Gardy and the Apologists

No, I still haven’t let this die. I’m still upset the Twins are out of the playoffs, and I’m even more upset that people refuse to acknowledge that there is something wrong, perhaps, with Ron Gardenhire’s management of the team. Most Gardenhire apologist credos go one of two routes: He’s great because the team keeps winning the AL Central, or boohoohoo, the Yankees spend a lot more money so of course they are going to kick the Twins’ ass.
I call bull.
In the most recent edition of ESPN the Magazine, Peter Keating [insider required] has an article in which he breaks down the ability for a team to succeed in the postseason by looking at their successes versus quality and inferior opponents. It was a well written and well argued piece that didn’t just portray statistics but explained them. In essence, a team’s success versus the best teams in the regular season was directly related to their successes in the postseason. Teams that got in by feasting against weaker opponents tended to flounder in the postseason.
Keating explained that teams that defeated their weaker opponents did so by taking advantage of their inferior rivals, naming explicitly the practice of taking extra bases because of defensive errors and succeeding against shallow pitching depth. These are things that their opponents in the postseason do not offer. Basically, what I am saying is that Gardenhire’s Twins, who have won their divisions by blowing teams like the Royals, Indians and in other years, the Tigers out of the water, come into the postseason unprepared.
OK, OK, I know the next counter argument… It’s still on Gardenhire to get the team to the playoffs. If you want to give him this kind of credit… why? Why in Minnesota does the manager get so much credit? And why are we so comfortable with his failings in the postseason? And make no mistake, Ron Gardenhire is perhaps the worst postseason manager of our lifetime. He will match the Red Sox consecutive games lost in the postseason streak with one more loss. The difference is that the Red Sox did it over the course of over a decade with several different managers. Gardy did it all by himself.
The question though, is why does Gardy get so much credit for the success, and why are Minnesotans so complacent when it comes to his failings? Let’s take the case of the Oakland A’s, a team very much in the same situation as the Twins earlier this decade. Decrepit stadium, low payroll, little recent success. Then, in 1999, the A’s turned it around, finishing 2nd out west, then made it to the postseason in 2000. They reached the playoffs then again the following 2 years. The A’s failed to win their divisional series each of those three seasons, and the manager was let go. Do you remember who the manager was? No, because the GM, Billy Beane, got all the credit. He still does. (The Manager was Art Howe, by the way, who failed in New York with the Mets). The next year, the A’s hired Ken Macha to be manager. The A’s were met with similar success, losing in the first round of the playoffs. in 2006, the A’s made it back to the postseason, swept the Twins and then lost to the Tigers. Macha was fired after that season. My questions are twofold. Why hasn’t the Twins’ excellent front office received the adulation it deserves, and why hasn’t Gardenhire been held accountable for the team’s failings? What is the difference between the Twins and A’s?
The second argument the Gardenhire apologists have put forth is that the Twins can’t beat the Yankees because of the Yankees exorbitant payroll. Every other team that has played the Twins in the postseason since the losing streak began has won at least 1 game against New York. Every. Single. One. Every team that has managed to reach the postseason not named the Twins from the AL Central since 2002 has won a series. Every. Single. One. This season, over the course of a 162 game season, the Tampa Bay Rays and their enormous payroll managed to finish with a record better than the Yankees in the AL East. Sure, you can say that the Twins can’t beat the Yankees because of their payroll, but do you know who can? Almost everyone else.
Let’s not forget that this abysmal postseason decade has featured losses to the A’s and Angels as well as the Yankees. The Twins have simply been a bad team when facing other elite teams when it counts. I’m not OK with that, but if you are just happy with the team reaching the postseason and wish to attribute the successes of the team to Gardenhire and not upper management, then I guess I have nothing more to say to you.