Fellow Twins fans,

I can not understand how all of you and especially our ridiculously non-critical Minnesota media misses it, but can anyone see the five year plan the Pohlad crew has in store for you? Lets start by reminding everyone that both the Pohlad boys flat out admitted while pops was alive that they had no interest what so ever in operating or owning the Minnesota Twins......But then the money machine that runs the blood of the Pohlad's pointed out the cash cow that could be achieved if they were able to coax a new stadium out of us silly tax payers, they were instantly "huge" baseball fans. Now seeing there five year plan, i cant blame them! Its a simple plan really....and it goes like this. Convince the silly state that you live in that to compete and play on a level field in MLB you need the revenue that a new stadium will generate. Once said stadium is built, start counting the simply unbelievable amount of money you are making and KNOW that every stadium has a wonderful grace period where expectations are Nil and the stadium itself will draw people to empty there wallets to you. Next, fire the general manager who admittedly had a bad year but actually wanted to increase payroll to go out and upgrade the team and put a decent product on the Field. Next, rehire the media darling who refers to all media members by first name, as your GM and quickly announce you are cutting the payroll my 15 million and amazingly have no one criticize you at all! Then continue to cut payroll for the next three years all the while listen to Mr. Ryan say that payroll is no object (ya right....remember Luis Castillo and how Alexi was ready and it had nothing to do with money???) and that he will make moves that make sense...unless that increases payroll of course. Next cash in on that all-star game and finally have the Pohlad boys announce they are selling the team and watch them walk away with a half billion dollars in revenue! Only in Minnesota can this be done while nobody criticizes it.....Goodness people, this is your baseball team and this is the Pohlad plan for all of us! Enjoy!

I agree the Pohlad family is tighter than a Cuban cigar. However, I have complete faith in GM Terry Ryan moving forward. Despite a small payroll he will find a way to make the Twins a winner. It sure as hell won't be in 2012 that is for sure.

When you use the trade of Luis Castillo as your prime example in support of your argument, your credibility is kind of strained.

I think that you need to have more faith in the fact that Terry Ryan has been doing his job very well for longer than I have been alive. He knows what needs to be done to win, and if anyone in baseball could prove that making "Moneyball"-esqe decisions actually do help your team, I would choose none other than Ryan or Billy Beane himself to lead the team. He has an idea of what to do, unlike Smith, and he has the know-how and experience to pull it off. The Twins just need to prove to the rest of baseball that they have overcome the struggles from the troubles they had last year, and everyone will be saying how smart the Twins were for picking and choosing who they did to come or go.

This might be the most ignorant, snarky pile of garbage yet written out here. Just another small person without a charitable bone in his body....

I agree the Pohlad family is tighter than a Cuban cigar. However, I have complete faith in GM Terry Ryan moving forward. Despite a small payroll he will find a way to make the Twins a winner. It sure as hell won't be in 2012 that is for sure.

Fantastic Jack, your basically right in your analysis of the Twins philosophy, etc. However, I'm concerned that so many Media types that work for the station that announce Twin games are not capable of being objective. That is one reason we never get criticism of the Pohlads. This cutting payroll after a few years is completely disheartening. I do think that the reason that Smith was fired was because he wanted to increase payroll and be competitive.

There is enough financial assets available now in the organization to be competitive until the lower minor players are ready-- if the Pohlads are willing!

To Jim, It wasnt the prime exampe it was a simple example. If you wants sheets of players that the twins have got simply becasue of the price, let me know becasue it wont be hard to compile!