Brock Beauchamp

I'm having a problem with TD but I think it's unique to my personal install of Google Chrome, as no one else I speak to seems to have the problem. Every so often, Twins Daily will not be centered in my browser window and will appear on the left of the window instead of the middle. The entire site shifts to the left upon loading pages. Is anyone else seeing this issue? If not, please say so... If it DOES appear on the left, definitely let me know. I spent quite a bit of time yesterday writing the site so that under NO circumstances can it shift to the left, yet it continues to do so on my screen (which pretty much means it's a personal browser issue). Please let me know one way or the other. Thanks.

What I did this afternoon is change the automatic cookie setting for Twins Daily. There may have been a problem with FireFox differentiating between two different sites... http://www.TwinsDaily.com and TwinsDaily.com. It's a stupid problem that FF shouldn't be having at this point in its life but whatever... I changed TD's cookies so that it will appear as .TwinsDaily.com every time. I think that should resolve your problem.

We'll just use this thread for tonight's game.

Could Zito make it through one inning with just his curve? Sure. Could Zito make it through one inning 50 times with just his curve? Absolutely not. The curveball works when it is paired with a much faster pitch. Throwing only 70mph curveballs will allow a hitter to sit on the pitch all day long, waiting for the curveball that doesn't curve. The pitcher needs to keep batters honest by throwing a fastball alongside it to keep the hitter off-balance. Deduno's fastball and slider are too wildly inconsistent to complement his curveball over one inning of work. Even if he struck guys out (which he doesn't), he'd still be too wild to be a good reliever. And Perez wouldn't walk more batters if he was a starter (assuming it didn't require him to add another pitch he couldn't control). He'd certainly strike out less of them (you can throw at 100% for 20 pitches in an outing... throwing at 100% for 100 pitches is a good way to blow out your arm) but there's no reason to think he'd walk more as a starter. Control is control is control. You either have it or you don't. Since Deduno can't drop the wildest pitch in his arsenal, the fastball, there's no reason to think he would cut down on walks as a reliever and the Perez comp still doesn't hold muster.

Sorry, I had forgotten about this... I've been stupid-busy this week. I looked more into it and found a cookie setting that *may* have been causing the problem in some browsers. Double check and see if it has been fixed for you.

I live near Victory 44. I highly recommend the Perfect Burger, though it's a bit pricey for what you get.

While I agree with you that it's possible, it's also incredibly rare. I can't remember the last time I saw a true prospect-for-prospect swap.

I'm not saying he is a workhorse or even that the Twins should sign him. My point is that quoting Baker's and Peavy's stats and then implying they are equal pitchers at this point because their statistics are equal is ridiculous. One has a TON of questions after not throwing a pitch in 2012 coming off of TJ surgery and the other has had a very successful season where he is going to pitch over 200 innings. Oh, sure. We have no idea what to expect of Baker but we have a pretty good idea of what to expect from Peavy (150-200 IP, 4-ish ERA). The thing is that Baker's ceiling is also what we can expect from Peavy and Baker can be signed for about 1/10th the price. It's a risk but it's a good risk to take.

Marcum has not been mediocre at all. While injured in 2009, he has posted sub 4.00 ERAs in 2008, 2010, 2011, and 2012. That's 550ish innings of sub 4.00 ERA. If the Twins aren't going to be willing to throw $30 over 3 years for someone like that, forget about trying to compete and especially forget about trying to win in the playoffs. Marcum has proven he can pitch in the AL East with an ERA+ well over 100. I'll take it. He hasn't been quite as good with Milwaukee (surprisingly) but I think he's still a decent pitcher. He has lost something on his fastball (down in the 87mph range now) so he's not my first choice but he wouldn't be a terrible signing by the Twins, I think. It's all relative, if the Twins can get him on a 2 year/18 mil deal its a good signing, but the minute you start competeing with a bunch of other teams to overpay him, its a bad signing plain and simple. The rotation is absolute dog **** no doubt, but the solution isn't to go out and over pay for a bunch of "solid #3 type guys" the solution is to trade some assets for some high upside guys who can be top of the rotation guys, and give 1-2 year deals to guys who's value is low, but have the potential to be high upside guys (see: SCOTT BAKER!!!!!!) I agree and I disagree. With Marcum, Peavy, Jackson, and Sanchez all offering similar expected performance/money/years this offseason, now is the time to sign a guy to a 3-4 year deal at $10-13m per. Chances are you won't be able to repeat that signing next year (or the following year) because the fewer of those guys there are on the market, the higher the price is driven. It's going to be awhile until we see this many league-average or slightly above league-average guys in the same offseason. It'd be a shame for the Twins to pass on picking up one of them. This team gave a 34 year old Pavano $8m a year over two years. They shouldn't balk at giving a guy aged 28-31 $11m a year over three or four years.

The last time Jake Peavy threw 200 innings was when he won the Cy Young... In 2007. He will break that mark again in his next start but let's not pretend that he's some kind of workhorse.

The amount of hitting talent in the farm system doesn't seem extraordinary, and a nearly complete lack of pitching drags the overall score to no better than average, IMO. Hard to see a top-10 ranking. With Gibson still out for TJ surgery, Rosario still suffering from Crushed Face Syndrome, and before the emergence of Berrios, Bleacher Report ranked the farm system 15th in MLB during their mid-season rankings. Keith Law ranked them 14th in March. Before what was considered a very solid 2012 draft, the Twins were sitting in the 14-19 range in most rankings. Outside of Benson and Wimmers, almost every notable prospect in the system had a good year. With the continued emergence of Hicks and Sano, the monster season by Arcia, the amazingly quick rise of Berrios, the solid play of Buxton, the successful transition of Rosario to the infield, and the continued rehab of Gibson, I expect the Twins to sit in the 8-14 range in most pre-season rankings. They won't crack the top ten in all the rankings (or probably even most) but they'll crack the list for some people.

A few problems with that thinking: 1. Deduno doesn't strike guys out. He's sitting on a rather paltry 6.5 k/9 ratio in 2012. 2. MLB bullpens are full of guys who failed as a starter because their secondary pitches were below average. Deduno's problem pitch is his fastball. If he moves to the pen, he still needs to throw that fastball to be successful. He can't live on his curveball. Even the good version of Barry Zito couldn't live on his curveball, never throwing it more than 26.7% of the time. And Barry Zito's curveball was knee-buckling during his prime. Absolutely filthy. 3. Chris Perez' career stats are 3.8 bb/9 and 8.8 k/9. Samuel Deduno's career stats are 5.8 bb/9 and 6.8 k/9. It's not hard to see why one would be successful out of the pen while the other would be an unmitigated disaster.

I'm hoping that Hicks is Span's replacement and Arcia is Revere's. I've never been high on Revere (as most know) but if he's surrounded by two outfielders with pop, he won't kill the lineup. If Revere falls on his face, we can hope for a Willingham/Hicks/Arcia outfield. If Revere succeeds, a Revere/Hicks/Arcia outfield would look stellar in the field. The team can always move Willingham to DH if need be (though it would require serious shuffling of the lineup, with Morneau also being traded and you have to figure out what to do with Doumit).

Marcum has not been mediocre at all. While injured in 2009, he has posted sub 4.00 ERAs in 2008, 2010, 2011, and 2012. That's 550ish innings of sub 4.00 ERA. If the Twins aren't going to be willing to throw $30 over 3 years for someone like that, forget about trying to compete and especially forget about trying to win in the playoffs. Marcum has proven he can pitch in the AL East with an ERA+ well over 100. I'll take it. He hasn't been quite as good with Milwaukee (surprisingly) but I think he's still a decent pitcher. He has lost something on his fastball (down in the 87mph range now) so he's not my first choice but he wouldn't be a terrible signing by the Twins, I think.

Wait for Aaron Hicks.

Twins: Denard Span CF Ben Revere RF Joe Mauer C Josh Willingham LF Justin Morneau 1B Ryan Doumit C Trevor Plouffe 3B Jamey Carroll 2B Pedro Florimon SS (Sam Deduno P) Tigers: Austin Jackson CF Quintin Berry LF Miguel Cabrera 3B Prince Fielder 1B Delmon Young DH Andy Dirks RF Jhonny Peralta SS Alex Avila C Omar Infante 2B (Rick Porcello P)

Nothing surprising there until they talk about prospects. It's more than a little unfair to talk about "top prospect Sano being a few years away" and completely fail to mention Arcia, Hicks, or Gibson. There's a chance the Twins will have 5-6 players on several Top 100 prospects lists next spring. It's misleading to mention the one guy (who is probably the best of the bunch) being a few years away without mentioning that the Twins minor league system looks pretty good and might even crack some top 10 lists next season (due to positional strength, definitely not from pitching).

They can't make an Qualifying offer to Liriano (the can but it won't net compensation) as he doesn't qualify since he wasn't with the White Sox for the whole season. Yep. The Twins lose no pick by signing Liriano.

Guys with control problems are a disaster out of the bullpen. When you need an inning out of a guy and he's almost guaranteed to walk at least one batter in that inning, you're not going to see very good results. Deduno can get through that as a starter because he has 5-6 innings to work with but as a reliever, you need to be able to come in at a moment's notice and get a guy out, not walk the first two batters you face.

I think the chance of them moving Hicks or Arcia is almost nil. They need at least one of those guys in the short-term if they trade Span, who is easily their most valuable and tradable piece. Over the long-term, they need to create a cushion if Revere fails and as Willingham transitions into a more fitting role at DH. The Twins have a lot of OF prospects but with Benson falling on his face in 2012, that list shortened quite a bit and chances are they'll need both Arcia and Hicks in the mid-term to bridge the gap to Buxton.

He's been worth the money this season. $13.5m isn't that much money for a guy that is posting a 116 ERA+. But I agree that there's a good chance whoever signs him deeply regrets it by 2016 (he should get at least four years, probably five this offseason). With top-shelf (or perceived top-shelf) pitchers, you overpay just to sign the guy. You sign him for an extra year or two as the player inevitably declines. Once you factor in that overpaying and extended length, you're easily looking at a guy who will be 50% more expensive over the short term and crippling over the longterm. I have zero issues with the Twins avoiding "elite" free agent pitching. It's just not a smart move for mid-market teams. On the other hand, I will be terribly disappointed if they don't sign a Jackson/Marcum/Sanchez type for three years. Those are the type of contracts that won't kill a mid-market team even if they fail. Sure, the upside is lower but if you're going to compete, you have to do it from the farm. Free agency has to be a complementary piece of the puzzle, not the main piece. My blueprint would be to trade Span for a high upside guy in the minors (probably low minors) to build for the long term. Then I'd sign a Jackson/Marcum type for three years. Then I'd sign Baker and cross my fingers. This rotation could compete in the Central if things break well for the Twins and it also gives them hope down the road: Jackson/Marcum/Sanchez Baker Diamond Scrub/Gibson later in the season Other scrub (Hendriks, probably) Sixth man: Deduno, De Vries, etc. Minors: Span for a low minors starter Berrios Wimmers (hope hope) Etc.

No way. Peavy has way to many injuries and inconsistencies to be a top of the rotation guy, and Dempster is no where near that as well. I view him as a pretty "meh" #3 in the AL. Yep. Show me a Cliff Lee or CC Sabathia in this free agent class. There just isn't one. Every pitcher going on the market has question marks surrounding him.

I don't know if I would classify anyone in this FA crop of pitchers as an "ace". Lots of really good #2s, mediocre #2s, and borderline #3s but no aces, really. Every pitcher in the class has a significant flaw. Greinke's mental state (and three years of off-and-on mediocrity), Dempster's struggles in the AL, Peavy's injury history, etc.

If the Twins are bad, it doesn't really matter if Butera is on the roster. It just doesn't. But if the Twins are planning on fielding a competitive team, you put the best 25 guys on the roster. Will it amount to 1-2 additional wins? I don't know (and I doubt it) but why take the chance? Why not field a guy who isn't completely inept at the plate, even if he only gets 50 ABs? If it comes down to "we need to spend $1m to pick up another catcher", that's different. That $1m could probably be used for a more significant improvement elsewhere on the diamond. But if it costs the team nothing to field Hermann instead of Butera and Hermann turns out to be something north of "historically bad", there's just no reason not to do it.