It was reported today that Terry Ryan is stepping down as the GM of the Twins after 13 years of service in the position. The most surprising thing is that there were no grumblings of this earlier, at all.

Besides that, it's really not all that surprising. With 13 years on the job, Ryan was the second longest tenured GM in the MLB. In an industry which people often spend their entire lives in, I think it speaks volumes that 13 years is such a long time as a GM.

When I was a kid I used to think that being a General Manager was my dream job. After all, it's a lot of fun building teams in Xbox games and playing fantasy baseball, and plus, you could see all the games for free (a romantic notion as a kid).

The more I've gotten wrapped up in baseball, particularly from a media perspective, though, the more this dream has faded. In the same manner that I would never want to be president, I can see now how being the General Manager of a baseball team is one of the most stressful jobs there are. It's a funny juxtaposition that so much stress could be evoked from such a laid-back game, but there is.

Any move you make will be critiqued and disagreed with by someone, and people remember the things you do wrong a lot more than the things you do right. By the time foresighted moves come to fruition, few remember which pundits disagreed with the move, and even fewer care. Such is the nature of the beast, and 13 years in that atmosphere can be taxing on someone.

"I know I look like I'm 75, but I'm 53." - Terry Ryan

From Joe Christensen:

Santana, Nathan and Hunter all voiced frustration when the team traded Luis Castillo to the Mets on July 30.

Alexi Casilla muted some of that with the energy he brought as Castillo's replacement, but the veterans' skepticism now seems well justified.

Entering Saturday, Castillo had a .697 on-base-plus-slugging percentage for the Mets, while Casilla had posted a .590 OBP for the Twins. Throw in Casilla's penchant for making head-scratching decisions, and you can point to second base as one reason the Twins are 14-22 since Aug. 1.

We'll start with the easy one: Alexi Casilla does not have a .590 "OBP." OBP, of course, stands for On Base Percentage, and a .590 OBP would make Alexi Casilla the greatest hitter in baseball by a wide margin.

Of course, we can assume Joe meant "OPS," since he references is in the paragraph before and the number reflects Casilla's OPS. I certainly couldn't scold someone for making type-o's since I make so many myself, but this still doesn't make sense.

Why in the world would you reference Luis Castillo's OPS if you are trying to portray him as being someone of value? An OPS of .697 is not only unimpressive, it's actually bad. Not Nick Punto bad, but bad nonetheless. The Major League OPS is .756.

Labels: Twins

What a game last night. Nathan blows a save. Cuddyer more or less costs us the game on the bases. Heintz is pinch hit for my Mike Redmond, who's finger is so messed up he can hardly swing the bat. In comes Mauer to finish off the at-bat. He's hurt too. He has to catch. We lose. No one's happy.

Well, maybe Travis Hafner. He had two homeruns.

It was an exhausting game. I can't be too sad though, given that I'm still enjoying my first week of college and college life. Today I went to the Gopher football press conference and schmoozed with some important sportswriters. Tomorrow I have my first journalism class (although it does sit in the unfortunate 6:00 - 9:30pm slot), as well as two others. I also still have to learn how to do laundry, but I'm told that will come in time.

Labels: My Life, Twins

It was reported before yesterday's game that Boof Bonser's spot in the rotation could be in serious jeopardy. Kevin Slowey and Nick Blackburn were both called up from Triple-A as the roster expands to 40, and while Slowey already has a chance to start, Blackburn has to wait until for a spot. I guess you could say that someone like Boof would have to pitch his way out of the rotation to give Blackburn a chance.

Oh, right. Boof gave up five earned runs in less than two innings last night. So, while Gardy is saying that Boof will get one more start, it's worth getting to know Blackburn since he will probably be starting sooner rather than later.

Blackburn was originally drafted out of high school in 2000 by the Devil Rays in the 34th round, but elected to go to Seminole State (Alma mater of Eric Gagne, Adam LaRoche and Ryan Franklin) for a year and was drafted by the Twins in 2001.

I think Blackburn's minor league statistics are pretty interesting, because he has more or less put up better numbers each year, even when jumping classes. He started off rough in his first few years as a pro ballplayer, but his first big season came as a 22 year old in Low-A Quad Cities, when he appeared in 20 games (13 starts) and posted a 2.77 ERA. This earned him a promotion to High-A, where he struggled for the rest of the year.

Blackburn came back with a strong 2006 and made it all the way to Rochester. After a full season in AA New Britain last year, he has split time between the Rock Cats and Rochester. In 17 AAA starts this season he is 7-3 with a 2.11 ERA.

He's basically the antithesis to the man (Bonser) he may be replacing this fall. Blackburn doesn't strike a lot of batters out (4.64 K/9 at AAA this year), but doesn't allow many baserunners (.98 WHIP). By comparison, Boof will strike out around seven batters per nine innings, but has a WHIP of almost 1.5.

I think Bonser can be an effective pitcher for a long time, but I'd like to see Blackburn get a shot. At 25 the clock is beginning to tick off in the distance and it's only going to get louder. With the playoffs more or less out of the picture, I think he deserves a chance to get a start rather than just some meaningless relief innings. We'll see what happens.

Labels: Twins

Well I finally get my laptop back, and look what happens: the Twins lose three in a row to the Indians and effectively knock themselves out of contention. Talking about the Twins' problems is one part redundant and two parts depressing, so I think I'll shy away from that today. Since baseball is out of the picture and the NFL means very little to me, there's not much left to write about, which is typically a good time for an "update on my life." Those are always fun, depending on who you talk to.

Today's timing also works out nicely as I am ending a major chapter in my life. I move out tomorrow into the U of M dorms and this (assuming all goes as planned) will be my last day as a permanent resident of my parents' household. I worked almost 100 hours the past two weeks, so I'm going to be scrambling to get everything bought and done before it's time to leave. I've never moved before, and I have this nagging feeling I'm forgetting so much, even though I haven't even started packing yet.

On a less-exciting note, I am now 0-1 in applying for the Minnesota Daily newspaper. Needless to say, this is more than a little disappointing. I've been very lucky to get opportunities to write in the Star Tribune and other publications, but I always put in the time and effort with the hopes that I'd get onto the sports staff as a freshman. The good news is that I'm supposedly the first in line if and when a position opens up, so I might be writing there next semester or sooner.

As these things tend to go, this door closing lead to a bunch more opening. The guy who was hired for the position, Luke Middendorf, covered football for GopherIllustrated.com and in an odd twist of fate, I was contacted by the GI.com staff and offered his (non-paying) position. This entails covering the press conferences (free meal included) as well as all home games (free meal included), and also means that I will receive a Media Credential with my picture on it and access to any Gopher athletic event.

Then, Dave Campbell of the Associated Press offered me a role on their staff. My first assignment? Run quotes for the Vikings regular season opener against the Falcons September 9th. That's the same article that will run in thousands of newspapers across the country, not to mention ESPN.com and a zillion other websites.

My second assignment will be covering a Twins vs. Rangers game later this month. After that I'll be getting opportunities to write some articles as well. For most professional events, the AP has two people: a writer and a runner. For the Vikings and Twins I'll be the guy going down to the locker rooms and frantically scribbling notes. Asking Warrick Dunn how he feels about the Michael Vick situation or Sammy Sosa when he's going to call it quits is an experience I certainly didn't anticipate and probably wouldn't be able to accept had I been chosen for the job.

Funny how the world turns.

Labels: My Life

Sorry for the long absence, the laptop is currently in the shop being
fixed up before I'm off to college. Posting should resume shortly.

Whether it is seeing Nick Punto hit a grand slam, a streaker tackled on the field by the bat boy, or the Twins winning the division title while watching in the dugout on the last day of the season, the damndest things seem to happen in my few trips to the Metrodome per year.

So as Boe and I rode the light rail yesterday afternoon, I just got a sense that something good was going to happen. Of course, my expectations were way too low since I would've been satisfied with finding a misplaced Gary Gaetti bobblehead and instead saw Johan turn in the most epic performance I've ever witnessed, be it on TV or in person.

He went eight strong innings, giving up just two hits (both to Sammy Sosa), while walking no one. Surely in anticipation of getting little or no run support (in this case it was the latter), he didn't allow a runner past second base and threw 83 of his 112 pitches for strikes.

Oh yeah, and 17 strikeouts.

I read that the scoreboard informed that fans of the team strikeout record being broken, but neither Boe or I saw this message. Instead, using his iPhone, I ran a Play Index search on Baseball-Reference.com and found that Bert Blyleven held the record of 15. Probing a bit further (in an effort to spend more time with the iPhone), I found that he came just one strikeout short of the major league record (since B-R data begins in 1951) for strikeouts in eight innings or less. The record of 18 belongs to Randy Johnson, who did it for the Mariners back in 1992.

The decision to take him out was unfortunate, but necessary. He was averaging 14 pitches/inning, and another 14 pitches would've put him at 126, more than he's ever thrown in his career. The most pitches he has thrown in a game this season was 118, and he followed up that game with one of the worst starts of his career.

The fact that the Twins scored just three runs in the series against the Rangers, who trail only the White Sox and Devil Rays as the worst pitching team in the league, is both crude and shocking to hear. But really, when Alexi Casilla, Nick Punto, Rondell White, Mike Redmond/Jason Tyner and Tommy Watkins make up 66% of your lineup, not a whole lot more can be expected. Say what you like about Justin Morneau only drawing two walks in the past month or Michael Cuddyer's homerun totals coming up short of 2006, the truth is that putting three Babe Ruth clones in the heart of the order might not give the Twins a league-average offense.

Tonight it's back to war with the Mariners, this time at the Dome. Matt Garza and his 2.05 ERA looks to get back to .500. Wins, what a stat.

Labels: Twins

This is my 500th post on this blog, which seems like the perfect time to take a look back at things and write a nice, reminiscent post that tugs on the heart strings and puts smiles on the children's faces. The problem is, our power is out from Friday night's thunderstorms and Xcel is saying (!) we might not have it again until next Friday. So I'm posting this on my cell phone in its waning battery life to let you know that I'm not dead but just void of electricity. Godspeed, Xcel.