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Yeah, and the whole premise of this article turns out to be "overkill" as somehow Nick Nelson's pictured weapon for his "Bloodbath" should have been a hatchet instead of an axe. And, as it turns out, the clean-up from this bloodbath will only require a sponge rather than Zamboni. Hatchet? ok. Let's re-examine who was let go: 2 60+ year old guys and someone who was on the record saying that he will retire after this season. sounds more like a stapler than a hatchet Now the factthat they are over 60 yrs old makes them a bad coach? Ageism is against the law you know.

I guess being in the Hall of Fame and winning a World Championship and being to the WS twice as a player are not good enough credentials, unlike those of Gardy, Andy (ok he won a WS), Vavry and Scotty... Yep, and we all know that every great player makes a great coach. This comment makes no sense and is not supported in any way,

http://twinsdaily.com/showthread.php?611-Bold-Twins-Predictions-for-2012 As we know, national pundits rarely go back and critique their own predictions. I wonder if our Twins Daily posters are made of stronger stuff. I started a thread before the year asking for bold predictions for the year. This seems like a good time to revisit these. I will start with mine: - Scott Baker will make less than 10 starts for the Twins, but they will pick up his option for 2013. Baker made no starts for Twins this year, but it looks extremely doubtful they will pick up his option. Result: half right - Matt Capps will save less than 10 games for the Twins. Capps ended the year with 14 saves. He was passable before missing the last half of the season due to injury. Result: wrong (though right in principle) - Joe Mauer will catch over 135 games and bat .330. Joe played in a career high 147 games this year, but only caught 74 times as the team looked to keep him healthy by reducing his catching load. Joe did bat .319 this year and had one of the better offensive years of his career, but did not get to .330. Result: wrong - In spite of an inconsistent rotation and subpar defense, this team will win at least 81 games. The defense was better than expected, but the rotation was historically bad. They ended with 66 wins. Not a pretty number. Result: wrong Feel free to revisit your predictions and comment on your optimistic or pessimistic view of of the team then and now.

http://twinsdaily.com/showthread.php?611-Bold-Twins-Predictions-for-2012 As we know, national pundits rarely go back and critique their own predictions. I wonder if our Twins Daily posters are made of stronger stuff. I started a thread before the year asking for bold predictions for the year. This seems like a good time to revisit these. I will start with mine: - Scott Baker will make less than 10 starts for the Twins, but they will pick up his option for 2013. Baker made no starts for Twins this year, but it looks extremely doubtful they will pick up his option. Result: half right - Matt Capps will save less than 10 games for the Twins. Capps ended the year with 14 saves. He was passable before missing the last half of the season due to injury. Result: wrong (though right in principle) - Joe Mauer will catch over 135 games and bat .330. Joe played in a career high 147 games this year, but only caught 74 times as the team looked to keep him healthy by reducing his catching load. Joe did bat .319 this year and had one of the better offensive years of his career, but did not get to .330. Result: wrong - In spite of an inconsistent rotation and subpar defense, this team will win at least 81 games. The defense was better than expected, but the rotation was historically bad. They ended with 66 wins. Not a pretty number. Result: wrong Feel free to revisit your predictions and comment on your optimistic or pessimistic view of of the team then and now.

.500 would have been a lofty goal with the rotation set up as it was originally. Liriano, Blackburn, and Marquis DID stay healthy. Baker and Pavano... do you think that, combined, they were worth 15 more wins than the replacements? I don't. Baker and Pavano healthy, Marquis being there for Spring Training, Blackburn and Liriano would not have been given as long a leash as they were, less starts from Duensing and Hendricks. That combination could have added up to close to 15 additional wins, yes.

You are wrong. The Twins and Gardy have almost always agreed to 2 year extensions when he had 1 year remaining on his contract But they tore up his existing contract in the process correct? Meaning that he was always working on a 2 year contract. I do believe it was always done around the winter meetings. If goes into the season with a one year contract, and no talk of an extension, then I will believe the lame duck status. Otherwise no.

365 days? Some of these guys were talking about it after 6 months....or less, very reasonable. I just can't understand how some people think. I guess people forgot how good Terry Ryan was in his first stint as GM. You got to have patience with this. I see you are new here. Welcome. To help you out, you need to know this site has two types of people: - People who believe that the Twins need to fire everybody, trade everybody, and spend tons of money on FA - Me and 11 other people who don't believe in kneejerk reactions. Best of luck!

Down go the "Fire Interim GM Terry Ryan" arguments. From now on it will be "Fire GM Terry Ryan". Let the complaining about lack of organizational direction change commence!

Agreed. Baker has always put up strong numbers, but injuries have kept him down. I would think a base salary of $2 mil with decent incentives based on innings pitched would be enough to get him. I would also think that a team option year of $5-6 mil that would auto kick in at 150 innings would be good too. Of course all of this is dependant on Baker actually being ready for the season.

Right or wrong, the biggest internal values in this organization are loyalty and continuity. Remember that TR and Gardy know how the system works in Minnesota and are willing to work within the confines of what the Pohlads lay down. All you pretty much hear about Gardy, both locally and nationally, is that he is a good manager and the guys love playing for him. Tons of respect everywhere. I still believe that if Gardy leaves, it will be because he wants to, not because he was let go, regardless of what willbe said publicly. As for Gardy currently being on a one year contract, correct me if I am wrong, but haven't the Twins traditionally signed him to a 1 yr contract with an option year every year? I believe that the contract is usually quietly signed in November/December. I wouldn't put a lot of stock in him being on the "hot seat". The Vavra move was surprising in that the team has seen a lot of individual improvement under his watch (I would contend that poor players are more to blame than Vavra). Also, if you think you are going to see "major cultural changes", think again. They are filling all of these spots from within, not one will be an external hire. If Gardy does ultimately leave the team, do you really think his replacement will be external. The sad part of this whole mess, is that if the Twins starting pitching stayed healthy (beyond the coaches control I might add), this team would probably be around .500, these changes would not have happened, and we would be talking about the 1 or 2 moves the team could make to be competitive, instead of complaining about the organization being stagnant.

Ignoring the grammer... issues, I would love to hear why FireMauer believes Joe's ability is overrated.

How does this translate to the pitcher's he caught. I think you have to factor in how the pitcher's hold runners to get a truer picture his CS % (and all catchers for that matter). For instance, catching for Mark Buerhle every fifth day would could make a poor catcher look capable. certainly a pitcher with a bad move can be a part of this. i just presented the stat. it is what it is. "lies, damn lies, and statistics". you can truly spin stats however you like. maybe it is nothing to note at all. I'm not knocking you for that. I would seriously be interested to know if there has been a study done to see how CS% can be effected by a pitcher's ability to hold a runner on. Their average pitch time to the plate, RH vs LH pitchers. I'm not sure what metrics you could use, but it would be interesting to see a comparison of true CS%.

How does this translate to the pitcher's he caught. I think you have to factor in how the pitcher's hold runners to get a truer picture his CS % (and all catchers for that matter). For instance, catching for Mark Buerhle every fifth day would could make a poor catcher look capable.

I beg to differ. FanGraphs researched his HRs for 2009/2010. He had an almost comically large amount of HRs that barely cleared the fence to LF. For some reason his doubles power that year carried a little bit longer. In this case, Mauer doesn't ryhme with power. http://www.fangraphs.com/community/index.php/another-look-at-mauers-power/

Umm... A little perspective. Spans 2.4 dWAR was tied for 6th for all players in all of baseball. Do we really think he is not the best CF on this team?

Drew Butera non-tender? Don't tease me...

They are announcing that Dan Galdden will be fired and replaced with Tom Kelly. After my moment of rapture, I will have to look for a new moniker...

That would suck. I know TC, he is a great guy. It's because of him we win every mascot homerun derby. Boy can rake!

The "change for the sake of change" gong is ringing again. Maybe the Twins are bad because... wait for it... the starting pitching sucks? Hard to put a lot of blame on Anderson: Resurecting Burton, Diamond, and Perkins; a bunch of injuries in the last few years resulting in calling up unprepared players. Hard to blame Vavra. Look at all the career years players have had recently. He seems to be doing ok. Gardy is still being Gardy. Love him or hate him, he is giving the organization what they want. I don't think he will ever be fired. The overall organizational view worked for 10 years. It could work again, but a few things have bit them in the ass over the years. TJ injuries have depleted the pitching reserves. A handful of trades not working out. Not getting any return for Hunter, Cuddyer, Kubel, and Santana (nothing of value for Santana anyways). If the current group in the low minors comes up and hits the snot out of the ball in 2 years, all will be forgotten.

We are approaching the time of year that the "major" awards are given out. Discussing the merits of these awards requires another posting all together. I am interested in awards that should exist but don't. Here is what I would like to see: The Rollie Fingers Most Outstanding Facial Hair Award: Brian Wilson (could probably win every year) The Mickey Hatcher Most Oblivious Player Award: Carlos Gomez (completing a home run trot on a foul ball... seriously?) The Rick Reuschel Award For Best Out-Of-Shape Player: Prince Fielder The Graig Nettles/Luis Tiant Former Twin Most Outstanding Player Award: RA Dickey (Jason Kubel was pushing here for a while, but Dickey has been fabulous all year)

Too bad we couldn't keep Red Dog in the organization. Fabulous baseball guy.

Nishi wasn't too concerned with the Player's Union on this subject. He will never be back to play in the Majors. Everybody is talking about how this is the honorable thing for Nishi to do, but what if honor had nothing to do with it? Staying here he would be paid, but he would still be in the minors, being in a country and cities that I am sure he doesn't want to be in, away from his family and friends, and ruining his professional baseball career. By walking away and going back to Japan, he can fix all of these things. Plus, I am sure he will make a comparable salary in Japan this year. It may be an "honorable" move. But considering (as usual) we the people don't have all the reasons, I am not quite ready to anoint him the Patron Saint of Bad Contracts.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but when a team is on the National broadcast, doesn't one of the Home team's broadcast crew help call the game? Being picked to call a national game for your team isn't that big a deal. I do agree that Bert tones it down a bit on those broadcasts.

I saw a reader comment for that article saying: "In other news, the sun will come up tomorrow" I have listened to many other local announcers for MLB games. I expect the home team guys to have a certain level of homerism, it comes with the territory. Hawk's problem is that he thinks everybody watches the game to hear him announce. The best announcers give you the game without being a huge part of the action. I still believe the Ted Robinson/Jim Kaat team was the best TV team we have had (which is why they both moved on to national arenas).

I am not a big believer in signing relievers to multi-year contracts. Occasionally the situation warrants it (Nathan, Perkins), but most of the time, you don't know what you are going to get. Relievers can be up and down so much from season to season. Additionally, finding capable relievers from the scrap heap or the minors is relatively simple (just look at the Twins this year).