LaBombo

That's a two way street, and the burden of 'proof', such as it is, officially passed from the 'fire Gardy' sentiment to the 'don't fire Gardy' sentiment when Gardenhire was retained for 2014 after 3 consecutive 90+ - loss seasons. That just doesn't happen. As Gleeman noted again recently, non-expansion managers since WWII don't get to come back for another season after that. Pretty much ever. Yes, TK did, but he had more WS rings than Gardenhire does playoff series wins. And what's been the result of every manager in that span returning after three 90-loss seasons? Another 90+ loss season. Even so, if you want my reasons why he should go, they're probably pretty unsurprising and perhaps even unconvincing, but here goes: Irrational contempt for sabremetrics, lineup- and roster-debilitating pathological fear of losing the DH, obsessive/compulsive hoarding of light-hitting middle infielders, and my unprovable suspicion that while not a leading cause, Rick Anderson's mandatory presence beside Gardenhire really is part of the reason the pitching has been inconsistent and then consistently awful for years. He's probably a good manager even with those faults, and a likeable fellow in any case. But he's had thirteen seasons and some talented rosters yet gone nowhere in the postseason except the year he inherited the team from Kelly. Still, if there are compelling reasons the Twins, not known as a terribly cutting-edge franchise, should ignore 70 years of virtually unanimous conventional baseball wisdom by bringing him back yet again, I'm all ears. Or in this case, eyes.

Enough to not worry about which way to drive to work based on the price of gas?

Good point, and it doesn't need to be a conventional left/right platoon. If you have a solid 'everyday' catcher who hits right-handed, a right-handed platoon partner who mashes lefties or has a laser arm can situationally maximize the days off depending on the opponent. At any rate, 'backup' catcher is setting at least a semantic, if not philosophical, low bar for a player who is guaranteed 40 starts right out of the gate, with injury subbing and pinch hitting probably pushing that aggregate game total north of a third of a season. "Part-time starter" is a more accurate title.

Wait. Which "C word"? Scrapbooking profanity both alphabetically and with Dewey decimal system, so it's important to know.

Lost year for Sano and Buxton. Pinto demoted. Hicks demoted. Again. May a disaster so far. Meyer still in AAA. Stewart's arm hurt. Santana and Vargas have been nice surprises, but otherwise this rebuilding year (or according to some, bridge-to-contention year) has been as disappointing as getting socks for Christmas.

Re: title of article, always a guilty pleasure when someone serves up a Cinnabonesque reference to a Will Farrell movie.

There are other names that represent predictably low return on investment over that span. Some were free agents, some were home-grown players unwisely retained, and some were players acquired in trade. Tony Batista, Sidney Ponson, Bret Boone, Joe Mays, Phil Nevin, Jose Offerman, Ruben Sierra... None of them were back-breakers by themselves, with the possible exception of Mays and his seven million dollar stink bomb, but a half million here, a million there, three mill for Ortiz, and pretty soon we're talking about some real money, especially when adjusted for nearly a decade of league salary inflation. Every GM whiffs sometimes, and in fairness to Ryan, he was gambling on risky veterans to fill holes around a young core with a fixed payroll/team control/contention window. Some of it took place before the stadium deal promised higher future revenue and (sort of) corresponding payroll increase, creating both future payroll uncertainty and a need to generate good PR with winning seasons and a public perception of a franchise willing to spend. That being said... well, looking back at some of the players TR acquired or retained in that period and the tiny return on investment they provided makes me do the Joe Nathan lip flap and wonder what might have been. Ryan is still a good GM and deserves credit for some excellent moves like the AJ and Shannon Stewart trades, the Hughes signing, and several under-the-radar sell-offs like the ones he made this season. But to me, at least, his ideal role (and Gardenhire's) with the Twins would not be as a manager in the future, but as a C-cubed (consultant/consigliere/centurion) adviser not ultimately controlling the future of the franchise. If the alternative is Rob Antony, however, some of my redundant and/or low-priority organs might be made available to Mr. Ryan if his reason for stepping down has to do with personal health.

Yup. Laudner gets a boost relative to the names you mentioned because they get penalized by that stat (which is fun by the way, and a nice addition to the recap of Willingham's Twins career) for every single they hit. When you switch to isolated power, which measures bases per AB, all your names finish ahead of Laudner. His approach at the plate epitomized the "Swing hard in case you hit it" philosphy. It's difficult to imagine a more stark contrast between a hitter like Laudner and his successor, Brian Harper. Laudner hit 77 homers in about 2200 PA's for the Twins, but struck out in nearly 25% of them. Harper hit just 48 home runs in roughly 2700 PA's with the Twins, but struck out in only about 5% of them.

Who you callin' argumentative, Bub? As for TD not picking up on your sense of humor, well, sometimes it takes a while for visionaries to be appreciated. Don't be afraid. Lenny Bruce wasn't.

Seemed like a good guy. No bad as 5th starters go. Good move for all. That being said, it might be as instructive to know where the Twins stand and are headed as a franchise by hearing what KC's time here was meant to accomplish as it would be to hear another defense of Antony's remarks about his definition of FiP as "First strike in innings Pitched".

Willngham appeared on several lists of 'most likely to be traded' lists before his July crash. Too bad they didn't make a push to move him sooner, but considering they got zero for Cuddy or Kubel, not terribly surprising.

How is Zobrist not a part of the deal if Austin Jackson is going to the Mariners? Guess offense doesn't matter if Verlander is your fifth starter.

Freely admit that my imagination is limited, but it can't come up with any realistic scenario where the Twins accomplish something memorable because Kurt Suzuki was a key part of it. Again, ok player, good guy, over 30, rebuilding, turn the page, even if the next page is (gasp!) gambling on Pinto. FA options are always limited to some extent. That being said, the Twins entered the season without a major league center fielder on the 25 man roster, and today traded away one acquired on waivers for what could be argued is their new number two starter. So my feeling is that Twins should reject the drive for mediocrity that a Suzuki extension represents, and focus on rebuilding that involves actual rebuilding.

What?!? 30ish AB's against legit MLB pitching isn't an indication of being ready?

He's a 30+ backup catcher on a contender. What rebuilding team extends that? He's an ok player and a nice guy, but if this happens, this is the Twins trying to put entertainment on the field instead of a winning team.

That was my initial impression as well. But Beane sacrificed a relatively small part of the A's future. Cespedes is a good but not great OF who is already expensive, will get a long, expensive contract after next season, and will turn 30 before that deal starts.

And he's a free agent after next season, at age 30. It's not a rental for a young, cheap player, it's a rental for a lease. As for the Twins being players in the trade market today, well, my super-simple forecaster of all things Twins the past few years has been to close my eyes and imagine the best outcome for the Twins not happening, and don't mean to brag, but it's been incredibly accurate. That forecaster is telling me the Twins will do nothing of significance to the future of the franchise. Yes, that's not exactly a Nostradamus prediction, since they have almost nothing to deal. But that's the real story, not the deadline and what they do. The real story is that this is a team that's been rebuilding for three consecutive seasons in a row, and is poised to do nothing of note at the deadline for a third consecutive season, and for the most part couldn't if they wanted to. And though I'm a fan of the Span/Revere trades, it should be noted that in retrospect, the organization clearly made those deals due to their impression that Aaron Hicks was a Mauer-esque, can't-miss prospect who rendered them completely disposable. Oops. In other words, today is just another day of the Twins reminding us that there is a difference between rebuilding and just waiting for prospects to come up.

Nice work by the OP, you raised some good points about how Hicks' season is going. But for the moment my tent is still in the stringer/Sconnie camp. There are definitely some signs of improvement at the plate. But defense remains a work in progress at best, and as Sconnie pointed out, guys in the low .200's or worse, especially with little power, usually have trouble sustaining a walk rate like Hicksie's. And like stringer mentioned, he's on a Road Less Traveled to major league success if that's his destiny. Rooting for him and hope he continues to get regular playing time, in MN or The Other Rochester based on what's best for him and not the organization's 2014.

Please report. Movie, not fajitas. Unless...explosive d... Aaanyway. Looks like a Monumental (no, not sorry) story, and a cast kinda like a 60/70's about WWII like Midway, Battle of the Bugle (sp!), but something seemed a bit off. Interested in your finding. Be creatively deceptive if you respond. Word is MLB is watching.

Well said. If the Twins were publicly owned, this would be in the opening statement of a prosecution against ownership. Nobody's perfect, you can't win 'em all, etc. But enough is enough.

When you've been this bad for this long, it takes more than three good weeks to change the minds of writers.

Was in fact thinking it's time for the Tonkin Resolution. The one regarding his golf game?

So he's now semi-officially the only non-expansion manager besides TK in the past thirty years to return for another year after three consecutive 90 loss seasons. Put another way, since Gardenhire, to put it hyper-politely, lacks TK's postseason success, the front office is admitting something approximating this: It took what was a contending core at the end of the past decade, and added tens of millions to the available payroll budget with new stadium revenue. With those resources, they built a major league roster so dreadfully bad that the last manager to get a free pass for so many losses was managing a historically awful expansion franchise. That's Ryan's admission with the resigning of Gardenhire. The Twins' MLB talent level the past three seasons has stood at the level of a really, really bad expansion team.