to see him gone because I thought it was time for a change. I think he could be successful somewhere else. It looks like there will be a number of vacancies this off-season. It may very well be in his best interest to resign. (I would not see that as being a "quitter" although some might. From the things he's said, he'd probably like to stay and win with the Twins but the talent he has to work with is pretty much outside his control.)

Thanks.

Parker, what do you make of the increase in Mauer's strike-out rate? I thought yesterday that it was both SO and BB but the walks are probably within a statistical norm given the number of PA. But 88 strikeouts in 641 PA is 13.7%. Higher than in any of his other seasons by at least 2% (and more than some others). Did you see anything that leads you to any conclusions as to why this happened? Or is it simply something as simple as Umpires no longer giving him the benefit of the doubt?

Pretty much the way it is in every war. The Generals and the Colonels (Gardenhire & Anderson) are pretty darn safe. The captains (Ullger & Vavra) are reassigned to positions further away from the battlefield. The lieutenants, corporals and privates (Stelly, White, Liddle, McWane) are dead. It is a ridiculous way to effect change in an organization.

You do realize the general manager was fired less than a year ago right? I fully realize that Bill Smith was fired last fall. I also believe that the primary reason he was fired was because he and Jim Pohlad did not see eye-to-eye on payroll NOT because of the team's record. (Per the Star-Tribune: "There's no question I said [smith's job was safe], and when I said it, I meant it," Pohlad said Monday. "But we did say at the time that we want to get better in 2012, and we'll see what the plan is. And like we've said, the plan that was proposed, we were on different pages.") But what I also know is that Smith was an administrator-type who relied on the people around him in the decision-making process. And yet, we've seen no changes in the front office staff other than today's firing of McWane. I also know that Smith was re-hired to a different position within the organization. I do see the firing of McWane as more substantial than that of the 3 coaches and maybe we'll see some additional changes in the front office before the fall is over. But for now, it seems to me that they continue to tinker on the edges rather than get to the heart of responsibility.

Well it was pre-internet so whining couldn't take on the same intensity. And frankly, I just remember being awed by Carew's consistency at the plate. But he was also a totally different body type than Mauer and he was a table setter plus speedy on the basepaths. The puzzle for me is why Mauer doesn't hit with more power (not just HR but extra base hits).

For those of you who proclaim this as a big shake-up in the Twins coaching staff, I'd like to point out that it may be a shake-up (although how big is questionable) but it certainly isn't an overhaul. If you had been asked at the beginning of the day, "who are the 4 primary (or top) coaches in the Twins major league organizaton"? What would you have responded? I know that my own response (and I would guess a lot of people's response) would have been Ron Gardenhire, Rick Anderson, Joe Vavra and Scott Ullger. Well guess what? All 4 of them still have jobs with the major league club. (That could still change but at least from Bollinger's article on mlb.com, it looks like the firings are over). Yes, Vavra and Ullger were reassigned -- but again, WITH the major league club to something called infield and outfield instructors. Who was not retained? 64 year old bullpen coach Rick Stelmazek, 60 year old 1st base coach Jerry White and Steve Liddle (who had apparently had the good sense prior to this to say he was going to retire). Yes, Head Trainer Rick McWane was also fired but that is a front office position that should be discussed seperately. Before today, when you thought about the Twins' difficulties of the last 2 years, would you have said: "Well, Liddle, Stelly and White are the problems?" Of course not. They may only be on 1 year contracts now but Gardenhire, Anderson, Vavra and Ullger have still not taken any responsiblity for the debacle of the last 2 years. And for that matter, as long as McWane is the only person in the front office who loses his job, the front offices hasn't done so either.

And they leave in place Gardenhire and Anderson. I do not see how you can change everything except those 2 and leave them in place. That is insane.

I don't know what it points to but it does seem to me that we're still seeing a refusal to bring in talent from outside the organization. I'm waiting to see if the front office also remains stagnant. While Cuellar, Brunansky and Glynn may have deserved promotions, is that the best thing for Rochester -- or more importantly, for the big league club if they need to be developing young players? I asked that once earlier this season -- how should we be looking at where certain coaches do the most good? Nothing that has happened today gives me any cause for celebration or any true indication that things are much different. I'll be interested to see how this all plays out but so far it is looking like "appeasement" and not much more.

You make it sound like this is a ploy to pacify the fans while not making real changes:). I think you are correct, though, that Anderson's job is probably safe. My guess is the reason for letting Stelmaszek go was they wanted to bring Cuellar up and needed a spot for him, and Stellie was considered more expendable than Anderson. Well, you know I'm a cynic about this. I actually think it has to do with the fact that Gardenhire and Anderson have been together "forever". Not sure of how long his history is with Ullger but it is definitely longer on the major league team than it is with Vavra.

Ah, but the "Triumverate" of Gardenhire - Anderson - Ullger looks like it may remain intact. More's the pity. I think he may have sacrificed the edges to save the core. We'll have to see if that's the way it plays out.

Before this season started, Andrew (Twins Fan From Afar) posed the question on his blog about Joe Mauer: "What's a Good Outcome From a Fan's Standpoint"? How he could "earn" his salary while recognizing that a repeat of his 2009 season was highly unlikely. Andrew posited that a good outcome would be playing in 140 games with 115 at catcher, 35% of base-stealers thrown out; .335 B.A. w/ 50 doubles, 10 or more Home Runs and an OBP of .400. I basically characterized this as a little better than 2010 (and I do recall a lot of grumbling from some fans during his 2010 season) or as Andrew called it 2010 plus. Of course there were posters for whom those numbers would not be enough (and several posters who wanted to see him catch at least 125 or more), And others like Thrylos said .850 to .900 OPS with a "bunch of doubles" and 140 games. So it is interesting to compare what happened to what we hoped for. He played in more than 140 games so overall he was healthy but only caught in 76 of them. He may have wanted to catch more and having Doumit helped alleviate the need for him to catch all the time but still, 76 isn't even 1/2 the games. And, when he did catch, he didn't approach throwing out 35% of runners (some portion of that is undoubtedly due to the pitchers but its pretty clear that he still isn't performing particularly well when he is catching.) He finished above the target on .OBP but below on average but I'd say he met those targets. And he did hit 10 HR and had 4 triples and 31 doubles. So a total of 45 extra-base hits. In 2010 he had 9 HR, 1 triple and 43 doubles for a total of 53 extra base hits so he is still down on his power numbers from 2010. And he finished with an .OPS of .861 in 2012 as compared to .871 in 2010. So he did reach the OPS that Thrylos wanted to see although he didn't approach the number of doubles Thrylos probably hoped for. I wanted to post this somewhere because I find it interesting to keep things in an historical perspective. Basically it looks to me like Mauer continues to exercise an incredible discipline at the plate but that his overall value has declined because of the fewer games caught. In addition, his power numbers continue to decline. And I'm still not sure what to make of the pretty significant increase in both walks and strikeouts from 2010 to 2012.

No, I did not see this coming. And it seems an odd place to start to me. But I also remember last year when we had the 2 firings in Rochester (and the promotions of Glynn & Brunansky) and nothing else (until Bill Smith wanted to go on spending money & Pohlad said no). So I have a hard time drawing any conclusions from what we've seen so far.

p.o.d.

Or not ... we could just see a couple of token changes.

Bad to the last drop.

No, but Baltimore and the BoSox both need to get it going for that to happen.