Twins' Rebound Reveals the Folly of Economic Thinking

The Minnesota Twins have finally started to turn the corner on the 2007 season.  

After going 17-22 over the first six weeks, the Twins went on an 11-5 run to climb over .500 and insert themselves back into the playoff mix.

Turns out all they needed to do was lose some dead weight.

Isolating a single catalyst for the Twins' winning streak is difficult—but one key has been some serendipitous injuries to bad pitchers and the removal of two stinker-ballers from the starting rotation.

The culprits: Jesse Crain, Dennys Reyes, Sidney Ponson, and Ramon Ortiz. 

Mercifully, all four hurlers are now pretty much off of the Twins "go-to" list.  Crain is out for the year, Reyes is on the DL, Ponson was released after failing to live up to already-low expectations, and Ortiz was sent to the bullpen after giving up 26 earned runs in his last five starts.

All told, that quartet combined for a 6-12 record, a 6.10 ERA, and 1.61 WHIP.

As a Twins fan, I'm encouraged to know that those players won't be getting many more opportunities to suck this year.  What is not so encouraging is what it took to get rid of them. 

Ortiz threw away six starts before the Twins moved him to the bullpen.  Ponson was allowed to trash seven outings before his release.  It took injuries to get rid of Crain and Reyes.

Such ineptitude would have been excusable if Minnesota had been hurting for pitchers.  But the Twins had Matt Garza, Glen Perkins, Scott Baker, and Kevin Slowey playing in Rochester (NY) for the Twins' AAA affiliate. 

Those pitchers have combined for a 12-9 record and a dominant 2.52 ERA this year for the Red Wings.

At least injuries and bad performances have finally forced Twins management to bring up their young pitching talent. So far, there haven't been many disappointments.  Still, there's a question that lingers in my mind:

Why did it take so long for the Twins to get the best team out on the field?

The answer probably has something to do with the fact that Twins GM Terry Ryan shelled out $4.1 million to sign Ortiz and Ponson for the season—and signed Jesse Crain to a three-year, $3.25 million deal. Add in Reyes' $1 million salary and you end up with $5.6 million out of the Twins' $71 million payroll. 

The bottom line: Ryan spent a lot of money on these jokers, and I'm sure he wanted to get something for his troubles.

Unfortunately, this is a common error in thinking found all over the sports world.  Stop me if you've heard this before: "Player X hasn't produced much, but he's being paid millions of dollars, so we should expect to see more of him."

Why should we expect to see more of a guy who's not delivering?  Why are fans forced to endure the not-even-mediocre because their home team overpaid in the offseason?

Management has a nasty habit of trying to force value out of players.  How often do you catch yourself saying, "Why are they playing this guy who's hitting .118 when there's a guy in AAA who's hitting near .400?"  Almost every organization has at least one young star treading water in the minors until his big league counterpart gets a final send-off.

The logic behind that kind of waiting game is pure fallacy.  GMs and managers need to put the best team on the field regardless of who gets paid what. If that means calling up a young prospect or losing a guy on waivers—so be it.

The best economic strategy in the business of baseball is winning.  In the long run, winning—not exhibitions of overpaid, ineffective veterans—will produce the best and most abundant revenue streams.

It's time we buried this all-too-common mistake forever.

 

Marty Andrade is a frequent contributor to the Bleacher Report and the host of a live weekly podcast available at BlogTalkRadio.com/Andrade.