Brandon

Another positive to the trade is he will get the opportunity to hit more against the Yankees which will result in more home runs hit against them. And who doesn't love seeing bombs against the Yankees regardless of who is playing them?

Calvin Faucher was a relief pitcher who was drafted in the 10th round I think from UCI in Irvine CA. He had a low 90's fastball and was their closer. That is all I got for you. And he signed for around slot value or just under it I think. He was a senior....

I hate this time of season. I liked having Cruz on the team. I guess Rooker is getting the call up.

What about Kuira? we could trade for him right?

Not too many pitchers through lighting bolts so that will be entertaining. Will be glad to see if he can move quickly through the organization. He seems to really love the game and when that is the case why not sign for around 2.5-2.6 million and get going as soon as possible.

The jury is still out as we still have 5 or 6 prospects from those deals. Trading Ynoa is the bad move so far. but the ones considered the best prospects are still here. Those guys lost a year of development which was unforseen. but Rijo, Duran, Alcala coould be good. Smeltzer a swingman/ long reliever and Celestino a good CF. So I don't think those trades have proven to be bad at this point.

Plus Gladden scored the World Series winning run in 91. and if you can remember Gladden did catch a HR in Cleveland and turned a triple play out of it getting the runners at both first and second out as they were way out front.

Maybe include him in a trade with Texas for Gibson..... Texas has a crappy bench and Gibson is signed for next season cheaply.

Dan Gladden was the LF on 2 World Series Winning teams. hard not to include him in the conversation.

I like turtle too but I think he has another 2-4 years of being a solid back up player somewhere. Texas has a horrible bench and others do too. I put the over /under for his career at 1200 plate appearances.

Here is a thought. Why not Acquire Gibson and someone like John King to give us another reliever. That would give us Pitching to see if we can get back into the race this year and allow us to keep our core to compete next year too. Sometimes we don't need to trade the core and rebuild. but what would we need to give up? Gibson is not only a solid pitcher we are familiar with but a cheap one too as he makes only 7.66 million next year on a front loaded contract. I am thinking a package around a few prospects maybe Rooker and Cole Sands and a low level prospect for example. Rooker isn't getting chances in Minnesota and seems redundant and we have other hitting prospects like Sabato on the way. Giving up Cole hurts but give to get.... maybe there is a better package what say you.

I have to quote myself as the Twins did go sign a reliever yesterday. (Kyle Barraclough) Twins Sign Kyle Barraclough - MLB Trade Rumors Ha. A guy who at best is a solid middle reliever from 2 or 3 years ago. but seriously, I hate tanking. And the offense has been on the rise. if we can get some improvement in the rotation from a healthy Maeda and a rising Ober and if Dobnak can just get back to a being a decent if unspactacular pitcher I think the pitching staff would be almost there as well. I believe we can get back to 10 games over .500 the question is can we rise enough to make the playoffs? I would rather push to find out then crash on the season and give up. Getting back over .500 will do some good for our attendance figures which will help with the budget for next year.

I can see the Twins resigning Pineda, and Cruz. if they let Cruz leave, I think they would plan on trying to sign one of the SS in FA. I think Pineda holds appeal because he can be had on a shorter term deal with his age and injury history. I can see a 2 year 26-30 million for him. I am not ready to give up on this season either as I think the Twins could get back in it with their key players comming back from injury. They would need one of Ober or Dobnak to step up but if the Twins would go out and trade for a shut down reliever they could climb up the standings. What ever happened to the Twins top pitching prospects Balazovich and Duran? Are they close to helping?

I've seen teams come back from farther behind. Oakland has done it a few times. we just need a good jolt and a fixed bullpen.

I can see us trading Cruz, Simmons, maybe Happ if he prefers a trade, and Alex Colome. I think Robles is a possibility now that I see he will be a free agent after the season. But with the way he is pitching he might be extended on a 2 year 5 or 6 million deal or traded all the same. On Pineda I can see us keeping him and resigning him to another 2 year deal. Do you think he will be able to get 3 years at his age and injury history? Could Sano be traded? (I doubt it but....) I still have hope we can turn this season around. we really just need 1 more bat to come alive and about 4 or 5 relievers. We could trade for a reliever, bring up a reliever and have someone snap out of their slump and have a workable pen too. and make a comeback.....

What ever happened to Edwar Colina? is he still with the organization?

a quality start is 6 innings and 3 earned runs or less given up. Jose is not getting through 6 innings per start in the early going as teams are being careful with their pitchers since they didn't have a full season last year.

Last season threw a lot of hitters out of whack. Lets see how he is hitting 200 ABs into the season. He just needs consistent ABs and I bet he will be fine. I look forward to seeing a .250/.360/.570 slash line with 40 HErs in 550 ABs.

Berrios has the higher floor since he has shown he is the more durable of the two players. Buxton has the higher ceiling. If Buxton is healthy then he is the more important of the two. He gets MVP votes in seasons with injuries. Who replaces them if they leave? Celestino in CF and we do have several high floor starting pitching prospects..... I think keeping Buxton on a 5 year extension would be great. He will be 29 so that would take him though his age 34 season. going seven or even 8 years to 36 or 37 seems like what he will be able to get and that seems a bit long. Berrios should be able to get 5 years. I think 5 years and 100 to 110 million seems fair. Going to much beyond that will get pricey. I am fine with signing both or whoever is willing to sign at a reasonable fair market price. I am not fine with overpaying either player because we do have replacements coming up the pipeline and we can sign good but not as good players for a much lower cost and we can realocate money elsewhere.

While I realize the Twins haven't focused on getting an ace in Free Agency, I was just pointing out that the only need is lining up to be just 1 starting pitcher for next offseason and we have 20-30 million available to spend to fill that spot.

Next offseason we have 6 free agents (Cruz DH 13 million, Pineda SP 10 million, Happ SP 8 million, Simmons SS 10,500,000, Robles RP 2 million, and Shoemaker SP 2 million) and a team option on Colome RP 5 million. Or 3 Starting Pitchers, 2 Relievers, DH and SS for a total 2021 salary of 45.5 million coming off the books next offseason. For our rotation we already have Berrios, Maeda, Dobnak as established starters. We only need to fill two spots. Dobnak’s 800,000 salary will likely be replacing a 10 million salary pitcher freeing up money to be spent elsewhere. Luckily Balazovich, Thorpe, Duran and others should be close enough to be ready for an opportunity. We may only need to sign 1 starting pitcher to keep our rotation deep as it is now. Our pen is likely to lose a few members, but relievers can be found cheaply in free agency so the cost to swap out relievers is going to be low or at the worst not a big increase in costs. Cruz will be a free agent next offseason too and it will be interesting to see what happens with him. Will we resign him for one more go around or is this his last season here? I doubt he would cost more than the 13 million we are paying him and more likely less with incentives. Even with the National League adding the DH next year. Regardless we have lots of options to replace him too (Larnarch, Rooker, and others). We were even set up at SS for next season too with Royce Lewis coming up but now we may have to find another SS on a short-term deal so Lewis can come up when he is ready more likely now the following season. However, we are still likely to come in under this year’s budget next season. On Arbitration only Berrios, Buxton, possibly Garver and Duffey and Rogers are in line for decent size raises. As a group I am only guessing they raise their salaries by approximately 18-24 million. If we don’t have to sign an expensive SS or have any unforeseen issues pre-emptively come up by next offseason, we are set up to pay big for an ace starting pitcher next offseason. Do we know which starting pitchers will be free agents next year? And do any of you believe we will compete and sign one? (Note: I got the salary info on this site)

The good news is we can always make a trade if more depth is needed. I do think Colina is a solid option at some point this year. Some times it takes a pitcher a few times up to figure out how to compete and the top level. Also as the year progresses we may be able to call up others such as Jax or Balazovich or Duran. So its not like we are devoid of options for the last spot in the pen. I would like us to have one more quality reliever but I guess we are out of available funds for now. So we go with what we have.

I think Castillo would be a better acquisition for us next offseason. If we loose a couple if starters and the young guys aren't ready then a trade makes sense. We have 6 starting pitchers right now with a few challenging for spot starts and a few rookies getting close. While Castillo is a 1 or 2 starter we should absolutely look into acquiring, I just don't see how we can matchup without trading multiple prospects which we may need for a future roster. Polanco is not good to trade as that would hurt our flexibility. We could trade Royce Lewis, and several prospects or get a third team involved. Maybe during the offseason I would be fine with trading Polanco but not now.

I"m gonna work backwards on this. I think he is worth 5 years and 80 to 90 million. That's 16 to 18 million per year. He is making 6.1 and next season maybe 12 million. So maybe something like 8 14 16 18 18 for a 74 million guarantee over the next 5 seasons. Maybe add some incentives for IP and Cy Young finishes. You can also make small adjustments to the annual payments but this seems like a good start.

I think Rookers spot should be higher. He had a solid floor of at least hitting in the majors.