Every time I see a story about a transaction executed by a Minnesota sports team, it doesn’t take long for the critics to jump down their throats I’m sure there are loud mouthed critics in every market, but I don’t think anyone gets second guessed by the national media more than Minnesota GMs. Just look at the past few years with current general management.
Timberwolves: The Wolves have been bad ever since Kevin Garnett departed. That was Kevin McHale’s poor trade, and none of the components worked out terribly well, aside from Al Jefferson. Eventually, David Kahn was chosen to replace McHale and has since been a trading machine. He has also drafted several at the same position and seemingly added a bounty of players at similar positions. People seem to think he’s insane for his assemblage of players, but remember, aside from Corey Brewer and Kevin Love, this is now entirely his team, and he got whatever he could get while jettisoning McHale’s players. As for the draft, couldn’t he be operating on the premise of just seeing what fits in Minnesota. Rickey Rubio and Ramon Sessions probably don’t. Jonny Flynn does and Luke Ridnour might. As for Darko Milicic’s hefty contract. Some were saying that they didn’t understand when they bid so much when there were no other bidders. They forget that they were bidding against the pull of returning home to Europe, not against other teams. But it’s easier to criticize.
Twins: Bill Smith was given a tough hand to start with. He had to move Johan Santana… somewhere. He made a conscious decision to take less to move him to the National League. While the eventual haul after other trades was JJ Hardy, Jon Rauch and Deolis Guerra, it was lambasted at the time. We could have had Joba! Tell me how THAT turned out. Bill Smith’s next criticized move (which actually occurred first) was the decision to move, essentially, Jason Bartlett and Matt Garza to Tampa for Delmon Young and Brendan Harris. People STILL think this was a bad trade. Excuse me, but I disagree. While Bartlett and Garza were great during the Rays World Series run in 2008, since, they have been average to mediocre. Yes, Garza threw a no hitter, but that’s still only one win. It’s possible that Delmon Young wins significant MVP votes this year. That’s not just best player on a team, that’s among the best players in the league. The numbers he is putting up are the same type that Joe Mauer is expected to produce. You would trade Garza and Bartlett for Mauer, right? Even if he wasn’t a catcher, I think most Minnesotans would make that deal in a heartbeat. And Young is 4 years younger than Mauer. Of course, there are some that are critical of the deal Mauer got, perhaps because outsiders, especially those in New York or Los Angeles, don’t quite understand how much one player can mean to a small market. Not just the team, but the entire market. (see: James, Lebron). Then there was the Ramos-Capps trade. I agree the Twins overpaid for Capps. That said, I don’t see much that the Twins could have done that would have been better. The Twins didn’t have the pitching to pair with Ramos for a top player like Cliff Lee. They didn’t have the pitching depth to go for Haren and Oswalt didn’t want to come here. We wouldn’t have gained anything if Ramos was buried on our roster. Capps was the best player we could have got for Ramos, and our bullpen is now deeper for it.And we don’t have to worry about Ramos directly.
Vikings: The Vikings have been the butt of many jokes through the whole Brett Favre saga. I have made them too, but mostly because of how gutless the fans are with their lack of loyalty or pride. I digress. The Vikings front office doesn’t care about pride, they care about winning, even if they are made to look like fools during the process. And they look like fools. The groveling and brown nosing worked though. They got Favre, and he was better than anyone imagined. Sure, the Vikings didn’t win the NFC Championship, but that was further than they would have got without him, probably. That said, I don’t expect a repeat performance this year, but they will be better with Favre than without.
Wild: Chuck Fletcher hasn’t exactly set the world ablaze, but his hands have been tied, again, by the previous administration. Doug Risebrough didn’t do anything to soften Marian Gaborik’s departure, and Fletcher was stuck rebuilding this team from the ground up. He’s doing it centered on Mikko Koivu, a fan favorite and first line center. He hasn’t added a lot of bulky veterans, preferring a youth movement, but the problem is that because of Risebrough’s poor draft history, the Wild haven’t had any good frontline prospects since… Gaborik and Koivu. The only trade chip is Brent Burns, so he needs to maximize the value there. It’s a lot of work, and Fletcher is getting criticized for not doing it. I am looking at things and I can’t even figure out a place to start. Draft and hope, that’s all I’ve got. No need to jump down Fletcher’s throat.
So, national media, please, get off our general manager’s backs. We don’t have a lot of success, in Minnesota, but give them some credit.
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