Time for FuckStein to go get a real manager in Ron Gardenhire. http://www.baseball-reference.com/managers/gardero01.shtml
Not sure if Gardenhire could have pulled 73 wins out of this years team. From now on, Rick is going to be held accountable for his wins and losses. The more players they pick up via free agency or trade, the better his performance is going to have to be. I hope they give him some legit talent to mix in with the kids. I want to see what they can do as a team for once.
So guys like Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau, Michael Cuddyer, Tori Hunter, Johan Santana, Francisco Liriano, Scott Baker, Jason Kubel, Dennard Span, and many, many more players all just learned how to be decent to all star level major league ball players on their own. Gotcha.
Here's the thing. Like him or not, I am not sure final judgment should be made with Rick. Castro resurrected his numbers, lowered his errors substantially, and Rizzo elevated his numbers too. Plus they both were All-Stars after having horrible seasons a year ago.. The Cubs lost a lot of their staff (TOR and veteran-wise) and they substituted that with young players who went through very bad stretches, and still had a winning record after the first month and a half. Rick's assessment should only done after he has had players to actually possess a winning record with. What he was able to accomplish in my opinion with what he had, was actually pretty good, especially if you look at who is drafting ahead of them, which is the White Sox, Philly, Boston, Rangers, D-Backs, and the Rockies. I think it's safe to say that most, if not all of these teams were predicted to finish ahead of the Cubs. :-*
I'm not sold on Rick, I'm not sure anything more than a push button coach right now anyway. I sure as hell don't want the guy that managed to accumulate more losses than the Cubs over the last 4 years, all with 90+ losses. I always liked Ron and he used to be one of my favorite managers, but he's been nothing of short full blown suck. Until proven otherwise and I would rather have him rehab his career in another city, or at the very least, take a couple years off before taking over the Cubs. Besides, with all the prospects and young players moving along nicely from a development standpoint, I would rather wait until things start going wrong before drastically shifting gears again. I'm sure they're will be time, or a window for the hire/fire, but I don't think now is it.
Oh I gotcha, DJ. Its okay to give Renteria a pass for a losing team, but when it comes to the Twins, also in a rebuild, Gardy gets all the blame. And for the record, though I don't know if its Gardy 100% as well as his staff, Josh Willingham resurrected his career in Minnesota, so did Ryan Doumit. Kevin Correa, Carl Pavano, Phil Hughes, Brian Duensing, and Glen Perkins too. His teams in the middle of a rebuild too. I aint saying he's perfect, in my eyes; I think its time for Minnesota to move on, so I get firing him, but he is a damn good manager and player developer/reclaimer. If oyu're going to argue that once touted prospects, now average players Trevor Plouffe and Brandon Dozier aren't all stars because of Gardy, then go ahead. I doubt either would be successful anywhere else. They just aren't that good.
Gardenhire is far better than Rick. That's an absolute undebatable no brainer unless you choose to be an absolute retard, which already has the beginnings of happening from the braintrust here. His tract record states such and he's seasoned. I'm not willing to wait another ten years for idiotic "comparisons"....... If you want these young guys to "grow" so fucking much then maybe it's time to find the right farmer. Rick is a pile of fuckbait and the FO is trying to use his third world toxic shit as fertilizer. I ain't buying it. If these prospects are so great then give them a fucking chance behind a manager that's been there for Christ sake. I suppose for all you loonies out there with your extreme mental incapacities. You would rather go to a psyche that is fresh out of med school to service your brain over one that has done it before. I get it. :-*
Definitely better than Ricky, but the cubs aren't gonna fire Ricky for Gardy. That and the no brained people you mention are just better off ignored. One in particular just wants to cause a rouse. Probably why he fits in so well at CCS. But hey, brace yourselves. I'm about to be called out for something I didn't say.
Renteria deserves to keep his job. Castro and Rizzo bounced back and progressed. He kept the team together when they should have just rolled over and played dead. He is enthusiastic and backs his players. I like him so much better then Sveum. His in game coaching needs work but he did get better with the season. I said this on CCS. I read the other day that he is looking forward to this off season on making the team better. He has more time this off season to fix things needing to be fix. He said last off season. He had hip surgery then went through the interview process then had to start feeling his way through the player and the org. He had restrictions on certain bullpen guys. This off season he doesnt have to deal with any of that and can focus. I like his attitude and his teaching is working. Dont rock the boat just for a name. He comes out next year and makes bad decisions then call for him to be fired but he did a pretty damn good job considering what he had to work with. The players seem to really like him. They showed some fire this year. Rizzo got himself a little swag.
Fair points, and truth be told, Gardy will likely get a few better offers than a hypothetical rebuilding cubs. Dodgers made the playoffs, but how safe is Mattingly, especially if they get bounced divisional round? His name was thrown around a lot last offseason in terms of 'hot seats.' Brewers after their meltdown with Roenicke, he could be in for a canning. Several colleges (I know, not the big job) including UW Madison and Minnesota reportedly will reach out because he's big in the Wisconsin/Minny border with charities and helping out high schoolers and collegiate prospective students. He helps in recruiting for UW Stout because of his sons there in attendance. Or he could take a eyar off and wait if there aren't many tantalizing opportunities.
Nice to know that he was hired last year with a bad hip that could have possibly kept us from being a .500 ballclub this past season because he couldn't feel some things ? Couldn't have been because he was grabbed from the FuckStein shitplie of prosperity...(see: Bard, Blowden, ...etc..) on the cheap. Time to show some respect for these "great prospects" and give them the best chance to succeed .....minus our third world bi-lingual belly dancer with a smile. Not to mention a fucking terrible hitting coach that was chosen by a throw of a dart at a 1998 baseball encyclopedia. Que Rob Deer......
He hasn't been flexible and successful shifting lineups around either, he likes things set into place and the only certainty in Chicago next year is that nobody is locked into place. Combining a philosophy that fights with what Chicago has to work through, his inexperience in Chicago's type of FO system, 4 years of miserable failures, and a complete lack of postseason success in a large sample size leads me to believe that not only is he not a great fit for Chicago, Rick might be better for the Cubs for 15'. I guess this is the biggest reason I don't want Gardenhire. I don't think he's been "there", mostly because he's been in a completely different system of development and FO philosophy. I don't know if Theo and the minions have a better or worse plan than the one in Minnesota (which I think sucks). Because that system and philosophy is so different, and because he's struggled like hell to find a solution for most of the hurdles thrown in front of him from that system and philosophy, I don't want to gamble on him in a new one. They have the good-ol-boy crap in Minnesota, he's not a good ol' boy with Theo, so I think the stage would be set for failure or limits on success immediately, even if the regular season records started inching up. Taken on their own, without rosters, coach vs coach, I take Ron over Rick in a second, but that's not what would be going on with the Cubs. If they can Rick, fine, not a big deal to me. I have no use for Gardenhire if Chicago is going to start to take a step forward. I agree with those that say Ron is a better coach overall and I agree with those that say Rick is a better option in Chicago for next year compared to Ron. While I think there's a good argument Ron could outperform Rick marginally for one year, I think he ultimately leaves the Cubs in a worse spot for 16' and beyond.
I would look at him as a much better potential hire than I do now if he did take a year off after 4 years of tending dumpster fires.
It really is quite disturbing that a manager with Gardehire's resume still isn't good enough for some to manage the royalty that's today's Chicago Cubs. Blown away.
Yes, but it's a different system of devolopment and FO philosophy up there in the major market hinterlands. Duh
Nope! You stick with Rick now, and then if he doesn't possess the managerial skills needed, then you look elsewhere. Who knows what candidate will be available in a couple of years. Ride out this storm with what we have. There is an old saying that "you are only as good as the horse that is underneath you", and right now, nobody is gonna make this mule of a team run any faster no matter how hard you beat it. *ROSE*
And Boo, he's easily expendable if he can't ride out the storm until this mule becomes a thoroughbred.
