wavedog

I like the trade from the fact that the Nationals are my second-favorite team. They are getting an excellent leadoff hitter at a reasonable price. From the Twins side of things I hope we get a few good years from Meyer - since he is a Boras client - we will have to flip him in a trade at some point because we will never sign him to a long-term deal after his cheap years are over. I think we will miss Span more as a leadoff hitter than CF - I always thought he was better in RF. Revere for a year than Hicks in CF is our hope.

I liked Torii as a Twin and continue to cheer for him even as he moves to the Tigers. He brought some energy to the team that is lacking these days. However, I won't go as far as hoping the Tigers win the World Series or even the division plus I hope he goes hitless against the Twins.

Positives for KC is that while $13M is likely overpaying - it is only a 1 year deal not a long-term commitment and they did not give up a player of much value. Santana has produced in the past - I seem to remember Santana would bounce back and forth between having a good year and bad year. Although nowhere near an ace - he probably would have been better than any of our pitchers except Diamond from this year. Maybe we are targeting for 3-4 year deals and did not have an interest in a one-year type deal or if we wanted to go 1-year deal we will bring Pavano back for $4M. I fear we will come up with something worse than Santana would have offered.

The answer is Yes, but at Triple AAA not the Majors.

I do remember a lot of questions at the time of the trade - we had just traded for him the year before and he did not have a bad season. I know he was injured a little but he still played at the end of the season and in the playoffs. Adding salt to the wound that we traded him for a couple of beans instead of a major league ready player. He certainly must have rubbed somebody wrong in the organization. What was the timing - did we sign Nishi first - $4M signing fee plus $3M salary - so we had to dump Hardy's salary equivalent? That was gold.

Absolutely not - once was enough. Houston is probably a good bet - they are looking for a DH with the move to the American League.

Diners, Drive-ins and Dives on the Food network. Several episodes on Monday Nights and scattered episodes through the week. The only family shows I watch semi-regularly during the week are The Middle and Modern Family.

He would not be my first choice, but I could see him as a fallback if we don't sign a free agent off the street. He is better than some of the other right-handed relievers we have with the exception of Burton. We should be able to sign him for under $2M to be the 7th inning/8th inning guy behind Burton.

I'll throw in a Jeff Keppinger nomination for possible competition - Can play 3B, 2B, 1B. Not ideal because he bats right-handed, but is a quality hitter. Maybe he is too similar to Carroll but I like his bat.

I don't want to classify it quite as a crapshoot. The pressure increases in the playoffs, each play becomes more important - the game does change in the playoffs versus what we see in the regular season. For example going from 5-man starting rotations to 4-man or 3-man, quicker hooks for pitchers, different roles for some players, more pinch-hitting, players trying to be heroes and swinging for the fences, etc..Some teams/managers handle that better than others. The Twins of the past decade have not handled it well.

I am not a big Capps fan and I would certainly consider other options but I wouldn't mind bringing him back as long as it was a one-year deal and for low dollars: $1M-$2M and he was not the cloer - 7th inning/8th inning guy behind Burton.

I am a Twins fan but live down here in Texas Rangers land - and they are listing their primary needs for the offseason as 1B & Catcher. Which started me thinking about the hypothetical would the Twins consider packaging Mauer & Morneau to the Rangers. The Rangers are shooting for the World Series and would love to add 2 veteran left-handed hitters. They have Josh Hamilton likely coming off the books so they have some salary $ availability. Question from the Twins perspective would be first - would we be willing to trade 2 of our stars (not very likely) and if so what would we ask in return. For starters, we would want either Mike Olt (3B) or Elvis Andrus (SS) and Major League ready starting pitching - that could be Derek Holland, Alexi Ogando, Matt Harrison, or Alexi Ogando. Most of those options are fairly low salary - so that free up the Twins to be able to sign a higher tier Free agent pitcher or maybe we take back a higher salary player like Ian Kinsler. For the Twins, Parmelee could then fit into playing first but we would need to find a catcher to pair with Doumit.

This is a great site and a must visit for this Twins fan who lives far from Minnesota. Thanks to all!

I guess if Gardy is here longer than next year we should be hearing about an extension soon - normally you don't let the manager dangle the last year. Also unusual to see most of the staff go without the manager - I assume those were Gardy's guys as long as they worked with him. I can't complain about the moves - Bruno and Cuellar have good reps and something was need to shake up the organization after 2 dismal seasons. I can't pinpoint the reason for losing as that the coaches removed weren't doing a good job - more so the talent was not up to par but there is certainly room for improvement.

I find it interesting that Glynn is being moved up to be 3rd base coach - I may be reading into it too much but it seems like 2013 might be a year of transition/training for him and then Gardy will step down and Glynn will be named manager in 2014. Otherwise why not keep Glynn in Rochester where he did a good job? Doesn't Gardy's contract run out after 2013?

Sure, Lewis got $2M and then can make up to $6M with # of appearances and time on the major league roster, so a similar deal would work. We paid Marquis $3M this year for nothing.

I would like to see us play hard to the end. I understand losing so many games is hard but let's keep up the effort. Play the young players - let Herrman, Parmelee, Plouffe, Florimon, Revere get as many at bats as possible.

I think most of us thought last year was a fluke with many injuries and we would be back close to a .500 team this year. Then the entire starting rotation either was injured (Baker, Pavano) or stunk (Marquis, Liriano, Blackburn). If Baker and Gibson come back and pitch well and we sign another starting pitcher or two and Diamond comes close to his performance this year - we could have a decent season. In the Central that could mean contending. Overall though that may be a lot to expect with the recent injury history of this team. Another season like the last 2 and doing it the Twins Way will take on a whole new meaning.

I would lean to shutting him down. He has pitched 188 innings which is 16% higher than last year. He is not pitching that well and we don't need him to push him and have that result in an injury. There is no Strasburg impact to having him miss the playoffs so shut him down. The only question I had is do we we have any starters that could take his place? I guess Duensing could move into the starting rotation.

Agreed - if he is our starting shortstop next year - shame on the front office. Florimon is too inconsistent on defense - he'll make the great play but there are too many errors. I will say on the positive side, he is not totally horrible on offense and he has some speed and real good arm. But if we have someone who can't field - they should proably be hitting better than .240. I don't get to see many Twins games but those I have watched it seems like we sure misplay more than our share of infield balls. Dozier and Plouffe's meltdowns in Texas and Floriman's error in the 9th this Saturday on plays at key times in the game.

A Plouffe-Florimon-Carrol-Dozier 2B-SS-3B infield is pretty mediocre defensively and not much to brag about offensively. Twins either have a weakness drafting talent or in developing and instructing defense in these positions.

So I was listening to the song "100 years" from Five for fighting and I connected it to the Twins season and thought it pretty much summed it up. So, if you don't know that song this won't make any sense and even if you do know it it may not make much sense. But, hey it's a free forum - so here is my take off on 100 Years. The Twins version - 100 games to Lose.... 100 Games to Lose We’re at 15 (losses) for a moment. Caught in between 10 and 20. And I'm just dreaming Counting the ways the Twins make the playoffs We’re at 22 for a moment. And the Twins look better and we’ve got Plouffe. With Diamond we're on fire Making our way back to .500 . 15 there's still time for you. Time to win and time to lose. 15, there's never a wish better than this, When you only got 100 games to lose. We’re at 33 for a moment. Still a chance, but you see more losing on the way, but hey we’ve only just passed May We’re at 45 for a moment. No pitching left, starting to sink into crisis. Chasing baseball’s worst record. 15 there's still time for you. Time to win and time to lose. Wishing for a few new starting pitchers. 15 I'm all right with you 15, there's never a wish better than this. When you only got 100 games to lose All-Star game goes by, Liriano traded to Chi. Another blink of an eye, 67 are gone. The sun is getting high. We're losing so many more… We’re at 99 for a moment. Dying for just another game And I'm just dreaming, counting the days to next season 15 there's still time for you, 22 I felt it too, 33 we're on your way. Every day's a new day 15 there's still time for you. Time to win and time to lose. Hey 15, there's never a wish better than this. When you only got 100 games to lose.

I have to weigh in since he is my all-time favorite baseball player from my childhood. He had some great years - I would love for him to make the HOF but I don't see it happening. Undoubtedly the injuries cost him.

Hicks season gives us fans some hope for the future and is much needed. Hope he keeps progressing. I remember another 5-tool #1 draft pick BJ Garbe? who never developed so that term 5-tool has been scarred ffrom that experience.

Agreed - Span is a better hitter. Revere is a better fielder and baserunner. This next statement contradicts what I said about his fielding but with his limited arm strength can we teach Revere to play 2nd base?