Comments on: Gardy And The Gripers

By: lisatwink

lisatwink — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 08:25:16 +0000

a) Thank you, JC. That was far more eloquent, detailed, and researched than my little tantrums, or perhaps tempests in teapots. Nobody’s done better enough.

b) The Twins never look like the team they are during the regular season in the postseason. It may be related to not looking like the team they are most of the time whenever they play the Yankees. The Spankees can’t have that much of a financial advantage over some of the other teams that the Twins can beat, right? When the Twins beat the Yankees proportionally to other teams with high, even intimidatingly high, payrolls, I’ll agree that there’s nothing to be done by Gardy or anyone but the negotiating teams of the union and the owners.

By: dewluca

dewluca — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 02:24:12 +0000

Do the math jc. You’re the one so fond of numbers, but apparently you only use them when they support your own theory. Only 2 of the 8 playoff teams were in the top 8 in payroll. If it were all about payroll, then the 8 playoff teams should be the highest in payroll. The average ranking in terms of payroll of the 8 playoff teams was 13.5 (Tampa 21, Minnesota 11, Texas 27, New York 1, Phillies 4, Reds 19, SF 10, Atlanta 15), compared to an expected average ranking of 15 if you just picked 8 teams at random. (And do you really think that the amount the players make is directly related to the quality of their play? Now that’s really “ridiculous.”)

I don’t pay attention to anything that Selig says. I’m just not willing to blame the Twins sloppy play on some grand conspiracy. I’ve seen what disciplined fundamental baseball looks like and I know when it is lacking. Are you suggesting that somehow Selig slipped them all some sort of mickey that wiped out their knowledge of how to play the game? Do you really think that all of their losses in the playoffs in the past several years were due to bad or conspiratorial umpiring?

Reality check: Twins’ fans irrational reaction to the Yankees and their inability to look at anything other than the Yankees as the cause of the Twins’ problems is and will continue to be pathetic. Come up with something else if you want anyone to take your analysis seriously.

By: Jim Crikket

Jim Crikket — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 01:43:19 +0000

Yep, as that article says, “the Twins now find themselves in the upper third of baseball’s spenders”, and since there are 30 teams in MLB, that means the Twins are in the top 10 in payroll… and they finished in the top 8 of all teams by making the playoffs. So how is that underperforming?

And you can dismiss the money aspect all you want, but when one team can afford to pay TWICE what other teams that are in the top 1/3 of the league are paying, it’s ridiculous to say that the main problem is the manager or “discipline.” But, by all means, buy in to what Selig and the networks are selling… they’re counting on people to be “sick of people blaming the Yankees.” That way they never have to change the system.

But for the record, I don’t blame the Yankees… they have a system where they are allowed to milk the largest media market in the country and buy every player they want (and even players they don’t really want but want to keep competitors from getting). Why blame them for doing exactly that? I blame Bud Selig and the other owners that allow MLB to be the only professional sports league in the country to operate that way.

By: dewluca

dewluca — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 23:37:57 +0000

I agree Gardy alone is not the problem. I don’t agree that it’s only (or even mostly) about payroll. What I see lacking in the Twins is discipline. That IS something Gardy could do something about, but so could anyone.

I’m also really sick of Twins fans who blame everything on the Yankees. When the Twins get their own house in order and actually look like a group of players who want to win, then I’ll cry about payroll discrepancies and those nasty Yankees. Show me consistently sound fundamental baseball that still doesn’t beat the Yankees and then I’ll cry “conspiracy!”

The Twins were pathetic at the end of the season. No one can claim that the better team lost that ALDS series. And it’s not just about money. (As years of Cubs losses can attest Besides, according to the latest numbers posted on the Twins feed today, they are no longer a low-market team.

By: TheatreBrian

TheatreBrian — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 21:15:56 +0000

Seems to me that the manager probably has significantly less impact on whether the team wins or not than most people think.

Though I would like to let go of the Utility Infielder obsession.