Riverbrian

I just hacked into Thad's Phone http://www.iphonefaketext.com/screens/NDYwMTc3.jpg

You have my respect.

I hope Falvey and Lavine are as forward thinking as rumored. I hope they didn't sell their Best Buy Stock in 2012. I hope they noticed that Aroldis Chapman was acquired by the Yankees after the Dodgers pulled out and the Reds were panic selling in December 2015. I hope they noticed that 6 months later... in the heat of a pennant race. Nobody was too concerned about the events of December 2015 because Chapman was traded as a rental for a HUGE HAUL!!! I hope they noticed that 1 Year later... Chapman was signed to a record breaking free agent contract. 5 Years 86 million... the highest ever signed for a reliever. I hope Falvey and Lavine are cold... calculating... and thinking about the asset and future value. I hope they don't opt to pay the price for Sano's issues... Because Sano is going to get paid if he performs like he is capable of. I hope they understand that if the Yankees offered Chapman to the Twins today... 2 years later... I'm guessing that maybe 95% of all Twins Fans would welcome him to a Twins uniform. (as long as we don't have to give up prospects or something). I hope they realize that the reason Cashman is calling them every day right now... is because he is a vulture!!! I hope Falvey and Lavine keep their heads. Today is Today... Tomorrow is Tomorrow.

He's only 14 years old.

Tom, If I knew you were out there 10 Years ago. I would have learned to read sooner.

This is exactly how I feel but better because I assume your use of punctuation is probably how it was intended to be used.

The Schwarber comp is a decent one. Kyle would benefit from being in the American League where he could serve as a DH. The Cubs don't have that luxury but they do have a very creative manager who has the ability to adjust his lineup to fit the chips he has to work with. Fortunately for us and Sano... We have the DH to use. We also have Escobar and some depth. I'd move Sano around... 3B, 1B and DH and don't force it by saying he's a whatever exclusively. His play and how the others play will help Molitor decide where Sano spends the majority of his time and where he shouldn't play at all but... Paul has to let the players show him and not try to force some faulty plan. I didn't mind Sano being tried in RF... I fully supported the idea... What I minded was... Sano remaining in RF when he was clearly struggling.

I'm holding my breath

IT WAS ZACH DUKE... IT WAS ZACH DUKE... IT WAS ZACH DUKE.

If Darvish doesn't sign with the Twins. Trading for Greinke could be a consideration. The D-Backs would like to have money to sign JD Martinez. If the D-Backs will take Phil Hughes back in return and pay off the 12 Million left on Greinke's Signing Bonus. After you factor in the 13 Million from Hughes in 2018 and 2019 --- The Twins will be left adding: 2018: 18 Million 2019: 18.5 Million 2020: 32 Million 2021: 32 Million 4 Years/100.5 Million for Greinke. Darvish might be 6 Years/150 Million or 5 years/125 million so the AAV would be close. Greinke would possibly be a 2 year shorter commitment. I have no idea... but... I assume taking on that contract would probably lower the price of the player assets needed to complete the deal significantly. The D-Backs could then take the 100 million savings and use that money to bring back JD Martinez. The Twins have that front line starter minus Phil Hughes. Darvish would be 25 million AAV plus Phil Hughes. Yeah... 37 year old pitchers making 34 million will make anybody nervous but Yu Darvish will be 36 at the end of a 6 year deal and this is how much money it takes to sign a top end starter.

7 Degrees in North Carolina is like 20 Below in Dog Years.

I had to look up tangential. I've never been called a small citrus fruit with loose skin before.

1. Already been addressed by Ashbury. In the absence of concrete information on what the overall plan is... we will be left with the only option available to us. That is to fill in the blanks ourselves. 2. Long Live Twinsdaily. 3. I hold out hope and remain hopeful until Yu Darvish signs elsewhere. 4. I tend to agree with you and I've always considered the possibility that maybe Terry Ryan was a careful spender or the possibility that maybe the timing wasn't right to open the wallet. However... We have changed the front office... we have a team that made the playoffs... If moths continue to come out of the wallet. I will have no choice but to assume that Pohlad is the reason. In short... any excuse that I have come up with previously is gone. There are no excuses left... the wallet has to open up this off season. 5. Joe Mauer's contract was the cost of doing business. Sometimes they work out and sometimes they don't. I truly believe that offering Joe that contract was a no-brainer at the time and the production that followed was the production that followed. All in All... I hope Joe is a Twin for life (although... his next contract has to be less expensive). I also assume that at some point... Joe will play less as the organization moves forward. 6. Breakout Player? I'm hoping and praying that it's Kennys Vargas although I'm not sure he will get the chance to be that breakout player so I'll go with Byron Buxton... He still has the breakout designation officially waiting for him because he hasn't done it for a full year yet. 7. I refuse to label pitchers 1 2 3 4 or 5's. A 1 can be a 6 one year and then back to a 1 again. I simply want pitchers who can hang zero's and keep the crooked numbers to a minimum. 8. I'm gonna wait on my prediction until the off season is complete. Right Now... I believe in the offensive talent... I believe that the American League will have quite a few weaker teams to play against however... I'd like to see the Front Office bring in some serious pitching help. OPEN THE WALLET!!! MAKE SOME TRADES!!! FIX SOMEONE SIGNIFICANTLY!!! 9. Favorite Memory!!! Kent Hrbek Grand Slam Game 6 1987. I remember that it took me a long time to calm down afterwards.

If we don't get Yu? I hope it happens soon enough so there is time to execute Plan B. I hope there is a Plan B. If we open 2018 with only minimal improvements... I will consider it a fairly significant failure. There better be a decent Plan B and Plan C. Support the young offense!

1. We need him. 2. Payroll is low enough to take on the salary. 3. The World Series may have lowered his price tag a little. 4. The Yankees and Dodgers are probably out because they are trying to reset that cap penalty. 5. The 18-19 off season is going to be a huge free agent year and teams may be holding back this year in consideration. 6. Timing is perfect because, the Royals, Tigers and White Sox are clearly or at least most likely not planning on being ultra competitive in 2018. 7. The Twins offense announced it's presence with authority in 2017. Perfect Storm indeed!

Great Discussion... I find myself agreeing with Parker, Spycake and Steve Lein. I think Duke is a smart dice roll. He looks great but he would be even greater with some bigger bang additions along side.

I don't care if a reliever is paid 3 years at 27 Million or 1 year at 2 Million. I only care if the player produces and I think it's quite possible that Sir Duke produces. I'm happy with the signing. I just want arms that can hang zeros regardless of the contract. In my personal quest for an elite bullpen... Duke could fit nicely... my primary concern right now is using one of the 7 or 8 bullpen spots on: A Rule 5 guy A Couple of spots on guys (Pressly, Duffey) that we hope turn it around. A couple of spots on guys who are heading into a sophomore season with sustained success yet to be proved. I'm not suggesting that we shouldn't be giving Hildenberger or Pressly a job. Just suggesting that when you add the totals up... you are hoping that a lot goes right.

Step 1: Get a QB. You'll need someone dedicated to make sure efforts are rewarded with a prominence. If content falls through the cracks you may not get a 2nd. Make sure the QB understands the overall goal of TwinsDaily. Step 2: Don't over Filter. Your designated QB will need to perform some quality control but always remember that perfection is the enemy of the good. Step 3: Open the content doors wide. There is only so much Twins content out there. A majority of the information is locked away in the front office closets and not reachable for us mere mortals. If the content makers feel limited in what they have to write... inspiration will come much slower. Foster and encourage creativity in whatever direction it goes. Step 4: Strength in Numbers - Understand that finding a prolific work horse like Seth Stohs or Nick Nelson is a very hard thing to find. It will be difficult to find people who can match that kind of output so you have to be OK with some one and done's to fill the content hole. Step 5: Use the LIKE button. At bare minimum... you need to let the content creators know that you read what they put down. Nobody is going to get rich doing this... validation for their efforts with a simple acknowledgement is what they are looking for. Don't rely on the community to take care of this for you. It will to a certain degree but this is something that the ownership can do to help reach your stated goals.

It's a minor league signing It's someone worth taking a chance on. I hope he works out. Still want a bigger bang but I'll take it.

I'm all for gaining assets. However... I can't help but wonder what happens to Kennys if Napoli is brought on board. It sure looks like a one or the other type situation. Vargas is 9 years younger Vargas is probably 6 million dollars cheaper. Vargas had better stats last year. ' I have no idea how anybody is in the clubhouse but Napoli better be good in that clubhouse.

This post isn't intended to start a Terry Ryan debate. It isn't even to point out past mistakes or successes. It's simply to illustrate that it's about assets. It's about shopping at Dollar General for the past 5 years. Past 5 year outside bullpen acquisitions: Rodney (Free Agent 1 year 4.5 million) Watson (Trade) Belisle (Free Agent 1 Year 2 Million) Breslow (minor league deal) Abad (minor league deal) Kintzler (Minor league deal) Boshers (minor league deal) Graham (Rule 5) Boyer (minor league deal) Jepsen (Trade) Cotts (Trade) Pino (Minor League Deal) Stephen Pryor (Trade) Jason Adam (Trade) Twins cost to acquire outside bullpen assets: 6.5 Million (all spent by Falvey and Lavine), Half Years of Brandon Kintzler, Kendrys Morales and Josh Willingham... Plus a Mid Range prospect with potential in Chih-Wei Hu and a bunch of minor league deals at the MLB minimum. Bullpen Assets trade acquisitions: Willingham to Royals for Jason Adam Morales to Mariners for Stephen Pryor Graham to Yankees for PTBNL or Cash Abad to Red Sox for Pat Light Kintzler to Nats for Austin Watson Most would agree that the Twins were in selling position at trade deadlines for 4 of the past 5 years. Yet didn't have bullpen assets to sell when all contenders are looking for them. When the Twins did find themselves in buying position... they paid a pretty heavy price. Bullpens need to be prioritized a little higher than Dollar General to prepare for good seasons and bad seasons. The Yankees got serious about their bullpen and built a super one. Watched the team fail with a super bullpen in 2016 and cashed it in... they acquired Gleyber Torres, Billy McKinney, Clint Frazier and Justus Sheffield. The Yankees then rebuilt another super bullpen and will use at least one of those acquired prospects to outbid the Twins for the services of Gerrit Cole. If the Yankees shock the world and fail in 2018 because Judge and Stanton strike out too much... They can trade Chapman, Betences, Robertson, Kahnle, Greene and Warren for more top 100 prospects.

This "too risky" thing is getting a little out of control. There is risk when you sign any player to multi year contracts and the highways are littered with bad contracts. The percentages may or may not be higher in the bullpen but bad contracts are not unique to bullpen free agents... it is however... less painful from a cost standpoint. The Astros got burned for 18 million spread over 3 years signing Tony Sipp. They still won a world series and getting burned like that didn't stop them from spending even more this year with the signings of Joe Smith and Hector Rondon to two year deals. Would have been worse for the Astros if they signed Jason Heyward to an 8 year 184 Million Dollar deal. The Mets got burned for 12 million over two years signing Antonio Bastardo. It didn't stop them from spending even more money on Anthony Swarzak this year. Would have been worse for the Mets... if they signed Chris Davis to a 7 year 161 million dollar deal. The Tigers got burned for 11 million over two years signing Mark Lowe... I guess it is possible that that may have stopped them. They ain't spending money right now. However... it could have been worse for the Tigers... if they would have signed Jordan Zimmerman to a 5 year 110 million dollar deal.... wait... they did. There is simply risk and it can't be avoided... anytime you sign a player to a contract. The risk increases with each year you attach. If any GM's or Owners are risk adverse and afraid of signing a bad contract. They should get out of baseball and focus on death and taxes.

Yep The Twins and Rays actually seem to match up well as trading partners. We got some young hitters and they got some experienced pitching.

If they do. I want new guys running the front office immediately!

Perfectly summed up.