twins/mlb
Joe Christensen, the Star Tribune's national baseball reporter, has covered the big leagues since 1998. A Faribault native, he graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1996. Before working for the Star Tribune, he spent three years covering the Orioles for the Baltimore Sun. He also covered the Padres and Dodgers for newspapers in Southern California. He'll share his thoughts here on the Twins and all things baseball.
Posts about Ron Gardenhire
Twins add Steinbach, Brunansky and Cuellar to big league coaching staff
Posted by: Joe Christensen Updated: October 22, 2012 - 11:30 AM
The Minnesota Twins today filled their three major league coaching vacancies, naming Terry Steinbach their new bench coach, Tom Brunansky their new hitting coach and Bobby Cuellar their new bullpen coach.
Joe Vavra will remain on Ron Gardenhire’s staff as the third base coach, Scott Ullger will be the first base coach, and as announced earlier this month, Rick Anderson will remain the pitching coach.
Brunansky and Cuellar were expected choices for the Twins, but the one surprise was Steinbach coming back into a coaching role, as it was widely speculated that the Twins would promote Class AAA manager Gene Glynn to their big league staff.
Steinbach, a New Ulm native who caught in the majors from 1986 through 1999, will be the bench coach and catching instructor, Ullger will oversee outfield instruction and Vavra will oversee infield instruction.
Twins sources dispute Hunter's claim about the 2004 ALDS
Posted by: Joe Christensen Updated: March 31, 2012 - 12:03 PMFORT MYERS, FLA. -- Jason Kubel's eighth-inning strikeout against Mariano Rivera in Game 2 of the 2004 Division Series has haunted Twins fans ever since.
Torii Hunter offered an interesting twist recently in this piece by Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com, saying a young righthanded hitter turned down a chance to pinch hit in that spot.
But two Twins sources I spoke to this morning refuted that claim, saying there's no chance they would have pinch hit for Kubel in that spot. As our Ken Chia notes in this post, the Twins had two righthanded options on the bench at the time -- Lew Ford and Matthew LeCroy -- as well as the switch-hitting Augie Ojeda.
Ford had a terrific 2004 season, but he went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts in Game 1, including a strikeout against Rivera. It's possible, one source conceded, that the Twins asked Ford if he felt like he was seeing the ball well off Rivera for a potential pinch-hit appearance that night and that the answer was no. But those questions get asked all the time. Managers want an honest response, and the bottom line is that even if Ford had puffed out his chance and said, "Heck yeah, I own that guy!" the Twins weren't going to send him up against Rivera instead of Kubel.
This was the 2004 Jason Kubel, the pre-knee surgery monster whose every plate appearance had impressed the Twins. And while Rivera's cutter does tend to make him more effective against lefties than righties, think about that eighth-inning sequence: The first two batters Rivera faced were lefthanders. Justin Morneau singled, Luis Rivas entered as a pinch runner, and Corey Koskie followed with a ground-rule double.
Among the lingering disappointments for the Twins is that Rivas didn't steal second, despite being given the green light against Rivera and Jorge Posada. Had Rivas swiped the bag, it wouldn't have mattered that Koskie's ball hopped into the stands. But you can go on and on with the if-game after a night like that.
So yes, with one out, all the Twins needed was a sac fly from Kubel, and Rivera schooled him, climbing the ladder for a three-pitch strikeout. The Twins lost the game in 12 innings and seemingly never beat the Yankees again -- until Kubel hit a grand slam off Rivera on May 16, 2010.
Hunter and Michael Cuddyer made other good points in Heyman's piece about how the Yankees seem to be in the Twins heads. But the revisionist history about Kubel's at-bat only stirs bitter memories. We'll ask Manager Ron Gardenhire for his thoughts when he does his press briefing later today, but I'm guessing he'll have a different recollection than Torii.
Twins notes: Pascual, Hrbek, Pavano, Span
Posted by: Joe Christensen Updated: January 27, 2012 - 2:01 PMHere's some quick notes off today's Twins media luncheon:
* Camilo Pascual has been elected to the Twins Hall of Fame, team president Dave St. Peter announced.
* Also, the Twins plan to unveil another statue this year at Target Field, this one of Kent Hrbek. It will be outside Gate 14.
* St. Peter said there are no plans to change the batter's eye at Target Field this year -- in other words, the trees aren't coming back -- but he said the team will continue to discuss ways to make that big black wall look better.
* Manager Ron Gardenhire confirmed that Carl Pavano will be the Opening Day starter, on April 6 at Baltimore, with Scott Baker slated for the home opener, April 9 against Albert Pujols and the Angels.
* Denard Span said he feels the best he's felt, physically, in two years. He wants to play center field but is open to moving to a corner if that's best for the team. But to hear Gardenhire talk, this won't be an issue.
"[Span's] going to lead off and be my center fielder," Gardenhire said. "That’s my expectations. If somebody were to tell me that he’s not able to do that, then we’d have to ad lib. But if Denard comes in healthy, then he’s my center fielder, there’s no questions to me about that."
Ron Gardenhire wins AL Manager of the Year award
Posted by: Joe Christensen Updated: November 17, 2010 - 1:10 PMThe results are in. Ron Gardenhire is the 2010 American League Manager of the Year.
The Baseball Writers Association of America announced the results today at 1 p.m. The voters -- two writers from each AL market, so 28 overall -- submitted their ballots before the postseason.
Gardenhire finished with 108 points, including 16 first-place votes. Rangers manager Ron Washington finished second with 81 points, including 10 first-place votes. Rays manager Joe Maddon was third with 44 points, including one-first place vote. The other first-place vote went to the Blue Jays' Cito Gaston.
Padres Bud Black took home the National League honor, edging Reds manager Dusty Baker by one point.
Gardenhire, 53, had finished second in the voting five times: 2003, 2004, 2006, 2008 and 2009. The Twins went 94-68 to win their sixth AL Central title in nine years, despite losing All-Star closer Joe Nathan in spring training and All-Star first baseman Justin Morneau at mid-season.
Gardenhire was on all 28 ballots, including 16 first-place votes, eight second-place votes and four third-place votes. Washington was on 25 of 28 ballots.
The only other Twins manager to win the award was Tom Kelly in 1991.
Gardenhire, Twins await today's Manager of the Year announcement
Posted by: Joe Christensen Updated: November 17, 2010 - 7:42 AMORLANDO -- This could be Ron Gardenhire's day.
After finishing as the runner up in the American League Manager of the Year voting five times (2003, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2009), Gardenhire is one of two leading candidates for this year's award, along with the Rangers' Ron Washington.
"Absolutely I’m pulling for [Gardenhire]," Twins General Manager Bill Smith said here at baseball's annual GM meetings. "I think he richly deserves it. I said last year, in '09, I thought it was the best job of managing he’d done, and I think this year was better."
The Twins won 94 games despite losing All-Star closer Joe Nathan in spring training and All-Star first baseman Justin Morneau half-way through the season. The Rangers won 90 games to win the AL West and advanced to the World Series.
The baseball writers -- two from each AL market, so 28 overall -- cast their ballots before the postseason begins, so another early playoff exit for the Twins won't be a factor.
The announcement gets made at 1 p.m. (Central), so check back here for the results.
Short hops: Gardenhire, Baker, Hudson, Mantle, etc.
Posted by: Joe Christensen Updated: October 22, 2010 - 3:45 PMThe Twins will be holding their organizational meetings, beginning next Thursday at Target Field, and it figures to be a real soul-searching exercise for General Manager Bill Smith, Manager Ron Gardenhire and their top lieutenants coming off another first-round playoff exit.
They'll analyze every aspect of the organization, setting the agenda for this offseason and beyond.
Gardenhire is under contract through 2011 but he's expected to receive a contract extension soon. All of the team's major league coaches have deals that expire in December. Before signing his previous extension, in November 2008, Gardenhire made sure the team took care of his coaches first, so look for that to happen soon, as well.
* Twins RHP Scott Baker had arthroscopic surgery Wednesday to clean out loose particles in his right elbow. Smith said the procedure was a success.
* Twins 2B Orlando Hudson will be a guest analyst on the MLB Network on Saturday and Sunday. This will be the O-Dog's in-studio debut, but he loves to talk and should be a natural on TV. Hudson, who turns 33 in December, told me he would love to return to the Twins, but he's a pending free agent, and the writing is on the wall with their payroll situation. It looks like he'll be playing for his fourth team in four years in 2011.
* I dove into the new Mickey Mantle biography, "The Last Boy," by Jane Leavy and have enjoyed the first 200 pages. I thought her book on Sandy Koufax was good, but her research and reporting on Mantle is exceptional. ... I also look forward to reading the 2010-2011 TwinsCentric Offseason GM Handbook. I followed the TwinsCentric crew long before they joined the Star Tribune's blogging army, and their exhaustive work continues to impress me.
* Finally, a quick thought on the NLCS: Brian Wilson has been a revelation for the Giants, whose fans spent years cursing the Joe Nathan trade, waiting for their next great closer. Wilson is a strange dude with a strange beard, but his interviews are pure comedy. Check out his September appearance on "Rome is Burning," especially at the 5:30 mark, when Wilson is asked about the $1,000 fine he received for wearing orange spikes at the All-Star game.
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