i just read the Twinkies fired Paul Molitor. what was he supposed to do with a class A farm team with a couple good players, then trade them away!!!!!!! good thing the Pohlands kept there promise of competative teams with the new stadium. 
Randy Shaver was speculating about this on 93X this morning – never crossed my mind they would fire Molitor. You gotta believe Mauer may have known this and is one of the driving forces behind his potential retirement.
This really &#$*@# me off. I get it, not a lot of success under Molitor. However, management and ownership threw in the towel at the trade deadline two years in a row. Now, you could argue that he should’ve just done better prior to July both years, which is somewhat true, but damn this team has been given up on by its own management two years in a row. I love the Twins and next spring I’m sure I’ll be part of threads discussing the 2019 season, but damn they are absolutely one of the worst run franchises in all of professional sports.
anyway, if i wanna watch good baseball all i gotta do is go 3 blocks from the front door and i can watch class B townball with the cold spring springers…… piffle on the twinkies!!!!!
but damn they are absolutely one of the worst run franchises in all of professional sports.
I find it odd how following the years of contraction talk, the Twins became known as a model franchise for finding and developing minor league talent and bringing them up to where we have been the last 5 years.
The only way Molitor would have kept his job was outperforming the lack of talent on the squad like they did last year. The Falvine Regime was always going to select their own analytics based guy at the first opportunity. Still disappointing tho!
It was clear Moli wasnt cut out for the job. He was all but gone last season but when they pulled off a lucky run in August and September he saved his job for one more year. How they agreed to terms on a 3 year deal after that blows my mind, but I fully stand behind Falvey and Levine. Molitor needed to go.
It was clear Moli wasnt cut out for the job. He was all but gone last season but when they pulled off a lucky run in August and September he saved his job for one more year. How they agreed to terms on a 3 year deal after that blows my mind, but I fully stand behind Falvey and Levine. Molitor needed to go.
how do expect a manager to win when he at best mostly medicore players?? He was set up to fail by the owners in my opinion.
I’m OK with it and agree with BigWerm.
Pohlad made it clear before he hired Falvey that Molitor was going to stay on, really just lets Falvey get a clean slate and allow him to hire “his” manager for the club.
I felt Molitor adapted quite well to the new information and playing tactics being passed down from the FO – changed his lineup construction, big emphasis on defense with infield shifts and 4 outfielder alignments, lots of turnover on staff underneath him – plus it always stinks to see someone lose his job. I don’t believe it will hurt the club outright, TBD for helping it.
What manager in baseball would have this year’s Twins roster competing for a pennant? Anyone who thinks this roster is more than a 75-80 win team with any manager needs to lay off the Grain Belts and face reality.
I do not think the firing will hurt OR help the overall Win-Loss tally heading into next season. I’d argue that of all the major male professional sports (NHL, NBA, NFL, MLB) the MLB has far and away the fewest outcomes decided by coaching/managing. It’s awfully hard to scheme your way around poor pitching, players who are DL regulars, sub-par talent, and a franchise that is unwilling to spend.
I wish Molitor the best, and the same to whoever takes over.
Anyone who thinks this roster is more than a 75-80 win team with any manager needs to lay off the Grain Belts and face reality.
I respectfully disagree; no one needs to lay off Grain Belts.
Interestingly enough, I was listening to a baseball podcast yesterday where they were discussing how the Twins finished with around the same win total (give or take a few) that analytical guys predicted they would. The main difference is that that win total was predicted BEFORE Polanco’s suspension, Santana hardly playing this year, injuries to Mauer and others, Dozier not playing well in the first half, Sano and Buxton being awful, and of course, giving the stars away at the trade deadline. Did the Twins largely suck this year? Yeah, but what the hell was Molitor supposed to do given what he had?
I do get the argument that this gives Falvine a chance to hire a guy they want, but it’s just pathetic that we had to get to that result by firing a HOF player as our manager.
Twins had a ton of dudes that didn’t play up to their potential, and the front office made a lot of short term moves before the season started. Not saying under-performance is Molitor’s fault, but that’s generally where the blame get’s put in these situations.
Sano: .844 career OPS coming into 2018 / .679 in 2018
Buxton: .700 career OPS coming into 2018 / .383 in 2018(only played 28 games)
Morrisson: .763 career OPS coming into 2018(.868 in 2017) / .644 in 2018
Odorizzi: 1.219 career WHIP coming into 2018 / 1.345 in 2018
Lynn: 1.321 career WHIP coming into 2018 / 1.632 with the Twins in 2018
Dozier: : .780 career OPS / .710 in 2018
Other Crappy Stuff
Castro: Suspended and then 19 games of terrible baseball
Santana: Hurt and then 24 innings of bad pitching
There are some success stories in there too(Gibson/Berrios both had their best years yet), and while I agree the Twins weren’t world series bound, they could have easily put up another 10 wins if this list of guys don’t basically ALL go worst case scenario for the year.
Coming into the season, a lineup with Sano / Dozier / 2017 Logan Morrison / Escobar / Rosario / 2017 Buxton / Mauer and a rotation with Santana / Berrios / Gibson as a top three looks like a pretty competitive team. Not Yankees/Red Sox/Astros good by any means, but definitely better than a 78 win team.
Why did everyone under-perform? No idea, but it’s obvious Molitor wasn’t getting the best out of them. Thems the breaks as a professional sports coach/manager.
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>buckybadger wrote:</div>
Anyone who thinks this roster is more than a 75-80 win team with any manager needs to lay off the Grain Belts and face reality.I respectfully disagree; no one needs to lay off Grain Belts.
Interestingly enough, I was listening to a baseball podcast yesterday where they were discussing how the Twins finished with around the same win total (give or take a few) that analytical guys predicted they would. The main difference is that that win total was predicted BEFORE Polanco’s suspension, Santana hardly playing this year, injuries to Mauer and others, Dozier not playing well in the first half, Sano and Buxton being awful, and of course, giving the stars away at the trade deadline. Did the Twins largely suck this year? Yeah, but what the hell was Molitor supposed to do given what he had?
I do get the argument that this gives Falvine a chance to hire a guy they want, but it’s just pathetic that we had to get to that result by firing a HOF player as our manager.
Molitor played the hand he was dealt. You’re spot on in that this was a move to get “their guy” in the dugout.
I also just don’t buy the “coulda, shoulda, woulda” of this team. No team has every player simultaneously play at the peak of their potential. To us Twins fans (yes I’m a Twins fan too) who look at their early season lineup things seemed “great”…but to other teams coming to town, the Twins were just another mediocre team. This lineup didn’t significantly scare any of the top MLB clubs at any point.
Mediocrity is tough to swallow, but that’s where the Twins collective talent level is at. Without some significant increases in spending or pulling off phenomenal trades that are club friendly (see the Brewers), this team will win ~80 games again next season in a relatively weak division, and we will be having the same discussions.
Agreed phil, he just didnt use the players he did have properly. Anyone else follow close enough to know how terrible he was at running his bullpen? Still convinced he doesnt know what the term platooning meant. 3 righties coming up in the lineup, better warm up Rogers!!! 
Hildenberger was so severely overused. On June 28th he had a 2.06 ERA. Had a 5.42 to end the season after giving up 13 earned in 8 appearances in September. He was so burnt out, ended the season with 50 appearances but would have been much higher if he were as effective towards the end of the year.
And then Pressly, this one hurts the most. He was among league leaders in K/9, excellent in the back end of the Twins ‘pen. He’s got some filthy stuff, but could never really put it together in MN. Since his trade to HOU, he has given up just 2 earned in 23 innings (with 32 Ks). Per his ERA+, he was 5x better in houston than he was with MN this year. The secret? Threw his slider way more than he did in MN. Nobody can touch it.
Took Molitor months to see that Wilson wasnt the answer behind the plate. Had Belisle on the roster the entire year. Team knew in June it wasnt going to make the playoffs, why didnt more young players get an opportunity to develop? May lose some prospects in the Rule 5 draft this winter because of it.
You cant have upper managment 100% in on analytics with a manager like Molitor who heavily leans the opposite direction.
Big time offseason for the Twins. Have a lot of improvements all over the field coming. Great riddance in Molitor.
Right before they hired him they said they wanted someone who understood the organization-I thought: You just lost one hundred flippin games! Why would you want someone who ‘understands” you should want an outsider who will shake things up-
Also the best coaches I believe were ok players like TK-Those with tons of natural talent don’t have to think, struggle and work like the survivors who fight past ok inborn ability-IMHO
I believe I said a few times I wasn’t sold on Molitor. He is a great human being but I really didn’t see much in his managing. Not bad maybe, but just OK at best. What he does know is the game. He knows how to play traditional baseball. Sad thing is they don’t play baseball anymore. Now it’s a board game driven by stats that make little to no sense to me.
They will hire some hot 30 something that can read a spread sheet.
They will hire some hot 30 something that can read a spread sheet.
Pretty much nailed it, I would guess Jeff Pickler is the in-house favorite to land the job despite him having no previous coaching experience. Will be interesting to see how this goes!
Not sure if anyone mentioned this yet but it sounds like they are going to keep him around to be apart of the staff
That was the offer, but i see he’s already declined and thinks he can get a managerial job elsewhere.
Lol you either talk him into doing another job or you let him go. He isn’t walking away from the money and he isn’t obligated to take another job within to collect the balance.
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