Brandon

The Twins will keep Deunsing. There's not a compelling reason to let him go. He doesn't make too much. Now if we had a 120million payroll and we were stretching for more then yes he would be cut or traded. But I am certain he has enough value to keep around for 1 more year. I wouldn't be surprised if we signed him to a 3 year 10-12 million extension either. Nunez is a keeper in that he can play everywhere and should be able to steal 10-20 bases. It all depends on what the Twins decide they want on the bench and I would do that in spring training and not now as we can cut him in spring and pay a 1/4 of the contract or something like that. Fien, Plouffe, and Schaefer are keepers. Though an argument could be made to let Schaeffer walk, I think they keep him cause he can play CF. Millone is the one I am concerned about keeping or not. I don't think he has the best talent or enough ability to necessarily stay in the majors and 2.5 million is getting a little high to make that type of decision. Only because we are under budget would I consider giving him a chance

I would probably wait one more season to see how he improves or maintains where he is now before signing long term. I do think he is a likely building block if he can continue last season. I also think your 4 year 36 million is a fair number. Maybe a little high but not much. How bout a 4 year 33 million with a 5th year option at 13 million or 1 million buyout. I'll suggest 5, 7, 9, and 11 million with the option/buyout. This way he can be signing a potentially team friendly deal and getting security and increases the likelihood of the Twins not taking a loss on this contract.

If we sign Hunter we still have Schaefer as a late innings replacement. I don't think Hunter will be as bad as you think in the OF. He is still an above average hitter and he can move to DH if Vargas needs to go back to the minors. Yes there are other options. and I am fine with Hunter. I am more concerned with who our 4th starter is going to be next season.

for 6 years you are looking at more money then that. try: 2015: 1 Million 2016: 6 Million 2017: 10 Million 2018: 14 Million 2019: 17 Million 2020: 17 Million Those numbers are more in line with the current market and this totals 65 million. Seager gets 100 Million for 7 seasons so we add another 17 million and turn the 1 million into 17 million because Seager is one season closer to free agency = 98 million. If you want to go for a home town discount you could see about shaving 3-5 million from this scenario. But I don't see Dozier giving up too much. If Dozier was willing to sign a 6 year extension for under 60,000,000 then we should jump on it.

I also wanted to post this interesting thought. 283 .369 .448 .817 286 .319 .446 .765 One of these lines is Torii Hunter and the other is for a player who is injury prone, is not a good fielder and will probably play LF next season and just signed a 4 year 88 million contract Hanley Ramirez. If just a few walks makes that much of a difference I'll gladly take Hunter for around 10 million next season.

I second this. word for word.

Maybe the Twins are about to announce Torii Hunter is back in the fold with a new 2 year contract.

Do you think they tried to bring someone else in first and were turned down? and had Vavra tabbed for another position. Plus Vavra has 2 kids in the Twins system and I think one is a legitimate prospect.

This surprises me too. I liked him as a coach. I can see him as a 3B coach. I don't think he failed as the Twins hitting coach either when Brunansky replaced him there, as that was more of a promote Brunansky or potentially loose him. I was expecting the bench coach to be someone with past managerial experience. So now we just need to find out who the 3rd base coach will be.

I would think there is a major league team that can use a long reliever that would pay him close to 1 million or give him a split contract. One thing that Swarzak has going for him is he is a good team mate and willing to pitch whenever he is asked in any game situation. So I hope he finds something. Colorado could probably use him.

here is the link on MLBtradeumors http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2014/11/twins-outright-anthony-swarzak.html

I still think Hunter's an upgrade over Parmelee, Colabello, and Nunez and likely Schaefer and if Hunter signs its only for a year. I don't see the down side. Plus he will help improve our offense. I do see missed opportunity as there are now numerous OF available for trade depending on what it costs to get he player. How much of an upgrade is Cespedes over Hunter? They are both similar offensive players and how much of a difference is Cespedes improved defense worth over the prospects we would have to give up to get him? If we were contending next year I would say trade for Cespedes and spend prospects and acquire pitching too. Note: I am ok with trading a few prospects for a player but not a lot of prospects for several players to contend. but in this case, signing Hunter makes sense for 1 year and signing Cespedes as a free agent next offseason makes more sense. I also think trading Deunsing and Oliveros to Houston for Fowler makes sense too.

How much risk is there on a 1 year deal to the Johan? Santana can probably be had on a minor league deal. Plus he helps fill the reunion tour quota. Really though I think the Twins would be better off trading for a starter. Less risk than a long term contract. plus next year there will be lots of good free agent pitchers.

I am going to go with Hit first cause if you don't hit your not staying. 2nd is speed cause it makes for better offense and defense. (and it hides mistakes on both) you can break up a double play or if you take a bad route and are fast you can still catch the ball. 3rd is power. (see Dave Kingman) he hung around cause he hit for power back in the day. there are lots of others this way too. isn't that why we signed Thome back in 2010 he was slow, no average could walk but hit the ball real far. 4. Fielding (Florimon was a plus 2.0 WAR cause of his fielding in 2013, he is gone now cause that's all he could do) 5. Arm, Ben Revere, Johnny Damon need we say more? These guys have some of the other tools that are important but couldn't throw. plus if they are that bad they can always DH. Who needs an arm when you an DH? Power and Fielding are almost interchangeable in my book (see Kansas City (speed and defense)and Baltimore (Power) for example). and I am basing this as a need for the team overall but I think the attributes should be redistributed differently throughout the lineup as speed is more important to the table setters and power is more important to 3-6 hitters. % = 36% Hit, 25% speed 18% power and Fielding 3% ARM

I think the Twins have 1 more year of control for Dozier and has been less consistent then Seager. I can see a high dollar extension. but I don't think the Twins are motivated to do anything at this time. In 2 years they may look at a 5 year 80 million extension if he continues to produce the numbers he did this year but even then that's a lot for this franchise.

Its looking more and more that Hunter will come back to Minnesota. I wonder if they are talking about having Hunter coach after his playing days? Hunter keeps saying that you are supposed to work maybe that's what he is considering becoming a coach when all is said and done. With that being said I would trade Deunsing and Oliveras, or Achter, or Tonkin for Fowler. I think that would give Houston what they are looking for. A reliever they can control for 5/6 years with promise and a productive LOOGY they can use now and get results with and possibly get value from in a trade later.

They probably did that as a favor to him so he can use the opportunity to build some last minute value for himself. This is why players go to the Twins when they want to build value. They know that if they fit with their system they will work with you to help you succeed even when you know you are no longer a part of their future. Plus who would you have close in September with our closer out and no real replacements here you want to use instead. You could use Fien but you plan on keeping him and 4-6 September saves could increase his value in arbitration.

I don't think signing Hunter is a bad move. I think signing Hunter completes the lineup so that we are pretty strong 1-9. We already have a solid lineup. This makes it better. Defensively probably not the best but I bet he makes others in the OF better. Plus its only for 1 year contract. I keep hearing we are not contending next year anyways so if you believe that then why does it matter. we obviously don't like our current options. Then we go out and get a starting pitcher. now we have a 85 win team capable of making the play offs. Look at it if Detroit is loosing Hunter and likely Shertzer are they going to be a better team next year? NO.... Kansas City is loosing Shields and Butler and has a weak overall offense. yes they have some really good points but they are loosing a fair amount of talent are they going to be better? NO..... The Indians are on the up and up so we may have to contend with them but the Whitesox are treading water. the only thing keeping them afloat is the Abreu signing and Chris Sale otherwise this team would need a complete and total rebuild. So whose to say we cant contend if we address our obvious holes on our team.

Or we could include Deunsing or Pelfry in the trade and or have Toronto kick in a few million and now its 13 - 15 million and not 19 million. Which is much more reasonable.

Hicks has no patience you are correct.

With KC loosing Butler I think they would push harder for Hunter and letting him spend half his time at DH should appeal to him. KC overachieved last year and is loosing a solid hitter and their best pitcher. They are a 75-80 win team till they make moves which is close to where we are at this point. While advanced metrics show his defense has declined, I don't think he is taking ad routes at this point and his arm is still strong while he has slowed a lot he can still move a little at least as fast as Parmelee. So I suspect he can be close to adequate in LF.

I think the Twins are basically 1 starting pitcher, 1 OF, and 1 reliever away from being an 85+ win potential team next season. The stat not thrown out there was Escobar's offense. he was dynamite the first half and slumped the second half and finished with what a 102 league adjusted OPS which was around 6th in MLB among SS. I am still not sure what to make of Dozier. I think he ay be more of a .250/.330/.420 with 35 2Bs and 10-15 HR with 15-25 SB next season. I think his fielding should be above average next season. Here's to hoping Mauer hits .300/.380/.380 next season. That can at least justify him in the lineup at 1B. Plouffe is what he is and I don't expect any different .250-.270 with 30-35 2Bs and 15-20 HRs I am glad to see his defense improve and I think that's what most people wanted was league average defense from him so he would not kill what value he brings with the bat. Suzuki will regress some but he seems to have sacrificed some power for average. So I think he will have a .270-.290 average with 25 -30 2Bs and hardly any HRs with ok defense. I'm ok with whoever the back up is too as either the end of next year or the following season the back up should be Stuart before he starts the following year. Santana can start at SS or CF next season and Escobar could be the SS or supersub. For this analysis I am going with Santana in CF. that makes Nunez and Santana the backups. Nunez has terrible defense and offers a little at the plate. I wonder if Bernier could push for a reserve job as I am sure his defense is better but probably hits worse than Nunez. Nunez does have speed so while I do expect an OPS in the low to mid .600's I do expect more SB out of him. I think he should be capable of 15-20 meaning he could be a valuable pinch runner for Suzuki, Arcia or Plouffe, or Mauer or Vargas at different points next year. In the OF we start with Arcia cause its fun and we don't want to think about the other options right now. but Arcia can be a 30 HR hitter and in CF I am going with Santana who I think can continue to hit .290-.310 cause he has speed and made good contact and Bruno. He doesn't walk a whole lot and has gap power so 30-40 2Bs and around 5-10 3Bs and HRs. LF we have Schaefer/ Parmelee/ Colabello/ Hicks. I am going to say what I think each of these players can do with 300 AB next season and we'll see how LF looks on opening day. Schaefer: if Bruno is able to keep him hitting I can see a .260-.280 / .320-.330/ .320 with 20-40 SB. This guy is pretty fast. Parmalee .250/ .290/.400 with 8-12 HR just shy of good power, average, and no patience to walk. He's a prototypical 5th OF/back up 1B/DH/ PH. He has value so I like him on the team just not exposed a lot. Colabello: I have him here only cause there are reports he was injured during his slide. If that is true he could be our LF for a few years and hit good. or he could be a failure waiting to happen. Just to see I would keep him around. I have no projections here cause he's either going to be good healthy or fail IMO I don't see an in between. Hicks. He is also an asset in certain spots. right now as a back up OF. he doesn't drive the ball so all of his contact is soft. I can see a .220/ .310/.310 with what should be 10-15 SB. last year he only stole 2 or 3. So going into next year I see a Hicks Parmelee platoon where Schaefer will likely replace Hicks at some point if he doesn't improve. Unless Colabello comes out of know where and drives in 80-100 RBI. The rotation has 3 starters Hughes (CY Young Candidate) Gibson (improving young hurler) Nolasco (solid when healthy) then lets see we have 2 rookies ready to go May and Meyer and May looks ready to continue moving forward and Pelfry and Millone 2 vets who were hurt with the team last year and Pino the minor league vet who pitched ok then was hurt. The way I see it is we can plan on Millone being the 4th starter and being a good one or we can sign or trade someone with a better track record and has better stuff. We can also let May and Meyer come up together and have Pelfy, Pino and Millone as the back up veterans if we need a fill in. I think it depends on how fast the Twins management want to ensure a return to competitive baseball. I think there is enough pressure so the Twins will want more pitching and sign one or trade for one. The bullpen appears to be going through a transition a little. with the Twins keep Swarzak and Deunsing for another season? I think they keep Deunsing and let Swarzak go. leaving Perkins, Fien, Deunsing, Theilbar, Pressly, then the Twins will go with Pelfry, then a combination of a bunch of potentials including Aaron Thomas, Oliveras, Tonkin and Achter. However I think that by the end of may/ Beginning of June Burdi will make his debut and stay. To bring this full circle we need a good starting pitcher to be the 4th starter but someone who is Number 3 starter material or better, a LF who doesn't have to be great but preferably a solid defender with slightly above average offense (Rios fits that the best IMO though Hunter would be the most entertaining to have on the team) and a shut down middle reliever cause maybe we can let Deunsing or Theilbar or Pressly go.

And the free travel and per diem to eat for free during the season. All the sunflower seeds you can stand.

This tree leaves off what we got for Milton....Punto and Silva which both players eventually left as free agents but still more to add to the haul.

and Johan Santana (sort of. they were going to draft him till they made the trade instead) and Shane Mack, There was a left hander from Seattle who was Australian that didn't stick but pitched in the majors a bit. and that back up OF that played some in the 2000's too from Tampa Bay. He went back to Tampa then was included in Delmon trade if I remember correctly. He got some time with the Mets. I think nowadays its a good place to find depth pieces. and I do think it is a mistake not to protect Gilmartin. I think he has value.