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All the Good Things and the Bad Things That May Be
Way too early to react to this activity. Especially with more, apparently, to come.
Here's what the TWT boys have been aruging about today:
Are the Twins rebuilding or contending in 2008? I am firmly on the side of "If we're not f'ing contending now, then how will we ever be?". Smitty appears to be more in the "Buy low, sell high...we're building for the future" camp. While Kaiser has positioned himself in the "Yeah, the Celtics are really good" bandwagon.
You can argue all day about what the hell new GM Bill Smith is doing...but we won't really know until Santana is either traded or signed. So, for now, we'll be concentrating on justifying the name of this blog and stroking Kevin Garnett ever so gently (that's how he likes it).
In the meantime; Here are my suggestions for identifying current and potential Twins players: (handy for both fans and Gardenhire's alike!)
Joe Mauer: He's the one with the halo, sideburns, and cheese dripping down his chin
Justin Morneau: He's the one wearing a tattered "2006 MVP" tee-shirt, with a bottle of Jeri Curl sticking out of his hockey bag
Delmon Young: He'll be the one with the heavy winter coat listening to Gardy talk about how important it is to "go with the pitch...the home runs will come".
Johan Santana: Don't look for him. It was all a dream. He never actually existed.
Brendan Harris: I assume he looks exactly like Jason Bartlett.
Melky Cabrera: He'll be the one with the EXTREMELY disappointed look on his face.
Scott Baker: He looks like he's twelve and he should be wearing a "Fuck You, Matt Garza" tee-shirt.
Craig Monroe: Who?
Torii Hunter: Three words: Shit. Eating. Grin.
8 comments:
Oh yeah, I forgot about Craig Monroe. That was back when our hot stove was a George Foreman bun-warmer, and now we've upgraded to a Little Smokey.
Everyone "contends" every year. Like Herm Edwards says, "that's why we play the game.". Are you going to tell me that this team, seemingly, minus Santana is really serious about winning a World Series this year? Using Willy's comment today about we are the Cleveland of two years ago, you un-load the proven talent for some younger pieces not available in the system, let them play on the field, improve and add go from there.
At some point you need to pay for talent cause really good ball players are not a dime a dozen. Johan, Jeter, Holliday are not a dime a dozen & need to be paid. At some point you need to risk more to get more.
Smitty, you are basically talking about the model that the Marlins and DBacks have used. Now pardon my ignorance about not knowing personal beyond the American League Central, but did those guys "go out and pay for talent" during those runs? To my recollection, not really.
The Twins were (not sure about "are" yet) the kind of team under Ryan that would rather pay 500K for Morneau and then have him 'accidentally' win the AL MVP, or pay pre-arbitration dollars for Delmon Young and hope he blows up then pay market value for an established player. Do we really think this basic MO is going to change? Seriously, do we?
This all begs the question then...in terms of managing the roster, what kind of team are we? What is our philosophy? Are we the new Montreal Expos? Do we develop All-Stars, manipulate their playing time to keep their arbitration at bay, and then wrap them in a bow, and ship them off to New York and Boston packed in styrofoam peanuts? Or is it on a case-by-case basis? Long term contracts for identified nucleus guys (bonus points for you if you're one-of-us), trade cast-offs for talent, build from within, and sign a few third-tier guys whenever it's time to "make a run" (read: first year of the new stadium).
Did you really just quote Herm Edwards? I...I'm not sure how to react to that. My irony sensor is broken.
I'm with Josh. We nicely wrap up our top players with big shiny bows and send them to the coasts, and it sucks. If something isn't done about the massive and growing gulf between teams, this year's World Series is going to keep happening every year and it's going to be boring as hell and will make me want to kill all of my friends in Boston and New York. Run on sentence!
That said, I'm totally ready to participate in KG stroking (of any kind).
Name me two players BEFORE this year that we've had to unload to one of the "coasts" because they were too good and too expensive?
I can only think of one. And his name rhymes with Buck Knoblauch.
We may be BECOMING that team...but i'd argue we haven't BEEN that team.
Agreed.
I have twisted logic that you're rightfully highlighting, because in one paragraph I'm talking about ALL sports (sacrilege, I know) but also specifically citing the World Series.
I'd say good is a highly relative term, but in thinking about solid players (at the time) that the Twins let go of in which money played a role? David Ortiz. Jacque Jones. Corey Koskie. Cristian Guzman. Sometimes we ended up with people who were better, sometimes we didn't.
Still. Whatever. It sucks. All this is to say that I'm a casual fan, so I'm representing the average person's thoughts here, really don't know shit, and don't want to pretend that I can run with the big boys of this blog.
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