Brock Beauchamp

Yeah. The last thing the Twins need is another centerfielder. If anything, they should leverage one of the CF they have for a position of need.

But... That doesn't make sense (and I realize it's not your argument). Were the Astros not in rebuild mode because they signed a slew of veterans in 2013 and 2014? IIRC, the Astros signed 4-6 vets between 2013-2014. Rebuilding the farm system and trying to field a less-than-awful MLB team are not mutually exclusive. MLB teams rarely improve by 20 games overnight and not all prospects arrive on the same day. Having a competent core of veterans to ease in the new prospects seems like a sound management strategy to me, even if I don't agree with every single signing.

I was being sarcastic about the Jays. They've made some really questionable moves over the years in the name of "making the playoffs" but it's far from every season. It also never works out for them. But I applaud their Tulo acquisition. This might be the year they finally make the playoffs and good for them.

The baseball player's union would go straight into outrage mode and make everyone's lives miserable if Joe even tried to restructure his contract. There are more forces at work here than Joe Mauer and the Minnesota Twins. People need to keep that in mind.

It was titled specifically to drive the point home about Mauer. It's a preventive measure to stop people from posting ridiculous things in other threads. Hard to miss the title of this post when you're browsing the forum.

I don't understand this argument. Torii Hunter: Let's rewind back to November of 2014 and talk about the number of legitimate MLB players the Twins had in the outfield: Zero. Yes, zero. The closest guy was Arcia, who can't stay on the field to save his life. They had a lot of potential coming but after the Hicks fiasco, the smartest move a GM can make in that situation is to pick up a vet on a one-year deal until the prospects force their way onto the roster permanently. If anything, Ryan should be criticized for not doing this in 2013/14, not criticized for finally taking the right approach. Kurt Suzuki: Let's rewind to July of 2014 and talk about the number of legitimate MLB players the Twins had at catcher: Zero. This number seems to be a recurring theme. Pinto was not, and is not, an MLB catcher. Suzuki was a middling insurance policy and I'm sure Ryan hoped Pinto would force his way into the conversation. That hasn't happened. Could the Twins have picked up a better veteran instead of Suzuki? Possibly, but Kurt was a known quantity on a team that didn't have any good options at the position. One can say "signing this player would have been better" and I might agree but signing Suzuki was in no way a stupid or idiotic move. 30+ year old starters: The only starting pitcher signing that has really excited me in the past half decade is Phil Hughes. That was a savvy signing and a great move. Santana and Nolasco were midding moves, IMO, but the team was so bad in previous seasons that something needed to be done. I would have preferred a single, higher upside, pitcher but that's me. Again, moves I don't really love but I'm not going to skewer Ryan for making them. I'll take a gamble on Nolasco or Santana any day of the week over the previous dumpster signings of Correia and Pelfrey. It appears Ryan learned his lesson at some point because he stopped trying to sign the Kevin Correias of the world. It took way too long to get to that point but at least we're past it now. My biggest problem is the Twins' refusal to move past these players once another option presented itself but I won't fault Ryan for making the move in the first place because in most cases, the moves were made when the Twins had no other viable options at the respective positions.

Well, it's hard to claim there's much of an ecological benefit to the hunts... I've seen claims from reputable sources that the lion population has been in freefall for the past 30 or so years. That's a problem. The thing is, this is Africa. They need money. We either allow them to run their country how they see fit or we subsidize them into subservience... and that is a bad strategy all around. We can't play tough guy with a country who is so poor they have nothing to lose. That doesn't accomplish anything productive. The problem here isn't the hunter or even the guides. It's the larger societal issue facing Africa and it's one that has existed for centuries; they're dirt-poor and we need to find a sustainable way for them to not rely on practices such as "come shoot our lions for money". But the hunter is still a douche.

People noticed - and praised - the Padres' acquisitions but don't seem to notice how they've bottomed out. And the thing is, what the Padres are doing isn't uncommon. Teams "go all in" all the time and it fails miserably; people just forget it happened. The Blue Jays have taken this approach approximately 14 times in the past 15 years. The Blue Jays haven't made the playoffs since 1993. People need to try to keep their perspective on the situation.

To further elaborate on my point, I don't know if there's anyone in baseball I'd rather have stewarding a franchise through a rebuilding effort than Terry Ryan. He's cautious, often to a fault, and never falters from looking years, not days, into the future. The steadier the hand, the better for the organization. Baseball moves at a glacial pace in a world that cannot stand things that aren't torn down and rebuilt in minutes. It takes a certain kind of old-world guy to shrug off that pressure and stick with the plan. But now the Twins are emerging from that phase of the rebuild. They're winning ballgames. While I think it's foolish to bet the farm like the Royals have in 2015, some of the conservative nature needs to be cast aside for more proactive approaches to improving the baseball team. As time passes, we need less conservatism and more aggression as the team improves. I don't know if Terry Ryan is the right guy for that phase of the organization but even if he isn't, I greatly appreciate what he has done for the Twins organization twice now (helped rebuild a horrible franchise into something worth watching).

I was just going to pop in here and post that link. The guy is a *******. I deplore his actions... But we're talking about an act that may have been carried out in good faith by the participant. Yeah, he's a dick for participating in that act in the first place but being a dick isn't illegal; just ask Dave. And as a result, idiots around the world are doing everything they can to tear down the guys' life, business, and family. And these supposed Warriors of Justice are enjoying every minute of it. That bothers the hell out of me, to put it lightly.

Personally, I really enjoy the roster ideas that are little more than "look to the player on your right and take his place on the field". It's a nonsensical version of musical chairs, MLB style.

This is a new feature on TD. It's called "If I read those statements one more time, I'm going to AAAARRRGGGHHHH!!!!" Discuss.

I disagree about Berrios but understand reluctance. After Berrios, the next closest thing to an impact player is Thorpe, IMO. Shouldn't count out Gordon, either. He's putting together a nice season after a terrible start. Obviously, both are years away.

It's still quite deep but not stellar. The problem is the Twins have graduated all their super prospects except one and I think he's on the untouchable list. Also, Ryan doesn't like to trade prospects.

I hate to say it but I'm struggling to give a damn right now. Trade, don't trade. Whatever.

I don't know if I think Ryan needs to go but in the past few weeks, the idea has popped into my head a few times. That in itself speaks volumes. This entire roster is completely un-****ing-acceptable.

I agree too many people expect immediate results but to be fair to many of the posters here, they were more upset how the Twins were pushing Hicks than the failure from Aaron himself. That treatment resulted in the kid looking lost for so long - he gave up switch hitting without telling his coach - that it was hard to feel anything but sympathy for him. I know I did.

This cannot be said enough times. Most of us saw this coming in April. By May, the majority of the regular posters here were sweating bullets. *checks calendar* Yep, it's almost August.

Except we know that one group of guys has failed while the other has yet to receive an opportunity. And considering the magnitude of the previous failures, there's very little to be lost in trying new things. In the past two months, Blaine Boyer has allowed over 1.5 runners to reach base per inning pitched. It's pretty hard to get much worse than that.

That's not the case at all. Guys like Blaine Boyer had "DANGER, WILL ROBINSON, DANGER" written all over them from Opening Day forward. Do you replace that guy while he's dealing? Hell no, of course not... But given the risk analysis of that player, you prepare for his rapid descent into horribleness. But that didn't only apply to Blaine Boyer. It applied to over half the bullpen. What did Ryan do to stem this potential problem? Virtually nothing. He didn't try Oliveros even once. He didn't move the likes of Duffey to the pen in May when things started falling apart. He didn't try Achter at all. As you said, he rotated through a few guys, sometimes twice, and the results remained the same. And then there's Trevor May. Don't even get me started on that decision. They gave him a full month before they started putting him into meaningful games. There were so many options and so few of them were explored.

Is putting the ball into play more valuable than a strikeout? Sure, but what we've learned recently is the difference is not very large. That's a big reason why you see K numbers continue to climb around baseball. The strikeout isn't a much worse outcome than a weak grounder to short. And that's why modern analysts basically ignore the BB/K ratio. It's pretty meaningless.

It's way too early to call for Guardado's head. It's not his fault his relievers are garbage.

Blaine Boyer is still on this roster. More could have been done, either through internal options or the waiver wire. I won't give the Twins a pass for shuffling around a few players about three weeks too late because they didn't shuffle them aggressively enough. They had multiple shots to try Oliveros but instead, they put him in the freakin' Rochester rotation for a few games. They had multiple shots to convert some Rochester starters into relievers but failed to do so and now, here we are.

If KC wins 81 games (I'm giving Shields a whopping five games here), the same effect is in place. They're an exciting young team on the upswing with or without Shields (and given my opinion all along was to strike a big deal the offseason you start on the upswing, the overall effect is probably the same). Anyway, I think this horse has been beaten enough times. It comes down to overall strategy and I don't think there's a right or wrong answer to our approaches, just personal preference. I think the end result is similar either way. Staying consistent with this approach, I'll be really disappointed if Ryan doesn't make significant moves this offseason. Now is the time.

There's value in competing but the fan interest angle doesn't fly with me. KC drew the same number of fans in 2013 as 2012. Fans come to see playoff teams or something resembling a playoff team, yes... But they don't come in droves to see a team finish six games out of the playoff picture just because that team was no longer awful. There are many reasons to be in favor of KC's approach but that isn't one of them.