Brock Beauchamp

I also disagree with several of the moves that have been made, particularly in the past twelve months. But you're calling for Ryan's head using a bad argument. It's unfair to point out the successes of other general managers while refusing to give Ryan the same amount of time to fully enact his plan. It doesn't mean you can't criticize Ryan for individual moves but it does mean calling for his head - or the rebuilding of the franchise itself - terribly premature. What happens if the Twins win 89-91 games next season and make the postseason? Will you recant your position?

Have those teams actually done a better job than the Twins? Given they all had 4+ years to enact a plan and see it to fruition, we can't answer that question definitively. This offseason will see the four year mark pass. Right now, the Twins are a fringe contender. Hopefully, they hit the four year mark running next season. Do I wish some things had been done differently? Of course... But you're the one placing expectations on the team that follow an unrealistic timeline, not me. I just listed four of the most successful rebuilds of the past decade and none of them took less than four years to see results. On top of that, most of those teams were mediocre to terrible well before the rebuild was enacted. It's a lot easier to rebuild a team quickly if you have high draft picks for 2-3 years before a formal rebuild even starts. The Twins were a 94 win team in 2010. They didn't receive their first high draft pick until June of 2012.

Whoa, whoa, whoa... I'm sorry but you're 100% wrong about rebuilds. 1. First things first, this isn't the fifth year of the rebuild. Ryan returned to the Twins as GM before the 2012 season. This makes it the fourth year of the rebuild and the Twins continue to toy with .500 this season. 2011 forced the Twins to rebuild, it wasn't a rebuild season. 2. Had the Twins not been on the unfortunate side of the luck donkey in 2014, they'd probably be a few games better in 2015. Buxton, Sano, Meyer, Rosario all had unfortunate setbacks last season. Four of your top five prospects. No team makes it through a season like that without setting back their time table. 3. Rebuilds typically take 4-5 years to complete. How long do you think it takes a high ceiling prep player to reach the majors? If he debuts as a 22 year old after being drafted as an 18 year old, well... I'm pretty sure you can do the math on that one. And that's only applicable to prep players who were drafted in the first season of the rebuild. Expecting a team to debut solid prospects at every position after four seasons of a rebuild is sheer lunacy and completely unreasonable. Friedman was hired by the Rays before the 2004 season and started implementing his new player development strategy. He took over the GM role before the 2006 season. The Rays had a contender in 2008. Five seasons... and this was building a team that had drafted in the top five of baseball for its entire existence. The Astros pushed the big red "EXPLODE" button before the 2011 season. Their first competitive season since that rebuild started? 2015. Five seasons. Epstein took over the Cubs roughly the same time Ryan returned to the Twins. The Cubs' first competitive season? 2015. Four seasons. Before the 2008 season, Neal Huntington took over a Pirates team that hadn't seen a winning season since Teddy Roosevelt created the National Parks system. The Pirates returned to contention in 2013. Six seasons. I do not understand where people get the idea that a rebuild is a failure if it's not successful within 36 months of its implementation. Baseball moves at a glacial pace, folks. You better learn patience with this sport or it's going to drive you to an early grave.

This team won 72 games last season and most of us predicted a win total between 72-81. Yeah, this season can be a success without making the postseason. We can also be disappointed the front office didn't push for the postseason a little harder in July.

I would hate to see the human element of umpiring removed from baseball, even if that means my favorite team occasionally gets the shaft. Try your best to hold umpires accountable but don't remove them from the game entirely. Part of the reason I enjoy baseball is its old world charm. Don't sanitize it to the point where machines are involved. Sometimes we love things because of their imperfections, not in spite of them.

Yes. When talking about the rebuild, people tend to forget 2014 was a pretty awful year for Twins prospects. Buxton, basically out for the season. Sano, completely out for the season. Meyer, late season injury followed by a 2015 implosion. Rosario, development stunted due to his love of ganja. Hicks, so completely lost he gave up switch-hitting. 2015 has been a much better year for the entire organization.

MLB.com has the transaction listed at 1:40am on 8/7. I figure that means it actually occurred on 8/6 because we all know JR already had his milk and cookies and is snuggled into bed by 1:40am (mostly joking). http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/fantasy/news/#player_id=608648

I think Ryan kind of owes it to the fans to give Berrios a shot. He's their best option to salvage the rotation right now. Bring him up. The kid just dominates wherever you put him. I'm not concerned about Jose's options. Like Sano and Buxton, he's approaching the kind of elite prospect status where options aren't a big concern. If he stays in Rochester, he's a top 15, maybe top 10 prospect on some lists this offseason.

Man, the Twins needed and deserved that win. That eighth inning was straight up bad luck. Dozier four feet foul, then robbed of a hit, then Sano missing a homer by inches.

Yes, this. If Byron's "demotion" goes well beyond the expected rehab time (ie. 9/1), then it's time to get pissed off. Now is not that time. Why do we care if he was demoted? If he successfully rehabs and is back in Minnesota on August 28th, what's the big deal? The end result is the same.

But as John said, they went into the break on a high note. From June 1 to July 12, they essentially played .500 ball. That's six weeks of .500 baseball after their ridiculous month of May. They fell to pieces after the break and lost their entire +10 record in that three week span.

I don't understand why Aaron is hammering away at the "worst AL team in the past 2 1/2 months" point when their -10 record came almost entirely in the past two weeks. It's a bad argument that intentionally obscures what has happened to this team since the All-Star Break. On June 1st, they were 30-19. On July 17th (ASB), they were 50-40. Today, they are 55-56. It's not hard to see where everything went to pieces and it wasn't June 1st.

Went to last night's game and saw CHS for the first time. Lovely field, very good Saints team, ugly uniforms. Really, they're bad. What a great place to watch a ballgame, though!

That's not Tapia's floor. His floor is "never reaching the majors". While I don't disagree with the sentiment the Rays won the deal, that's a pretty ridiculous statement that'd I'd expect from a message board, not a BA analyst.

Agreed. I don't expect the guy to come to Minnesota and OPS at a .900 clip, I only expect him to help the team raise its (pathetic) .687 OPS against RHP. And considering how Shane Robinson is the guy blocking Arcia with Buxton on the way in the next few weeks, there's no reason not to pull the trigger on this move. There is literally nothing to lose unless both Hicks and Rosario suffer an injury at the same time (in the next two weeks before Byron is finished rehabbing). I'd say the odds of that happening are... low.

Edited for clarity.

Sigh.

The Ramos deal was "tear your hair out, WTF are you thinking" across the board. Ramos was a former top 100 prospect. He was injured and his value had bottomed out. The Twins had no catching prospects behind him higher than low A ball. That trade still pisses me off. The thinking behind it was so fundamentally flawed I still can't believe Smith pulled the trigger on it.

Sure. I'm not claiming Hu had no value but this board erupted into mayhem after the trade, way beyond what was warranted. Yes, it was an overpay. No, it was not a disaster (assuming Jepsen doesn't implode). Hu never cracked a top 100 list. It was incredibly unlikely he would ever crack a top 100 list. It's also possible, maybe even likely, this is Hu's high water mark in value. It was a bad trade (mostly because two pitchers were included, IMO) but it's a long way from Ramos/Capps in terms of "holy ****, what are you thinking?" The way people are acting, you'd think Hu has the upside of Berrios, Gonsalves, or Thorpe. He doesn't. He doesn't even have the upside of a strikeout-diminished Stewart, IMO.

I believe he's supposed to start his rehab today or tomorrow.

Shocking.

It appeared Nunez' helmet made it to first before he did. Unbelievable.

That inning was a good example why young teams struggle to win down the stretch. Rosario has an absolutely awful at-bat, Hicks gives it the ol' college try but gets screwed by the ump.

Kurt will not go quietly into the night.

Yeah. Terrible call.