Winston Smith

It's not really that simple. There's more to the game of baseball than hitting and driving in runs. Who would you rather have standing on base representing the go-ahead run? Who would you rather have trying to make a difficult defensive play with the game on the line? It was that simple because I was talking about which guy do you want at the plate with the game on the line and I said Cabrera. You made into base running and defense which wasn't part of what I was talking about. If you'd rather have Trout at the plate fine. The other stuff really doesn't apply to my statement.

"Batting Average - yes, I understand, it's not as important as on-base percentage,...." Batting average isn't cut and dry the quality of the hits are not considered. If you think the OBP is the best judge, in OBP I think a 3 run homer counts the same as a walk doesn't it? If there is a runner or runners on I want my best hitters looking to drive them in not working a walk. If the game is on the line what player would you rather have at the plate Cabrera or Trout? I'll vote for Cabrera.

IMO the first thing they do is get a deal done centered around Span for Shields. Then add another decent starter in FA and you at least have a start at a decent rotation. Until the rotation is fixed not much else matters. Friday we will find out nothing is really wrong and things will continue as usual. Liddle may retire likely replaced by Redmond, that will be the big change. They'll talk a lot about the All Star game.

A lot of stuff about how close this team is and all the good players we have. Yet 129-193 over the last 2 tears, drafted 2nd this year, likely 4th next year. So why is it that all these good players have such a bad record?

Depends on what you want. If you want a winning type playoff team it probably means blowing it up. Morneau is gone after next yr, Willingham and Doumit a year after that. With 67-68 wins this year it would take a miracle to get 20 more wins next year and be in the race. So you patch things together get another 10 wins and what do we have? A 4th or 5th place team. You can see what good solid pitching can do, the Rays, A's, Mariners have weak lineups but win with pitching. Pitching wins in the playoffs (Giants) the goal should be to stockpile the most good young pitching possible imo. If that takes blowing the team up I'm for it.

But but the 2014 All Star game is at Target Field and if you get your season tickets now you get a priority for All Star tickets. Don't worry about the product on the field, please please focus on that All Star game.

That was a great season for many reasons. First we had baseball at "the major league level" and second because of the home run contest between Maris and Mantle. If I recall they were very close until Labor Day when Mantle went into a HR slump only hitting 4-5 and Maris hit like 10 in Sept. I don't think Maris was ever the same player after that it took a lot out of him. In my old eyes his record is the real record!

Don't you have to recognize a problem before you can attempt to fix it? We will likely never know what scout or scouts recommended Nishi but can hope that they do evaluate the scouts yearly and replace the ones that are failing.

No, it DIDN'T work for 10 years. It worked if you were happy with them being competitive in the A.L. Central and winning the division with some regularity. It DIDN'T work if you had a desire for them to be competitive in the post-season. It's pretty clear if you look at the Twins won-loss record against various teams that in the last 6 years or so, the A. L. East got substantially stronger while the Twins stagnated in the A. L. Central. Some of that was money. Some of that was draft postion. BUT some portion of that was organizational philosophy. I'm not putting all of that on Gardenhire and his coaches. A large part also falls on the front office. But we never see any turnover there either (I do not consider Ryan replacing Smith as any kind of significant change. It is the same philosophy with a familiar face at the helm). After 2010, I was fully prepared to endure several (and that means more than 2) horrific seasons like the last 2 -- as long as I could see a plan emerging that would take the Twin to competitiveness with the entire league not just the Central Division. But I haven't seen that -- all I've seen other than the Willingham signing (which was really just a replacement for Cuddyer) was a little tinkering around the edges. Everybody knew at the end of 2010 that the Twins' starting pitching wasn't good enough to win in the playoffs. Other than a bit in this year's draft, have we seen any moves to toward improvement? NO -- not through free agent signings and not through trades. I feel like the pain of the last 2 years has been utterly wasted. The Twins had an opportunity to start re-tooling after 2010 to try to rise to a higher level of competitiveness. They played it safe -- because their mantra is simply to stay competitive enough to put butts in the stands without taking any major risks in improving the team. Well guess what? Even their "play it safe' strategy failed. And now I'm even more depressed because I don't see them ever taking enough risk to become competitive with the big dogs in the league. This organization is stuck in a pretty deep rut. So yes, now change IS necessary and not just with the field staff. There is also a stench from the stagnation in the front office. I agree with this 100%

1. Gomez cf 2. Hardy ss 3. Hunter rf 4. Ortiz dh 5. kubel lf 6. Cuddy 1b 7. AJ c 8. Valencia 3b 9. Punto 2b Dickey p

How bad does it have to get before the manager or coaches need to change? Another sub 500 season next year be it or should Gardy have the job as long as he wants?

It seems like he is hurt a lot but he has really been very good getting over 30 starts a year 8 years running with 28 this year. He would fit the Twins mold of pitcher. If you give Pavano 16 for 2 yrs wouldn't you give Haren something 20+ for 2 yrs? Maybe 25 for 2? Doesn't much sound like Ryan does it?

The Rays need to replace Upton. Span is a hometown guy that would fit what they need. Per fan graph Span is a 3.5 war, value of 15.7m. He is owed 11.25m for 13-14. Shields is a 3.8 war 16.9m value and fits what the Twins biggest need is. He has options for 13-14 for 21m total. Tampa fills a need and saves 10m over 2 years and still has an option for Span in 15. Shields cost only a little more than what Pavano was paid and he'd be a top of the rotation guy. Think how much better he'd be in the Central instead of the East.

Is this our respecting the game against playoff teams lineup?

"Jack of all trades, master of none"

No reason for this until the rotation and infield are fixed. Maybe he's had a good year but he also just missed most of 2 seasons with arm problems.

My guess is that both Cappie and Pavano will be back; "They both battle and get after it. Go about their business the right way and provide veteran leadership" per Gardy after the signings!

I expect both Capps and Pavano back next year. In honor of Crikket: "I don't want a pickle, Just want to ride on my motorsickle!"

How would Baker be ready by May 1, 13 months after surgery while Gibson won't be ready until June, 22 months after his? I think the most likely thing is Gibson starts in the bullpen to save innings, moves into the rotation after June 1 and gets 15-20 starts. Baker could maybe be ready to pitch around June and also get 12-15 starts. However, why are we thinking Baker is coming back?

Nobody should be a lock. Make everyone earn a spot next year.

I like the long term build with youth way, not sure the band aid approach gets us very far.

Sanchez has not looked very good in the AL so far he may need to go back to the NL. Santana has neg war and has been really bad. If these guys are going to get north of 7-8 mill a yr that isn't a very good bang for the buck. For the most part all the guys with decent numbers are NL guys and could be big failures in the AL. I just don't see the list of Starters as deep at all. That's not saying they wouldn't improve our rotation but I don't see many guys that will make a big impact. It's more likely that we pick up a Millwood, Guthrie or Saunders type and resign Pavano, imo.

Why not? How does signing 1 or 2 free agent starters and trading Morneau or Span for pitching help hinder your long-term rebuilding efforts? Ryan made it clear he wasn't signing any of the top free agent pitchers. Maybe he was blowing smoke. Trading for pitching help? Maybe that can work but most teams aren't giving up decent pitching. However, I think it makes sense at this time to trade all of these guys that will bring back decent prospects, if that's possible, and go young. I don't think trading one guy will turn the team around. Of course maybe the guys we have won't bring back decent help and in that case we are stuck without spending for it. Last and last seems to indicate that the present course isn't working.

I often hear that it can't be Gardy's fault because he doesn't have good players to work with. Then we hear some of the same people say we're only a few players away from competing. How can both those be true? The last two years we are 63 games under 500. The next worst team in the AL is the Mariners at 36 under. Logically it would seem that this team needs a lot more than a couple pieces to be a serious playoff team. Could they improve enough to hang around the Central for most of the season probably. But to be a serious playoff team I just can't see it. Then the question is do you band aid a team together so you might hang around most of the season and if so does that set back a real rebuilding effort? It would seem to me you can't do both.

Chances are he won't do much until may-june. Not sure that helps us much. How many 30 yr old guys have come back and been good the first year?