Steven Buhr

I’ve been a bit out of touch with Twinsville for a couple of weeks as I’ve had some business travel and other non-Twins-related matters to occupy most of my time. I did catch up a bit on my Twins reading in the past day or so, however, and – well – let’s just say I’ve been much more interested in the writing about the Twins than I have been with what’s transpired on the field with the Twins.I read the columns by the Minneapolis Star-Tribune’s baseball writers and columnists recently, in which they were asked to share their ideas concerning what the Twins need to do to “fix” the sorry state of affairs at Target Field. Jim Souhan believes manager Ron Gardenhire has to go. Patrick Reusse believes the Twins need coaches who relate better to the increasing (and increasingly important) Latino segment of their roster. LaVelle E. Neal wants the Twins to do whatever it takes to add an “ace” at the top of their rotation. Phil Miller says, as hard as it may be to do so, the answer is patience, as we await the imminent arrival of some outstanding young prospects. Their respective articles reflect opinions I think we’ve all heard voiced many times as this fourth consecutive 90-loss season has been completing its death spiral. The only near unanimous opinion is, as TwinsDaily’s Nick Nelson penned this week, “The Twins Have a Problem.” After doing all that reading, I paused and contemplated what it must be like right now to be Jim Pohlad. I honestly believe he’s embarrassed by what his team has become – an irrelevant organization. The Twins are irrelevant among their MLB brethren. They are irrelevant within the Minnesota professional sports scene. http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/PohladRyanStPeter.jpg Owner Jim Pohlad, GM Terry Ryan and President Dave St. Peter (photo: SD Buhr) Say what you will about the Pohlad family, they did not get to where they are in life by being irrelevant. I began to wonder what was going through the Twins’ owner’s mind these days as he prepares for, perhaps, the most difficult offseason since the passing of his father, Carl. Maybe Jim is asking himself, “WWCD?” What Would Carl Do? Naturally, that led me to ponder what I would do if I were in Pohlad’s shoes. What steps would I take to make sure I never, ever, felt like this going in to an offseason again. One awful season was an unpleasant aberration. Two was uncomfortable. Three was painful. Four is… I don’t even know, but you wouldn’t want to be around me much if I owned a team with the record of abject failure that the Twins have had so far this decade. I thought all four of the Strib’s writers had good thoughts. I also believe there isn’t a single one of those ideas that would satisfy me if I owned the Twins. If the four Strib guys worked for me and came to my office with those ideas, here’s what I’d say: I think you’ve all made valid points. But here’s my problem. Patience, Phil? I’ve been patient for three years. Don’t talk to me about prospects. Until they prove themselves at Target Field, those guys are nothing but business assets. They represent fluxuating inventory with short shelf lives. You’re not asking me to be patient, you’re asking me to be comatose. You want me to buy (in money or prospects) an ‘ace,’ LaVelle. Great idea. I’ve been telling my General Manager to feel free to spend more money on whatever he thinks will improve this team. But we can’t force players to sign with us and pretty much every long term, big money, contract for an ‘ace’ that has been signed has turned out to be a bad contract for the team. And I may not be in love with prospects, but I’m not going to give them away in return for an aging pitcher who my stat buddies tell me has seen his best days behind him. If my GM can find an ‘ace’ available on the market who is willing to come to our town or one with enough tread on the tire left to be counted on for a few years of ace-hood that’s available for any trade even close to reasonable, we’ll go get him. Jim, I really don’t think any manager in history could have won half his games the past four years with the collection of has-beens, wanna-bes and never-weres wearing a Twins uniform, so if you really believe firing Ron Gardenhire is going to fix things, you know a lot less about baseball than most baseball fans. And that’s a tough bar to get under. Pat, same for you. I think it makes a lot of sense to have more of a Latin-American presence in the clubhouse. But do you think having a dozen Latino coaches would make this team a winner? I don’t. By the way, between the four of you guys, there must be about a zillion years of covering baseball between you, right? How’s your Spanish? I think every coach in our organization should learn Spanish, but I also think every media member who covers baseball should, too, and until you do, you’ve got very little room to criticize. The problem is that none of your ideas will fix things. Not if that’s all we do. Our fans aren’t stupid enough to believe that any one player, no matter how good he is, will turn this team in to a contender. Not if he’s a current Tigers ace, LaVelle, and not if he’s a near-certain future Hall of Fame center fielder who hasn’t completed a full game (much less a season) above high-A ball, Phil. Many of them want Gardy gone. I understand that. But even the Gardy haters don’t really believe replacing him will turn a 90-loss team in to a 90-win team. Replacing even an unpopular manager won’t put butts back in the seats and replacing his staff with five guys from Venezuela won’t, either. So, no, we’re not going to do a single one of these things. We’re going to do all of them. And more. That's when I would thank that Strib guys for their time, give them some drink tickets and send them to Hrbeks for a couple of refreshments while I talk to my President and General Manager. With Dave St. Peter and Terry Ryan in my offices, here's what I lay out for them. Gentlemen, the good news for you is that neither of you are fired. Yet. But I’m tired of losing. I’m tired of losing games and I’m tired of losing fans. And you two may think I don’t know crap about baseball, but I suspect that just maybe losing games and losing fans might be related. Terry, I tried to tell you a year ago that I was tired of people telling me I’m cheap and won’t spend money for top talent. Some bozo on the internet even made up a parable about it. I want you to go read it and then, Terry, use the damn ladder! I’ve got a list of the top 20 starting pitchers in baseball, ranked by some goofy thing called WAR. By the date season tickets have to be renewed, one of those guys is going to be working for me, Terry – or you won’t be. Do we understand one another? Speaking of people working for me, you’re going to go tell Ron Gardenhire that he doesn’t. At least not as my manager. Gardy’s a helluva guy and he’s had some good days as our manager. We’ll give him a nice watch, but I don’t believe he’s the guy to lead this team for the next 10 years and neither do our fans. Who you hire is your business. I’m just telling you who you’re going to fire. I take that back, I am going to tell you a little bit about who you’re going to hire. When spring training opens, I want at least two Latino members on the bench staff. I mean it, Terry. And I’m not talking about a couple guys who took Spanish class in junior high. I’m going to send Tony Oliva to talk to whoever you hire and they’d better be able to keep up with him in a conversation. Every company in every industry in this country has been getting on the diversity bandwagon for years. Everyone figured out long ago that having management that can communicate in Spanish is critical to attracting and retaining top Spanish speaking employees. I don’t know why you haven’t figured this out on your own yet, but now I’m telling you. One more thing, Terry. If they’re healthy, Alex Meyer, Miguel Sano and Byron Buxton will open 2015 with the Twins. How do I know? I heard all about it in the giant advertising campaign that St. Peter and the marketing folks are putting together the moment he walks out of this meeting. Right Dave? That ad is going to run on the local affiliate carrying the Super Bowl. I want everyone in town talking about the Twins the next day and I want them buying tickets. Lots of tickets. Dave, I keep reading about how attendance is going to drop next year. I’m telling you that it won’t. If it does, the attendance in your office will drop by one. Our season ticket holders have been paying Major League prices for minor league performance for four years. I don’t care how far you have to slash prices, you put butts in the seats. Next summer, people may call us crazy for what we’ve done. They may say we’ve lost our minds. But if they’re still saying the Twins are irrelevant, you two will not be calling me your boss. Give my love to your families. And then I think I'd take a very long cruise around the world on a very large boat and look forward to seeing what my team looked like when I got back. Click here to view the article

A certain number of people will go to games for the baseball and a certain number will go for the social event. The thing is, one drives the other and when the baseball is bad, the baseball people go less often and the crowd shrinks. When the crowd shrinks, the event itself is seen less and less as being a fun social event and that component of the base stops showing up, too. The Twins have, as Nick indicated, dug themselves a significant hole and there's no single way out. But they're going to need some creative thinking to reengage their fan base.

I read someone's piece recently about how, moreso in baseball than other sports, you have to be able to draft/sign elite players and if you draft in the lower half of the league, you can just about forget it. maybe that's true. However, if you take Gordon, Buxton and Stewart out of the Twins' pipeline, this would still be a pretty deep organization, wouldn't it? Those are the only 3 guys who wouldn't have been available to the Twins if they were picking LAST in every round for the past 3 years. Now, I like the situation better WITH those 3 guys, of course. But the work that was done to assemble the farm system beyond those 3 blue chippers reinforces, for me, that TR and his staff have done an excellent job in that aspect of their work since he took over the GM chair again.

I don't even consider this a "push back," because I essentially agree. I don't necessarily agree quite so much with draft position as being a pedigree, but I guess since I conceded that I give some weight to 1-2 round picks and 7-digit bonus IFAs, I can't say I give NO weight to draft pedigree, either. If you just look at numbers, yeah a Garver SHOULD beat up on low-A pitchers, so why put any stock in it? It's when you watch a guy that you can tell if he's putting up numbers because the 20 yr old pitchers he's facing can't show him anything he didn't see in the SEC/ACC/B1G or whether it's because that batter has skills that will allow him to be successful against anyone of any age. Is he only hitting "mistakes" or is he also making contact with a pitcher's best stuff? I could give you names of guys who have come through CR that have been in both categories. That's what I was getting at when I said I want to see a guy for a full season before I feel he's "earned" a higher ranking. And I do feel Garver is in that group.

When I read that, I had a similar thought. "Guess they're going to cut their writers' compensation package." But I don't care how much their traffc stagnates, I will NOT pay TD to let me write for them.

I’ve been a bit out of touch with Twinsville for a couple of weeks as I’ve had some business travel and other non-Twins-related matters to occupy most of my time. I did catch up a bit on my Twins reading in the past day or so, however, and – well – let’s just say I’ve been much more interested in the writing about the Twins than I have been with what’s transpired on the field with the Twins. I read the columns by the Minneapolis Star-Tribune’s baseball writers and columnists recently, in which they were asked to share their ideas concerning what the Twins need to do to “fix” the sorry state of affairs at Target Field. Jim Souhan believes manager Ron Gardenhire has to go. Patrick Reusse believes the Twins need coaches who relate better to the increasing (and increasingly important) Latino segment of their roster. LaVelle E. Neal wants the Twins to do whatever it takes to add an “ace” at the top of their rotation. Phil Miller says, as hard as it may be to do so, the answer is patience, as we await the imminent arrival of some outstanding young prospects. Their respective articles reflect opinions I think we’ve all heard voiced many times as this fourth consecutive 90-loss season has been completing its death spiral. The only near unanimous opinion is, as TwinsDaily’s Nick Nelson penned this week, “The Twins Have a Problem.” After doing all that reading, I paused and contemplated what it must be like right now to be Jim Pohlad. I honestly believe he’s embarrassed by what his team has become – an irrelevant organization. The Twins are irrelevant among their MLB brethren. They are irrelevant within the Minnesota professional sports scene. http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/PohladRyanStPeter.jpg Owner Jim Pohlad, GM Terry Ryan and President Dave St. Peter (photo: SD Buhr) Say what you will about the Pohlad family, they did not get to where they are in life by being irrelevant. I began to wonder what was going through the Twins’ owner’s mind these days as he prepares for, perhaps, the most difficult offseason since the passing of his father, Carl. Maybe Jim is asking himself, “WWCD?” What Would Carl Do? Naturally, that led me to ponder what I would do if I were in Pohlad’s shoes. What steps would I take to make sure I never, ever, felt like this going in to an offseason again. One awful season was an unpleasant aberration. Two was uncomfortable. Three was painful. Four is… I don’t even know, but you wouldn’t want to be around me much if I owned a team with the record of abject failure that the Twins have had so far this decade. I thought all four of the Strib’s writers had good thoughts. I also believe there isn’t a single one of those ideas that would satisfy me if I owned the Twins. If the four Strib guys worked for me and came to my office with those ideas, here’s what I’d say: I think you’ve all made valid points. But here’s my problem. Patience, Phil? I’ve been patient for three years. Don’t talk to me about prospects. Until they prove themselves at Target Field, those guys are nothing but business assets. They represent fluxuating inventory with short shelf lives. You’re not asking me to be patient, you’re asking me to be comatose. You want me to buy (in money or prospects) an ‘ace,’ LaVelle. Great idea. I’ve been telling my General Manager to feel free to spend more money on whatever he thinks will improve this team. But we can’t force players to sign with us and pretty much every long term, big money, contract for an ‘ace’ that has been signed has turned out to be a bad contract for the team. And I may not be in love with prospects, but I’m not going to give them away in return for an aging pitcher who my stat buddies tell me has seen his best days behind him. If my GM can find an ‘ace’ available on the market who is willing to come to our town or one with enough tread on the tire left to be counted on for a few years of ace-hood that’s available for any trade even close to reasonable, we’ll go get him. Jim, I really don’t think any manager in history could have won half his games the past four years with the collection of has-beens, wanna-bes and never-weres wearing a Twins uniform, so if you really believe firing Ron Gardenhire is going to fix things, you know a lot less about baseball than most baseball fans. And that’s a tough bar to get under. Pat, same for you. I think it makes a lot of sense to have more of a Latin-American presence in the clubhouse. But do you think having a dozen Latino coaches would make this team a winner? I don’t. By the way, between the four of you guys, there must be about a zillion years of covering baseball between you, right? How’s your Spanish? I think every coach in our organization should learn Spanish, but I also think every media member who covers baseball should, too, and until you do, you’ve got very little room to criticize. The problem is that none of your ideas will fix things. Not if that’s all we do. Our fans aren’t stupid enough to believe that any one player, no matter how good he is, will turn this team in to a contender. Not if he’s a current Tigers ace, LaVelle, and not if he’s a near-certain future Hall of Fame center fielder who hasn’t completed a full game (much less a season) above high-A ball, Phil. Many of them want Gardy gone. I understand that. But even the Gardy haters don’t really believe replacing him will turn a 90-loss team in to a 90-win team. Replacing even an unpopular manager won’t put butts back in the seats and replacing his staff with five guys from Venezuela won’t, either. So, no, we’re not going to do a single one of these things. We’re going to do all of them. And more. That's when I would thank that Strib guys for their time, give them some drink tickets and send them to Hrbeks for a couple of refreshments while I talk to my President and General Manager. With Dave St. Peter and Terry Ryan in my offices, here's what I lay out for them. Gentlemen, the good news for you is that neither of you are fired. Yet. But I’m tired of losing. I’m tired of losing games and I’m tired of losing fans. And you two may think I don’t know crap about baseball, but I suspect that just maybe losing games and losing fans might be related. Terry, I tried to tell you a year ago that I was tired of people telling me I’m cheap and won’t spend money for top talent. Some bozo on the internet even made up a parable about it. I want you to go read it and then, Terry, use the damn ladder! I’ve got a list of the top 20 starting pitchers in baseball, ranked by some goofy thing called WAR. By the date season tickets have to be renewed, one of those guys is going to be working for me, Terry – or you won’t be. Do we understand one another? Speaking of people working for me, you’re going to go tell Ron Gardenhire that he doesn’t. At least not as my manager. Gardy’s a helluva guy and he’s had some good days as our manager. We’ll give him a nice watch, but I don’t believe he’s the guy to lead this team for the next 10 years and neither do our fans. Who you hire is your business. I’m just telling you who you’re going to fire. I take that back, I am going to tell you a little bit about who you’re going to hire. When spring training opens, I want at least two Latino members on the bench staff. I mean it, Terry. And I’m not talking about a couple guys who took Spanish class in junior high. I’m going to send Tony Oliva to talk to whoever you hire and they’d better be able to keep up with him in a conversation. Every company in every industry in this country has been getting on the diversity bandwagon for years. Everyone figured out long ago that having management that can communicate in Spanish is critical to attracting and retaining top Spanish speaking employees. I don’t know why you haven’t figured this out on your own yet, but now I’m telling you. One more thing, Terry. If they’re healthy, Alex Meyer, Miguel Sano and Byron Buxton will open 2015 with the Twins. How do I know? I heard all about it in the giant advertising campaign that St. Peter and the marketing folks are putting together the moment he walks out of this meeting. Right Dave? That ad is going to run on the local affiliate carrying the Super Bowl. I want everyone in town talking about the Twins the next day and I want them buying tickets. Lots of tickets. Dave, I keep reading about how attendance is going to drop next year. I’m telling you that it won’t. If it does, the attendance in your office will drop by one. Our season ticket holders have been paying Major League prices for minor league performance for four years. I don’t care how far you have to slash prices, you put butts in the seats. Next summer, people may call us crazy for what we’ve done. They may say we’ve lost our minds. But if they’re still saying the Twins are irrelevant, you two will not be calling me your boss. Give my love to your families. And then I think I'd take a very long cruise around the world on a very large boat and look forward to seeing what my team looked like when I got back.

The "individual preference" factor is huge, obviously. My personal bias is to generally make a a guy "earn" a higher ranking. As a result, with the rare exceptions of 1st-2nd round draft picks and 7-figure bonus international FAs, I'm inclined to rate a player who has at least demonstrated some level of proficiency at full-season low-A over a player who hasn't yet. Probably call it an "until I've seen him with my own eyes" bias. That, for me, takes precendence over the age/level comparison. For example, having seen Garver, I'd have him further ahead of Navaretto than Seth does. Maybe I just feel the washout rate for a 19 year old who hasn't proven himself over a full season yet is so much more of a probability than it is for a 23 year old who excelled over a full season of low-A ball in his first year of professional baseball. Reading these two lists of the 31st thru 50th prospects, I began wondering what the realistic number is for projecting them to have Major League careers, regardless of how brief and regardless of whether it's eventually with the Twins or another organization. (Because, let's be honest, the 'downside' of having an enormously deep farm system is that you will not be able to protect all of the prospects with MLB potential throughout their MiLB careers. You will lose some.) It just seems to me, already in the 31-50 range, that there are a lot of these guys (most of them, in fact) that I would borderline "expect" to see succeed to reach that level (having true success in the big leagues is a whole different question, however). And that number should go up as you look at 1-30. But what's reasonable to expect? Even half of the top 50 to reach the Show? More? Less?

Great stuff. I'm chuckling just thinking about how much Kanzler must have hated losing to Christensen in that drill. Also happy to have the mystery of how to pronounce Chagois' name solved.

I agree with John. It really is a shame when this kind of relationship ends because of mismanagement and politics. I also hope we'll continue to get to read plenty of your work.

I've seen others at various times say the same thing about the dimensions being exactly as they were at the Dome. First, it's not true. Actually, in LF, LCF and dead CF, the Dome fence dimensions were actually LONGER than TF by a few feet. RCF and RF were almost exactly the same. However the 23' "baggy" did not extend as far over toward CF as the 23' out of town scoreboard does at TF. The lower part of the fence at TF is also one foot higher than the fences at the Dome. However, we're not really talking apples and apples here. There's a second, more important diference that I think most fans who have attended games at both venues noticed right away. Games at Target Field are OUTDOORS. TF has what's essentially a wind tunnel during many summer days/nights, with the open RF concourse. If you hit a ball the exact same way two different days at the Dome, you got the same result. That's not true at TF. Now, I'm fine with that. I don't care if more balls stay in play at TF. I'd just like to see the Twins employ some outfielders who don't have to pull up on every ball hit more than 20 feet away from where they're positioned and don't have to chase every gapper all the way to the wall before picking the ball up. This gives me a chance to post an article that made such an impression with me that I bookmarked it two years ago. http://www.startribune.com/sports/twins/139405888.html My favorite line is this one from Dave St. Peter: "What we did agree to do is to give this another year. And, understand, that even if it plays more toward a pitchers' park, we can use that to our advantage with a pitching staff that largely pitches to contact." How's that working out for you, Dave? (end of rant)

Yes, the Twins' outfield is THAT bad. I've never understood how this organization could, at the same time, recognize that their home field now is conducive to line drive gap hitters who take advantage of the outfield space YET do virtually nothing to emphasize the need for defensive outfielders with exceptional range to cut down the gappers from opposing hitters. From the day Target Field opened its gates, this team has never had a roster constructed to fit the ballpark.

There's no such thing as a "lock" for a rotation spot more than 6 months before the season even starts. Too much crap... most of it bad, assuming the Twins luck continues to run the way it has... can happen between now and Opening Day 2015. You don't know what kind of pitcher Pelfrey will be in April and you can't be any more certain about any of the other rotation candidates. Injuries happen. Cutting him loose now, for no compelling reason, would just be stupid. If... BIG IF... there comes a point in the offseason when his 40 man roster spot is needed for a new FA or someone you trade for or to protect a young player from being lost in the Rule 5 draft, then yes, Pelfrey's spot is one you would have to consider opening up. But unless/until that happens, you bring him to ST with everyone else and you see whether he slots in somewhere based on everyone's performances and potential at that time.

Yeah it was sarcasm, but since the original post contrasted Peterson & Puckett, I think it's fair to point out the muddy waters of using one 'hero' in a discussion of the personal failings of another. I've never struck a woman and did not utilize corporal punishment to discipline my kids. But I'm far from perfect and I'm sure I did other things many people would not approve of. Things I'm not proud of. It's appropriate for awareness to be raised and it's good that we can advance more civilized behavior through drawing attention to instances of abuse. Just think it's also appropriate to take note of who is profiting by shining that spotlight and questioning the motives of such individuals and their employers. It's those that I look forward to seeing placed under similar scrutiny for their own imperfections some day.

Careful. Fitzgerald was an alcoholic who, by some accounts, didn't have exactly a clean "domestic" history. Best be cautious about holding him or anything he said or wrote as being worthy of praise.

Unfortunately (and this may just be a point you & I will not agree on and that's fine), I do think certain members of the media AND their employers do look to destroy athletes. Not "in general," in a way to say they want to destroy all athletes, but there's readership/viewership to be gained by actively attempting to destroy specific athletes. The "meal ticket" is perpetual because there will always be other athletes to replace those they bring down. Sports journalism has become TMZ-ized. The players, by their actions, did bring this on themselves. I'm not feeling sorry for them. I'm sickened by some of their actions. I'm just also sickened by the rabid wolfpack mentality of much of the national and local media. I know. I can simply refuse to watch it. I get to make that choice and, largely, I have done that.

mike, the events were not media created. Rice, Peterson, et al, created the events with their inexcusable actions. The fallout afterward, yeah, more than a little bit media created. You don't need to lecture me on the role of media. I became a journalism major largely because of the work of Woodward & Bernstein. But I don't see the media's role being as the deciders of who should or should not be worthy to have their livelihoods as entertainers destroyed. I've known far too many reporters... especially sports reporters... who have no business casting themselves as morality police on the public's behalf. The unfiltered thrill it gives these people to fill that role just rubs me the wrong way and I'll save my own feelings of satisfied smugness for when I see some of those so-called reporters' lives obliterated.

We can debate what should or shouldn't be the case regarding "heroes," but the fact is that kids will idolize those who are among the best in whatever fields most interest those kids. Maybe it's a sports hero, maybe it's a famous actor or dancer, maybe it's a famous author. That's just how it will be. As parents, you can try to make the point that being great at their jobs doesn't make them great people, but that's about all you can do. Seth, the Puckett and Peterson situations differ in one critical way: Puckett's playing career was over when his personal shortcomings were exposed publicly. I wonder what you would have felt if that darker side to his personality had come to light in 1989 or 90. Would the Twins and/or their fans have shunned him? Would you? How would the media's treatment of him changed (if at all)? I dunno. I just feel like the media has become judge and jury and behaves as if they are the morality police, speaking on behalf of all sports fans. I blame the PED scandals for that, to a degree. Media was complicit in keeping PED use under wraps and now everyone seems to think they have the responsibility to cleanse all of sport of anyone who leads a less than perfect life away from the field. For me, sports figures are entertainers. I can enjoy watching Lethal Weapon movies despite my personal feelings about Mel Gibson. I enjoy Naked Gun movies, even if OJ Simpson played a key role in the films. I enjoy watching and listening to Frank Sinatra, who was far from a choirboy. I won't even go in to the lives of rock stars who I've paid good money to hear and see. Why should it be any more difficult for me to appreciate the talents of a ballplayer who is less than perfect away from the ballpark/stadium/arena? Peterson, Rice, et al, should be held accountable for any crimes they commit. And you're right - if the dialogue and repercussions coming out of this ends up preventing women and children from becoming victims, there is value in this sordid exercise. I just wonder where it stops. Sports media over recent years has decided it's their job to protect the HoF from PED users. Last week, the media was protecting women from Ray Rice. This week they are protecting children from Adrian Peterson. Who will media decide they need to protect us from next week... and from what? Knowing full well all this policing of morality is about ratings and readership does not make me feel warm and fuzzy about the whole process. Maybe the best I can hope for is that, some day, the spotlight will be turned on some of these media "stars" and we'll see how well their own glass houses are constructed.

I think some of you are arguing the extremes of the spectrum. Of course JUST changing management pieces because fans want that is not appropriate. Likewise, saying that changing management would have NO effect is equally absurd. There WILL be new players in 2015. There are always new players. Some will be promoted, some will be signed as FAs. The result, overall, is likely to be much younger team than what the Twins began 2014 with. As I wrote in the article, it's difficult for me to envision Ron Gardenhire being the best choice to lead the next group of young Twins. That being the case, it makes sense to me to identify and hire the person you DO think will be that guy. The combination of new blood on the field AND new blood in field management could very well address the PR issues to a degree, as well. It won't solve them entirely until the team starts winning, but making changes communicates to your fan base that you've noticed things have gone off the tracks and you are taking action to fix those things. In my mind, there are 3 things TR has to consider: 1- Does he feel Gardenhire is the right manager to guide the next generation of Twins over the next 5-7 years? 2- Does he not totally buy in to that, but isn't 100% certain he has identified who IS the heir apparent to Gardy for the nex generation of Twins? 3- Does he feel a degree of loyalty to Gardy based on past performance and Gardy's own loyalty to the Twins? To my mind, there's only one of those factors that justifies keeping the status quo in place. If the GM genuinely feels his current manager is the best man to lead this team, not only now, but in the future, then he should stay with him, regardless of the public's views. If ownership disagrees strongly enough, they have the option of dismissing both men, but otherwise Ryan has to make decisions based on his own beliefs.

I'm probably easier to satisfy than some. I consider the 1965 Twins to have had a championship season. They beat 9 other AL teams over 162 games to claim the AL pennant. If the 2000s Twins had made it TO the World Series once or twice, having won division AND a couple of postseason series to get to the WS, I'd probably be more inclined to call that a successful run, even without the WS championship. But that's just me.

If a change along the lines of Bill Smith becoming GM again occurred, the Twins would end up at the bottom of the standings again. Not sure that's any worse than things right now. May very well be that different things would be screwed up than are being screwed up at the moment, but the results can't get much worse than 4 straight seasons of "winning" top draft picks.

Couple of things: First, thanks for all the comments. Second, for whatever reason, the youtube video URL didn't survive the transition from blog post to article, so here's the link to that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IbStIb9XXw Finally, I'm hoping the discussion doesn't focus solely on the debate over whether the Twins teams of he 2000s were or were not successful. I have some terrific memories of those teams and those players and I believe they gave everything they had in themselves to achieve what they did. They have every reason to be proud of their Division Championships. But, yes, I do feel their talent was wasted because a couple of moves here or there could have made them special - could have at least got them TO a World Series. Only the final season of that run was at Target Field. The rest were during the supposed financially limited Metrodome era. Right or wrong, I tend to give the FO a little pass for those years, under the assumption they were not given the financial flexibility to add the necessary pieces. That is no longer the case and, as I focus on the future, rather than the past, there can be no excuse regarding lack of available finances. In response to one question raised, yes, I do feel THIS year's failure was more on the manager/coaches than last year was. FA talent was added (imagine the record if Hughes had NOT been signed). Could things have worked out better with Nolasco? Sure. But I believe the manager got the 25 man roster out of spring training that he wanted and I don't think he can blame the GM for not doing a better job of fixing the roster mistakes on the fly during the season. Bottom line is that I still trust Terry Ryan to identify baseball talent, but I do not trust Gardenhire and Anderson to appropriately utilize that talent once it comes on board.

The Minnesota Twins' front office is going to be faced with making some difficult decisions this offseason-- decisions they are woefully ill-prepared to make. Many professional sports organizations change their on-field management at least as often as they change accounting firms. It's just part of the way they do business. When you lose more games than you win for a couple years in a row, you change managers/head coaches and even front office leadership. It just becomes second nature. Much the way swimming becomes second nature to anyone who has spent much time in the water.But the very idea of changing field management/coaching staff must, for the Twins ownership and front office, seem as incomprehensible as diving off a cliff into a river would be to someone who doesn't know how to swim. For those of you who don't know how that scene of Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid turned out, both outlaws survived their jump and their trip down river just fine and lived happily ever after, at least until they decided to move to Bolivia. The most famous quote from that movie scene is, "The fall will probably kill you." But, for the Twins' purposes, I'd focus on Butch's earlier point. "We've got to, otherwise we're dead." I think the same is true of the Twins if they foolishly decide to keep the status quo regarding their field management. I know that changing managers and coaching staff just is not something the people who run the Twins are comfortable with.They know the guys they have. They may not be winning much, but they HAVE won in the past, so they MIGHT win again, no matter how hopelessly unlikely that may seem to be at the moment. If the people who run the Twins decide to (shudder) make changes, there is no guarantee that the new guys will be any better. After all, how many people in the Twins front office have actually gone swimming in the deep waters that go along with the process of interviewing candidates for a major league manager? Figuratively, they don't know how to swim! At some point, though, they're going to have to realize that NOT taking that leap means the organization is almost certain to continue their current death spiral. Once you consider that the worst thing that can happen when you take that big jump off a cliff is the same thing that's going to happen if you don't, it's really not that hard to just holler, "Ohhhhh (expletive)," and make the leap. Once you've taken the leap and decided you will not simply go on doing business the same way you have for the past three decades, you can get down to the business of figuring out who is best suited to turn the next group of raw-but-talented young ballplayers into a contending major league team. Maybe it's someone on the Twins' current big league bench, such as Paul Molitor or Tom Brunansky. Maybe it's one of the organization's excellent full-season minor league managers--all four having guided their respective team to a winning record in 2014, by the way. Maybe it's someone from outside the Twins organization altogether. But first things first. If they haven't already, the Twins' decision-makers need to conclude that there is literally nothing that can happen that would be any worse than continuing to fight it out with the status quo. To do so would send a terrible message to a fan base which simply will not tolerate another do-nothing offseason and continue to buy tickets for a 2015 season that does not come with the benefit of All-Star Game tickets. There is a lot of talent set to arrive at Target Field in the next couple years. The names, both familiar and unfamiliar to Twins fans, include Buxton, Sano, Meyer, Berrios, Polanco, Gordon, Burdi, Kepler, Harrison, Kanzler, Stewart, Thorpe, Gonsalves, Turner, Garver, Walker and many more, could well become cornerstones of the next great Minnesota Twins team. The class of Mauer, Morneau, Cuddyer, Baker, et al, has been wasted. We could discuss "why" this class failed to bring a championship to Minnesota, but that's pointless. What matters now is making sure that the upcoming class is not similarly wasted and that process begins with asking ourselves who would be the best choices as manager and field coaches to get the most of their talent. I'm not sure who that person is, though I certainly have some favorites among the likely possibilities.What I think has become abundantly clear, however, is that manager Ron Gardenhire and pitching coach Rick Anderson are not the right choices. The decision to dismiss them is not easy for a front office like that of the Twins. I respect that, actually. Letting go of loyal and, at times, effective employees should not be easy - certainly not as easy as it seems to be for many owners and general managers in professional sports. But sometimes it's absolutely necessary. Even the most devoted fans of Gardy and Andy in the front office must, by now, be having a hard time envisioning that duo effectively leading the upcoming group of 20-year-olds to championships. With fresh talent, fresh eyes and fresh approaches are necessary. It's possible (and perhaps even quite likely) that Gardenhire and Anderson could provide that fresh approach to another organization. I hope they can, as long as it's not in the AL Central, because I think they're good men who know something about baseball. But just as a young Tom Kelly was the perfect fit for a young group of Twins in the mid-to-late 1980s, it's time to find new management to work with the next wave of young Twins.There's no reason to wait another year, prolonging the inevitable.It's time for the Twins' front office and ownership to take the leap off that cliff and live to fight another day. Just don't move the team to Bolivia. That would not end well. Click here to view the article