StormJH1

I think they are trying, but the farm system was poor, and you really can't do that in free agency quickly unless you WAY overspend on a Fielder-type player, in which case they probably are beyond what their budget allows. It's tough to fans to grasp, but their current struggles were caused by what they did in their drafts and developmental system from 2004-09, which happened to be years when the MLB product was quite good. Plenty of teams have tried to buy their way out of terribleness aggressively, and they usually fail the way the Royals and Mets have.

Two things really summed up the enlightened fanbase coming full circle on Mauer and appreciating him as an all-time great talent, whose abilities are being wasted on this team. First, just watching Mauer in the 9th with 2 outs (I think). Team is down by multiple runs, there's no one on base. Mauer takes several pitches and then just laces one down the left field line for a single. Like Dick said, he swings one time and that's what happens. He can't hit a 3-run homer with nobody on-base, but did exactly what they needed, and of course the rally goes nowhere. Second was Perkins' tweet after the game. There was a hashtag meme about voicing unpopular opinions (could be about anything). Unsolicited, Perkins tweeted: Glen Perkins ‏@glen_perkins 12h Joe Mauer doesn't need to hit home runs to be a great hitter. #ConfessYourUnpopularOpinions That contract was not looking great when Mauer had...whatever he had in 2011. Yet, agree or disagree with the wisdom of the deal, he really has become everything you realistically could have hoped for. It's sad watching him waste away on a terrible team, but less so because I don't think Mauer's the type of "Alpha Dog" competitor who is tearing himself up apart inside because he's not in the Playoffs every year. As the star of a basketball team, that lack of "killer instinct" and ego might be a problem. But as one of 9 guys in a lineup, he just shows up for work and does his job extremely well, probably enjoys playing in his hometown, and that may be enough for him.

Yes. And Willihammer's point about "respect" is a big one too. There are literally dozens of factors that go into this, and they include very subjective and situational things, like how long the game has been going, the mood of the umpire, home vs. away, respect for the pitcher, respect for the hitter. I'm sure anyone could add several others. I have zero doubt that pitch framing is a "thing". Obviously, there are visual tricks and cues as to how the ball is caught and then shown to an umpire that could make a difference in a tough ball/strike call. I also think if you're a catcher who is a total jerk and you're framing over and over again in an obvious fashion, that would piss the umpire off. And I've basically never seen anything from Mauer to suggest that he's anything but respectful to everyone in the game. It's an interesting thing to study, but much like any number of indirect baseball metrics, I'm just a not a big believer of its reliability and usefulness in creating general propositions, such as "Joe Mauer is good/bad at framing pitches".

It's an interesting angle. Tough to say it's too far fetched when you look at the way the Tigers handled picking up Iglesias to respond to Peralta's suspension. Then again, that's a very aggressive front office with money to spend, and a history of reacting quickly to lost players (see: Fielder FA signing/V-Mart Injury).

Agree with the posters thus far. I had kind of forgotten about the innings limit, but he's at nearly 130 innings between AAA/MLB now, so the end may be near. I'm not passing any judgment on Gibson's staying power in the majors based on his early returns. There's also the post-Tommy John effect that may be holding him back some. But what worries me the most about him as anything more than a middle-rotation guy is that he just doesn't miss bats all that much. It'd be easy for a Twins fan to miss this fact (Santana and '06 Liriano excepted), but strikeout pitchers who come up and struggle are still usually able to strikeout a good number of guys, even if their overall numbers are hampered by control problems or leaving mistakes over the plate and getting hit. This is a guy that even in Single-A and Double-A as a 22 year old (and pre-TJ surgery), was never really an elite strikeout pitcher. He profiles as more of a Baker/Slowey type, though I'd be thrilled if he ever strikes guys out at the rate Baker did in the majors (mid-to-high 7's in K/9 rate). Fans dump on Baker constantly for being hurt and for his rough stretches, but if you factor in all of Liriano's injuries and inconsistencies, Baker was pretty clearly the best starter for this team going back to 2006.

Yeah, Hicks showed some flashes of what he could be, but he just isn't ready. Hopefully he wasn't too badly damaged coming to bat virtaully an entire season with a sub .200 batting average on the scoreboard. Suppose he could be back in September, but ideally, I wish he could stay down there until he's had extended success in AAA.

I agree with some of the earlier comments on Pelfrey - you think a 2-month rental for Liriano or Morneau would have crappy returns? A Pelfrey rental would be even more brutal. His last 4 starts have been pretty good. If he's turned a corner in his TJ recovery, and this is they type of pitcher he is, he might even be a guy you bring back next year as a mid-rotation guy. If not, that's fine too. I guess the point is that Morneau should be traded, but if the offers all suck, it's really not the end of the world that he plays another 2 months here.

I just operate under the assumption nobody actually believes anything on TwinsDaily they post about - awkward hypotheticals are fun!

I just want to make sure I come out aggressively with this comment so I can be proven badly wrong minutes or hours later: I still don't believe that Morneau will be traded. Gleeman and Bonnes seemed almost sure he would be gone because they're applying baseball logic to the front office. I think the Twins are very cautious about shooting themselves in the foot with their fans regarding players they actually care about. Trading Morneau isn't like dumping Luis Castillo or even Liriano at the deadline. This guy was an MVP and a face of the franchise. There are a ton of people who still believe he's a middle of the order hitter. They're wrong, but that doesn't mean their opinions don't "matter". If the return for a Morneau rental is Eduardo Escobar and a replacement level reliever, yes, that makes "baseball sense" by incrementally adding assets, but let's be real, they aren't getting anything of value. And if they have to pick up a portion of the salary to move him, I'm even less convinced that this front office will pay for a player they no longer employ, WHILE pissing off the fans for trading him in the first place.

I never get tired of this one. I even named one of my fantasy baseball teams the "Cursed Batter's Eye Pines". I kid you not, every single time I see a game in Colorado, Anaheim, Detroit, or the probably dozen of ballparks that have some type of "distracting" green wavy branches in CF, my first thought is "we need an ugly black wall there WHY?" Getting back on topic, I think the perception on it is coming around to the point where it will be considered a "neutral" park. There is evidence that it is very good for RH power hitters and bad for LH power hitters (unless you're a Thome-type hitter that hits no-doubters). It doesn't have a particularly large amount of foul territory at all, which is another reason I don't consider it a pitcher's park.

Yeah....except that Part 1 of your statement doesn't really line up with Part 2. I agree that it's good of Terry Ryan to explore every possible avenue outside of the traditional routes of drafting, trading, and signing free agents to improve the Twins, but let's all keep in mind that the guys he found are still basically replacement-level guys to comprise a really terrible baseball team (for 3 years in a row now). The "top rated farm system" has nothing to do with taking a chance on injured players with minor league contracts, the waiver wire, or the Rule 5 draft. It is due, almost entirely, to: (1) The Twins being terrible enough to get elite level draft prospects; (2) The Twins allowing useful free agents to depart on purpose to receive compensatory picks; (3) The Twins being willing to part with MLB players of some value (Span and Revere) in exchange for prospects.

I refuse to rip Mauer on this point, and I'm not even reading up on all of the gossip/opinions on it. Nothing is more important than your family, and this is a time that happens a few times in a lifetime. He can have a few days, a weeks, whatever, with his family away from this non-playoff team.

I've never been of the mind that the manager needs to be able to speak Spanish, but the grumblings you hear from fans and Reusse-types about the Twins not being very Latin-friendly or accepting of players of other backgrounds likely pales in comparisons to what actual Latin players think and say about the team with other Latin teams. I don't think the Twins organization is purposefully discriminatory or insensitive, I just feel like there's enough anecdotal evidence regarding the way black and Hispanic players are "discarded" (Ortiz, Castillo, Casilla, Hudson, Liriano, etc.) when you get the sense that a Caucasian player of the same demeanor and resume might have been treated differently. (Not including Delmon in there because he just isn't a good dude). Again, I think a lot of it is not purposeful discrimination, but comes from a like-mindedness and insularity of background from the whole organization. Managerial staffs have like, what, 10 people on them, and not a single black or Latin coach? And it's been that way for how long? This isn't about "affirmative action" or any broader moral/social topics. Baseball isn't like society - a law firm wouldn't hire a poor 16-year old from the Dominican Republic who doesn't speak any English to argue in Court. A 95 mph fastball works the same regardless if the arm that threw it is attached a dude that speaks English, Spanish, or Japanese. But there's also a human being with feelings attached to that arm. I worry a little bit about how this organization handles a Latin mega-star like Sano because I remember a lot of the issues they had with Liriano during his TJ rehab, and in general. At the same time, it's likely that we know 15% of what Sano said or did, and I have to think they wouldn't take a disciplinary action like this unless they really had to, so who knows.

There's probably no question that Perkins would get the most back now of the "candidates". If the Orioles would give up their #5 prospect for a 2-month rental of K-Rod, you would THINK Perkins would have more value than that because of his contract, age, and recent success. But I don't think they move him. I really don't think they move Morneau either. The guys who get moved at the deadline are never the "one of us" guys or players beloved by the fans. It's guys like Castillo or Liriano. Even Torii Hunter, who was beloved by most fans, but a problematic teammate/personality at times, wasn't moved. I just don't think they want to explain to the casual baseball family from Blaine why they traded Justin Morneau instead of trying to resign him, and all they got in return was the equivalent of Eduardo Escobar.

I'm almost baffled that the Twins could get a C-level prospect for Duensing, but let's make that trade yesterday if it's there. Duensing is 30 years old, was awful as a starter, and isn't much better as a reliever. I've already advocated shifting Diamond to the bullpen with the hopes he turns into a Perkins, but it's 20 times more likely he pitches like Duensing out of the pen.

I'm almost baffled that the Twins could get a C-level prospect for Duensing, but let's make that trade yesterday if it's there. Duensing is 30 years old, was awful as a starter, and isn't much better as a reliever. I've already advocated shifting Diamond to the bullpen with the hopes he turns into a Perkins, but it's 20 times more likely he pitches like Duensing out of the pen.

They need move Scott Diamond to the bullpen, like, yesterday. You don't need any better example of how this could work than Glen Perkins. Perkins basically WAS Scott Diamond as a starter. His K/9 rates were 4.4 and 4.2 in the years he started. Yes, he got more velocity later, but there's no way he can pump 95 mph for 5 innings or longer, so there might be a chicken-and-the-egg thing going on with his success as a reliever. Diamond's stuff almost certainly isn't as dynamic as Perkins, but his problem seems to be the 2nd or 3rd time through a lineup. Reinventing him as a lefty specialist or one-inning reliever might be the best thing for the Twins, and for Diamond's career. He has no prolonged track record of success as a starter, and he doesn't miss enough bats to be effective long-term.

I'll open this post (so it doesn't get locked for being off-topic) by saying I'm not adverse to the Twins keeping Perkins because he's a quality guy under a very reasonable contract. As for Myers/Shields, the fact that the Royals haven't been able to develop or keep front-line starters for years should not factor into whether that was a good trade. It was a horrible trade. Anybody checked Detroit's rotation (and lineup) recently? I have no idea what possessed Kansas City to think that Shields was that one piece that would make them compete for the division. KC is 6 games under .500 and that's WITH Shields pitching his butt off. When the guy you acquire does everything you expect him too and you're still 8 games out of 1st place....whoops. People try to justify Myers/Shields by saying that the Royals have had tons of blue chip hitting prospects and none of them panned out. Isn't that an argument for keeping MORE of your blue chip hitting prospects, since you might not be able to count on 30 HR and 100 RBI from Moustakas, Hosmer, and Gordon every year? Prospects fail - it happens more than it doesn't. The fact that Myers could fail doesn't justify the trade, since the relatively small chance that he becomes a gigantic star is infinitely more valuable than 50-70 starts from Shields on a losing team.

Niiiice. Apart from a surprising return on a Morneau or Perkins trade (which either won't happen or is bound to underwhelm), about the only thing positive to look forward is some unexpected 10-15 HR outburst. Colabello is post-post-never-hyped-in-the-first-place, but he seems like the only guy around that could do that.

This thread easily exceeded my very modest expectations. Haha. Trying to get a free bobblehead featuring Joe Mauer in this state is like trying to get Hannah Montana tickets circa 4 or 5 years ago. Good luck. Wife (then girlfriend) was out of town one weekend, so I showed up like 2.5 hours before a game at the Dome, the Mauer bobbleheads were LONG gone by the time I got there. So I got to take in the "ambiance" of the Metrodome for a few hours while watching everybody except me catch a batting practice HR in my section. Good times!

The first 10,000 fans to Target Field on Friday get this beauty. Parker tweeted out that it looked like one of them was scoring from 1st base, but several people disagreed with him and he called it back. But it leads to the question, what is going on here? Are there any hidden messages (a fateful goodbye pending a Morneau trade)? Morneau has his batting gloves on and is standing on homeplate. Presumably, then, Morneau has just hit a two-run (or more) homer, which would have scored Mauer, and Mauer is now congratulating him. But in that scenario, Mauer should have scored first, and is now standing creepily inside the diamond, forcing Morneau to do a 180-degree turn for the high five. Also, Morneau needs eye blacks for the sun glare, but Baby Jesus doesn't? I find this hard to believe since Mauer (with an assist from Morneau and Cuddy) more or less single-handedly ordered the CF pines dug up because of batter's eye interference. Plus, as Josh Hamilton taught us, blue-eyed people are basically blind in the sunlight. Finally, their heads and feet are comically large, but such is the charm of a bobblehead. I might actually have gone to that game but for other plans with the wife. There's probably something better I could be doing right now, but such is the "Sports Abyss".

That's a fair point. We've seen Gardy be careful with Mauer in the past (2007) when the season was already lost. But the thing with that is that you have an elite all-around catcher in the prime of his career and to me, Mauer was paid to be Joe Mauer and suit up for the Twins, as opposed to being valued for his specific contribution to a World Series team. These past 3 seasons have basically become "lost" by June, so are we supposed to just stop using one of the best catchers of all-time for huge portions of the season because the team sucks? At some point, it needs to be remembered that this is still a product for the fans, and those fans by tickets in large numbers whether the team wins 90 or loses 90. I think we're already getting beyond the point in Mauer's career where he could be featured as a full-time catcher on World Series team. That ain't happening in the next few years unless some dramatic changes occur. By then, I think Mauer will still be a productive hitter, but he'll be a "catcher" in the sense that V-Mart or Mike Napoli is a "catcher" now.

Gardy would find another job given his resume pretty easily. I guess I'm surprised how ambivalent I am about the coaching change issue. Gleeman's list of the only managers to not get fired after 3 straight 90-loss seasons is pretty telling, particularly since half of them managed expansion teams (and one was another Twins coach): Larry Rothschild Rays 1998-2000 Felipe Alou Expos 1998-2000 Tom Kelly Twins 1997-2000 Joe Torre Mets 1978-1980 Darrell Johnson Mariners 1977-1979 Preston Gomez Padres 1969-1971 Casey Stengel Mets 1962-1964 Zack Taylor Browns 1948-1951 But unlike a lot of fans, I don't really have a huge problem with Gardy's "style" as a manager. The issue that the Twins have been mired in, really for quite a long time, is that they have a culture that really dooms them from evolving beyond what they are. It scares me a bit to think that the new wave of (possibly great) Twins prospects will be exposed to this old school mentality of "always play when you're hurt" and "low risk, low reward" approaches to hitting. Sometimes you just need to shake it up. The sad truth is: how much worse could it really get? 110 losses instead of 95?

I'm not either, but I am fairly convinced that he can't sustain whatever the best he's capable for more than a week or two at a time. If you look at what's happening to Willingham right now, that's more likely to be the case for Morneau going forward. 2006 (his MVP year) was 7 years ago. In pretty much every year since then, he either struggled or broke down in the last 1/3 of the year. He's had a number of nagging injuries, any one of which could mess up his swing. And the concussion thing is not going away as an issue. I'll admit that trying the one-year qualifying offer thing seems more tempting that I would have thought, but he likely would accept it, and he's just not going to be in the plans going forward. We could probably spend $2 to $6 million and end up with a first baseman (even a right hander!) that has a pretty good chance of producing as much as Morneau would.

Perkins is almost like Mauer-lite in terms of his "Twins-iness" and fan appeal - I just can't see them shipping out a hometown guy like that unless they absolutely have to. And, as Gleeman and other posters here have noted, they really don't have to. It's not like a Nathan situation where he has this giant contract coupled with post-injury concerns and a lousy team. Plus, I don't feel like the return would be that great anyway. His production has been good, but some teams just don't like lefty closers, period, and Perkins doesn't have a long track record of domination. He'd likely be an elite 8th inning option for a team that already has a great closer, but you don't pay a deadline premium for that.