The Twins hired Terry Ryan to be the scouting director in January, 1986. He had six seasons of experience as Midwest scouting supervisor with the Mets before coming to Minnesota. He was promoted to vice president of player personnel on September 23, 1991. Ryan was responsible for scouting and evaluating all the talent in the majors. Ryan was named the fourth General Manager in team history on September 13, 1994 and took control of the entire baseball department. He sadly stepped down as GM after thirteen years on September 13, 2007 but still works with the team as an adviser and scout. Let's take a look at some of his most impressive accomplishments.
1. On 07-06-95 Rick Aguilera was traded to the Boston Red Sox for Frank Rodriguez and a PTNL. The Twins resigned Aguilera on 12-11-95.
2. On 07-07-95 Scott Erickson was traded to the Baltimore Orioles for Scott Klingenbeck and a PTNL.
3. On 07-31-95 Kevin Tapani and Mark Gutherie were traded to the L.A. Dodgers for Ron Coomer, Greg Hansell, Jose Parra, and Chris Lathem.
4. On 08-29-96 Dave Hollins was traded to the Seattle Mariners for David Ortiz.
5. On 08-20-97 Roberto Kelly was traded to the Seattle Mariners for Joe Mays.
6. On 02-06-98 Chuck Knoblauch was traded to the New York Yankees for Christian Guzman, Eric Milton, Brian Buchanan, and Danny Mota.
7. On 05-21-99 Rick Aguilera and Scott Downs were traded to the Chicago Cubs for Kyle Loshe and Jason Ryan.
8. On 12-13-99 Jared Camp was drafted first overall in the Rule 5 draft and traded to the Florida Marlins for Johan Santana who was selected second in the Rule 5 draft.
9. On 09-09-00 Hector Carrasco was traded to the Boston Red Sox for Lew Ford.
10. On 07-31-01 Matt Lawton was traded to the New York Mets for Rick Reed.
11. On 07-12-02 Brian Buchanan was traded to the San Diego Padres for Jason Bartlett.
12. On 07-16-03 Bobby Kielty was traded to the Toronto Blue Jays for Shannon Stewart and Dave Gassner.
13. On 11-14-03 A.J. Pierzynski was traded to S.F. Giants for Francisco Liriano, Joe Nathan, and Boof Bonser.
14. On 12-03-03 Eric Milton was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies for Carlos Silva, Nick Punto and Bobby Korecky.
15. On 07-31-04 Doug Mientkiewicz was part of four-player trade that sent him to the Chicago Cubs for Justin Jones.
16. On 12-02-05 Travis Bowyer and Scott Tyler were traded to the Florida Marlins for Luis Castillo.
17. On 12-09-05 J.C. Romero was traded to the L.A. Angels of Anaheim for Alexi Casilla.
18. On 07-30-07 Luis Castillo was traded to the N.Y. Mets for Drew Butera and Dustin Martin.
Now Terry Ryan is not infallible and made some mistakes as GM of the Twins. He failed to sign number one pick Travis Lee in 1996 and released David Ortiz after the 2002 season because he had struggled with injuries. Parting with Ortiz was really the only bad roster decision Ryan ever made and there is no doubt it will haunt Twins fans forever. He did sign washed up veteran players like Rondell White, Tony Batista, Juan Castro, and Ruben Sierra towards the end of his tenure. However, all these moves were made because he had one of the lowest payrolls in MLB to work with. I challenge anybody to find a bad trade Ryan has ever made. Now when you compare Ryan's body of work to the current GM Bill Smith, it's like comparing a brand new Chevrolet Camaro to a Ford Pinto. Let's take a closer look at some of Smith's trades.
1. On 11-28-07 Matt Garza, Jason Bartlett, and Eduardo Morlan were traded to the Tampa Bay Rays for Delmon Young, Brendan Harris and Jason Pridie.
2. On 02-02-08 Johan Santana was traded to the N.Y. Mets for Carlos Gomez, Philip Humber, Kevin Mulvey, and Delois Guerra.
3. On 08-25-08 Mark Hamburger was traded to the Texas Rangers for Eddie Guardado.
4. On 07-31-09 Tyler Ladendorf was traded to the Oakland A's for Orlando Cabrera.
5. On 08-07-09 Yohan Pino was traded to the Cleveland Indians for Carl Pavano.
6. On 08-28-09 Kevin Mulvey and cash were traded to the Arizona Diamondbacks for Jon Rauch.
7. On 11-09-09 Carlos Gomez was traded to the Milwaukee Brewers for J.J. Hardy.
8. 12-10-09 Boof Bonser was traded to the Boston Red Sox for Chris Province.
9. On 07-29-10 Wilson Ramos was traded to the Washington Nationals for Matt Capps.
10. On 08-27-10 Loek Van Mil was traded to the L.A. Angels of Anaheim for Brian Fuentes.
11. On 12-09-10 J.J. Hardy and Brendan Harris were traded to the Baltimore Orioles for Jim Hoey and Brett Jacobson.
12. On 12-16-10 Jose Morales was sent to the Colorado Rockies for Paul Bargas.
13. On 08-15-11 Delmon Young was sent to the Detroit Tigers for Cole Nelson and a PTBNL.
You can sugarcoat it anyway you want but the Twins desperately need a change in their front office and fast. It is not just bad trades that have hurt the Twins but also our minor league system is in shambles. Can you imagine what Terry Ryan could do with a payroll of $120 million. It gives me shivers up and down my spine just thinking about it. Terry Ryan is a quiet genius and the team needs him back in charge of baseball operations. Please feel free to leave me any comments because your opinion matters to me.
Update: A pretty active day in Twins Territory!! Not only did outfielder Delmon Young get traded to the division rival Detroit Tigers, but Jim Thome hit two home runs to put him at the elusive 600 mark for his illustrious career. Thome is only the 8th player in MLB to accomplish this feat. The Twins won the series opener 9-6 and all three first round draft picks (Levi Michael, Travis Harrison, and Hudson Boyd) signed before the deadline.
10 comments:
The guy behind Ryan's brst deals was Wayne Krivsky. Bring him back as Twins GM!
There are really only 3 bad trades there. I don't count the Santana trade as Bill did a good job of trading that haul for Rauch and Hardy and his hands were tied when he made that trade.
3 bad trades are Delmon, Capps, and Hardy.
Although the Hardy trade is a little bit vindicated as there have been numerous injuries to pitching this year along with the 6th and 7th startes Slowey and Gibson out. (Hardy was traded so we had the budget for Pavano).
And a non trade dumb thing Smith did was to let 2 proven Middle IF go and run with 2 unproven MI this year. He could have kept Hardy and signed a reliever instead.
I'm not going to argue that Bill Smith is a genius or that Terry Ryan didn't do very well, but I have always and will always blame Ryan for the poor return the Twins got for Santana. Santana wanted a new deal before the 2007 season and Ryan decided to wait things out. Then he walked away and left Smith to play the crappy cards he was left with (e.g. Santana dictating who he would approve a trade to and requiring a new contract before approving anything). The result is at least as much Ryan's fault do to shortsightedness as it was Smith's.
I'd also point out that Ryan remains very active in scouting for the Twins and bears considerable responsibility for whatever shortcomings exist in the organization's talent pool. Smith was never going to be expected to provide "talent evanulation" as a GM. That would remain largely Ryan's responsibility. It's hard to argue he's performed well in his continuing role in that regard.
Could blog entry and comments. Can anyone explain why Drew Butera is still playing with the Twins catching Mauer only 100 times a season? It is like playing in the NL but all the other teams have the DH.
I'm not really sure how anybody can look at the Johan Santana trade and not blame GM Bill Smith. He was at one time offered Crisp, Lester, Lowrie, and Masterson or Ellsbury, Lester, Masterson by the Red Sox. He was offered Hughes, Cabrera, and Marquez by the Yankees.
He waited too long and over-played his hand. He was then stuck taking the terrible N.Y. Mets deal. Sure it was Santana that forced his hand but still Smith could of held on to Santana and let him become a free agent. At least you get two number one draft picks. This deal reeks of Smith's inexperience as a GM in MLB. Thinhs have not gotten better the have become worse.
"I'm not really sure how anybody can look at the Johan Santana trade and not blame GM Bill Smith. "
This is simple...
1)Either trade Santana the year before or keep him. I will blame Smith for not keeping him, and blame Ryan for not trading him the year before. By keeping him until his contract year it became a "Gosh, we have to part with a crapload of good players AND $18M per year" This means there were only about 4 - 6 teams to trade him to.
2) Jack Jack Jack... you have NO idea what Boston or the Yankees or any other team would have given up for Santana... it is pure speculation. There may have been other offers on the table. But eventually someone has to SIGN a paper to make a trade go. I could OFFER to trade Mauer and Morneau and Cuddyer and Kubel and Pavano, and 16 bags of balls for Joe bag o dounuts... but until I actually sign the paper it is just pissing in the wind...
Ed
We all make s**t decisons in our life. (How many people have been married more then once.) I remember sitting at the Gopher Alumni game just behind Ryan and my fiends and I ranting on the sorry state of the Alex Cole lead Twins and how unimpressed we were with his roster. But he got better.
I have read several places that the Twins Minor Leagues are awful. That is only half right. The Team in Rochester is awful thanks to us not having any talent in the highest rungs of the minors right now. Revere, Plouffe and Valencia were promoted over the last two years and Gibson is hurt. So that not exactly overstocked cupboard is bare.
New Britain has talent if not a lot of wins. Benson, Dozier and Parmalee are putting up some very good numbers. Need some more power from Parmalee, but these are solid numbers. Hendricks should probably still be there.
Fort Meyers has Hicks, Arcia and Beresford. Hicks is a long term Torri Hunter type project it looks like. But he has the tools to make a very good player. Arcia can hit. Beresford is worth watching.
Beloit is a bit bare right now. But has some intriguing prospects in Salcedo,Gonzalez, Hanson, Ray and Boer.
The E-Twins. Sano is going to be in the top 10 prospects in all of baseball very soon. Rosario looks like a player. Kepler has the hype, but can he mature?
I'd say the Twins have some good to excellent position players as prospects, but with Gibson, Wimmers, Hunt and others being hurt or having other issues..looking at you Shooter...our pitching prosepcts look very weak.
Shambles no. Challenges yes. Remember that The Royals have a great farm system. They have earned it over the last 20 years. If you would rather be a Royals fan queue on up folks, plenty of room on that bandwagon.
Very nice post Jack. I agree that the front office needs a change. That's why I've started a movement:
firebillsmith.com
I'd love any comments are contributions you care to make.
You forgot about Billy Bullock
for Scott Diamond trade by Bill Smith.
It's the AAA coaches fault that they lacked, and few will argue, not a single elite prospect? Not even many B prospects. Seems pretty harsh when you can bank it that all of Gardys coaches will be back. Rick Anderson's staff has performed every bit as poor as anything at rochester. Hopefully accountability will be at all levels. Seems like the shit flows downhill in baseball too.
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