There was a point on Thursday when Billy Beane and Terry Ryan had a conversation on the phone and the thought of that conversation makes me smile quite a bit. I obviously don’t know how this phone call really went down, but I imagine that Beane was doing the calling.
Earlier in the day, Beane had acquired Jon Lester and Jonny Gomes in exchange for Yoenis Cespedes. Once that deal was completed I imagine that Beane was sitting in front of his ‘moneyball’ spreadsheets and came across that by exchanging Gomes for Cespedes that he needed just a little more to get his A’s over the hump. That’s when Beane turned to Jonah Hill and said, ‘Get me Fuld back.’
That happened and, yes, Jonah Hill now lives in O.Co Coliseum desperately trying to avoid all the raw sewage.
Be it Beane that called Ryan or vice versa, Terry Ryan made a marvelous move at the deadline with the move of Sam Fuld. It would have been a great move regardless of who the Twins received in return, sorry to potentially hurt your feelings, Tommy Milone.
If you didn’t tune out of the Twins season before Easter, you might remember that Fuld was claimed off of waivers on Easter Sunday. So, yes, the Twins gave up nothing in the immediate transaction of getting Fuld. Fuld then came into the Twins organization and was quite productive, by a measure of feasible expectations, when healthy.
The Twins turned a DFA signee into a starting arm that is MLB ready. That’s what turns around an organization, turning in players not necessarily in your future plans into assets, it’s even better when that asset is a pitcher.
Terry Ryan didn’t move the likes of Josh Willingham and Kurt Suzuki before the non-waiver trade deadline like I hoped he would, but I must give him credit where credit is due. Way to flip the house that is Sam Fuld.