MikeO said:
I will argue that till the day I die. He isn't by far!!!!
I (and many other more knowledgeable minds than me) have little to no respect for a GM who doesn't feel the need to watch games and feels its ok to take a vacation in the middle of the summer near and around the trading deadline. I'm sorry.
also this isn't the NFL or NBA, draft picks while nice aren't a way you try and win. You draft a guy and wait which seems like forever for him to finally make an impact.
I'm not buying that notion as a reason for Minny to wait around an hold onto Santana then let him walk, when they can trade him and get actual major league or AAA players who can step in and help them win now!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hang on, I'm going to step outside and slam my head against a brick wall a few times....
OK, I feel better.
You can argue all you like that Beane isn't the best GM in baseball, that's fine. It's a debatable point. What's NOT a debatable point is that he's provided a successful blueprint for small to medium sized market teams to compete with large market teams. Why would it shock you that another small market team (Minnesota), led by a general manager who actually has a brain in his head (Terry Ryan), might think, "I like what Beane's done over there. He's hung onto pending free agents, gotten the most out of them, made playoff runs and then taken draft picks and rebuilt successfully. Maybe I should try that."?
Draft picks aren't a way you try to win? Really? Why is it that every team's top 10 prospect list invariably includes a whole bunch of recent first and second round picks?
If you want immediate draft picks who can make an impact in 2 years, rather than 5, it's not hard: pick college players. Plenty of teams have targeted players with significant college experience to ensure that they make an impact sooner than later. The A's, I think, are one of those. What is the difference between picking a guy with 4 years college experience, and having a prospect who's been successful at AA? Not too much.
The value of draft picks is CONSTANTLY underestimated by people who think only about the very short-term outlook. A team like the Twins absolutely has to take the long-term approach. They can't afford to field a $100 million roster every year...or any year, for that matter. If you're thinking long-term, you know that some years, you're not going to have the resources to make a big run, so you maximize it while you can. If the Twins are sitting in first place in the AL Central on July 25, 2008 (6 days before the trade deadline), fighting the Yanks and Red Sox for best record in the AL and a solid 5 games ahead of the White Sox and Indians in the AL Central, I absolutely refuse to believe they're going to say "well, we gotta move Santana. Yes, it means we're going to give up a shot at the World Series, but we've got to get prospects while we can." That's basically what you're postulating.
More likely, they'll say, "hey, let's make a run at the Series, and after the season, we take a couple top-notch college pitchers in the draft and try to make a run in 2011." If they were to trade Santana at the deadline for a couple top AAA or AA prospects, how would their timetable be any different?