The Twin Cities Marathon

by Johnny Safron on Oct 6, 2009 11:50 PM EDT

Good going, Gardenhire.

Since replacing Tom Kelly, Gardenhire is one of the five winningest managers in baseball. Like Tom Kelly, he'll have that job as long as he wants it.

Gardenhire, not only goosed the team to .786 winning percentage in games Morneau did not start this season, he understands that youth drives championships, so he installed rookie Matt Tolbert at third.

Since then, the team is 16-4.

Good for Casilla, avoiding one long winter.

Bill Smith gets the last laugh, picking up O-Cab and Rausch and Mahay rather than Garcia and Washburn, allowing Gardenhire to adeptly manipulate his bullpen down the stretch.

This season is one more nail in Jim Leyland's coffin, perhaps the most overrated manager of the past 20 years.

Too bad for the city of Detroit. They got nothing going for them there. Sorry, folks.

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Well, Leyland might be overrated, I wouldn't know.

But watching him this summer in pre/post game interviews certainly was impressive. He is a no-nonsense, play hard every day with no excuses offered or accepted kind of guy.

by montanatwinsfan on Oct 6, 2009 11:56 PM EDT reply actions