Hugh Morris

Okay, I'll stop lurking (from Day 1. Nice site ya'll) to bite on this one. What part of the Twins 2006 playoff performance would you lay on Gardy? There was game 1, where Johan lost a pitching duel with the still-very-effective, all-star selection Barry Zito. Not great, but your team getting shut down by Barry Zito wasn't something you'd lose your job for back in 2006. There was game 2, which Boof Bonser had to start (as I recall, I admittedly may be wrong here) because Liriano's rehab failed... as it turns out, he required Tommy John. I suppose you could blame Gardy for the conditions that led to the surgery, but "too cautious with his pitchers" would be a pretty novel Gardy complaint. Even then, Boof kept the team in the game until Torii made that illfated diving attempt to grab a liner late. Was an attempt at defensive wizardry from one of the most respected defensive CFs of his era, in his prime, Gardy's error? Then there was game 3. Given that he'd been shut down for the bulk of September and had a pretty miserable post-allstar break season, I can see the arguments that Gardy never should have put Radke out there in the first place. Then again, the other folks who started for the Twins with at least 10 starts on the year were Scott Baker (in his second partial year as a Major Leaguer, having a brutal season) and Carlos Silva (not his one inexplicable good year). I find it difficult to second guess that decision. It also seems like the context of the ESPN expert votes would be important here. The Twins barely won the division over the Tigers (1 game) and did not have the league's best record. Not the resume of a team expected to dominate the playoffs. The determining factor for most experts, I'd imagine, was the hope that Liriano would be available to give the Twins a dominant 1-2 punch with Santana and a better than even chance of starting each series with a 2-0 advantage. How many do you think would have picked the Twins knowing the rotation would go Santana-Bonser-Injured Radke? tl;dr: I think there are a wide range of valid arguments to dismiss Gardy (though I wouldn't necessarily agree with all of them), but 2006 strikes me as a very odd year to use as an example of playoff underperformance-as most teams would be sunk by injury to their best pitcher and to their most experienced pitcher, an inexplicable defensive miscue by a consensus top 5 defensive CF and a dominant performance by the opponent's All Star ace pitcher.