Gardy is a Genius, Take 394
Posted: July 10th, 2008 | Filed under: Baseball, New Words, Pop Culture | 78 Comments »
Bill James wrote an essay in his Gold Mine that I particularly love … it talks about how he sort of lost his passion for Craig Biggio at the end of his career. Bill, you probably know, absolutely loved Biggio, perhaps more than he loved any player since Amos Otis. And I think he felt that way because Bill saw greatness in Biggio that other people refused to see.
See, Biggio in his prime was the king of beating you with little things. For instance, Bill liked to talk about two things that Biggio could do: He got hit by pitches and he did not hit into double plays.
Take 1997. Biggio was obviously sensational that year — it wasn’t just the little things, the guy hit .309/.415/.501 with a league leading 146 runs and a Gold Glove at second base. But beyond that he:
1. Led the league with 34 hit-by-pitches.
2. Hit into zero double plays in 744 plate appearances.
The second of those is mind-boggling … nobody in 70 years has even comes close to that kind of feat. Dick McAuliffe hit into zero double plays in 658 at-bats in ‘68, and he’s the closest to Biggio’s record. Anyway, Bill saw all this and determined that Biggio was the best player in the game — better than Griffey, who was sort of acknowledged as the best player in the game at the time (though we all know he wasn’t — Barry Bonds was). Bill (rather cruelly, I thought — I’m sticking up for our guy Paul White here) compared Biggio’s 1997 season to Jim Rice’s 1984 season, and pointed out that just getting hit 33 more times than Rice and grounding into 36 fewer double plays — just those two things — was roughly the equivalent of 100 points of batting average.
Anyway, Bill loved Biggio, I think in part because nobody else did, at least not in the same way. He ranked Biggio as the 35th best player in baseball history, a jolting thing in the year 2000, and he loved that everybody thought he was crazy.
I think we have all had out Biggios. As long as we are inventing new words, you know, “beejo” is not a bad verb representing that feeling and deep connection you might have about a new band or a hidden restaurant or an edgy comedian that you feel like nobody else knows about or appreciates quite the same way. I used to beejo a band in the South called “Donkey” that played a combination of swing and rock. I beejo a folk singer named David Wilcox and comedian Gary Gullman, who does an awesome bit on cookies, and the actress/singer/designer Zooey Deschanel (who reminds me a lot of a longtime beejo Parker Posey). I remember I used to beejo an obscure golfer named David Toms, who was born four days before me and was really nice to me in an interview when were were 25, and I was a columnist in Augusta. Of course, then Toms went ahead and got good and won a Major Championship and kind of ruined it all.
That’s what happens to so many of our beejos (yes, it can be a noun too). They get big and we lose them. I think, that’s exactly what happened to Bill with Biggio … suddenly, Biggio started getting close to some big career numbers, like 3,000 hits, and everybody loved the guy. And, of course, like it usually happens when your band or actor gets discovered, Biggio wasn’t much good when everybody started to love him. And they loved him for all the wrong reasons. And so on. It’s more or less how a lot of us felt about REM.
ANYWAY, my feeling is Bill broke with Biggio because it wasn’t any fun anymore … he wasn’t a lone voice anymore, and he wasn’t being called crazy anymore, and what’s the use in loving Biggio when EVERYONE does anyway?
OK, so that brings us to Ron Gardenhire. He’s my current baseball beejo. As regulars know, I think he’s the best manager in the game. More than that, I think he’s a freaking miracle worker. I not only realize that a lot of people disagree with him — I LOVE that a lot of people disagree with me. I fully love that more than a handful of people think I’m insane and a lot of those people live in Minnesota and watch the Twins on a daily basis and know a lot more about the situation than I do and can give me about 250 sensible reasons why Gardy deserves to be FIRED — forget the craziness about him being the best in the business.
It only makes me like Gardy MORE. I do beejo Gardy. I want to show you something I’ve been keeping tabs of lately …
Let’s take a team that is tied for last in the league in home runs … about half of the league leader.
Let’s take a team that is seventh in the league in on-base percentage.
Let’s take a team that is eighth in the league in slugging percentage.
Let’s take a team that is eighth in the league in stolen bases, seventh in the league in doubles, 11th in the league in walks, and 10th in the league in strikeouts.
OK? Now, you tell me: How in the heck is THAT team third in the American League in runs scored — just behind the super-lineups in Boston and Texas. OK? How is that team nine games over .500 and fighting for a playoff spot with a pitching staff that is ninth in the league in ERA and 13th in hits allowed?
You already know those are the Minnesota Twins numbers, and I defy you to tell me how that team is third in the league in runs scored, how that team is scoring 4.90 runs per game, which is more runs per game than the White Sox (who have a better on-base percentage and slugging percentage and 61 more home runs), how that team is scoring more runs per game than the Tigers (who some fools believed might score 1,000 runs this year), how that team is scoring more runs per game than the Yankees (who are paying A-Rod about as much as the entire Twins lineup).
There are some reasons … reasons that, I suppose, that indicate the trend can’t last. The Twins are hitting a ridiculous .315 with runners in scoring position. As a team. Yeah, that’s more than 50 points higher than the league average, and, yeah, it might be tough to keep that pace going. They also are hitting an obscene .547 on bunts … and while the high average on bunts is connected to the simple fact that successful sacrifice bunts don’t count as at-bats (it’s like they never happened!) that’s still 150 points higher than league average.
And perhaps most telling, the Twins are hitting much better in key situations than most other teams. The Twins are hitting .284 as a team with runners in scoring position and two outs. The league is hitting .238.
The Twins are hitting .287 in that famed Late and Close category.* The league is hitting .248.
*I’ve always wondered PRECISELY what Late and Close means, so here you go: It’s the seventh inning or later. The situation: (A) The game is tied; (B): The teams are separated by one run; (C) The tying run is on base, on deck or at the plate.
Now, a lot of people, including my buddy Rob Neyer, think that the Twins are about to take a tumble, and that’s logical. But I have to say: That’s the beautiful thing to me about Gardy’s Twins. Logic ain’t got nothing to do with it. I understand that on a day-to-day basis lots people watch Gardy and scratch their heads, question the lineups he throws out there, wonder what he’s doing with the bullpen, shake their heads at the moves he makes. I don’t do that: Too busy wondering why the Kansas City skipper brings in lefties to face righties, has Billy Butler bunt, refuses to take Alex Gordon’s 99 OPS+ out of the No. 3 slot and pitches Joakim Soria in the ninth inning of a tie game when he had pitched two innings the night before. And that’s just one game.
So I really do appreciate that my Gardy beejo is from afar, without deep critical thought, without the intimate knowledge of his quirks, flaws and daily oddities … it’s the same way I beejo Zooey Deschanel. Still, the bottom line for me and Gardy always comes back to what I’ve written before: Here it is July again, and I’m looking at the standings again, and I’m thinking again, “How in the heck are the Twins doing it?”
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Can you contrast this with Eric Wedge? All these references to Good Managing confuse the heck out of me.
Maybe if Trey were as successful as Gardy we could accept and even beejo his bonehead, stubborn, and nonsensical decisions—-but then again, maybe he just needs the players Gardy has to work with—–I could definitely beejo that. DG
For the record I heart Craig Biggio, mainly because there aren’t too many Craigs out there, and I was young… So there.
Oh, good grief. As I watched Brian Bass* come into the eighth inning of a scoreless game and give up the only run of the game Monday night and watch the bullpen give away a three run lead in the eighth inning on Tuesday night all the while the best damned relief pitcher in the game is sitting in the bullpen, unused. Joe Nathan is gonna be fresh for the All-Star game, and that’s a great thing.
*Brian freaking Bass! He’s the worst pitcher on the staff! That’s the guy the “best manager in the game” goes to in a scoreless game against the heart of the Red Sox lineup! Man, how are the Twins winning? It’s a mystery! Frankly, I haven’t laughed this much about a “best of” assertion since Forbes named Kevin McHale the best GM in all of sports.
I don’t think anyone is saying that Gardenhire should be fired. But, when the Twins regress to the mean over the next month or so, I expect a column chastising Gardy for his team’s inability to continue to hit .317 with runners in scoring position.
I beejo Zooey Deschanel as well.
Might have been that 70’s stewardess outfit she wore in “Almost Famous”. She has this scene soon afterwards where Billy Crudup shows up at the house looking for Kate Hudson. They are both confused for a moment and she puts her hands on her hips and kinda gesticulates. Kills me every time.
You talking about Gardy reminds me of Walpole Joe Morgan, who managed the Red Sox from mid year 88 to 91. He won the east in 88 and 90 and finished third in 89 and second in 91 then was forced out to make room for a star manager in the making that the Sox did not want to lose – Butch Hobson.
His parting quote was, “This team isn’t as good as you all think it is.”
And then the Sox sucked for two years.
I’d take ole Walpole Joe over any manager in Sox history except Tito, Bill Carrigan and Dick Williams.
When I clicked on the Zooey link, I fully expected to be linked to the Amazon page for “The Soul of Baseball.”
It’s a great book, if you haven’t read it already…
I definitely beejo David Wilcox. The first time I saw him live was in Lexington, Virginia (a day or two after I shared the empty VMI weightroom with coach Bobby Ross, which was surreal). Anyway, the theatre I was working at over the summer had concerts on dark days, and one of these was a skinny guy in a Datsun with a guitar, a box of cd’s and a sold-out crowd in nowhere USA. It was just an amazing show, and gosh he’s terrific… story peters out there a bit, but everyone should check him out, anyway.
Without a doubt, my baseball beejo is Jim Eisenreich (sp?). Loved that guy.
Sure, it’s incredible that they are where they are. But that .315 BA with RISP says it all. If Gardy is somehow making that happen, then he should be inducted into the Hall of Fame right now. No, I think they’ve just been very lucky so far.
“I defy you to tell me how that team is third in the league in runs scored, how that team is scoring 4.90 runs per game… which is more runs per game than the White Sox… how that team is scoring more runs per game than the Tigers… how that team is scoring more runs per game than the Yankees.”
A heck of a lot of luck, and a bunch of bunts.
Zooey is fine but, Joe, how could you be unfaithful to Parker?
“Party Girl” is a ridiculous movie but I could watch it 100 times.
Is it possible for a beejo to become a revemyth over time? Like if Bill James became disenchanted with Biggio after everyone else “discovered” him, and then they all criticized him for sticking around just to get 3000 hits and making the Astros worse by doing so, so people start saying he wasn’t really as good as his numbers, but then a couple years down the road we all look back and realize Bill was right?
Oh, and I loved Zooey in Elf. Quite an underrated movie, IMO…
If Zooey Deschanel’s name was Amy Jones she’d be waiting tables. She’s so average.
If we’re talking about sexy girls who can sing, I beejo Neko Case.
I think it is Zooey’s “average” singing with She & Him that makes her so endearing. And I also beejo the heck out of her. I even watched that Wizard of Oz thing she did on Sci-Fi.
Personally, I don’t know if it’s Gardenhire as much as it is the quirky infield at the Metrodome. Gardenhire has figured out how to play and win on that surface. His bunt and peck approach has kept the Twins in the hunt year after year. It will be interesting to see how the new stadium plays and how the Nick Puntos of this world fare when it opens.
Eric – Tried to find the pic of a guy wearing a Jim Eisenreich Phillies jersey on straightcashhomey.net for you, but couldn’t find it. I remember seeing it up there a few months ago.
I was very (though perhaps not quite beejo territory) fond of Ron Karkovice back in the dizzay.
I’ve beejo’d My Morning Jacket for years, and more recently a band called Battles. I also beejo Jesse’s Embers in Des Moines, Zach Galifinakis, and I beejo, beejo, BEEJO Paula Patton…rrrrawr…
Can we put all of these new terms in a category called Joe-cabulary, please? Thank you.
I can definitely question some of Gardy’s decisions. For example, Monday night, in Boston, score tied 0-0, the Twins’ half of the 8th, bases loaded, 1 out, Okajima on the mound, Jason Kubel due up. Kubel is widely considered the 3rd best hitter in the Twins lineup, yet Gardy pinch hits Craig Monroe, who happens to be slahing .130/.221/.232 against lefties. Predictably, Boston escapes and wins the game. I understand this is just one example, but for more, you could also check out Aaron Gleeman’s blog about how well Gardy uses Nathan in relief. This just quite possibly cost the Twins 2 games in the Boston series.
Not to nitpick, but the HBPs in 1997 is included in the OBP. So, in reference to the HBPs, you really shouldn’t say “But beyond that…” after giving his slash stats. It’s already included.
Nope, I just don’t get it. Praising Gardy’s “genius” after this last BoSox series debacle is like praising A-Rod’s fidelity. It’s a very tough sell.
You defy people to tell you why the Twins are scoring runs, and then you come right out and list the RISP BA, which really is the big reason right there. You mention the staff’s Hits Allowed, but you don’t mention Walks Allowed (which has been preached in the organization for years – check their rankings). No, unfortunately, if the Twins are going to continue being successful this season, Gardy’s going to have to manage a whole lot smarter than he has so far.
Whether it’s Gardy or not, the Twinkies always seem to overperform, while the beloved Royals always underperform. I wish I (and the KC front office) could figure out how they do it.
I beejo Gary Gullman. Even with the exposure from Last Comic Standing and that horrible Dane Cook experiment, he’s seems to have stayed under the radar. The cookie bit is hilarious.
” I fully love that more than a handful of people think I’m insane and a lot of those people live in Minnesota and watch the Twins on a daily basis and know a lot more about the situation than I do and can give me about 250 sensible reasons why Gardy deserves to be FIRED — forget the craziness about him being the best in the business.
It only makes me like Gardy MORE.”
Remember this pyschology when you have teenagers.
My beejo is Great Big Sea. If I lived closer to Canada, I don’t think it would fit since they are pretty popular, but noone else in Texas has heard of them.
My sports beejo story would probably be Manu Ginobili, who I started following as soon as the Spurs drafted him, followed his box scores in Italy, drooled like a maniac during the 2002 world championships.
Now that everyone knows he is an exquisite talent, I have moved on to Dimitar Berbatov. Of course, he may move to Man U and then the whole world will know again, but I have beejo’d him since his Bayern Munich days.
I saw She and Him at SXSW last year, without knowing that Z was in the band. She was indeed hot from about 500 yards away. Weird vibe, with her, 500 hipsters in Baron Davis frames, judiciously aged ironic t-shirts, and tight jeans, and a fog of longing thicker than the Bering Sea. Reminded me of seeing Juliana Hatfield back in the day.
I beejo Fountains of Wayne.
It’s good that you’re such a pleasant guy, Joe. There were major hints of frustration in there that could be aimed at certain organization that plays next to Blue Ridge Blvd. I wouldn’t want to see a post about all of things frustrating you with said team.
Ok, maybe I would.
For some reason, the title of this post made me believe I’d have to take a trip out to the western Minneapolis suburbs to understand why Gardy should be labeled a genius.
Mmmm… Zooey.
I beejo Velvet Crush.
Everyone loves someone else’s manager better than his own team’s manager. Except for me. I love Terry Francona. Then again, I was the only Sox fan who didn’t blame Jimy Williams. (I was a founding member of the Grady Lynch Mob.)
HANDS OFF JIMY! LET GO OF JIMY! DON’T TOUCH JIMY!!
I’m not sure about this new word, Joe. It is a little too close to another slang term that wouldn’t play on a family-friendly blog such as this one. The concept is great, though, as usual.
As far as mastering the surface in Minneapolis goes, in the playoffs, the Twins have lost seven straight at the Dome.
I too, thought there would be a “Gardy’s A Genius Booth” located on Hwy 394, maybe around Ridgedale or something.
And all you people griping about the way Gardy uses Nathan…. you, as Joe said in his driving post, are the biggest idiots that have ever lived. Not one manager would use Nathan to start the 8th in a tie game. Zero. None. Bullpens are now a sea of specialists. Nathan, and other closers, pitch one inning with a 1-3 run lead. ACCEPT IT, and move on. Managing/coaching is about putting people in a position to succeed… and I’d say Gardy does that as well or better than anyone. Including his handling of Nathan. The Twins have had one of the best, if not THE best, bullpen in recent years. Gardy knows what he’s doing. But I’m sure the second guessers know better… they always do.
Mmmm….Zooey Deschanel.
I beejo the band Koufax
I beejo Justin Huber
I beejo Brian Posehn
[...] Reel Addict (Hollywood Crush, Zooey Deschanel) Joe Posnanski (This is not completely about Zooey, but it’s a fun post) Posted by Renan Post Categories: Misc. Leave a comment | Comment [...]
I thought Zooey Deschanel was absolutely atrocious in “The Happening”
Beejo?
Really?
Sorry, I’m down with jeterate, pixifood, revemyth even. But not this one, and not only because it’s one vowel sound away from talking about Bill and Monica, although that certainly contributes. This may be the “Lovesexy” moment. I was a big Prince fan back in the day. This was not a popular position where I grew up, (where Zeppelin, Skynyrd, Springsteen and Sabbath ruled and Robert Plants hair and pants even made Zep a little suspect) but I didn’t care, I thought Prince was great. Then he put out an album and called it “Lovesexy”. And that was it. He’d a reached a point too queasily precious for me to take. I tried to imagine going into a record store and asking for a copy of “Lovesexy”. I imagined putting the record on, someone asking what was playing and having to answer, “Lovesexy”. And I just couldn’t do it. Honestly, I’m cringing a little just typing it. That’s how beejo is hitting me.
At the risk of sucking up, I totally beejo this blog. I hope no one else discovers it and yet I tell every thoughtful, sportsloving, musicloving, intelegent (…IMO…) person I know about it. Fortunately (or unfortunately for me) there aren’t that many.
I certainly prefer the term beejo to man crush. Not that I’m homophobic.
Completely off-topic but do you think the Royals should at least try Soria in the rotation?
SBG took the words out of my fingers. Please, Joe, end this madness.
Donkey was an awesome band, and it was criminal that they didn’t garner more of a following. To give you an idea of how lamentably small their fanbase is/was, you’re probably the 10th person I’ve ever heard mention the band, and I went to college in the south when they were still touring.
I have no idea what happened to them. The last time I saw them, the lead singer was bloated and in an obvious Fat Elvis kind of period, which would have been much more depressing if it didn’t fit so well with his vocal style.
Gardy’s OK. Maybe even better than most. But he seems to believe that getting ejected will fire up his team. For me, this act has gone a little stale.
And at least the Twins aren’t carrying three catchers this year.
What I wanna know is how did Gardy get his pitchers to go 6 for 19 in interleague play?
Gardenhire’s teams are usually better than they should be, and that means he’s doing a good job. His results, in the context of to his team’s talent level, carries a lot more weight to me than people griping about his bullpen usage.
There is far more to managing than making strategic decsions, and far more goes into the strategic decisions than we on the outside will ever know– who is injured, or not available to relieve that day, who is being used or not used in order to help their long term development, etc. And the long term results compared to reasonable expectations will tell you a lot more about a manager’s quality than griping about a pitching change ever will.
Gardenhire’s been there a long time, and his teams are usually better than they should be, so that makes him one of the best managers out there in my book.
If you bat right behind Tony Pena Jr, you’re bound not to hit into any double plays either.
I really liked Biggio as a player, but he hung around way way WAY too long. And to make matters worse, idiot Houston managers kept him leading off, even when his OBP was hovering around .280. Nothing quite like having your leadoff hitter make four outs every game!
And the sad thing is, even the insane BBWAA would have voted Biggio into the Hall WITHOUT 3000 hits. So what did he really do it for?
“How in the heck is THAT team third in the American League in runs scored — just behind the super-lineups in Boston and Texas. ”
Because they’re hitting like .847 with runners in scoring position. And if you believe THAT is because of Gardenhire, well… okay. You probably believe in the “clutchness” of Omar Vizquel too?
That BA – RISP isn’t going to last. Last season the Tigers were, at one point, batting close to .380 with RISP and it didn’t last either. And they had FAR better hitters than the Twins do.
Also, again, the Twins just got done playing the pathetic league, and did very well against them. Beating up on little league teams doesn’t really say much for the overall quality of your ballclub.
But, I recognize your joy in beejo’ing Gardy.
My beejo is hating Tony laRussa.
Someone in Texas has heard of Great Big Sea? Good on you, says this Canuck.
Zooey D. is quite talented.
I’m a Zooey fan, too. Maybe because she was in Eulogy (a film I beejo), or Almost Famous, or Big Trouble (very funny, but not as funny as the Dave Barry novel on which it was based). Or Elf, or Hitchhiker’s Guide. Maybe because you never see her in some overdone, Jerry Bruckheimer/Michael Bay style super-duper action thriller (complete with free advertising for GM, Dodge and/or Budweiser at no extra charge!) I dunno.
My wife doesn’t get it. Thinks Zooey’s weird looking, and maybe she is. Gotta catch her at the right angle (but not necessarily A right angle). I just see those huge pools she calls eyes and that sly smile and I just melt. Of course, I hear The Happening really sucked, so I may have to start lowering my opinion of her.
Odd coincidence: I happened to start watching an old Coppola film called The Conversation right after watching The Assasination of Jesse James the other day, and I noticed that Zooey looked a LOT like CIndy Williams. Check it out:
Cindy Williams (i.e. Shirley from laverne & Shirley)
http://www.biography.com/biography/bio_episode_guide.jsp?episode=279277
Zooey
http://flattire.infodump.org/media/blogs/a/2008/042408_zooey_deschanel_1.jpg
Hey Erik, that idiot Joe Torre brought Mariano Rivera into the eighth inning of a game 14 times last year and 11 times the year before that. Not EVERYONE just pitches a closer one inning.
I beejo’d Amos Otis.
I beejo’d Nate Archibald before he was “Tiny.” He was always ‘Nate the Skate’ to me. 34/11 bitches.
Gotta agree with Gogiggs that I’m not on board with beejo, pretty much for the reasons he provided. I’d suggest “Bidge” as an alternate, but that also treads a bit close to a term that isn’t necessarily deemed appropriate.
Totally on board with the Parker Posey thing, at least in her earlier days when she wasn’t so…pointy. Can’t jump on the Zooey train, though, perhaps in part because I can’t seem to separate her from Chloe Sevigny for some bizarre reason. Someone mentions Zooey Deschanel, and it’s 50/50 which of the two I think they’re talking about.
This is something I’ve encountered more than a few times – having some sort of mental block where two completely separate and distinct people have somehow become interchangeable in my mind. To bring it back to baseball, it took me forever to differentiate between Honus Wagner and Rogers Hornsby.
Atrocious is not the word to describe Zooey in “The Happening.” It seemed like the whole cast was intentionally giving terrible performances. I think M. Night took enough critisism for “Lady In The Water” and decided that he can make a horrible movie on purpose, increase the shock factor and laugh all the way to the bank. He did just that. Terrible acting, people throwing themselves off buidlings, under golf course lawn mowers and through the front windshield of a Wrangler and $140 million in sales.
I beejo The Hold Steady and The National, for certain.
Travis – you just de-beejo’d Zooey for me with the Shirley/Cindy Williams reference. Dead on.
Schlameel – Schlamazzle on you sir!
The Red Sox just outdebeejo’d Gardy’s genius. Triple play reversal has got to hurt.
Much as I respected Biggio, I ABSOLUTELY hated all the armor he wore to the plate, and hated it just as much that the “commissioner” grandfathered in guys like he and Bonds and let them come to the plate dressed like American Gladiators. Somehow justice would be served if they knocked his career HBP numbers down by about, say, 285?
There are two rules in MLB i’d like to see actually enforced as written:
1) Runner interference on plays breaking up the double play at second
2) HBP rules. Especially in an era with armour.
Nothing makes my blood boil more than watching a batter trot down to first base after leaning into strike 2, or doing nothing to avoid ball 1. I frankly that don’t care that a major league pitched ball hurts. I just dont like that a batter can reach base and preserve such precious outs by doing nothing other than standing there and getting in the way.
Thanks for sticking up for me Joe. You’re right, it was sort of cruel of James to compare Biggio’s ‘97 season to any of Rice’s big GIDP years. That’s not to say that GIDP’s don’t matter, because they do, and it’s certainly not to say that Biggio wasn’t a better player than Rice, because he obviously was. But please tell me that James at least had the decency to point out that Biggio was a leadoff hitter in the NL, while Rice was a cleanup hitter in the AL, and therefore had something like 125 more DP opportunities than Biggio. If he didn’t have the decency to make that notation, then his comparision goes from a magnifying glass used to improve vision to a magnifying glass used to burn the feelers off unsuspecting ants.
I can respect thinking Gardy’s a genius/good manager if you aren’t a fan of the Twins or don’t pay attention to the team on a daily basis. I think Gardenhire is terrible, but relative to the rest of the managers in baseball he is about average. Gardenhire blew a game a few days ago by using his mop up/long reliever in the 8th inning of a tie game. Also it is hard for me to understand the blasting of Wedge for leading off Grady Sizemore and calling Gardy a genius when he is leading off a guy that has a .263/.298/.366 line and has more strikeouts than anyone in the AL other than Jack Cust. This is the player that gets the most plate appearances on the team. While at the same time Mauer is rocking a .400+ OBP, Casilla who has good speed with a .358 OBP and Span, another speedy player, with a small sample size .426 OBP. Using the lineup efficiency tool every single bad lineup combo has Carlos Gomez leading off. I don’t think a genius manager would lead off Carlos Gomez. Also you would be shocked to read Gardy’s quotes to papers about his free swinging players and how he doesn’t really care if they hack away.
Minnesota Twins since Gardenhire took over as manager:
2002- Pythag record: 86-75, Actual record: 94-67
2003- Pythag record: 85-77, Actual record: 90-72
2004- Pythag record: 87-75, Actual record: 92-70
2005- Pythag record: 84-78, Actual record: 83-79
2006- Pythag record: 93-69, Actual record: 96-66
2007- Pythag record: 80-82, Actual record: 79-83
2008 (July 10)- Pythag record: 48-44, Actual record: 51-41
Since Gardenhire took over as manager, the Twins have won a total of 22 more games than they should have. In both 2006, the Twins Pythagorean record would have kept them from the division title, although they would still have won the wild-card. In 2003 the Twins Pythagorean record would have kept them out of the playoffs entirely.
In the 4 seasons that the Twins made the playoffs, they outdid their Pythagorean. In the 2 seasons they didn’t, they only underacheived by one game each time.
Are the Twins just consistently the luckiest team year after year? Or might Gardenhire have something to do with it? If the Twins consistently overachieve and make the playoffs with a manager who deserves to be fired, would they have won 100 games and a World Series at some point with Torre or Francona or Cox?
I don’t know anything about the Twins so I don’t have a dog in this fight. I’m just asking.
Oh, and as far as Zooey Deschanel?…*drool*.
@Jason
The Hold Steady rock!
“And all you people griping about the way Gardy uses Nathan…. you, as Joe said in his driving post, are the biggest idiots that have ever lived. Not one manager would use Nathan to start the 8th in a tie game. Zero. None. Bullpens are now a sea of specialists. Nathan, and other closers, pitch one inning with a 1-3 run lead. ACCEPT IT, and move on. Managing/coaching is about putting people in a position to succeed… and I’d say Gardy does that as well or better than anyone. Including his handling of Nathan. The Twins have had one of the best, if not THE best, bullpen in recent years. Gardy knows what he’s doing. But I’m sure the second guessers know better… they always do.”
This is flat out wrong.
First, there are other managers smart enough to use their best pitchers in high leverage situations (Francona/Papelbon, Torre/Rivera (yes, I know Torre doesn’t manage the Yankees now, and yes, I know that now that Rivera is 98 years old he doesn’t often pitch more than one inning)).
Two, who cares if other managers are doing it? That makes it the smart thing to do? That’s just silly.
Three, Joe Nathan is getting $15 million a year — yet he can’t be asked to pitch in tie games or more than one inning? If that’s true — and Gardy has said it is — what a complete waste of money for the Twins. Nathan’s save percentage isn’t much better than Eddie Guardado’s. If you’re going to use him in low leverage situations, don’t pay him elite money.
All of this, yes, is Gardy’s fault.
Would someone please tell me when the Rangers became a superlineup? That’s some 1-4, sure…but when you’re running out 4 rookies and Ramon Vazquez in spots 5-9, I have trouble seeing the super…
Guys? Are you aware that Joe Nathan has entered a tie ballgame 41 times since becoming the Twins closer in 2004? That nearly half of those (19) were tie games in the ninth inning?
Do you know how many times Mariano Rivera has entered a tie ballgame in the 8th inning since 2004? (This is the situation we’re talking about in the 1-0 loss to Boston earlier this week, after all)
Once. Or put another way, once more than Joe Nathan.
Baseball is not a game where you have to ‘fire every bullet in your gun’ every day trying to win; trying to win today and doing so by giving yourself less of a chance of winning tomorrow and the next day and the next day is the definition of ‘losing baseball’.
Personally, I’ve stopped waiting for this team to come ‘back to earth’; they were hitting .311/845 in RISP situations at the end of May, and now, nearly at the All-Star break, they’re hitting .311/838 in RISP situations. Maybe it’ll still happen, but wouldn’t you have expected to see more evidence of it by now? (They’d need to fall to .296/821 to match their 2006 RISP performance — in the season where reserve catcher Mike Redmond coined the phrase ’smell the RBIs’ as a way of encouraging his teammates to hit with men in scoring position.)
Getting back to Biggio – FWIW, here are the ten players with the most PA in a season without a GIDP, courtesy of BB-ref:
Craig Biggio, 1997, 744
Dick McAuliffe, 1968, 658
Rob Deer, 1990, 511
Corey Patterson, 2006 498
Dave Collins, 1984, 492
Ray Lankford, 1994, 482
Otis Nixon, 1994, 461
Dave Roberts, 2003, 440
Rob Mackowiak, 2002, 439
Norm Cash, 1960, 428
Note that the top two, as well as #4, 5, 7, and 8 were leadoff hitters.
Biggio had 124 PA with a runner on first in 1997. Deer had 155.
I know which one is most impressive to me.
I’m on board with the anti-beejo crew, as well as the “Just Say No To Zooey D” crowd.
Beejo list:
Music: King’s X, Drivin’ n’ Cryin, Adrian Belew, Your Father’s Fight
Baseball: Paul Byrd
Basketball: Matt Harpring
Food: Rock Shrimp, Sam’s (warehouse) Pizza
Preacher: Phil Johnson
Political Columnist: Thomas Sowell, Walter Williams,
Comedian: Richard Jeni
Cartoons: Pearls Before Swine, Get Fuzzy, Rubes
As far as developing a beejo for Zooey, it is a must to netflix or rent
“All the Real Girls” http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0299458/.
If you don’t have a beejo for her after watching that film, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness. So you got that going for you, which is nice.
As I child I had a beejo for two California Angels players, Gary Pettis and Wally Joyner.
“I’m on board with the anti-beejo crew,”
It’s a movement!
I like Zooey D, though. She hits that sweet spot where she’s hot enough to desire, but not so hot that she’s unattainable. You want her, but unlike, say, Angelina Jolie, you can imagine you might actually get her (or her non-union mexican equivalent).
[...] Gardy?s a Genius, Take 394Linking because Joe talks about Craig Biggio, and we like that around here. [...]
Here are the 2 things that roped me into spending some hard-earned* money on “The Happening”:
1. Zooey D.
2. My girlfriend wanted to see a movie that had Zooey D. in it.
Here is what my girlfriend said upon our exiting the theater: “Don’t ever let me spend money on an M. Night movie again.”
*Alright, “hard-earned” is questionable, but dammit, I really want those 20 bucks and 2 hours of my life back.
There is a reason that the twins are the best in baseball at hitting with runners in scoring position. It’s called team spead. distracting the pitchers so that they can’t concentrate on the batters as much as they should. The pitcher missing his spot at a crutial time is how it works and why speed matters and why the twins draft speed and pitching. As for Beejo for Biggio. I always had love for the man because he was born on the same day as me.
Gardy is a great manager who has never gotten his due. His biggest strength, and weakness, is his faith in his players. He plays Nick Punto even though he can’t hit, and he pitches Brian Bass in pressure situations, even though he’s about the 6th best releiver on the team. Bass cost them a game against Boston, but the faith Gardy shows in him will eventually win them an important game down the stretch because he will have been tested in pressure situations, and knows he has the confidence of his manager and teammates. This is the same with Punto. Gardy has so much faith in him, even with his offensive liabilities, that he plays well when he gets to play….
I just wish they would give up on Boof.
Matt writes: “Sure, it’s incredible that they are where they are. But that .315 BA with RISP says it all. If Gardy is somehow making that happen, then he should be inducted into the Hall of Fame right now. No, I think they’ve just been very lucky so far.”
Gardy seems to get lucky each year. We can all question a decision or two on every manager, but this guy, over the long haul, is tops!
Gardy is considered one of the very best managers in the league by his peers, year in and year out. That is good enough for me. As a Twins fan, I sit back and enjoy a quality product each year. I credit the manager for that long term stability! After all, he is given unlimited resources that the Boston’s and New York’s are.
Despite losing three to Boston, he got his players to regroup and win 3 of 4 from Detroit over the weekend.
I would just like to say look what Gardy has done and look at the players he’s done it with. To name a few:
Luis Rivas
Christian Guzman
Dougie Baseball
Corey Koskie
Jacque Jones
Lew Ford
Luis Rodriguez
Jason Tyner
Juan Castro
Ruben Sierra (not during his good years)
Tony Batista (not during his good years)
Brett Boone (not during his good years)
Rondel White (not during his good years)
None of these players were all that great. Can you tell me another manager that could succeed like Gardy has with these players?
I concur. Gardy’s a genius seeing as how he’s produced a competitive team almost every year he’s been the Twins manager, which is pretty remarkable considering the players and payroll he’s had to work with. The Twins are a true “team” and that begins with Gardy’s leadership.
It’s about time he’s recognized as one of the best managers in the game.