Fire Gardy

After a far-too-long hiatus* from posting things here, I’ve got an update about Mauer and his health here that I’d like to talk about briefly.

“He’s doing very well,” Smith said. “We’ve gotten all good reports. I think he’s pleased and looking forward to a fairly normal offseason and normal preparation for spring training.”

Mauer apparently was in Baltimore to see a doctor for an examination — why do so many of the Twins’ players seem to see doctors in Baltimore? Can’t they go to local doctors, or the Mayo clinic? — and the doctors gave him a clean bill of health. Great, right?

* I’ve had a lot of work-related work to do over the last few months. We just hit our deadline, though, so I’ll hopefully have time to get back to Twins stuff for much of the offseason.

Well, I think we’ve all made the joke that Mauer’s (lack of) preparation for the 2009 season may have led to his offensive explosion; he wasn’t tired from working out all winter, and that extra energy may have been converted into fly balls to left carrying an extra 8 feet or so. Impossible to say, really, but Mauer’s power output declined as the season progressed and dwindled back to normal levels by the time September rolled around.

A “normal” offseason of weight training and expending his apparently-much-needed energy may well be the last thing the Twins want. Unless, of course, they want to wait a year to extend his contract and are hoping he doesn’t have another career year, driving his price tag way up.* I hope that’s not what they’re thinking, because that’s exactly what they did with Morneau a few years back, and waiting a year added probably $30M to his price tag.

* Also, I seriously doubt that the Yankees and Red Sox will sour on Mauer if he has another “pedestrian” Mauer-year, dropping to something like .290/.380/.420 like he did in 2005 and 2007 … it’s worth pointing out that that still makes him the best offensive catcher in the game, and also that those teams are too smart to make a long-term judgement about a player based on a small sample. His value isn’t going to go down no matter what he does in 2010, short of a career-threatening injury which I’m certain the Twins aren’t hoping for, and can only go up. If he wins the Modern Triple Crown again and manages to top 30 HR and 100 RBI, and the Twins don’t have him under contract, we can kiss him good bye.

Joe C got Mauer’s input on the health update:

Mauer confirmed via text, writing, “Things r looking good.”

And I have exactly one thing to say about that: Is it even remotely possible that Joe Mauer doesn’t have an iPhone? It’s time to give up that old-school text-spelling, Joe.

Oh, and speaking of Mauer’s contract, his agent is in Baltimore too, and they’re expected to discuss his next deal. So in case you didn’t have anything to worry about right now, at least there’s this.

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Well, Morneau is out for the rest of the year.  He has a stress fracture in his back, which was revealed by a CT scan yesterday.  That certainly is a bummer, but hopefully we can rally and end the season on a positive note by winning some games for Mr. Morneau.

5.5 back, 7 left to play against Detroit, their magic number is 14. Lets stay focused. Go Twins.

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Yesterday, as I’m sure everyone knows by now, the White Sox acquired Alex Rios from the Blue Jays. Rios is the best position player on the Blue Jays, is 28 years old, and is under contract for the next 5 years. You might think the cost to acquire such a player would be staggering. You might think that if Bill Smith were to have engaged the Jays to ask for a trade, he’d come back and tell us they asked for our entire AA and AAA team, along with the Mississippi River and half of downtown Minneapolis. You don’t just get star-level position players in their prime for peanuts!

Well, actually, if you’re Kenny Williams of the White Sox, you can keep your peanuts. Because the cost to acquire Rios was … nothing!

It’s a good thing nobody’s come out to question Smith about what he really means when he says the cost in prospects is too high for certain players. Because most of them move around to other teams for a lot less than he claims was demanded. You can either believe that teams are deliberately keeping the price really high just for the Twins, or you can believe that Bill Smith is a timid/incompetent negotiator, or that he’s just afraid to do anything and is lying about everything. I’m leaning towards incompetence,* with maybe a little bit of liar thrown in.

* Hey, at least he’s better than JP Ricciardi!

The Twins made their big trade acquisition Orlando Cabrera, and the White Sox went and got Peavy. I didn’t much care for either move,* but I am particularly down on Peavy this year and in the coming years. Either way, there’s no doubt that Williams was more aggressive that Smith in trying to improve his team both now and in the future. Then the Twins make their splash on the waiver wire, trading away a minor leaguer to be named later to get The Disabled List** into the starting rotation. And the White Sox respond by picking up a great outfielder in Alex Rios and give up nothing. Literally, nothing.

* Although the Cabrera trade has been working out great so far.

** As you may know, during Pavano’s tenure with the Yankees, any time a player would get injured and go on the DL, the other players would call it “going on the Pavano.” I think that’s brilliant, and I’m trying to go with the reverse here. As in, instead of calling the DL the Pavano, I’m calling Pavano the Disabled List. I’m going to go ahead and say this could be as good a nickname as “The Blackburn” is. I’m going with it.

A lot of people have been saying the Blue Jays just had to get out from under Rios’s terrible albatross of a contract. Fangraphs has been doing a good job of discounting that bullshit:

Rios is a +3.5 to +4.5 win player in the prime of his career, and he’s due to make just under $60 million for the next five years. This is a really good contract for the Jays.* Rios is an outstanding player being paid less than his market value. He’s as far from being a Wells-like albatross as you could possibly get.

Vernon Wells contract is awful, and the Jays have to regret giving it to him every single day. Alex Rios’ contract is very good, and he’s one of the pieces Toronto should be building around. They are in no way similar.

* Yeah, this was written a few weeks ago, before JP Ricciardi sealed his fate by letting this contract go. Now it’s a good contract for the White Sox.

Alex Rios has an albatross contract in the exact same way that Delmon Young has a bad attitude. Which is to say that he’s an outfielder on a team that happens to have another outfielder with a big problem — in Rios’s case, Vernon Wells is in a virtual tie with Barry Zito for the worst contract in baseball; and in Young’s case, it was actually Elijah Dukes that had all the personal off the field problems — and since most sportswriters can’t be bothered to learn the names of players who don’t play in either their own market or in a real market like Boston or New York, these guys are elided into one amalgamation of a bad guy/contract because of nothing more than proximity.

So the White Sox improve their team this year, and assuming that Rios’s BABIP regresses to something realistic, they’ve improved themselves dramatically for next year and the next few years. Rios was an All Star caliber player exactly one year ago, and he’s doing all the same things now except his BABIP has dropped. It’ll come right back, and he’ll once again be great.

Twins fans, meanwhile, get to hope that Delmon Young turns his career around (and soon) so they don’t longingly eye every ledge they pass, wondering what it’d be like to replace the worst player in baseball with an ace and a star shortstop who happens to be 3rd in the batting title race.

Sure, it was an aggressive move by Williams, and the White Sox have taken on money. It’s their money that allows them to be that aggressive — but they’re doing exactly the right thing and setting themselves up to be an absolute powerhouse in the AL Central. Kenny Williams, as a GM, is perfectly suited to a team in a large market with a large payroll and an owner that cares more about winning than money. As the Twins gain more revenue and are able to increase their payroll, it remains to be seen whether Bill Smith can adapt to the style necessary to work with dollar amounts that large, contracts that long, and players that good.

The early indications, by the way, are not good.

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So here’s a bit of interesting news. Apparently Luis Ayala had requested a trade three weeks ago, because he was unhappy with his role.* While I think it’s telling that nobody offered anything for him, and continues to be telling that nobody has taken him off waivers yet, I’m even more glad he’s gone now that I’ve heard this news.

* There’s that “roles” crap again. Get over yourself.

Here’s Gardy’s take on the Ayala situation:

“He wanted an eighth-inning role; that’s why he signed over here. He wasn’t pitching well enough to be an eighth-inning guy. So there you have it.

“His thoughts were if we gave him the ball in that eighth inning, he’d be able to do the job. My thoughts are if you’re not getting them out, you’re not going to pitch in the eighth inning. We’re trying to win. So there’s your difference.

“When you walk into my office and tell me you don’t like your role, and he talked about his contract for next year — you lose me right there. I don’t deal with that. We’re talking about winning now. That’s why he’s out the door and another guy’s in there to pitch. And it’s not because he’s a bad guy. His theories are a little different.”

Gardy’s right on the money here. The manager absolutely should not care about a player’s contract, especially his contract for next year, when he won’t even be with the team any more. And when a player starts talking like that, he’s clearly putting himself before the team.

If Gardy thought Ayala could get people out, he’d have been the 8th inning guy. That’s why he was brought here in the first place, and he had numerous opportunities to take over the position. Apparently he didn’t think it was a problem that he failed every time.

I’m glad Gardy reacted the way he did, and my only problem with the way this was handled is that Ayala stayed with the team for three weeks after saying this. He should have been out immediately. (Especially given how shitty he’s been on the mound.)

So now that the contentious and infuriating Ayala Era is over, we can put it behind us and try to win some ballgames.

Go Twins.

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I, along with apparently every other Twins fan, made the trek to Chicago over the weekend to watch the Twins play three games at Wrigley Field. I will admit, I really don’t like the Cubs.  Not sure why.  I just don’t.  However, taking in a game at Wrigley field is great.  We had phenomenal seats, provided by a college buddy of mine.  I was unable to watch the Milton Bradley game on Friday as I was traveling, but we watched the games on Saturday and Sunday. 

One of the reasons I find Wrigley field so much fun is there is a bunch of stuff to do (read: bars) around the stadium.  What do we have at the dome?  One bar, a hospital and a bunch of freeway entrance ramps. That’s not fun. 

The game on Saturday was delayed, but it turned out to be a great day for baseball.  Not too hot, and the sun eventually came out.  My cubs fan buddy Mike (who provided the tickets) said the Twins were as impressive a traveling fan base as he had seen.  The Twins fans were loud, and not including me, not too obnoxious. 

So we take two out of three on the road.  I’m happy with that.   We really cannot lose any of the next six games at home.  Neither the Pirates nor the Astros are very good.  I think Perkins is back for his start on Thursday, and I am interested to see what the team does regarding Crain.  It is clear he can’t be used in a game anymore.  He just doesn’t have the ability to get major leaguers out.  Whether or not he can regain this ability is still TBD.

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