Nothing against Terry Ryan because he has been a great GM for the Twins but...

 

KW would have been absolutely KILLED on this board if his biggest moves in the last two years were adding Tony Batista, Rondell White, Sidney Ponson and Ramon Ortiz.

 

 

Ryan was slaughted for making those moves except for Ortiz on most of the Twins blogs (Some thought Ortiz was an OK signing, not much money for maybe a servaceable player)

 

from the press conference, Ryan sounded like he was burned out on administrative stuff. So he is going to be a player evaluator and this Bill Smith guy sounds like more of an administrator.

 

At least Ryan left with parts in place. Things were terrible in the late 90's, and Ryan should get credit for making the Twins a small/mid market powerhouse (but just not enough oomph to win in the playoffs)

Was Ryan responsible for this?

 

December 16, 2002: Released by the Minnesota Twins.

Would anyone trade the last ten years of Sox results with the Twin's results? I wouldn't. We see what he did in the free agent market the last two seasons. I'm not that impressed. So multiply those acquisitions ten fold with more money. Meh. I'm not saying KW is better, just saying I don't think he's the second coming where an organization should dump everything and follow. Perhaps if he had put together a team that won it all, then maybe . . .

Obiously winning it all once trumps winning it all zero times. You do have to give the guy credit for having his team in position to win often. He did play with a shoestring budget, but money doesn't always make you even better GM, ask KW. Who knows, if the Twins spent more, maybe they draft Prior instead of Mauer. Maybe they hang on to AJP and don't get Nathan, Bonzer and Liriano. He did built it the right way, through the minor leagues. It took him a few seasons to get it going, but it was a good run after that.

how sweet it would be to have him as our head of scouting, if not GM.

how sweet it would be to have him as our head of scouting, if not GM.

Now that's a nice thought, and maybe even an outside possibility, if Ryan isn't sticking within the Twins organization. Unfortunately, I think its a waaaaaaaay outside possibility.

 

I'm not going to bash the Twins too much, but didn't they take the equivalent of Jason Tyner with their first-rounder this year?

Was Ryan responsible for this?

 

December 16, 2002: Released by the Minnesota Twins.

 

Plenty of GMs release perennial MVP candidates. It ain't no thing but a chicken wing.

Plenty of GMs release perennial MVP candidates. It ain't no thing but a chicken wing.

 

It's "It ain't no thang but a chicken wang." C'mon HJ, I thought you were Hip.

David Ortiz is a funny guy. I like him, he's so friendly and loveable, but I'd be shocked if the Twins were that wrong on a player.

It's "It ain't no thang but a chicken wang." C'mon HJ, I thought you were Hip.

 

I promised myself that I'd never talk about wangs on here. That's fathom's department.

Ryan has been outstanding in Minn, he made a ton af great moves.

1 team released David Ortiz. 2 teams traded for and 3 teams released Carlos Pena.

 

Just for comparison's sake.

2 teams traded for and 3 teams released Carlos Pena.

 

I still can't get over the fact that Carlos is slugging .612.

 

1. Alex Rodriguez .667

2. Ryan Braun .641

3. Prince Fielder .613

4. Carlos Pena .612

5. David Ortiz .599

 

Sure, you could see that he had 100+ walk potential and pretty good power when he was with the Tigers, but he was also hitting like .240. He's currently at .280, which is quite an accomplishment considering that he's 29 years of age with a lifetime .250 average in over 2000 ABs. I won't go so far as to call this season a fluke, but I definitely want to see if he can do it again in 2008.

I still can't get over the fact that Carlos is slugging .612.

 

1. Alex Rodriguez .667

2. Ryan Braun .641

3. Prince Fielder .613

4. Carlos Pena .612

5. David Ortiz .599

 

Sure, you could see that he had 100+ walk potential and pretty good power when he was with the Tigers, but he was also hitting like .240. He's currently at .280, which is quite an accomplishment considering that he's 29 years of age with a lifetime .250 average in over 2000 ABs. I won't go so far as to call this season a fluke, but I definitely want to see if he can do it again in 2008.

 

I think he's legit; maybe more blind hope than anything else really, but the last two late 20s lefty sluggers to develop both came from the Red Sox organization via some other organization - David Ortiz and Carlos Pena, who was signed by the Red Sox on August 17th of last year. That lineup with Pena in it would be absolutely ridiculous. It also speaks volumes about their coaching staff.

 

At the least, I expect him to be back at about .260/.380/.520, but that'd still be a monstrous dropoff in power...perhaps even .260/.380/.560 is more realistic. I really don't know. I just know he's having an absolutely monstrous year in Tampa, and I wanted him in the offseason.

Seattle gave up on Ortiz first. The Twins acquired him in a trade for Dave Hollins. Ortiz was actually a PTBNL.

 

The Twins gave up on Ortiz because he was always injured. And they had Doug Mientkiewicz at the time and Justin Morneau waiting in the wings

.270 hitters with 20+ HRs don't deserve to be released though.

 

Traded maybe, but not released.

you may be right on that

but then, why were the Red Sox the only team to give Ortiz an offer (if memory serves me right)

Hindsight is great. Sometime you let a guy go and he suck, sometimes you let a guy go and he's good. Dems da breaks.

.270 hitters with 20+ HRs don't deserve to be released though.

 

Traded maybe, but not released.

He was technically non-tendered. The Twins have the cheapest owner in sports, when you don't mention Bill Wirtz.

He was technically non-tendered. The Twins have the cheapest owner in sports, when you don't mention Bill Wirtz.

 

Just so there is a discussion, the cheapest owner (or worst) in sports title should be retired with Dollar Bill Worst. It should always be assumed you mean the second cheapest or second worst . . .