Why is Paul Molitor shrugging like that? Probably because he can’t believe the Twins were not gritty enough to hire him. Photo by Jesse Johnson-US PRESSWIRE

After two seasons of horrible hitting, putrid pitching, and stale strategy, the Twins need a gritty rebootto improve their on-field play and their off-field appeal. They’ve been working on the reboot for about four weeks now, with mixed results. Since free agency hasn’t started yet, we can’t judge them on any player moves yet, but there have been some coaching shakeups.

With that in mind, I’ve taken it upon myself to rank the Twins’ offseason moves in terms of how gritty (good) or ungritty (terrible) they are.

Retaining Manager Ron Gardenhire

Gardenhire may be gruff, but he’s not gritty. He represents the old guard in Minnesota, and keeping him will do nothing at all to generate interest among the fanbase. By retaining him, the Twins are showing a complete lack of imagination and sending the message (whether true or not) that they care more about cronyism and loyalty than they do about creating a new winning atmosphere.

Verdict: Ungritty

Hiring Tom Brunansky as Hitting Coach

This move was predictable, but encouraging. Brunansky is a throwback to the franchise’s glory days, and he has earned rave reviews for his performance with the AAA squad. It’s good to know the Twins will have a true power hitter on the staff to teach the art of home run hitting to young sluggers like Aaron Hicks, Oswaldo Arcia, and Miguel Sano.

Verdict: Gritty

Hiring Terry Steinbach as Bench Coach

If Brunansky was predictable, Steinbach is a big surprise, and a pleasant one at that. The former Athletics and Twins catcher is a Minnesota native who knows how to win, thanks to his tenure with the dominant Oakland teams of the 80s and 90s. Not only that, but he’s a former catcher, which is a big plus. The bench coach is often the second-in-command behind the manager, and it’s well-documented that catchers make great managers.

Verdict: Very Gritty

Keeping Rick Anderson as Pitching Coach

This is a bad move for many of the same reasons that keeping Gardenhire was a bad move. Anderson has been around forever (in baseball terms), and it’s hard to argue the Twins are focused on the future when they keep him around. Throw in the fact that the Twins’ pitching staff was hideously bad last year, and this decision becomes a complete head-scratcher.

Verdict: Ungritty

Snubbing Paul Molitor

Molitor should have been announced as the Twins manager two days after the end of the season and one day after Ron Gardenhire was fired. Since that situation did not materialize, the next best thing would have been to find a coaching job for the Hall of Famer. When it became clear that Molitor wanted such a job, the decision should have been a no-brainer. Instead, the Twins completely ignored him.

Snubbing a member of the 3,000 hit club is NOT COOL, TWINS!

Verdict: So ungritty that you could polish your car with it

The Base Coaching Situation

Joe Vavra will coach third base, and Scott Ullger will coach first. Nothing is inherently wrong with this – I’m sure Vavra can wave his arms around as well as anyone – but it’s a missed opportunity, since there were so many better candidates. Why not let Molitor coach first? The man stole over 500 bases in his career, so he obviously knows how to do the job! At third base, mulleted motorcycle enthusiast Dan Gladden could have added some gritty style and a take-no-prisoners attitude to the coaching staff, with the added advantage that he’d no longer be taking valuable airtime away from excellent radio broadcaster Cory Provus.

Verdict: Ungritty

Refusing to Replant the Trees

The Twins need to correct their most grievous mistake by replanting the trees. Unfortunately, they’re being just as stubborn with this issue as they are with Gardenhire. Twins hitters whined incessantly about the trees after the 2010 season, complaining that they made it difficult to see the ball. Given the way that opposing hitters have crushed Twins pitching since then, they were probably right.

Do the right thing and replant the trees. Not only will it end the curse, it’s good for the planet.

Verdict: Ungritty

Ron Gardenhire's job is not up for grabs. But just for fun, let's pretend it is. Photo by Brace Hemmelgarn-US PRESSWIRE

After a surprising last place finish, people who follow the Twins grew restless. Tack on four losses to start this season, and even many Twins fans who are normally calm are starting to get upset. Whenever a pro sports team hits a losing patch, fans inevitably start to call for the team to fire its manager or head coach. At the rate the Twins are going, it’s only a matter of time before the chorus of fans demanding Ron Gardenhire get the axe swells to a deafening level.

So maybe it’s worth thinking about who the Twins would hire if Gardenhire did receive his walking papers.

A few disclaimers are in order here. First, the Twins’ season is far from a disaster at this point. As annoying as those first four losses were, we have no more reason than before the season to believe that the Twins are going to repeat their basement finish. Second, the misfortunes that have befallen the Twins are probably not Gardenhire’s fault. Whether you like him or not, you have to admit that no Big League manager could win many games if he was forced to rely on the AAAA roster Gardenhire had in 2011. Finally, even if the Twins do stumble, and even if we could somehow pin their 2012 struggles on the manager, it’s far from certain that the Twins would let him go. This team has not fired a manager since 1986, despite plenty of losing seasons.

That said, part of the fun of having an internet sports website is the ability to speculate wildly about things like this. For the purposes of this article, let’s go ahead and panic. Assume the Twins lose 100 games in 2012, and after a short period of soul searching (and perhaps a trial before the Court of Puckett’s Pond) the Twins let their manager go. Doing so probably would not fix any of the team’s losing ways, but it would be a message to the fanbase that the team wants to make changes.

At this time, there appear to be several candidates to succeed Gardenhire as Twins manager:

Scott Ullger

In recent times, bench coaches are often the ones who win open manager jobs, and that means Ullger is the Twins’ second-in-command, the Marty McFly to Gardenhire’s Doc Brown. If by some astronomically improbable chain of events Gardenhire were to be fired before the end of the season, Ullger would almost certainly be named interim manager. He has seven seasons of minor league management experience and sixteen years of service time as an MLB coach. There is no question Ullger has the resume needed for the job. The only problem is that if the team were to fire Gardenhire, it would mean they are looking for a change in direction. In that situation, it’s hard to imagine they would simply replace Gardenhire with his right hand man; in fact, Ullger may very well get a pink slip too.

Steve Liddle

Liddle’s prospects for the job are about the same as Ullger’s. He spent nine seasons as bench coach before becoming the third base coach, so he also has plenty of coaching experience. But he’s also firmly entrenched in the current regime, so his success or failure with the Twins is closely tied to that of Gardenhire and Ullger.

Jeff Smith

Smith it the manager of the New Britain Rock Cats. Since AAA Rochester’s manager Gene Glynn is new to the organization, Smith is probably the highest level manager in the Twins organization who would receive consideration for the job. He started managing at Class A Fort Myers in 2008 and had some success with that club. Last year was his second season with New Britain, and he oversaw a big jump from a 44-98 record in 2010 to 72-70 and a playoff chase in 2011. He has already worked with many of the Twins’ rising prospects, including Chris Parmelee, Joe Benson, and Brian Dozier, which would be a plus.

Jake Mauer

Move one level down the minors, and we find a familiar name in the Twins organization. Jake Mauer has managed the Fort Myers Miracle for two seasons after two years managing in the Rookie Leagues. Like Smith, he has worked with the next wave of Twins prospects. Mauer would also carry some symbolic significance. Believe it or not, Jake Mauer is actually the brother of one of the players on the Twins (I won’t tell you which one; it’s a secret). That would definitely create some favorable publicity for the Twins. Also, like his MLB brother, Mauer is a Minnesota native, which could help his cause.

Ozzie Guillen

Okay, this one is just a joke. But I wanted people to imagine this idea, just to see if it’s possible to wrap our heads around it. There is a sizeable contingent of Floridians who are calling for Guillen to resign as Marlins manager, so it’s in theory possible he’ll be out of a job this offseason. If Terry Ryan feels the need to appeal to the angry/crazy side of the Twins fanbase, Guillen might just be the way to go.

Paul Molitor

Hiring Molitor would be a bold move, and it would instantly provide some palpable excitement for the team. His credentials as a player are impeccable: 3,319 hits, seven All Star appearances, 504 stolen bases, and a World Series ring. Like Mauer, Molitor is a native Minnesotan, and he finished his playing career with the Twins as a fan favorite. He knows how to hit, how to run, and how to win, and he seems to have a personable demeanor that would allow him to do well with the media. And hiring a Hall of Famer to manage is probably the best way a team can create positive buzz and sell tickets. In fact, Molitor is such a good all-around candidate that he might have gotten the manager job in 2002 had he not been afraid contraction would eliminate the Twins. If he is willing to be the Twins manager this time around, he might be the best choice for the job.

If it’s open, that is.

Believe it or not, the Twins have been pretty successful in free agency when they’ve actually gone out and made deals. The team has had a long list of failures on the free agent market over the years, but almost all of them have been low-cost, low risk guys like Livan Hernandez, Joe Crede, or Rondell White. Sure, they didn’t produce, but they didn’t cost much money or really hurt the team that either. On those rare occasions where they went out and spent some bucks for a top tier player, it has worked out pretty well. As an added bonus, the Twins have managed to find a few players who became stars despite a miniscule price tag.

Here, in my humble opinion, are the Top 6 Free Agent signings in Twins history:

#6: Jim Thome, DH

This was originally going to be a Top 5 list, but I couldn’t leave Thome off. He was brought partly as a low-cost, late-inning pinch hitting option and partly as a sideshow attraction, in the theory that fans would pay to see a future Hall of Famer chase 600 home runs. Not only did he succeed on both counts, he actually because the team’s most productive hitter in 2010, with a .283/.412/.610 line and 25 homers. After Justin Morneau went down with a concussion, Thome became a major presence in the lineup that helped the team to the playoffs. He earned $1.5 million in 2010, and he was brought back for $3 million in 2011 (though the Indians ended up paying a portion of that money). (more…)