DaveW

That's a little unfair IMO. Buxton hasn't floundered at all yet, he still is wayyyy too young to say this and he is currently doing very well in AAA. Several top prospects struggle their first time in the majors, Trout comes immediately to mind. Also, Buxton likely wasn't ready to be brought up anyways. If he is still struggling in 3 years then maybe we can talk about him being a bust. Ditto with Stewart, he was a high school arm, those guys take longer to develop then the Jr/Sr college pitchers we have drafted quite a bit in the past. He was a top 30 prospect coming into this season and is pitching well as a 21 year old in A+. Berrios is another first rounder who has worked out "well" so far and has a bright future. Span was a very good CF for us, I don't see how you can include him in this list as well. He is a good player who will have a good career, most teams will take that 7 days a week out of their mid first round pick. Gomez was never picked by the Twins, he was part of the Mets system. Gibson and Plouffe haven't been all stars, but at least they have contributed and are solid players as well. You can't really call them busts. If you want to talk busts, then at least mention the busts like Hunt, Gutierrez. Overall I think the Twins have done a pretty solid job drafting in the first round IMO.

Yeah this is the most important part to me. There has been like zero turnover in the FO as a whole. Replacing Ryan with someone else internally (unless they were literally brought on in the last 24 months) is just asking for more of the same. The one exception to a "former Minnesota guy" would be Andy MacPhail, he has been away from Minnesota for 20 years now or so I believe, and has done a wonderful job rebuilding a Phillies team that was absolutely gutted when he took over.

1. 100% this, the Twins can talk all they want about their advanced statistics team, but they still are signing guys at their peak (after luck driven half seasons etc....Suzuki) and aren't efficiently finding talent in the FA market (or trade market). I would want the Twins to bring in a PROVEN advanced statistics expert and let him build out his team from there. 2. I disagree here. If you have a chance to draft a good arm, you take it. I would avoid RP like the plague though int he first 3 rounds. However, if you have a chance to get another Kohl Stewart you do it in a heartbeat. Shooter Hunt didn't work out, but I like that pick as well, high upside, high risk. No to the next Kyle Gibson or Alex Wimmers first round pick though (or Ben Revere) drafting mid rotation guys that high in the draft is a mistake. 3. I agree 100% here. Get an impact bat or an impact pitcher (i.e. an Ace or #2) with the money they spent on Santana, Milone, Hughes and Nolasco the Twins would have been able to sign Cueto (and one of Santana, Hughes and Nolasco). How much better would this rotation look with Cueto at the top for the next 5 years? Ditto with hitters. Get an impact player or don't bother, if you need filler types then your minor leagues should be able to produce you some back up INF, back up C, back up OF. I wouldn't mind some "middle" RP options though. 4. Yup 5. The Twins used to be very good at this, I think they have lost a few steps since Gardy was let go to be honest. 6. Agreed, it's kinda crazy that we are still waiting on this. 7,8,9. Yes yes yes. Well put overall and well thought out. Also one thing I would add is to set expectations coming in for the new F.O of the following: First 10 years: Minimum of 4 playoff appearances. (33% of the teams make the playoffs every year, 40% would be a little above average) Minimum of 1 world series title. Anything else would be viewed as failure. It might sound a bit harsh, but it's professional sports, the whole point of it is to win championships. Settling for sweeps in the first round of the playoffs (when you are fortunate enough to make the playoffs) doesn't cut it.

Why was May brought in to the 3rd inning? Does this team actually have anything that resembles a plan?

Good hockey and good basketball on tonight...we all know how this twins game ends.

Silicon Valley is one of the funniest comedies I have ever seen, The Americans is top notch television as well. Preacher looks promising, and while I am not super into GoT it is at least entertaining. Definitely start watching Silicon Valley and the Americans though, both are instant classics.

Caught the first three innings before a dinner. It appears I didn't miss much in the last 8 innings eh?

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.