StormJH1

Interesting fact I did not recall, Lew Ford received an MVP vote (though not a 1st place vote) in 2004. So he finished tied for 24th in MVP voting that year: http://www.baseball-reference.com/awards/awards_2004.shtml#ALmvp The Top 5 vote-getters for MVP that season had 34+ HR's and 120+ RBI's, yet Lew Ford got a vote. Amazing.

You're absolutely right, of course. But the fact that we have a garbage backup catcher who touches 92-94 mph on his fastball, and basically all of our starters (and most of our relievers) can't do that it pretty freakin frustrating.

Pains me to say we should DFA him, but that seems to be the move. The only reason they're not doing it is that the depth is already hurting pretty badly at SP. That 3 million dollars should have been used on two or three washed up relievers (hoping for a Jared Burton-type find) or combined with Carroll's money for a better 2B or 3B option. All the Twins did for years was draft "safe" guys that had upside as a 5th starter, and then they go and sign a 5th starter anyway. Never made sense to me.

@Riverbrian - I think that Revere, not Morneau, was the primary reason the lineup shuffled the way it did. We're so in the middle of this terrible pitching season in 2012, that you have to keep in mind how anemic the hitting was in 2011. Gardy (to his credit, I think) tried to change it up and put a more powerful lineup on the field. He did that even though they are invested in Revere and I think they like him as a kid. Playing a "National League" style of offense comes naturally to Gardy, and I think he did the right thing going against his comfort zone to give the team a chance to be better. The fact that it didn't work had much more to do with the weakness of the talent pool than anything Gardy did. We know what Revere is, and playing him would not have solved the problem. The problem was that we basically "whiffed" on Parmelee, Plouffe, Carroll, Burroughs, Valencia, and Casilla - all of whom had sub-standard starts. @Top Gun - I think the mere fact that the Twins decided not to DL Doumit...means that he will probably be hurt for much longer than anticipated. Doumit has never been able to remain healthy, and the description of a "pop" in his calf did not sound good. Plus, we're headed to an NL park, which means the only options for him are C or RF. Catcher's about the worst thing you could do with a sore calf (right?) and it's tough to imagine his range being even worse in RF. I would sit him out for the Brewers series and make sure he's right.

I chuckled when I got to "we just bring them back...and watch Gardy's face turn red". Oh, and I agree with your entire take.

Okay, so it's kind of like the "dating somebody hoping they will change argument". I get it, it's unrealistic. But you're talking about his personality. My counter to that is that Mauer DID change after he got the contract. The Twins (and their fans) saw an evolved Mauer in 2009, at an age (26) where it was still realistic to expect that evolution to take place. You don't "accidentally" hit 28 balls over the outfield fence...Mauer was driving the ball, and that was a new development. He's had double digit home runs only one other time in his career. Oh, and by the way, it's not like he was doing cartwheels to lead the team onto the field or breaking bats over his knee that year either. He was his same boring self, and nobody cared because we had a damn good baseball player. His swing now has more in common with Ichiro's than it does with Morneau's or Willingham's. Perhaps he's scared of failure. Maybe he thinks he really is more valuable to the team keeping his OBP as high as possible (though it was never higher than it was in '09). Maybe it's chronic nagging injuries. Maybe he has something even more insidious, like a blood disorder or chronic fatigue. These are all darts thrown at the wall, but at least the people trying to find an explanation are also the ones holding onto the hope that it can be fixed. But if it's a straight question of expected value versus actual value, the reason really doesn't matter.

2010 Twins second baseman Orlando Hudson was released by the Padres, and I love this excerpt from RotoWorld: Padres released 2B Orlando Hudson. ESPN's Keith Law first reported that Hudson was designated for assignment, but the Padres have actually requested release waivers, which is a mere formality before he can sign with any team. The 34-year-old was a massive disappointment during his time in San Diego, batting just .238/.313/.344 with a .657 OPS over 585 plate appearances. However, we're sure somebody will take a chance on him at the major league minimum. Alexi Amarista has been called up from Triple-A and should get most of the playing time at second base moving forward. Massive disappointment?!? A .657 OPS?! That would be the 6th best OPS on the Twins, at least among guys that have been regular "starters"!!! Better than Casilla, Carroll, Plouffe, Parmelee, and Valencia!

I think 4 games is fair. (He's apparently dropping his appeal, btw). First, not that it's necessarily relevant, but both of those pitch calls were garbage. Guys get upset all the umpires and approach them aggressively all the time. If you bump one with your body, it's definitely a suspension. Lawrie was not trying to throw the helmet at the ump, a la Delmon Young and the bat. He also was not trying to "skip" the helmet into the ump. I understand that contact with the umpires is completely forbidden, but the contact, as outrageous as it was, was accidental. The bottom line is that if you suspend a guy for PED's for 50 games, and only suspend starters for "5 games" (which ends up being one or zero games) when they admit they were trying to throw 90mph fastballs at opposing hitters, then you can't suspend Lawrie for 20 or 30 games for something like this. If he throws that helmet directly at the ump, then we're talking 50 games, no doubt (which is what I think Delmon got). But that wasn't the case.

I refuse to get excited over Butera hitting "well" for a week or two because he's never a track record of even passable hitting at ANY level - minors or majors. On the defensive side of things, yes, I think he's good at his job. I think he's notably better than Mauer, in fact, which is not to say that Mauer is "bad". But my issue is with people who argue this like it's "either/or". Butera got acquired and fast-tracked because he's Sal Butera's kid...and because Morales didn't work out and we traded Ramos. The people who defend him starting 2 out of 5 games because of his defense talk as if every decent defensive catcher in baseball hits .180, which clearly is not the case. Unfortunately, J.R. Towles' numbers at AAA are almost identical to Nishioka's line, and that's unlikely to improve since he's a .187 hitter over 5 seasons in the majors. Agree with the posters above on the "Nick Punto" argument, except that Butera is so below average even for a catcher, that there's really no hiding him.

You'd think so, but Garrett Jones did that for Pittsburgh after we let him go. (Yes, I'm aware Garrett Jones was terrible for the Twins, I watched those games )

We know how Gardy feels about DH'ing Mauer when Butera catches. Then again, Willingham could be an emergency catcher...it really isn't the end of the world to have to limp through a few innings with a guy out of position. Not like we're playing for the pennant this year.

Wow, just turned this game on with MLB At-Bat. Morneau and Plouffe back-to-back! If Plouffe continues to mash, it really begs the question why the hell we have been screwing around with Doumit, Clete Thomas, Komatsu, and Mastroianni in the outfield.

Anybody here stunned that Doumit is going to miss time from a relatively non-descript cause? Anyone?! This IS what we signed up for. The good news...for now...is that Morneau looked healthy and like he was trying to murder the ball Wednesday. And he just homered back-to-back with Plouffe on Thursday!

I'm mostly with jokin on this debate, though "paralysis" is probably too strong of a word. It's not that Twins are "paralyzed" from doing anything b/c of the contract. There is about $76 million dollars for the remainder of the budget that can be shifted around, and if this team could ever develop young (cheap) talent, they would still have the ability to be players in the FA market if they should so choose. But I'm sorry, for anyone to argue that we couldn't (or wouldn't) use an extra $23 million on other players that could help this team, that's just nuts. Of course we could! Barreiro had a good take on this the other day - it isn't just about the money. This guy is supposed to be the leader and face of the organization and, by extension, a reflection of the greatness of Minnesota and what Minnesota can produce. And a lot of it is in the approach. Myself and others have talked endlessly about taking the first pitch in almost every at-bat, which puts him behind in the count much of the time and, therefore, leads to him swinging more defensively. Barreiro was talking about the thing Mauer does after every foul ball where he asks the umpire if it would have been a strike, since...heaven forbid...he might have swung at a pitch 3 inches out of the zone. He's a very good baseball player. I think he's trying this season to put on a tough face and prove he can be more reliable. But in terms of that "killer instinct" that calls for him to evolve his game, or show aggressiveness when the situation calls for it, no, I don't think he gets it. And the fact that we all wanted him to "get it" so badly was the reason that 2009 has us so badly duped.

Thanks for the updates. Hendriks, moreso than the vast majority of these "adopted prospects" is going to get changes in the bigs this year. As bad as he was on the first go-round, he's 23 years old and we don't have that many arms left. Diamond and Walters have stopped the bleeding, but if he keeps up the good work at AAA, I'm sure he'll be up again soon. Didn't see much of the few starts he had, but I guess the one thing encouraging about him is that he's been an 8.2 K/9 guy over 5 minor league seasons. And actually, you could argue that his minor league resume is more impressive than Scott Baker's was, both in terms of K's and avoiding walks, and Baker turned out to be a pretty effective MLB starter, when healthy.

So, I haven't updated since the first post because Dereck hasn't played any game action in 2012 that I can find. I don't know much about the schedule for rookie ball, but my assumption is that it's a short season. Meanwhile, this 04/23/2012 article references that Dereck has been involved with extended Spring Training in Ft Myers: http://www.news-press.com/article/20120423/SPORTS/120423005/1003/NEWS0101/All-Star-Twins-catcher-Dereck-Rodriguez-set-retire?odyssey=nav%7Chead

Agree. My face lit up a bit when you mentioned the Mariners because they have such a wealth of good pitching. But keep in mind the following: (1) They just did a major "pitching for offense" swap in the Pineda/Montero trade, how many more times will they do that? (2) Based on the configuration of that ballpark, they may be purposefully aiming for a pitching/defense oriented team, rather than a bunch of mashers. They do play Chone Figgins at 3B, after all. (3) Span is 28, and already on the tail end of his "prime". The Mariners aren't ready to contend for anything now, and Franklin Guttierez is a better defensive CF anyway. A team like the Nationals is at least logical because they seem to be closer to contending than the Mariners are.

Agree with your point only to this extent: The Mauer contract demonstrates nothing beyond the Twins' "willingness" to pay $184 million to Joe Mauer. As mike wants wins said above, Willingham's contract is the largest FA contract ever, and anybody who's ever heard Terry Ryan talk on the radio knows that he fundamentally does not believe in free agency as a means of building a club. Heck, until the Morneau, Mauer, and Nathan contracts, it wasn't even clear that he believed in retaining his own players once they got to be THAT valuable. Of course, the passage of the stadium bill in '06 significantly changed the financial outlook for this team. But the idea that "it doesn't matter" if we have an extra $23 million or not with a front office that always watches the bottom line closely is borderline delusional. The "what if we didn't sign Mauer" argument is particularly useful anyway because it was always going to happen, and Mauer isn't going anywhere now. I also disagree with the TP, who seems to argue that the fact we're paying Mauer $23 million makes it MORE likely that we'll pay other players that amount. In a different organization - even with certain "mid-market" teams like the White Sox, Tigers, and Angels - I might have seen your point, since those teams have a history of drastically expanding their budgets to go on spending sprees if they believe it will improve the team. The Twins are not that team. In fact, I see it completely the opposite - The Mauer signing (and other signings) proved that this front office was willing to spend $100 to $120 million in overall payroll...and we know from recent history that a payroll of that size is plenty large enough be a perennial contender and even win the World Series (see San Francisco Giants, et al). The problem is that the $100 million is configured poorly, and Mauer is the biggest reason for that, though by no means the ONLY reason.

Right, but that's the "non-baseball" argument for why Mauer is valuable. Mauer has intrinsic value to the Twins as a "business" because he has single-handedly changed the way this team is perceived. This team routinely drew 20,000 to 25,000 fans a game during season where they were, frankly, pretty mediocre, and before 2010, they did it in one of the crappiest baseball facilities in MLB. A HUGE part of this was the local celebrity appeal of a good-looking, likable hometown product with star potential. Mauer was the archetype for a team identity that was scrappy, mostly white, and non-threatening. If this team put up the exact numbers and wins each season, but with no Mauer, a Cuban shortstop, and a bunch of guys who smile less often (but do their jobs), you lose about 5,000 to 10,000 casual fans wearing pink J-shirts and fake sideburns every night. I'm not exaggerating. That's the business part of it, and as something more than a casual fan, I accept it (whether I like it or not). Which is why I also "accepted" the Mauer deal in 2010, even though the baseball part of me knew it couldn't be a good idea.

We're sort of arguing two different things, so I'm not saying you're wrong. But I absolutely did not say that Mauer's positional scarcity couldn't have value to other teams in the right situation. Of course it could. But it doesn't for the Twins, and that's the entire point. It's safe assume that the Twins can afford only one contract in the $20-25 million range, another one or two contracts in the $10-15 million range (Morneau is one of them, we had Nathan last year but axed him...and Cuddy/Kubel to get down to the $100 million level). You're going to tell me that if you had one player to spend that much money on, you'd rather spend that same amount of money on Mauer instead of Fielder, Cabrera, Pujols, Texiera, Braun, etc. etc....simply because Mauer happens to play catcher (sometimes)? That makes no sense. If you can only have one guy at that price, it had better be an impact bat in the middle of the lineup. Otherwise, you need your $10 million guy (or some $5 million guy or prospect) to suddenly become the 30 HR/100 RBI guy, and that's hard to do. The real kicker, of course, is that Mauer was a better producer when we paid him less money. This was predictable, of course, but it doesn't change the reality that keeping Mauer meant that we had to increase the overall budget by about 15 million dollars, without any type of "upgrade" to the team. [TABLE=class: stats_table, width: 1] 2004 21 Minnesota Twins[TD=align: right]$300,000[/TD] [TD=class: small_text]4/7/04 AP[/TD] [TD=class: small_text][/TD] 2005 22 Minnesota Twins[TD=align: right]$325,000[/TD] [TD=class: small_text][/TD] [TD=class: small_text][/TD] [TR=class: hl, bgcolor: #FFFFAA !important] 2006 23 Minnesota Twins[TD=align: right]$400,000[/TD] [TD=class: small_text][/TD] [TD=class: small_text][/TD] [/TR] 2007 24 Minnesota Twins[TD=align: right]$3,750,000[/TD] [TD=class: small_text][/TD] [TD=class: small_text][/TD] 2008 25 Minnesota Twins[TD=align: right]$6,250,000[/TD] [TD=class: small_text][/TD] [TD=class: small_text][/TD] 2009 26 Minnesota Twins[TD=align: right]$10,500,000[/TD] [TD=class: small_text][/TD] [TD=class: small_text][/TD] 2010 27 Minnesota Twins[TD=align: right]$12,500,000[/TD] [TD=class: small_text][/TD] [TD=class: small_text][/TD] 2011 28 Minnesota Twins[TD=align: right]$23,000,000[/TD] [TD=class: small_text][/TD] [TD=class: small_text][/TD] [TR=class: partial_table blank_table, bgcolor: #DADCDE] [/TD] [/TR] 2012 29 Minnesota Twins[TD=align: right]$23,000,000 [TD=class: small_text][/TD] [TD=class: small_text][/TD] 2013 30 Minnesota Twins[TD=align: right]$23,000,000[/TD] [TD=class: small_text][/TD] [TD=class: small_text][/TD] 2014 31 Minnesota Twins[TD=align: right]$23,000,000[/TD] [TD=class: small_text][/TD] [TD=class: small_text][/TD] 2015 32 Minnesota Twins[TD=align: right]$23,000,000[/TD] [TD=class: small_text][/TD] [TD=class: small_text][/TD] 2016 33 Minnesota Twins[TD=align: right]$23,000,000[/TD] [TD=class: small_text][/TD] [TD=class: small_text][/TD] 2017 34 Minnesota Twins[TD=align: right]$23,000,000[/TD] [TD=class: small_text][/TD] [TD=class: small_text][/TD] 2018 35 Minnesota Twins[TD=align: right]$23,000,000 [/TD] [/TABLE]

You could make a list. I'm not saying it wouldn't be totally anecdotal, but there are examples. J.J. Hardy is the most recent one. Delmon looked that way for a few months, but now he's just Delmon again. Garrett Jones has huge holes in his swing, but if the Twins thought he was even a 20 HR hitter with frequent K's, they'd probably have kept him. And Bartlett had a breakout season after leaving, but that appears to be an anomaly. So, you're right that there isn't a ton of evidence to back up that assumption. That being said, keep two things in mind: (1) Players at the major league level have already developed into much of what they're going to be - in other words, there may have been guys that could have emerged as power prospects in other organizations that were simply mishandled by the Twins. (And therefore, we'll never know) (2) The Twins, as an organization, largely avoided drafting or acquiring the types of high risk/high reward hitters we're talking about, so that suppresses the number of guys who would play for us and then move on to hit somewhere else.

Just read the article...even used one of my precious 15 "views" on it. Oooooh! I don't understand Souhan's point. He says "this can't go on", and we need to "stop the bleeding". But what is the ultimate goal? To be better THIS year? Or to improve the outlook of the organization in years to come? Make sure you're sitting down as I say this...but I...don't think we're going to the playoffs this year. Trade Span for pitching? Sure. You can try it. But let's be real, the MLB return for Span would be less like Gio Gonzalez and more like a Jason Marquis (who, incidentally, was a Nationals pitcher last season). The Nationals are 22-14 and have a very promising future. Their rotation has been amazing this year. Forget Strasburg and Zimmerman, I'm not even sure they would move Ross Detweiler or Edwin Jackson right now, and they just acquired Gio Gonzalez. That's a pretty formidable 5-man staff, all of which are 28 or under. Also, keep in mind that Span is only 30-odd games into a season we weren't even sure he was ready for, and the concussion issue hasn't just "gone away" for other teams. I like the "reverse Garza" analogy, except that whether you like to hear it or not, a 28-year-old, oft-injured Denard Span is nowhere near as valuable as 22-year-old Delmon Young was (character concerns notwithstanding). Finally, if Souhan's goal is to avoid 100 losses THIS season, then I don't understand how dumping Marquis for nothing and using Hendriks, Swarzak, and Duensing in that place accomplishes that goal. Odds are that two of those guys, if not all three, are going to be getting a significant number of starts ANYWAY this year. Baker's hurt, Liriano's in mop-up work, and Pavano may be hurt worse than he thinks. Somebody has to start for this team, and we're running out of bodies.

Maybe if we start breeding Kestrel Falcons in the outfield: (a) Opposing hitters/fielders will be intimidated; ( Swarms of birds in the outfield might knock some of these opposing moonshots out of the sky Also, this would totally be a home field advantage because unless the birds fly less than 2 feet off the ground in the infield, they'll never be struck with one of our hits.

Preach, brotha. Super glad we got a rid of those dozen or so beautiful evergreens in center field so that opposing batters can lock in on 85 mph meatballs from Pavano, Marquis, and Blackburn now.

@fittdogg - Good link, I did not see that article, possibly because it was 01/15/2012 (offseason), or possibly because I refuse to pay the Strib 99 cents or whatever it is to read more than 15 articles on coverage that's done better by Gleeman, sites like this, and various other outfits. But Reusse is one of my favorites of the local "mainstream" guys. Souhan, however, seems to just enjoy being negative and I do not like most of his stuff...so it isn't just pure unfounded criticism that I'm looking for. @John Bonnes - Thanks for your opinions on the topic. They are well-reasoned. The reason I'm trying not to swing too far in this job is that if I had Anthony LaPanta or Robby I's job, (a) I would think I had the best job ever; and ( If sugar-coating the material a little bit was necessary to keep my job over the dozens of boobs they could throw on TV in my place, I have no doubt I would do the same thing, at least to some degree. Your comments also went deeper into the overall "quality" of the FSN broadcast. I'm mixed on this one as well. I think it's pretty clear that the broadcast is designed to appeal broadly to kids and many casual fans. I don't think Ron Coomer is really out to teach my 30-something ass how to cover 1st base on a bunt in the post-game But in a 162-game season where we could be realistically "out of it" by June, it would be nice to see them try some different things to educate people about the game and look to the future of the club. To be fair, FSN (as a network) does that already with the sped-up Rochester Red Wings games. Today's game against the Indians wasn't even televised, so there are obvious limits to how much minor league content we can expect to see on the air.