Brandon

I was going to say the same thing.

A 48 - 60 we are in 6th place 1 game out from the 5th pick and 2 out of the 4th pick of next years draft.

Santana (CF) Mauer (1B) Dozier (2B) Arcia (RF) Vargas/ Colabello (DH) Plouffe (3B) Suzuki/Pinto © Willingham/ Parmelee (LF) Escobar (SS) Hughes Gibson Milone May Meyer Nolasco Pino Obviously some of these starters will not get to pitch all the way this year. I would be happy with May and Meyer getting 3 starts a piece this year. I would like to see Pino get a few more stars and move to the pen for September. Nolasco will miss a few more starts which lines up with Pino in terms of when he should probably go to the pen. As far as hitting goes the none of the "power hitters" deserve 100 of the time in their positions. sof or LF, RF, DH, and some 1B should be rotated between Willingham, Arcia, Parmelee, Colabello and Vargas (playing time should be divided not necessarily equally but the most AB should go to Willingham on down in the order I have them listed)

Burton is better than Corriea. I would DFA Corriea and keep the 5 man rotation. and in September I would have Darnell in the pen. Meyer does not need to be here if he isn't starting. the Twin are not going to call him up to be in the pen.

An old memory popped up when I was reading about the Fuld / Mallone trade this morning and all commenters are talking about his pitch to contact and how the Twins have been drafting more power arms lately and you think how the Twins won't call up Meyer or May (because they need to be more consistent) but they will the pitch to contact guys Pino, Johnson and Darnell. I remembered how the Twins were actually ahead of this curve in the 1990's and had Hawkins who could reach 96- 98 MPH. They traded Aguilera for Frankie Rodriquez who also threw 96-98. They also traded for Scott Klingenbeck and I don't remember how hard he threw. Those guys were failures as starters because their control wasn't there and didn't develop, while Tewksbury had some success before and then came here and gave the team a chance. Radke was up and successful at that time as well winning 20 games one year with excellent control and being a consistant producer the others. Maybe that has something to do with the Twins preferring control pitchers and why they are afraid to bring up Meyer who seems to have the same control as Frankie Rodriguez, who walked 3.9 per 9 in his career, had back in the 90's.

I think he can hit .280 with 25 2Bs with 1 walk per 10 AB for the next 2 seasons. If it was longer than that age will start to creep in. I think he'll be fine for his age 31 and 32 seasons. Brian Harper hit like that through age 34. based on that and a bunch of other research I would be more concerned with his age 34-36 seasons. That's when he brakes down for good in my estimation.

He'll be gone when the Twins have better long term options, or he gets too expensive for his production, or if he gets traded or released. He'll finish out the year and likely be a good bet to be back next year. There's no real reason to get rid of him at the moment. But next year when Sano and Buxton come up he could be a casualty then.

I am more happy than I thought I'd be with the Corriea signing. I went from pure anger to almost tolerable. However he needs to go now or very soon like after his next start a the latest. as far as grading he events of today: Getting a Starting Pitcher with ability at a low cost for a 4th OF is amazing though we no longer have a backup CF again. A++ Signing C Suzuki for 2 year 2 Million contract is A (that was the number floating around here for an extension) Not trading Corriea or releasing him is an incomplete though the grade gets worse each start he makes here after. Because his starts need to go to May and Meyer or I guess it could be about the draft order next season. we need to loose more games to get a better draft spot next year. Willingham - I am indifferent on trading him. I don't see a ready player to step in so I guess its more for the ability to loose games and save money for the draft pick next year or If TR can find another over pay. Overall Terry Ryan gets an A in my book. I am shocked at how little the Rays got for Price. They should have extracted some cash and a PTBNL from Seattle and Detroit each so they could get more prospects and operating cash.

He was traded for the Orioles #3 prospect Eddie Rodriguez or something like that. I am terrible at remembering names. but the Twins tried to get him for Willingham last year. I do remember that.

Prediction for an august trade: The A's need Fuld because their CFs are injured again. In a few weeks they will be fine (I am guessing) Fuld for Willingham after August 15th.

With the quote he wants AJ, Ruiz, or Salty money that's anywhere from 7 to 9 million and 1 to 3 years on those contracts. I think there can be grounds to find a reasonable contract. What about a 2 year 14 million with a option year at 7 million or buyout at 1 million? that would be a solid framework to a deal. he dollars per season do not bother me as we have lots of available money that wont be spent over the next 2 years with all of the prospects coming up. Heck we could do a 2 year 16 million contract and so what. We'll still be in the 80 - 85 million payroll range. Raise your hand if you think the Twins have plans to go out and make a big splash in FA next offseason especially since we now have another pitcher for the rotation. At this point at most we sign a Morales on a 1 year 4 million rebound contract or sign a fading Hunter or Cuddyer and that's about it. I don't really see us doing much at this point in the offseason.

Does this fleecing mean Terry Ryan can stay? (directed a those who are calling for him to be fired.) We definitely need a faster OF with these fly ball pitcher we are brining up I guess that means our starting OF for next season will be Hicks in LF, Buxton in CF and Santana in RF so they can track down all of the fly-balls given up by Malone, Hughes, and Meyer (isn't Meyer a fly-ball pitcher or was it May) Yes I know Santana should be the SS. but having a fast OF is nice on a fly-ball staff and Escobar can hold down SS as he has shown.

Also Look at who is about to be in our rotation and tell me if you think Worely should be here or not. Nolasco Hughes Gibson May Meyer Pino That's 6 solid starters and Berrios should be pretty close next year too. Johnson and Darnell will be available so we will have lots of options up here. Do we really need Worely. I think Terry Ryan said they traded him to cut bait and give him an opportunity to start fresh somewhere else. So I am guessing that means relationships and past results made it hard for him to be put in a spot to succeed here so why not trade him.

How would you have resolved it?

Remember when Worely was traded because he had a poor attitude here, was out of shape, and he was the 6th starting pitcher for Rochester. We let him go so he could have an opportunity. As far as the answer to your questions, Worely came back to soon from injury. He had a chance to be the number one starter on our staff so he tried to run with it and since we had no other options we let him. In retrospect the Twins should have moved slower with Worely but with no other options we didn't. When he failed he blamed everyone but himself and now that he is doing better he can say see I wasn't ready, I was pushed last year. But the reality is he didn't say a word about not being ready and most of the blame falls on him. As a community we were not disappointed he left as he was seen as baggage and his spring training was atrocious. Worely is not the player I would use to call Anderson a success or failure as Worely is not likely to have long term success. I would call Anderson a success because he laid out what he wants pitchers to do (throw strikes and not be beaten by a walk) and the Twins continually give up the fewest or are in the top 3 in fewest free passes. So that objective is not only met but exceeded. He helped other pitchers succeed here Milton, Santana, Liriano (off and on again) Gibson is succeeding, Hughes, Silva (transitioned from reliever to successful starter) helped Perkins to become a successful reliever, probably behind making Guerrier a successful reliever, so there is a pretty strong list that goes on.

Pino is the next Corriea. Or more specifically he's this generations Fred Toliver or Les Straker. he could turn out to be more but these guys had a nice run with the Twins and Pino appears to be on that same run too. and for that no starting pitcher needs to be signed this winter. I think Santana/ Fuld/ Escobar work as the CF / SS combo with Santana going back and forth while we wait for Buxton. We might sign a AAA CF that could play up here as a depth move. We could also go get Span if his option is not picked up on a 1 year deal but I think he can still get a 2 or 3 year deal out there just less than 9 million per season. Hunter or Cuddyer for the OF on a 1 or 2 year deal. Hunter needs 2 more seasons to put his career statistics into Hall of Fame category. He'll have over 1300 RBI at the end of this year and 1500 is a bench mark for the Hall Of Fame. He also is tied for most Gold gloves for a career OF. Finishing his career a Twin could give him an edge since this is where he is known from. Especially if we are able to win one of these years. Bullpen is optional I think we loose Swarzak and maybe Burton this offseason. I think we'll keep Deunsing. I think we also keep Deduno another season. We have a few arms ready to step in and Burdi on the way so I think at best we could sign reliever on the cheap for depth which I why I think we may bring back one of Swarzak or more likely Burton.

I don't think his salary is an impediment on anything we are trying to do as a team. We have more than enough salary cap space. If you want to clear space then we could deal Darnell instead so we can bring up the prospects. We will want veterans with the next wave of players and he may be one of the ones we want to keep. I am personally indifferent here as I like our bullpen and am not in a hurry to trade anyone from there.

As of this morning we are 3.5 games out of the 3rd pick and 4.5 out from the 2nd pick. Looks like we are moving in the right direction. I really hope this is the last time I need to root this way.

In the next 5 days we should trade a few wets. I was initially against this but I am seeing too much quit in the team right now and it makes sense to have 1 more go at a top draft pick. I thought we would be a .500 team and we should stand pat and go for a .500 season. I think the team started going down hill when we lost 5 1 run games in a row back when we played Boston and Texas but have done nothing since the all star break. this 10 game stretch was vital and we just quit. With that said we should do the following: 1. Extend Terry Ryan. (I know he has a lifetime contract or so but this tells the public we stand behind him) He has made numerous incremental improvements to the team since he has come back. Our Farm System is 1 or 2 in the major leagues right now. We have a base of talent to work with and more on the way in the near future. He actually went out and signed a high priced Free Agent that didn't work out (Nolasco) One that did (Hughes), and one in season (Morales) I am most impressed he went out and brought Morales here. Now he is making the call to trade for prospects and set the team up in the near future. How many prospects will be on the team by the end of next season? we could have May, Meyer, Gibson, and Berrios in the rotation at the end of next season. we still have Hughes and Nolasco too. 2. By August 1rst trade Corriea and a reliever. This should open up spots for some of our other pitchers who are ready to gain experience here. 3. The Twins should start showing minor league highlights on news casts, news papers, and their Jumbo-tron as they are the future of our winning and help sell the fanbase on patience. 4. Not sure on trading Suzuki or not. I guess if they want to put Pinto back up here they should trade him otherwise there is no point other than to secure the top draft pick by losing more games. On Willingham we should trade him if we can replace him in the lineup. I don't remember seeing anyone unless they want to bring up Hicks to see him again. 5. Extend me free tickets to any game I want to see for the rest of my life. (Since we are dreaming here I am going all out)

We are now 46 - 56 and tied for the 7th pick and 4.5 games out of the 2nd pick of the draft. several teams have won the last 2 games moving closer to us in the standings If we can just trade Willingham who is showing some signs of life in his bat we should be able to kill the offense and go into a nosedive. Its not about who we trade for since we are not likely to find a good prospect for our pieces...maybe Suzuki, but its about the spot in the draft order next June. I'll start cheering for the Twins again to win when they bring up good prospects or next season, when I suspect we will hit .500 or better. But for now its all about the spot in the draft order.

Plus this trade will help us climb the in the draft pick standings. We should move from 8th pick to the 4th pick if we can shed a few more players who contribute just enough to keep us at 8th place. That can lead to some more top prospects. While I wanted to see the Twins go for .500. I guess we can do that next year.

We also need to remember that in 2012 was Willingham's first season with the Twins after signing a 3 year contract and he wasn't interested in being dealt. What kind of message would that send other free agents in the future if they are thinking of signing a long term contract here? Probably the same things as prospects are now considering when signing with the Astros, and free agents think before taking a physical for the Orioles (see Gant Balfour contract negation last year).

Morales really didn't seem to like Seattle much. I am surprised he went back there. Also I wonder if this means we are about to really lower the cost of our bullpen as we already have several candidates and Deunsing and Swarzak as arbitration eligible.

One of the issues I see from reading about this is that he Astros negotiated with something they didn't completely have (overage of the pool to go over slot to sign a draft pick with out penalty) They do have the money and they did negotiate with it but they did not have the penalty free part secured. So with an agreement in understanding an the player acting on that agreement is it enforceable? With regards to Aiken what happened is understandable but where it gets murky is with the player who believed an agreement was in place.

I am going to disagree with you to some extent here. We were not goig to win this year. Ther was a push to be a .500 team and be somewhat competitive while we wait for our prospects to develop. Bartlett was signed to be the 2nd middle IF and backup OF. Kubel to be a DH/OF on a team with several already. and Guerrier to be a middle reliever by the opt ut date. None of the 3 had a prominent role on the team. Kubel had a few good weeks then there was nobody available to replace him, that's why he stayed as long as he did. Guerrier was successful until this week. last appearance he gave up a it and walk and got no one out. If he is hurt then he needed to go, but he could have been included in trade for Corriea or someone else for a prospect. If he is not hurt I bet someone else picks him up. These 3 are a side show to the story of a hopeful .500 team so the team is not so bland. I still don't see how you can call Guerrier a bust as he had a 2.86 ERA up until his last appearance. Yes I think the Twins are getting to a point that some of the pitching prospects need to come up. But there are other pitchers to consider moving too as Swazak hasn't been the best. Corriea may be on his way out. Will Deunsing be here long term? I could see the Twins signing him to a 2 year 6 million contract as well as trading him. (We have room in the budget). Outside of Meyer and Mays and a few relievers who is ready right now to come up? Pino is supposed to be working on defense as his bat is ready to play at C maybe DH. Everyone else is on track for late next season. wouldn't you rather have an extra story to follow while you wait. I bet the average fan buying a ticket would.