cr9617

If it were only that easy to sign quailty SP's. Grienke will get a minimum of 10 mill per season, probably more like 12-13 per..or higher. I'm not sure what Sanchez will command, but it will certainly be more than 3 mil per season. I don't see the Twins making any sort of splash in the free agent market. If they do, It will be of the low-end, washed veteran type...like Marquis, Pavano.

A Top 15 prospect in the Red sox system might not even make an impact at the Major League level.

I can't see the Sox or any other team giving much in return for Mauer.

Your schtick is tired. You repeat the same point over and over and over again. We get it. You don't like the front office. Stop repeating the same "argument" (for lack of a better term) to the point of nausea. You're bringing absolutely nothing to the forum with these posts. We're instituting new rules on chronic negativity and you will put yourself at risk of a temporary ban if you keep it up. Get over yourself Brock. The team stinks as a result of an organization that can seem to tie their own shoe laces. What is there to be positive about?

Why would any team trade for this? Among all MLB pitchers to start more than 60 games since 2010 he ranks dead last in: - ERA (5.56) - Opponents' batting average (.313) - Opponents' on-base percentage (.359) - Opponents' slugging percentage (.507) - Homers per nine innings (1.5) - Baserunners per nine innings (14.1) - Strikeouts per nine innings (4.1) - Strikeout-to-walk ratio (1.55)

This one gets my vote for dumbest thread of the season.

At the beginning of the year, this team shouldn't have approached the futility we are seeing, but lets look at this: Position players in total are outperforming hopes and expectations: healthy Mauer, healthy Morneau, healthy Span (concussion wise), Willingham, Doumit, Plouffe, even Butera. Hard to argue against these decisions. Bullpen is, at the worst, doing what was expected. Not the league worst, fairly effective, even very good at times. Starting staff decimated by injuries and playing below expectations. Look at the opening day starting five: Pavano - if he only pitched at the same level he pitched last year, missed a lot of time due to injury (how long did he pitch hurt?). Baker - Out for season, injury. Liriano - 1st half was disaster, pitched better over last 8 starts with the team (couldn't even match last year's terrible numbers) Blackburn - Unmitigated disaster, should have been more effective (again, couldn't match last year's numbers) Marquis - Unmitigated disaster, should have been more effective (how much did missing Spring Training mess with him? Look at him now) If these five had pitched to the levels they were supposed to how many more wins would the Twins have? Ten is probably a conservative number. Add ten wins and subtract ten losses, what do you have? A .500 team. I guarantee you nobody around here would be complaining about .500 after last year. The Twins banked on these guys maintaining and being healthy. Virtually everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. Why is everybody ignoring the fact that this team has been about .500 since May? The sample size is large enough that you don't write it off. This is currently an average team that needs to improve it's starting pitching. But yet you say fire everybody and start over... How many IFS does it take to get to .500? I don't know how you can spin something positive out of the worst record in the AL, and the 2nd highest ERA in the Majors.

Yes, the front office made several blunders... And most of them weren't on JR's watch. Ramos/Capps, the Johan trade (admittedly, Smith was put into a difficult position there), Hardy/Hoey, Nishioka, etc... Smith did a great job with international signings, a pretty good job with the draft, and a completely abominable job with the Major League roster. The only move he made that was considered a good one by analysts was the Hardy for Gomez trade, which he later reversed with the ridiculous Hardy for Hoey trade. You don't think the Twins have a solid core of young-ish players? What do you think Scott Diamond, Joe Mauer, Denard Span, Ben Revere, and Glen Perkins are? They certainly need more pitching but their hitting core is pretty good. Willingham is the only guy who is old enough to show a significant decline at this point. You go Brock! I love the fact that the Twins are in rebuilding mode right now and everybody is calling for TR head. Lest people forget that rebuilding is one of his strengths? If the pitching injuries did not happen this year this team would have been much more competitive (shhh... nobody wants to talk about that). People are all over how good the Twins are when they do great and throw everybody under the bus when the are not. Its just too bad the same dozen negative posters keep repeating the "fire Terry, fire Gardy" mantra. It is old and stale. I sincerely hope that when this team is .500 next year and competing for the division within the next 2 that these same folks will admit their inadequacies and retire from posting. What's positive about a team approaching 100 losses 2 years in a row? And are they really in rebuild mode? Seems to me they are throwing all sorts of crap at the wall and hoping something will stick. How is this team going to approach .500 next year with Scott Diamond and four nobody's making up their rotation? If you think the Twins are going to outbid other teams for a top end starter or two, you have not been paying attention. This team would be 5 wins better with a healthy Baker, I'll give you that. Pavano's has nothing left, even if he was healthy. You don't like the FO, we get it, anything objective to say? It's already been said.

Yes, the front office made several blunders... And most of them weren't on JR's watch. Ramos/Capps, the Johan trade (admittedly, Smith was put into a difficult position there), Hardy/Hoey, Nishioka, etc... Smith did a great job with international signings, a pretty good job with the draft, and a completely abominable job with the Major League roster. The only move he made that was considered a good one by analysts was the Hardy for Gomez trade, which he later reversed with the ridiculous Hardy for Hoey trade. You don't think the Twins have a solid core of young-ish players? What do you think Scott Diamond, Joe Mauer, Denard Span, Ben Revere, and Glen Perkins are? They certainly need more pitching but their hitting core is pretty good. Willingham is the only guy who is old enough to show a significant decline at this point. You go Brock! I love the fact that the Twins are in rebuilding mode right now and everybody is calling for TR head. Lest people forget that rebuilding is one of his strengths? If the pitching injuries did not happen this year this team would have been much more competitive (shhh... nobody wants to talk about that). People are all over how good the Twins are when they do great and throw everybody under the bus when the are not. Its just too bad the same dozen negative posters keep repeating the "fire Terry, fire Gardy" mantra. It is old and stale. I sincerely hope that when this team is .500 next year and competing for the division within the next 2 that these same folks will admit their inadequacies and retire from posting. What's positive about a team approaching 100 losses 2 years in a row? And are they really in rebuild mode? Seems to me they are throwing all sorts of crap at the wall and hoping something will stick. How is this team going to approach .500 next year with Scott Diamond and four nobody's making up their rotation? If you think the Twins are going to outbid other teams for a top end starter or two, you have not been paying attention. This team would be 5 wins better with a healthy Baker, I'll give you that. Pavano's has nothing left, even if he was healthy.

Yes, the front office made several blunders... And most of them weren't on JR's watch. Ramos/Capps, the Johan trade (admittedly, Smith was put into a difficult position there), Hardy/Hoey, Nishioka, etc... Smith did a great job with international signings, a pretty good job with the draft, and a completely abominable job with the Major League roster. The only move he made that was considered a good one by analysts was the Hardy for Gomez trade, which he later reversed with the ridiculous Hardy for Hoey trade. You don't think the Twins have a solid core of young-ish players? What do you think Scott Diamond, Joe Mauer, Denard Span, Ben Revere, and Glen Perkins are? They certainly need more pitching but their hitting core is pretty good. Willingham is the only guy who is old enough to show a significant decline at this point. That core, other than Mauer, is about as average as average can be.

I am so bloody sick and tired of reading this line or something like it on the forums. The Minnesota Twins were the most consistently successful small market team of the 2000s. They made the playoffs more often than not and while they struggled in the postseason, overall they posted one of the better records in all of baseball for the decade. So why shouldn't we have a little faith in the front office? Because the team had two awful seasons? Because of that, we should ignore the entire decade the preceded it? Jesus... People around here need to step off the ledge and take in a little perspective. Yes, the Twins are bad right now but their farm system is on the rebound and help is on the way. They have a solid core of young-ish players. They have money to spend. Stop cherry-picking the past two years of horrible baseball and ignoring the ten years that came before it. oh please. You can bury your head in the sand if you wish, but a lot us of here aren't buying it. The FO has made one blunder after another in recent years, both large and small. When times were good they were pretty quick to pat themselves on the back and remind everyone how cute and special they are. They were never all that special. Winning the Central is great, but it's not all THAT great. It's consistently the weakest division in baseball. Every other team that won the Central when the Twins did not, all had more success than did the Twins in the postseason. All those Central division banners ring somewhat hollow when you can't win a game, much less a series in the postseason. Solid core of young-ish players? Who??

67-95

I almost choked on my coffee this morning while reading this article. This list puts a gleam in Antony's eye??? There is just no reason to have faith in this FO or any of the key decision makers. This team won't finish a season above .500 for another 4 or 5 years.

Do you really think Blackburn stinks because he's lazy or doesn't care? That's just plain silly. He's stinks...because he stinks. I would bet Blackie is fully aware of how god awful he is. No matter how hard he tries, how hard he works, or how much he wants it, he's still a guy with below average stuff that never should have been given a 4 year deal. He will be out of baseball by 2014, and desire or hard work has nothing to do with it.

Discussing the the stupidity of the Twins mindset as it relates to Blackey never gets old.