"It's a continuation of Spring Training from the 10 days or so that he missed," Gardenhire said of Liriano's schedule. "We don't really know about what he did down in the Dominican. We know that he wasn't going to the park every day and taking ground balls and doing drills. I know that for a fact, so his legs are that far behind. He was throwing some games and he would throw a 'pen, but other than that, in between, he didn't do much." (MLB.com)

I know that quote is lifted out of a discussion Gardenhire probably had with Kelly Theiser and so is a little out of context, but it appears to support Gardenhire's preference for players who work hard.

Obviously, there is nothing wrong with having a preference for players who work hard. All things being equal, any good manager would take the Francisco Liriano who works hard, or the Nick Punto who works hard, over the Francisco Liriano who lies around and eats chips, or the Nick Punto that spends his wee hours beer bonging with a bunch of co-eds.

Unfortunately those simple comparisons rarely exist. Instead, Gardenhire, like most of us who manage people, are forced to choose between two candidates with different skill sets. This, of course, makes decisions that much more difficult. Nonetheless there are bottom lines of performance (and yes I will use the dreaded "S" word) and stats that can help a manger make a better-educated decision.

Sticking to baseball and Gardenhire, it seems like too often Gardenhire overestimates the "work ethic" or the "hustle/grit" factor to the detriment of the more important factor of performance.

The most obvious example might be Gardenhire's seeming reluctance to use Kubel vs. just about any other warm body. All right, that is an exaggeration, but what isn't an exaggeration is the fact that Gardenhire consistently (not constantly, consistently) justified his reluctance to use Kubel due to Gardenhire's perception that Kubel is lazy, or a slacker. It's also no exaggeration that Gardenhire continues to use Punto, in large part, because he likes Punto's work ethic and his hard-nosed, hustle/gritty style of play.

I admire Punto's moxy, and I don't blame Gardy for admiring it as well, but I fear that the above comments about Liriano support my worst fears about gardenhire's management style; he overestimates a player's work habits to the extent that it distracts him from paying a little more attention to the individual player's actual on-field performance.

Again, the comments quoted above, are taken a little out of context, but I sure hope that if Liriano is producing gardenhire doesn't see fit to teach him a lesson by keeping him in the minors until he starts "taking ground balls" and "doing drills."