DaveW

A "replacement level" team would get you approx 48 wins in a 162 game season, the Twins are actually behind that pace.

Everyone wins this thread!

Good post Seth, I don't agree with keeping Hughes in the rotation however. The simple truth is that even if Hughes gets back to his career norms somehow, he still isn't tradeable in 2016. The current GM has been making a ton of seemingly random and questionable moves, none of which seem to be working. However there is one move that Ryan can make that will help the future. And that move is resigning/retiring.

But Mauer's production more likely than not was due to his concussion..... Hunter and the black hole that he represented in RF last year certainly cost the Twins wins. If they would have signed Nelson Cruz like some of us suggested....than I guarantee the Twins would have found themselves in the playoffs. Dance parties are nice and all, but dance parties don't melt steel beams.

Hunter and his poor performance both in the field and at the plate last year likely cost this team a playoff berth. Not having Hunter isn't the reason why the Twins are playing poorly, having a poor GM, Front office and coaching staff are the main culprits.

Normally a loss like this would sting/be a bit heartbreaking and frustrating. Instead, I really could care less, it doesn't make a real difference in this season, it's a really really really bad sign that I (and a lot of fans) are already apathetic in the middle of May! In a year where we were supposed to contend. Ugh.

Antony really has no business being anywhere near any important "baseball" decisions, he might be more to blame than Ryan to be honest. (Who shoulders his fair share of the blame no doubt) I wonder how things may have went differently if they gave Smith a few more seasons, the Young trade etc didn't work out, but at least he had the guts to make some aggressive moves. I doubt he would have signed/resigned Suzuki and signed Nolasco and Santana for starters.

watching this team gives me the same feeling as eating chipotle....

Here was what I said: Coming into the offseason this was my personal top choice on what to do. Very very team friendly. We could be looking back in a few years as it being an absolute steal. DOH! At this stage, looking back, it's not a terrible deal assuming that Hughes can eventually get back to being a 4.00 ERA type guy. However, he has certainly fallen off a cliff and things are concerning now. Also I think we were all pumped because Hughes was the first FA signing we had had in quite a while that was "working out" The Nolasco deal, Suzuki deal, Lack of Catching Depth, Lack of CF planning, lack of signing an actual front of rotation type and lack of BP planning are more damning IMO anyways.

Forgot about Radcliff and Krivsky Gardy should stay.

Why Dave St Peter you ask? Well for one, the abhorrent "save the Twins" commercial he green lit involving a child with cancer. Also, this:

People who I think need to go ASAP: Terry Ryan Rob Antony David St Peter Those guys need to go, period, dot com, end of story, for I have spoken. The rest of the guys can be let go or kept depending on how well they mesh with the new GM.

He wants everyone gone except for his buddy Glen Perkins

$$$$$

Or, if you want to bring in a "familiar face" but someone with some outside vision, why not bring in Andy McPhail to head up everything? Give him a similar role that he has in Philly, let him hire a GM and the rest of the front office. I would be behind this 100%

I will be very dissapointed if they go in house to replace Terry Ryan. While the GM is certainly the fall guy, we shouldn't be so quick to let Antony, Goin and crew off the hook as well for the Twins overall failures over the past 5 or so seasons. (Note: Over the past 5 seasons the Twins have the 2nd worst record overall in the MLB, I don't know how anyone can say with a straight face that those results indicate anything else other than failure) Other than the Park signing and the Jepsen trade can anyone point to any "good" moves this team has made at the major league level over the past several years? For all the talk of how the Twins are super into analytics etc can anyone point to any proof of this in any of their signings? Why is Casey Fien being signed as the sole "savoir" of the bullpen prior to this season? Why did they think putting Sano in RF was anything but a terrible idea? Why did they think that giving Milone a rotation spot over Duffey was a great idea? Why did they think they needed to extend Hughes after what was clearly a career season that wasn't in line with his career numbers at all? Why did they think they needed to extend Suzuki at his absolute high point when everything pointed to regression to the mean? Why do they refuse to spend money on bullpen arms, when bullpens are becoming more and more important each year? Now perhaps Goin, Antony etc have completely different opinions on all of these moves and TR is just shooting them down 99 times out of a 100, but I wouldn't bet on that. The whole front office has been together far too long and are stuck in their ways far too much, the minute they went to a guy with a bit of a different approach (Bill Smith) they gave him next to zero rope and replaced him quickly (back to the old regime) Again, over the last 5 years the Twins have the 2nd worst overall record in baseball, they have the 2nd worst record in MLB this year. This org is sorely in need of new blood, not only for the GM role, but for some of the other leadership roles in the front office as well. The front office has failed, it's time for them to be held accountable.

If the Twins fire Ryan (Which they should do) they absolutely, positively, no doubt about it, 100% lock of the century, need to go outside the organization to bring in some overdue, and sorely needed new blood/outside thinking. Antony, Goin etc are all solid baseball minds, and perhaps someday they will all get and deserve a GM type role, but it absolutely should not be with the Twins. It has been 25 years since the Twins sniffed a world series appearance, at some point you need to shake things up completely. The time is now (or after this 90 loss season) hiring Ryan's right hand man is not the answer.

1. Agreed. I have no issue with them letting Fien go at this point, as you alluded too, having Fien on this team currently makes no sense. 2. Good points regarding trades of closers. You think the Twins would have learned this after the Capps for Ramos disaster. 3. I would argue that the Matt Kemp and Prince Fielder contracts were/are worse. But yeah, it's a moot point. I still maintain that if you have a .420 OBP, .830 OPS Mauer, somebody would "take" that contract. 4. Agreed. 5. 6th inning guy is a little harsh IMO, I think he can be a solid 7th inning guy (like last year essentially) but counting on him to be your closer or shutdown 8th inning guy is a recipe for disappointment.

I agree 100% that Plouffe should have been traded for anything resembling anything of value.Even if that is a single B or B- prospect or two. I have a hard time agreeing with the thought they should have just "let him walk" however. Sano should have went into the season as the third baseman, but of course here we are, hopefully a contender can "lose" a 3rd baseman soon, and the Twins can ship off Plouffe and get something decent in return.

I am far, far, far from a TR fan but I would like to make a couple points below: 1. The Dodgers took on Fien, yay! 2. It's hard to fault him for the Perkins deal, at the time it was a very "Team friendly" type extension and Perkins was one of the better closers in the league (and continued to be) It's hard to predict an otherwise healthy guy would suddenly get the injury bug. 3. If Mauer keeps up his production, it's not inconceivable that he hypothetically "could" be moved. He is only signed for two more years after this and worse contracts have been moved before. However, the Twins shouldn't trade Mauer, nor would they due to his NTC. Either way, I refuse to fault TR for signing Mauer long term. 4. Plouffe could easily be traded, his salary isn't cost prohibitive at all really, again, what is TR supposed to do, let Plouffe walk? 5. Ditto with Jepsen. Now the Nolasco, Suzuki and Hughes (extension) are all complete disasters as contracts no doubt, and the Santana one is closer to "meh" so I agree with you on those. Overall, TR's main problem is failing to realize when to "go for it" and when to "sell it all", in addition to actually trying to fix the bullpen, sign or trade for a REAL ace or stop relying on guys like Suzuki.

PARKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!

Sneaking out of the neighbors cocktail party (ugh) to come back and catch some of this game, just saw Abad get out of a bases loaded jam. For Rocketpig's sake Twins! The Rotation/Bullpen has actually been solid thus far! Get some god damn runs and get a win!

Escobar! Seriously, I know SSS, Eary Season blah blah blah, but this guy needs to be hitting leadoff for us starting tomorrow!

Don't quit your day (social security? pension?) job?

No.