Hammer of Killebrew

Great article. I think this might be something we should look at though. It seems like the same people in charge of putting the new prospects together are still in place. Why should we have any faith in the current status quo when they basically wasted all the talent the last 10-15 years? If I recall, we had need a lot of luck in September to make the playoffs. Its not like we were hitting 95+ wins every year. Have the Twins made any changes proving there is something different this time? I expect the current crew to guide them through 2015, the last year of Gardy's contract. After that, they will promote someone from within who has (almost) always been with the organization, maybe the same with the GM. I just hope we are not having the same conversation 10 years from now with Ryan's assistant the GM, Gardenhire's understudy in place, and a string of mediocre seasons with early playoff loses.

Thought I'd add this: Detroit is 9-4 in September, including 5-1 in their last 6. That stretch includes 2-1 series win against KC and a sweep of Cleveland over the weekend. Twins, on the other hand, 4-9, and a whole bunch of series losses. They just lost 5 straight before winning against Chicago today. However, small sample sizes and great ticket deals!

I don't know if I could rank these. There all pretty important. I'd rank Mauer's issues last. Mauer is a proven all-star so we know he deserves to be in the lineup. But Mauer could hit .400 and we would still be bad due to the other 4 problems. Mauer needs to fix Mauer. The Twins organization needs to fix everything else. 1. What Joe Mauer does from here is on his shoulders. Our coaches should be focused on improving the younger call ups. Mauer is an all star caliber player at his best. He should know his game to the point where he can make adjustments and train on his own. 2./3. I think these are closely tied together. We all know the Twins philosophy has been pitch to contact . This requires an all star caliber defense. Its possible there long term goal is sacrificing defense to get more power in the lineup. And that obviously requires less contact and more strikeouts. We are either bad at what we are trying to do, or waiting for the minor leaguers that fit this plan to show up. After 4 years of 90+ loses, either way, we are bad at what we are doing. 4. Home Field advantage comes with winning more and designing an organization towards winning games in a field you play majority of your season in. I watched the Home Run Derby this year and was shocked by the Twin's lack of right handed pull hitters. We have seen guys like Willingham, Dozier, and Plouffe take advantage for short stretches. Why do we not see more consistent hitters like this? 5. I think this has been the biggest difference between the winning years and these past 4. We seem lost in all aspects of the game. I'm not sure what to say about this. The organization knows how its developing players. So either they are trying to do something different that is still in development, or the players cannot execute what the Twins are teaching. Maybe its both. Its up to the organization to figure out why this is an issue. If they can't, its time to bring in new people.

From a PR standpoint, hiring Jake Mauer could be a disaster considering the way some fans have turned on Joe. I think Doug M would be a good hire. He was a fan favorite and people would get behind the team. That's just me thinking about getting people excited to go watch games. Of course, winning is the easiest way to get fans excited again. Honestly, I'm not concerned with the next manager at this point. We need to seriously look at how our organization is developing players at every level.

Personally, I'd rather see some progress from the young guys then higher draft picks. But with our team we can probably have our cake and eat it too. Also, I'd like us to take a guy that's got a little more polish over a high school prospect. We need help fast.