Three weeks away from finishing his 13th season as Twins general manager, Terry Ryan stepped down yesterday in a move that no one saw coming. Ryan served as the team's Director of Scouting from 1987-1991 and Vice President of Player Personnel from 1992-1994, and then took over as GM when Andy MacPhail left the Twins in 1994 after producing a .504 winning percentage and two World Series titles in nine seasons at the helm.

Ryan's tenure began with six straight losing seasons as the Twins struggled to build around a string of failed prospects, but he eventually began to get things right. In what would be the last of Tom Kelly's 16 seasons as manager, the Twins won 85 games in 2001 for their first winning season in a decade. With a formidable young core in place thanks to strong drafts and Ryan's trading ability, Ryan replaced Kelly with Ron Gardenhire and the 2002 season saw the first of four division titles in five years.

Even now, as the Twins play out the final month of what has been a tremendously disappointing year, the team has a chance to finish with a winning record for the seventh consecutive season. That recent success, combined with the promise of a new ballpark in 2010 and several huge personnel choices looming, makes Ryan's decision to leave his post now a shocking one. He leaves having produced a 1,016-1,053 (.491) overall record and four playoff berths in 13 seasons.

Longtime assistant Bill Smith takes over as GM and will no doubt attempt to keep the key components of Ryan's regime in place, which means that the Twins will likely continue to focus on scouting and player development. Ryan excelled on the macro level, turning the Twins into one of the premiere organizations in baseball on a limited budget by putting a system in place that thrived at identifying, acquiring, and developing young talent.

From Johan Santana, Joe Mauer, and Justin Morneau to Torii Hunter, Francisco Liriano, and Joe Nathan, Ryan found a way to stock the team with star-caliber long-term building blocks despite monetary limitations making it extremely difficult to acquire such players via free agency. He presided over a string of productive drafts that can be traced back to the strong emphasis on scouting and had an unmatched knack for getting incredible value from veteran-for-prospect trades.

When it comes to the big things, namely bringing in and developing talent, few GMs can match Ryan's track record. However, as fantastic as Ryan was at managing the big picture, he often struggled on the micro level. While he set the Twins up for success by putting championship-level building blocks in place, Ryan seemingly had difficulty fully trusting all the young talent he had assembled and frequently blocked young players by bringing in mediocre veterans to surround his stars.

Ryan's day-to-day weaknesses as GM also happened to be the areas that are easiest for outsiders to analyze. It's difficult to offer insight into large-scale organization building or scouting principles, but it's easy to see that someone has failed to fill gaping holes in the lineup while choosing to surround young talent with the likes of Juan Castro, Tony Batista, Sidney Ponson, and Ramon Ortiz. For people like me, who view the Twins from a distance, it's a lot easier to sweat the small stuff.

However, at the end of the day excelling at the big picture and struggling with the details gets you four playoff berths in six seasons and it's not difficult to see Ryan's finger prints on nearly everything the Twins have done during their current run of success. There's little question in my mind that Ryan was a very good GM who had many strengths, but he also had some very noticeable flaws and an extremely risk-averse approach that held the Twins back at times.

For Smith, being Ryan's right-hand man for so long is certainly a plus, but Wayne Krisvky was also a longtime Ryan assistant before leaving to take over as GM of the Reds and has proven to be miscast in the job. I suspect that the smallest impact from Ryan leaving will come in player development, where Minor League Director Jim Rantz and Scouting Director Mike Radcliff (now in a new role) remain after playing huge parts in the draft and minor-league system.

What will perhaps be most difficult to replace is Ryan's uncanny ability to synthesize the information given to him by the scouting department while uncovering low-level minor leaguers with potential from other organizations. Whether it's hitting home runs with guys like Santana and Liriano or targeting unheralded prospects like Jason Bartlett and Alexi Casilla, Ryan repeatedly found a way to squeeze unseen value from trades.

Smith likely won't match that ability, but might be more willing to make deals for major league-ready talent. Under Ryan the Twins have done an amazing job stockpiling talent, but they've struggled at times to utilize it optimally. Whether it's parting with some young pitching to acquire help for the lineup or not wasting money and playing time on washed-up veterans, there's room for Smith to make a major impact without straying from the organization's strengths.

With that said, Smith faces a very difficult task. Hunter becomes a free agent this winter, and both Santana and Nathan hit the open market following next season. Toss in the new ballpark opening in 2010 and this is one of the most important points in franchise history. Ryan indicated at his press conference yesterday that the stress of trying to negotiate contracts with players and agents was part of what burned him out on the job, and it certainly won't be any easier for a first-time GM.

Ryan will reportedly remain with the organization in a significant player-evaluation role, indicating during the press conference that getting back to his player-development roots perhaps fits his current skills and passion more than working on contract extensions, dealing with the media, and filling roster gaps around the team's building blocks. The franchise will miss having Ryan at the top, but he was part of an effective organizational structure that remains largely intact.

If Smith is able to continue utilizing the strengths of Rantz, Radcliff, and a scouting department that apparently now includes Ryan, there's a strong chance for stability. If he can do that while moving away from Ryan's team-building weaknesses, there's perhaps even room for improvement. The timing is odd, the move comes as a surprise, Ryan will be missed, and Smith will be forced to hit the ground running immediately, but the Twins are a franchise that remains well positioned for success.

According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the Twins have called a press conference for this afternoon during which they will announce that Terry Ryan is stepping down from his job as general manager after a dozen seasons. Longtime assistant Bill Smith is expected to take over for Ryan, who the Star Tribune reports will likely "stay with the organization as a senior advisor, working with the scouting department."


This news seemingly comes out of nowhere and, if true, will obviously have a massive impact on the organization that Ryan has headed since replacing Andy McPhail following the 1994 season. Under Ryan, the Twins are 1,016-1,053 (.491) overall and have advanced to the playoffs in four of the past six seasons, winning the AL Central in 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2006. More on this news if/when it becomes official, but in the meantime check the Star Tribune's website for updates.

The beautiful man pictured above is Jim Souhan, Minneapolis Star Tribune sports columnist and sex machine. Once LaVelle E. Neal III's tag-team partner on the Twins beat, Souhan became a columnist when Dan Barreiro left the Star Tribune several years ago. Since then he's distinguished himself by forcing out-of-date pop-culture references and lame attempts at humor in the form of hacky one-liners down his audience's throats.

Last September, approximately 6-7 years after anyone had watched Ally McBeal, Souhan wrote that the Vikings "play in a division that could be thinner than Calista Flockhart." An apparent poultry fetishist, Souhan opened a column about the Twins back in May by writing that "this position is about as fashionable these days as cell phones the size of Cornish hens" and less than a week later described Geoff Jenkins as having "holes in his swing the size of butterball turkeys."

Within a single 655-word column that was presumably about the Vikings last fall, Souhan referenced back acne, hedge funds, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Scarlett Johansson, Pee-Wee Herman, Jesse Ventura, colonists, Manchester United soccer, shiny trinkets, Borat, the French's inability to win wars, Kenny Rogers, the Russian timekeeper from the 1972 Olympics, wardrobe malfunctions, global warming, asbestos-aloe gel, and getting drunk in Union Square. Seriously.

When the Vikings played the Redskins with Tom Cruise in attendance last season, Souhan wrote: "Put Cruise on the shoulders of 'Skins owner Danny Snyder, and they might be tall enough to get on the rides at Disney World," before adding that Brad Johnson "looked so excited he could have jumped all over Oprah's couch ... and I don't think he was defending Brooke Shields to Cruise." Not limiting himself to Cruise references, he also wrote that the Redskins "have more problems than FEMA."

Following the Vikings' first preseason game last month, Souhan's column began with this:

There is only one possible explanation for the Vikings' offensive futility under Brad Childress: invisible fencing. You know those collars you put on your dog, so if the mutt wanders beyond the confines of your yard a small shock sends Spot yelping home?

Apparently, Vikings opponents have surreptitiously placed similar sensors into the uniforms of Vikings "skill" position players. Why else would a pro football team treat the end zone like a minefield?

There are several million more examples like those, plus plenty of instances where Souhan's actual analysis and opinions would make your brain melt, but you probably get the point. Souhan's columns often feel as though they were written using some sort of pop-culture version of Madlibs, with jokes stolen out of a Jay Leno monologue from 1998, and in honor of his never-ending stream of one-liners I nicknamed him "Shecky" a while back. I'm happy to report that the nickname has stuck in some circles.

I've often tried to simply avoid reading his work, but my e-mailbox fills up each time Souhan references Paris Hilton in a column about the Gophers or mentions the Pamela Anderson-Tommy Lee sex tape in a column about the Twins. Plus, I've never been one to look away from a car wreck. Along with regularly being mocked by me in this space, Souhan's work has also been featured by Will Leitch as part of Deadspin's "Why Your Local Columnist Sucks" series.

Anyway, I bring all of this up today because it appears as though Souhan is fighting back against the silly bloggers who point out what a hack he is (although, if the e-mails that I received on the subject are to be believed, Souhan claimed on the radio last week that he doesn't read blogs). In a column about hockey that began with Souhan writing that the Wild's training-camp locker room "is starting to smell like an industrial-sized bag of Fritos," he notes the following about the team's center, Wes Walz:

He's an exceptional skater and fitness freak who has survived since his NHL debut in 1989 even though he scores about as often as a sports blogger.

Rimshot! Like most of Souhan's references, that one was a non-sequitur jammed into a column that for the most part attempted to be serious and thoughtful. Unlike most of Souhan's references, that one is at least somewhat current (although he missed an opportunity to talk about how most bloggers live in their parents' basements). Stick and Ball Guy is quick to point out that many Twins bloggers have gotten engaged or produced offspring recently, which seems to imply that they "score" occasionally.

However, Souhan is certainly right to suggest that as a group "sports bloggers" aren't exactly known for their sexual exploits. On the other hand, we can now assume that Souhan is quite a ladies man. Fat people don't make jokes about other fat people and short people don't make jokes about other short people, so it seems obvious that Souhan feels comfortable mocking sports bloggers for not "scoring" because he's putting the puck in the net all the time (sorry, I was channeling my inner-Shecky there).

Which makes sense, of course, because sportswriting has long been considered the world's sexiest occupation. Picking up women locally must be a breeze with Sid Hartman and Patrick Reusse as your wingmen, and I can't even begin to fathom the amount of damage that the trio of Souhan, LEN3, and Joe Christensen must have done on the road together covering the Twins before the latter pair ended all the fun by joining the sexless ranks of sports bloggers.

(The Star Tribune's leading scorers: Hartman, Souhan, Reusse. Watch out ladies!)
Toss in Souhan's stunning looks and it's really not even fair. After all, if you compare every pitcher to Johan Santana they all seem like bums. Souhan should realize that not everyone is blessed with his magnetic personality, endless charisma, razor-sharp wit, raw sex appeal, or a business card that produces animalistic reactions from the opposite sex. It's long been obvious that we're all just living in Shecky's world, but Tiger Woods doesn't go around calling everyone else a hacker.

Originally a 34th-round pick by the Devil Rays out of high school, Nick Blackburn chose junior college over signing and was later drafted by the Twins 28 rounds after Joe Mauer in 2001. A big, 6-foot-4 right-hander, Blackburn began his pro career at rookie-level Elizabethton in 2002, posting a 4.89 ERA and 62-to-21 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 66.2 innings spread over 13 starts. He moved up to low Single-A in 2003, posting a 4.86 ERA and 40-to-18 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 76 innings as a swingman.

The mediocre performance at low Single-A in 2003 earned him a trip back there to begin the next season. Blackburn pitched very well, with a 2.77 ERA and 66-to-23 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 84.1 innings split between starting and relieving, and earned a midseason promotion to high Single-A Fort Myers. Once there he struggled, posting a 6.27 ERA and 21-to-7 strikeout-to-walk ratio while serving up seven homers in 37.1 innings.

Even with the success during his second stint at low Single-A, Blackburn's combined numbers through three pro seasons were mediocre at best. In 264.1 total innings, he sported a 4.42 ERA and 189-to-69 strikeout-to-walk ratio while serving up 29 homers. For pitchers who lack overpowering raw stuff and don't miss many bats, the path to long-term success is through inducing ground balls, and allowing 29 homers in 264.1 innings against low-minors hitters suggests Blackburn struggled to do that.

However, for whatever reason that changed in 2005, when Blackburn spent time at Single-A, Double-A, and Triple-A while serving up just seven homers in 157.2 total innings. He began the year back at Fort Myers, posting a 3.36 ERA and 55-to-16 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 93.2 innings spread over 15 starts to earn a spot on the Florida State League All-Star team. Promoted to Double-A at midseason, Blackburn thrived while facing high-minors competition for the first time.

In seven starts at New Britain, he had a 1.84 ERA and 27-to-10 strikeout-to-walk ratio while allowing just one homer in 49 innings. Blackburn also made three starts at Triple-A when Rochester needed some rotation help, allowing 20 hits in 14 innings on the way to a 5.14 ERA. Despite making his way through three levels in 2005 and seeing some time in the Triple-A rotation near the end of the season, Blackburn spent all of 2006 back at Double-A.

Making 19 starts and 11 relief appearances, he posted a 4.42 ERA and 81-to-37 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 132.1 innings. Those numbers are far from stellar and the continued deterioration of Blackburn's strikeout rate is noteworthy, but he once again kept the ball in the ballpark with just 11 long balls allowed. Despite turning 25 years old in February and already having spent one-plus seasons at Double-A, Blackburn found himself back at New Britain to begin this season.

With no room for him in the star-studded Rochester rotation, Blackburn bided his time by posting a 3.08 ERA and 18-to-7 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 38 innings at New Britain. Once Glen Perkins and Scott Baker made their way to Minnesota, Blackburn received a mid-May promotion to Triple-A and joined the rotation alongside Matt Garza and Kevin Slowey. After struggling some initially, Blackburn put together an amazing 44-inning scoreless streak that included going 5-0 with a 0.00 ERA in five June starts.

Within 39 scoreless June innings, Blackburn tossed back-to-back complete-game shutouts, held opponents to a .197 batting average, and posted a silly 21-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio. The 44-inning scoreless streak ended when he allowed one run over seven innings on July 3, but it put Blackburn on the prospect map for the first time and he responded with a 2.70 ERA and 29-to-7 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 53.1 innings between July and August.

Blackburn finished the season with a 2.36 ERA, 75-to-19 strikeout-to-walk ratio, and .234 opponent's batting average in 148.2 innings between Double-A and Triple-A, including a 2.11 ERA in 110.2 innings at Rochester. The out-of-nowhere breakout season earned Blackburn a call-up to Minnesota, where he debuted with a scoreless inning of relief against the Indians on September 3. "He was under the radar," Rochester pitching coach Stu Cliburn said. "Now he's on the radar. I'd put my stamp on him."

While a certain segment of the Twins' fan base will no doubt see Blackburn's outstanding numbers this season and immediately assume that he's a top-notch prospect, that's actually far from the case. For one thing, the ability to miss bats is extremely important when projecting the future of a pitching prospect and Blackburn has never recorded many strikeouts. In fact, his strikeout rate has dipped with each step up the organizational ladder:

LVL        IP      SO     SO/9
RK       66.2      62     8.37
A-      160.1     106     5.95
A+      131.0      76     5.22
AA      219.1     126     5.17
AAA     124.2      64     4.62

That pattern suggests that Blackburn will likely have a tough time striking out more than 4-5 batters per nine innings in the majors, which is the type of below-average strikeout rate that makes it difficult to have sustained success. With that said, if you're not going to miss many bats, the easiest way to have success is by throwing strikes, inducing ground balls, and keeping the ball in the ballpark. Fortunately for Blackburn, he's pretty good in all three of those areas, especially since 2005:

                 IP     SO/9     BB/9     HR/9
2002-2004     264.1     6.44     2.35     1.00
2005-2007     437.2     5.04     1.75     0.56

Since 2005, Blackburn's strikeouts have declined by 22 percent, but he's sliced his walks by 26 percent while cutting his homers by 44 percent. Over that span, he's walked 1.75 batters and allowed 0.56 homers per nine innings. For comparison, Brad Radke's career walk rate was 1.63 and the average MLB pitcher allows 1.02 homers per nine innings. In other words, he's handed out walks at the same rate that Radke did and has served up homers half as often as big-league pitchers as a whole.

Those numbers figure to change for the worse against major-league hitters, of course, but if you're going to lose one-fifth of your strikeouts on the way to the big leagues that's certainly the way to do it. While not quite an extreme ground-ball pitcher, Blackburn's best offering is a sinker and over the past two seasons he's had a ground ball-to-fly ball ratio of about 1.4-to-1. To put that in some context, the most extreme ground-ball pitcher in the league this season is Fausto Carmona at 3.5-to-1.

Twins who qualify as ground-ball pitchers this season are Carlos Silva (1.6), Juan Rincon (1.5), and Matt Garza (1.4). Rincon and Garza rely on good velocity and missing bats, so they're not similar to Blackburn, but Silva is the type of strike-throwing, ground ball-inducing pitcher that he'll try to be. "He's not a strikeout guy, although he gets his strikeouts," minor-league director Jim Rantz said. "He hits his spots, moves the ball around, and gets a lot of ground balls. He has good life on his fastball."

Already 25 years old, the best-case scenario is that Blackburn develops into a back-of-the-rotation starter. He'd likely be given a chance to do that in most organizations, but it'll be difficult to crack the Twins' rotation given their abundance of young starting pitchers both in the majors and throughout the minor-league system (which is part of why it took him so long just to get to Triple-A). Instead, a more likely scenario is that Blackburn slides into a middle-relief role beginning some time next season.