Hey all you Terry Ryan fans,

How about this scenario? The Pohlad family retools this offseason, releasing Gardy and Terry Ryan, while bringing back Andy MacPhail as the general manager of baseball operations, along with his choice for an on-field manager, hopefully Paul Molitor. Andy is being credited with much of the success in the Baltimore Orioles organization, although they let his contract expire after the 2011 season. Under Buck Showalter, Andy's hire, the Orioles have surged with many players that came to Baltimore via trade and signings orchestrated by Lee MacPhail's son.

Here are a few things that the Baltimore media are saying about Andy. First, an article by Childs Walker, from three days ago in the Baltimore Sun: Orioles' All-Star starters all came via trades executed by Andy MacPhail - Baltimore Sun

Second, an article from Steve Melewski, from August of last year. Melewski's article is older, but he does a better job than Walker, by connecting MacPhail's moves and Baltimore's success. http://www.masnsports.com/steve_melewski/2012/08/how-do-the-fans-feel-about-andy-macphail-now.html

Andy is sixty years old. If you were sixty, entering the last few working years of your life, wouldn't the Twins job appeal to you? Hiring Andy would certainly be a shake-up, while not entirely a departure from the Twins "hire from within" ethos.

Finally, a snippet from Dan Connolly's piece in the Baltimore Sun, from October of 2012: Former Orioles president Andy MacPhail is happy for team, 'sad I'm not part of the special season' - Baltimore Sun

"MacPhail, 59, has spent much of the year traveling with his wife, Lark, and "crossing things off our bucket list."

That includes trips to Nantucket, Mass., and Quebec City, where he wasn't able to visit in previous summers. He also traveled to several countries and was most impressed with Istanbul, Turkeyhttp://images.intellitxt.com/ast/adTypes/icon1.png.

Now, MacPhail admits, he is getting the itch to seek gainful employment, though he has no specific plans at this point. It would be surprising if he returned to a general manager type position in which he again had to run the daily baseball operations of a club, but he'll likely be involved in the sport in some capacity.

"I'm way too young to do nothing, so you have to get yourself engaged in something in some shape or form, and who knows which way that may take," MacPhail said. "I think there are a variety of things that would interest me."

Jim Pohlad, pick up your phone and give ol' Andy a call, please...

He's a lot younger than I remembered (same age as TR). MacPhail had the "old school" baseball family roots, so he wasn't an "outsider" shaking up the game, but age-wise, he was not unlike Theo Epstein back in the day.

It's also easy to forget that Tom Kelly is only 3 years older than MacPhail. They were quite the young combo back in '87 and '91. The later 1990s were not particularly kind to either of them...

That said, I think the odds that Gardy or TR is dismissed after this year are very low, and the odds that MacPhail returns are extremely low. Ownership may not like losing, but they like these guys, the budget they are following (Smith's spending that they've reined in), and the profits they are producing.

I thought he was going to be the next comissioner of baseball. He is a logical choice for that job too.

I would bring in Andy as President and General Manager. Let him hire a couple of assistants and a new manager, maybe even another director of minor league operations. Gardy would find another job. We need new blood everywhere in this organization.

Better chance of the Twins going undefeated than the Pohlads firing Terry Ryan.