Parker,

Thanks for that first person interview.

I'm a member of SABR and at every annual SABR Convention since 2001, the committee has recognized a baseball executive who has demonstrated a lifetime commitment to professional baseball scouts and scouting and player development history with presentation of the Roland Hemond Award.

The 2013 recipient? Terry Ryan.

I do recognize that Bill Smith was with the organization for 20+ years and thus probably has similar thinking as Terry Ryan, Radcliff, et al. Afterall, those were 20+ years together. So these 90 loss seasons are somewhat curious as a result of the layover of during Bill Smith's tenure. Thankful for some of the international signings Bill Smith had (Sano, etc).

I'm not too hot on Target Field as a whole. Wish it was more friendly to lefties. For Mauer now, but also as far as fewer players are lefties and we could easily stack our team to be left-handed for those 81 home games. Ultimately, as horrible as it is to try to watch Twins games sometimes, I'm hopeful for some growth signs in 2014 and very excited about what could happen in 2015 and beyond.