Brandon

Send him to AAA. if someone claims him, I think the claiming team would take on the rest of his contract. Also if he chooses FA instead of accepting an assignment to AAA then I don't think we would be responsible for the contract either. So he would likely go to AAA. We could bring up a pitcher, Johnson, or May or Darnell Logan. I don't think Meyer is on the 40 man roster yet so we probably wouldn't rush him up at this time.

I think this year was designed to be a competitive bridge year while waiting for the talent in the minors to develop. there is not many who are long term (Susuki (1 year) Morales (1year), Willingham (last year on contract), Fuld (really). Sano and Buxton should have been able to come up at some point this year while the team hung around .500 and May and Meyer will still get their chance to throw some innings up here too. It sounds like the posters above me are upset that the moves didn't quite work out. Buxton and Sano are both injured. Nolasco has been terrible. Joe Mauer forgot how to hit for most the first half, We all new the Pelfry signing was not a good idea but has been worse then thought possible. Morales has yet to hit. I thought we were in a rebuild (Arcia, Hicks, Gibson, Dozier, Escobar, Santana, Pinto, Parmelee, Colabello,Theilbar with solid developed young vets Plouffe, Mauer, Perkins, Deunsing, Fien, Hughes, and Nolasco but using veterans Corriea, Pelfry, Willingham, Morales, Florimon, Kubel, and Suzuki, to buy time for the youngsters to get ready. The Twins already got rid of Kubel and Bartlett and kind of Florimon. I suspect Corriea will be gone soon and May and Meyer will get their chances. outside of them and a bullpen arm or 2 I don't see anyone else that is ready to make a significant contribution at the major-league level yet. Again Sano and Buxton were hopefuls to come up this year at some point but are injured. what more can the Twins do at this point to bring players up? I don't necessarily think you need to go so young that all rookies must band together to figure out how to win up here when you can leave the veterans and work in the rookies as they prove ready to come up.

I agree with Doc Bauer on Berrios and want to add that when you dominate a league like this after while you quit growing cause there is no way to gauge your weaknesses when everything works all of the time. Berrios has been too dominant in his current league that I think he needs the challenge of moving up soon so he can continue to learn and make adjustments. Yes I understand he is young and still growing but I think he is ready to make the jump based on the results I am seeing from him day in and day out.

I think there is lots of upside for Stuart Turner. He is said to be ready for the majors defensively now so the question with him is more the development of his bat to be good enough to play. We should all reset our expectations of how we expect our catchers to hit here as we have been spoiled for a long time here with Brian Harper, (then an admitted void), Pierzinski, Mauer, Pinto and Suzuki. I think Stuart has the potential to hit .240 to .260 with 8-15 HRs around .700 OPS. not great but acceptable with above average defense. But if we are trading for prospects we should trade for the best one available despite organizational need because until they are established in the majors, there is still a chance they will not be able to make the adjustment to get to the next level.

Didn't Houston put him on the DL so he can work on his issues? Also I think I read that he didn't have great secondary pitches to go with his great straight fast ball.

I would think we could get him signed to a 1 or 2 year extension without have to make the QO. If we have to make the QO then we could always resign Cuddyer or Hunter to come back and take his place.

I can see the Twins trading Corriea and 1 or 2 of the bullpen arms. I don't see them doing much else. I see them resigning Willingham in the offseason and if Morales hits I can see the Twins trying to resign him too. Next year we have Sano, Buxton, maybe Rosario and maybe Vargas who is in AA this year tearing it up. that means we have the following lineup. 2b Dozier 1B Mauer DH Morales LF Willingham 3B Sano RF Arcia C Suzuki SS Escobar/ Santana CF Buxton Santana starts the year in CF and moves out when Buxton arrives. I put Buxton batting 9th cause he is a rookie. But doesn't this look like a nice lineup...... also impressive is the hitters on the bench too (as bench bats and not starting all the time except for Plouffe and Pinto). Plouffe, Parmelee, Colabello, Pinto, and that bench would make it easier to handle an injury.

I think the Twins should do what they can to win games. WHile they have a frustrating record, they do have an easier schedule this month. If they are not at least .500 by the end of the month then they should shift gears for next year.

On the flip side there is no such thing as a bad one year contract either. I think solid players the team wants to keep but doesn't want a long term commitment on will get offered the QO so they will have to think long and hard about accepting it. The top FA won't have to worry cause someone will sign them. Its the next tier down. And in their cases it will depend on if the club wouldn't mind either a one year contract or draft pick. As far as the player is concerned it could get frustrating not being able to get a long term contract but you are probably making more year by year if you keep accepting the QO offer. This is a fun topic for the offseason.

The Twins seem to do well with interdivision trades. (Pino for Pavano, Escobar for Liriano, and a relief prospect for Delmon which is still a win) So we do have another 3b option in Escobar if need be and a SS in Santana but we will loose our CF option in this scenario and likely run with Fuld out there. Assuming Plouffe is traded. Willingham can play LF and they can move their LF to right. The Royals may be more motivated to make a run since their star pitcher is set to be a FA this offseason. I don't know anything about their farm so I will trust TR to fleece them. I still don't see this as a likely scenario however it is a realistic scenario.

Just a few low cost options. Emilio Bonifacio, Will Venable, Drew Stubbs, Marlon Byrd These guys could play some CF and be solid bench bats. And they wont cost much in salary or commitment. I see our biggest need as a bench bat/ CF. Our other needs look like they can be solved internally.

I think the key to making a run is Santana comming back and playing solid CF and hitting close to .300. Joe Mauer hitting like yester year not earlier this year. If those 2 things happen and Arcia has both good and bad streaks we can live with that. Willingham is solid and Morales will improve as the season wears on. we just finished a stretch without a few offensive pieces and against better competition. we are facing weaker competition right now meaning if we are to be competitive we need a big July.

10 - 4 gets us back to .500. I am hoping to go 9-5 or at worst 8-6 July is going to be our easiest month schedule wise. After the allstar break it gets even easier. Cleveland, Kansas city, Tampa Bay. We should be able to end July 3-5 games over .500. (I am probably being optimistic. But if we are to contend this year for at least a wild card we will need to be near that as the schedule will probably get harder down the stretch).

The Twins do appear to have a pretty easy schedule in July as the Yankees and Seattle look to be the best teams they face all month. If the Twins are not at least 3-4 games over .500 by the end of the month, they are not in it this year.

We already have his slogan of playing Dougie baseball so who else has that going for them? I actually had this conversation with a bartender the other day and determined Mientkiewicz would be the obvious choice. Though I wouldn't mind seeing Gardenhire stick around and become one of the all-time winningest managers with 2500 or so career victories. Though he would be in his 70's at that time. In all realty though Mauer and Mienkiewicz has the leg up as they have managed most of our top prospects at this point.

I just read the article and see that the Twins are at least consistent. in 87, 91 and last year the Twins had 33.33% of their roster from the draft.

The Twins of the early 2000's were also built for their park. We are just now seeing how their new stadium plays out so they are starting to go after that kind of player. before the Twins went after more left handed hitting and hitters that would take advantage of the turf. Now it makes more sense to go after RH pull power hitters. There are other quarks too but the Twins haven't made any other adjustments so to speak that I know of. I am surprised how bad our OF defense is considering how much the Twins preach defense. The Twins go after the Draft, DFA, FA and such for their roster construction. The following players were DFA or minor league free agent pickups that I remember. Guerrier (the first time we got him), Burton, Florimon, Nunez (though we traded to ensure we got him), Fuld, Deduno, Fien From the independent league we got Theilbar and Colabello Rule 5 draft Pressly and Diamond through the draft we have Perkins, Plouffe, Gibson, Dozier, Hicks, Deunsing, Parmelee, and Mauer International signings include Polanco, Arcia, Sano, Rosario,(last 2 will be on the team soon enough) Danny Santana, and Pino (the first time we got him) Trade: Escobar, Meyer and May (last 2 again will be soon enough) Free Agent: Willingham, Nolasco, Corriea, Pelfry, Hughes I feel like we are pretty diversified in how we build our team. We are really good at finding good relievers from others discarded trash in seeing 4 relievers came to us on minor league deals and 1 came from the independent leagues. The Twins are also getting good depth from DFA's and rule 5 draft. International signings are starting to look like a real source of talent for us in the next year or 2 especially if Arcia can take that next step and find consistency. And the draft and trades are looking to provide some of the impact talent we need to win provided the players turn out as expected. I think we are on the right track.

Me too. I never heard of Vielma until I read this thread. So I need to go find out who is this guy. Someone needs to adopt him as a prospect and post stuff about him.

On the plus side only one pitcher has been hurt this season..... Also on the CF mess. The Twins did try to sign Raj Davis this offseason. I am pretty sure I remember Len III was about to announce it when the Tigers jumped in and upped their offer a little.

Has anyone noticed Parmelee has gone 11 for his last 21 with 2 Doubles and a HR raising his average from .161 to .250 and his OPS from a low of .507 to .704? Granted this is a small sample size but with this being his 4th season of spending time in the majors he was probably on his last chance to stick around. Has he turned a corner? did he figure something out? Or is he playing scared cause he knows he won't have many more chances if he doesn't make it now? Whatever it is I am glad he is having success and hope he can keep it up.

I don't think he'll be up very long. I think most of us are hoping he gets atleast 1 or 2 starts this weekend before he goes back down when Plouffe comes off the DL on monday.

I am almost getting to the point where I think we should send him to the minors to see if he can figure it out down there. He hasn't pitched much like a major leaguer except for a few starts and were coming on 15th or so start of the season. If another team wants to take over his contract then power to them we can be freed and go after a different pitcher this offseason. I am surprised by how bad he has been. I really liked this signing last offseason.

Could we send Nolasco to the minors? I am ok with exposing him and his contract to waivers at this point. I someone wants to claim him, That would be ok and we can bring someone up that deserves to be here. I see we demoted Pino so that means someone else will pitch in his place but it is time to do something with Nolasco so he can get straightened out. It almost seems like he is content with loosing now he has the big payday from his contract.

If Plouffe is coming back on Monday then we just need to get by till then. I thought we would only have Florimon and Escobar available for SS and 3B in the event that Escobar is hurt. 1 day is ok. 3 is pushing it but we can manage if we have to. We can always try Mauer at 3B for a game and bring in Parmelee to play 1B.

I think you guys are underestimating Suzuki's value on the Free Agent market. He is hitting similar to Mauer did with close to a .400OBP and .400Slg%. I can see him getting a 1 or 2 year possibly a 3rd option deal in the 5 - 8 million per season range for his offense this year. 5 -6 million is a given and 7 or 8 is if someone needs a catcher real bad and is trying to get him. while Suzuki doesn't have the history of hitting like this, he did make a change while with Oakland and finished last year on a high note and carried it into this season so he is starting to develop a track record and he is durable. He has a lot of value so 3.5 million per year is way too low. He may even get a 10 million for a season offer but that is starting to get a little high for me.