Tag: Bill Smith

Twins Need to Make Some Moves

June 8, 2008 – Well, 62 games have come and gone and there are 100 games left to play and the Twins are sitting with a .500 record. After losing Hunter and Santana and going into the season with a no name starting pitching staff you have to think that playing .500 baseball would satisfy most fans as they watch some of the young players gain experience but apparently that is not the case. That kind of surprises me because this team is fun to watch most of the time but there will be games that will make you wonder. The loss of Hunter and Santana does seem to have negatively impacted attendance as average Twins home attendance in 2008 has dropped to 24,234 from an average of 28,350 in 2007. On the road the Twins are not a good draw either, as only one team, the Baltimore Orioles have attracted fewer fans then Minnesota has. Seldom near the top in overall attendance, the Twins are currently 23rd in overall attendance as compared to 22nd in 2007. Hopefully the fans will get behind this team as it has some stars like Morneau, Mauer, and Nathan and some stars in the making like Gomez, Casilla, and Young. This team just needs experience to challenge for a division title.

Having said that, I am very frustrated with Twins management failure to do something to plug the hole they have had at 3B for years. If this is a young team getting used to playing with each other and getting experience, why are the Twins sending out Lamb to play 3B? Lamb is certainly not a stellar 3B nor the power hitter that the Twins thought they were getting, he has limited range and his throws to first are almost always an adventure. He has provided no power to-date. Geez, get the guy out of there and bring up somebody from the minors that can play the position and let him get some experience. What have the Twins got to lose? Realistically they are not in the division race although they are only 4 games out and the experience gained by a young 3B would be invaluable. What do we gain by sending Lamb out there day after day? If Twins management thinks they are in this race, then do something, make a deal for a REAL 3B and let Lamb do what he does best, pinch hit and play 1B & 3B enough to rest the regulars. So Mr. Smith, you signed Lamb for 2 years, admit the mistake and let’s move on, don’t keep tying Gardenhire’s hands behind his back by forcing him to send Lamb out to 3B day after day.

The pitching staff needs your attention too Mr. Smith, make a deal and sending Boof somewhere where he can get another chance to get in the rotation and acquire some young talent for us to build on. Rincon has shown that he is done here in Minnesota, why do we keep sending him out there? He will probably not fetch much in a trade but I think we have a case here for addition by subtraction, bring Korecky back and he can fill Rincon’s spot, he can’t do any worse. If nothing else, bring Danny Graves up and give him another shot.

Color Delmon Young gone

Delmon Young
Delmon Young

The Twins payroll reduction began yesterday when the Twins finally gave up on Delmon Young whom they had acquired from Tampa in 2007 for pitcher Matt Garza and shortstop Jason Bartlett and sent him packing to the first place Detroit Tigers of all places. The Twins acquired High-A ball pitcher Cole Nelson, a Minnesota native and a player to be named later who was announced today as minor league reliever Lester Oliveros.

Cole Nelson is a 22 year lefty and stands 6’ 7” and goes about 235. The Twins like their pitchers big and Nelson fits the mold. Nelson played baseball at Edina High School and went on to play for Des Moines Community College before moving on to Auburn. Nelson was drafted in the 10th round in 2010 by the Tigers and started his pro career in rookie ball in 2010.

Lester Oliveros was signed by the Tigers as an amateur free agent in 2005 and has been working his way up the Tigers minor league system since 2006. The 6’ 225 pound Venezuelan right-handed Oliveros has been used exclusively as a relief pitcher since 2006 and he has struck out 317 batters in 254+ innings and has a 3.22 ERA. On the down side, Oliveros averages 4 walks per 9 innings.

It would be easy to say that GM Smith should have traded Young after last season when he hit 21 home runs and knocked in 112 runs but it did not happen so now we have to hope that one or both of these prospect pitchers come through. I think that the Twins have a bad habit of holding on to players and prospects too long and then getting nothing for them when they have a bad season or do not live up to their potential. I would rather see the Twins trade a player a year or two too early verses holding on to them too long and walking away empty-handed.

Lots of smoke but no fire

GM Bill Smith
GM Bill Smith

As the July 31 trade deadline approached, the Twins seemed to be in the middle of a number of possible trade discussions with players such as Kevin Slowey, Denard Span, Jason Kubel, Michael Cuddyer, Jose Mijares, Delmon Young, and Jim Thome all supposedly in the mix to change uniforms. But the Twins and GM Bill Smith found themselves between a rock and a hard-spot on what to do with a team that seems to have hit a plateau at 6 games out after coming out of the chute like a herd of turtles and found themselves 20 games under .500 on June 1st. According to a recent clip I saw on TV, no team in MLB history that has been 20 games under has ever come back to finish above the .500 mark. But on the other hand, no one in the Central Division seems to want to take the lead and run with it. The Kansas City Royals started the season hot as a pistol but soon tanked and found themselves rebuilding with some young and up and coming stars. The Chicago White Sox can’t seem to get their act together and struggle to hang around the .500 mark. The surprising Cleveland Indians are probably in over their heads but have been putting up a good fight but they have too many injuries to key players and are too young to be taken too seriously. The Detroit Tigers are leading the pack right now and as I see it, will win the division just because they are the best team in a bad division in 2011.

But getting back to Minnesota, what was Smith to do? I can see no way that with the way the Jekyll and Hyde Twins have played this season that ownership would authorize the payroll to increase by any substantial amount. So if Smith wanted to make some additions to say the relief core, he would also have to move some payroll to free up some dollars. On the other hand, the Twins could have become sellers and started a rebuilding process but the fans in Twins Territory would have gone “nuts” if the Twins threw up the white flag while being only six games out on July 31. The Twins sell out almost every home game and giving up just does not seem like the right thing to do even though the chances of this team winning the division are slim and none. So what should be done?

The solution as it turns out was relatively simple, the answer was to be neither a buyer nor a seller and just let things continue the way they are for the time being. All Smith had to do is keep saying no to any deal that was not stacked in favor of the home team and the only deal he would make would be on where the Twins came out smelling like a rose. Like the deal that was much ballyhooed where the Twins would send Span to Washington and hopefully get closer Drew Storen, outfielder Roger Bernadina, and 2B Steve Lombardozzi. But Washington did not want to part with Storen and Smith passed on Troy Clippard. If a miracle happens and the Twins catch fire, just play it out and hope for the best. If the Twins tank, there is always the waiver wire or just let the season come to a merciful end and deal with your potential free agent fallout. Besides, this team can’t be this bad again next year, the team was snake bit with injuries in 2011 and what are the odds of it happening again? But the Twins do have holes and a bit of a tune-up with some new parts just might make this sputtering 4 cylinder engine come to life again as the V-8 that all of us Twins fans expected in 2011.

GM Bill Smith isn’t as dumb as some make him out to be, he went from being in an impossible situation of deciding between buying and selling to finding himself in the position of being right no matter where the Twins finish in the standings. If the Twins don’t win the division and finish third or fourth, he was right not to be a buyer, why waste the money. If the Twins make a serious run but still lose, he can take the position that we did not need to make any moves, we just needed our players to get healthy and start playing the way they are capable of playing and it is a good thing that he wasn’t a seller or the Twins would not have made this great come-back.

But Mr. Smith is not totally off the hook here. Sure the Twins had their run of injuries, but their play in 2011 is not all about injuries. There are questions that need to be asked. Is Nishioka really as bad as he has played in 2011? How do the Twins avoid a repeat of the 2011 bullpen woes? Is the Twins starting staff going to take a step forward or is it time to blow it up? What does he do about Cuddyer and Kubel as they enter free agency?

What would I have done if I had been in Smith’s shoes? I would have done pretty much what Smith did, nothing, but I am working at a disadvantage here, I don’t know what the other teams offered for Kubel or Cuddyer. For sure I would have sent Thome packing; he is just wasting a roster spot as the Twins wait for him to hit home run number 600. I assume they were offered next to nothing for Slowey or he would be gone by now, but now that Blackburn has pitched so poorly of late, maybe it is time to give Slowey a shot at Blackie’s spot?