The Twins

[blackdog1101]

I went to todays game, at my company's suite half way between 3rd and the foul post. Admittedly not the greatest location. But it seemed the Twins were just going through the motions, and it's too early in the season for that. No fire, poor infielding, although they did hit well. Is it too soon to think that perhaps Gardenhire needs to be replaced?

[Bryce]

Why stop at Gardy? If I were to win several lotteries so I could afford to buy the team, I would probably even replace the towel boys at the rookie league level. The entire org has bought into the "Twins Way" and we're clearly seeing the trainwreck that's proving to be. Need new ownership first.

[Triple_D]

Gardy should have been fired last year by the midway point...but we like mediocrity. Heck of a guy, just can't get wins...kind of his job though.

[LABS4ME]

Name me one manager that could make a winning squad out of last year's team or worse yet, this year's misfits and 'has beens'... It wouldn't matter who was the 'skip' of either team.

Not defending Gardenhire, just that management is expecting him to make chocolate frosting out of manure. Wins start with mangagement having a win at all cost mentality... the Pohlads have a 'make money' at all cost attitude. The entire fan base should strike and not give them a dime of their money until they commit to spending some of the additional money they are NOW making on Target field by picking up players who can compete in this league. Now the payroll is down under $94 million... 20 million less than last year. Many good ace pitchers were on the market prior to the season... but we keep trotting out pitchers who would be lucky to be the 4th or 5th starter in any other orginization. We need a leader in the club house also. A player whom is ready to step up and keep this team focused. Heck even high school teams seem to have one of these players. Should be the 'Golden Boy'the team committed to him, but he would rather keep his bat on his shoulder for every 1st pitch and begin the count at 0-1. I would rather have 5 other quality starting players than him... said that from day one. Never should have mortgaged the team for one player. Too much of a gamble. Who cares if he is / was from St. Paul. This team is destined for the dumpster for the next few years until we get some new prospects in the system and / or pick up some viable free agents by spending some of the Pohlads easy earned money. Blowing up the coaching staff may be part of that, but keeping these hunyucks together as a team would warrant keeping the same coaches around too.

Good Luck!

Ken

[mrklean]

Well they have said the attendance the last 3 games i believe has been the lowest at target field since it opened its only gonna go down unless they win

[LABS4ME]

as it should! Time to show them that the fan's will not support a sub par team or owners that refuse to invest in one.

Good Luck!

Ken

[Kyhl]

Do they count attendace as tickets sold or people through the gate. My guess is they overstate by counting tickets sold.

I let my tickets for yesterday's game expire unused. Went to see the 3 Stooges movie instead. I think I made the right choice.

[LABS4ME]

or the same choice! (Just different venue!)

Good Luck!

Ken

[Big Tom]

Terry Ryan, Billy Smith and anyone else who has had input on the Twin's drafts for the past 7 years needs to go now. If you continually strike out on drafting pitchers you get what we have now. Beyond the Yankees, Red Sox and Phillies, it's pretty hard and very expensive to fix this through free agency.

[B. Amish]

Terry Ryan, Billy Smith and anyone else who has had input on the Twin's drafts for the past 7 years needs to go now. If you continually strike out on drafting pitchers you get what we have now. Beyond the Yankees, Red Sox and Phillies, it's pretty hard and very expensive to fix this through free agency.

1. billy smith was fired.

2. the baseball draft is a crapshoot.

3. we won't see results of the last couple drafts for another year or two.

4. they've lost some talent to injuries. most notably kyle gibson.

5. they've been one of the better teams over the last decade, so they've had lower level draft picks.

6. in order to stock pile the minors, you have to suck for a while (royals and rays), and even then, some teams still can't figure it out (pirates).

[schmitty3]

What do you guys expect them to spend? They did the right thing this year. It was pretty evident they weren't going to make a run in the playoffs, so why go out and spend a bunch of money on a big name pitcher or hitter. Would Prince Fielder take this team deep in the playoffs? Absolutely not. Hate it or not they are doing the right thing. This isn't the Yankee's they can't just go out and buy good players when they get bad. What they did this yr will be better for them down the road.

[mrklean]

Were gonna have to suffer for 3-4 years and build up the Farm until we get back to "Twins" baseball

[LABS4ME]

Not spend like the Yankees on Mauer! I said they were nuts from the time they did it. A small market team cannot spend 20-25% of it's payroll on one player. especially a catcher! The math will NEVER work.

That Mauer deal is what really throws the train off the tracks. I know hindsight is 20-20, but the Mauer deal was not a good one for the Twins. He eats up a lot of 'talent' money. I'm even saying this if he ever returns to form and gives you 100 games at catcher and a .320 avg and 10HRs. Still not worth the money. So barring that, I think the twins owe it to the fams to spend like Mauer is a typical 4 - 5 million dollar player. Not include his 25 mil or whatever in a 95 mil salary pool. I highly doubt that their moves this year are based on where they'll be in 4-5 years.

My expectations? It would've been: Pick up a couple of good pitchers in free agency.... sign Cuddy and Kubel, that is what I would expect. This team would be light years ahead with those two on it, Ramos Wilson behind the plate and one or two really good pitchers and would still be under 115 million a year. They would at least most likely be a viable team.

No they don't need Fielder and down the road the Tigers may regret that decision... Same with Puhols. teams have to learn to let those big name players migrate to the teams dumb enough to spend that kind of dough for that long.

Ultimately they could've picked up an real ace... didn't Buehle go for 12 or 14 million? And Darvish was like 10 million? Those two don't even equal Mauers salary...

If this team keep on the same track, you won't be able to get players here let alone fans! It's hard to watch. Anyone who thinks they have made any improvements other than getting rid of Nishi is kidding themselves.

Good Luck!

Ken

[mrklean]

Mauer was lose lose no matter what way you look at it. If we dont sign him he goes to the yanks or who ever else and everyone whines we let him go the twins dont spend any money blah blah. We sign him put 20%+ payroll into him and we hurt the organization cause we have to much invested in him

[B. Amish]

signing free agents is a two way street. they also have to WANT to come here. who would want to come to a team that just lost 99 games?

[B. Amish]

Mauer was lose lose no matter what way you look at it. If we dont sign him he goes to the yanks or who ever else and everyone whines we let him go the twins dont spend any money blah blah. We sign him put 20%+ payroll into him and we hurt the organization cause we have to much invested in him

yep.

and let's not forget that the year they signed him, he did have one of THE BEST offensive years EVER.

[Big Tom]

1. billy smith was fired.

2. the baseball draft is a crapshoot.

3. we won't see results of the last couple drafts for another year or two.

4. they've lost some talent to injuries. most notably kyle gibson.

5. they've been one of the better teams over the last decade, so they've had lower level draft picks.

6. in order to stock pile the minors, you have to suck for a while (royals and rays), and even then, some teams still can't figure it out (pirates).

1. Billy Smith is still with the team, just not as GM. You're wrong if you don't think he has input. Ryan wanted him to stay on. That's two of the biggest culprits in the poor on-field talent. I'm no Gardy fan boy but we've needed pitching since losing Garza and Santana.

2. Only to a degree and I'm not talking about one year. Look at the last 7 and get back to me.

3. Again, I'm not talking about 1 or 2 years. Everyone gets lucky and everyone gets unlucky. Either we're just very unlucky or the performance in drafting has been poor. I'm going with the latter.

Here's the last 7 years of 1st rounders including compensatory and sandwich picks. One decent starter who was traded. One starting first baseman, only due to Morneau's concussion issue, a reserve outfielder, a failed starter turned set up man. That's it. Out of 18 picks. That's a pretty high failure rate.

2004 Trevor Plouffe Shortstop Crespi Carmelite High School

(Encino, California) 20 [57]

2004 Glen Perkins Left-handed pitcher University of Minnesota

(Minneapolis, Minnesota) 22 [57]

2004 Steven Waldrop Right-handed pitcher Farragut High School

(Knoxville, Tennessee) 25[j] [57]

2004 Matthew Fox Right-handed pitcher University of Central Florida

(Orlando, Florida) 35§[k] [57]

2004 Jay Rainville Right-handed pitcher Bishop Hendricken High School

(Warwick, Rhode Island) 39§[l] [57]

2005 Matt Garza Right-handed pitcher California State University, Fresno

(Fresno, California) 25 [58]

2005 Henry Sanchez First baseman Mission Bay High School

(San Diego, California) 39§[m] [58]

2006 Chris Parmelee Outfielder Chino Hills High School

(Chino Hills, California) 20 [59]

2007 Ben Revere Outfielder Lexington Catholic High School

(Lexington, Kentucky) 28 [60]

2008 Aaron Hicks Outfielder Wilson High School

(Long Beach, California) 14 [61]

2008 Carlos Gutiérrez Right-handed pitcher University of Miami

(Coral Gables, Florida) 27[n] [61]

2008 Shooter Hunt Right-handed pitcher Tulane University

(New Orleans, Louisiana) 31§[o] [61]

2009 Kyle Gibson Right-handed pitcher University of Missouri

(Columbia, Missouri) 22 [62]

2009 Matthew Bashore Left-handed pitcher Indiana University

(Bloomington, Indiana) 46§[p] [62]

2010 Alex Wimmers Right-handed pitcher Ohio State University

(Columbus, Ohio) 21 [63]

2011 Levi Michael Shortstop University of North Carolina

(Chapel Hill, North Carolina) 30 [64]

2011 Travis Harrison Third baseman Tustin High School

(Tustin, California) 50§[q] [64]

2011 Hudson Boyd Right-handed pitcher Bishop Verot High School

4. Gibson sure. Who else?

5. They have also had a ton of compensatory picks for free agents.

6. KC is always right around the corner and have had high draft picks for 20 years.

If you think the Twins have done even an average job in the draft, and specifically on pitching, you're not paying attention.

[LABS4ME]

I think the fans in Milwaukee and St. Louis whined about losing their studs... but guess what? Winning makes a fan's memory very short! They know those kinds of signing jepordizes the team and faced reality by letting them go... we would look waaaaay different last year and this year without paying 3-4 good players worth of pay to one player!

I think the team would have more components in place and FA players who would want to come here if'n you had a supporting cast! The Twins do not have those cast members and to be honest without spending in FA it will be more than 4 years before you are able to sign a free agent based on team roster. It takes longer to build a team in baseball than football through the draft. They then would need to show success... not just to be called up.

Good LucK!

Ken

[schmitty3]

The Mauer signing is over, nothing they can do about it now. It would make no sense to compound more bad signings on top of others.

[Brian-Mn]

1. billy smith was fired.

2. the baseball draft is a crapshoot.

3. we won't see results of the last couple drafts for another year or two.

4. they've lost some talent to injuries. most notably kyle gibson.

5. they've been one of the better teams over the last decade, so they've had lower level draft picks.

6. in order to stock pile the minors, you have to suck for a while (royals and rays), and even then, some teams still can't figure it out (pirates).

[Musky Buck]

It's the norm for Minnesota, do we not go up and down and up and sometimes down for a long time in all 4 major sports ? Sorta ? It's unfortunate we pay out 272 million to a couple guys that don't even play the position they played when the deals were done, 2 years ago I said I'd take Votto and Bruce from the reds for the M and M boys and I was the biggest silly-me/bozo on here. I'd still make that deal. These guys look like marathon runners by season end, have 0 strength, I drafted Morneau for years in fantasy and after the all-star break he tanks with exception to 1 year. They need to take the un-detectable stuff the latins and dominicans take. At least the last half of April we're playing nobodies lol.

[B. Amish]

1. Billy Smith is still with the team, just not as GM. You're wrong if you don't think he has input. Ryan wanted him to stay on. That's two of the biggest culprits in the poor on-field talent. I'm no Gardy fan boy but we've needed pitching since losing Garza and Santana.

2. Only to a degree and I'm not talking about one year. Look at the last 7 and get back to me.

3. Again, I'm not talking about 1 or 2 years. Everyone gets lucky and everyone gets unlucky. Either we're just very unlucky or the performance in drafting has been poor. I'm going with the latter.

Here's the last 7 years of 1st rounders including compensatory and sandwich picks. One decent starter who was traded. One starting first baseman, only due to Morneau's concussion issue, a reserve outfielder, a failed starter turned set up man. That's it. Out of 18 picks. That's a pretty high failure rate.

2004 Trevor Plouffe Shortstop Crespi Carmelite High School

(Encino, California) 20 [57]

2004 Glen Perkins Left-handed pitcher University of Minnesota

(Minneapolis, Minnesota) 22 [57]

2004 Steven Waldrop Right-handed pitcher Farragut High School

(Knoxville, Tennessee) 25[j] [57]

2004 Matthew Fox Right-handed pitcher University of Central Florida

(Orlando, Florida) 35§[k] [57]

2004 Jay Rainville Right-handed pitcher Bishop Hendricken High School

(Warwick, Rhode Island) 39§[l] [57]

2005 Matt Garza Right-handed pitcher California State University, Fresno

(Fresno, California) 25 [58]

2005 Henry Sanchez First baseman Mission Bay High School

(San Diego, California) 39§[m] [58]

2006 Chris Parmelee Outfielder Chino Hills High School

(Chino Hills, California) 20 [59]

2007 Ben Revere Outfielder Lexington Catholic High School

(Lexington, Kentucky) 28 [60]

2008 Aaron Hicks Outfielder Wilson High School

(Long Beach, California) 14 [61]

2008 Carlos Gutiérrez Right-handed pitcher University of Miami

(Coral Gables, Florida) 27[n] [61]

2008 Shooter Hunt Right-handed pitcher Tulane University

(New Orleans, Louisiana) 31§[o] [61]

2009 Kyle Gibson Right-handed pitcher University of Missouri

(Columbia, Missouri) 22 [62]

2009 Matthew Bashore Left-handed pitcher Indiana University

(Bloomington, Indiana) 46§[p] [62]

2010 Alex Wimmers Right-handed pitcher Ohio State University

(Columbus, Ohio) 21 [63]

2011 Levi Michael Shortstop University of North Carolina

(Chapel Hill, North Carolina) 30 [64]

2011 Travis Harrison Third baseman Tustin High School

(Tustin, California) 50§[q] [64]

2011 Hudson Boyd Right-handed pitcher Bishop Verot High School

4. Gibson sure. Who else?

5. They have also had a ton of compensatory picks for free agents.

6. KC is always right around the corner and have had high draft picks for 20 years.

If you think the Twins have done even an average job in the draft, and specifically on pitching, you're not paying attention.

bill smith is not making recommendations on who to draft. not even close. he's involved in the spring training facility and their facilities in latin america.

and foreign players aren't part of the draft.

there are only a handful of guys from the entire 2008 draft in the majors right now. and hicks and gutierrez are pretty good prospects. not sure what you expect from the twisn 2009, 2010, and 2011 drafts? when almost nobody from those drafts are in the majors yet.

besides gibson, rainville retired from baseball because of injuries and bashore has also been slowed by injuries. waldrop was going to make the team this year before being injured in spring training.

of course they've missed on some of their picks, EVERYONE DOES. it's the biggest crapshoot of the four major sports drafts.

and of course they can do better in the draft. it starts this year where they have the #2 overall pick and like 7 of the first 80 picks (or something like that).

[Musky Buck]

LOL I wrote the last half of April we're playing nobodies we are the nobodies lol.