A friend of mine once gave me an opinion of Ron Gardenhire. She said that Gardy looked like an evil Santa Claus. I laughed at it and found it absurd, but the recent actions of Mr. Gardenhire have made me think a little bit deeper into that take.
Let's get this straight, Gardy is a pretty good manager, but he's not a great manager...yet. Gardy embodies the "Minnesota Nice" lifestyle, which is great for ticket sales. I mean, come on, after the first rainout at Target Field, Gardenhire said he went home and took care of a "honey do" list for his wife. Sounds like a typical guy.
However, I believe that sometimes, Gardenhire thinks too much, a problem that many of us can relate to as well. Consider the following:
The first one is that Gardenhire doesn't like to think too much about his lineup. Span 1st, Hudson 2nd, Mauer 3rd, etc. And if a player doesn't bat in that spot, the balance of the earth is going to crumble. That's why, even though Gardy had plenty of better hitters to slot in that two hole on Sunday, Gardy elected to put Matt Tolbert there instead of Delmon Young, who has been playing out of his mind.
Not to mention that Gardy also gave Denard Span a day off. Yup, I understand that players need their days off, but before an off day that's not even a travel day? Wow. This was in a lineup already missing Orlando Hudson and J.J. Hardy. So in a stretch of the lineup, the Twins threw out Trevor Plouffe, Drew Butera, Nick Punto, and Matt Tolbert. That's three AAAA prospects (between AAA and the major leagues.) and an OK utilityman which Gardy has to play every day or there will be naked pictures of him on the internet. And these guys came up 4-5 times each. Even throwing Young at the top of the order would have helped a little bit, as he wound up belting a three run homer later in the game.
But what really blows my mind is the 100 pitch count that Gardy enforces. Yeah, we get it too, after Mark Prior (211) and Kerry Wood (211) threw way too many innings as youngsters, it's fashionable to make sure your arms don't flame out at an early age. (Rick Ankiel would also make this list too.) But when a pitcher has a 2 hit shutout with 12 strikeouts is DOMINATING a lineup in a close ballgame, you shouldn't take him out. Not when he just downed a power bar in the dugout. Instead Matt Guerrier, who has been pretty solid this year, nearly coughed up the game, leading to a very tense Jose Mijares appearance, who is getting better as the year is progressing, and a Jon Rauch save.
I have to wonder what would happen in the World Series (wait, Minnesota teams don't get to championship series! Oh, well.) if Baker was tossing a gem in Game 7 and was at pitch 99 with two outs to go. What if it was Jack Morris on the mound? Gardy would get his ass kicked...in public.
Gardy doesn't like criticism of his decisions. The other night during a presser, Gardy answered some of the questions about putting out a C-lineup, Joe Mauer's power outage, and how the Danny Valencia and Plouffe are progressing in the minors with the phrase, "The Minnesota Twins, WE'RE IN FIRST PLACE!" Ah, the status quo...become AL Central Champions of the world.
So maybe my friend was right. Besides I could see a little girl sitting on Gardy's lap, and...
Gardy: What do you want for Christmas little girl?
Girl: More complete games.
Gardy: NOT IF THERE'S 100 PITCHES!!!! AHHHH!!!
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