Notes. quotes and comment

Byron Buxton caught some more love for his glove Friday.

The Twins centerfielder was voted the "Platimum Glove" in online fan balloting as baseball's best defensive player; the award is an offshoot of the long-established Gold Gloves, which are voted on by managers and coaches, were named earlier in the week and are sponsored by Rawlings.

Another glove manufacturer sponsors another set of awards. The Wilson Fielding Awards, relatively new, aren't handed out by vote but on the basis of a melange of fielding metrics. Buxton won both the position award in center and the overall defensive player of the year award.

Buxton passes the eye test and the metrics test. Now if he can keep from running his career into the wall, literally.

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Doug Mientkiewicz this week was named manager of the Detroit Tigers' Triple A affiliate, the Toledo Mud Hens, this week.

The reports said he was highly recommended by the Tigers' new big-league manager, Ron Gardenhire.

This amuses me, because when the Twins traded Mientkiewicz away as a player in July 2004 -- making room for Justin Morneau -- he departed, as I recall, with some verbal shots at Gardenhire, who he claimed mislead him about his playing time with Morneau's arrival.

Apparently there are no grudges held some 13 years later. (Thirteen years! The number of times I am reminded of how old I am ...)

Good bye, Mientkiewicz

Doug Mientkiewicz's
teams in Fort Myers and
Chattanooga finished
first four times in five
seasons.

Doug Mientkiewicz, who has managed in the Twins system for five years at two different levels, was fired Friday. His was the most prominent firing of three in the farm system (the others being pitching coordinator Eric Rasmussen and Larry Bennese, the trainer at Triple A Rochester).

Mientkiewicz, in an echo of his bitter comments in 2004 when the Twins moved him aside and then traded him to make way for Justin Morneau, reacted acidly to his dismissal. From a Star Tribune story:

“I’m out here working my rear end off, dealing with the remnants of the hurricane, and they call to tell me I’m fired. You think they will ever do something professional as an organization?”

OK, Mientkiewicz is in a stressful situation. He lives in the Florida Keys, and Irma did a number on pretty much everything there. And he has a rather impressive record as a minor league manager. And -- I can speak from experience here -- it's never fun being fired. But it happens to managers, at every level, a lot. And it's not going to do him any good to rip the guys who let him go.

Mientkiewicz interviewed for the big-league job when Ron Gardenhire was fired. He was my personal favorite for the position, but then-general manager Terry Ryan, perhaps with a push from above, picked Paul Molitor instead. Mientkiewicz reportedly was not even the runner-up. It may be worth noting that Mientkiewicz' name has not been connected with any managerial openings around baseball since.

Off what is visible from here, Mientkiewicz's firing makes little sense. He's developed players, and he's won. But much of the job of minor league manager -- major league manager too, for that matter -- is, like an iceberg, submerged and out of view. And Thad Levine, the Twins general manager, is correct in saying that the earlier in the offseason the firing, the better in terms of finding a new job.

I expect media criticism of Mientkiewicz' firing. It will come from the contingent of writers and talkers who can't or won't understand analytics. Mientkiewicz was a pretty reliable "good quote" 15 years ago as a player, and there are several guys with prominent platforms who harbor fond memories of those days yet. They've been itching for something to rip the new regime for. Mientkiewicz gives them an opportunity.

Shuffling the minor league managers

The Twins had a opening in their minor league managerial crew. They filled it in a striking way.

• Mike Quade remains the manager at Triple A Rochester.
• Jake Mauer moves from Low A Cedar Rapids to Double A Chatanooga.
• Doug Mientkiewicz moves down a rung, from Chattanooga to High-A Fort Myers, which was vacated by the elevation of Jeff Smith to the major league staff.
• Tommy Watkins was named manager of Low A Cedar Rapids.

I doubt Mientkiewicz was "demoted." I expect that he preferred to be in Fort Myers.

This is actually the second time in three years that the Twins Double-A manager went down a step. Smith made the same move. As I recall, he asked to be assigned to Fort Myers, closer to his Florida home and family. And I wouldn't be surprised if Mientkiewicz did the same this year.

I don't know how the money differs, but since Baseball Reference says Mientkiewicz made more than $13 million in his playing career, the money may not matter that much to him. Smith didn't play in the majors, so he didn't have that cushion, but he apparently made that choice anyway.

Watkins has been a coach at various levels since ending his playing career, and I am among those pleased to see him get the managerial nob at CR. "The Mayor of Fort Myers" is a popular guy in the Twins organization.

The minor league managers

The Twins on Friday announced their minor league managers and coaches, and there were quite a few changes.

The most important name: Doug Mientkiewicz will be the manager at Double A Chattanooga. There is no more important spot in the Twins farm system than this one. It should be loaded. Byron Buxton and Miguel Sano are likely to open the season there. Quite possibly J.O. Berrios also, plus Eddie Rosario, Jorge Polanco and the core of the bunch that won the Florida State League title for Dougie Alphabet last year.

Mientkiewicz was reportedly disappointed to lose out on the major league managing job, disappointed enough that there was some speculation that he might leave the organization. I regard it as good news that he's staying. I was pulling for him to get the big league job, and I suspect that he might have it in a few years.

Jeff Smith, the Double A manager he past couple of years, is moving down to the Fort Myers job, reportedly at his request. Jake Mauer will remain at Cedar Rapids, and Ray Smith at Elizabethton.

And Mike Quade, who got a year-plus as manager of the Chicago Cubs at the start of the decade, will be the successor to Gene Glynn as the manager at Triple A Rochester.

Quade became the interim manager of the Cubs in 2010, and they opted to hire him for 2011 instead of Ryne Sandberg, the Cubs legend and Hall of Famer. This displeased Sandberg sufficiently that he left for the Phillies, and he's now the manager there. Quade lasted only a year before being dumped by the Cubs.

Quade has 17 years as a minor league manager for five different organizations. He started when he was 28, and he's 57 now. (He's had some years as a major league coach interspersed with the managing gigs.) He was a roving instructor in the Yankees system last year.

I wouldn't have minded seeing Mauer get the Triple A job. Or Mientkiewicz, although I prefer him in Double A because that's where the future is, and I think he's part of that future.

Subtract one candidate, assess

Chip Hale has 2,728 fewer managerial victories
than the man to his left in this photo, Tony LaRussa.

One candidate for the Twins managerial job was scratched Monday. Chip Hale took the job in Arizona.

Which leaves the Twins with six known candidates and perhaps more to come.

We know of inside candidates Gene Glynn, Doug Mienkiewicz and Paul Molitor, and of outside candidates Sandy Alomar Jr,, Torey Lovullo and Joe McEwing. There's a very real chance that the search is now on hold while one or more candidates now coaching teams in the playoffs -- specifically John Russell of Baltimore and perhaps Jose Oquendo of St. Louis -- finishes the season.

It would be unfair to pin a specific label on any of the six -- unfair but tempting. They are all, without doubt, unique blends of personality and experience. Yet we can slide each into an individual slot:

• Glynn is the proven instructor and minor league veteran.
• Mientkiewicz is the young gun, just five years removed from his own playing days.
• Molitor is the Hall of Famer, with all the respect that carries.
• Alomar Jr. is the Spanish speaker.
• Lovullo is the guy from the sabermetric organization.
• McEwing is Mientkiewicz from the outside.

If Russell -- who was the first outsider to be specifically tied to the search in media reports -- is indeed a candidate, his pigeonhole would be "the recycled manager."

Again, these guys all are more complex than those brief sentences.

My (emphatically outside) view on this group:

• I prefer Mientkiewicz over the field.
• Of the outside candidates, including Russell, I prefer Alomar Jr. because of the language component. The Twins have so many Latin players of importance coming up, but their track record with such talent under Ron Gardenhire was spotty.
• I still expect Molitor to get the job, in part because it's easier to imagine Mientkiewicz on Molitor's staff than vice versa.

Mientkiewicz' managerial influences

Doug Mientkiewicz in the white jersey, Tom Kelly
in the navy, during spring training in March.

Doug Mientkiewicz reportedly interviewed Thursday for the Twins managerial vacancy. That news prompted this tweet:

There's a case for going outside the org., and I'm OK w/ Molitor or Steinbach. But I'm rooting for Dougie Alphabet. #MakeItMientkiewicz
— Edward Thoma (@bboutsider) October 2, 2014

Mientkiewicz has spent the past two seasons managing the Twins in High A Fort Myers, boasting the Florida State League's best record both years and winning FSL playoffs this year. Beyond the won-loss record, it should be a selling point for him that Miguel Sano's best statistical line came while playing for Mientkiewicz, and  Byron Buxton and Eddie Rosario also flourished for him in a difficult hitting environment.

Mientkiewicz's major league career had two segments. He broke in with the Twins, spending all or parts of six seasons in Minnesota, with three and half seasons as the regular first baseman. He was then traded in midseason 2004 to make room for Justin Morneau, and that trade triggered the second stage of his career, in which he wandered from team to team as a bench guy: seven teams (counting the Twins) in six years.

As a result, he was exposed to a rather extensive, and distinguished, set of managers -- not just Tom Kelly and Ron Gardenhire, the two managers for whom he was a regular, but also:

• Tommy Lasorda (Team USA, 2000 Olympics)
• Terry Francona (2004 Red Sox , World Series champs)
• Willie Randolph (2005 Mets)
• Buddy Bell (2006 Royals)
• Joe Torre (2007 Yankees and 2009 Dodgers)
• John Russell (2008 Pirates)

Lasorda and Torre are Hall of Famers; Francona is certainly on that path.

Mientkiewicz would probably say Kelly was his biggest influence, but there are definitely others.

The return of Doug Mientkiewicz

The Twins on Monday announced that Doug Mientkiewicz will manage their high-A team, the Fort Myers Miracle. Last year's manager there, Jake Mauer, will manage the low-A Cedar Rapids Kernels.

Dougie Alphabet isn't new to the Twins, of course; a decade ago he was a defense-first first baseman on the Twins team that revitalized the franchise. He was eventually pushed aside by Justin Morneau, who wasn't -- and isn't -- the glove whiz Mientkiewicz was, but hit a whole lot better, after which Mientkiewicz bounced around a bit -- Red Sox, Mets, Royals,Yankees, Pirates, Dodgers. Last year he was a hitting coach in rookie ball for the Dodgers.

He's stepping into an important spot in the Twins system, at least as I see it. Every minor league affiliate has its special projects and priorities, and the Miracle in 2013 might have the two most important projects in the system: Turning Miguel Sano and Eddie Rosario into a bona fide third baseman (Sano) and second baseman (Rosario).

Sano and his big-time power will be a greater asset as a third baseman than if he has to move to an outfield corner or to first base. Rosario's bat figures to be a real plus if he can turn the double play with the likes of Nick Swisher trying to take his legs out, less so if he's limited to outfield duties.

Making them infielders is Job 1 and 1A for Mientkiewicz, arguably for the entire farm system.

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Late Monday night word came that the Twins and right-handed starter Kevin Correia had agreed on a two-year, $10 million deal.

This is atrocious if true. I chose for now to ignore this report and hope it goes away. When it is confirmed, I'll open fire.