< In the category of "Say it ain't so!" | Main | Bye Bret >

Har har

Posted at 1:35 PM on August 1, 2005 by Bob Collins (9 Comments)

Moneyball, was dissed on the site a few months ago. The feeling seemed to be that Barry Zito, Tim Hudson, and Mark Mulder can make anyone smart and the A's were struggling. The joke was on us for buying the notion that brains can compensate for poverty.

In the off-season, Hudson and Mulder were dispatched. A couple of other free agents were allowed to be, well, free.

So who's laughing now? Oakland is now a game in front of the fast-sinking Twins for the wild card spot. They've swung a few deals in the last week and they never once seemed to make a deal in which the contract of the obtainee made the fans say, "well, it can't hurt." (Are there any Bret Boone apologists still around?)

Billy Beane is a decent GM who is a genius.

Terry Ryan is a decent GM who is not.

Comments (9)

it's aug 1st and offically football season for this twinks fan. thanks for the laughs guys. it's been real. see ya'll next spring.

Posted by kinsella | August 1, 2005 5:19 PM

Check the standings. The Twins are four games behind Oakland, not one.

Posted by KEN | August 1, 2005 5:54 PM

the a's missed the playoffs last year and the twins didn't............neither men are "geniuses", that term is thrown around way too much.............one thing is for sure though, billy beane has a better head of hair.............

Posted by daveZ | August 2, 2005 8:46 AM

Billy Beane consistently pulls rabbits out of his hat and constantly figures out how to do something that others cannot do consistently. The man can turn over a roster like nobody's business and still compete.

The Twins can compete too, no question about it. But the passive nature of roster management caught up with them this year. Everyone and their brother knew Bret Boone wasn't the answer and was probably going to lead to even fewer runs being scored.

Terry Ryan looked at the salaries and said "good deal."

Only it wasn't.

Maybe if he'd spent the time actually trying to solve the secondbase/offense problem, and the intervening weeks before the trade deadline, there'd be some hope for the position and for the team.

And it might actually be interesting to watch a ballgame.

Posted by Bob Collins | August 2, 2005 12:41 PM

Bob --

You are on it. TR should have solved this problem. He should have solved it in the off-season instead of giving proven non-performer Luis Rivas over $1.6 million, non-player Juan Castro a two-year deal at over a million per, and deciding to keep Jones at $5 million. The Twins paid their five opening day starting infielders fewer than $3 million (and Rivas got over half of that!!!) and their three outfielders almost $20 million. That's bad resource allocation. That's why Jones should have been non tendered and they should have found at least one actual every day infielder to play a position not manned by Justin Morneau or Joe Mauer.

Posted by SBG | August 3, 2005 8:03 AM

yeah -- ryan is terrible, they should fire him. the twins should make the playoffs every year and should sign these phantom players that are far better than the ones they have but play for the same price -- who are they again??

Posted by daveZ | August 3, 2005 8:45 AM

daveZ -- Joe Randa could have been had in the off season for about Rivas' salary. Last I checked he was playing just a little better than Rivas and oh, by the way, he's not a phantom. And, I am not second guessing, I said at the time (check the archives of my site) that the Twins should sign Randa and dump Rivas.

Posted by SBG | August 3, 2005 10:36 AM

And don't tell me that Randa wouldn't come here -- he said publicly that he wanted to play for the Twins. And, since when does making critisms mean that anyone thinks Ryan should be fired? I've never advocated that. I think that overall he's done a very good job and is one of the better GMs in baseball. That doesn't mean I have to agree with EVERY SINGLE MOVE HE'S MADE.

Posted by SBG | August 3, 2005 10:39 AM

i am on record as a randa guy too, but do you really think he would have made that much of a difference this year? he's a complementary player and the twins need a stud. the problem is that there aren't many studs around and the ones that are around are very expensive. so the twins will have to develop their own studs -- better hope mauer and morneau come through.

ryan has made his share of the mistakes, but to start piling on him is a knee-jerk and short-sighted.

Posted by daveZ | August 3, 2005 11:05 AM

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