Brandon

Now we really need to trade for Hawkins for our bullpen. Talk about Nostalgia.

If the Twins trade for Beurhle would Toronto be able to sign Cabrera or would they still be after Hunter? http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2014/11/blue-jays-pursuing-torii-hunter.html How does that thought affect your slant on whether the Twins should go after Beurhle or not?

or too many ? marks either.

I don't know he only averaged 5.6 strikeouts per 9 innings in his career with the Twins. but he did go 20-10 out of the bullpen here with a 3.65 ERA. and he threw a good scuff ball and helped us win a World Series in 91 going 8-3. I'm in. MIN (5 yrs) 20 10 .667 3.65 204 0 63 0 0 11 286.1 299 134 116 16 64 12 179

I was thinking Deunsing would be a good trade value for him. Millione is fine too. It looks like we have a good shot at landing Hunter for LF so Bourjos and Schaefer as CF and 4 OF and Arcia in RF with Santana available makes sense too. Hicks and Colabello in AAA in case of injury.

We would never trade Dozier for Kemp. the money doesn't match up and that is important. I agree that your thinking is in line with the Twins. that are interchangeable (Parmelee and Colabello) (Masterson and a number of other options in the pay range) (Rasmus or Hunter or Rios)

who I would non tender. The Twins already let Burton go so letting one of Swarzak or Deunsing go would be the max and wait till The Twins feel the new relievers establish themselves before continuing the purge. Also I think Deunsing may have some trade value. Swarzak is replacement level and I can see a case for staying or going. Millone if the Twins sign another starter should consider non-tendering him or trading him. Nunez I am content if we keep him as the 2nd MI back up. not as the main one. so around 1 million but if he costs more then 1.5 million then he can go. I would tender all of the others.

Our offense went through a transformation last year with Colabello and Kubel starting off with good Aprils then Willingham and Arcia picked up as they were tailing off then Santana, Mauer, and Vargas took over the last few months of the season. Dozier hit with HR power at first then 2bs power there after but was otherwise consistant all year as was Susuki (he did slump for about a month after signing the extension but finished strong) So going into next season we still have the offensive core that finished strong so we really just need a decent OF who can reasonably field or one that can really hit. Hunter and Rios would be at the top of my wishlist this offseason maybe Denorfia then Aoki after that I am fine with what we already have. I wonder if Colabello, who claims he was injured last year when his slump began, will he be able to rebound and be a good hitter next season. Parmelee is now 27. Can he make it as a starter in LF. odds are no but he does have the ability to hit 15 to 20 HRs and he isn't bad defensively. Schaefer is probably better suited to be a 4th OF but if he can continue to get on base at least .330 + he definitely has a lot of speed to swipe 20-40 bases. I am ready to concede Hicks as a 4th/5th OF at this point. There has been no progress in his ability to drive the ball against better competition. He can definitely walk more than anyone and plays good defense. That has some value not enough to necessarily start. Someone should make a decent LF from this bunch if need be.

Looking at all the options on the market and los Angeles OF only and in our minors here is what I see. Hunter on a 1 year 12-15 million Denorfia on a 2 year 10-16 million (not sure what he is worth exactly) Rios on a 1 year make good contract 8 - 10 million + incentives maybe Rasmus maybe 1 year 10-13 million make good contract or 3 year 36 million Aoki expects a 3 year 24 million. I expect a 2 year 14-16 million for him Thomas 7 year 77 - 91 million Trade for Los Angeles OF and we pay most of salary so we don't have to give up too much 15-20 million per season depending on which one we get. If I believe in the OF prospects coming up I pick from the first group and call it good. Thomas is at least a prospect in that his prime years are during the contract. so on an annual basis isn't too prohibitive as long as you are confident he can be in the bigs within a year if not right off the bat. Also I believe if the Twins bid for Thomas then he will likely make it as a big leaguer. Its not offer the Twins make scouting of prospects mistakes (Nobody watched Nishioka) and the Twins would have to watch anyone they sign close to 100 million before they sign. But from me in my armchair I say sign Hunter then if he goes somewhere else get Denorfia, Rios, then Aoki in that order. I am fine if the Twins sign Tomas as I'll defer to their judgment on that one but I am not going to push for it just to make it happen.

I'll agree that if Schaeffer is getting 200-250 AB in a season that is fine. If he is getting more than 400 I would be concerned unless he is hitting .300ish and OBP is around .350+. His speed will take care of itself as long as he can get on base. As a back up he can also be a pinch runner. There is a lot of uses for him as a player on our team. He adds lots more value with a .350ish OBP and the higher that is the more playing time he will get.

I didn't mean to sound antsy. I was surprised the comment disappeared.

I think Detroit will still be good next year though they will have more holes with Hunter and Shertzer leaving. The hole will be even bigger when Price leaves after next year. Also if Verlander continues to slide that can cause problems too especially after Price leaves. They will have a few relievers come off the books next year so they may keep Price and they may decide to continue to increase spending too. Eventually though they will relent for a rebuild and I imagine they will start collecting prospects again. The Tigers will eventually end up like the Phillies now. The Phillies have now decided to start their rebuild and they do not have much to work with out the gates. They will have to add a lot of money to these contracts to get some prospects. And it will be a few years for them to draft and develop too.

I thought I commented on this before. There is a former Twins who perfectly comps in this study Jason Tyner. He had 2 + seasons of hitting .290+ for the Twins after turning 27 in playing in parts of 4 seasons total. Then was done in his early 30's. He was a fast base stealer too though not as fast as Schaefer. I can see Schaefer as having up to 6 more seasons where he gets 200-400 AB's in a season and steals 20-40 bases before being done around 35-36. That's my projection for his career. But he'll have to hit and work his way on base at least .320 OBP to be able to get that much playing time.

Getting Ubaldo would be a bad idea. There are so many other players who are better who are available. How about Mike Leake, Jon Niese, or better yet Kazmir, these guys are 8-11 million on a 1 year deal. (except Niese) Then they along with a bunch of other pitchers will be free agents and we can have a bunch of options available to us.

Well the Tigers just traded their top rated prospect for a CF prospect who can platoon with Raj Davis next year. There's not much down on their farm. But they still seem to get atleast 1 -2 new players out of it regardless. Smyly was up last year and appears to be pretty good. Granted he was traded for Price. Try to extend the winning for as long as you can. With VMart and Cabrera in the lineup they won't have a terrible lineup and they do have a few other decent hitters. but they are short on the farm that's for sure. I guess now they'll be forced to try to develop some talent before their time runs out so it won't be a huge rebuild like ours was. The main thing for Detroit is not to follow our model of giving away talent like we did from 2008 to 2011 in trades, and FA exoduses and injury and aging and not having good drafts at the same time.

Here's a comparable. http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/smithdw01.shtml this guy hit very similar to Santana his rookie year. Didn't do to well afterwards. I am a huge fan of Santana though and I actually hope he remains in the OF and Escobar keeps SS. Santana could prove me wrong and reclaim SS but Escobar did just fine there. Why fix what ain't broken? Though there are lots of teams with starting pitchers looking for SS this offseason.

Eric Stultz has just been made a FA. H is Corriea 2.0

Denorfia does make sense as does Rios or Aoki on reasonable 2 year deals. If we have to go longer than that and pay more we may as well trade for a Los Angeles OF.

Neither can anyone else....so naturally he'll be the last one announced.

I think the Potential is there for a deal. there are several teams looking for a SS and We are looking for a starting pitcher. there's a big list of quality pitchers who will be free agents after the season. Next year will be better for signing a pitcher in free agency then this one. I would be surprised if there isn't a trade. Escobar's .721 OPS placed 6th in MLB last year among SS. He is likely close to being a top 10 even if he regresses a little.. His defense is above average so He should have some value.

I think the Twins would be in on someone like Mike Leake. He is someone they can resign to a 3 or 4 year deal after the season and he is good for close to 200 innings.

Here's my favorite comparable for a post 27 year old career that I would expect to be similar to what I would hope for from Schaefer. I can see maybe 2-4 seasons like this with more speed. http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/t/tynerja01.shtml

When I look at all of the starting pitchers who are available for trade I can't help but think that is the best way for us to get a good starting pitcher that we want for our rotation. Its no secret we won't bother trying to sign Lester, Schertzer, or Shields. We probably wont go after Santana either since there are not many options on the open market in his tier of talent so he will likely cost more than he should. But there are lots of starting pitchers who are on the trade market who are available at the right price. Oakland has said they will listen on Kazmir, Bluejays are open to trading Buerhle, Cincinnati has 4 decent to good starters who are 1 year from FA so they are open to trading one of them, Mets have 7 starting pitchers possibly 8 and they need a SS. So does Oakland. We have 2 of them plus a few MI prospects too. There are more options too these are the ones I can remember. The reason there are so many starting pitchers available is because next offseason there will be lots of starting pitchers hitting free agency. Before I go into who is available in freeagency after the 2015 season Let me ask you does it make more sense to trade Escobar and Pinto (who the organization is down on) and a reliever like Deunsing or one of our numerous prospects for a starter costing around 8 to 10 million for a 1 year contract or pay a starter 40-60 million over 3-4 seasons. In terms of dollars and risk which makes more sense to you and what are some of your trade proposals? also if you are concerned because the starter is a free agent after the season look at who is a free agent after next season. Surely we can get a new starter if we need one. Here is the list from MLBtraderumors.com of who is on track for free agency next offseason. Clay Buchholz (31) – $13MM club option with a $245K buyout Mark Buehrle (37) Trevor Cahill (28) – $13MM club option with a $300K buyout Jhoulys Chacin (28) Wei-Yin Chen (30) Bartolo Colon (43) Johnny Cueto (30) Ross Detwiler (30) R.A. Dickey (41) – $12MM club option with a $1MM buyout Marco Estrada (32) Doug Fister (32) Yovani Gallardo (30) Jaime Garcia (29) – $11.5MM club option with a $500K buyout Jeremy Guthrie (37) – $10MM mutual option with a $3.2MM buyout J.A. Happ (33) Dan Haren (35) Tim Hudson (40) Hisashi Iwakuma (35) Scott Kazmir (32) Ian Kennedy (31) John Lackey (37) Mat Latos (28) Mike Leake (28) Tim Lincecum (32) Kyle Lohse (37) Corey Luebke (31) – $7.5MM club option with a $1.75MM buyout Kris Medlen (30) Bud Norris (31) Ross Ohlendorf (33) Mike Pelfrey (32) Rick Porcello (27) David Price (30) Ricky Romero (31) – $13.1MM club option with a $600K buyout Jeff Samardzija (31) Alfredo Simon (35) Jerome Williams (34) Jordan Zimmermann (30)

Nick you should write an article on trade candidates and who we should target in trade. Cause that's how we are going to get our next starting pitcher. There are too many good starting pitchers available in a trade not to make one. Next year is a much batter year for the Twins to sign a pitcher in Free Agency when there are lots more pitchers to choose from.

I remember last year when we wanted the Twins to sign Drew to be our SS and give up our 2nd round draft pick which was Burdi. Make sure you give Terry Ryan a hug and thank him for having a long term vision the next time you see him.