Small Market Blues Part 2

By David Jensen

In case you forgot, I was commenting on how the Twins do business.

And it works. The Twins won the AL Central with a 96-66 record last year. Meanwhile, the perennial big spending LA Dodgers spent almost $38 million more than the Twins to win the NL wild card with an 88-74 mark. Don’t forget that we swept the Dodgers in June. Over the past 6 seasons, LA has averaged 86 wins, made the playoffs twice and won the NL West once, and paid Kevin Brown and Darren Driefort, among others, a lot of money to do very little. In the same period, Minnesota has averaged 90 wins, won four division titles and made very few front office blunders. Damn you Phil Nevin!

Terry Ryan may be one of the best GM in baseball. He’s not a bad college president either. And the Pohlad family is standing behind him guarding the vault, occasionally swimming in it. Never letting us be completely happy. Whether it’s taxing and driving poor people from their homes, or selling us down the contraction river to Bud Selig, they’ll be there. But that should not keep us from securing the cornerstones, Mauer, Morneau, and Santana, at all costs.