The Most Encouraging Early-Season Stories for the Twins Have, Sadly, Faded Fast

[karcherd]

25 minutes ago, TheLeviathan said:

That only adds to my opinion but regardless it isn't Falvey's job to dictate payroll increases or decreases

So who wanted to sign Correa and add to payroll if it wasn't Falvey.  Did the Pohlads just say for no apparent reason, hey let's raise payroll by $20m.  The biggest point that I disagree with you is on Falvey.  He was the top baseball man in the organization for the last 9 years.  As in any organization, he sets the direction of the organization on the baseball side, including payroll, just because the Pohlads approve it doesn't absolve him of any responsibility.  I don't necessarily agree with the way the payroll was cut by Joe, he was in over his head.  But Falvey was ultimately responsible for all facets of the baseball operations and he needed to operate within the parameters given to him by his bosses.  Continuing the success of 23 would have been one way to convince them he deserved the higher payroll. 

[TheLeviathan]

4 minutes ago, karcherd said:

So who wanted to sign Correa and add to payroll if it wasn't Falvey.  Did the Pohlads just say for no apparent reason, hey let's raise payroll by $20m.  The biggest point that I disagree with you is on Falvey.  He was the top baseball man in the organization for the last 9 years.  As in any organization, he sets the direction of the organization on the baseball side, including payroll, just because the Pohlads approve it doesn't absolve him of any responsibility.  I don't necessarily agree with the way the payroll was cut by Joe, he was in over his head.  But Falvey was ultimately responsible for all facets of the baseball operations and he needed to operate within the parameters given to him by his bosses.  Continuing the success of 23 would have been one way to convince them he deserved the higher payroll. 

This sentence!  This one right here!  Yes...Joe Pohlad cut the payroll.  We agree!  That's all I've ever said! That act felt like the turning point from "things aren't going well" to "holy bleep we're back to 1995 again".  That's all I was saying.  I was pinning the blame for that tone-deaf decision on ownership.  You argued that Falvey is responsible for that and I never understood, at any point in our conversation, why you kept trying to absolve Joe Pohlad for a decision taht was 100% his.  Falvey was not responsible for that.   We got there my friend, I'm happy to see it!  

Now here's where I want to make sure you feel like I'm not excusing Falvey or the level of blame you assign to him, because we agree there too!  What he was responsible for was all the other things you list here and I totally agree!  He mismanaged the payroll he was given.  Butchered the draft.  Failed the development process.  Meddled with on-field management.  I even agree he didn't "deserve" higher payroll!

None of that changes that it wasn't his call and undercutting the payroll was a really dumb move.  Both things can be true.  What I acknowledge is purely my bias and opinion was emphasizing that move as a turning point.  Maybe yours is somewhere else in the process but for me that was where we got gut-punched into today's travesty.   I'm glad Falvey is gone and I'll be even more glad the day the Pohlads sell.  In the meantime.....let's hope we're not stuck in 1995 too long and this next wave of Twins players can give us something to root for again.