Comments on: Twins Notes: Blackburn, Nishioka, Tosoni, Carson, Parmelee, and Slama

By: thegeneral13

thegeneral13 — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 15:25:01 +0000

Aaaaand another missed diagnosis with Pavano is revealed. What a joke.

Longtimefan…wow. You put Billy Madison to shame.

By: Longtimefan

Longtimefan — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 11:24:17 +0000

The manager has several choices with players signed to contracts the manager doesn’t own. He didn’t negotiate the contract nor was he counsel on behalf of the player or ownership. Gardy didn’t make an offer nor did he withhold an offer. Gardy presents the “stat sheet” he has on the player that he obtained from the same source as our esteemed mathematician. He also has the inside knowledge on an aspect of his personality, perhaps. Perhaps not and that knowledge more likely rests with the minor league coaches and staff and rumor-mill, the gossip at the cafe in Florida or one of Tiger Wood’s street friends. They knew that about their former 3rd basemen, now faded into history, didn’t they? What did that get them?
From a “managers” position, he can throw the kid under the bus and alienate a portion of the club house, or, let the “team” settle the issue and bake trouble on the team by stoking fire. The manager can throw him under the bus in private or public, but suckers (advanced ticket purchasers) complain no matter what management does, because suckers buy no matter what. Gardy is not throwing the kid under the bus in public, or his boss the owner will throw him under the bus literally. It never pays to publically humiliate someone, unless you are a known public drunk (Billy Martin) whose boss is a known, world-class psychopath (Steinbrick) and the sea of suckers is beyond the imagination of the inventors of satellite television revenue accountants.
Gardy and his staff are doing extremely well under the circumstances. The “banker” boys are cheap for the sake of cheapness, and why not, they have taxpayor on the hook while curled around their finga.

By: Pedro Munoz

Pedro Munoz — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 16:49:10 +0000

I should be happy that the Twins have cut bait on these guys, but between Gardy’s comments on Blackburn and Nishioka’s promotion, I don’t have any confidence that this team has any idea what its doing.

Can I get a Deduno shirt yet?

By: Jake

Jake — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 16:47:40 +0000

Mike… I agree. We need to clean house… but I don’t think players eating up payroll is the problem. I think we need Farm System, Front office, coaching, training staff house cleaning. THEN we can deal with players and being willing to spend on some hard throwing pitchers… or anyone NOT named Blackburn…

By: Jason W

Jason W — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 16:27:54 +0000

2013′s already lost, with guys like Morneau ($14m), Blackburn ($5.5m), and Nishi ($3m) on the books. By ’14, we’ll have cleared that away and maybe guys like Gibson and Sano will be ready to contribute. That’s what we have to look forward to.

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 16:22:14 +0000

The Twins have reverted back to the Senators: First in peace, first in war and last in the American League. 114-169 over 2011-12 I’m not sure a couple new players will turn that around. IMO a house cleaning is in order.

By: Jake

Jake — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 14:59:15 +0000

It continues to astound me that there isn’t SOMEONE IN the organization that is saying,

“Hey… you know what? Pitching to contact isn’t working very well for us. Maybe we should review our prospects and training methods?”
OR
“Gee our ‘day-to-day’ injuries seem to last a long time and THEN we have an MRI or surgery… I wonder what’s up with that?”

Are those in the front office content with being the Phillies from 1938-1945 or the 62-68 Mets? I just don’t get it… For SO long it seemed that the Pohlads were happy to line their own pockets while the team struggled as a “small market” and the fan base wilted. We were defeated. Then we got guys like Johan Santana & Joe Mauer that revived us as fans! Then a New Stadium in the build up from almost a decade of in-season success (Division Championships but little post-season success). Then, after one strong season in the new ballpark (and a sweet FSN TV deal) the front office pulls the reigns back to line their pockets again and “reduce payroll” while the team struggles.

I don’t begrudge the team paying Mauer and Morneau… welcome to MLB 2012… Just like I don’t begrudge Steinbrenner for spending bank to build what he hopes will be the best team in baseball in any given year! You have to build the best team you can. (I think most people hate the Yankees not because they spend money but because they are a$$hats — well… most of them — well… mostly A-Roid)

I wish SOMEONE in the front office seemed to give a rip about baseball and not just bottom line. And I wish the farm system leadership and the training and coaching staffs would at least CONSIDER that their methods are not working so well. Gardys comment about Blackburn should be the NAIL in the coffin. If he thinks Blackburn is a viable option in a Major League starting rotation he should not be managing a Major league ball club. Simple as that.

If this keeps up, in 10-20 years we’ll be having the same conversation we were having not too many years ago about contraction or moving the team because they were so bad… remember that?

To quote Adam Sandler (Wedding Singer) “See, Billy Idol gets it. I don’t know why she doesn’t get it.”
http://bit.ly/rP4HvK

By: Dave T

Dave T — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 14:23:40 +0000

You were right about Blackburn. Sinker ball pitchers can be successful in the majors, but not this one.

On a happier note, Duensing pitched better last night than I’ve ever seen him. Florimon looks to be the infield version of Revere. He ran down that fly ball to short left, and startled the heck out of Willingham (who caught the ball). A very satisfying game to watch. Too bad it didn’t start until 9PM. Let’s have more of those!

By: clint

clint — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 05:02:03 +0000

Holy smokes…the Twins organization is just bucketfuls of crap these days. They had/have the good fortune of a sweet new ballpark & the additional revenue it generates, but the dung pile could seemingly fill the joint by now.