Hawkeye Bean Counter

No they don't do everything wrong. I have stated I think he has done 1 thing right and that is to try to rebuild relations with the players. That was smart. There also may be some calculus in the trades to be able to resign more players. There is a value to that. The execution of the plan for this year was not good. Losing Falvey right before the season with no option to hire someone else with the necessary skills was not good. Having a subpar team and continuing to buy mediocre players was not smart then buying at the deadline was extremely short sighted. He came in guns ablazing which is why Falvey left. In July Tom is on record stating he was pretty naive coming in and said he had very little understanding of the operations. He stated the Twins would be buyers at the deadline and the Twins followed through with that. https://www.aarongleeman.com/my-breakfast-with-tom-pohlad-we-have-to-****ing-win/

I personally think Tom is not only setting the direction but rubber stamping or approving every single trade. Yes Zoll does the legwork, but Tom is signing off on everything. Zoll may give his opinions but right now this ship is being run by Tom. Now daily minor decisions such as Jackson is likely between Shelton and Zoll. But any trade or signing of a player is ultimately being approved by Tom. This is likely something we won't agree on, but Tom has stated he is a micromanager and wants to be actively involved. Tom won't get rid of Zoll because he is doing Toms bidding. If he was going to be let go it would have happened this weekend with Maki and the other individuals let go.

Show me any move that we can say Zoll has made on his own accord?

Glad to have you on the forum Tom.

I may be paraphrasing, you said Zoll didn’t have the experience or knowledge and being based on the performance of players and picks he was a part of he should be fired. Everything that happened this season was based off Toms view. Tom wanted to compete so we didn’t trade players at the end of their contracts. We bought significantly at the deadline even with a 30% chance because Tom said he would go big or go home. My personal opinion is Falvey was extremely independent and wasn’t going to be Tom’s lapdog or scapegoat on his crazy expectations of being winners this year. Likely a good choice as Maki was the scapegoat. I think Zoll is a yes man and a butt kisser which Tom likes and will follow Tom’s orders to a T even if they don’t make logical sense. As I said at 5he beginning of the season you have an echo chamber at the top with extremely inexperienced individuals in Tom and Zoll for their respective positions.

After a late surge they are currently slotted #11. 1.6% of #1 pick 15.7% of Top 6 pick

You have even said he was the one making decisions and that Zoll was a placeholder. Zoll doesn’t make this move on his own. Now I am curious if Shelton had an opinion or not.

Its clear they don't plan him to be the backup for next year. I really don't know what the drop at the end of the season was for. I think now he becomes a minor league free agent. It was bizarre how the Twins treated him throughout the season.

So what happened, didn't hit him and called a strike on challenge?

I think it’s in regards of the torturous battle. Whether cancer or mental diagnosis the last few months based on her statements weren’t easy, prayers for the family. Rest easy brother.

My worry is we just traded away our best power option in Amick.

The only one hoping this was Tom.

I've always felt this core especially positional players was 2 years away. Why we think this is new information is bizarre. The Larnach, Lewis, Wallner were clearly not going to cut it.

He gets a gold star for creating a functional bullpen out of glue and duct tape. We traded our top 5 relievers. We preceeded to spend a whopping $2 million on Rogers and 500k of international money on Banda. Later we traded, Agbayani and Amick for Minter - Amick has considerable strike out concerns but continues to rake even at AAA, that one might hurt a little. Hoffman for Dasan Hill. This was a significant trade. Hoffman is starting to find his control since coming over and has elite potential. Otherwise cash or minor prospects for Gomez, Nance, Acton and Orze. Even still for zero money invested and a young volatile arm and a bat that’s best outcome is Joey Gallo light. In return for the bullpen we traded we have - Bradley, Abel, Tait, Rojas, Roden and Horn. Now we really need to spend a little more on the bullpen and continuing to develop younger arms. Morris is struggling to end the season either wearing out or tipping pitches. Adding 1 more elite arm to Hoffman and Gomez would leave us in a really good situation for next year.