Twins Off Season Commentary

[Hauvster]

You are what follows me whereever I go, and you need to curb your nasty name calling. Its ok to not agree but not to attack others for no reason. I'm trying to be nice about it. Are you understanding that? If you really hate reading what I post, just ignore me like the rest.

 

[powerchord86]

Be sure to eat yer taters! LOL

 

[Hauvster]

Taters are good. Kept the Irish alive for centuries.

 

[Hauvster]

Was reading where Kubel likes playing in Minnesota. Hope he is sincere about that. If I had my choice of who to keep, I think I might stick with Jason. He has more power potential than Mikey, and we will be lacking in power next year for sure. The real crisis is how to move Morneau without getting stuck with that big dollar hit to the salary cap....if that is even possible.

But if we could, 1st could default to Mauer, or give Hughes or Parmelea? a shot at it. God we have so much to do in regards to fixing this team. As I said before, I would pay for better pitching and go young in the field. :sad:

 

[powerchord86]

Hear the Phils just signed Thome and now they want Cuddy too. Twins better hope they can hang on to Cuddy as he is easily their MVP right now.

 

[powerchord86]

Bill Smith out. Terry Ryan back in. Guess it was time for a change!

 

[Hauvster]

That is totally the right move. Maybe the Twins will begin doing the right things, albeit the hard things. Some much lost at the hands of Billy Smith. He hurt this club badly with the decisions he made moving players. We got nothing in return for so much talent lost. I am excited to see what else is in store. GO TWINS!

 

[buckamania]

PC- Isn't this what I argued with the "axis-powers" all Summer about over on Fox as they insulted Gardy, and you later supported me on when you said, "It's true, Smith makes the trades, Gardy makes the lineup." Unless I'm wrong, the main "ding-dong" from the axis-powers will now claim that he said it was Smith's fault the whole time, not Gardy's. Of course, you and I know the truth. How many shoes fit in these two guy's mouths anyway?

PC, I remember your epic battles with FC over this very same issue and I supported you, and you supported me in my battle with his toady, what was his name, keister?? It was all porky's fault....yeah, right! Open mouth, insert foot!

 

[powerchord86]

Right on buck. I decided that people like that are not worth my time. I am better than that. Have I mentioned how much I love the ignore feature on this site? Don't even have to see their dribble when they post it!

 

[Hauvster]

I think the truth would be something closer to the fact that we all agreed that Billy Smith did a poor job when it came to signing players of value or trading value for value in return. When it came to Gardenhire, the complaint rotated around the way he kept better players on the bench in lieu of lesser players he favored. Or the constant botching of the pitching staff, or the rotating of player rather than settling on starters. A whole bunch of stuff that were within his power to control that we saw as hurting the team. Two very different sets of complaints. We tried to explain the difference to you, but you just didnt want to hear it. No foot in mouth here. It isnt my fault you didnt understand the conversation as it really was.

With any luck, Gardenhire will be next , and then we will have a GM that can recognize talent and a manager that can nurture that talent. We have had neither for many years, and I think the results are obvious. Plus a new GM/manager tandom wont have the hang up relationships with some of these players that really do need to be replaced. I have always felt that sentimentality was getting in the way of objectivity. As you have said many times Buck, its a business. We need to treat it as such.

Too bad we have so few Twins fans that post on this site. I would enjoy some good healthy discussions about the Twins vrs all this crying, name calling and ignoring. The way you behave in the face of a contrary PoV speaks volumes about you as a person, I think. But we have been over all of this so I will just hope new blood shows up and we can move past all the butt hurt feelings. My fingers are crossed.

 

[powerchord86]

Bill Smith is a nice guy but I guess he didn't agree with the direction the Twins were wanting to go so it was time for him to move on. I wouldn't say he was a horrible GM but he did not have very good luck with some of the moves he made and the Twins had more bad luck with that epic fail of a season in 2011. I am excited about Terry Ryan taking over again. Hope this will mean a big shake up and better things to come. He seems like a pretty old school guy and looks like he is ready to get down to business.

 

[powerchord86]

Need another good starter to throw in with Baker, Pavano and Lirriano. Hisashi Iwakuma sounds like he could be an option. Need a few good arms in the pen. Not sure what will become of Brian Duensing (starter or bullpen) but when he is on he is on and when not well... Need a decent SS with some pop. Still think Alex Gonzalez would be worth a look. Need a catcher who can back up regularly with good deffense and a good bat. Jose Molina is 36 but just had a pretty solid 2011 and might be a good option for a one year deal. Do it to it!

 

[Hauvster]

Ryan will bring back some common sense and stability to the team. Its a good move. Now, we just need a new manager and we can move forward again. I have a feeling it just might happen.

 

[powerchord86]

I hear the Brews are interested in Jose Reyes now since they pretty much know they are not getting Prince back. I think Reyes is meeting with the Marlins soon too. A lot of teams will be going after him but I hope the Twins don't even consider it. Their payroll probably won't allow it anyway but I am just not a big fan of the guy. Don't like his cocky attitude and tends to be injury prone. I think I can rest easy though because I am pretty sure that if the Twins are going to land a FA SS it is going to have to be a type B (like Alex Gonzalez) and Reyes of course is type A.

 

[powerchord86]

Maybe the Royals getting Jonathan Sanchez is good for the Twins. If I remeber right I believe it was him that the Twins slapped around when they went through the entire batting order in the first inning and only let him make one out. I'll take more of that!

 

[buckamania]

PC - Man, you've been doing a lot of homework on the Twins judging by your rapid-fire posts today! Smith was in way over his head, no doubt. Now the Twins must pick up the pieces and try to catch up.

Yes, I'm the glass 1/2 full guy, but I know better than to think everything will be hunky-dory in 2012. I'm still holding to my theory that the Mauer & Morneau situations will dictate a lot of what happens in 2012 as they have so much leadership quality in that clubhouse and so much dead-weight on the Twins treasury. As they go, so goes the Twins.

Of course, so much depends on Cuddy as he plays all the positions in a pinch and is a dependable lifetime .275 hitter with 20 dingers per year, give or take a few pts.on either stat. Gotta keep him!

The team still is a train-wreck in so many ways, especially with Nishi failing so badly, that the only salvation is the fact that it's still the AL Central and more than winnable most years.

Talk to ya!

 

[powerchord86]

I hear you on Mauer and Morny dictating things and they deffinately will. I was watching Hot Stove on MLBN this morning and Mitch Williams made a joke that the Twins have probably spent about 184 Million on medical bills! LOL Sucks but hopefully with the new GM they will do a little overhaul on some of the personel that help keep these guys healthy.

Cuddy is a bright spot and would be a tough piece to lose. Philly was rumored to be looking at him but I am thinking they want to go a different route and get some younger talent as many of their players are getting up there in age.

After last season things do seem a bit messy but they have the winter to clean it up and we will see what they can slap together.

 

[MISKO]

sup buck

 

[buckamania]

PC- That's a good Twins fan talkin' there and I agree with what you said 100%.

Remember how I once tried to explain to the "axis powers" that Gardy was just the cook and the restaurant mgr. (Smith) bought the food. If the food was rotten the cook got the blame for the bad taste while the mgr. skated-away. Well, the kitchen is still full of the bad goods Smith bought and Gardy is still the cook. Until all that bad food is replaced with good food Gardy can't really be expected to do a lot.

Staying with the ais-powers, I especially liked the axis-argument that Gardy kept playing the wrong guys, or his favorites. It isn't like Gardy's roster ahd 1,000 guys to choose from. The bull-pen was, basically, Larry, Moe, and Curly after Smith's trading frenzy. None of them ever excelled, let alone pitched even effectively, for any reasonable time-frame. There was no one to turn to when the starters failed, and they were failing faster than the economy of Greece! It's not like we had Mariano Rivera every night!

Who picked Mauer's backup, Butera? Gardy or Smith? Who booted Nicky in favor of Nishi? Gardy or Smith? This stuff went on & on. Do you think Gardy had any real power to protest? I don't. You picked up on the dilemmas that Gardy faced immediately. The axis-power guys didn't ever really grasp this and even when it was stamped on their foreheads by some of us, the axis-guys refused to admit they were wrong. Stubborness and arrogance, two really bad traits to possess. Boy, does that reign supreme over there!

The Twins still have a chance to catch back up, but I doubt it will be in 2012 unless Mauer & Morneau rebound explosively. I could see Mauer doing this but not so much, Morneau. Justin has probably been away too long to regain his former skills and his concussion is making him look more & more like Cory Koskie or Troy Aikman, unable to ever recover. Hope I'm wrong.

Keep up the good posts!

 

[buckamania]

Hey, Misk! - Always good to hear from you, especially during football season.

I really appreciate PC talkin' baseball right now because that game is my hot-button. I'm not into football that much even though that powerhouse, the Miami Dolphins, are only 120 some miles from my shack. The Bucs are approx. the same distance but my posse is too lazy to make the trip to either one.

Ah, well....Spring Training will be here soon and I'm only 6 miles from the Twins complex. I can survive till then. Speaking of Spring training, Ft. Myers built a new Spring Training home for the Red Sox that is an exact scaled-down replica of Fenway Park. Cost around $100 million. It opens this coming Spring and will be THE place to be in this town in March. No way will I get tickets for this place! The scalpers will have a field-day this year at that place.

Don't be a stranger. Oh, and enjoy the Winter up there, it's so invigorating!