Ah, yes. That's one of my favorite wrestling quotes that go perfectly with sports. R.I.P. Owen Hart. Now to the business at hand...
Let's give credit where credit is due. Ron Gardenhire has done a great job with the Minnesota Twins. Five division titles don't lie, he can be a successful manager and he's proven that. He deserves a little bit of leeway. Until now that is...
Last offseason, the Twins made moves to enhance the roster right now to not only win the AL Central, but to make a deep run into the playoffs. Jim Thome and Orlando Hudson were signed to be the missing pieces of a team that went 17-4 in September and October to win the division in 2009.
Things were good at the beginning of the year. Gardenhire got the team off to a quick start and the Twins seemingly had a stranglehold on first place. They even won at Yankee Stadium believe it or not! Things were good in Twins territory.
However, after that Kubel grand slam, things have gone downhill. The Twins enter Sunday's tilt with the Tigers 4 games out of first place and things don't appear to be getting any better. The Twins are underachieving, and when a team with talent underachieves, the first person to get the blame is the manager. And in this case it's well deserved.
Gardy's gotten a free pass over the years because he's won. Hey, how can you second guess a winner? But the fact that the Twins have the talent to be more than AL Central Champions of the World is what's driving this debate now.
First, Gardy plays favorites. The primary example of this is Nick Punto, and that's been well documented by bloggers and message board posts over Twins Territory. However, it runs deeper than just Punto.
Michael Cuddyer still hits 5th in this lineup, which blows my mind. Gardy doesn't ever want to tinker with his lineup to try something new to shake up his team. Tony LaRussa, who's a level above Gardenhire on the greatness scale, moved Matt Holliday to the two hole in the batting order to get his struggling offense going. It worked, and the Cardinals are seeing a little bit of an improvement. (Although they are currently two games out of first in the NL Central.)
Something like this should be considered with Joe Mauer, who has not put up the numbers worthy of a 184 million dollar contract. But back to Cuddyer, Delmon Young is hitting about .400 with runners in scoring position. A lot of people say that it's a great job by Young to be leading the team in RBI from the 7th spot in the batting order. I would say that it speaks a lot about the guys who are supposed to drive in those runs (the 5th, 6th guys in the lineup) leaving people on base, which seems to be the Twins motivation.
Second, Gardenhire never seems to want to be questioned. Heck, nobody does. However, he's in a position of power, so he's going to get questioned, just like he is in this blog. I hate to say it, but look at Ozzie Guillen. At least when his team plays bad, he lets them know about it. He doesn't spill B.S. line after B.S. line about how they're "battling their tails off."
Clearly, they aren't battling anymore. Hey, I'm not a big Punto fan, but when I watched the Twins game yesterday Punto was the only guy hustling around the field trying to make plays. This team is very non-chalant, which matches the manager's personality.
There are times where I wish Gardy just had a recliner and an ice cold lemonade in the dugout, because he seems completely oblivious to what's going on.
The hitters aren't putting up the numbers they need to. Same with the pitchers. Gardy has done a lot for the Twins over the past couple of years, but with a team that's built to win now, there isn't much room for error. Perhaps a change at the top will give those underachievers a kick in the pants they desperatley need. After all, Orlando Cabrera isn't coming through that door folks.
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