Souhan: Ryan in for the long haul

[jokin]

The link you provided goes to a page discussing Duquette and the Jays.

 

Scroll down to the second article.  (File that under-  "things I learned while looking up something else.")

[ashbury]

If the Jays really want him as badly as was alleged, they disagree with Ryan's self-assessment. I'd have to think that Ryan could get the Blue Jays President's title, and parcel out the responsibilities- baseball/non-baseball- any way he sees fit.

Read the article I linked.  We've listened to Terry Ryan say things for a long time now.  What he said didn't strike me as a long way of saying "I can't talk about this now".  And he's not the kind of person who shows a lot of guile in his public pronouncements, IMO.

[jokin]

Read the article I linked.  We've listened to Terry Ryan say things for a long time now.  What he said didn't strike me as a long way of saying "I can't talk about this now".  And he's not the kind of person who shows a lot of guile in his public pronouncements, IMO.

 

I think you didn't understand what I wrote.  By all accounts, TR is a pretty modest fellow.  I didn't allege that Ryan was posturing in public.  I said that the Jays evidently might think more of him than he apparently thinks of himself.

[Platoon]

Ryan a few weeks ago was quoted on the subject of the Toronto job as that he wasn't interested and did not have the necessary skill set to be anything above the GM role where he is now.  I inferred that he likes having someone like Dave St Peter above him to handle the tasks he's not that interested in doing himself - the non-baseball side of the business.

Agree. Ryan has made it clear more than once that he is not that interested in the numbers crunching side of the game. He enjoys the game more than the business. My biggest complaint is he seems afraid to "roll the dice"! He is painstakingly slow bringing up top prospects. He seems to put more weight on rewarding loyalty than talent. But it's talent that wins games.

[gunnarthor]

Agree. Ryan has made it clear more than once that he is not that interested in the numbers crunching side of the game. He enjoys the game more than the business. My biggest complaint is he seems afraid to "roll the dice"! He is painstakingly slow bringing up top prospects. He seems to put more weight on rewarding loyalty than talent. But it's talent that wins games.

Part of this is that his hands were tied by payroll during his first run.  He's already made several roll the dice trades - Span for Meyer, Revere for Worley/May.  Since he put Steil in charge of the minor league system, we've seen a bunch of multiple mid season promotions for a bunch of our prospects and he's already on record saying he thinks Buxton debuts this season.  I'm not sure the "rewarding loyalty" thing is valid.  Frankly, people used to complain that he was cold blooded by letting guys like Koskie, Jones, Everyday Eddie, Milton, Dougie baseball, etc go when he could have kept them "somehow."  Since he's come back after the 2011 season, we've seen a pretty big roster/coaching system overhaul.  Not really sure who he is rewarding loyalty over talent.

[Otto von Ballpark]

Under Smith we added these guys:

 

Hicks, Ortiz, Tonkin, Dozier, Gibson, Rosario, Sano, Vargas, and Danny Santana.  To name just the highlights. 

I wonder, is that a good haul for four seasons at the helm?  I don't know, but it feels like it might be weak (especially considering that 2-4 of your "highlight" names could easily wind up marginal MLBers).

 

I mean, a blind squirrel at the helm of a MLB organization will probably find a few useful guys over a 4 year period.  Not sure if Smith exceeded that.  Although at times TR probably didn't exceed it either (i.e. the couple drafts before he left, a few of his 1990s drafts too, particularly as he wasn't terribly active in the top international markets).

[TheLeviathan]

I wonder, is that a good haul for four seasons at the helm?  I don't know, but it feels like it might be weak (especially considering that 2-4 of your "highlight" names could easily wind up marginal MLBers).

 

I mean, a blind squirrel at the helm of a MLB organization will probably find a few useful guys over a 4 year period.  Not sure if Smith exceeded that.  Although at times TR probably didn't exceed it either (i.e. the couple drafts before he left, a few of his 1990s drafts too, particularly as he wasn't terribly active in the top international markets).

 

My point wasn't to build Bill Smith a statue, but to suggest that those that want to bury him in order to prop up Ryan aren't really being fair.  They both had plenty of blame and credit for the circumstances we've endured the last few years and the hope we hold for the future.

[jay]

Interestingly enough, the Twins are 14th in the MLB in total revenue (TV included) with $221M, just behind the Angels, Nationals and  Mets and ahead of Toronto, Seattle and the White Sox (and check out how their neighbors spend) .   As far as operating income goes (earnings before taxes etc) they are 5th in the MLB.  

 

You can check the data here (Forbes; sortable list)  

 

I'll take it straight from the horse's mouth.  Direct quote from DSP during Parker's interview with him this offseason (bold emphasis mine) to a question about the Twins' ability to generate revenue relative to the league:

 

At this point, we're probably going to be somewhere middle of the pack to lower middle of the pack, I'd say.  In Target Field in 2010, we outperformed our market.  I'd like to think if we're competitive on the field, we can continue to outperform our market.  I think in terms of baseball teams, we're about 19th when you include the 2 NY teams, the 2 Chicago teams, the 2 LA teams, so, you know, we're performing a little bit below that right now and I think we should be outperforming our market.  The reason we're not performing at that level is, frankly, because the team is not cooperating and our attendance has fallen below the league average, which is about 2.5M people.

 

 

I'd expect the Twins' rank in payroll (which is what everyone actually cares about, right?) to be fairly close to their rank in revenue with some variation in either direction as we saw in 2010 and in 2013/2014.  Then again, who knows, maybe Young Pohlad will pull an Illitch on us.