Pic of the Week

Dan Gladden, motorcycle enthusiast, drove John Gordon
around Target Field before Wednesday's finale in a sidecar.
It was Gordon's final game as the Twins radio voice

I don't know: Is that joy on John Gordon's face, or abject terror?

Contemplating Terry Francona

Tito Francona and Theo Epstein, manager and general manager,
face the media on Thursday, the day after the
Red Sox completed their historic collapse.

Terry Francona managed the Boston Red Sox for eight seasons, winning two World Series in the process. Now he's out.

Fired? Pushed? Walked away? What they're saying for public consumption: Francona was encountering a growing disconnect with his team, which collapsed in stunning fashion last month. He told his superiors Friday morning that might be time for him to go. And after spending the day thinking about it, they agreed.

Which leads me to suspect that the Sox will look for a bit of a bully this time around — somebody who's not going to tolerate pitchers drinking beer during games, somebody who's not going to be as accommodating to egos, somebody less publicly passive.

Such a manager, I think, won't last long in the Fens, nor will he be particularly successful. Boston is a high-pressure environment to begin with. Dropping a high-pressure manager into such an environment is a bit like flipping lighted matches at a gasoline can. Maybe the first one won't ignite it, but eventually ... boom.

Francona was successful for years in Boston because he has a knack for dealing with superstars and their egos.  He was an unknown minor league manager who rose to prominence for dealing with Michael Jordan during the basketball star's flirtation with baseball. He got the job in Philadelphia, didn't win, got fired, got the job in Boston — and won.

Curt Schilling and Manny Ramirez, Pedro Martinez and David Ortiz — lots of talent, lots of quirks. It worked under Francona; it hadn't for other managers.

But there's probably a limit to how long a manager can absorb all the pressure and keep it from tearing at the players — and a time when constantly deflecting criticism results in a lack of accountability.

If in fact the players were abusing the freedom Francona's personality granted them, they may well regret it, and soon.

Who I like

The headline carries a double meaning — it can be who I'm rooting for, or it can be who I predict will win.

For this year's Twins-free baseball postseason, the two meanings are mutually exclusive.

I expect the World Series to match the New York Yankees and Philadelphia Phillies. Those are the two highest payrolls (not only in the tournament but in MLB total); they have the best records; they probably offer the highest ratings potential for the TV boys.

On that latter point alone, I rather hope to see the Milwaukee Brewers and Tampa Bay Rays advance.

Who I root for is another matter. As general rules, I prefer fly-over land to either coast, I prefer north to south, I prefer small market to large market, I prefer American League to National League, and I want to see historically great teams triumph (not an issue this year). And personalities matter -- indeed, they may trump other concerns. I abhor Tony LaRussa, and despise all things Steinbrenner. ABY -- Anybody But Yankees.

CC Sabathia may not be the best pitcher in baseball,
but he's not far behind.

Taking the actual matchups:

Detroit Tigers-New York Yankees
Rooting for: Tigers, of course
Picking: Yankees

I won't be shocked if the Tigers win this one. But I suspect Doug Fister's remarkable record since coming to Detroit is largely a function of a weak Central Division. Detroit needs to win anytime Justin Verlander takes the mound; CC Sabathia makes that difficult.

Texas Rangers-Tampa Bay Rays
Rooting for: Rays
Picking: Rangers

The Rays's struggle to get in leaves them with rookie Matt Moore -- a September callup -- to pitch the opener. Moore is extremely talented, but that's a tall order. The Rangers have their rotation neatly arranged.

This is likely the final month that Ryan Braun and
Prince Fielder will hit back-to-back for Milwaukee.

Arizona Diamondbacks-Milwaukee Brewers
Rooting for: Brewers
Picking: Brewers

A remarkable worst-to-first season for the Snakes, but the Brew Crew has the better stars in Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder; the deeper rotation in Zach Greinke, Yovani Gallardo and Shaun Marcum; and the knowledge that this is this crew's last chance. Fielder's a free agent, he's a Scott Boras client and he ain't staying.

Philadelphia Phillies-St. Louis Cardinals
Rooting for: Neither
Picking: Phillies

Don't really care for either team. Phillies fans -- based on the commenters on the Hardball Talk blog and on a handful encountered at spring training -- come off to me as insufferably smug and entitled. St. Louis is tainted by the bully LaRussa. I will root vigorously for the winner of this series to lose the next one.

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.

Contemplating Chris Parmelee

Chris Parmelee has drawn 10 walks
with just 13 strikeouts with the
Twins, a solid walk/strikeout ratio
that is better than any he has had
in six minor league seasons.

Joe Benson has generally been reckoned the superior prospect, but it's Chris Parmelee who has impressed this September.

Parmelee's major league numbers have been spectacular — and nothing like his minor league stats.  Now, the Twins affiliates generally play in fairly low run-scoring environments, but there's nothing there at all to suggest a slash line of .351/.429/.581. You could take a hundred points off each of those — .251/.329/.481 — and he'd still stand out in this offense.

Really. In the lineup Ron Gardenhire deployed Tuesday night, .251 would have been the third highest batting average, .329 the highest on-base percentage, .481 the highest slugging percentage.

Now, it's September, and it's not even 75 official at-bats,so we should take his performance with a grain of salt. But he has displayed a good sense of the strike zone, and — more important — a good sense of his strike zone, by which I mean he appears to know what pitch he wants to hit and which pitches he wants to let go by. There are a lot of hitters who struggle with that.

The Twins need a healthy Justin Morneau in 2012, but after the past three seasons, they also need to have a Plan B. As of now, I'm comfortable with Parmelee as Plan B.

I suspect the Twins would prefer to have him spend some time in Triple A next season — he hasn't seen Rochester yet — but if both Michael Cuddyer and Jason Kubel leave as free agents I can see him as a regular DH/first baseman, splitting time with Morneau at both spots, and occasionally playing right field. The more veterans the Twins retain (and who stay healthy), the less opportunity to play Parmelee figures to have.

The end of the Ozzie era in Chicago

Ozzie Guillen, looking for his way out.

Ozzie Guillen is, finally and fer sure, out as manager of the Chicago White Sox. He had a good run there -- third most wins as a White Sox manager (behind Al Lopez and Jimmy Dykes), managed the only Chicago World Series winner in the past 94 years — but eight years is a long time for a high-pressure manager.

What comes next? For Guillen, it's fairly obvious:  He'll land in Miami as the manager of the Marlins. So will most of his coaching staff — but not pitching coach Don Cooper, who the White Sox are retaining. It will be interesting to see how Guillen fares without Cooper. The Sox have, during Guillen's run, had remarkable success at keeping their starting rotation healthy. Nobody knows how much credit to give anybody for such an accomplishment, but my guess is that Cooper and trainer Herm Schneider deserve more than Guillen.

Before hiring a new manager, the Sox should first decide: Stick with the current approach or blow the roster up and start over? I will be surprised if they take the rebuilding route, for two reasons:

• General manager Kenny Williams doesn't appear to be wired that way and
• The large financial commitments to Alex Rios and Adam Dunn (among others) aren't easy to dispose of.

Just as the Twins are committed to Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau as the core of their team, the Sox are anchored to Rios, Dunn and Paul Konerko.

Tony LaRussa has been linked to the Sox job for years, but the decision to keep Cooper probably rules LaRussa out; LaRussa isn't going anywhere without Dave Duncan as his pitching coach.

Dick-n-Bert, on the Twins telecast Monday night, touted Joey Cora, Guillen's bench coach, as a candidate; while I think Cora's a reasonable candidate elsewhere, Williams will probably prefer to sweep all of Ozzie's guys out the door.

Contemplating Kevin Slowey

Kevin Slowey in September: Five starts,
27.1 innings, 22 runs (all earned),
17 strikeouts and no walks. 

Kevin Slowey made his eighth (and final) start of the season Monday. He lost. Again. He was the losing pitcher in all eight of his starts.

Won-loss records are far from the ideal yardstick by which to measure pitchers, but that seems a significant number. Oh-and-eight in eight starts.

He also relieved six times. The Twins lost all six of those games as well.

Slowey's opposite-of-triumphant return to the rotation has illustrated why the Twins wanted to move him to the bullpen. As was the case last season, he frequently provided three, four, five good innings, then melted down. Such was the case Monday: He came into the sixth inning with a 3-1 lead and got just two outs that inning, surrendering four runs and the lead.

His strong suit — his control — remains strong. He walked just five men in 59.1 innings; while his strikeout rate is lower than in previous seasons, his K/BB ratio is better than ever. It's difficult to believe a pitcher who fans almost seven men for each walk can be this ineffective.

Slowey and team management are widely believed to be on the outs. So, a couple of years ago, were Glen Perkins and the organization, and that appears to have been patched up. But Perkins accepted a bullpen shift and thrived in that role; a similar shift didn't take with Slowey.

My hope back in August, when Slowey slid back into the major league rotation to take the place of the injured Scott Baker, was that Slowey would at least rebuild his value as a trade chip — so that even if the Twins don't want him back in 2012, maybe someone else would give up something for him.

That, it seems safe to say, didn't happen.