Thrylos

This team badly needs an outside voice (as well as general cleaning of the Front Office and the player development structure,) not to "appease the fans", but to have a chance in winning. I want to see the Pohlads ask these questions in their interviews for a GM: - Show me your plan to make the Twins the best team in the league from the worst team in the league with the number of years and resources that it will take. - Give me a reason why I should trust that you know what you are doing and that your plan has a high likelihood of success - How do you feel about losing? Any examples that you have turned around a losing franchise? - Who will you bring with you, and what will they bring to the organization? Antony will fail to answer well the last 3 questions in my opinion. That's why he will be only an interim. On the other hand, I hope (and suspect) that his future employment in the organization depends on how he does during this season. This organization needs people with proven success, not the boss' buddies. Where "Proven" is the operating word. That makes any internal candidate that comes from baseball operations: a. unfit for the job and b. part of the problem likely...

Fact: The Twins had a better record under Bill Smith (or any other GM) than they did under Ryan. So are you saying that Antony will lead the Twins in more wins than Ryan? I am not that sure. What made Smith a good GM is that he was willing to delegate and listen to baseball people about baseball decisions. And that he had the guts to make those decisions. What made Smith a bad GM was that he was listening to the wrong people about those baseball decisions (the likes of Gardenhire & Radcliff & Rantz.)

'tis the values and the neighborliness that make them a small town. Not the population. The Garrison Keillor stuff

Hold it. I thought that the current Twins' GM was a PR guy who was hired right after College and the current Twins' President came up that ladder (Corporate Communications, AKA PR, after he was managing the T-shirt store.) Are you trying to say that the 2 higher members in the Twins FO who have actually had training and experience in PR are not good at that (in addition to baseball, for which, unfortunately, they did not have training)?

And a guy who was traded for Randy Johnson to boot.

Yes Mr Trump

Waiting for the "Dummies" series to hit Barnes & Noble.

There is one way to make him go with the kids: Trade the rest. With Nunez, Dozier, and Plouffe gone, he has to play Polanco, no?

Pohlad said that Ryan is "the right guy" and he can be the GM for as long as he want to, about a month ago. He said, he unsaid. Can do the same about Molitor. Unless it happens, do not believe it. Words are just words, and Pohlad's particularly (based on what he did to Ryan after he said that for Ryan) are apparently pretty cheap...

And Paul Monitor You know who is next...

Billy Eppler, Jason McLeod, Ray Montgomery should also be in the conversation. For me the key is not who, but what culture does he/she bring with them. They need to come from a culture of winning and all the 3 mentioned do.

Will definitely be easier to get a GM this fall vs. now, because the candidate pool will be bigger. Right now the candidate pool is really people who are not part of any organization. Very hard for people who are looking to move (out or up) in a particular organization to make the move around the trading deadline. Just does not happen and it is pretty uncool. Now, I hope that he hires a President of Baseball Operations now who can hire a GM in the fall and starting cleaning house in the player development department (eg. re-fire the re-hired former manager, among others) ASAP.

Re: Antony at the deadline: I think that it will be his only opportunity to see a deadline as an MLB GM. It will be a good test for him. If he sucks, he is gone. I bet that he understands the importance of that and that his future employment may depend on what he does at the deadline, and rises to the occasion. Glad to see Pohlad starting to hold people accountable, and I hope he does not stop but hold Antony accountable for what he does (or not) the rest of the season. Time to show that he can play with the big boys or go away.

Hallelujah

He is not a 3B prospect. He is a 2B prospect, thus the helium.

A few interesting things about their 2019 lineup: a. as far as position players go, other than C (Garver) and SS (Gordon), the lineup is the same as today (And they forgot to list a 3B, they have Sano as DH) b. for some weird reason, they have Romero (mainly), Jorge, Stewart, and Consalves ahead of Jay in the rotation, assuming that Jay will not be in the majors or will be in the pen. re: Blackenhorn. He is a second baseman now, thus the helium, but it is pretty ridiculous ranking compare to (let's say) Javier who is actually 2 years younger, playing a more premium position (SS) and hits better. Also interesting that Chargois is ahead on Burdi on the depth charge, despite the fact that Burdi has nor really played because injured. Hard to compare with the off-season list because of the two different authors (This one is by Manuel.)

Yes it does. In addition to base runners mentioned, which makes 100% sense, if you lead the league in HRs (like the Twins Ps do,) the OFs tend to play deeper, so you see balls drop. Also, if the innings last long time with pitching changes, manager trips, catcher trips etc, (some) fielders are prone to attention/concentration gaps. Indeed the Twins have the worst fielding % in the league as well...

1. Similarity just about 2/10. Just because he is a foreign free agent signee. He signed during the season and in a position the Astros have a need (DH) because their current 30ish year old DH is hitting .215/.279/.422. The Twins have Mauer and Vargas at 1B/DH, plus Plouffe and Sano potentially. 2. About 2/10 also. And the 2 is because they are both young RHPs. Nats' season to date starters: 3.28 ERA, 1.152 WHIP, 9.3 K/9. Twins' season to date starters: 5.27 ERA, 1.447 WHIP, 6.8 K/9. No comparison. 3. Zip zero 0/10. The Twins did not flip Liriano... He was around for a while. Equivalent to Pomeranz & the Padres would had been if Milone was good last season and this season and the Twins flipped him for 2 prospects. Or maybe (because he is a reliever) if Abad gets flipped for a good return.

Looked to me like he was drawing an arrow pointing to the 3B ump. Dunno. Pretty ridiculous.

If nobody can't draft and develop pitching, I guess there would not be any good pitchers around. They are. So that statement is pretty much false. Someone develops them. (Tampa for one). They don't grow on trees

Wish I saw this before. It brings me way back in memory lane when I used to spend summers working at the Woods Hole lab and making the 10 minute drive to Falmouth for baseball Re: beer. Cooler. And ice. It is kosher to pic nic at the ballpark. The ones who do not drink there are scouts

That's an understatement. Might be surprising but the last C with qualifying PAs as a C to hit 30 HRs was Jorge Posada in 2003 that did it in a single season only. Piazza did it pretty much every season until 2002. No C has hit 30 HRs in the post-steroid era. Even Mike Lieberthal hit 31 HRs in 1999 For me, "30+ HR power" indicates a guy that in 5+ seasons he will average 30+ HRs, not a guy who would hit 30 HRs in one season and then 10-20 in the rest. Even Pudge Rodriguez (5 highest HR seasons: 35, 27, 25, 21, 20) does not fit the bill. Matter of fact only Johnny Bench. Mike Piazza and maybe Gary Carter and Lance Parrish fit the bill. Do you think that Zunino is at that level of hitting? I don't. Then maybe a 25+ HR guy? Then to the above names, add: Yoggi Berra, Carlton Fisk, Pudge Rodriguez, Jorge Posada, Javy Lopez still highly unlikely, because those guys are either Hall of Famers, or borderline Hall of Famers, other than Lopez who if not retiring early could have been in the conversation. Then maybe a 20+ HR guy? Maybe, but a strikeout prone 20+ HR guy this era might be close to what Tim Laudner (who would likely had 20+ HRs for the Twins in '87 and '88 if he played more than the 11x games he played each season) was for the Twins back then... How valuable is that?

What is lost in this is that in addition to SS, the Mariners need a catcher badly. Their starting C is 33 year old Chris Iannetta who is just above the Butera line with .218/.309/.354. So I suspect that they might want to see what Zunino (who is getting better with the bat and he was rushed; but his fielding, arm, and pitch blocking is suspect) can still do with them. On the other hand Nunez + Suzuki to Mariners might be an intriguing possibility, but not for Zunino. As far as Catchers go, the Mariners' 2010 2nd round pick, 24 year old switch hitter and good fielder (he is a converted to C SS, not a rare conversion, with a strong arm) Marcus Littlewood is finally getting it together in AA (Southern League, so the Twins have seen him play against them) and might be an intriguing possibility. Was rushed to full season A ball when he was drafted from HS, so his adjustment to the wooden bat took a while. Plus getting the intricacies of the C position took a while too. I think that he might be excellent for the Twins as a flying under the radar guy. Now if they can add someone like Edwin Diaz (22, highly unlikely) or Tony Zyck (25, possible) either of whom would be better than anything the Twins have in their bullpen right now, it would be great. 25 year old Emilio Pagan, who was their AA team closer in the first half of the season is another potentially good target. Noted that other than Diaz who was the Mariners' number 2 prospects, everyone mentioned has not been in their top 10 list this off-season, so these players could potentially be had. I think that Nunez + Suzuki for Littlewood + Zyck/Pagan is a pretty balanced trade

Add me in that minority group, since Meyer is the only Twins' pitcher in the organization with true Ace potential. Mater of fact, I'd fire every coach and front office person up and down the organization before I gave up on Meyer.

I agree with the first 2, but the worst thing that Ryan can do is to go after Suzuki as a free agent at 33 years old. In 3 seasons with the Twins he put a .690 OPS, which is right at where his career OPS is, with stretches of brilliance (like right now with the axe handled bat) and with horrible stretches. He has proven that he is part of the problem. If the Twins have no catcher for 2017, I'd rather see them either go after Ramos (FA) as a potential longer term solution or even after Chris Herrmann in a trade as a potential stopgap and maybe even more. These are the only former Twins that it might make sense to bring back as a catcher. Bringing back Suzuki will be like bringing back Pelfrey