StormJH1

I think that the Dodgers were looking for star power even more than they were looking for immediate impact players, and Adrian Gonzalez (particularly as a Latino guy from California), Carl Crawford, and Josh Beckett offered that much more than Morneau. Gonzalez also has a more promising future than Morneau, despite some nagging injuries of his own. People keep saying "Well, I want to keep Morneau because why should I care if the Pohlads save money in a salary dump?" You're missing the point. The Pohlads are going to spend what they're going to spend, irrespective of one player. If Morneau's 14 million dollars for next year freed up means that we have that money to reapply towards the pitching staff long-term, then you do care how the Pohlads spend their money. I like Morneau a lot, but it just makes more sense in our situation to roll with Parmelee and pick up some $1-4 million vet to insure us at that position.

It's fair to point this out, given the criticism before and the fact that most fans don't really understand how catchers are used across baseball, and that virtually no catcher is behind the plate for 162 games, or usually even 135 games, for that matter. But this is a Twins record, and it's not like he's passing Carlton Fisk or Pudge Rodriguez or something. And to be fair, you have to put the criticism in the proper context. Mauer didn't play 1B until last year, and if he wasn't catching, Gardy would often sit him completely in favor of Mike Redmond, Butera, or whoever the backup catcher happened to be. I don't think the fans really ever complained that Mauer wasn't catching enough games. They were pointing out that Mauer's so-called "positional scarcity advantage" (which is a farce to begin with) doesn't even exist in the other 80-100 games he's not catching. So, yes, if there are any fans still complaining about his playing time THIS year, then they're absolutely wrong. But it's also disingenuous for other media/bloggers to treat this guy's work load like he's Jarrod Saltalamacchia or Kurt Suzuki or something. Mauer is not comparable to other catchers - he's supposed to be a $184 million mega-superstar, and when you compare him to those guys (realistic or not), he does fall short of the production and impact of a Cabrera, Fielder, etc.

What makes this approach such a joke is that it's not even like we're in a wild card race or anything where missing out on one or two healthy or close-to-healthy games of Span is THAT big of a deal. Isn't it a bigger to have another bench player for the 15 days, and to make sure that you give Span all the time he needs to get healthy? There's no upside to waiting like this, and it creates stupid situations like the one last year where Mauer had to play right field.

For sure. I think that's just his body wearing down. He's had some shoulder problems that aren't talked about much. That's the other side of this that tends to get overlooked. A lot of defenses of 26-year-old Mauer's game revolved around the assumption of Mauer as a "plus" defender and and game manager behind the plate. I always thought that was a bit exaggerated to begin with, but he's now decidedly average as a defensive catcher (though certainly not bad). You keep in mind that only does he only play catcher half the time anyway, but he's effectively "past his prime" defensively. And if you compared him to other positions, there are very few Hall of Fame players that are on their downside defensively by age 29. Nature of the position, too, I know, but still...

Article was painfully anecdotal, and used the wrong anecdote at that, but yes, a guy with a .400 OBP can be criticized if there are other areas of his game that don't back him up as an elite player. First, the good. Mauer's career OBP of .404 would rank him in the mid-40's all-time. He has a skill set particularly attuned for OBP, which is to say that he is very selective at the plate (despite a huge strike zone at 6'5"), does not strike out often, and looks to make solid contact when he does swing, as opposed to trying to murder the ball and swinging over it. Now, the not-so-good. OBP is just a statistic. Like any statistic, being "elite" in it doesn't necessary mean you are an elite player or dangerous hitter. Looking at the other modern players in the vicinity of Mauer's career OBP, and some of them are likely Hall of Famers (Manny Ramirez, Thome, Rickey Henderson), but many of them are not (John Olerud, Jason Giambi, John Kruk, Bobby Abreu, Jeff Bagwell, and my favorite - Brian Giles). In other words, having a very good OBP probably means you are no worse than a very good player, but as with any stat, you need to know more before concluding how good that hitter really is. Mauer only led the AL in OBP one year (his 2009 "steroid" year....kidding), and has never led in walks. Olerud really is the best historical comparison, though while Mauer might be a slightly better AVG hitter, Olerud was actually far better at taking walks. OBP can represent a bunch of singles, unintentional walks, intentional walks, or it can be a bunch of extra base hits that actually produced runs for your team. Mauer's a great player, but he simply isn't in the class of most of the guys I mentioned above because you can name at least one other thing all those guys did exceptionally well (usually HR's, occasionally SB's), which you can't with Mauer. Except for Brian Giles - he's better than Brian Giles.

This is a different point than the first one you made. The Twins had a lot of different things to address this offseason after last year's trainwreck, that's for sure. But to say there weren't people vocally worried about the rotation is demonstrably false. Yeah, I'm with Nick on this one. I can give John the benefit of the doubt and assume that he meant we didn't think the rotation would implode in this way (Baker shut down for the year, Liriano terrible in the first half, etc.). But to say that there weren't serious problems in the rotation and that bloggers/fans didn't appreciate those problems is completely false. Coming off a 99-loss season, where was the expectation that the rotation would suddenly get any better. Two guys that were pretty good in 2010 (Liriano and Pavano), were terrible in 2011. Most people felt that Baker was the "ace", but he hadn't stayed healthy in previous years, nor did they believe that he had real "ace" stuff or could stay healthy long enough to use it. Kyle Gibson was already known to be lost for the year, and there was no other front-line starter coming up through the system that could miss bats. The deceptiveness of "what the focus was in the offseason" was that the departure of two position player regulars (Cuddy and Kubel), plus a third if you count Nishioka, and the need for a part-time catcher, meant that we had vacancies at those positions that needed to be filled. That became the "focus" because those were "needs", but that issue was completely independent of the pitching needs. In other words, the fact that we had new needs in the field didn't exclude the fact that there was no reason for optimism with the SP, and no help on the way. Injuries happen to every staff. I don't see the loss of Baker and Pavano as particularly surprising, and Pavano wouldn't have been any good anyway. There might have been some bad luck with Hendriks (food poisoning) and Marquis (his daughter's accident) screwing up their seasons early on, but neither of those were guarantees either.

This. I understand that Dozier hasn't been good. I'm okay with classifying him as a somewhat "bad" baseball player right now. But to say that he's season has been a "disaster" indicates that there was some expectation he was going to be this plus defender with a great bat right out of the gate. In reality, he was a post-hype prospect before he ever got here, and if even his glove had been decent, we'd have called him up last year. I don't think there was any realistic expectation for Dozier to be an MLB starter. This is the problem with Twins fans - they just assume that the next guy in line in AAA is the next Mauer, Morneau, or Kubel....or at least a "prospect" of some kind. That isn't always the case, and the Twins' farm system just hasn't been producing those 22-25 year old guys recently. Plouffe may be the one exception, if he stays productive.

I think that's a terrifically unique and interesting perspective, but I just don't know what the alternative was. Are you saying let Joe Mauer go play for the Red Sox, Yankees, Phillies, etc? If the argument now is that the Twins are squandering money on extending guys they shouldn't and only "semi-rebuilding", then what is the expectation for what we would have done with that extra $23 million. Lots of Hall of Fame-caliber players get stuck on mid-level or even bad teams - it doesn't mean that their careers were sad. Look at three of my favorite players growing up: Ryne Sandberg, Cal Ripken, and Tony Gwynn. Joe Mauer is to the Twins what Kevin Garnett was to the T-Wolves in the mid-2000's. I liked both guys and they were both very good players. But it was evident to everyone (except apparently KG himself) that he wasn't going to win anything if he was "the guy" and there wasn't much else around. His contract and his silly demands for playing with certain guys (Troy Hudson, et al) made sure that there wasn't another star as a sidekick. People don't buy that logic as easily in baseball because it's a 25-man roster and everything seems more diluted. But since you could buy about 3 Willinghams or a dozen-plus Scott Diamonds for the price of one Mauer, the financials with this situation fit that same dilemma.

Don't always agree with Mackey, but I've reiterated the points in his article so many times, I felt like I could've written it! I hear what jokin is saying above about 2012 being a "play it safe" year, but I guess it's tough for some fans to accept that the foundation of this team was in such rough shape that one major signing, or even a series of short-term signings really couldn't have prevented them from being horrible this year. If you don't believe that, consider this: Mauer and Morneau have been mostly healthy for the whole year, AND the team's two free agent signings of Willingham and Doumit have succeed equal to or beyond all reasonable expectations for them. Yes, much of that is offset by the loss of Cuddy and Kubel last offseason, but when virtually your whole rotation becomes undependable in the span of 2 years, it's pretty clear that you've been failing to restock your system with arms, which ironically, was something Terry Ryan was criticized for doing TOO MUCH of in the mid-2000's. (Everyone said we needed to trade Garza, Slowey, etc. for some bats because we had something like 8 future starters coming up at the same time. We got Delmon Young.). Mauer's a good player. Morneau may have some life left in him. But I'm not sure you can just blow off the fact that those two are about 2/5 of the entire payroll, and they aren't impact players in the way Cabrera and Fielder are for Detroit, or other middle-of-the-order hitters are for other teams. No, they don't deserve the blame for us being bad - that goes to the pitching. But one of the main REASONS we can't aggressively fix our errors in the pitching staff through FA is the money tied up in those two players. I guess it's a Catch-22. I don't honestly think most fans are mad at Joe Mauer for not being a 30 HR guy. I think even the haters (at least the baseball-educated ones) understand that he has a certain approach to the game, and is elite at what he does. But I think they're also mad/frustrated at the whole situation because they were sold the idea that we could afford a Joe Mauer based on the premise that we were going to be a $110 or $120 million team. Now that we don't have that budget, it places more pressure on Mauer, fair or not.

Delmon isn't a great comparison to anyone because the reality is that if he were drafted by the Twins, there's no way he's an MLB regular at age 21. Also, Delmon wasn't just a 1st rounder, he was a #1 overall pick and had the profile of a potential star slugger (older brother with successful career, looked the part, etc.). The interesting about Delmon, though, is that while he did "hit" at every level, he had a fairly pedestrian OPS of .795 at AAA. Plouffe, by contrast, looked terrible at times in the minors and was thought to be a bust, much as was the case with Denard Span. Delmon is a good example of how you can't call something a breakout year until you see it in at least two seasons. Delmon hasn't even been a .700 OPS guy since that 2010 season. Plouffe may end up being legit, but we don't know that yet. Aside from that, completely agree with your assessment about this team playing "over its head". Some people assume that can't be the case because the record is so bad, but think about it. A whole season with a mostly healthy Morneau, Mauer, and Span? Scott Diamond pitching like a #2 starter? A bullpen full of mop-up guys, Perkins, and Capps that hasn't completely imploded? Sure, SOME of those things could continue into the future, but it's doubtful that they all will. And there's no savior coming through the system until at least 2014, maybe beyond.

I like Reusse's stuff, and all of the points made in this article were accurate, but I still cringe a little when I hear the "go back to Japan" or "time to say Sayonara" rhetoric. The guy is a human being. He showed up to Spring Training in advance of even the pitchers and catchers. He had an established track record of professional success in Japan that seemed reasonably certain to translate to some degree of MLB success, and it just didn't. The only difference (and the source of bitterness) is that you have to pay these international guys up front, whereas you can look at a minor leaguer in the bigs before you have to pay them. I feel kind of bad for him, but he's absolutely terrible and has to go. I remember seeing his jersey at the Mall of America already marked down to $30 by like June 2011. That pretty much summed it up.

Nishioka was a gamble. Doesn't mean I fault the Twins for trying and being so blatantly wrong on him, necessarily, but it helps to point out both the good and bad sides of risk. Morneau's in his 30's now. I agree with you that he has value to the team, and they might as well keep him if other teams aren't going to give up good prospects for him. But an extension? Even if he didn't have the terrible concussion problem, plus the wrists, back, and neck to worry about, how much is a 32-35 year-old Morneau really worth? Large power hitters fall off quickly, and they either become something else (like a singles hitter) or are out of the game. Morneau hasn't made it through a season since 2008, and even in that year, he broke down physically and struggled terribly through September and October from playing all 163. And as much as I hate to say it, it could be over tomorrow because of the concussions. He could fall backwards like Koskie did, or simply move too fast for a ball or something, and that could be it. Enjoy Morneau for as long as you can - we have him through 2013, and don't need to make any rash decisions.

No worries, Terry Ryan's already on it. Bill Smith even gave him a head start. It absolutely murders me when Terry Ryan talks about how "free agents don't work" with his "smartest guy in the room" voice, yet the organization has spent the past half decade paying out huge contracts to their own guys before they became free agents. How is this really any different? If you end up overpaying Mauer, Morneau, Pavano, Capps, or Nick Blackburn not because of "market inflation" but because they're "your guys", does the reason really matter to the result? If the trade market for Morneau isn't good enough to move him now (or next July), then what's the real risk in waiting out the contract to see if he's still a viable player before you commit 2 or 3 more years to him? Morneau is an extremely popular player, and I think the general fanbase would be abhorred if the Twins traded him. If he chooses to leave to some other team as a FA, then so be it. I think the Aaron Gleeman's of the world totally understand that fanbase aspect of it, but are so tuned into the pragmatic reasons for flipping him for value that they lose sight of how beholden this front office is to player popularity. It's not like they exactly "drove a hard bargain" in signing Mauer. I really can't see them ever trading Morneau.

Well, first of all, I don't think Nishi has ANY value, even if he were somehow hitting .280 and stealing some bases. His skill sets profile as a utility infielder, but I'm pretty sure he's the worst middle infielder defensively in the AL, or possibly all of baseball. I'm not kidding. I'm trying out MLB TV for a month or so, so if I come across someone worse around the league, I'll happily correct myself. The problem the Twins have is they lost basically an entire generation of prospects under Smith's watch. Granted, many of those were originally drafted by Ryan in the first place, or they had medical problems, or the disaster known as the Rochester Red Wings failed to prepare them with basic baseball skills. I'm talking mostly about the draft classes from 2004 (Plouffe) to 2006 (Valencia). Plouffe looks like one of the few position players to really emerge out of that haul, though there are some guys that are even more recent (Revere - '07) that are starting to contribute. So when you talk about the assumption that terrible teams should give playing time to the next wave of prospects...well, the "next wave" is all 18-21 year olds right now. Otherwise, they are injured (Benson, et al) or non-prospects (Pretty much the whole AAA team). When you look at the end of 2011, you saw bad teams bringing up guys like Ackley, Hosmer, Moustakas, Chisenhall, and Kipnis all over baseball. I would LOVE to watch one of those bad teams. Unfortunately, the Twins are going to need "bridge" guys..probably more washed up vets..to even make it to the point where we can see if Sano, Rosario, Arcia, etc. are major league ballplayers. And that's not even addressing the pitching rotation, which is much worse condition. There are still some great players on this team that are fun to watch, but in terms of general outlook, it's a dark time for Twins fans.

Terrific article, of course juxtaposed with the Strib's C.J. article about "Gosh, Julie Nelson of KARE11 boobs sure look bigger lately, don't they?" (Sorry. C.J. should not exist. I'm off topic here). I feel really bad for a lot of these athletes who are now in their late 30's and early 40's (some of whom could still be playing) who dealt with serious concussion issues about 5-10 years before athletics and the general public finally began to understand how serious of a problem this was). I fully admit that I'm 31 years old, and has basically "learned" that a concussion was basically the most minor sports injury that you could actually miss time for. (In football, that was usually a week). Certainly, the damage wasn't permanent - you simply got your bell rung and needed a little time for the headaches to go away. If you were tougher, maybe you came back earlier than someone who was not as tough. Sadly, not only did I think that, I think that more or less the accepted view of the medical field until the mid-2000's. It's getting pretty hard to ignore how wrong we were any longer. And it will probably take even longer for people to understand how concussions work in non-contact sports like baseball. The fact that there isn't even really an objective test for concussion really hits home for me. You can verify AIDS, cancer, a broken bone, or an ACL tear with testing - how do you tell how bad a concussion really is, or how long it will last? That's why I pay a little extra attention to everyone of Morneau's at-bats since he came back.

I think it intrigues people because Canadians are so generally indistinguishable from Americans in day-to-day life, except when it comes to something as "American" as baseball, which hardly exists in Canada. There's actors and celebrities like Michael J. Fox and Mike Myers (and the T-Mobile girl, woo!) that people wouldn't even know were Canadian unless you told them. Yet Canada produces very few baseball players, whereas in a Latin American country, baseball is arguably more important than soccer.

I respect John's research and what he's trying to do here, but the approach is misleading. Trying to predict in August 2012 what teams will roll with at first base in April 2013 is much harder than it would seem, ESPECIALLY at 1st base. Teams want big, dumb power at first base, and the position becomes a dumping ground for guys who fail defensively at other positions, but have power potential. Every year, there's guys like Russell Branyan, Garrett Jones, and slew of Triple-A or "post hype" prospects that end up playing 1st base for MLB teams in unpredictable fashion. Given the choice between that option (often promoted from within) or paying $14 million to Morneau next year AND giving up prospects of any value, teams are going to opt for the former. And if they do trade, there are a lot of other guys that could be moved with cheaper salaries. I just don't want us to do the Liriano thing where we overvalue a Twin based on past contributions, and then are surprised by how little we actually get in return. Granted, Morneau was a bigger star than Liriano, and has hit much better of late. But the league knows that he's one accident away from being worthless to them. He'd probably be viewed as more of a Jim Thome or Frank Thomas 2006 plug than any type of long-term option you would give up assets for. Also, the Twins "brand" has taken a severe hit in these two terrible seasons. We are now considered as one of the "bad team" akin to Seattle, Houston, etc. Those teams probably have some good players with value, but it's tough to sell other teams on good players stuck on horrible teams.

There are two things about Liriano that I think Twins fans failed to see when talking about his trade value: (1) Show me a year where Liriano was able to pitch into September and pitched WELL in those high-pressure games. You can't. In '08 and '09 he had August/Sept. ERA's higher than 4.50, and those were years where ended up in a Game 163. 2010 was his only post-Tommy John full season where he had an ERA under 5.00, yet he was terrible in September. And he was generally terrible in 2011, and killed us the first half of 2012. Yet the ONLY value in a trade for Liriano is his rental value down the stretch. And he's never been a big game pitcher. (2) Liriano's season numbers for the Twins in 2012: 22 games, 17 starts, 3-10 record, 5.31 ERA, 1.44 WHIP. Yes, the K rate was excellent, but his K/BB was only 1.98, because his control sucks. If you never saw Liriano pitch, and had to evaluate picking up a guy at the deadline based on THOSE numbers, what are you expecting to get in return, ESPECIALLY for a rental? I feel the same way about this as I did with Delmon. It sucks we couldn't flip him for real value, but at the end of the day, losing him is not the worst case scenario. The worst thing would've been for him to pitch well enough down the stretch for us to sign him, and then we exhaust our budget on a pitcher who won't make us any better next year.

It's too bad we have a thread on ballpark improvements and I feel like a troll even bringing up the topic of CF and the batter's eye. But I'm sorry, it's one of the biggest aesthetic problems with the ballpark. It's too bad they let the opinions of a few players (some of which who are no longer with the team, or no longer great players) lead to the removal of what was one of the few signature elements of an otherwise terrific park. Aside from the particular limestone they used (and the giant Minnie and Paul sign), Target Field does sort of lack a "signature" element that differentiates it from other parks and makes it immediately recognizable. Some examples would be the Green Monster, or the waterfalls in Kansas City. And it's too bad because I thought the trees were a great nod to the Northwoods identity of this state. Not to mention the fact that in future years, they'll lose thousands of fans who are up at their cabins instead of going to weekend baseball games in the city, so why not bring the woods to the ballpark?! (Sorry. I wasn't born "one of us", excuse the poor humor). What we have now is an ugly BLACK wall with nothing below it, and it was a total overreaction. Other teams have trees (COL) shrubs/rocks (ANA) and large scoreboards at or near the batter's eye. But I feel like they won't touch it for years because to put anything in there now would be an acknowledgement that they screwed up.

Absolutely. Gardy's explanation is inexcusable, but it would be ignorant to pretend that he's the only manager who manages like that, or that he's even in the minority. What's baffling to me is that managers assume, by the solve virtue of a statistic, that a 1 to 3 lead is obviously a "high leverage" situation. Yet, if you have a tie game, or maybe even a game where you're down by one and confident that you can put up another run or two, Gardy suddenly treats that situation almost the same as he would mop-up time. It makes no sense to me. The weakness of the whole "anti-save" argument crowd tends to be that it would just have you using your best pitchers over and over again, and wearing them into the ground. But here, Gardy admitted that he had a pitcher available, but only if it was a "save" situation. In a tie game, the other team doesn't have an advantage any more than you do. If you have a better pitcher available, it makes no sense to hold them out for the 11th or 13th inning, when you won't even get there if you give up runs in the 9th. If you can't use him the following day then so be it.

For as solid as an "overall ballplayer" I think that Span is, he will never be a great basestealer. I think he has enough speed, but that isn't the problem. The fact that he gets on 1st as much as he does (singles and walks) and has only tried it 18 times tells you something. His problem is that he can't read pitchers and is literally the most likely guy to get picked off every year. If you can't generate a good lead with any confidence, you'll probably also get a late jump. Which is just as well because most of the stats guys will tell you that basestealing is rarely worth the risk. It's just a good way of generating "free outs" for the defense, in addition to bunting. Honestly, I don't think the return for Span was going to be enough to benefit us long-term or satisfy the fan base for losing an effective and popular player. If you can't achieve that objective, then why do you need to trade him? (Well, saving money, I guess). This isn't a situation like Liriano or Delmon where the guy had one foot out the door anyway, so it doesn't matter if the returns are negligible. Span does have actually value to this franchise over the next few years. Plus (and I hate this, but it's true), I really do feel that TR and company are still in denial over what has happened in 2011 and 2012. The 2010 team was so successful, and it felt so good with the opening of the new park, that it's now become a detriment to our long-term development. Morneau's problems are well-documented, and while Mauer is elite at what he does, his skill set is not one that you can build a reliable offense around. Plug him into an already great lineup (like the Yanks or Red Sox lineups of the mid-2000's), and his ability to get on-base at a scarce position would be incredibly valuable. On this team, it has value, but not the kind of value that a Cabrera or other elite power hitter has. I don't doubt that Span is young enough to figure into "our plans" several years down the road. I'm worried about what those plans are...and what they are not.

This is such a non-story to me. Not blaming the OP because it was posted on Deadspin and therefore qualifies as...ahem...er..."news". But A.J. is a fiery competitor and just got batted in against a team that struggled to score more than 2 runs against a pitcher with an 7.99 ERA...I COMPLETELY understand what he was trying to convey to his team in that moment. Plus, if you listen the Ron Washington Game 7 speech or have ever heard anything from inside a dugout, this is just how you talk when you're 35 years old still playing a kid's game for a living. A.J. plays hard for whatever team he's ever been on, including the Twins. He never hurt anybody. He never really said anything terribly offensive about Minnesota or its fans, and the Twins traded him because of Mauer and got a HAUL back in return. Booing him 10 years after the fact is absurd.

I really don't think the Twins are alone in this delusion - the media and even well-informed bloggers (and blog posters) buy into it also. The "delusion" I'm talking about is that players on a last-place team with pedestrian (or worse) numbers garner significant trade interest around the league. I realized this the past few days in two examples. First, I was listening to Mad Dog Radio on Sirius, and he basically ran through all of the MLB teams for possible trade activity. Yeah, it's Mad Dog shooting from the hip, and it wasn't particularly researched or pre-prepared. But he got through about four or five other outfielders on the market (including Pence and Victorino), and when he got to the Twins he said "they don't have anyone you'd really WANT". That may be an overly simplistic view, but I think that was the prevailing wisdom. Span could help a lot of clubs, but he was never as desirable as some of the other names being openly shopped. Plus, Terry Ryan didn't really want to move him (and I do like him as a Twin, this was never about him personally). The second moment was when I turned on the Liriano game last night and FSN North put his stats up. His record was something like 3-10 with an ERA in the mid 5.00's. Now, we as Twins fans remember what he was in '06, how he came back in 2010, and how he's been one of the best pitchers in the AL for short stretches this year. But when you put that all together and put up numbers like THAT, and then remember that you're trading a rental, not even the full player, should we really be surprised he didn't draw even a "B" level prospect? Probably not. Now, I do think that guys like Willingham and, to a lesser degree, Morneau, Burton, and Perkins might have had some degree of value to other teams (and were not rentals). But I'm not at all surprised that TR didn't see enough value to move any of those guys, even though I'm sure there were offers. I can't "fault" him for making that decision, but it's frustrating when you hear TR reiterate over and over that he doesn't really believe in free agency, and doesn't seem to believe in the trade deadline either...yet the team continues to slide.

First, lets not use "our other starters" as the measuring bar for successful starting pitching. Haha. Second, I agree with the general premise that it's far more likely we sign Liriano and get success out of him than enticing a FA pitcher to come to our loser team and getting 1st or 2nd starter success out of him. But that doesn't necessarily mean we should do it if it requires a $12M/yr commitment, which may end up being like 65% of the money we have to spend next year. That money needs to fill about 3 rotation spots, as well as a middle infielder and other needs. Plus, Liriano may not even want to be here. Put yourself in Liriano's shoes...he was an absolute phenom in 2006 for a few months, but never got paid before needed TJ surgery. His salary has gone up during his arbitration years, but did you ever get the sense he was really happy here? It's not like there's a huge Latin presence on this team (since departure of Santana, Luis Castillo, etc.) or the coaching staff. Gardy threw him under the bus on numerous occasions publicly, even subtly blaming him for some of Mauer's injuries early in 2011. I think he can get paid more somewhere else, and he may be ready to do that. And also (not to be a Liriano downer), but I'll say it again: When has Liriano ever pitched well in situations when it really mattered? He's sucked in September even in his "good" years, either because of durability or composure. As good as he's been lately, his numbers are inflated by starts like the two against OAK (or his no-hitter against CWS last year) where he completely dominates, then gets annihilated a few starts later. Heading into a contract year, his ERA is still at 4.81, with a 1.40 WHIP.

Checked the box scores and he's apparently still out. Too bad because he was off to a terrific start through 13 games, hitting .390 with 2 HR's and 4 stolen bases.