Brock Beauchamp

The reason I'm in favor of a two year Lynn/Cobb signing is that it gives you insurance on Santana. If he's bad, you decline his 2019 option and let Lynn/Cobb slide into his role next season. If he's good and you have confidence in either Pineda or one of the prospects, then you dish off Santana or Lynn/Cobb for a prospect. At the money we're talking here, there just isn't much downside.

Yeah, this is my take as well. I think the Morrison signing was a lot more than an opportunity signing. They want to hedge their bets with Mauer.

Obviously, you're free to question these things provided you remain respectful and on-topic. I never implied otherwise in my post. But I think you're missing part of the problem here; symptoms come and go and they're often hard to pin down as being concussion symptoms in the first place. Is it possible Mauer was bad at communicating things he clearly should have been communicating to the team? Absolutely, but it's probably a bit more complex than "he just didn't want to share important information with other people".

You should probably spend a little more time reading up on concussions. What has been reported on Mauer is pretty common. Symptoms come and go, they vary in both intensity and duration, sometimes deceptively (often the person doesn’t even realize they’re there because the human brain is amazing at adjusting for ailments, diminishing their impact but not removing the underlying problem). Placing a timeline and set list of symptoms on a concussion is folly, as "concussion" can mean a bunch of different things and is more of a catch-all term than an actual injury (more on that in a bit). And depending on the severity and frequency, the effects often fade after a few years (or maybe the brain so completely adjusts to compensate for the effects that it essentially "normalizes" a continuing problem, making it invisible to the person). Nevermind that even using the term “concussion” is so generic that it’s almost useless. Do we say “player x broke a bone”? Of course not, we specify which bone and the severity. Yet there are SO MANY forms of concussions, many with different effects and severity. Getting hit on the side of your head is not the same as the back of the head is not the same as the top of the head. Hell, even the type of impact on the same spot on the head often leads to different effects. Those injuries impact different parts of the brain and therefore have different effects, yet we lump them all together as the same. And that doesn’t bring up severity of the impact, which adds another variable to the situation. We too often treat the discussion on concussions at the level of a third grade book report, which is ridiculous because it’s a friggin’ BRAIN INJURY.

I'm picturing the day Mauer has to hang up the cleats and emotionally falls apart, retreating to his lake cabin to become an eccentric recluse. He's found weeks later, alone in a dark room with at least 3-4 days of stubble, 30 lbs heavier, and surrounded by dozens of empty cartons of whole (gasp!) milk. The grass at the cabin hasn't been mown in at least eight days.

Yeah, pretty much this. Given how Gonsalves will likely need MLB experience this season and Romero won't be far behind him, that $500k isn't only about the money, it's about pushing guys to Minnesota and improving the team in future seasons. If Hughes can't perform, he's a liability because of the roster spot, not the money involved.

I don't trust Mejia so much as I believe he can fill out the back of a rotation and do okay for himself while gaining experience. It's okay if Mejia scuffles a bit because he's a future investment. You have five more seasons of control over the guy. It's the other guys that worry me, the guys you need to perform today because you don't really care about their future performance.

Damn it, I knew there was someone else injured who I missed but couldn't think of who it was.

It may seem weird to say now but there's a good chance the Twins won't be looking for a starting pitcher next offseason. Here are their available options, and some of them either have a good track record or are promising prospects: - Santana - Berrios - Mejia - Gibson (likely gone unless he really breaks out, IMO) - Pineda (easy to forget but he's a pretty good pitcher) - Odorizzi - Gonsalves - Romero

Ah, right. Thanks.

Actually, if I were to word cloud Sano and a glacier, there'd be more similarities than differences.

It's pretty funny to watch the video of Turner of gliding around the bases and then compare that to Buxton, whose limbs might disjoint and fly off any time he's running at full speed.

But if you can get him on a one year deal and think he's adequate enough to hold down a #3-ish position, you can just offer a QO the following season. And given how the Twins are likely an 85-87 team as-is (screw you, projections), those extra 1-2 wins Lynn provides are huge. With a few small breaks, he could catapult the Twins into 90 win territory and possibly take the division.

"Relative to our own BsR, this is maybe a little sloppy, but it gets the right point across. Buxton just ranked 140th in plate appearances, but he also ranked 17th in extra bases. Meanwhile, he was out just two times. While Dee Gordon, for example, took 50 more bases, he also made 18 more outs. Billy Hamilton took 30 more bases, but he also made 16 more outs." Dammmmmmmnnnnnnnn. Based on that "sloppy" analysis, Buxton was out once from a stolen base he overslid, and once from taking an extra base in a situation where every human being on the planet would have been out. Suck on that, Billy "fastest man in baseball" Hamilton.

"Five times in 2017, a double was hit with Buxton on first. He scored all five times." *impressed whistle* "Out of the 16 times a single was hit with Buxton on second, he scored on 13 of them." *louder impressed whistle*

The Twins signed Morales in June. Also, pitchers and catchers reported a bit more than two weeks ago and over three weeks are left in Spring Training. I'm pretty sure any pitcher signed today could catch up.

If I was Lynn, I'd switch gears and ask for 1/$14m or something along those lines. And if I was in the Twins front office, I'd jump all over that deal. If you add Lynn to this roster, I think the Twins are an 80% chance for the postseason team with a 30% or better chance of taking the division.

If you think you can get Lynn for two years, I wouldn’t hesitate to offer him $32m or so. And I don’t even like his pitching profile, that’s just SUCH a reasonable price for a pitcher of that level that I couldn’t pass it up.

It was both. He always had a fringy arm for short. Though you actually need a stronger arm for short than third a lot of the time... but I still don't think Dozier has the arm for third.

I've been thinking about this as well. If Dozier accepts the QO, it's an interesting solution. But I still don't want to lock up Brian for four seasons, which is what it will probably take to retain him.

Come on. Nick Gordon is 22 years old.

Every team in baseball should line up for a 5 fWAR player at $8m per season. Every. Single. Team. It doesn't matter if you already have a second baseman, for that money you stash that guy on the bench or at DH. You're literally getting $25m of production for $8m. And if it's smart money for literally all 30 teams to buy into a guy at that price, the odds of him signing at that price are so low they're not worth mentioning. Brian Dozier is a lot closer to JD Martinez than he is Logan Morrison. He's comparable to Lorenzo Cain, who received $80m this offseason.

Dozier absolutely refused to sign an extension with the Twins; back when he signed his original contract, he adamantly refused to let the Twins buy out even a single free agency season. So he didn't sign an extension at all, the Twins simply bought out seasons they already controlled at a fixed price. And Brian was the one who refused to sign that extension, not the Twins.

If Dozier continues his recent level of play, he'll get a lot more than $8m a season for three seasons. The dude has averaged nearly 5 fWAR per season over the past four seasons. I'd be surprised if he gets less than $12m per season and will likely land somewhere in the $15m per season range, though he may have to take fewer overall years to get that rate (assuming next offseason is similar to this offseason, which is a pretty big assumption to make).

I think that has more to do with a 97-98 win team picking up another very good pitcher to add to an already-stacked roster than anything to do with an "ace".