sandbun

A bear never made sense as the Twins mascot anyhow. *runs and hides*

Don't worry, I bet there's also cash considerations coming ?

I guess this is my problem with the move. We're moving on from a player not because he's bad and we need to, but because money. We're going to likely be a little bit worse without him, and all because the Twins want to cut payroll. Again. And it's not like this is a long term massive contract. It's a one year 10 mil deal. Woo.

It still makes me sick to see the Pohlad statue by Target Field for what they tried to do, or at least were willing to go along and claim they were trying to do. I will never be ok with that family owning the Twins. Meanwhile I feel like the '2002 Team' should be inducted into the Twins HOF as a group for all that that team meant to the history of the franchise. Arguably the most important team in its history considering there's a good chance the team doesn't exist, or at least doesn't exist in MN, if that team doesn't spark an interest in the franchise again and help them get that new field. I think honoring that team as a team needs to be done somehow, either as a group induction (to be clear, I'm not talking about electing each of them, just the '2002 Team' itself) or some other way.

Let's say this is the tip of the iceberg, it turns out at least half the teams in mlb has been doing exactly what Houston did and it's been an open secret for years within clubhouses. Are you more mad if you find out the Twins are one of the teams that did or that didn't do it?

This is what's frustrating to me. I both am upset that the Pohlad's aren't opening up their pocket book, but on the off chance they actually sign one of these guys, none of them really move the needle that much IMO. The real choices to change this team's ability to compete in the playoffs are gone. And there's always an excuse, and there's always 'maybe we'll do something we've never done and trade a major prospect for a major pitcher'. And when that doesn't happen, the local media will always insist on creating the strawman that anyone unhappy with the situations is demanding the Twins outspend the Yankees every year. (Seriously, I know there was already a question about what happens in other markets on this thread but I've got my own - is there any media in any other market that hates the fans of the team they cover like the media in the Twin Cities hates Twins fans?) Whatever. Wake me when the Pohlad's sell.

Obviously winning the division is better than not winning the division, but is the goal to win the division or to win playoff series and ultimately a World Series? I mean, I know anything can happen, but does anyone really believe this team wouldn't get bounced right away if they squeaked in? I hope the front office doesn't make decisions based on 'Hey, it's a down year, maybe we can steal a division title this one year' rather than sticking with the long term plan.

I made no assumptions about what this or that signing would do. I'm pointing out that even people saying that the Twins are right to do nothing aren't expecting a winning season. The idea that people should be ok with that, or that those who aren't are unfairly assuming this will be a bad season (and since when is being below .500 not a bad season?) are wrong, doesn't make sense to me. Saying "it's on you to see that [the twins are on the right track]" is the absolute opposite of how I feel. It's up to the Twins to convince people they know what they're doing, not fans to talk themselves into being ok with what's going on.

You're simultaneously telling people there's no reason to go out and improve this team, and also that cracking .500 would be lucky. How happy/excited are fans supposed to get? How low are we willing to let the standard be set?

I'm not talking about blowing up our farm system or signing a bunch of guys to 10 year deals. I just think, like you suggested, that there were probably some moves (maybe heavily front loaded) that would've made sense, and I don't get sitting on that money because "Well it probably won't matter. No reason to try." And if they do spend that money and the moves don't work, well that tells us something about our front office, which isn't a terrible thing to know either.

My point is you never know when things are going to click/you get a bit lucky. Is it impossible to imagine that Nishi/Nolasco/whoever played better than they did and instead of them costing us games they won us ones and the Twins found themselves having a chance? I think it's silly to assume you have no chance and therefore avoid making moves that can help you because you suspect it won't help you enough when you're sitting on all that money. So I don't think it's any more cheating than looking back on the bad seasons to say "See, you never know. This is why you spend that money."

I'm going to have to be a dissenter. "I’ve left out 2015 so far, of course, and that’s a tough one because we know how it ends: the Twins win 83 games, surprising everyone, and miss the wildcard play-in game by just three wins. They entered the last week with a real shot, and as it turns out, even one modest upgrade in the offseason could have gotten them there. That’s cheating, though: the Twins didn’t know how it would end" So it's perfectly fair to look back on a season and say we would've needed to sign a bunch of all-stars for it to have made a difference and so what's the point, but cheating to look back and say we only needed one more good player to make the playoffs. That feels unfair. I barely remember what I had for supper last night, so no I can't go back the last few offseasons and remember who they should've gotten. I remember wanting to get Garza and wanting to spend the money to sign AL pitchers rather than the career NL ones that TR kept signing, but particular names escape me. But I find it hard to believe that there was no way of using that money to improve the team. And frankly I believe the front office sending the message 'We care about winning', is worth sending even if it's not going to make a big difference in your win/loss record. Not to mention it would be nice to see if TR can use that money in FA effectively. If not that tells us maybe it's time to look for a replacement there too, or at least a 2nd pair of eyes.

It would be a bit unorthodox but I've felt for a while that the Twins should just elect the '2001 team' to the Twins Hall of Fame. What that year's team meant to the organization given the whole contraction mess and near decade of futility before that is incalculable. Certain players from that team will make the Twins HOF anyhow, but that team as an entity deserves some sort of recognition by the organization.

They won't do it, but my vote is to move Mauer to LF. Let Pinto or post-surgery Sano take first. Never made sense to me to have an athletic Mauer hold down the easiest position to field.

"People forget that at one point this year our payroll was in the $90 million range when we signed Kendrys Morales. That’s comproble. So there’s a range there." That fact that he thinks going up to "$90 million range" is so impressive is all I need to know. You're still below league average. It's not comproble.

What evaluations of the front office do you do after the season? What were the results of these evaluations?

Absolutely, let's roll with what we have. After all, we certainly don't want to give the players the mistaken impression that the Twins organization cares about wins and losses. Just go out there and be good enough or promising enough to try to win some fans back into the seats. /sarcasm (Although it's hard to tell if that isn't the front office's thought sometimes) I don't know about anyone else, but the story that came out a while back about how a Twins player was upset after a loss and another Twins player told him basically not to get worked up about it made me sick. Yes, it is true it's only a game and doesn't matter much in the grand scheme of things. But I don't like that losing is just something you get over, I want them mad. Losing is contagious. I don't think that culture dies if you take a 'let's just see what happens and hope everything and every prospect works out and fix it later if they don't' approach. I also don't get the concern so many have with 'blockers'. Maybe, maybe in the short term they might hurt a team a little, and I'm not convinced that happens as often as people say. But in the long term, when has it hurt the Twins, or anyone, to have too many good players? When Mauer was ready and needed to be in the lineup, we had a tradeable asset in AJ Piersinsky. Was that really so terrible? Were the Twins really harmed a great deal by Morneau needing to improve his defense before he was allowed to replace Mientkiewicz even when his bat was better than Dougy's was? Does anyone really believe that hurt the team long term? Maybe Span could've been an asset over Gomez, but I doubt he would've been the difference between those teams going deep into the playoffs, and having Span not racking up playing time was why he had such a team friendly contract and why we were able to trade him for Meyer in the first place. Anyone really want to go back in time and reverse that decision? I know it sucks seeing a guy you want to be called up not getting a chance because the Twins don't have a spot for him - although sometimes they do and the team doesn't call him up anyhow, but that's a different discussion and not related to blockers. But when has having too many good players actually ended up hurting the Twins in the long run? And sometimes blockers end up blocking a guy who wasn't actually ready - looking at you Hicks. Maybe, just maybe, having blockers isn't such a bad thing.

Only if they want to keep employees happy, foster a good company environment and, in the Twins' case, undercut negative perceptions of the team and the front office in particular, all while getting some positive press at a time the team could really use it.

So all the stories today are not about how Hughes had a historic season, they're about how he just missed a bonus. All anyone talking about the game tomorrow is going to mention is how Hughes got hosed. Doesn't matter if it's unfair or not, it's the truth. It's in all the headlines. Doesn't matter that you and I can point to this game or that game that he could've gone an extra inning. Doesn't matter that strictly speaking he didn't earn the bonus. Doesn't matter that he made a ton of money anyhow. The Twins, a team that is constantly ripped on by its FANS for being cheap, is allowing a mere $500,000 to keep them from getting good press. What is the sense in that? For money that is basically a rounding error and that they were extremely close to having to pay anyhow, for an amount that is nothing more than what they might spend to give a guy a look for a couple weeks, they are overshadowing one of the few bright spots of the season. But don't worry - they "get it". Given a perfectly good chance to undercut one of the negative perceptions about the team, they decide to be sticklers. Idiotic. Find a way to fix this. I don't care if they cut him a check, or they donate it to his charity, or whatever else. But it's 500,000 freaking dollars, which is a lot to me, and probably you too, but basically nothing to them. This story should already been anticipated as a posibility before the game and already been handled and killed. Find a way to fix it.

I suspect they're wasting Mauer's athleticism putting him at 1st, but they'll probably keep him there unless someone else that they need in the lineup (Sano?) proves absolutely unable to play any position other than 1st base. This is the Twins and Gardy after all - they love putting guys into little boxes and pretending they fit there. 1st base is where you move guys who can't play their old position (unless RF is open but we've got plenty of outfielders) so that's where he'll go.

If Walkins is there and they aren't in love with a QB (unlikely one worth it will drop) or a defensive player (Barr, Nix) they'd be wise to trade down. There will be plenty of teams willing to give a decent bounty for him. My personal thought is they should trade down for a second 1st round pick next year rather than anything this year, and then they'll have the ammunition to move up next year for a QB they really like.