Jim Crikket

Guess it was this: If referring to focusing energy on improving the product on the field isn't referring to Terry Ryan, I guess I don't know who it is referring to. And I'm not saying anything about these decisions were coincidental. They had causes, but as Pig indicated, we don't know what they were. I obviously do feel that addressing whatever those causes were should have absolutely no effect on the "energy" put forth to improve the product on the field.

wouldnt that apply for a pitching coach and manager as well? Well, I've never heard of any third party that provides managers and pitching coaches to teams wishing to outsource those responsibilities, but it might be an interesting business to get in to... you hire all of the guys who just seem to get recycled from one team to another and sell their services out to teams that can just send them back to you in exchange for someone else when they aren't working out. Interesting idea. But on the off chance that you're actually asking if the "test of abilities comes when times get tougher" also applies to managers and pitching coaches, the answer is "absolutely." But again, evaluating performance of managers/pitching coaches and Marketing staff have nothing whatsoever to do with one another and it's highly unlikely that the same person(s) is/are even doing the evaluating.

And my point is that improving one doesn't necessarily preclude you from also improving the other. Terry Ryan's focus is on improving the product on the field. Another part of the organization is responsible for marketing. If the product on the field does improve, that will help sell tickets. While that makes marketing easier, it isn't the only factor that sells tickets. My own take, based on the limited exposure I had to the Twins marketing efforts, is that they produced some clever TV and radio spots, but I'm not sure they alone would cause many people to consider going to games (and I thought some of them were downright amateurish). I have no idea how well the marketing folks worked with local businesses to generate additional revenues or performed any other aspect of their jobs. Apparently, someone thought it could be done better. For the Twins to be successful financially, they need both the "product development" and "marketing" sides of the house to do their jobs well.

These would seem to fall under the direction of someone other than Terry Ryan, so I question what they would have to do with improving performance on the field. One would hope that Dave St. Peter and the other brass are smart enough to know that when the product on the field sucks for a couple of years, it's probably not the Marketing team's fault if ticket demand falls dramatically. At the same time, it could be argued that almost anyone can run a successful marketing organization when times are good. The test of abilities comes when times get tougher. There are independent marketing firms that specialize in dealing with "tough times" and I wouldn't be surprised if the Twins "outsource" more (if not all) of their marketing function going forward.

I think the point is that, whatever the Twins think they've seen in Slama that makes them skeptical of his ability to be a Major League pitcher, it would appear other organizations have seen the same thing. I've never been to a minor league game where there weren't at least half a dozen (and sometimes as many as 20) scouts on hand to evaluate the players on both rosters and it would just appear that there haven't been too many of them rushing to call their GM to encourage them to try to get Slama from the Twins. That being said, I do think he deserves a legitimate shot somewhere and I hope he gets it with some organization this spring.

If you're in the eastern Iowa area tonight, consider joining the Cedar Rapids Kernels, who are hosting a party tonight at Veteran's Memorial Stadium for fans to watch Game 2 of the World Series. Twins Minor League Pitcher of the Year, BJ Hermsen, will be signing autographs at the event. Admission is free and will be held in one of the "Grand Slam" suites, so fans can watch the game inside on a suite television, or outside on the stadium's video board. The inside option may be a good thing, since temperatures may be in the upper 30s by game time. Click here for more information.

Not that I really want to extend this discussion, but I'd just add that whenever I see a couple of quotes on the same topic that aren't 100% in sync, I also consider the possibility that one (or both) reporters only used a portion of the statements the subject actually made during the interview. It happens all the time and it does occasionally result in loss of context and apparent inconsistencies. Not saying the reporters cause the problem intentionally, because they're occasionally limited somewhat in how many words their editors allow them for a given story (less of an issue today, perhaps, than it might have been a few years ago when the particular trade in question went down). They pick the 1-2 sentences in a quote that they feel works best for a given story. Different reporters can listen to the same comments and end up using completely different snippets for their respective stories. Just something to consider. [EDIT] Thought I would add examples of what I'm talking about: After Game 1 of the WS Wed night, Jim Leyland talked to reporters about Valverde: "He wasn't terrible, he just wasn't good." If one reporter just uses the quote, "He wasn't terrible," and another just uses, "he just wasn't good," you get two very different impressions of what Leyland thinks about his former closer's performance. I think I heard another quote late last night (but don't hold me to it) from someone who said something like,"you can't take anything away from the Giants, they were very good tonight. At the same time, obviously Verlander was a bit rusty after the long layoff." Same thing there, if a reporter only uses part of that quote, it sounds like the Tigers are just tipping their caps to the Giants. If just the last line is used, it sounds like they're making excuses and not crediting the Giants at all.

I don't use a widescreen monitor at the office and being a fan of advanced age, my eyesight isn't what it used to be (hmm... maybe I should call someone about getting me a bigger monitor?), so at work I have to do a bit of horizontal scrolling which is a bit of a pain in the ass. But last night at home I had no issues. I guess my answer is simply that vertical would have worked better for me, personally, but I understand I'm probably in the minority at this point and it wasn't a huge deal to me anyway. I do have one suggestion for next year related to content, however. It occurred to me as I was reading through the capsules on potential free agents that I'd like to know one additional piece of information about each of them: Who is their agent? Particularly in light of Terry Ryan's comments during John's interview about how teams develop relationships with agents and, "most agents have a track record with the clubs." I guess that means that in addition to knowing which FAs have which agents, we'd want to know who the current Twins are represented by to get an idea of what kind of "track record" the Twins and particular agencies have together. Just a thought.

There's bound to be competition for pretty much anyone of value, which means you may have to roll the dice and go a little high for someone. I'd like to have Marcum, but I'm not sure he'd be the guy I would overspend for.

I would also point out that whatever the "second" focus is could change, depending on how Ryan addresses the rotation problem. For example, if he determines the way to bring on rotation help is to trade away Willingham, then I might argue that his next greatest need might be to find a RH hitter with power to replace Willingham in the heart of the order. When you fill one need, you need to be careful about worsening other situations.

I wouldn't expect him to be, yet anyway. Ryan wants as much roster flexibility as he can get for the next month, leading up to the end of November when he has to decide who gets protected and who doesn't. There's some question of whether Slama would be lost to another organization if he's not added. Of course, given the luke warm feelings of the FO toward him, you have to wonder if they'd really care if they did lose him.

I don't think Slama's on the 40-man roster, is he? If not, there's no point in adding him at least until the end of November.

Even better. I've always felt Ryan was an intelligent baseball man with strong convictions. Too strong at times? Maybe. But he came across in the interview as someone who knows full well how deep the hole is he's got to dig the Twins out of and has some ideas of how he will go about doing it.

yes... that would be 40 man (not 49 man) roster cuts. REALLY wish there was a way to edit the headings! (Or I could just be more careful about my typing, but we know that won't happen.)

Twins outright Manship, Perdomo, Vasquez, Waldrop, Walters and Carson. Capps option not picked up. Carlos Gutierrez claimed off waivers by Cubs. Looks like TR waited until he saw Seth's write-up in the Off Season Handbook on 40-man roster decisions before making their cuts!

I found it interesting, but not shocking. I also can't say I really disagree with him totally. I'm not sure if the bullpen was all that strong or whether it just looked like it because we compared it to the rotation. Relief pitchers are notoriously inconsistent from one year to the next and when you consider the kind of patchwork bullpen the Twins cobbled together last season, I'm not at all confident that we should assume it would remain strong if left largely as-is. Are we REALLY comfortable with Anthony Swarzak, Tyler Robertson and Alex Burnett going in to 2013? Even the guys that performed better than expected (Casey Fien and Jared Burton) don't exactly have histories that shout "reliability." Heck, is it tough to imagine even Glen Perkins having a bit less success? Given that any rotation help they get is unlikely to include anyone who throws a lot of complete games, making the bullpen more reliable makes a lot of sense to me. The sense I got from Ryan in your interview with regard to the middle infield is that he feels the Twins have internal options that are probably just about as good as what's available via free agency. In middle infielders, you can't have bad defenders who also can't hit and for much of the season the Twins were using guys like that. You can get by with light hitting MIs who make a lot of plays defensively if the rest of your lineup knows what to do with a baseball bat. He thinks the Twins have people who can play defense up the middle anyway. It doesn't mean you don't also look to upgrade, but I don't necessarily disagree that pitching, both in the rotation and bullpen, is more critical.

Fair enough. I just tend to give people a bit of slack when they are also playing the PR game after a publicly denounced transaction. I just don't think there's really any reason to mistrust TR more than any other GM or Manager; I think some of the job involves PR-speak; in fact, TR has struck me as one of the more straight forward guys in the industry. I totally agree. I certainly don't agree with every decision he makes or even the way he goes about making those decisions in every case, but I've always considered him pretty much a straight shooter. He won't answer every question and he'd be an idiot if he didn't occasionally give indications of one thing publicly (where competitors will hear/read what he says) while doing something a little different behind the scenes. If some fans think he should always be 100% open with us about his business dealings, that's their problem. Business does not work that way. TG: I'd be thrilled for Redmond if he actually got a MLB manager's job already, even if it was working for the screwball owner in Miami.

I sensed the same feistiness. Loved it! Made me wish it had been a video interview. I got the feeling he was treating John as both someone who was challenging him, but also someone who was asking legitimate questions.

I see nothing wrong with making Baker a high priority because I don't think that necessarily means you spend stupidly on him to the point where you can't afford other pitchers. That said, I also can't go along with the philosophy of "getting by" with the DeVrieses and Dedunos of the world for two months until Baker and Gibson are ready to contribute. We all found out just how quickly the season can tank if you operate as though games in April and May don't count the same as those played later in the season. If it's true that Gardenhire's job is on the line based on how the Twins come out of the gate in 2013, I don't think Terry Ryan can tell him he has to start the season with a couple of AAA guys in his rotation and to be patient until Baker and Gibson are available.

If Marcum is one of 2-3 solid additions to the rotation, I'd be OK with that. If he's THE new top man of the Twins 2013 rotation, not so OK with it.

I downloaded the Handbook this morning at the office and while I've had to get a bit of work done, I've glanced through it and it looks great. I've also read the entire interview with Terry Ryan and I thought John did a very good job with the interview. Some of what Ryan said made me laugh and some of it made me cringe, but he came across being pretty forthright (or as much so as you can expect, given that he'd be an idiot to spill too much detailed information about his offseason strategy). There's certainly plenty of material in the interview and the rest of the Handbook to give a blogger plenty of subjects to write about in coming weeks. Good work.

Darn. And just a day too late to be considered for the Twins bench coach position! Never would have happened in a million years with the Twins, but I have to admit that it would have been entertaining as hell to see Ozzie as Gardy's bench coach for a season... or whatever part of a season it would last before one or both was fired.

I don't care what you call it, thin or deep, there aren't a ton of names on the list of FA starting pitchers that I'd get all excited about. So while there may be a deep market in terms of quantity of pitchers likely to get pretty good paydays, I'd sure like to see more legitimate top of the rotation arms on the list. I think the Twins rotation has been so bad that mediocrity looks really good by comparison. A discussion of any one of the pitchers on the list will come with a "yeah, but..." at the end. I'm glad Ryan and his staff recognize the obvious... that their rotation is an abomination that must be fixed from outside the organization. Most of us recognized that fact at least a year ago and maybe if Ryan hadn't come so late to the party, he would have added real rotation help a year ago and the hole he now has to dig out of wouldn't be so deep.

If the Twins are about a .500 team, then Gardy's job will depend on WHY they were a .500 team. If, despite roster improvements, there continue to be critical injuries and .500 is seen as a pretty good result, he may get the opportunity to stay. But if Ryan feels he's assembled a competitive roster and there are few injury issues, he may not see .500 as being satisfactory. The last two years, Ryan's been able to rationalize that Gardy's had to pretty much deal with a roster that Bill Smith was largely responsible for and there have been some pretty critical injuries on top of that. But in 2013, this roster will be pretty much 100% Terry Ryan's doing. If the GM thinks he's done a good job of assembling talent and the team doesn't compete, the manager is going to be viewed as responsible. That's just the way things go.

I think some may be instinctively being a bit harsh in their evaluation of these changes.Bobby Cuellar has had a couple of tours of duty in the Twins minor league system, but he's also spent a lot of time in other organizations, including duty at the Major League level with the Expos, Rangers and Pirates. People think Brunansky is an "insider" because they remember him playing for the Twins, but from the time he was traded in 1988 until he was hired to coach hitters for the GCL rookie level Twins midway through 2010, he was not part of the organization and from all appearances, he's been a great addition. Steinbach played for (and won a WS ring under) Tony LaRussa with the Athletics long before he even put on a Twins uniform. I think just labeling these three coaches as "more of the same" is being a bit short-sighted and unfair to them. Glynn was brought in specifically to address the problem of AAA players not being fundamentally sound when they got called up, but he's not the only guy with experience outside the Twins organization.