He is a horrible GM and this season would be a good reason to fire him. Yes the team has been dessimated by injuries and poor pitching but there were moves that Smith could have made this season that would have been benificial for next season. He's also made some pretty awful moves in the past. He traded Jason Bartlett and Matt Garza for Delmon Young in 2007 which has been a flat out awful deal. Bartlett wasn't a fan of Gardy and besides '09 when he posted a 5.4 WAR he's been awful. Garza on the other hand has been quite solid. Since the trade he's posted an 11.1 WAR, this year he is currently at 3.2 WAR which matched his total of last season.
Delmon Young, oh Delmon Young. He's awful. Plain and simple. Since he arrived he's posted a 1.8 TOTAL WAR. He's posted a negative WAR twice. His defense is absolutely brutal, he has a total UZR of -39.7 meaning he's cost his team 39.7 runs based on his outfield play.
Then there's the glorious Santana trade. While Johan hasn't been the healthiest since the deal the Twins could have gotten Jon Lester or MVP candidate Jacoby Ellsbury. Let's take a look at what they got. Carlos Gomez, one of the worst offensive players I've seen. Exceptional defense though. Phil Humber, was absolutely brutal as a Twin but has managed to be solid for the White Sox this season. Kevin Mulvey, he's a reliever, wasn't anything special. Deolis Guerra, only player left on the team and has stunk it up in the minors. One benifit, if you can call it a benifit was that all the players that are gone, besides Humber helped get key players that helped the Twins make the postseason last year. Besides that, that deal was awful.
I will give him one benifit of the doubt when he traded J.J. Hardy for Jim Hoey and someother reliever who's probably stinking it up. Hardy's having a bounce back year, posting a 2.8 WAR, keep in mind he had a 2.5 WAR last year in MN. Hardy's always had exceptional defense but this year his power's returned, as his .257 ISO indicates. Hoey was brutal in his time in the bigs.
Smith also deserves the can because of what he DIDN'T do. He should have taken advantage of Cuddyer's hot first half and dealt him for some pieces that could potentially help next year. Cuddyer has been playing above his true talent level anyway based on his .315 BABIP, he was due for regression and hasn't done much since the all-star break. It's not like we couldn't offer Cuddy a contract during the off-season but Smith somehow thought we had a chance at the postseason.
Even though Kubel was hurt for a good while he was in demand and Smith should have flipped him too, the Pirates were calling as well as other teams I would guess and we could have gotten something to help the future of the squad. Kubel isn't that good anyways.
Overall, Smith has been a brutal GM, I guess that's what happens when you major in french. I'm sure I could have gone on and on but this year would be an excellent reason to can Billy.
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