Terry Ryan and the pathetic Pickups game.

[AJswarley]

Let me start out with the "bad"..... Ervin Santana and the money we gave him(really?) Tim Stauffer, Kevin Correia, Mike Pelfrey, Ricky Nolasco, Matt Capps, Vance Worley, and I'm sure I am missing more.

Now for the "good"We can probably give a tip of the cap for Phil Hughes, Tommy Milone, Blaine Boyer Casey Fien, Jared Burton Sam Deduno as they are all ok pickups or have given us some good outings. I also probably missed a few names in this category.

Now I have to ask, is Ryan blind with pitching scouting, is he set on pitchers that resemble him( low K/9 innings) or is it our coaches?

Year after year it is getting hard to watch the pitching crew they put together.

[savvyspy]

It will be interesting to see if more of our future bullpen arms are internal. The team made a definitive change in drafting hard throwing college relievers in 2011-2012. While I question why on earth they have been trying to make them all starters, when they become relievers again, we should have some pretty talented prospects in future years.

 

 

 

[AJswarley]

I agree that it is great to see us drafting hard throwing kids. Also don't get me wrong, Ryan is doing a good job on the other side of the ball with young talent. I am just sad to see the big money in, average at best, arms. I would have rather seen us go after an ace and fail, rather than big money with 4-5 number starters and OK at best guys in the pen.

[Rosterman]

It's like the Twins are so afraid of dealing out $$$'s for a big contract that goes sour, they play it safe and dole out mediuam dollars in overpaying guys that may/may not benefit the team overall. But when you look at the big pitcher, you wither take the gamble or not. Having a $20 million dollar contract sit in the workout room is not much different than having $20 worth of players underperform. And every year you are going to be paying someone for ono-productivity, it seems. It's jsut that some teams (i.e. the Old Yankees) could afford to do it and still spend more money.

 

The otehr end to all of this is who are the players knocking on the Twins door wanting to play in Minnesota or sign a contract? Of course, if your old team is offering you 3 years at $21, why not give the Twins a call. They might give you $25. Yet the Twins seem to constantly under-balue their own free agents and not overpay them if at all possible (we offered Torii $65 million, or Santana $90) knowing full well that the players will probably get mroe elsewhere. In the world of free agency, you reward a player for what they have contributed to your team overall in the past as much as you may be rewarding them for future endeavors. ait, that's the Joe Mauer contract.

 

But until the Twins get into a position to vastly overpay, they will keep getting second tier free agents. What was the demand for Phil Hughes, Kevin Correia, Rocky Nolasco. They swooped right in and made a deal probably a year more than any otehr team might give Santana. Happily they got half-a-year back.

 

And it is great when you can get players cheap. But there is a eason those players ARE cheap. Or they have really abd agents. (Or, in the case of Hunter, a very good agent).

 

And then you get into the situation where the fan base is complaining about you not spending money, so you spend the money, but then they complain that you gave it to the wrong guys, like the one standing on the corner when you turn right instead of the one the block up on the left.

 

Ultiamtely, it is a business of wasting money. You are winning some, losing some. Some draft picks won't pan out, some well. You can squeeze a lump of coal and get a small diamond, but then you also have to be savy to sell that diamond when the market is right (i.e. Willingham, Burton,now Fien all were more valuable -- even Delmon Young). You end up being Billy beane who has a wonderful revolving door in Oakland. Who cares how you spend money ordraft if you keep changing pieces good or bad...but at some point you have ti pull off the big moment to go for the prize that only one tam gets (Billy did it last year and it didn't work, but he tried, and now he's trying a quick rebuild). But like the Twins, the A's need to also buy or keep superstar parts. Then again, look at Mauer.

 

 

 

 

[nicksaviking]

It's not the payroll it's the roster spots and length of contracts that are a problem. A team can work around a few years of the added expenses. However you still only have 25 roster spots and five rotation spots.

 

Payroll management hasn't been an issue in quite some time. Roster management has, and it has for a long time, these long term deals just exasperate the situation.

[DaveW]

It's easy to complain about the Nolasco and Santana deals, but both guys were pretty solid before they came to Minnesota and turned into pumpkins.

[Otto von Ballpark]

 

It's easy to complain about the Nolasco and Santana deals, but both guys were pretty solid before they came to Minnesota and turned into pumpkins.

Both were pretty thoroughly league average prior to coming to Minnesota, and on the wrong side of 30.  Healthy mediocrity seemed to be the reasonable upside.  That's a lot of resources to tie up for that (money, years, rotation spots), especially when you add in the Hughes extension too.

[Thrylos]

 

Let me start out with the "bad"..... Ervin Santana and the money we gave him(really?) Tim Stauffer, Kevin Correia, Mike Pelfrey, Ricky Nolasco, Matt Capps, Vance Worley, and I'm sure I am missing more.
Now for the "good"We can probably give a tip of the cap for Phil Hughes, Tommy Milone, Blaine Boyer Casey Fien, Jared Burton Sam Deduno as they are all ok pickups or have given us some good outings. I also probably missed a few names in this category.
Now I have to ask, is Ryan blind with pitching scouting, is he set on pitchers that resemble him( low K/9 innings) or is it our coaches?
Year after year it is getting hard to watch the pitching crew they put together.

 

I really do not think that group A is that much worse or better than group B.

 

Hughes had an above average season, so did Suzuki (who is missing) and Ryan in his infinite wisdom decided that they were not outliers and extended them.

 

Give me a single impact player who Ryan traded for or signed, while he was an impact player.  To make it easy:  Give me a single player that Ryan traded for during or signed after an All Star season. In 16 years of running the Twins.

 

Ryan has 3 big problems as a GM:

 

1: He is a spendthrift:  If he has $45 million to spend, he would rather spend it on 4 players of average/above average quality, instead of 2 All Start players.  Look at the rotation for example.

2: He is a horder of prospects:  Will never trade high prospects for high performing major leaguers.  And he loves his prospect that much, that he'd rather have them "mature" in the minors, instead of having them in the bigs.

3: He is a dumpster diver:  Every season will go through the waiver wire and try to fill the team with rejects during ST, hoping that someone might approach average and sticks, so he gets "value"

 

In one sentence: Ryan is looking for average and not great, and if you are not looking for great, you will never be great.

 

That's why he has to go.