Phil Hughes on his decision to sign with the Twins

[ashbury]

That is the first day you meet your boss. What does that say?

 

That Gardy will be your actual boss (with Rick Anderson as the project leader), and his boss isn't who you'll interact with much ?

 

That "major league baseball player" isn't a job you find via craigslist?

 

That your job involves people skills to a much smaller degree than most?

[amjgt]

Plus there is much less need for an interview.

 

It's not like I have a ERA+, K/9in, and hours of video of me doing my job

[jokin]

I would call it trolling personally.

 

As for Ryan, I'm sure they didn't talk personally because the Twins came after him hard through his agent, he liked the fit, and there was no reason to talk personally. Both sides wanted it done so the business side of things completed the deal.

 

So I'm not sure I find it that odd or an indictment of Ryan, it just shows what an aggressive approach that exceeds the competition (in this case, in our willingness to go three years) really does trump all that other stuff.

 

The main indictment hanging over this offseason is of those Twins fans in their current state of Transient Global Amnesia regarding their past blind defense and creative excuse-making concerning the 3 year debacle of a Twins organization and ownership readily unwilling and/or in denial on the need to aggressively address their systemic personnel needs. Had more of these fans joined the rest of us in demanding that Pohlad, et al, be held accountable after Year One of the Debacle, it's now fairly obvious that what's currently happening this offseason could have been put in place in the fall of 2011, or 2012. The only thing aggressive about the Twins' approach until this offseason was in how much they could cut payroll- and many praised their "prudency". The rebuild could have been a more proactive revamp/reload/sign-and-flip process, instead, putting the Twins 2 years closer to a return to relevancy. I think the organization has finally gotten the message- better late than never- and no thanks to complacent and complicit ticket-buying fans- there are other organizational models that have demonstrated that sitting on your hands and dumpster diving is less prudent than spending available monies on acquiring actual talent on reasonable terms.

[howieramone1406390264]

The main indictment hanging over this offseason is of those Twins fans in their current state of Transient Global Amnesia regarding their past blind defense and creative excuse-making concerning the 3 year debacle of a Twins organization and ownership readily unwilling and/or in denial on the need to aggressively address their systemic personnel needs. Had more of these fans joined the rest of us in demanding that Pohlad, et al, be held accountable after Year One of the Debacle, it's now fairly obvious that what's currently happening this offseason could have been put in place in the fall of 2011, or 2012. The only thing aggressive about the Twins' approach until this offseason was in how much they could cut payroll- and many praised their "prudency". The rebuild could have been a more proactive revamp/reload/sign-and-flip process, instead, putting the Twins 2 years closer to a return to relevancy. I think the organization has finally gotten the message- better late than never- and no thanks to complacent and complicit ticket-buying fans- there are other organizational models that have demonstrated that sitting on your hands and dumpster diving is less prudent than spending available monies on acquiring actual talent on reasonable terms.

You're not serious are you?

[jokin]

That Gardy will be your actual boss (with Rick Anderson as the project leader), and his boss isn't who you'll interact with much ?

 

That "major league baseball player" isn't a job you find via craigslist?

 

That your job involves people skills to a much smaller degree than most?

 

Isn't there a middle ground between your astute points and Thry's abolutism on the matter? I would hope that the "Twins Way" has already involved Gardy/Andy and multiple team leaders privately and publicly welcoming Hughes aboard an organization taking a big bounce off of Rock Bottom. This is the biggest "feel good" offseason week for the club since Mauer was extended. Can't celebration of the biggest and then second biggest contract in Twins history invoke, you know, more of a celebratory tone and less of a shotgun wedding vibe?

[jokin]

You're not serious are you?

 

Nowhere in my comment did I say it was "the fans fault", just that the enabling of an organization sorely in need of a change in philosophy reflecting the fact that we've been in the 21st Century for 13 years already certainly hasn't been of any help.

 

But having said that, go to Boston, Philadelphia and New York and ask that question after they have just One down year. How many games have you attended the last 3 years with myriad moments of futility....ineptitude.....and head-pounding, face-palming incompetence....and yet almost all of it blithely accepted by a good majority of the buying public? I trust you're not one of those still afflicted by TGA.

 

It was pretty obvious that Jim Pohlad finally felt enough heat about being personally embarrassed from fan feedback, plus an accelerating hemorrhaging of declined season ticket renewals, that he had to acknowledge the status quo Twins Way of doing things was no longer acceptable. Good for him, good for the fans.

[ashbury]

Can't celebration of the biggest and then second biggest contract in Twins history invoke, you know, more of a celebratory tone and less of a shotgun wedding vibe?

 

That WAS Terry Ryan celebrating. He just forgets to tell his face, whose default mode is Extreme Earnestness.

 

[ashbury]

But less flippantly, Ryan has kind of a narrow line to tread. Most of the season ticket base, and the fanbase in general, can't be sold on xFIP or park factors that easily. He wants to proudly announce the acquisition of a solid youngish pitcher, but that pitcher racked up an unsightly 4-14 record with a 5+ ERA this year. I think that accounts for what we were seeing from him today.

[jokin]

But less flippantly, Ryan has kind of a narrow line to tread. Most of the season ticket base, and the fanbase in general, can't be sold on xFIP or park factors that easily. He wants to proudly announce the acquisition of a solid youngish pitcher, but that pitcher racked up an unsightly 4-14 record with a 5+ ERA this year. I think that accounts for what we were seeing from him today.

 

As long he didn't say "better than his numbers indicated", I'm happy with that.

[howieramone1406390264]

Nowhere in my comment did I say it was "the fans fault", just that the enabling of an organization sorely in need of a change in philosophy reflecting the fact that we've been in the 21st Century for 13 years already certainly hasn't been of any help.

 

But having said that, go to Boston, Philadelphia and New York and ask that question after they have just One down year. How many games have you attended the last 3 years with myriad moments of futility....ineptitude.....and head-pounding, face-palming incompetence....and yet almost all of it blithely accepted by a good majority of the buying public? I trust you're not one of those still afflicted by TGA.

 

It was pretty obvious that Jim Pohlad finally felt enough heat about being personally embarrassed from fan feedback, plus an accelerating hemorrhaging of declined season ticket renewals, that he had to acknowledge the status quo Twins Way of doing things was no longer acceptable. Good for him, good for the fans.

 

1. The main indictment is of those Twins fans regarding their past blind defense and creative excuse making....

 

2. Had more of these fans joined the rest of us....

 

3. no thanks to complacent or complicit ticket buying fans...

[Otto von Ballpark]

I think this could prove to be a value signing. Lots of positives about him. Seems like a smart dude with a strong work ethic. Wonder if it's something about NYY with these 1st round pitchers. Joba didn't pan out. Hughes hasn't. Ian Kennedy figured it out AFTER he left NYY. Let's hope!

 

To be fair, Kennedy started 12 games for NYY at ages 22-23, then basically missed his entire age 24 season with injury, and was then traded. He really didn't have much of a performance to turn around, frankly.

 

It will be interesting to see what Hughes and Chamberlain do this season, that's for sure.

[diehardtwinsfan]

The main indictment hanging over this offseason is of those Twins fans in their current state of Transient Global Amnesia regarding their past blind defense and creative excuse-making concerning the 3 year debacle of a Twins organization and ownership readily unwilling and/or in denial on the need to aggressively address their systemic personnel needs. Had more of these fans joined the rest of us in demanding that Pohlad, et al, be held accountable after Year One of the Debacle, it's now fairly obvious that what's currently happening this offseason could have been put in place in the fall of 2011, or 2012. The only thing aggressive about the Twins' approach until this offseason was in how much they could cut payroll- and many praised their "prudency". The rebuild could have been a more proactive revamp/reload/sign-and-flip process, instead, putting the Twins 2 years closer to a return to relevancy. I think the organization has finally gotten the message- better late than never- and no thanks to complacent and complicit ticket-buying fans- there are other organizational models that have demonstrated that sitting on your hands and dumpster diving is less prudent than spending available monies on acquiring actual talent on reasonable terms.

 

Um... No?

 

I don't think this could have been put in place in 2011. For one, there was no reason to think they'd be that bad after heading to the playoffs in 2010. You can make that case in 2012, but I also think you'd have reason to think there could be some bounce backs... 2013 is the point where it was clear things needed to change, and Ryan felt it necessary to rebuild... like it or not. Had they gone out and gotten say Jackson and Sanchez (we'll pretend they could have), they still wouldn't have made the playoffs, and I doubt they would have made huge changes to the offense.

[ashbury]

Moderator's note: Folks, we went from the Hughes signing to the possibly interesting tidbit that Hughes and Ryan did not talk, to a speculative question whether that reflected poorly on Ryan, to a further digression onto where negative reflection might correctly belong. Please, unless it bears on the Hughes signing, don't wander that far off in this thread - contribute to a different thread or start one of your own. This has already turned into needless bickering.

[Otto von Ballpark]

They may not have talked, but I have it from a good source that TR and Hughes texted, tweeted, IM'ed, and used Snapchat prior to the signing.

[diehardtwinsfan]

I don't get the "they didn't talk" stuff. That's not unusual. Players hire agents for a reason.

[Major League Ready]

Isn't there a middle ground between your astute points and Thry's abolutism on the matter? I would hope that the "Twins Way" has already involved Gardy/Andy and multiple team leaders privately and publicly welcoming Hughes aboard an organization taking a big bounce off of Rock Bottom. This is the biggest "feel good" offseason week for the club since Mauer was extended. Can't celebration of the biggest and then second biggest contract in Twins history invoke, you know, more of a celebratory tone and less of a shotgun wedding vibe?

 

This is just speculation but I think TR was trying to disarm the reporters in terms of them jumping on bad a year Hughes had last year. I say this because he prefaced the conversation with something to the effect that Phil had a bad year but went on to talk about the great things that he had done and even mention that he is a physical specimen. Actually he said he was 6'5 / 240. He was trying to build him up but this type of thing is not TRs strength. He had the right idea but the delivery was not great.

 

Where them not speaking prior is concerned. Hughes is also pretty resevered and perhaps even introverted. It may have been his preference to let his agent do the talking. It could be that they feel Anthony has very good negiotiating skills so they are giving him a shot after having difficulty in getting FAs to come here.