I agree that not all of his moves have been horrible. But I think only one of them can be called a win at this point. The jury’s out on the Young trade, but it certainly hurt the Twins in 2008. It might have been the Twins rather than the Rays in the Series were it not for that trade. And his free agent signings were an unqualified disaster. But that isn’t the point of the column.

The point of the column is that he’s practically gone into hiding. They’ve tried to ask him these questions, but he’s been evasive. Even at the Winter meetings, he had Rob Antony cover the media for him. So if he doesn’t want to do anything now, he should at least say that and why to the media. But he doesn’t even let them ask him questions. That’s bad form, imo.

I agree that, at the time, pretty much all the moves were defensible. However, a general manager’s performance isn’t ultimately judged on how his moves looked when they were made – it’s judged by how those moves worked out. The Lamb signing didn’t work out. The Everett signing didn’t work out. The Monroe trade didn’t work out. The Hernandez signing looked good for almost a third of the season, but I find it hard to say that it “worked out” when he was ultimately waived.

I’m not pointing this out to come across as superior – I was initially in favor of all those moves except the Monroe trade. The fact is that Smith made a very small number of offseason moves last year, and virtually all of them made the Twins worse in 2008 even though only one, the Santana trade, was solely about sacrificing present value for future value.

That said, I’m not convinced that standing pat right now, as Smith did, wasn’t the right approach this offseason. I wasn’t particularly enamored with the free agent 3B options compared to Buscher and Harris, and free agent relievers that aren’t closers are pretty unpredictable. About the only free agent I’d have liked to see in Minnesota was Furcal, and I guess I can understand not getting into a bidding war for him given his injury history. The Twins nearly won the division last year with a roster that is almost entirely composed of players who are on the upswing of their careers, so it’s not all that unlikely that the same team could be counted on to produce better results next year.

When I say they were disasters, I mean they made the team worse at thier respective positions while accounting for 20 percent of the payroll. Yes, they played at or above replacement level. But there were better players waiting for opportunities.

• Buscher was better than Lamb in spring training last year. If there was no Lamb signing, the team would have been better at third from Day 1.

• Punto was better than Everette last year. If the Twins had not signed Everette and had made Punto the everyday shortstop instead, they would have been better.

• Monroe was worse than anybody we had at DH last year.

• Hernandez is debatable. Who would have taken his innings? Probably Perkins in the beginning and ultimately Liriano, after Boof fell apart. I think those two were better than Hernandez last year. And Boof wasn’t much worse, either. The Twins had enough depth to not sign Hernandez, and they proved that by trading him for an order of chicken nuggets at the deadline, after he blew a third of his games.

I was happy with the Lamb signing and with the Garza trade at the time. I did not expect Lamb to fall off the map, and with Garza-Young it seemed like a good trade of an area where we had excess for a need. I thought Harris for Bartlett was a positive at the time for us as well, did not expect Punto to outhit and outfield Bartlett last year… I still like Young-Harris to be solid contributors over the next three years, with Young potentially being a star.

I was not very happy with Everett and Livan, both seemed to be bad fits for an AL team. Everett the black hole offensively and Livan simply eating innings at a poor quality as well.

I was not happy with the Santana trade at the time because of the package we got. That was more due to comparing to the other rumored deals (particularly Boston rumors including Lester or Ellsbury in addition to Lowrie, Masterson, etc.). We don’t know those deals were ever on the table. Right now, I’ll take the package over two draft picks and a season of Santana.

I don’t think anyone on this board wants the Twins to abandon the general strategy of building from within. But it’s nearly impossible to build exclusively from within. So you have to make roster adjustments to augment your home-brewed team when you have the chance. And not just any free agent signing or trade will do: You have to make good ones.

The Twins’ major league scouting has been so bad that they have not made good free agent signings or trades that brought major league players to the team in the last five years: Mike Redmond and Craig Breslow are the exceptions that prove the rule. But just because you haven’t been successful at something doesn’t mean you should abandon it altogether. Maybe you change your major league scouting department. Still, you have to bring major leaguers in if you want to win championships.

There were (and are) several good deals available to the Twins if they were ( and are) willing to take a little risk. But they appear risk averse after losing big on their risks the last five years or so.

more likely on the World Series. Once in the playoff, it’s a crapshoot, and the teams with aces are rewarded more than others. With Santana and Garza we make the playoffs and immediately become a WS contender, but who knows how the playoffs turn out and then after 2008 we are left with two draft picks…

Pallie

he was voted the TB team MVP, I believe by a panel of TB writers (not sure about who voted, if it included coaches, players, etc.) While the numbers do not appear to justify the MVP decision, I believe TB was coming off a year of poor defensive play at SS (a lot of it Harris) and 2B (BJ Upton). Bartlett and Iwamura greatly improved their infield defense up the middle (as did Upton in CF), and I suspect Bartlett got a lot of the credit.