I have good news, and I have bad news

The Twins bullpen was excoriated last season. Nobody liked it, they had no friends, and most people wanted massive changes. Well, you all go your wish. Jim Hoey was placed on waivers and picked up by the Blue Jays. Then, the Twins non tendered Jose Mijares, making him a free agent. So that's good news, right? The Alan Cumming look alike and the fat, petulant lefty are gone!
Well, I suppose that's the good news. The bad news, of course, is that the Twins don't have anyone better to replace them. Perhaps were both cause of consternation because Hoey was acquired in a bad trade and Mijares has had a few years to sort himself out but never did, but going forward, if the Twins were using those guys, it's because there was nothing better in the system. Barring some massive changes in the next couple of weeks, the Twins bullpen will still be very, very bad.

Enough blame to go around

I don't know if it's been discussed here, but I generally feel like Ron Gardenhire gets too much credit when things go well with the Twins, and not nearly enough blame when they go poorly. Rather than probing that oft-undiscussed topic, I thought I would, for once, mention what is undoubtedly the worst trade that Bill Smith has ever made.
Sure, the team was looking to get faster and younger in the middle infield, which meant Orlando Hudson wasn't getting re-signed and JJ Hardy was persona non grata in the Twins clubhouse because he was actually really good at baseball and playing short stop. So he needed to be traded, apparently.
In exchange, the Twins pulled back Jim Hoey. There were other non factors in the trade, but that was essentially it. Hardy for Hoey. Since he has been here, Jim Hoey has been nothing but white hot garage. In a season in which the Twins have failed to put a smile on the faces of the sweet little cherubs in the stands at Target Field, Jim Hoey has been the most putrid of all players. Worse than Alexi Casilla.
Why on earth would Hoey be the centerpiece of this deal? His best career ERA was 7.30 back in 2007, which, coincidentally was his last season in the majors. I guess he DID dominate double A batters. And this year he keeps making it back because his stats are inflated by a remarkably low BABIP and astronomical LOB% (both things that indicate that if he was a hair unluckier, his ERA in Triple A would be enormous too).
I don't even care that Hardy was traded to make room for Casilla. Let's say that would have worked out really well if Tsuyoshi Nishioka stayed healthy. Let's just say that. There is still no way to defend a trade in which, had they received nothing in return, they would have been better off. Jim Hoey is so bad, the Twins would have been better off just giving JJ Hardy away. That's phenomenal.
(Also, relievers in the Orioles bullpen that would help the Twins : Jim Johnson, Jeremy Accardo, Koji Uehara, Kevin Gregg... we couldn't have had ANY of them?)

Introducing: Jim Hoey

This is the new reliever that the Twins called up yesterday, with Jeff Manship being sent back to Rochester. He is the main return from the offseason's JJ Hardy trade. Jim Hoey was injured and spent much of last season on the DL, and --
Wait a minute, is that TV's Alan Cumming?