Brock Beauchamp

About half are available for purchase now with the other half on their way well before Christmas. We'll be shipping everything shown on the site in time for the holidays if you're looking to buy gifts. Be sure to use the "TwinsDaily" code, everybody. It saves you five bucks on any order over $30.

That design pre-dates my interest in the company but it's one of my favorites. One of the comical things about entering this project was my sudden realization that, outside of the Twins, memorable sports moments in Minnesota are almost universally linked to spectacular failure. It makes designing a "timeless" shirt that people will buy for years rather difficult.

DC used to have a Thome shirt that read "600 Naturally". We should do a Butera one that reads ".500(OPS) Naturally".

In case you didn't know, DiamondCentric is a project Parker Hageman has been working on for awhile and I jumped on board about a month ago. Originally just a baseball-focused apparel company, we've been trying to expand into other Minnesota sports. I wanted to get some feedback from the TD folks. What do you think of the designs? Is there anything in particular you'd like to see from DiamondCentric? We have a few baseball, football, and basketball offerings at this point... We have some good ideas for hockey as well, but thanks to the NHL lockout, those are mostly on hold for the time being (sigh, NHL owners). In January, we'll be starting up production on a couple more Twins shirts, as well (we're hoping to attend TwinsFest). Just curious what some of you think of the stuff we're producing. Here's the site: http://diamondcentric.com/ Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DiamondCentric

Or Arcia. Or Hicks. The Twins have a steady stream of outfielders going through the system. They're going to have to trade something of value to get something of value in return. And it's a hell of a lot easier to find OF help than pitching, especially considering the Twins' minor league system, which has 3-4 outfielders that project to being Major League regulars and one pitcher who projects to be an average-to-above-average starter (still too early to rely on Berrios for anything).

The Brewers did the same with Braun. I don't get it.

Yep. It won't break my heart to see Gibson on the Opening Day roster but I don't really see the point. It also means the JR didn't do a good enough job of rounding out the rotation this offseason.

Even if you are right, is 3.5M *2 that big of a deal? It's one thing to argue the Twins should have traded Willingham or Morneau but Doumit's return and contract are far more insignificant. Yep. This team already has enough Esmerling Vasquezes. We don't need more of that player. And that's what the return on Doumit would have been at the deadline.

So what should they do? Not spend the money and give ABs to Drew Butera? What does that accomplish? I believe we are back where we started. My comment on Myers was to sign him to a one year deal and flip him at the trade deadline. That is what I would have done with Doumit instead of extending him. Doumit's value was very low at the deadline. While teams need a backup catcher that can hit, no team is going to fall over themselves to trade much of anything for a three month rental of said backup catcher. Look at what the Twins got for Liriano. Halve that and there's your return on Doumit. And at that point, why bother? If you can extend that guy, you do it because his value as a three month rental is minimal and he fills a need on your team. As an added bonus, if you trade him the following year, his value will be higher.

So what should they do? Not spend the money and give ABs to Drew Butera? What does that accomplish?

The Twins need a backup catcher. Doumit's value right now is higher than it was last June (I'd have been surprised if they could get even a C- prospect for him as a rental). He's not blocking anyone because, again, the Twins need a backup catcher and Butera is historically awful. He's not paid enough for it to significantly impact the roster. The Twins aren't prevented from signing any FAs worth mentioning because Ryan Doumit is on the roster. I continue to fail to see the problem here.

I think he'd get something in the range of two years, $14m. If he repeats his 2012 season in 2013 (or does marginally better), I think he'll get three years, $24m-ish.

Oh, my understanding of player decline is just fine. Doumit is entering his age 32 season in 2013. As far as I know, he is not queued up to have both his legs amputated this offseason. He's easily worth $3.5m a year at a .750 OPS, much less the .830/.780 OPS he has posted in the past two seasons. He was a 1 WAR player this season. Getting a 1 WAR player for $3.5m is the way you build a competent roster. An average baseball win costs a team $7-8m. Getting that production across several positions (even though he plays none of them well) for $3.5m is a steal no matter if you play in the NL or the AL (notice that I continually referred to Doumit as a "backup" catcher). Doumit is a competent receiver, if slightly deficient in some areas. He won't kill you behind the dish a la Mike Piazza but he won't ever be considered good. I'd wager that if the Twins put him on the block right now, at least half the teams in the NL would be calling them, asking what they'd like in return. Again, Henry Blanco made $1.2m last year at age 40. He OPSed at .505. Catchers are always in demand. 32 year old backup catchers that OPS at .780 and make $3.5m a season are something almost every team in baseball would leap at the opportunity to acquire. Butera is the worst hitter in MLB. That's all there is to it. He shouldn't sniff a Major League roster, much less be awarded 500 PA over two seasons. I don't care how good he is behind the dish; he's completely incompetent with the bat. As in "one of the worst players to acquire a full seasons' worth of ABs" bad.

Doumit's value doubled the moment he signed that extension. If the need should arise, the Twins will get more for him now that he's been extended through 2014. You're flat-out wrong about his value. He's an incredibly valuable piece that 2/3rds of teams would love to have on their roster. Once you factor in his $7m salary for two years, you could probably bump that number to 28-29 teams. Henry Blanco made $1.2m last season and OPSed at .500. You're drastically undervaluing what backup catchers are paid. Backup catchers who OPS at .800 are a crown jewel of baseball; most teams can't find a starting catcher that OPSes at .700, much less .800. Given Mauer's questionable ability to play catcher more than 100 games a season, Doumit is just about the best player the Twins could have picked up last offseason. He has a bat and is an adequate catcher if he's only behind the dish 50 times a year. The Twins couldn't have played the Doumit situation any better than they played it. Signed him to a one year deal and then extended him right before the deadline (and they said that if a deal couldn't be reached, they would have moved him). I don't know what some of you expect from the Twins. They still need to field all nine positions and Doumit is dirt-cheap for his production level. He's a friggin' steal at $3.5m per year. Do you really expect fans to pay to watch Drew ****ing Butera (also known as the worst hitter in Major League Baseball) play 80 times a year? Doumit isn't preventing Parmelee from getting ABs. The Twins front office and management is preventing Parmelee from getting ABs. Instead of complaining about Doumit being on the team (a productive player at a necessary position playing for way less than he's worth), we should be asking why Span is still on the team because Denard, unlike Doumit, actually had value at last year's deadline. There are three players the team could trade to make room for Parmelee and all of them either make more money or carry much more value in trade than Ryan did last July and none of them double as a part-time catcher who OPSes around .800.

I think peoples' expectations are far too high. The Twins are not going to get two pitchers better than Brett Myers and Brett Myers. They may get two pitchers better than Brett. They may get Brett and a pitcher better than him. But two pitchers better than him while also signing him to a short contract? Nope. That's a tall order when 29 other teams are fighting for those same pitchers in free agency.

It's pretty hard to complain about the Twins locking up a guy for two years at $3.5m per year. As long as the Twins get a decent deal, I'm not against signing an older pitcher (provided that he's not the Twins "big move" for the entire offseason).

This is kind of a crap example but it only took me five minutes. Here you can see how your design melds into one blur when converted to greyscale. Hues that are the same tone in greyscale rarely work well next to one another, as the eye fights for dominance between the two colors. As for the kerning, here's an example of what improved kerning can do for a design. Keep plugging away at it (if you're trying to learn design at all, that is).

Terrifying, to say the least.

A few tips: Red and blue almost never work in combination with text. Red jumps out, blue fades back and it makes for difficult reading. You should look into using colors that aren't so close to one another on the greyscale. In a logo, readability takes precedence over everything else. A logo has to work on a business card and on a billboard. Logos have to work in one color. Every logo has to work on simple black in one color. The "4teen" portion of the logo would not work in solid black. Logos have to really nail kerning and leading or they feel disjointed. Your kerning in this particular logo needs to be trimmed down. keep working at it. Logo design looks incredibly simple but it's not... It's actually one of the hardest things to design well because you have so much information to pack into a design using the absolute barest of design elements.

Also, evolution has nothing to do with the origin of life, only the continuation of said life.

Just curious--how does one track that down to find out? Not a defense of any poster/opinion. You need access to users' IP addresses. I'm pretty sure they're not the same person, BTW. The person would have to operate on a technical proficiency level that is... Unexpected, given their writing style. Separate devices, seperate networks and a new identity would allow dakota to bypass his banning. Seems strange that trader t starts up after dakota's 3rd banning. It must be tough for him to occasionally use the shift key. There's more to it than that. You have to use the correct kind of proxy for me not to know that it's a proxy. Also, the locations are wildly different. Not impossible, but highly unlikely.

Just curious--how does one track that down to find out? Not a defense of any poster/opinion. You need access to users' IP addresses. I'm pretty sure they're not the same person, BTW. The person would have to operate on a technical proficiency level that is... Unexpected, given their writing style.

I'm still thankful that the Tigers signed Prince Fielder. As for the Twins, uh... I'm, uh... Thankful for Scott Diamond? Maybe? Scratch that. I'll go with Mauer. I'm thankful he didn't have MS or whatever crap was circulating after his "bilateral leg weakness" popped up last season.

I'm hopeful of help in the next few years but outside of Gibson and Berrios (a longshot to even include on this list), the Twins' pitching prospects are not good in the short term. Could that change next season as one of the college arms taken in the past few drafts has a strong season and/or Wimmers comes back strong? Certainly. But it's a longshot and far from a sure thing. The Twins are not likely to field a competitive rotation from within the system in the next 3-4 years. There's no indication that will happen. You can hope but that hope isn't grounded in reality. If the Twins assemble a pitching staff, it's going to be through one of three avenues: 1. Money. Free agents. Lots of 'em. 2. Shrewd trading by Ryan. 3. Dumb luck. Picking a few guys off the heap and getting ridiculously lucky with them. One of those things can't be counted on. The other is unlikely given the Twins' history with free agents. Basically, the Twins need to get a fantastic return on one or all of Morneau, Willingham, and Span. That is the only way they're going to get a top of the rotation guy in the short term.

Same to you, Jim. Thanks for all the great contributions.