Mackey: Good Chance Twins Are Punting 2013

[YourHouseIsMyHouse]

Why should we sign starting pitchers?

1. Diamond

2. Devries

3. Walters

4. Deduno

5. Blackburn

 

Looks good to me. Lots of sexy names already.

[Kobs]

You can live with a couple crappy bats in the lineup as long as the other 7 are solid. People seem to forget the Twins won multiple division titles with guys like Punto, Tolbert, Castro, Bautista, etc getting a ton of at bats.

Nobody forgets that, it's just irrelevant. Those teams could pitch.

 

Regardless, going into the season with two nearly guaranteed black holes as your best options at two positions exaggerates the likely reduced production of guys at other positions who are having upper limit seasons, especially Plouffe and Willingham. This lineup will quickly become one with three or four holes.

[jokin]

In what way is it a Catch-22? You sign one legit mid-tier free agent (a Marcum or Blanton type), you maybe gamble on one or two other risk/reward plays (Baker, Matsuzaka, Carmona - er, Hernandez), trade Span or Morneau for an arm, and you hope Diamond can keep it rolling and Blackburn is usable. If Gibson or Hendriks are able to give you something, all the better.

 

There are ways to envision a decent rotation here next year without requiring a huge free agent spending spree, which is why I feel that Mackey's conclusion was a bit of a stretch.

Huh? Just 2 posts later you envision the possibility of $30M available to spend on FA pitchers. There are still a lot of hopes and ifs and gambles in your scenario to think there are high chances for success.

 

Meanwhile, the Twins are caught in a Catch-22 position that invariably ends up badly- trying to be all things to all fans. If they go all-in and try to "reload" to remain competitive, their lip to service to "staying competitive" may mollify the ticket base for the short-term, but the self-imposed salary cap, the dearth of pitching and positional help on the farm, along with the existing anchor-contracts, severely limits any chances for short-term success. And, as a result, it actually ends up hurting the team in the long-term, ultimately disaffecting those same ticket buyers anyway. Going the other route, full-rebuild-now, would be a PR disaster for a team in a new park, an admission that the "master plan the Twins way" was a failure, with basically few ready, or even intriguing options to place on the field in 2013 from AA and AAA. Did you see who the Rangers just called up from AA to play 3B? Mike Olt, batting nearly .300, with 27 HRs. The Twins called back Valencia. Nuff said. Can you name anyone dynamic or interesting enough to be of immediate help this season or next in the Twins system?

[jokin]

There is also the long shot that Nishioka could contribute as well, and a guy like Mastrionni could potentially play some 2B as well.

 

You can live with a couple crappy bats in the lineup as long as the other 7 are solid. People seem to forget the Twins won multiple division titles with guys like Punto, Tolbert, Castro, Bautista, etc getting a ton of at bats.

 

Plus we could probably got out and get a guy like Kelly Johnson to handle 2B who would be rather affordable if we needed to.

Nishi has to be the longest of long-shots, I sincerely doubt that Gardy's cardiologist would allow Nishi back in a Twins uniform. The Twins business plan for years on end has been having no-pop baseball serfs in the MI (and sometimes even at 3B). They just traded for the next serf in line for UIF in a nifty deal for their best arm. They couldn't get rid of Hardy fast enough when the propsect of an unproven, low-cost, no-talent RP was dangled before them.

 

On a more serious note, I am intrigued in taking a look at Mastroianni and Plouffe at 2B- and even Ben Revere for a couple years if the Twins opt to retain Span through the life of his contract.

[CDog]

Every move should be made with the organization's long-term health in mind, but that's not mutually exclusive from putting a competitive product on the field next year.

I've had that thought in some form or another a lot over the last couple of weeks, but never that succinctly. Well said.

[Wolfy]

Ryan has shown that he just isn't adept at the "flyer" approach to FA. Guys like Carrol, Willingham, and Doumit don't fit into that description. Nishi and Zumaya certainly do.

 

When he gets the wild hair to do something out of the box like that again, someone should grab the phone from his hand and shuffle him out to the golf course so he can clear his head.

[drjim]

Ryan has shown that he just isn't adept at the "flyer" approach to FA. Guys like Carrol, Willingham, and Doumit don't fit into that description. Nishi and Zumaya certainly do.

 

When he gets the wild hair to do something out of the box like that again, someone should grab the phone from his hand and shuffle him out to the golf course so he can clear his head.

Burton?

 

And Terry Ryan had nothing to do with Nishi. I still think Zumaya was an acceptable risk.

[diehardtwinsfan]

guys like Zumaya are an exceptable risk... I seem to remember a lot of clamoring on BYTO about getting Erik Bedard and Rich Harden. Harden went the Zumaya route. Bedard signed for a little more than Marquis and has turned out to be a great get for the Pirates.

[drjim]

guys like Zumaya are an exceptable risk... I seem to remember a lot of clamoring on BYTO about getting Erik Bedard and Rich Harden. Harden went the Zumaya route. Bedard signed for a little more than Marquis and has turned out to be a great get for the Pirates.

Great get might be a stretch. He barely averages 5 ip a start and has an era a little under 5 in the NL. Marquis has actually put up better numbers with SD than Bedard has with Pit.

[Brock Beauchamp]

guys like Zumaya are an exceptable risk... I seem to remember a lot of clamoring on BYTO about getting Erik Bedard and Rich Harden. Harden went the Zumaya route. Bedard signed for a little more than Marquis and has turned out to be a great get for the Pirates.

I said it before the season: Zumaya was a great move if TR went out and got somebody else as a back-up plan. He didn't. Luckily, Burton stepped up but relying on Zumaya to fix the pen was just asinine.