Gardy No Longer Managing Twins

Technically, Gardy was not fired. Much like Tom Kelly before him, Ron Gardenhire was asked to take a different position with the Twins to make room for another manager. Gardy would still like to manage, so the Twins granted him his release.

There's a difference.

Either way, much like I said a couple of days ago, the Twins need better starting pitching. The manager won't make much of a difference before that happens. Maybe that will happen next year. Nolasco might be better. Pelfrey may find his arm finally healed. Or they could bring up somebody or they could acquire someone new. Or we'll have to sit through several more seasons of losing baseball until we achieve baseball's holy grail: An above average starting rotation.

In baseball, you're only as good as your starters. The Twins simply do not have enough of them.

It would be a great time to go with a larger bullpen rotation and skip the starters entirely, but baseball isn't ready to embrace that idea yet. The Twins will find another traditional manager. They will do traditional things. And we will continue losing until the year when a good starting rotation finally comes together again. Since all the other teams are looking for (or seeking to maintain) that goal, it could be awhile.

Instead of embracing change after 4 horrible seasons, they will keep trying the traditional way. And we'll simply wait until the we have the right hand dealt to us.

Four aces.

A good manager would try something different and be backed by the organization.

The words "good" and "traditional" may no longer go together in the modern era. So we may have an awfully long wait since all of the candidates mentioned so far are traditional baseball people. One of the primary reasons Gardy was unsuccessful was that he too was traditional. Baseball is changing. Those teams who don't see the need to change when circumstances dictate that change, will continue making the same traditional mistakes.

Who knows, we may be dealt four aces next season. But anyone who plays cards knows the odds aren't in our favor. That we MAY have a couple of aces right now certainly helps the odds.

One last note, since I mentioned Tom Kelly, Tom had a stroke late last week. As I've personally found out, that could mean a lot of different things. The effects left by a stroke are wide-ranging. He'll be in my prayers.