It's About Time!

After picking up a nice 3-2 win today over the Indians (in a start where Garza was, shall we say, a bit less than good), the Twins finally took action on Lew Ford, sending him to the minor leagues and calling Carmen Cali back up. Last winter, I argued that Ford should be non-tendered rather than being offered arbitration, and it didn't happen. After he got injured, I hoped the Twins would cut him -- didn't happen. Now, Ford is off of the team, and while he might come back up in September when the rosters expand, I daresay that we are witnessing the end of the Lew Ford era.

While I applaud this decision (the Twins didn't need to carry all of the outfielders that they had on the roster), this move does make me a little annoyed because of the timing. I mentioned in my earlier post on Jeff Cirillo that I thought the Twins could have moved Ford or Luis Rodriguez off of the roster to make room for Michael Cuddyer rather than letting Cirillo go on the waiver claim to the D-Backs, and then worked out a deal with Arizona for Cirillo. Now, just one day later, the team actually did send Ford down. I am usually the last one to criticize Terry Ryan, who I think is a brilliant GM who has one of the most difficult jobs in baseball. Nevertheless, I am going to criticize the timing here six ways to Sunday. Everything here was done backwards. Ford should have been sent down yesterday to make room for Cuddyer, and today should have been dedicated to resolving the situation with Arizona. This was an oversight on the part of TR and the front office staff, and the only reason I'm not that all that angry about is that I don't think Cirillo would have brought much back in return.