Bill Smith Topic Page

The Twins on Monday designated RHP Luis Ayala for assignment and called up 27 year-old RHP Bobby Keppel from AAA Rochester. In the grand scheme of things, the move is probably pointless. They've basically swapped one bad pitcher for another one. Still, the move raises a few questions in my mind.

I'm not sure what the Twins were expecting when they signed Ayala to a 1-year $1.3 million contract in the offseason. His numbers this year have been almost perfectly in line with his career marks, but apparently Bill Smith and Company have decided that's not what they're looking for. If they expected the 31-year old to somehow defy numbers posted in over 350 career big league innings, they're absolutely insane.

The Twins have now lost 6 of their last 8 games and find themselves as the most outscored team in baseball with a -29 run differential. Problems exist in all facets of the game for the Twins--inconsistent offense, poor starting pitching and atrocious bullpen work so far.

ERA's rise and fall quickly in April, but at this point the team ERA is 5.19 with Glen Perkins, Jesse Crain and Joe Nathan being the only guys under 5. Thursday night's seventh inning implosion in which Craig Breslow and R.A. Dickey failed to record an out through 5 batters was particularly ugly.

Pitchers and catchers are well underway with their spring workouts in Ft Myers, FL. Noah Pransky of ABC7 caught up with Joe Mauer check out Noah's Blog as well as the video below.

There's a ton of talk in the baseball community online regarding the Santana trade. Today has actually been one of the top 5 traffic days for this site's history. I thought I'd pull together quotes from around the web to get a feel for people's reactions. Twins fans are pretty much on the same page with this one...it stinks.

Before I say anything, I just want to make it clear that the deal is still tentative. The Mets and Johan Santana will need to agree on a fat contract extension before Johan will waive his no-trade clause. It's pretty unlikely that they won't reach a deal, but we can still hope.

The Twins signed their second former Houston Astro infielder of week, offering Mike Lamb a 2-year deal worth $6.6 million with a club option for 2010. Lamb has not surpassed 400 AB since his rookie season of 2000 with the Texas Rangers. He spent his years in Houston playing behind third baseman Morgan Ensberg.

The response to the 6 player trade centered around Matt Garza and Delmon Young has been mostly positive. Here's what some other Twins bloggers had to say about it:

What did it take to bring me back from my stint of inactivity? First, I finally have internet hooked up at home again after recently moving, but most importantly Terry Ryan has dropped a bit of a surprise by deciding to step down as General Manager of the Minnesota Twins.