How long before Gardy is gone?

[PierBridge]

Quote:

Do you really think Gardy can take us to the promised land?

Yes, if any skipper can, Gardy can!

[LABS4ME]

So let's fast forward to next year.

Starting rotation; Baker, Pavano, Diamond, Deduno, Devries, Hendricks and Duensing. Pick 5 of the 7.

Yuck! Pick any ol' skip!!! That starting line up blows. No skipper is gonna make a contender with those starters! Looks like the cellar again if that is all we can muster.

I'd hope Pavano is gone, I'd hope hendricks is gone, I'd hope Duensing is gone, Baker no way... Hope Gibson is ready.

Ugggghhhh...

Good Luck!

Ken

[MNice]

Dang!!!! If they could only get a new stadium so they can compete

[eyebenband]

There is a good chance that both Baker and Pavano will be gone, they are in the option year for $9 mil each. Ain't gonna happen.

The rumor is that Ryan told the top boys he needs at least

one level A starter and at least one level B starter.

With Capps gone too, there should be a little dollars available

for a couple decent starters..that would make Diamond the number

3 starter and go from there. No guess where the 4 and 5 starters

will come from though.

Too bad that Parmilee can't play 2nd or 3rd base.

[mainbutter]

They would rather have a mediocre to pi$$ poor team and make 100 million in profit then have a playoff team and make 50 million in profit

I hope someday I have the ability to choose between a world series or 50 million dollars.

I'm going to walk away with heavy pockets.

Regardless, available pitching talent just plain isn't easily available, heck in the past few years it seems that signing a pitcher has been more of a pull on the slot machine than usual. "Good" pitchers doing poorly with plenty of surprise standouts has made baseball interesting for some fans and very frustrating for others.

[Kyhl]

I think Gardy retires after this season.

He sounds beaten down. Day after day we hear from him about the players not executing on the field. How can he defend them the way they've played.

Payroll won't get better next year so how will the execution listed above get better?

The current team leaders pay wise do not seem like leaders. Mauer is doing better this year but he doesn't seem like a leader. Mornoe is still on a comeback. These are the team veterans?

Looking at the prospects that have been laid out here, the future looks dim. How many years does Gardy have left and of those, is there a hint of a future with this team?

Might be time to throw in the towel and enjoy his 200hp Nitro on a real lake for a summer.

[PierBridge]

Quote:

I hope someday I have the ability to choose between a world series or 50 million dollars.

I'm going to walk away with heavy pockets.

Regardless, available pitching talent just plain isn't easily available, heck in the past few years it seems that signing a pitcher has been more of a pull on the slot machine than usual. "Good" pitchers doing poorly with plenty of surprise standouts has made baseball interesting for some fans and very frustrating for others.

Post of the year~!!!!

Back to Gardy .... hey coach not only are we going to give you another, very medicore starting staff at best to begin the 2012 season .... guess what, we are going to take every one of the projected starters away from you ..... Good Luck Coach!

[thatoneguy]

I thought this post was going to be made irrelevant, as I was sure Gardy was going to die of a massive heart attack last night when the ump threw Diamond out of the game.

Pretty crappy on the ump's part, IMO. It was incredibly obvious that Oswalt hit Mauer on purpose. Diamond equally obviously threw at Hamilton - but missed him. At that point, warnings could have been issued to both benches and the game goes on.

The ump was within his rights to toss Diamond, but if he did that she should without a doubt have tossed Oswalt as well.

[B. Amish]

is oswalt that much of a baby to throw at a guy when he's behind 3-0? what a flippin silly-me! he coulda cost his team an injury if diamond would've actually connected. not smart thinking when you're probably going to the postseason.

gardy gets worked up from time to time over little stuff, but last night was pretty pathetic from the rangers and oswalt.

[pikestabber]

I agree that either Oswalt should have been tossed, as well, or nobody should have been tossed (and personally, I think no one should have been tossed out...oldest tradition in baseball is eye for an eye). In any case, it was a pretty smart (yet classless) move on the part of the Rangers...get our best pitcher ejected in the early goings and get into our bullpen on the first day of a four games series. The series is now secure with the first of 4 victories coming from a chess move or two. They know darn well Mauer won't ever charge the mound...but I wish he would have. A good old fashioned benches clearing brawl would have been fun after another dismal season. I bet Willingham throws a mean punch.

[Scott M]

6 games suspension for Diamond (1 start). Whatever.

[JBMasterAngler]

Just about the same exact scenario happened in the yankees/indians game. Jeter takes a pitch to the head, Sabathia retaliates by throwing behind the batter. Sabathia did not get ejected, certainly wasn't suspended.

Umpires need to not be so involved. They shouldn't even give warnings when pitchers are sticking up for their teammates. Just let the players play. Maybe MLB can give small fines afterwards, but that's all it should be.

And yeah, Gardy, please retire!

[pinkfloyd4ever]

The Twins don't fire anybody! Well at least since the TK years.

Bill Smith still has some sort of title with the team.

Terry Ryan should tell Gardy that he can have some sort of fancy title but its time for a new voice in the dugout.

[eyebenband]

Here are the free agent starters available this winter...

Which one do they go after?

Scott Baker (31) - $9.25MM club option

Erik Bedard (34)

Joe Blanton (32)

Bartolo Colon (40)

Aaron Cook (34)

Kevin Correia (32)

Doug Davis (37)

Jorge De La Rosa (32) - $11MM player option with a $1MM buyout

Ryan Dempster (36)

R.A. Dickey (38) - $5MM club option with a $300K buyout

Zach Duke (30)

Scott Feldman (29) - $9.25MM club option with a $600K buyout

Jeff Francis (32)

Gavin Floyd (30) - $9.5MM club option

Freddy Garcia (37)

Zack Greinke (28)

Jeremy Guthrie (34)

Rich Harden (31)

Dan Haren (32) - $15.5MM club option with a $3.5MM buyout

Livan Hernandez (38)

Roberto Hernandez (32) - $9MM club option

Tim Hudson (37) - $9MM club option with a $1MM buyout

Edwin Jackson (29)

Hiroki Kuroda (38)

Colby Lewis (33)

Francisco Liriano (29)

Kyle Lohse (34)

Rodrigo Lopez (37)

Derek Lowe (40)

Paul Maholm (31) - $6.5MM club option with a $500K buyout

Shaun Marcum (31)

Jason Marquis (34)

Daisuke Matsuzaka (32)

Brandon McCarthy (29)

Kevin Millwood (38)

Jamie Moyer (50)

Brett Myers (32) - $10MM vesting option with a $3MM buyout

Ramon Ortiz (40)

Roy Oswalt (35)

Carl Pavano (37)

Jake Peavy (31) - $22MM club option with a $4MM buyout

Brad Penny (35)

Joel Pineiro (34)

Anibal Sanchez (29)

Jonathan Sanchez (30)

Ervin Santana (30) - $13MM club option with a $1MM buyout

Joe Saunders (32)

James Shields (31) - $9MM club option with a $1.5MM buyout

Chien-Ming Wang (33)

Kip Wells (36)

Randy Wolf (36)

Chris Young (34)

Carlos Zambrano (32)

[thatoneguy]

Grienke, McCarthy, and Saunders would be my three targets. Grienke will come with a high price tag, but is a legit top-of-the-rotation guy. McCarthy is just starting to develop into a nice guy, and could be a #2 or #3 guy for MN. Saunders is more of a soft-serve, back-end guy, but has produced at times and is certainly better than anyone the Twins will have ready from the minors.

Now they just need to trade Morneau to free up some cash.

[pikestabber]

Knowing the Twins it will probably be Marquis, Liriano, and Pavano with an additional overpayment for Livan Hernandez.

[eyebenband]

Won't about 23M come from not re-signing Capps, Pavano and Baker??

2 Mil from not resigning Casilla too.

[greebs]

What's everyone thinking nearly a year later from last post? I think if this were any other team he would have been canned after last year and if not then for sure by now this season but I would be surprised if he doesn't make it thru the season due to twins reputation of seldom firing mgrs. if they continue with the bad play I would hope the majority of coaching staff are not back next year, particularly gardy and Anderson.

As a side note I wonder how many mgrs have survived 2.5 seasons with the record twins have had? I'm guessing very few. He very well could resurface with another team and have success again as a mgr but it seems obvious twins are in need of a major shakeup and they can't fire the players. There are plenty of suspects to share the blame of this teams failures and don't think they will get better overnight with new coaching staff but this combination of coaches and players isn't even close to getting the turnaround started.

[blue_healer_guy]

9yrs to long already. but am sick of giving reasons cuz they go unheard.

[Cicada]

"the problem I see with gardy is that he's showing that he's not the kind of mgr that is going to develop the young talent."

A major league manager's job is not to develop the talent. That should have happened in the minor leagues.

"He's showing again this year just like last year that he's not great at getting the lesser talent to perform well and there are few signs of improvement."

You might want to consider that he is, maybe, getting more out of that lesser talent than most other major league managers would. If these guys come up and can't be put in a situation where they should succeed, then they are not ready for this level. Sometimes that is forced by circumstances such as injuries. Gibson is a good example. A lot of internet experts wanted him called up at the start of the year because he was a number one draft choice. He hadn't been consistently successful at triple-a. How is he supposed to be the answer at the major league level? Most of the teams in this league must develop that talent in the minors and work them through the system. Very few can afford to buy their wins, like the Yankees.

[toughguy]

I think odds are pretty good Gardy will be back next year. The Pohlad's haven't fired a manager in 26 years. Will Gardy walk? I think the odds of that actually might be higher. Take a year off and start again with a team that spends $$$.

[Scott M]

It doesn't look good for the front office or manager that 7 former Twins are in the AS game.

[harvey lee]

One can blame the front office for not paying enough to keep thier star players other than Joe.

Gardy can only do so much with medium at best players who make apot of mistakes.

You have always needed some horses to win and the Twins front office has decided they can do it with one horse.

I would send Joe down the road and try to get 2 good pitchers. They would do more to help the team win than just paying Joe big bucks.

If I were gardy, I would leave. Any coach who has any desire to win knows with the Twins ownership, not likely to happen unles they get darn lucky.

I believe as long as Pohland's are making money, they do not care how well the team does. People keep going to the games so they really do not feel the need to field a better team.

The Twin,s can hire a new coach, maybe the best out there but I see no difference in the end as Pohland's don't go after the better talent unless one can get them for pennies.

If they did let gardy go, good luck to the next one.

Gardy looks tired and wore out, maybe from the lack of talent or skilled players and all the mistakes. What coach would not be????

[aanderud]

I believe as long as Pohland's are making money, they do not care how well the team does. People keep going to the games so they really do not feel the need to field a better team.

I agree. I haven't been to a game in a couple of years and I won't go until they field a team worth watching (or if the tix are dang near free). Went once to the new stadium with my son, but the only game prior to that was the last playoff loss against the yankers at the dome (which was the last game ever at the dome).

As long as the stadium is full, the owner has no reason to spend any more on players, as there's no return on that investment.

[harvey lee]

Bro in law has had 6 season tickets for many years.

He was so disappointed with the Twins the last few years, he let his season tickets go.

He is a huge baseball fan and said I cannot pay that money for a team like the Twin's owners put on the field.