In the parity-happy world of major league baseball, local fans should rejoice that Ronald Clyde Gardenhire is the Twins’ leader.
The 2008 big league season has so far showcased surprise bottom feeders Tampa Bay and Florida rising to the top of their divisions, and a whole lot of mediocre teams camping out at winning percentages near .500. The talent load on most rosters isn’t overwhelming enough to run away from rivals.
In the American League Central, Detroit and its high priced talent has been a flop while the budget conscious Twins have been flirting with the lead despite playing .500 baseball. With the talent wealth distributed almost like socialism, the Twins have an edge because of Gardenhire who is among the game’s best managers.
Since taking over here in 2002, Gardenhire has managed teams that have won four division titles and finished third twice. Admittedly, the division opposition often wasn’t the American League’s best but then again the Twins didn’t set the gold standard for talent either.
Yes, Gardenhire had some highly skilled players on his teams but he usually managed the best out of that talent, too. Same this year with a team that has a completely rebuilt starting pitching staff and minimal power, but does have a solid bullpen led by perhaps baseball’s best closer in Joe Nathan, plus extraordinary hitting from Justin Morneau and Joe Mauer, and new found speed on the bases with center fielder Carlos Gomez and second baseman Alexi Casilla.
This team has been error prone in the field even though Gardenhire reveres dominant defense. Already the 2008 Twins have made 43 errors in 56 games, the second most in the American League. Two years ago the Twins had only 84 errors all season.
Gardenhire is a teacher who values fundamentals, so this team has frustrated him at times in the field and at-bat. Yet he shows patience such as last week when 22-year-old left fielder Delmon Young misplayed a fly ball into an inside the park home run. The easy move would have been to bench Young the next night, but instead he was back in the lineup. Only after Young committed two errors in that game did he go to the bench.
Put simply, Gardenhire knows baseball and how to handle players. In the often “even-Steven” world of major league baseball that’s an edge for the Twins.