jokin

Actually, he was the GM in 2011, becoming the new GM on Nov. 7, 2011.

Not to ascribe blame to Bert Blyleven, as he's a product of his era, but he actually revels in these unwritten rules from the days of Gibson, Drysdale, Nolan Ryan, er al.

What...someone is actually applauding an act of violence that is technically and potentially a prosecutable assault and battery, besides possibly ending someone's career? What Gomez did was typical insane Go-Go, but to some, his "just punishment" is apparently deserv-ed of a criminal asault (literally) in return? I don't get that....at all....I guess punching a guy out is just another one of those "unwritten rules"?

Historically, 30 year leases aren't worth the iron they're clad with, if the majority of the owners accede to a potential move to take place.

Except for the reality that Josh Donaldson has done it cold turkey and is a plus defender, but not nearly the athlete that Mauer is.... and Joe Torre did it at age 30 virtually cold turkey and was the NL MVP......and Miguel Cabrera did it at 29 and was the AL MVP and Triple Crown winner.......and Killebrew. Donaldson and Cabrera are the #1 and #2 ranked 3rd baseman, and Donaldson ranks 3rd in WAR, with Cabrera #4 overall. Moving there to third opened up options for both clubs to putting more offense on the field. This is not that hard to delineate. And not only can Mauer hit well enough to play third, he would quite likely play it better for most of the entirety of the current contract, than any of the above names, and certainly far better than Plouffe or Sano. Makes a lot of sense to me. (BTW---Colabello returning for anything other than call-up fill-in duty next year would be absolutely shocking.)

Not in my proposal. I'm proposing the Twins sign a slugging FA 1st baseman, Mauer to 3rd (w/ a platoon with Plouffe)/PT catcher. You upgrade/maintain ~2.33 positions to significantly above average. (And Brian McCann and Salty are available for big bucks, while Doner Navarro or AJ would be available on the cheap- to get the full 3 position upgrade)

A call out to the mods. Intervention is necessary when incessant trolling and flame-baiting is going on. That's what the Twins are doing here, right? His prior dominance over lefties has utterly evaporated, he's pitched half the number of innings he pitched in 2012, so the obvious solution is to return him to an even more important role, one where he failed previously? I just about did a spit take when the boys broached the trial balloon last night. Because that's what this has to be- a real-time test for measuring fan tolerance for the absurd.

It really isn't that silly. Joe has been better at hitting for power, but his percentage of singles in 2013 is still 68.1%, and his triple slash for 2013 is virtually identical to his career averages. I hadn't said that Grace and Mauer were identical, but they are similar, close enough that Mauer would still be at best, a close call for the HOF as a 1st baseman. And their career wOBAs are pretty close- .364 vs. .377 for Mauer (and Mauer will probably fall closer to Grace's wOBA number as he ages). The main point is that there is a distinct dearth of run-producers on the roster. Putting Mauer at first and taking away one of the few positions where a proven run-producer can thrive without hurting the team much defensively will definitely hurt the Twins- I''m not sure what the exact formula would be, but I'm guessing that the Twins would have to significantly raise their team OBP, possibly by as much as 30 points, to offset the loss of yet another run producer in the lineup. As bad a year as Morneau had, by moving Mauer to 1st, you would be replacing Morneau's .323 wOBA with a catcher's wOBA like Hermann's (.281) or Doumit (.309). Signing a proven run producer Morales (.341), Loney (.339) or even a Swisher- (.336) type would help the Twins overall offense substantially. As for an alternative position, think of Joe's .377 wOBA at 3rd versus Plouffe's wOBA there of .306. The League Average wOBA at 1st is .334, at 3rd it's .314- the other Twins in-house options won't even cut close to those numbers. Think of a Morales (career average nearly .350 wOBA) or the Cuban first baseman potentially giving you a .350 wOBA or better number at First Base. That's how this team, in one set of simple steps can get incrementally much better going into 2014. Call Sano up in late June, platoon him at one of the positions or RF, and now you've added a 3rd step to significantly upgrading the run-producing potential.

And yet the move still happened.

I don't recall the number of good trades he's made. One, was baked in the cake from 2010 (Span), and the only other one I can think that fits your parameters came out of the blue unexpectedly from the Phillies, and it's fair to say that the jury has yet to determine that it can be classified as a strong trade in the Twins favor. (And you certainly can't be calling the trades of Liriano, Morneau and Carroll as strong trades).

OK City has been a fabulous success for the NBA. San Antonio would be a great market for MLB, as would Charlotte, Nashville or Vancouver. They are all growing much faster than the Twin Cities, and with better demographics.

You left out the fact that Shapiro lured Terry Francona to Cleveland. And he linked his contract with Francona's. If one goes, they all go, giving him huge new leverage in changing the dyanamic and commitment to winning now in Cleveland. This was reflected in the vast retooling of the team over the winter, as documented by Seth Stohs in his article from this morning. Here's a good quote from what actually went down last October: Oh for the Twins ownership to do something similar to shake up this sclerotic franchise.

How did those territorial rights go for Baltimore when the Nats moved in?

Look no further than Montreal for the possibilities for debacle. A very, very young, exciting and talented club with disinterested ownership and disaffected fanbase. If the Twins don't update their approach and thinking to match 21st Century baseball, even a pipeline of exciting young prospects doesn't guarantee long-term viability in Minnesota, if the ineptitude continues long-term. Does the average informed fan really feel comfortable with the level of commitment to winning of the ownership group? They have historically demonstrated that their interest in the team pretty much extends as far as the projected ROI. When potential contraction, or sale to Charlotte interests offered a possibly higher return on investment, they pursued such options with gusto, implicit blackmail to the fans to pony up in the process- a true "win-win" deal for ownership. All of these unnecessary machinations, and all they really need to do to get 3.25M+ in attendance and soaring TV ratings is to expand the TF seating capacity to just over 40,000 and hire a forward-thinking and intrepid and dynamic- yet fiscally prudent- management group that puts a competitive product on the field in 7 years out of 10.

You really think it unlikely that the Pohlad's would sell the team to out-of-town interests in a heartbeat, if it served their interests? There's still plenty of room for a relocated franchise in booming TX, OK, Canada or the Carolinas.

4 years in the wilderness for Cleveland, much like the Twins are about to experience, and it cost them much of their loyal fan base in the process. New management and ownership brought about immediate improvements and philosophical changes for the Indians. The Red Sox completely overhauled their roster and approach, as well as boldly correcting their personnel mistakes at the management level. The Sox actually cut their payroll in the process of making their improvements so your finance argument doesn't wash. No one has suggested that the Twins have to have an identical payroll to Boston's, just to make a full commitment to winning, by using all of the resources at their disposal- IOW, to do what ownership said they would do if the new ballpark was built for them. (Remember, the Twins told us in September of 2011 to expect several years of incremental payroll cutting, IOW, raising the "White Flag" was their stated strategy, ala the 1990s, post World Series 1991).

"it might not be fun to watch for a while" Why should fans (who publicly financed a new ballpark) have to settle for this bromide? " A while" has already been 3 years, and there is already a general consensus, amongst both the pessimists and the optimists, that 2014 is already lost, making it year 4 of no fun. In the 21st Century of shorter attention spans, weak economy, increasing alternatives for the entertainment dollar and the general fickle nature of the casual fans and their relationship with a ballpark whose "new car smell" has an ever-shortening shelf life.... and most importantly, a miserly and highly disinterested and disengaged ownership that already previously has threatened to either move or kill the franchise, there have to be doubts about the long-term viability of the franchise in Minnesota if they maintain the status quo.

When I have time, I'll look at the rest of your links. Thus far, I think I've pretty well-established that there is little credence in crowing from the highest roof top about someone, even "national experts" writing positively about a situation from (literally) 1000s of miles away from that situation....And put grave doubt into someone who constantly uses those "experts" for his shaky foundational arguments, experts who so often, and understandably, are mostly wrong about their understanding of that given situation. Local, well-informed writers, such as those at Twins Daily, and other local professional experts like Howard Sinker, Phil Miller and many others, should be given far more credence for their opinions than someone who casually writes something about the Twins one time a year.

Cleveland and Boston proved they could shorten the rebuild, not extend it.

Because he's primarily a singles hitter. Mark Grace would be the prototype for Mauer at 1st, and that type of career ain't going to get it done for the HOF. And Grace actually has a lower percentage of hits being singles than Mauer. 70.2% of Grace's hits are singles, versus 71.2% of Mauer's.

And where's the quote from 22 months ago that Ryan mentioned that this was, in fact, a rebuild......by letting your only legitimate talent walk away for virtually nothing or supplemental draft pick maybes?, signing 3 replacement players on the wrong side of 30?, signing or trading for multiple washed-up or dead-ended SPs?....and then laid out a general idea of his plan and goals encompassing the past 22 months and the next 19 months..... until the parade allegedly begins?

Love the photo. 3rd base is something a guy as athletic as a former elite QB like Mauer is, could play at, and end up excelling, like Joe Torre did. Plus, you'd actually have a fighting chance to get a positive return on your $23M/yr investment on Mauer over putting him at the less premium position, 1st, which IMO, should be reserved for cheaper-cost, less-athletic, power bats. And not squatting for 3 hours is far healthier for a 6'5" guy, so I disagree on your opinion that C=3rd in terms of wear and tear on the body.

Thanks "Howie". Of course, in the May ESPN article you cite, Buster Olney marvels at the pleasant surprise at the Twins "almost .500 record" and is best summed-up for why East Coast scribes and guys looking to get back in a major league front office like Keith Law, even the good ones, are relatively clueless and/or disingenuous about the state of a team from the hinterland, as in these mock-worthy quotes: Given that Olney and Klaw would be the highest-rated experts in your list, I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that the other articles cited are even "less" of the same.

Given that they will be working off of a payroll base of ~$55M, spending "well over $21M" really won't impress too many folks. And the odds are the Twins will actually lower their base further by moving or not renewing some of their higher-priced talent in the offseason (Willingham, Burton &/or Doumit most likely). The club is on record after the 2011 season that they expected several years of a lowering of the overall payroll- no real reason to expect that 2014 won't be a continuation of their self-admittedly-sought-out trend- I was lambasted last year when I predicted that 2013 Twins payroll would be under $85M, assuming that the FO status quo is maintained, I'm fully expecting a major league payroll that net-nets (after the lower-tier FA acquisitions and trades) under $70M for 2014.

Uhhh......that's precisely why my post advocate's for the Mauer move to 3rd base. That's where he's "much, much, much less" liable to get a concussion.