This has nothing to do with Terry Ryan personally, I've met him several times and he's a standup, high class guy. But does anyone else feel that his collective time at GM was overall underwhelming? The division titles were fun, but most of those division titles came in a very weak central with the Tigers, Royals and Indians all being pretty horrible. As soon as we got to the playoffs it was fairly obvious we weren't as good as the other playoff teams. Granted, the Twins had no flexibility for payroll and other teams did, but Terry Ryan really only made one aggressive move at the deadline in all of those years (Shannon Stewart). And I think it's fair to say his second stint as GM was a disaster. Overall, having one playoff series victory in his tenure just feels a little disappointing.

This has nothing to do with Terry Ryan personally, I've met him several times and he's a standup, high class guy. But does anyone else feel that his collective time at GM was overall underwhelming? The division titles were fun, but most of those division titles came in a very weak central with the Tigers, Royals and Indians all being pretty horrible. As soon as we got to the playoffs it was fairly obvious we weren't as good as the other playoff teams. Granted, the Twins had no flexibility for payroll and other teams did, but Terry Ryan really only made one aggressive move at the deadline in all of those years (Shannon Stewart). And I think it's fair to say his second stint as GM was a disaster. Overall, having one playoff series victory in his tenure just feels a little disappointing.

Aaron Gleeman has noted this multiple times. Ryan is often credited for the strong run in the early 2000s, but often its overlooked how mediocre his teams were. His tenure wasn't much more than .500, and he rarely did anything incredibly well. Ryan is a good scout at his core, but leading a front office, that wasn't his forte.

I choose to look at May with a glass is half full approach. Very quickly, it would seem, we're going to have he, Melotakis and Rogers as LHRP options. As well as Chargois, Pressly, Reed, Hildenberger, Burdi,possibly Duffey, and a couple more who could make a push. Wow!

I know it doesn't help the rotation, but pretty soon the pen and lineup are going to be well set and well stocked.

While I am not a Ryan fan, he and Bill Smith did not necessarily leave the cupboard bare. But while they have left a better than serviceable OF, and some potential offense, they never could figure out a way to acquire what is likely the two most important parts of a baseball team. Starting pitching and SS. They either truly believed you could consistently club other teams into submission, or found it easier to acquire players of decent caliber at less sought after positions. Tom Kelly was a fixture in this orginisation for decades, but his belief in SP and defense apparently did not migrate uphill in the chain of command.

Here is the problem.  WHile I think Terry Ryan and winning a division championship is somewhat overrated, during those years of having Mauer and Mourneau and Johan Santana at their peaks if the management of the team would have put in $15 - 25 million more in salary they might have been real contenders.

While they won the AL Central Division 6 times from 2002 through 2010, they only won 6 playoff games and just one playoff series in those 6 appearances.  If you elimnate their first Central championship in 2002, they were beat 3-1 in 2003, 3-1 in 2004, and swept 3-0 in their next three appearances (2006, 2009, 2010).

As pointed out, those 6 division championships were weak.  Only twice, 2006 and 2010 were the Twins amongst the top 3 in the AL (2nd in 2006, 3 in 2010).  If they would have been outside of the Central Division, their record would have only won another division title, the West in 2006 and 2010, and only once was their record better than the wild card finisher, 2006.

I think Ryan did a good job with the budget he had.  He made some shrewd moves in Rule 5, made some solid trades, and drafted some solid players.  The Twins had the prospects to make more trades that could have brought the missing pieces if the team wuld have been willing to spend the money.  They werent and I think that was totally unfair to the Twins fans.