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ThePuck

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Everything posted by ThePuck

  1. ThePuck
    Remember when everyone was convinced the world was flat...good times...
  2. ThePuck
    Tigers underperformed in the first half...played to their talent in the 2nd half...and now they improve their RF situation AND get VMart back. Gonna be hard to beat
  3. ThePuck
    That's absurd. Hunter posted a 5.5 WAR last season after falling to a WAR of ~3 (give or take half a point) in the previous two seasons. Given his age and ever-decreasing range, I think it's almost a given that he will not repeat his 2012 numbers with the Tigers. Still, kudos to Ilitch for not giving up on that quest for a ring. When you're that old and that rich, who gives a damn how much you spend? Must have been nice to hit behind Trout...and in front of Pujols. Maybe that was part of it? Now he gets to hit behind AJax and in front of Cabrera...not all that bad either...
  4. ThePuck
    They get him and they get VMart back. Add that to the fact that they underachieved in the first half this past season based on their talent. Should win 100 games this year
  5. ThePuck
    Was probably thinking, should have applied for the Toronto job :-)
  6. ThePuck
    None of that makes it ridiculous to feel that they SHOULD be able to spend 125+M. We know realistically they won't...I already said that...but that doesn't make it ridiculous to think that we should be spending more, based on what the tax payers were told when the team was begging for a new stadium to be mostly funded by the taxpayers. Our payroll in 2007 was 71+M. That was 6 seasons ago. Think about how much salaries have gone up in 6 years. They fandangled a new stadium and team salary last year was 94M? 23M dollar increase...less than 4M per season on average...you think that covers increase in salaries around the league? AND they have a new ballpark, with all the increased revenue. It's a good thing the new ballpark was paid for so we could add a whopping 23M to the payroll...
  7. ThePuck
    What constitutes 2 solid starters?
  8. ThePuck
    We're always shopping for blue light specials...yes, last year we got Willingham, Doumit and Carroll (none of them too heavily sought out based on what we paid), but we also lost Nathan, Cuddyer, Kubel and a couple others. Did we come out ahead? Maybe a little bit, especially when you consider the difference in pay, but we didn't take that saved money and do anything to address our biggest need. If people wanna give Ryan a pass for not spending...especially to acquire much needed pitching that everyone and his brother knew we needed, that's their choice. I choose not to do that. I choose not to keep saying, 'well, that guy wasn't worth that anyway' every time we see someone signed that we really could have used. I've done enough of that over the years An unfortunate part of today's game is that, in order to acquire quality pitching, you have to overspend...cause the people you're competing with will. Ryan sliced out payroll and did nothing to help our most glaring need...pitching.
  9. ThePuck
    So, it's unrealistic to have the team raise payroll from 112.7M in 2011 to 125+M in 2013. We can drop payroll by 18M like we did last year...which also gave us a payroll lower than what we had in 2010...but it's ridiculous to expect them to spend 125M+? If done smartly, why is this too much to ask them to do? Won't happen, of course, but why is it ridiculous to feel they should If the Twins were adding 50 million in payroll it would push the budget to 150, not 125 million. The number HE quoted was 125+M...THAT is the number I'm talking about.
  10. ThePuck
    So, it's unrealistic to have the team raise payroll from 112.7M in 2011 to 125+M in 2013. We can drop payroll by 18M like we did last year...which also gave us a payroll lower than what we had in 2010...but it's ridiculous to expect them to spend 125M+? If done smartly, why is this too much to ask them to do? Won't happen, of course, but why is it ridiculous to feel they should
  11. ThePuck
    Keith Law: Those limocolous owners are the greatest joke of all in this deal, rooking Florida taxpayers for a publicly-funded stadium, only to make one half-hearted attempt to fill it with a contending team, surrendering it after the season to return to their old business model, playing a skeleton-crew lineup while pocketing all of their revenue-sharing money. This isn't a bad baseball deal for Miami, but it's not a baseball deal at all -- it's a boondoggle, perpetrated by owners who have pulled one stunt like this after another, with the implicit approval of the Commissioner's Office. It's time for baseball to rid itself of Jeff Loria and David Samson by any means possible. Miami, the state of Florida, and the sport in general will be better off without them.
  12. ThePuck
    while doing it on the cheap as well...
  13. ThePuck
    I'm optimistic for 2014, 2015 time frame with the young guys coming up... I'm just not sold on the Twins (meaning ownership, the FO and so on) being interested in putting a true WS contending team together. For the last decade and change, all they've ever seemed interested in is building a team to be competitive within the division....and the couple seasons where they were truly very good (2006 and 2010) were followed up with offseasons not worked to put us over the the hump, but worked to downgrade us because, hey, we were SO good, we can afford to downgrade some while still being competitive in the division. Didn't work either time...
  14. ThePuck
    First, let me say, I didn't care if Baker signed with us or not...not one bit. Having said that, we need starters...we need three good-great starters....they cost money/good players (or both). Ryan isn't gonna 'break the bank' for pitching. So, we're looking at dumpster diving free agent SPs (as is the norm or us), or couple trades... ...cause he's not gonna spend big, he's just not.
  15. ThePuck
    Actually that's two "random" World Series wins in his first five seasons as GM, sunshine. Maybe the Twins can find a lucky GM like that too someday. And if you think the AL East was a cakewalk during his best seasons, I think you're in the minority. Well, from 03-05 the AL East only had two teams with winning records and each year it was NY and Bos. In 06 & 07, Toronto joined them. Boston fell to third in 06 and won it all in 07. After Tampa made the playoffs in 08, Boston only made the playoffs once. Boston spent more money than anyone except NY and had a lot of players associated with PEDs. Epstein tended to get too much credit and too much blame for what happened in Bos. He had resources that let him sign top free agents and create a strong draft/scouting group. He was able to offer arbitration to players going away so he got extra draft picks which gave him some great drafts (05) and not so great (06-07). I find it comical that people would try and compare the 03-11 Red Sox with the Twins. The Twins had a far harder time making the post season, despite playing the Yankees 12 fewer times a year. Ryan was hamstrung by payroll for both the ML roster but also in the draft. Bad contracts were significant problems that he couldn't outspend. Chicago and Detroit had massive payroll advantages over us. So what you're saying is, you think we have people in our front office smarter than Epstein?
  16. ThePuck
    Rubbish. He competed in a division where you win 95 games and cross your fingers for a wildcard berth, and won his second World Series at age 33. The only team he was competing with for the successful part of his tenure was the Yankees who won it 9 straight years: 98-06. The rest of the division was really pathetic and easy wins for them. Then there is the random playoff winner/World Series that follows. Toronto won at least 80 games in 7 of those 9 seasons...had a winning record in 6 of those 9. And TB went to the playoffs three times in his last 4 seasons as Boston's GM, and they won 84 games the other year.
  17. ThePuck
    He did sign Lackey and Crawford .... He also signed David Ortiz and Curt Schilling...and then he won two World Series titles before his 34th birthday. Ryan has one playoff series win in more years on the job than Epstein and will turn 60 next year. Yes, Epstein had more payroll at his disposal than Ryan, but he also competed in the toughest division in baseball. I know which one I'd take first in a GM expansion draft. Exactly...and it's not like the Cubs have been notorious penny pushers. The did cut payroll last year, but I doubt they continue to cut a bunch. I stand by my statement he's smarter than the people we have running our ship.
  18. ThePuck
    Theo Epstein is very likely smarter than anyone we have in our upper management...I have little doubt he'll turn that mess around He did sign Lackey and Crawford .... Yup, and he put together two W Series champions as well...in a town that hadn't had one in how many years? Crawford wasn't forseeable...anyone who says he saw that coming is a straight up liar. Now name all the good signings...and drafts...like Pedroia, for example. How many times did the Twins pass on Pedroia again? 6 times? The core of 2004 was signed before Theo got to Boston. Theo didn't draft Pedroia, he was drafted by the pervious regime. What? Epstein took over GM duties from Mike Port at the end of 2002. Pedroia was drafted in 2004.
  19. ThePuck
    'That was the whole point of adding a 2nd wildcard - to emphasize those marginal wins needed to win the division outright and avoid that first playoff round (and the chance of being eliminated in it).' I thought the 2nd wild card was added because TB is showing no signs of going away and they still wanted to try and make sure NY and Boston could both make it in. That's why the first wild card was added...IMO
  20. ThePuck
    Theo Epstein is very likely smarter than anyone we have in our upper management...I have little doubt he'll turn that mess around He did sign Lackey and Crawford .... Yup, and he put together two W Series champions as well...in a town that hadn't had one in how many years? Crawford wasn't forseeable...anyone who says he saw that coming is a straight up liar. Now name all the good signings...and drafts...like Pedroia, for example. How many times did the Twins pass on Pedroia again? 6 times?
  21. ThePuck
    Theo Epstein is very likely smarter than anyone we have in our upper management...I have little doubt he'll turn that mess around
  22. ThePuck
    Who cares...people make mistakes. He thought it was a done deal and he posted. He was wrong. Oh well. Has he ever been right? No idea, but I doubt there's a person on here who hasn't put info out there that ended up wrong...
  23. ThePuck
    Who cares...people make mistakes. He thought it was a done deal and he posted. He was wrong. Oh well. I, for one, am glad he was.
  24. ThePuck
    One could hardly blame you for doing so :-)
  25. ThePuck
    I'm not taking anything away from the Rays. They're one of the better franchises in baseball. But before anyone crowns them a permanent small market darling, they need to win for more than five years. The Twins posted a decade of winning baseball before bad drafting and picking in the bottom portion of the draft drained their farm system to virtually nothing. The Rays are at the five year mark. Will they continue to win or will they sputter as the Twins did after 2010? Any particular reason we should wait five years, or is that only because the Rays have been successful for the last four and that's not impressive enough? Also... the Twins posted 8 years (less than a decade) of winning baseball in a substantially easier division than the Rays are in. Also... bad drafting is the Twins' fault. Picking in the bottom portion of the first round doesn't excuse that. I agree with your post, but they've been successful for 5 years already...which is why he said more than 5 years. Another thing not mentioned...the payroll the Rays have had to work with compared to the payroll of the rest of the team's in their division. To just say they've drafted high for so many years is why they've been good for now...well, that's just too simple. Pitt has too, so has KC. The players still had to be developed properly, and the roster still had to be touched up through FA under a very small budget. Oh, and the players have to be managed properly at the big level too.
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