Loosey

In this instance a salary dump would not be a bad thing. The highest paid players on this team are also the oldest and honestly not the greatest, Nolasco, Hughes, Plouffe, Mauer, Suzuki, Santana. Cutting bait on them and receiving younger talent in return could be a blessing. Although Mauer being traded is a pipe dream and would require many things to happen such him waiving a no trade clause, he would get to pick which team to go to, that team would have to want/need him and they would have to send lots of money along with him.

Why now? Two weeks before the trade deadline? Something is off. Did Ryan not want to have to make the tough decisions on which popular veterans to trade? Was there a major disagreement somewhere?

Again with the "It is my understanding". The communication is terrible is this organization. There either is or this isn't. He should probably find out for sure.

Does it concern anyone else that the Twins want to have a permanent GM in place by the end of the season? Additionally Antony has no limitations on moves he can make. I see some issues with this process. 1) Most teams aren't going to let you grab one of their front-office guys mid-season (I assume). 2) If it isn't Rob Antony (I hope it isn't) what is stopping him from going rogue and trading away anything of worth to the team knowing he is most likely gone when the new GM is here? This could be interesting/scary.

Oy . . . After Reading Mackey's Twitter rant, I am depressed. They are going to hire a guy who likes RBI and Wins aren't they?

Agree. Hopefully once a GM candidate or two tell Pohlad they have no interest in the job if he is putting restrictions on choosing their own manager he will change his tune.

I think this was happening behind the scenes for a while. A few weeks back Pohlad did an interview and was less than pleased with Ryan. It's the first time he hasn't been anything but supportive in my memory. I wonder if he hasn't been talking to other baseball people, owners etc to figure out who might be available who to use as a search firm to get a new GM.

Also other people in leadership roles reporting to the new leader (usually under performing people) leave on there own because they fear the new leader will see what the previous leader did not. And that is a good thing for all parties.

First of all I disagree. The club has a lot of youth with potential to be excellent in the coming years. A new GM can use those pieces as he sees fit to make the team better and mold into his own vision. And with any amount of success the new GM will always have a job due to the ownership's loyalty. To fans that loyalty is a fault, to a person getting hired that is a huge plus in my opinion. Why do you think that no GM would want to come here? Also, I kind of want a guy with no experience who is an up and comer. Jeremy Nygaard tweeted out the Asst GM in St. Louis. That guy is interesting. . .

Also, I am happy with this. Terry Ryan seems like a good guy, but from a baseball standpoint this had to happen. He was way to risk averse. Hopefully now the Pohlads go out and get an outside GM, or even go out and get president of baseball ops to go out and get a new GM and overhaul the whole thing.

I'm in agreement. Now that Antony is interim I wonder if he will want to try to make a mark on this team in order to be considered the replacement. In order to do that, I could see him going complete fire sale mode, the problem could be other GM's around the league may see fresh meat and try to take advantage. . . .

That is the surprising part of the deal for me. #15 overall prospect to get him with limited history of success as you said. I thought a Jorge + a lower level prospect would be a worth it for Twins. Yes Jorge could be very good, but Pomeranz is what he is now, is a known MLB commodity and has control. My thoughts were also since he has 2 years remaining of control, he fills a gap nicely for the Twins until the next wave of pitchers are ready to be called up. Then if he continues to pitch as he has this year over the next two years, you have a very nice asset you can sign long-term or trade away at the deadline in 2018 and acquire more youth. That was my thought on why the Twins should have made a play for him. He kind of fits into the shorter term picture as well as the long-term if scenarios play out correctly.

A couple days ago I wrote a question asking if the Twins should make an attempt at Pomeranz by giving up one of their solid AA pitchers or Romero. Clearly that wouldn't have been enough. I think it was a good deal for the Sox. Younger pitcher with 2 additional years of control for a highly touted A ball pitcher. In my opinion these are the type of deals that make teams good and keep them good. I wish the Twins were forward thinking enough to do something like this even in a non playoff year.

I think the 2nd half is big for Gibson. I still view him as a solid #3 starter and a #2 type when he is on. His first half was injury plagued and inconsistent. I still view him as a long-term piece to the rotation.

I think the PA piece is just the guarantee of the option. If he is under the PAs it is just a regular club option.

God, I hope they aren't so delusionally crazy that they think they can get back into it.

I'm an optimist. The optimist in my sees the Twins recent success as a positive sign that the future could be closer than we all thought a month ago. The Lineup is firing on all cylinders, but the rotation is lacking. Most of the trade partners the Twins have been tied to will be looking for an established veteran player, while the Twins will most likely looking for a young prospect in return (E. Santana for Young Player X). But what if the Twins did things differently? Yes, I believe trading Santana, Nolasco, Plouffe, etc is still necessary, but what about adding younger talent to fill in the holes left by some of those guys immediately? One trade target I would have in mind is the Padre's Drew Pomeranz. He isn't uber young, but he is only 27 years old and isn't a Free Agent until 2019. I understand the Twins have pitching prospect galore in A+ and AA, but what they don't have is someone ready to start this year and next year at the Major League level outside of Berrios. If the Twins can move Santana, Release/DFA Milone again and possibly get someone, anyone to bite on Nolasco the innings eater it will create rotation openings. If the above three scenarios happen here is they have left as true Major League options: Berrios Gibson Duffey I don't want Pat Dean to fill out the any of those spots, I want real pitchers who can get out major league hitters. I would like to see Trevor May fill one of those spots: Now the rotations looks like this: Berrios Gibson Duffey May If the price is right, Pomeranz could be a nice addition to the staff. He won't be an Ace, but he won't be Tommy Milone or Kevin Correia either. I would think it would take one of the Twins AA pitching prospects + a lower level prospect (Pomeranz is still relatively unproven himself). The beauty of the trade is he is under control just the right amount of time. If he performs well he becomes another asset and could be moved in 2017 or more likely 2018 when the rest of the teams AA pitching prospects can prove they are ready to make the jump to the majors. Or they let him ride it out and let him go in 2019 if he is a good mid-rotation type guy. What are your thoughts on the Twins making this type of trade this year? And what do you think it would take to get a player like Pomeranz?

I don't get the hate on Nunez making the All-Star team. He is not one of the "worst" all-star picks for the Twins. Most Surprising All-Star picks, possibly. If you were to rank players you thought had the best chance of making it at the beginning of the season, Nunez probably would have been pretty far down the list, given that he wasn't even a starter until a few weeks into the season. I think he is deserving for his play this year. It isn't a lifetime achievement award. If you based the All-Star game on careers of players we would be having washed up stars always in and never see young stars or great rookies.

I think the "Real" Twins team is somewhere in between the team of the last 10 games and the team that started off 25-53. Right now the team sits at 32-56. A .500 record in their final 74 games gets them to 69-93 on the season. A very bad 90 loss season, but much more respectful than the 110+ losses they were on pace for at one point. I would take that especially if it is driven by the teams future pieces of Sano, Buxton, Kepler, Berrios and friends. The rest of the summer is looking better than it was just a few shorts weeks ago.

I thought Jepsen was the right type of guy for the Twins to get last year at the deadline. Deep down I knew the team would probably fizzle down the stretch, but making any move to get better was good. That being said, Jepsen was not great in TB, but was an upgrade over what the Twins had. What I didn't like at the time was what was give up to get him. Hu was not, and still is not an elite prospect. But he was one of a handful of A-AA pitchers the team had that were having really good success in the minors. And since TINSTAAPP, keeping as many of those as possible is good. So basically what I am saying is, I think Jepson could have been had for less.

Another Positive is Buxton, up until his contusion, was starting to turn a corner. The K rate was dropping, he was making solid contact more often and starting to drive the ball consistently. Positively dreaming of an outfield of Rosario/Grossman - Buxton - Kepler.

And that lends itself to an even bigger problem of communication. Has Ryan never directly asked the Pohlad's if he can try to get a big Free Agent, also has Pohlad never told Ryan to go out and spend whatever he thinks is necessary to make this team a contender? You would think there would be meetings throughout the year where the Front Office and Ownership meet and go over strategy, spending, possible upcoming free agents, possible trades, etc. They should be open and honest in that meeting. But clearly something is getting missed by one party or both.

As a matter of fact I have been learning in my job for year. For a comparison to baseball, my time at college was like playing in the minor leagues. It showed employers I was prospect who had the tools they were looking for. Once I got on the job I still needed training, still learned new things, got better as I went along and to this day am still improving and learning.

I'm usually one of the first people to agree when someone comes out and criticizes Jim Pohlad, and honestly his previous interviews have come off like he either doesn't care about the baseball piece of his business or he doesn't understand it or both. (or he has received help on how to do a media interview) The most recent interview with Sid Hartman actually has him sounding like he cares and/or understands that whatever is happening right now with the Twins needs to stop. (it surprisingly is a good Sid article) One of the things that caught my attention was he was now non-committal in saying that Terry Ryan would be back next season. He also has said that he has never turned down a Terry Ryan request to bring in a free agent. Stating that perhaps there has been a miscommunication with Terry causing him to think he can't request high priced free agents. Basically if you read the article it sort of discreetly has the writing on the wall in regards to Terry Ryan. I now wouldn't be surprised to see more interviews come out where Pohlad slowly sticks the knife further in to Terry Ryan affirming our hopes that this may be Terry Ryan's last year. http://www.startribune.com/sid-hartman/10644996/

Unfortunately.....