Comments on: A New Old Reason For Disappointment

By: Jim Crikket

Jim Crikket — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 17:37:25 +0000

If you hadn’t commented anoymously, I’m sure all of us here at Knuckleballs would have been very willing to clear everything we write with you first to make sure YOU feel it’s useful before it gets posted.

Ah well. Our loss. Guess we’ll have to just live with your disapproval.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 16:40:32 +0000

I think I was very polite. I didn’t say I thought YOU were silly and stupid, just what you wrote.

Ryan never said he wasn’t going to sign free agents and to interpret what he said that way is, well, silly and stupid. Ryan said basically the same thing last year including using the term “shortcuts”. There are no shortcuts when you have five spots in the rotation that are uncertain. He has always been clear that signing free agents isn’t a way to build a winning baseball team.

The Twins have signed free agents every year and I am sure they will this year as well. And frankly I don’t care why you write something. When you have nothing useful to say, don’t sit down at the keyboard.

By: Jim Crikket

Jim Crikket — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 03:20:59 +0000

Thanks for your polite and thoughtful comment. However, I’m not sure where you read anything that indicates I’m unaware that the Twins HAVE BEEN participants in the FA market in the past. In fact, I even mentioned that I had hoped they might have learned from the Willingham experience that participating in FA can be beneficial. My disappointment is with TR’s comments indicating that. “this is not going to be a free agency approach,” and insinuating that to do so would be taking a shortcut that he does not feel good about.

By the way, not that you or anyone else cares, but the great thing about blogging and not accepting advertising for said blog is that you never feel you “have to write” anything. I write when I damn well feel like it. But thanks for stopping by anyway.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 03:10:34 +0000

I know you think you have to write something, but if you have nothing thoughful to say you could just shut up.

Its plain silly and stupid to suggest the Twins haven’t been in the free agent market. The Twins signed Willingham, Doumit, and Carroll as free agents last fall. That is one third of their starting lineup. They also signed Capps, Burton, Perdomo and Fien as free agents. About half their bullpen. And they have had Deduno, Walters and Marquis in their rotation this year, all signed as free agents during the off-season.

What you appear to be talking about is “celebrity free agents”. And that is more like hiring a helicopter for your trip to Sausalito with no assurance it will get you there. There isn’t a single player in baseball who can helicopter the Twins into the playoffs.