Imagine for a moment that you are a Major League manager. You work in a small market but have fielded a reasonably strong team. Unfortunately, after the season is over your boss tells you that the team is going to trade or not re-sign the top three pitchers in your rotation, including a two-time Cy Young Award winner who at the time is widely considered to be the best pitcher in the game.

In addition to the pitchers, you are told the team will not be bringing back your All-Star center fielder who as well as being an offensive force also happens to have won seven consecutive Gold Gloves.
All of this is just a taste of what Minnesota Twins manager Ron Gardenhire has had to deal with this season. Rather than folding up the tent or whining about what an advantage all the “Big Market” teams have, Gardenhire has simply put together a team that wins with speed, clutch hitting and some surprisingly good young pitching and finds itself on top of the AL Central heading down the final stretch of the season.

If Gardenhire doesn’t win manager of the year they should stop handing out the award.

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