Buh Bye Bill

So, you've undoubtedly heard that the Twins fired General Manager Bill Smith on Monday and re-hired former General Manager Terry Ryan back to his old position.

Raise your hand if you saw that one coming.

I didn't see it either. I suspect that Bill Smith is pretty surprised too.

So to break down the stuff I've been reading:

• Smith out
• Ryan in
• Ryan's not sure how long he's in -- if he likes it, he'll stay in longer
• This all happened because of "philosophical differences"
• No one's saying what the "philosophical differences" are
• Gardy staying
• Major League coaching staff staying unless Gardy wants someone out
• Assistant GM Rob Antony staying
• Paul Molitor still doing what he did 
• What Paul Molitor has to do with any of this is unclear
• The whole denying the Orioles permission to interview Mike Radcliff makes a little more sense
• Wayne Krivsky indeed does join the Twins as a scout and special adviser to the GM
• The training staff may or may not have the job security they thought they had a week ago

And the kicker...

• They expect the payroll for 2012 will be about $15 million less than it was in 2011

*sigh*

That pretty much means that we can probably also say buh bye to Cuddy, Nathan, and Kubes.

This whole thing is odd, and not very Twins-like, to say the least. They're not ones to come out of nowhere with big news.

I'm not sure how I feel about it all. I wasn't ready to call for Smith's head like many fans, but my image of him was tarnishing pretty rapidly. But I'm not completely sold on Terry Ryan either. He did bring us Rondell White and Tony Bautista. And Bret Boone.

I'm not going to be too pessimistic about this move. It's clear that changes needed to be made, and whether Smith did something really horrible, or if he's merely a scapegoat, this shakeup sends a huge message to the entire organization that there are no free passes.

Twins at Mariners: Hanging Out with Good People

Recap:
Friday -- Twins 6 - Mariners 3
Saturday -- Twins 1 - Mariners 0
Sunday -- Twins 1 - Mariners 2

Record: 75 - 56, 4 1/2 games ahead. Magic Number: 28

This series featured opportunities to hang out with some fun people and watch great pitching. All three starting pitchers this series were very good and very fun to watch (too bad the bats couldn't help Pavano a little more on Sunday).

On Friday night, Scotty was pretty impressive. It was nice to see him coast along.

Unfortunately, even though I directly requested that Randy Flores make a good first impression, he didn't. I didn't enjoy seeing the bases loaded with no outs.

Then, when Guerrier came out in that situation, I admit, I was pretty nervous. I love Matty, but I know he's been struggling a bit lately (perhaps overused? Again?). But, boy, did he ever cowboy-up -- foul pop and GIDP! Very hot.

Oh, and I guess I need to welcome Brian Fuentes. At least I know who he is. So welcome Brian. It was a funny story when I first heard the news of his claim. My husband and I were hanging out with our dear friends, and their son told me that the Twins got Brian Fuentes. I said, "no, no, no. That was Randy Flores a couple of days ago." Ha. I didn't find out until I got home that the young man was right. Which kind of predicted my new tendency of confusing those two names. Be warned, there's a very good chance if I say "Randy Flores" I mean "Brian Fuentes," or vice versa.

Or not -- I'll try to be careful.

~~~

Saturday I went to another great viewing party -- this time a combo effort by Sooze and TwinsCentric. It was a fun time hanging out with a bunch of great Twins fans and bloggers. I custom-made a t-shirt just for the event: the front featured my little logo girl, and the back said "Chicks Dig the Infield Fly Rule." Also, the famous k-bro k-brownies showed up with me. I think everyone's getting tired of them though; I had a hard time getting rid of them.

Nick Blackburn gave us an awesome game to cheer for, too. In fact, it was smokin' hott! Not only did he strike out Ichiro three times, he totally blew him away. Ichiro was totally over matched in his final at bat. When Gardy took Blackie out after he walked Chone Figgins, I admit that my heart was a little sad. It wanted him to get the CGSO. However, my head realized that bringing in Brian Fuentes in that situation was a good move -- this was exactly why the Twins got him. And he brilliantly struck out Russel Branyon. That's the first impression I liked to see.

~~~

Sunday morning, my family and I went to the State Fair. We did the typical fair things we always do: the Grandstand and Coliseum vendor booths, Ye Olde Mill, the Sky Glide, all our favorite TV stations' and radio stations' booths, bacon, milk, cookies, turkey sandwiches, lemonade, and the Twins booth.

Behind the Twins booth, they had a wiffle ball field set up. As I watched Tony Oliva pitch to little kids (cute!), I heard a voice I recognized. I turned around to see Bill Smith. He was chatting with some fans, so I shuffled his way. My guys wanted to go look at some Ford trucks (I don't know why), so they left, and I waited for Mr. Smith to finish with those other folks.

When it was my turn, he shook my hand and greeted me warmly. The first thing I said to him was, "so Brian Fuentes made you look like a genius yesterday." He said his wife said the same thing. Since no one else appeared to be waiting to talk to him, we hung out for quite a while. I told him I was really enjoying this season and that I was really happy that the team have some great guys on it -- we may have some stars like Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau, but they're not bratty stars like Carlos Zambrano. He said those kind of players don't stay on the Twins very long. We talked about how great Jim Thome is and how the fans seem to really like him. And he said that he really admires Michael Cuddyer because he's such a team-oriented player and that he's so willing to do what's asked of him (Cuddy's played six different positions this season). Bill Smith was very patient talking with this dorky fan and he's great to visit with. He's a really nice guy.

Later, Carl Pavano pitched a good game, -- a wild pitch and a slow outfielder as his only downfalls -- but it wasn't meant to be, I guess. Bummer.