Reusse: Twins and timid intersect too often

Edit: He was suspended in Cuba for attempting to escape. Hasn't officially pitched in 2 years, except for exhibitions in Mexico. Has had arm problems. Doesn't project as a 1 starter. Price is probably closer to 60M for 5 years, with an all out bidding war expected between the Dodgers, Red Sox, and Cubs. Pat probably felt the average Twins fan wouldn't be able to make the right determination with this type of detail.

It is possible for a criticism of the front office to have merit. Your zeal to defend against any and every criticism really strains credulity, especially when you don't provide a strong analysis for why. In this case, you criticize the player for wanting to escape a poverty riddled country for a new life and give a list of reasons against him that would qualify as potential negatives against roughly 95% of the pitchers on the planet (some arm problems, bidding wars for talent, maybe not be a true ace)

Here is a scouting report. Pat probably read up on the player and used the many sources in MLB that he has culled over decades of working with professional baseball to determine that this guy was a pretty interesting arm. He then probably (after defending the Twin's lack of spending in the offseason) figured that with their enormous payroll flexibility that this would be a perfect time to gamble on something they desperately need.

Makes a lot of sense to me. He may be wrong, but his article is spot on - if you do save this much money in normal free agency, it would behoove them to be aggressive with it when they can in international free agency.

To Reusse's larger point, I think one of my biggest concerns with Ryan taking back the GM role was that Smith was brilliantly aggressive in the international market. He went after a lot of players that his scouts liked and it was instrumental in the organization's resurgence. In particular, his decision to go heavy on Miguel Sano made up for one of Ryan's most notable mistakes in his tenure (Cabrera).

One hope I had was that if there was any place Ryan was going to be more aggressive spending his money it would be in trusting his international scouting. So far that hasn't been the case and I think Reusse is right to suggest that we should be demonstrating more aggressiveness.

Under Ryan the drafting and scouting teams show aggressiveness, but the timidity starts to shine through when he is directly in control.

It could certainly be true the Twins scouts just don't like these guys, but its hard not to doubt money is a factor when it shouldn't be.

In what way? I'm not saying you're wrong, but I don't really see how.

The Twins aggressively expanded their international scouting base under Ryan, which I still think was one of his best, most unheralded moves under his first tenure. I think part of their aggressiveness is going after their guys no matter how they are ranked nationally.

The international scouting did expand, but only because it needed to.

Quite true, but nevertheless he did it. So you can't dismiss credit IMO.

Your nerd in the corner analogy was amusing but I'm sure it will be totally lost on a bunch of guys who focus on stats and math when discussing sports.

I'm not even sure I like that strategy. it's certainly not aggressive. the Cubs were aggressive this year. I'd rather have two or three highly thought of international prospects than one highly thought of prospects and 4 or 5 other guys I got on the cheap.

I'm ok with that. If you don't like one guy at a Sano-like level, then it's ok to spread out your resources. However, there is no such excuse when it comes to Gonzalez.