Best Organizations of the Decade

by SteveHoffmanSlowey on Dec 20, 2009 2:38 PM EST

Ask yourself since 2000 have the Twins been one of baseballs better or more succesful organizations in the league?

If your initial thought was no

Who comes to mind ahead of the Twins? the Yankees, Red Sox, Angels, maybe the Braves or Marlins....

If you answered yes

It is my opinion that you are largely correct

Record since 2000:

2000 69-93 (led by Tom Kelly)

2001 85-77 (Tom Kelly's last year as Manager)

2002 94 -67

2003 90 -72

2004 92 -70 -only hit .266 as a team that year (relied heavily on pitching)

2005 83-79

2006 96-66 (probably our single best year this decade)

2007 79-83

2008 88-75* lost in tiebreaker to Chi Sox

2009 87-76* won in tiebreaker over Detroit Tigers

TOTAL AVE.

86.3 Wins a year to 75.7 Losses

that is pretty darn good.

Also we have produced some of the games finest players , while boasting a strong to excellent farm system throughout the last ten years.

Torii Hunter Brad Radke

Jacque Jones Joe Mays

Johan Santana Kyle Lohse

Corey Koskie LaTroy Hawkins

Eric Milton J.C. Romero

Christian Guzman Eddie Guardado

A.J. Pierzynski Grant Balfour

Doug Mientkiewicz Jason Bartlett

Matt Lawton Matt Garza

Casey Blake Kevin Mulvey

Garrett Jones

David Arias (aka Big Pappi David Ortiz)

^^^^ all of those names are players NOT currently on the 25 man roster.

and those are just some examples I'm sure there are more albeit not many more.

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Comments

I think the Twins are one of the better organizations in baseball

but many of the guys you listed were products of the previous decade, not the current one. This decade’s list is even more impressive, think, but at any rate, the consistency with which they continue to produce players.

by Eric in Madison on Dec 20, 2009 2:54 PM EST reply actions

Red Sox

have to be the org. of the decade, but the Twins are right up there.

by fetch9 on Dec 20, 2009 3:34 PM EST reply actions

Top 5

I have to say the Twins are in the top 5. Even though we didn’t win a world series, our competitiveness with our lack of money has to be noticed. Other organizations look at our model as an organization and structured themselves after us. We also gave small market teams hope to show that it is possible to win in this unbalanced system.

Also the way we played when faced contraction was truely inspirational. I remember the 2001 and 2002 seasons and I felt the only way the Twins were going to stay in Minnesota was if they just kept winning. Losing wasn’t acceptable anymore because if we did, the team was gone. Each game was so important and the Twins rose to the challenge. I feel we should have some kind of tribute at the new stadium to those teams. Without Mientkiewicz, Pierzynski, Hunter, Jones, Ortiz, Gordado, Radke, Rivas, Guzman, Koskie, and all others, the TWins probably wouldn’t be in Minnesota anymore.

by hitormiss1414 on Dec 20, 2009 4:34 PM EST reply actions

Also, many of the players mentioned were not products of the Twins minor league system...

…at least they were not drafted by the Twins. That isn’t meant to imply anything negative about the organization, rather, one of its strengths. The Twins do an excellent job of scouting other organizations lower level minor league teams. When the opportunity arises, they often have found very good players in trades that don’t look like much to fans when they are made. Yet, when David Ortiz, Jason Bartlett or Johan Santana arrive in Minnesota, it is clear that someone in the organization did a good job a few years earlier…such as the case when two of the three players they got for A.J. turned out to be fairly decent pitchers.

by roger13 on Dec 20, 2009 4:57 PM EST reply actions

yes that is correct

Santana we got for Jared Camp in the Rule V draft from the Fla. Marlins

but we did indeed still ‘develop’ Johan and all of or most of those players on that list

Rene Tosoni is good.

by SteveHoffmanSlowey on Dec 20, 2009 7:30 PM EST up reply actions

Decent, but

I feel like you have to win at least one championship in a decade to be considered the best

The Hochevar Principle: The future comes to all teams. Some teams wait for it. Those teams finish in last place a lot. -Joe Posnanski

by DaTwins on Dec 20, 2009 5:00 PM EST reply actions

Competition (bad)

One thing that doesn’t get considered when you line up wins and losses is level of competition. By being in a weak division, the Twins record gets the aid of 19 games against the Royals/Tigers/White Sox/Indians, while only 7 each against the Yankees/Red Sox. I wonder how our record would compare to the Blue Jays had we been in the East.

by snolls on Dec 25, 2009 9:25 AM EST reply actions