I don't know who these people are that you allude to, but consider the talent he had in 2002-2009 or so, and the talent he has now. There's almost no comparison. Santana or Diamond Milton/Mays/Radke/Baker or Correia/Deduno/Pelfrey/Worley etc. Cuddyer or Parmelee Hunter or Span/Hicks Jones or Arcia Guzman/Barlett or Nishioka/Carroll/Florimon Koskie/Punto or Valencia/Plouffe Castillo/Hudson or Casilla/Dozier My opinion is that Gardenhire has gotten stale, the players are tired of his act, and don't respect and/or listen to him. How sick are we as fans of "battled his tail off", "got to give them credit, that's a good team over there", "we hit the ball hard, but right at someone"? Now consider how sick the players are of hearing his cliches. He's still a good manager, still in the top 10 in baseball.