Gardy and Anderson stay. Everyone else is out. Scuttlebutt is that the crew from Rochester this year is on the way up: Tom Burnansky(hitting), Bobby Cuellar(pitching), Gene Glynn(3B?). Sounds like Paul Molitor might be the bench coach.
Twins fire much of coaching staff
- Thread starter Iastfan112
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i wondered how many bad seasons we would have to have before they finally made some changes. i realize we spent way too much on mauer and morneau and now we cant pay anyone else but the last couple seasons have been hard to watch
I've read speculation it has to do with contracts. Everyone who was fired or reassigned had their contract up, Gardy and Anderson's weren't up till after next year.
Ugh...hooray another year of Rick Anderson, doing less with pitchers than anyone else in the league. Though I will say Liriano is officially a lost cause, I figured Don Cooper would turn him into a solid pitcher and make the Twins staff look like they were bad at their jobs (not that they need any help).
In Anderson's defense, when management's idea of "addressing the pitching needs" consists of Sidney Ponson, Livan Hernandez, Ramon Ortiz, Jason Marquis, and Nick Blackburn 5th attempt....can only work with what he is given.
Plus, the bullpen turned out nicely this year.
SP is more of an organizational problem for the Twins rather than one individual coach I think.
Plus, the bullpen turned out nicely this year.
SP is more of an organizational problem for the Twins rather than one individual coach I think.
I can't think of one starting pitcher that got better under Anderson's tutelage, and he had plenty of young guys to mold in Baker, Blackburn, Liriano, Slowey, Perkins (who at least someone realized shouldn't be a SP)
Baker? He has most certainly gotten better since he first came up, and some of his metrics were among tops in the AL heading into his injury.
How about Scott Diamond?
Santana was a rule 5 guy, he turned out ok.
How have Liriano and Slowey done since getting away from Anderson? The Twins have had some serious philosophical issues in their drafting practices with SP, with guys that can't throw hard and can't miss bats.
He also somehow got at least one useful season out of Carlos Silva, and usually has been able to retool bullpens on the fly (Nathan had never closed prior to arriving in Minnesota).
I would contend there just has not been much true ML talent arriving in Minnesota for a couple years on the SP side.
Put it this way, I can't think of many guys (or even one) that I've been sitting here over the last year or two thinking, "Man! This guy should be awesome, whats the deal?"
Would rather seriously upgrade the talent. Needs to be a little more skew toward firing players, because with some of these guys it won't matter who is coaching.
Would rather seriously upgrade the talent. Needs to be a little more skew toward firing players, because with some of these guys it won't matter who is coaching.
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DistrictCyclone
Guest
What's Cuellar going to be doing if they keep Anderson???
I have no issues with any of the coaches other than Anderson and Gardy. Ullger and Liddle supposedly had managerial potential, and Vavra was doing fine. Gardy seems way too passive for these guys and has absolutely no ability to get them fired up. And Anderson...where do I start? Guy's looking more and more like a dinosaur every year for preaching his "pitch to contact" philosophy in the era of the power pitcher.
I also know Gardy and Anderson go way back together, so maybe club brass views them as a "packaged deal"?
I have no issues with any of the coaches other than Anderson and Gardy. Ullger and Liddle supposedly had managerial potential, and Vavra was doing fine. Gardy seems way too passive for these guys and has absolutely no ability to get them fired up. And Anderson...where do I start? Guy's looking more and more like a dinosaur every year for preaching his "pitch to contact" philosophy in the era of the power pitcher.
I also know Gardy and Anderson go way back together, so maybe club brass views them as a "packaged deal"?
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DistrictCyclone
Guest
Sounds like they are letting the head trainer, Rick McWayne, go:
Twins coaching shakeup: Stelmaszek, Liddle, White, McWane out. Vavra, Ullger reassigned. | StarTribune.com
What is the point of firing McWayne, if only to replace him with the assisstant head trainer?
Really, you could say the same about the whole thing, which is why I'm pretty indifferent to these moves.
Sure, you fire everyone except the top two guys. Aren't Gardenhire/Anderson just going to tell the new guys the same stuff.
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DistrictCyclone
Guest
Totally agree. About the only rational explanation I can come up with is that this is a warning shot to Gardy...a way for the front office to say "shape up, or you're next".
I have never heard this at all....Ullger was terrible as I remember during his stint as batting coach, and was an absolute dumpster fire as 3rd base coach (though the Twins have been incompetent at holding/sending runners from third as long as I can remember).
Maybe he was just a managerial option under the Gardy Scholarship Program.
Vavra, I don't have too much of a gripe with, though I am intrigued with some of the stuff said about Brunansky re: the improvement this year from Revere and Parmelee.
Morneau made some good points sticking up for Vavra in the Pioneer Press today as well.
I think that's exactly what it is.
I like the new sense of aggressiveness from the new Pohlads and rejuvenated Ryan...but there needs to be some philosophy chances when it comes to what kind of pitchers need to be drafted/traded for, and a different philosophical approach to what type of player should be in the middle infield.
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DistrictCyclone
Guest
That could be exactly it. Now that I think about it, most of this talk was before he got demoted to bench coach. It just seemed like he was always the one filling in for Gardy anytime he missed some games, and **** and Bert were usually the ones talking him up.
It's pretty astonishing how many of these guys have been with the Twins organization for almost my entire lifetime; seems like a real good ole' boys club at times.