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mazeville

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Everything posted by mazeville

  1. mazeville
    Well, sometimes it's difficult to tell on comment sections when people are being facetious -- the number of ridiculous comments tends to be high. My perception of St. Peter is that he is doing a good job on the business side. I don't believe he is the one who hired Bill Smith or Terry Ryan. (And keep in mind that hiring TR for a second go-around wasn't entirely out of line, though at the time I preferred they hire someone else). The problem to me all falls back on Jim Pohlad, not Dave St. Peter. It is entirely possible I might be wrong. While we can judge the GM based on how the team fares agast other baseball teams, we don't have access to the financials that could help us judge St. Peter. And using the team's record on the field to judge St. Peter and what happens off the field is not fair.
  2. mazeville
    No problem. But seriously, if you look at other baseball departments, they have executives in charge of business operations. Like other organizations, some are flatter than others. But you're going to have executives in charge of these functions. The Chicago Cubs has a president of business operations, for instance. He is not as big a figure as Theo Epstein. But he is still important. You could hire someone who would be on the same level as Dave St. Peter and it would be fine. I'm guessing that the search firm will help influence what kind of structure the top candidates will demand. But either way, there is no reason to get rid of him. Baseball operations are very different from business operations.
  3. mazeville
    This is an utterly ridiculous and nonsense comment.
  4. mazeville
    Fine. Their promotions are interesting -- A Sano Globe is fabulous -- their marketing is strong; many of their advertisements are hilarious. They do a ton of community events. And they do a lot on game days to make it enjoyable. They also brought in a lot of local restaurants to sell food inside of Target Field. And please name one executive from a local, professional sports team who is on Twitter all the time, interacting with fans -- as Dave St. Peter is. The issue is the on-field product. Not the business. Frankly, given their record these past six years, attendance should be total garbage. It's definitely dropping like a brick, but it's not anywhere close to the worst in the majors. At the end of the day, what happens on the field is what draws people to the ballpark. And that ain't Dave's department.
  5. mazeville
    I think you're overthinking it. The Twins do a fine job from a marketing/business standpoint. They just haven't had anything to sell recently. You could bring someone in to be in charge of baseball operations and not mess with St. Peter.
  6. mazeville
    Probably. But that's the risk with ANY signing. And as I said, a lot of people thought that Park's power would translate to the majors.
  7. mazeville
    I fully disagree. He is only 22 years old (23?). You don't relegate someone that young - and athletic - to DH that fast, especially when you spent years grooming him to be a third baseman in the minors. The kid hasn't played third in a year. Give him a break. If you're going to fault anyone on that front, fault the Twins' player development staff for not getting him better prepared to play the position. He's demonstrated enough on some pretty spectacular plays to tell me that he CAN play third full time.
  8. mazeville
    I get that. But the Park acquisition wasn't the problem. The problem was the decision to keep Plouffe and insert Sano into the outfield. Sano was not going to be a DH. He's too young and has too much potential. The Twins looked at that and instead of trading the costly average third baseman when his value was at its peak, they instead took Sano away from the position he's been playing for years in the minors and put him in the outfield. THAT was the dumb move. Sure, they could have used the DH spot to rotate Sano, Mauer and Plouffe. But I'm not going to fault the Twins for going out and getting someone with 20-homer power.
  9. mazeville
    Of course it's about the money. Why would it not be? Looking at the column, it's about "the money" in the exact right way: Pohlad sees the decline in ticket sales. He hears comments from Dave St. Peter about the difficulty the team is having with season ticket renewals. And he decided that the fans wanted to see change at the top. If this was "about the money" in the sense that TR wanted to spend money and Pohlad did not, then that would be an issue. And I'm not saying that wasn't an issue -- though I doubt it, given that TR has long seemed uncomfortable with the idea of running a team with resources to sign free agents. The Twins as a business are losing customers in a highly competitive market. Any owner with common sense can see you need to make a change to bring customers back.
  10. mazeville
    I don't have a problem with the Park signing. I'd honestly prefer seeing the Twins get more aggressive with international players -- I'd rather they sink their money into those types of signings than spend their money on mediocre US free agents. While Park didn't do well in the majors, and the Twins had lots of corner infielders/DH types, lots of people thought he would do well, and if you get a good power hitter, you make it work. The problem still goes back to the team's decision not to trade Trevor Plouffe in the offseason and moving Sano to OF -- especially when the team already had a ton of outfield prospects who would need playing time. I think the Twins should have traded Plouffe regardless of whether they signed Park or not. Because they didn't trade Plouffe, though, the Park signing looks worse, the Arcia DFA looks worse and the Sano move to the OF was clearly a disaster. I'm not going to criticize this team for going out and getting an international free agent whom many believed would have 20-plus HR power in the major leagues and who was easily on his way toward that early in the season. I will criticize this team for insisting on keeping an average third baseman who makes $7 million a year and who is blocking your best hitting prospect from playing his natural position.
  11. mazeville
    I certainly wouldn't buy all that much into the "lovable" comment, which was likely a weird effort at a joke. I have no problem with Dave St. Peter playing a role in the search, nor with them using a search firm. Just because Dave isn't a "baseball person" doesn't mean he'll do a bad job hiring one. A search firm could also bring in a little more credibility in the process. So I'm OK with that. I would not be OK with Antony. This team just badly needs an outside voice.
  12. mazeville
    Per reports, he was planning to do this after the season and TR is the one who wanted it done now. Regardless, if you're going to make the move, make the move. Don't know that you do TR or the team or the fans any favors by piddling around and waiting until the year is done. He'll be fine.
  13. mazeville
    To be honest, I would be heartened if the disagreement is that Jim Pohlad thought the team should bring in someone new, and that TR disagreed, and that Pohlad booted him as a result. That said, I don't see how you keep TR after this season regardless, and failing to make a change at the top is really shortsighted. TR has made way too many bad decisions to be allowed to stick around. I know he's well loved and well respected and I really don't like seeing people get fired, but it's hard to imagine that reality not hitting Pohlad in the face.
  14. mazeville
    Have you seen any of this reported or is this just your speculation?
  15. mazeville
    I agree. But in the back of my mind, I also hope that Pohlad has been pushing for more aggressive moves and Ryan doesn't want to do that. The thing is, over the past few years, Ryan has clearly demonstrated an inability to spend on free agents and sign guys to long-term deals. And it seems like the push to spend on pitching has come from above. This team needs to get people excited about going to the games again. So maybe ownership is looking at the declining attendance and lack of season ticket renewals and is pushing the GM to speed things up. Maybe.
  16. mazeville
    Yesterday, Doogie Wolfson tweeted that "philosophical differences" did not lead to Terry Ryan's firing. But this morning, the StarTribune reported in a single line of its updated story that a disagreement over how to improve the club led to Ryan's dismissal. http://www.startribune.com/terry-ryan-relieved-of-duties-as-twins-gm/387293961/ Because we don't know the nature of the disagreement it's difficult to make assumptions or develop an opinion. But it's not surprising. There's no point in firing a GM midseason unless there's some catalyst. And a disagreement with the owner would be that catalyst.
  17. mazeville
    Anybody paying any attention to what media members are saying about Pohlad's comments should be highly discouraged. I like Paul Molitor and think he's fine. But you have to give the new GM the ability to hire the manager. In addition, the team will look at both internal and external candidates. This tells me they're going to give the job to Rob Antony. It's just more of the same.
  18. mazeville
    All of this ^ is absolutely true, though Buxton was earned because the Twins were so bad in 2011. But a lot of the team's top prospects were signed under Smith's watch, not Ryan's. And the problems since then are probably indicative of an organization-wide failure more than Smith on his own. But that's usually the case, I think, and it's all the more reason to bring in an outsider and change thinking there.
  19. mazeville
    Many of the managers hired in the minors are people who grew up with the Twins, so to speak. And simply creating an analyst department at a time when literally every team in the majors has one is hardly indicative of an organization that is not insular. All of the top jobs are the same but for Steil's. The same team has been at the top of this organization for many years. And even when Terry Ryan left the organization, he was a "special assistant" helping out. Yes, this organization is insular. Just because they've hired a few people does not make that untrue.
  20. mazeville
    I'll give you Ned Colletti. But Doug Melvin left on his own. Regardless, I don't like it.
  21. mazeville
    The Twins from the get-go told both Smith and Gardy they have roles in the organization if they want them. If someone can point me to the management book that says it's a good idea to take a major voice in your organization and keep him there even after you "fired" him I'd like to see it. Again, I get they have talents. Gardenhire was a good manager for a long time. Smith should not have been hired in the first place. But the fact is, they failed the team and as sad as it is, their departures were necessary. At that point, you have to get them out of the organization. You need to send messages to people throughout the organization that there are actual penalties for failure. You also don't want any mixed messages in the organization, either.
  22. mazeville
    Oh, and one side note: If the Twins do bring in fresh blood, the result will almost certainly be a major organizational shakeup as many people leave the team. That always happens whenever a company appoints new leadership or when a city elects a new mayor or when a new president is inaugurated. New leaders ALWAYS bring in their own people.
  23. mazeville
    Wolfson's tweet said the opposite. Said there was NO rift in philosophy about what to do at the August 1 trade deadline.
  24. mazeville
    If you're going to fire someone, fire someone. Don't short-arm the move by giving Smith or Gardy a "special assistant" position somewhere else in the organization. If they are as talented as you say they are, they'll find positions elsewhere. Someone please name another organization in major professional sports that gives recently fired managers and general managers the title of "special assistant" somewhere else in the organization because of their "talents." It's indicative of a bigger problem in the organization. At that point it becomes too country club-like. It also demonstrates a real fear of making the hard decisions these guys often have to make. So yes, hard as it may be -- and no, I don't like firing anybody and it always makes me sad when it happens -- those are the things that good organizational leaders have to do. And professional sports is way too competitive for wimpy decision makers.
  25. mazeville
    I'm not the biggest fan of current ownership. But I don't think they're stupid, either. They are in a market in which the Vikings are Super Bowl contenders opening up a brand new stadium, where the Timberwolves have some of the best young talent in the NBA and a proven winner as the head coach, and where the Wild hired a brand new coach. They're competing for sponsorship dollars from corporations and for ticket dollars from the sports loving public. They HAVE to make a move. But, as I said before, I will believe that this team will do the right thing with the subsequent hire when I see it.
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