New interim manager Tony DeFrancesco was "called up" from his managerial job in Triple-A, and ownership and fans will likely be hoping he can make something better, if only slightly, than what Mills had done. However, I think a successful campaign is far-fetched as best, and Mills is simply the latest of scapegoats created by an organization without much of a payroll or farm system.
In an attempt to show the short life span of current Major League Baseball managers, here is a look at the number of games each of the current 30 active managers have with their current team. DeFranceso is the far left with one game (lost 8-1 to Arizona by the way), and Mike Scoiscia leads the way on the far right with 2065 games for the Los Angeles Angels of Anahiem. It is worth nothing that only five current managers have more than 1,000 games with their current franchise, that's equivalent to just over six seasons.
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After looking at that bar graph, my first thought was how much longer Ron Gardenhire has with the Twins?
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, I have no idea. I know lots of fans get on his case, but when you consider his history in Minnesota it's tough. It was November 2001 when MLB was strongly considering the contraction of the Expos and Twins (and possibly the Angels and Marlins). Gardenhire took over in 2002, and lead them to the ALCS where they lost to the nearly contracted Angels. 2001 (Tom Kelly's last year), the Twins had their first winning record since 1992, largely because of Radke, Milton, and Mays. Gardenhire took that and brought them to the playoffs four of his first five seasons. Prior to last season, they never finished worse than third, and only had one losing record (2007). The bounced back with two more division titles in 2009-10.
ReplyDeleteI think the lack of success the past two years is more bad luck and poor investing than anything else. If anything, it is proof as to why you never invest $20+ million in a catcher. I know the Twins wanted to keep their hometown talent in the state, and they expected a Hall of Famer following his 2009 breakout season, but that was just an insanely short-sighted move in my opinion. Morneau was just bad luck with the concussion from 2010(?).
As for Gardenhire, it just seems like he found ways for his team to win for so many years when they spent nothing. Despite losing talent like Torii Hunter and Johan Santana, they always found value in other players like Shannon Stewart, Lew Ford, Corey Koskie, etc. Gardenhire was the only true constant during those years. Now, a couple of highly paid, oft-injured players are becoming too constant in the Twin Cities.