As to the trade however, I wrote this elsewhere –
“I think he gets too much blame for the Capps/Ramos trade – the team’s bullpen and rotation were in a death spiral, the team lost 10games in the standings in a month and Ramos was not doing well in AAA. Comparisons to Miguel Olivo were starting to come out and BA dropped him over 30 spots on their next rankings. His value was falling almost as fast as the Twins were in the standings. Yeah, it looks bad in hindsight but the trade was rated positively by both Jim Callis and John Sickels.

In any event, I think Smith’s lack of scouting ability hurt him more than he thought it would. The Twins decision makers were often divided on issues (some thought Nishi could play well in US, some didn’t. Some thought Hardy should be moved and the Twins should emphasize speed again. Some didn’t. Some think Hicks will be a star and should be untouchable, some didn’t. Some thought Pavano should come back, some didn’t). Smith didn’t have the background to give himself enough advice on those issues so would have to “guess” for lack of a better term."

I am not trying to defend Smith. I do think it’s fair that he doesn’t get blamed for things he didn’t to (like spending a lot on bullpen arms/vets) and he does deserve credit for some things (improving international approach). To some extent, I think Smith is being scapegoated (but he is the GM and the buck stops with him). Smith never acted alone when he made signings and trades. Others in the FO wanted Young over Quintin, Gardy wanted Hardy gone, somebody thought Nishi would play well over here. I think Smith’s firing was fair but I’m concerned it was done mostly to lower payroll. I don’t want Ryan coming in and thinking this is the small market, adorable, piranha Twins.

Where did the team lose most of it’s offense? Morneau, Mauer, Span, Kubel, Thome, Casilla and Young all spent serious time on the DL. So, injuries are #1 problem. Because of injuries, we have blackhole at catcher.

I think the bullpen’s implosion hurt us more than lack of production from MI, you can disagree if you want. But traditionally, the pen has been an area of strength and our MI has always been …. iffy. (Even in 2010, Hardy started slow and missed a lot of games and Hudson fell off the planet in Sept). I think the biggest problem in our pen this year was two young power arms (Mijares and Burnett) not developing like past guys did. Slowey not taking to the pen and Capps problems when he was made closer (and Nathan’s struggles in the first half) were also problems. But if Mijares and Burnett pitched like they should have, our pen would have been a lot better, then and moving forward.

Starting pitching and Young were big problem areas. I thought (as did many) that Young was going to have a huge season after his 2010 campaign. Sadly, that didn’t happen, so I put him higher. Starting pitching could be a bigger problem but we still got quality starts about half the time, somehow. Liriano was a huge mess and Slowey was worse but Baker was solid and Pavano ate a lot of innings. But I thought our season was mostly killed by our offensive futility and not really on our starters.

the rumored Lowrie for Cuddy deal that was on that table at the deadline, for instance…

how do you say no to that one?

Is Liriano, and I doubt he’s going anywhere.

Then again, I would have doubted that Smith was too.