GM Smith has done nothing for the Twins in the offseason

The funeral for Carl Pohlad will be held this afternoon at the Basilica of St. Mary. Presuming he gets a turnout similar to his late, great sister Dorothy Dolphin, there will be quite a display of hats and robes among the clergy conducting the service.

Pohlad had been in grave health for several weeks, and we can be certain that the final shock to Carl's system was not an overly aggressive action by his baseball front office.

Let's face it: If Barack Obama truly had done his due diligence when assembling a financial team, he would've hired away Bill Smith from the Twins and wound up with both an economic stimulus package and a balanced budget.

Smith kept track of the nickels when he was Terry Ryan's right-hand man in the baseball operation. He carried the nickname "Mr. No," based on his response to most spending requests over which he had authority.

Now in his second offseason as the general manager, Smith is working on another nickname: "Mr. Invisible."

The Twins can rattle off excuses for going under cover during free agency, but some of us blame it on Smith being shell-shocked after the failure of last winter's more forceful approach.

The decision to bring back Juan Rincon failed. The minor trade for Craig Monroe failed. The major trade for Delmon Young failed. The free agent signings of Mike Lamb and Adam Everett failed immediately, and the signing of Livan Hernandez failed eventually.

Now, Cleveland has spent the offseason making moves intended to get back to the top of the AL Central, and Kansas City has been making moves that could give it a chance to keep moving forward from last season's lofty fourth-place finish.

Detroit has been licking its wounds, and the division-winning White Sox have lost more assets than they have gained, but the Twins are the bunch that has put on this shameful display of nothingness: Re-signing infielder Nick Punto and signing pitcher R.A. Dickey, a knuckleball specialist who often can't get it over the plate.

That's it.

Smith flinched at giving a third year to free agent Casey Blake, an answer at third base. Smith flinched at exceeding the package of marginal prospects Cleveland sent to the Cubs for Mark DeRosa, a better answer at third.

Getting an everyday third baseman should not have been optional; it should have been something that was going to get done, period. And even worse, the likelihood the Twins will do anything significant to address a gigantic hole in the bullpen decreases by the day.

One and two are sorry excuses, since Smith is millions under what this generation of Pohlads would be willing to have for a 2009 payroll, and the Twins have missed on enough expensive first-rounders that an elite setup guy such as Cruz would be worth sitting it out this time.

There's nothing the Twins can do if the third factor -- along with the right dollars -- is available to Cruz.

The next option is Brandon Lyon, a closer in Arizona for much of last season. There's a problem there, too. The Cardinals might be willing to sign Lyon with a guarantee he will be the closer, again leaving the Twins on the outside.

On Tuesday, the Twins allowed themselves to be outbid (two years, $10 million) by Baltimore for Koji Uehara, a righthander from Japan. The tab is higher for a better Japanese righthander, Kenshin Kowakami, so we can count on the Twins again to stay in hiding.

Five weeks from spring training, Smith's second offseason needs to gather momentum to reach abysmal.