Ron Gardenhire

I can stay quiet no more. Ron Gardenhire sucks. There are many reasons for this. I went over one yesterday, when I talked of his use of Terry Mulholland in games within 25 runs.

But today, I want to talk about how he sets his lineup. For example, today, he decided to put Terry Tiffee is the cleanup spot. Tiffee's a decent player, probably will never be more than a bench player, but he's not terrible. However, he just got called up from the Minors a week ago. He doesn't have that much power (career .429 SLG in the Minors). He hasn't done particularly well this year. We had other options. Justin Morneau is a better hitter this year, and barrin something unexpectedc, will be a far better hitter in the future, and should be the Twins cleanup hitter for a decade. He batted 6th. Jacque Jones is also a better hitter than Tiffee, and hits for more power. He batted 5th.

Now, why does it matter, you ask. Well, twice late in the game Tiffee came up with the bases loaded. Hiss first AB, he hit the first pitch to the warning track, long fly out. Second AB with the bases loaded, he wrks the count to 2-2 before flailing (and I'm being generous calling it flailing) at a 2-2 fastball. Twins lose 4-3.

And don't even get me started on Juan Castro. He's a horrible, horrible hitter. At times, he's batted in the 2 hole this year. Seriously, he's one of the worst hitting starters in the MLB.

I've come to the conclusion that Ron Gardenhire has no brain.