Ron Gardenhire and the Red Sox job

The Boston Red Sox announced early Wednesday morning that John Farrell was out as manager. Within hours, Ron Gardenhire was linked to the opening.

Unlike the Detroit job, Boston appears a good fit for Gardenhire. 

Gardenhire prefers established players and set lineups. In my estimation, his weakest point as a manager is his (in)ability to accurately judge the current skill set of a player. The Red Sox currently boasts eight regulars and a catching platoon. Gardy is not adept at lineup juggling; this team doesn't need that. They don't figure to have spring training position battles to judge. 

The Saux have several big-name starters in their rotation and a stellar closer, but have had some issues of late in the middle of their bullpen. In my estimation, Gardenhire's greatest strength as a manager is handling the pen. The list of relievers who pitched better for Gardenhire than for anybody else is long, starting with Eddie Guardado, J.C. Romero and (to a lesser extent) LaTroy Hawkins through Joe Nathan, Juan Rincon and Dennys Reyes to Glen Perkins and Jared Burton.

I don't know that he's going to get the job. But it would make sense.

Game 6: Boston. Strong.

David Ortiz drew four walks (three)
intentional) and scored twice in
Wednesday's World Series clincher.

A baseball season lasts a long time -- a month or more of spring training (more this year with the World Baseball Classic), six months of regular season play, and October's postseason. 

A lot happens in that time. Some we forget almost immediately, some we think we'll remember only to see it fade away, and some sticks.

A lot from this World Series should stick. The bizarre ending of Game 3, when St. Louis got its winning run without the runner reaching home plate; the big bat of David Ortiz; the sturdy pitching of Jon Lester.

And as I think of Ortiz and the 2013 season, I can't help but remember an emotional moment back in April, when the Sox weren't well-regarded as a contender -- remember, they had finished last in the AL East in 2012 -- and Boston was reeling from the Marathon bombing and subsequent manhunt. A stressful time indeed.

The Red Sox, of course, traditionally play a morning game on Patriots Day, a state holiday in Massachusetts. The game is scheduled with the intent that it will end in time for the Fenway fans to watch the marathon stream past the ballpark. In practice, with the Sox games typically dragging along, it hasn't worked that way in recent years. Still, there is a connection of long-standing between the Red Sox and the Marathon.

So the bombing happens, and the manhunt begins, and the shootout happens, and one bombing suspect is dead and another wounded and arrested. The Sox come back to Fenway after a road trip and hold a pre-game ceremony, and David Ortiz -- native of the Dominican Republic, naturalized American -- says something blunt and earthy and defiant that captures the moment, and the popular sentiment, perfectly:

This is our fucking city, and nobody gonna dictate our freedom. 

The Red Sox didn't win the pennant and the World Series because of the bombing. They won because they were the best team in the American League and because they played better than their rivals in three short series this month.

But this feels somehow righteous: Ortiz, who gave voice to the larger feeling in April, was the man the Cardinals simply could not deal with in October.

Game 2: Ex-Twins rise and fall

Craig Breslow threw 13 pitches in his disastrous
one-third of an inning Thursday, just six for strikes.

There are two former Twins involved in this World Series, and both play for the Boston Red Sox.

David Ortiz, of course, is Boston's DH, cleanup hitter and unofficial face of the franchise. Craig Breslow, left-handed reliever, is one of the bullpen arms manager John Farrell relies on.

On Thursday night, Ortiz homered in the sixth inning to give Boston a 2-1 lead in Game 2. In the top of the seventh, Breslow came in with two on and one out; he allowed a double steal, yielded a walk, gave up a sac fly to tie the game, committed a throwing error to put St. Louis ahead, and allowed a single to plate yet another run.

And that was all St. Louis needed, because Boston got nothing more. John Lackey is the official losing pitcher, but Breslow — who had a terrific regular season (5-2, 1.81) and had not allowed a run in seven innings in the playoffs — should bear more of the blame.

Breslow has a 2.82 career ERA, slightly better than the 2.89 mark he put up with the Twins in 2008-09 before they blundered by putting him on waivers. I have long believed (and frequently written) that the Twins lost out on the 2008 division title because Ron Gardenhire wouldn't use Breslow in game situations. I've never understood why Gardenhire didn't trust Breslow more, or why Breslow had such a short leash in '09.

A familiar sight over the years: David Ortiz
gestures to the sky as he reaches home
plate after a home run.

More Twins fan complain about how the Twins gave up on Ortiz than about the Breslow fiasco, but it's worth remembering that when the Twins cut Ortiz loose after the 2002 season, nobody wanted him. He cleared waivers and signed a minor league deal with the Red Sox just before spring training began.

Ortiz has fueled the second-guessing over the years by criticizing Tom Kelly in particular and the Minnesota organization in general for insisting that he learn to hit to left field. In the Ortiz version of history, he got to Boston and the Sox let him pull the ball, and the rest is baseball history.

It's not that simple, and Thursday's home run — hit to left field, over the Green Monster — is a good example. Ortiz has become a legend in large part because he's not simply a pull hitter. He actively looks to go the other way, especially in Fenway. The cozy old yard has long been a boon to lefties with that approach, and Ortiz realistically should be grateful he encountered Kelly's philosophy in his formative years. (And perhaps he is, and clings to the slight of being cut loose as incentive.)

There are valid grounds to criticize how the Twins handled Ortiz, specifically the decision that he wasn't a good enough defensive player to DH. Boston made him a full-time designated hitter; that's something the Twins were unwilling to do.

Would Ortiz have become a star had the Twins stuck with him? He has a career slash line of .313/.409/.591 in Fenway; in all other games, his slash line is .268/.361/.519. That's certainly good enough to play, but not the stuff of legends.

A quick World Series prediction

Fenway Park is gussied up for the World Series, which
open there tonight.

I don't particularly like either of the teams playing in the World Series this year. I don't have a rooting interest in this matchup.

But I recognize this: The best teams in their respective leagues are playing for the championship. That doesn't happen every year. It didn't happen every year when there were just two divisions per league — the 1987 Twins are testimony to that fact — and it has rarely happened in the wild card era.

So kudos to the Boston Red Sox and St. Louis Cardinals. Despite the pitfalls built by Commissioner Bud at the behest of TV to create artifical suspense, they got to the showcase.

So who wins? I think St. Louis does.

I'll boil it down to this simple matchup: The Detroit Tigers starters demonstrated in the previous round that power arms overmatch much of the Red Sox lineup. The Cardinals have some power arms in their rotation. Unlike the Tigers, the Cardinals have power arms in the bullpen to boot. The Sox survived the Tigers series by outlasting the Detroit starters and preying on the Detroit relievers. That isn't likely to work against the Cardinals.

The conventional wisdom has this being an evenly-matched series that will go seven games. Maybe it will. But I think it might be over in St. Louis.

Tony LaRussa and the Boston Red Sox

Is Tony LaRussa eyeing the Red Sox managerial job?
Tom Kelly suggested Saturday that his old buddy and rival
wants to return to the dugout, and Boston might be his
preferred destination.

Bobby Valentine is widely viewed as a dead man walking with the Boston Red Sox; indeed, he might well have been fired already had the now-notorious players-ownership meeting remained secret. Once that cat got out of the bag, it started having kittens all over the Boston media. Canning Bobby V. at that point would have suggested that the inmates were running the asylum.

Still, it's almost impossible to imagine Valentine back at the helm next season, which raises the question: Who should step into this pressure cooker of a job?

It's a bear. The Red Sox manager, whoever he is, must deal with

• an overbearing media with a penchant for putting everything under a melodramatic microscope;
• an ownership group with a demonstrated willingness to undermine underlings;
• a clubhouse of highly paid egos; and
• a fan base that believes it is entitled to championships.

Keeping all four groups happy is next to impossible, which is why Terry Francona is in the broadcast booth these days. Valentine has worked a clean sweep; all four groups appear to be in agreement about him.

I had figured that the Sox would look for someone along the lines of Francona, and likely one of his former coaches who have gone on to manage other teams. Maybe Brad Mills, fired this summer in Houston; perhaps John Farrell, who is still the manager in Toronto.

Tom Kelly offered another notion Saturday during a visit to the Twins TV booth on his number-retirement day.  Somebody raised the topic of Tony LaRussa, TK's great buddy and long-ago rival — from 1987 through 1992, the Twins and A's never played a series without one of the teams being in first place in the old AL West.

LaRussa, of course, stepped down as manager of the St. Louis Cardinals after winning the World Series last year. But Kelly, implying strongly that he had this from the horse's mouth, said LaRussa is itching to get back into managing. And when Dick Bremer mentioned Boston, Kelly essentially said, yeah, that's the idea.

It's a fascinating proposition, LaRussa in Boston. This is one of the most accomplished managers in the game's history; if there's anybody who can impose his will on the chaos that seems to accompany the Red Sox, LaRussa's probably the man.

On the other hand, LaRussa's constant belligerence is rather antithetical to the approach that worked for Francona. Playing in Boston is tough enough without a manager who's constantly looking to create conflict. Francona's genius was in removing friction; LaRussa seems addicted to it.

So does Valentine, and we've seen this year what that style leads to in Boston. LaRussa's better at that style than Valentine, and maybe he could pull it off in Beantown, but he seems an ill fit for that environment.

The irrepressible Nick Punto

It begins to look as if Nick Punto, not Danny Valencia,
is the ex-Twin Bobby Valentine trusts at third base.

The Twins early this month traded Danny Valencia to Boston in a waiver deal. The Red Sox, with rookie Will Middlebrooks installed at third base, sent Valencia to Triple A Pawtucket.

He didn't stay there long. Middlebrooks broke his wrist, and Valencia was recalled. He made his Red Sox debut on Aug. 11 as a substitute. He started on Aug. 12; the 13th was an off day; he started again on the 14th.

And since then, almost nothing; indeed, Valencia made just one more appearance before being sent back to Pawtucket on Tuesday. Four games, nine plate appearances, one hit.

Know who's been playing third base for the Red Sox for the past week as they desperately try to resuscitate their playoff hopes? Nick Punto.

Yes indeed, the king of the headfirst slide, the longtime bane of the Twins Internet community, started four of the five games since the 14th (through Monday; he wasn't in the lineup Tuesday evening).

Will this last? I don't know, but I still find this intriguing.

Ron Gardenhire, Tony LaRussa, now Bobby Valentine. Three managers of some repute and accomplishment, and each, with a season in the balance, has at least once stuck Punto in his infield. Gardenhire, of course, did so at three different positions; LaRussa relied on Punto at second base during St. Louis' surprising run to the World Series title last October; and now Valentine seems intent on using the veteran at the hot corner.

Pic of the Week

Kevin Youkilis was greeted on his return to
Fenway Park with a standing ovation.

One of the many things that has gone right for the Chicago White Sox -- the surprising leaders in the American League Central for much of the season, until they fell behind Detroit on Saturday -- was the acquisition of Kevin Youkilis.

Youkilis was a mainstay for the Red Sox for years, but he fell out of favor quickly with new manager Bobby Valentine, went on the disabled list -- not a rare event for Youkilis -- and lost playing time to rookie Will Middlebrooks. "Youk" hit .233/.315/.377 for Boston this year.

So the Sawx traded him to Chicago almost a month ago. Since changing his Sox from Red to White, Youkilis has hit (entering Saturday's play) .299/.389/.506 and has hit as many home runs (four) as he did in twice the at-bast for Boston.

Meanwhile, Middlebrooks -- who was hitting .326 the day Youkilis was traded -- has faded. Since June 24 the rookie's slash line is .203/.213/.339. And the Red Sox have already designated one of the players they got for Youkilis (Brent Lillibridge) for assignment.

It has not been a particularly good trade for Boston so far.

Little love for Valentine

Bobby Valentine's criticism of Kevin Youkilis did not
go over well in the Red Sox clubhouse.

After the on-field debacle that accompanied the Boston Red Sox' celebration of Fenway's centennial, I figured Bobby Valentine's tenure as manager may be far shorter than imagined.

Then the Sox came to Minnesota, where they found that all-purpose cure that is the Twins' starting rotation.

Still, there are problems with the Crimson Hose, not all of which can be laid fairly at Valentine's feet, but problems nevertheless.

The Sox have a patchwork outfield right now, with both Carl Crawford and Jacoby Ellsbury on the disabled list. Their putative closer is injured, and the rest of the bullpen a shambles. Shortstop is being manned by a Kansas City washout (Mike Aviles), and Kevin Youkilis does not appear to have bounced back well from offseason surgery.

That's a lot for any manager to cope with. Valentine's job is complicated by two factors:

• He wasn't the choice of the general manager;
• He's expected to simultaneously change the clubhouse culture while relying on the veterans who set that culture.

Remember: He has the job only because the Red Sox had an epic collapse last September. After the Sox missed the playoffs, both general manager Theo Epstein and field manager Terry Francona left. Francona departed amid stories of slipshod discipline, and Epstein left saying he had planned to leave the job soon anyway and didn't think it fair to the organization to hire the new manager and then depart. Epstein assistant Ben Cherington was promoted to general manager, and he conducted a managerial search that appeared to focus on relatively obscure candidates.

And just as it appeared that Cherington had settled on Dale Sveum, ownership stepped in. No, they told Cherington, you need somebody who's managed in the majors before, someone who can handle big-market pressure. Someone like Bobby Valentine.

A Yankees fan trolls the Red Sox faithful
Saturday in Fenway Park.

Which is a legitimate point. Boston is a, shall we say, more intense environment than Minnesota. Playing or managing there is like dressing in a greenhouse. It would have done everybody a favor had ownership set out that requirement early in the process rather than let Charington stake out a direction and then get reined in. It undermined Charington, and it wasted the time of the candidates Charington was considering. (Epstein moved on to the Cubs, and hired Sveum there.)

Meanwhile, Valentine has rubbed his new team the wrong way. Some friction was likely to occur anyway; the new manager was bound to tighten the rules after the reports of beer and fried chicken during games. But  when Valentine told a Boston TV station that Youkilis wasn't "into the game physically or emotionally, for whatever reason," he drew a biteback not only from Youkilis but Dustin Pedroia as well: We don't do things like that here. Maybe in Japan.

That the players aren't used to it was part of the point in replacing Francona, but the lashback still left the always glib Valentine stammering and stumbling for words. He's managed long enough, and in enough places, to know that the absolute requirement for a manager is the respect of his players. He needs clubhouse figures like Pedroia and Youkilis to buy in. Instead, he appears to be alienating them.

Francona helped his players cope with the Boston environment by holding the reins loosely, and by his own account, when players took too much advantage of his light touch he couldn't (or wouldn't) find the way to get their attention. Valentine has, by and large, the same set of players -- and the need to, at least in public perception, not allow the inmates to run the asylum, while still getting them to perform.

It hasn't gone well so far. The Fenway chants last weekend of "We want Tito" are ample testimony to that.

Pic of the Week

Fans at the Boston Red Sox spring training facility in Fort Myers, Fla., on St. Patrick's Day. That's Luis Tiant in the middle.

Joy, sorrow and endurance

Joy for the Rays; despair
for the Braves.

The best day of the year is Opening Day. Summer lies ahead, and hundreds of baseball games, and anything is possible.

And the worst day is the final day of the season — with winter ahead, and all the games behind.

I spent much of this September wishing the Twins ordeal would end. And now that it has, I wish it weren't — that there would be more at-bats for Rene Tosoni and Chris Parmelee, more warm nights at the ball yard.

It's best that it does end, of course; it has been a miserable season for the Twins, and getting out of it without hitting triple-digits in the loss column is as close as they can come to leaving with a good taste in their mouths.

It's best that the season end, too, because without a finish line there can be no drama such as that of Wednesday night, when the Rays and Red Sox and Braves played excruciatingly tight games with their seasons at stake. Two of those games went extra innings, the third was decided in the bottom of the ninth.

Tampa Bay overcame a 7-0 deficit with six runs in the eighth and a two-out, two-strike homer in the bottom of the ninth — from a guy hitting .108 — to tie the score. They won in the 12th inning — concluding a stretch drive that saw them overtake the Red Sox, who had led the wild-card hunt by nine games earlier in the month.

Boston's payroll exceeded $160 million; Tampa Bay's was under $42 million. While I'd rather see the Yankees miss out on the playoffs than Boston, I'll pretty much always pull for the $40 million team over the $160 million team.

Rule 7.09(h) and other fun stuff

But Mr. Umpire, sir, I was safe, really I was.

Rule 7.09

It is interference by a batter or a runner when:

(h) In the judgment of the umpire, the base coach at third base, or first base, by touching or holding the runner, physically assists him in returning to or leaving third base or first base.

My copy of the rules lists that as 7.09(i), but my copy is about 15 years old and they may have tightened up the section. All the stories say 7.09(h), so that's what I'll go with.

Rule 7 is about base running, and 7.09 deals with baserunner interference, (h) obviously with interference by the coaches. 

On the face of it, 7.09(h) gives the umpire discretion. It appears, from the comments in the postgame stories, that in practice, there's a zero tolerance policy.

The Rangers don't argue that the contact between third base coach Dave Anderson and baserunner Michael Young was incidental. They say it didn't happen. 

The crew chief,  Tim Tschida, said bluntly, "They can't make contact."

Ron Gardenhire: "It probably didn't help him stop, or it didn't help him get back, but contact is contact, and that's what Alfonso (Marquez) called." 

My take on it: There was contact, and so what? The rule book should be interpreted literally, and I don't think the hand contact "physically assisted" Young. Bad call.

And as a Twins fan, I'll take it. That same ump jobbed the Twins earlier this season.  

---

The Twins got no help from the Red Sox this weekend. Chicago swept that series — the White Sox are 6-0 on their current road trip — and had to score four in the ninth off Jonathan Papelbon to do it.

Two reasons to expect little from Boston this month. One, they've got injury problems: Dustin Pedroia, Kevin Youkilis, Jacoby Ellsbury and Mike Cameron are all out for the season. That's half the infield and two-thirds of the outfield regulars. Second, they've fallen out of contention — 10 games out in the division, 7.5 in the wild card — and veteran-laden teams having disappointing seasons have a tendency to pack it in.

The White Sox have another series late in September against Boston. The schedule again conspires against the Twins.

---

Poll stuff: 43 votes on who should be AL MVP. Twenty nine — 67 percent — love them some Josh Hamilton. Seven (16 percent) went for Miguel Cabrera, three (7 percent) for Robinson Cano or none of the above; one for Evan Longoria. 

New poll, related to the Monday print column, is  up.

Spreading rumors

The Star Tribune, having opted not to send one of its baseball writers to the World Series, did send Joe Christensen to the general managers meetings in Chicago this week. I suppose two days in Chicago is cheaper than 10 days in Philly-NYC.

The GM meeting is a rumor mill; historically, trades and contracts are talked, but action comes about a month from now, at the winter meetings. But then, there have been some trades of significance already — Akinori Iwamura to Pittsburgh, Mark Teahen to the White Sox, J.J. Hardy to the Twins — so who knows? The GMs might surprise us.

Chatter gleaned from the Internets:

* The Tigers are said to be shopping Edwin Jackson. There is a difference between shopping him around and actually trading him, of course.

The motivation is said to be financial. He's arbitration-eligible, which means his salary is about to accelerate, and you may have heard that the Detroit economy isn't strong these days.

I wonder, however, if the Tigers aren't suspicious about his declining numbers as the season progressed. First half ERA: 2.52. Second half ERA: 5.07. Seven homers allowed through June; 20 from July on. Twenty-three extra base hits allowed in Oct./Sept.

If the Tigers trade Jackson, yeah, they'll shed a growing financial obligation. But it may also be a good baseball move.

* Carl Pavano's agent says the free agent starter would like to stay with the Twins. Pitching coach Rick Anderson is said to be enthusiastic about that idea. Usually, if the player wants to stay and the team wants him to stay, he's staying, but there may be a gap between what Pavano thinks he should be paid and what the Twins think.

I get a chuckle out of the defense that Pavano's 5.10 ERA in 2009 was inflated by his first start, in which he gave up nine runs while getting just three outs for Cleveland. Toss out that one, and his season ERA drops to 4.86 — which is still almost a half-run higher than the league average.

* Christensen also says the Twins may pursue Jarrod Washburn. That would be a mistake, especially with the planned outfield defense.

* The Red Sox reworked Tim Wakefield's contract and said the reason was to save money under the competitive balance tax. They were about 45 million short of being hit by the tax last season, so the speculation is rife that they're going to spend spend spend. Which may be the best possible news for Matt Holliday.