Otto von Ballpark

Hitting well in 12 games has not been part of the Aaron Hicks Experience (so far).

Statistically, Rogers doesn't look a whole lot different than Sean Gilmartin on a more normal promotion schedule.

Do any current managers fit Gardy's career profile? Ned Yost was kinda close, in terms of years and roles, although he had to leave his longtime MLB coaching team (Atlanta) to get his managerial gig in Milwaukee. And he was fired during arguably his best season in Milwaukee, which was unusual and probably helped ensure that he would get another opportunity.

Bounced around quite a bit? He played 8 pro seasons in the Mets organization, 1979 through 1986. It's been Twins ever since. I don't even think he "bounced around" that much in his Mets days -- 6 full seasons were split exclusively between Tidewater (AAA) and New York. Gardy spent 11 full seasons as Twins first base coach, the last 3 of which he was probably overshadowed by bench coach Molitor in terms of future managerial prospects. That doesn't sound like the experience of a man using his connections around the league. I think if he wants to be an MLB manager again, it will take a few years in another position (probably coach). And even then, possibly not. Increasingly, teams seem to prefer younger, less experienced options now, and those are never in short supply (see Counsell). Or big names with WS credits, or sometimes itinerant coaches.

Gardy was prone to that (and I often didn't like his OF alignment), but Gardy nor Molitor really moved Arcia to LF. Hunter moved him. Arcia didn't play LF in 2014 not because he was entrenched in RF, but because he was never our best option for LF. I have no doubt that given the same 2015 circumstances, Arcia would have had sporadic returns to RF to spell Hunter under Gardy. (Now, if Molitor had gotten Hunter to play LF, that would be notable!) Has Robinson ever played CF when Schafer has been in the game this year? That "anointed starter" preference seems like a bigger deal than your Arcia example, and it feels consistent between Molitor and Gardy (and at least Gomez was more deserving of that treatment than Schafer).

That's fair. However, it seems that some would use that as a justification for waiting to bring up Pinto until they are ready to demote Vargas. I would say, don't wait. Pinto can get take Herrmann's starts at catcher now, and spell Vargas a couple days a week too. We all thought that was the plan before Pinto's concussion, so I see no reason why not to try it now. (I suspect the Twins don't want to "rock the boat" during this hot streak, but Herrmann backup catcher is a minimal part of said streak.) If and when you determine that Vargas needs to go to AAA, you can recall Herrmann is he's still the best fit for the roster.

Folks should remember that Gardy inherited a winning team, with virtually its entire lineup already set. Then he proceeded to have 9 seasons of almost uninterrupted contention, plus a 10th season of expected contention in 2011. During those 10 years, Gardy probably never had a team as in flux as the April 2015 Twins, so it makes sense that his approach during those years would seem more rigid. Molitor may not have been a materially different Twins manager from 2002-2011. From 2012 onward, as his teams were worse, Gardy was certainly less rigid in many ways. The top of his lineups were generally fine given available personnel, and he dropped Hicks from the leadoff spot after 11 games in 2013, not unlike Molitor dropping Santana after 21 games this year. Dozier moved around the 1-2-3 spots, Plouffe hit #3 when he hit well, Mauer switched between 2-3, Suzuki and Santana claimed better spots when they were hot, etc. (And a true backup catcher hasn't batted 3rd for the Twins outside of 2006-2008, when Redmond did it while batting .307.) Closer usage was one area where Gardy remained rigid, but that's probably 2 extra appearances per month for the closer, not 2 extra team wins per month. I don't know if there's a measure for it, but I would have to guess that Gardy was no worse than average in rigidity among MLB managers. Molitor is probably a shade less rigid, but well within the same range in terms of fan-visible evidence (lineups, rosters, roles). Molitor's benefit to this team will primarily be in approach/preparation outside of the game itself, and hopefully in fresh attitude and culture late this season and going forward.

Gardy had Arcia play RF all of 2014. Actually, he also had Arcia split 2013 between LF and RF, so I don't think Gardy would have necessarily been inflexible on that front. Perkins in the 8th is a welcome change from Gardy, though, agreed.

Agreed on Robinson being a quality 4th OF. Just ruminated on that in another thread: http://twinsdaily.com/topic/17867-stick-a-fork-in-hunter-he-is-done/?p=332596 However, I think one of TR's faults, at least in his second tenure, has been his inability to find many cheap useful pieces like this. Escobar is one of the few he's added that has really stuck. Even in the bullpen, a good place for such players, it seems TR has missed more than he's hit recently.

Robinson, hot start aside, probably got unfairly dinged by association with Schafer in evaluations this spring. From an earlier post of mine: Robinson 2012-2013: 86 wRC+, 15.9 UZR/150 (13.2 in CF), 2.3 fWAR per 500 PA Now, that's the smallest sample of the three players, and excludes about 100 PA spread across 3 seasons of poor performance, but Robinson at least gave the potential of being an excellent CF defensively and an adequate 4th OF overall, something that was not suggested by Schafer's record, even after his solid 2 months with the Twins in 2014. Robinson also has a lower salary, twice the remaining team control as Schafer, and has a much more plausible case for simply being forced out of a crowded quality outfield with his previous team.

They can call him up at any time and not burn an option. They only burn an option in 2015 if they call him up, then send him back to the minors for 20 or more days during the remainder of this season. So yeah, you don't want to call him up now as a 15 day injury replacement, unless you really think he could stick. But by July, you probably don't have to be too concerned with burning an option, even if you think you might send him back down for the last few weeks of the minor league season. And yeah, option years generally aren't too critical for elite prospects. If you really need to demote Buxton to AAA three years from now, the lack of that option year is probably the least of your concerns about him.

Herrmann has never played 1B professionally (well, B-Ref shows one game at 1B in the minors, with zero chances). Pinto doesn't have much experience at the position either, but B-Ref says he played a couple games there over the winter. Outside of Vargas, I think Plouffe is the backup 1B, which makes sense since we have 2 utility infielders on the roster already who could easily cover 3B (and probably 1B, for that matter). Herrmann's positional flexibility has resulted in 1 inning away from catcher over the season's first month. I don't think it's that important. In any case, I am not sure that a fringe player needs to "deserve" a demotion, at least any more than already indicated by Herrmann's .655 season OPS, .556 career OPS, and his limited use at catcher (it's been his combined MLB/MiLB minority position the past two seasons). Waiting for such players to "deserve" a demotion is how you wind up holding more interesting players in AAA too long, and/or have W-L records like the 2011-2014 Twins.

Here's my ticket report: Tuesday night, 3rd row Champions Club seats are $139/each right now (or $125 after DAILYDOUBLE discount code). If recent weekday games are any indication, similar prices may soon be available for Wednesday and Thursday too. I expect you will see Dugout Box tickets in the $30-40 range too, if you don't already. (Stubhub shows a lot of ticket inventory left, so you may see more pop up on Ticket King too.) Go Twins!

I think Gardy's long record is exagerrating this aspect of his style. Last April he had Mauer 2nd, moved Plouffe up to 3rd when he was hitting well, etc. At times Gardy even moved Dozier into the middle of the order, no? I think he could have dropped a struggling Santana just like Molitor did. And Hunter was already a #2 in Detroit, so I am not seeing that move as anything special that Molitor did but Gardy would not.

Do not misunderstand me, I am not asking for an exact accounting. Just what moves of Molitor's informed your opinion that he has added 1-2 wins already. I think Gardy is getting penalized because we have 13 seasons worth of bad moves to judge him -- he hasn't batted backup catchers third or lousy 2B second in a long time. Meanwhile, Molitor benefits from a limited record that we can project whatever we want onto it.

What Molitor lineup decision(s) netted that extra win or two above our expected record? What Gardy lineup decisions in April 2014 failed to do that?

Run differential shifted today!

Could just as well attribute it to our annual 4 game sweep of the White Sox being scheduled in May rather than June this year. Gardy could do just fine over small samples too.

It was an approximation. They were 1 game under .500 at points in June, only 3 GB. Am I the only one that remembers the deadline buyers vs sellers threads? We were viewed as big overachievers for nearly 3 months last year.

Not so dramatic difference in Pythag vs actual record, though.

And in May 2014, we scored 92 runs in 29 games, even worse than April 2015... I am pretty sure some on this board last year made the argument that it was impressive that Gardy had that group around .500 into mid-June...

We a had a couple better hitters in the early going last year, but Pelf and Correia each had ERAs near 8 a year ago too. And as Correia improved, some of those hitters crashed. I think it is just way too early to tell, by W-L record, if Molitor is doing a better job than Gardy.

Look at our team April into June last year. Florimon, Kubel, Pelf, Correia, Nolasco, Deduno, Burton, Hicks, scuffling Mauer, Parmelee, Colabello back to earth, Morales -- it wasn't all overperformers, that is for sure.

They were .500 into June 2014 under Gardy, facing plenty of challenges...

What? No room for Nunnie and his 1.049 OPS? I'd probably sub Oliveros for Meyer, as there would be a few open 40-man spots in this scenario. See if Meyer can find his groove starting at AAA. Otherwise, it has more or less my full endorsement.