El Guapo

I'm going to switch it up a little. My top 3 Twins issues I'm sick of are 1. Fans reaching for any little reason to stick up fo r this front office and oraganization as a whole and letting them coast through season after season shooting for mediocrity and being thankful when they actually achieve it and NOT HOLDING THEM ACCOUNTABLE! Jim Pohlad, Terry Ryan, ron Gardenhire, Rick Anderson, Joe Vavra, Francisco Liriano, Joe Mauer, Matt Capps, Nick Blackburn, Alexi Casilla, Trevor Plouffe, are the main people who I believe have way too long of leashes in their own way and get to many excuses made or people constantly reaching to defend them instead of HOLDING THEM ACCOUNTABLE for their failures. 2. People complaining about Mauer's contract. The same people whining about his money now are the same people that were threatening to lynch Bill Smith and burn down Target Field if he let Mauer leave. I never thought Mauer was worth what he got but we actually got him at a discounted rate at the time so quit blaming Bill Smith for that one at least and accept that mauer will be eating up $23 million a year for awhile and work around it. 3. I'm sick of t Ahe PITCH TO CONTACT theory. Yes, I understand it isn't supposed to mean throw a meatball over the middle of the plate and let your opponent smash it over the fence but with the staff we usually go in with, that what happens. If your whole pitching premise is going to be to pitch to contact, you'd better start doing a better job scouting pitchers with pinpoint control who can work the corners and change speeds effectively. Right now, besides Pavano, who on our staff can do that consistently? Marquis is in and out, Blackburn doesn't walk a ton of people but doesn't consistently locate pitches in good spots either, Hendricks might be ok but needs another year in the minors, I'll give Baker a free pas since I believe he is the best starter oin this rotation but since he's out for the year and injury prone it doesn't really matter. As for Liriano, he can't even throw a meatball half the time because he usually has no idea where his pitches are going.

There is one thing you're not factoring into your comparison: The 2006 Twins were near the bottom of the major leagues in payroll and the 2012 Twins are in the upper 1/3 range. You should never under any circumstances (barring about 7 or 8 major injuries) be the worst team in baseball with a $100 million payroll. That means that either A, Terry Ryan did a horrible job in the offseason assembling this team (and don't give me the "he came in late excuse" because he had all offseason), or B. The coaching staff are not doing their jobs. I'm more of a believer that this season, and it'll be ugly after 162 games, should be blamed about 80% on Terry Ryan, 10% on the coaching staff, and 5% each on the ownership and the roster. People can blame the pohlads for not shelling out $150 million but the foolish ways our front office spend money we'd probably still be in last. You can only put so much blame on the coaching staff because they can't go out and play and have to make do with the lack of talent dealt to them by the GM. However, Gardy is responsible for putting players on this roster in the best spots for them to succeed and using the Liriano example of continuing to march this train wreck out to start every 5th game is baffling. Either send him to the pen, trade him(laughable), send him down, or just outright release him and give his spot to duensing, diamond, manship, swarzak, or ANYONE else who at least knows how to pitch because Liriano doesn't. Which brings me to the actual roster. You can't put a lot of blame on the players unless they're not trying and I don't believe that to be the case. I don't belong in the major leagues but if the Twins want to pay me to help fill this roster I wouldn't argue with them just as many players who shouldn't be here can't be blamed for being here. Again, the front office has to do a much better job evaluating strengths and weaknesses, talent, and what it takes to build a winning organization. Terry Ryan was best at picking up scrap heap players and trading for prospects when we had a $20 million payroll. Now he has $100 million and even though $38 of that is tied up into 2 players that continue to be a monumental waste of money, he still has 3 times the money to play with that he used to but has no clue how to use it wisely. Someone has to be held accountable for this season just as Bill Smith was the fallguy for last year. Minnesota sports have pushed their fans to the point that we just hope for mediocrity now because they've all been so horrible we have to lower expectations to that point while letting owners and GM's off the hook for their stupidity and inabiltiy to do there jobs.

I like Gardy so it's hard for me to point the finger at him completely, and, as good of a Manager as Gardy may be, he can only do so much with the lack of talent dealt to him by GM genius Terry Ryan. With that being said, I was not at all happy with the way the team pretty much mailed it in the last month and a half of the season of last year and 23 games into this season, I'm already disgusted with this organization from top to bottom. If Gardy is going to remain the manager, he must starting holding himself, his staff, and his players accountable for what's happening. Once proclaimed the greatest pitching coach of all time, Rick Anderson has shown he has no idea how to deal with Liriano and the rest of the headcases or talent lackers on this pitching staff. Joe Vavra simply doesn't derserve to be a major league hitting coach and has done nothing since he's been here to prove me wrong. I realize the players have to perform no matter who the pitching and hitting coaches are but, you can't fire the entire team and making a couple coaching changes may spark something in a few guys on this team that are in desparate need of having a fire lit under their asses. As long as Gardy is here, he'll never get rid of his coaching staff of buddies because he'd rather ride this sinking ship to the ocean floor than get some guts and make a change to help save this team, and probably his own job. Time to clean house, from top (Terry Ryan) to bottom (Scott Ulger).

I like Gardy so it's hard for me to point the finger at him completely, and, as good of a Manager as Gardy may be, he can only do so much with the lack of talent dealt to him by GM genius Terry Ryan. With that being said, I was not at all happy with the way the team pretty much mailed it in the last month and a half of the season of last year and 23 games into this season, I'm already disgusted with this organization from top to bottom. If Gardy is going to remain the manager, he must starting holding himself, his staff, and his players accountable for what's happening. Once proclaimed the greatest pitching coach of all time, Rick Anderson has shown he has no idea how to deal with Liriano and the rest of the headcases or talent lackers on this pitching staff. Joe Vavra simply doesn't derserve to be a major league hitting coach and has done nothing since he's been here to prove me wrong. I realize the players have to perform no matter who the pitching and hitting coaches are but, you can't fire the entire team and making a couple coaching changes may spark something in a few guys on this team that are in desparate need of having a fire lit under their asses. As long as Gardy is here, he'll never get rid of his coaching staff of buddies because he'd rather ride this sinking ship to the ocean floor than get some guts and make a change to help save this team, and probably his own job. Time to clean house, from top (Terry Ryan) to bottom (Scott Ulger).

The Twins are now 6-17 and it's not a fluke, it's a small dose of reality. Terry Ryan had plenty opportunities in the offseason to improve this team, especially the pitching staff, and didn't do it. Examples? Erik Bedard, 1 yr $4.5 mil. (Same as Matt Capps is being paid this year) would've instantly become our best starter, but wasn't on Terry Ryan's radar. Chris Capuano, who we made a feeble effort (low balled him so he signed elsewhere) is 3-0 with an era that our current pitchers can only dream about. Bartolo Colon, Edwin Jackson, Roy Oswalt, etc. In the interest of not making this 5 pages long, I'll skip others and won't even address our lack of bullpen additions but if anyone wants to throw out a challenge I'd be more than happy to tell you how Terry Ryan failed miserably in all areas. But, bottom line, Terry Ryan is the puppet of the Pohlad family who only care about personal financial gain and don't care if the Twins win 50 games or 100 as long as they can keep butts in seats enough to keep making as much money as possible.

The Twins are now 6-17 and it's not a fluke, it's a small dose of reality. Terry Ryan had plenty opportunities in the offseason to improve this team, especially the pitching staff, and didn't do it. Examples? Erik Bedard, 1 yr $4.5 mil. (Same as Matt Capps is being paid this year) would've instantly become our best starter, but wasn't on Terry Ryan's radar. Chris Capuano, who we made a feeble effort (low balled him so he signed elsewhere) is 3-0 with an era that our current pitchers can only dream about. Bartolo Colon, Edwin Jackson, Roy Oswalt, etc. In the interest of not making this 5 pages long, I'll skip others and won't even address our lack of bullpen additions but if anyone wants to throw out a challenge I'd be more than happy to tell you how Terry Ryan failed miserably in all areas. But, bottom line, Terry Ryan is the puppet of the Pohlad family who only care about personal financial gain and don't care if the Twins win 50 games or 100 as long as they can keep butts in seats enough to keep making as much money as possible.