The Twins yesterday fired Exec VP & GM Terry Ryan, and Owner Jim Pohlad said that the team in the near future "will undertake a search for a permanent replacement." In Minneapolis, Phil Miller notes the team hopes the process "results in a hiring before the season ends in October." Interim GM Rob Antony "will be considered for the job, but the team intends to solicit outside candidates as well." Pohlad: "We’ve hurt our brand over the last couple of years. The fans, I’m sure, are discouraged" (Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE, 7/19). YAHOO SPORTS' Tim Brown wrote though the final number of wins and losses "may not measure the man, it almost certainly measures" the GM. The Twins this season are "terrible again." The "last acknowledgement of his kindness, dignity, loyalty and honesty" was that Ryan was "not 'fired' but 'relieved of his duties'" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 7/18).
BEANE STALK: VICE SPORTS' Rob Neyer wrote the A's "may not be the perpetual AL West contender they used to be -- after all, baseball has been caught up for years now on advanced metrics." There is a perception that A's Exec VP/Baseball Operations Billy Beane "is not as active as he once was." That period was before all the "lucrative speeches and before he got a piece of the franchise," and before David Forst gained the title of GM. But Beane is "still pulling all the important strings." While it is "difficult to compare the staffing of baseball-operations departments," the A's' official number of 21 in baseball operations "is certainly lower than most." By comparison, the Dodgers "list 41 baseball-operations staffers" (SPORTS.VICE.com, 7/15).
CHEW ON THAT: In Chicago, Mark Gonzales wrote Cubs manager Joe Maddon is "not about to take some of his time away from his game preparation" in order to enforce the new ban on smokeless tobacco products at all professional and amateur sporting events in Chicago. Maddon said, "I’m not even attempting to, to be honest with you." Maddon "was aware of this law in spring training but said he wasn't told that it went into effect" last Tuesday. Maddon: "The fact [is] that tobacco is a bad thing for a lot of different reasons. But at the end of the day, I’m not going to get involved in the enforcement" (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 7/16).
