ThejacKmp

This may be a super stupid question that I could just Google but here goes: I've been reading that this is a very weak draft and next year is a very strong draft. Is there anything set up to prevent the Twins from taking a player and offering him a contract they know he won't sign so that they can keep a high pick in next year's much more lauded draft? I know you delay a year but it seems like a great way to game the system. Plus you could spend that first slot money on players later in the draft, luring some later round guys away from college. Thoughts?

The intentional walks thing is interesting. I would imagine (no source, just musing) that teams with high intentional walks either have a big ginormous star who warrants great care (ala Barry Bonds or Miguel Cabrera) or some glaring weaknesses in their lineup (four of the five teams ahead of the Twins are NL teams which have pitchers bat). When you look at the Twins individual leaders, it seems we're a bit of a mix. Mauer has been walked three times and Dozier once in the "guy-you-don't-want-to-face-right-now" category while Arcia has been walked 4 times (he often is the last true power hitter in the Twins lineup) and Suzuki 2 times (he often hits 8). Another explanation could be that the Twins have a top-ten team batting average offense but a bottom-ten home runs offense. Lots of guys on base tends to lead to situations where putting someone on sets up a double play or gets a better pitching matchup.

I get the point that the author is making but that throw from centerfield is not very impressive. The runner was out by 15 feet and Santana's tailing throw almost took the catcher too far off to make the play - it was way closer than it needed to be.

"Tyler Duffey took a no-decision despite having, arguably, the best game of any Twins pitcher - majors or minors - this season." But he's not pitcher of the day?

Why did Hicks get hitter of the day over Buxon. The both had a single, double and triple but Buxton had a 4th hit. Does't make much sense.

Trade Perk at the deadline! Hard to say but this team needs to find the closer of the future and Perk could get some awesome prosects at the deadline with his relatively team-friendly deal, name cachet and past performance. Alas, we will not do this. Frustrating that the Twins refuse to ever sell high.

Depends how the boys in AAA are pitching. If they can get something for a now-effective Nolasco or Pelfrey and open up a spot for Meyers/May/Berrios I think you have to be proactive and deal from a position of strength, no matter your record. It's like how Warren Buffet still makes investments rather than sitting on his laurels and wealth - you've got to make a trade because it makes sense, not because you're in a given position. A lot of bad trades happen because a team feels they HAVE to make a deal and a lot of opportunities are lost because a team is afraid to sell high (see Willinghammer, Josh). I'm hoping that Pelfrey beats out Milone for the 5th starter spot and its not because I love me some Mike Pelfrey, it's because if Pelfrey can string it together for a few months we can get something back for him. If Milone pitches well, the Twins likely keep him. One of my biggest concerns (and I understand its not a bad concern to have) is that the Twins free agent starting pitching signings, while welcome, have really blocked off development for the top-end pitching prospects. I'm hoping they're going to have to figure out a way around that. Trade Nolasco for pennies on the dollar? Trade Santana? Sell high on Gibson? Sell super high on Hughes? Lots of ways to do it, none of them easy decisions.

Also, it's not like we gave up anything to get him. Sam Fuld is the definition of a replacement player. Milone as starting pitching depth in AAA or a sweetener in a trade sounds fine to me. He has value, just not tons of value. The real key to me is, assuming relative health and effectiveness for the Twins starters, whether TR will be willing to deal starting pitching (Nolasco, Santana even Gibson) at the deadline if Mays, Meyer and Berrios are all pitching well and warrant calling up.

Not to be pessimistic but he should probably quit. Nothing in his stats indicates he has much of a chance at the big leagues, he doesn't seem to have that burning desire to play no matter what and he has other options that seem to interest him. You got to know when to fold 'em.

I vote: Mauer Santana Dozier Arcia Vargas Plouffe Hunter Suzuki Hicks

Dan Gladden does not belong in the Twins HOF. You know which regular player had the lowest OPS on the 1991 Twins? Its not Gagne, it's Gladden. Gladden's HIGHEST OPS+ during his time with the Twins was 103, meaning he was an average MLB left fielder in his best year. In our glorious 1987 World Series year it was 76 - meaning he was 25% worse than an average left fielder. For comparison, last year Aaron Hicks had an OPS+ of 76. Jason Kubel's was 73 and he got cut the first week of June. Three of his five seasons with the Twins, Gladden couldn't break .700 in OPS. You know how many of the Twins regular players can say the same from 2014? Zero. That's right. Every regular on the Twins fairly dismal last place team had a better season than Gladden mustered in those three seasons. And even Gladden at his finest (.741 OPS) is worse than 7 of the 9 Twins regulars. If Gladden gets in it will because he was "hardworking" and because he is an announcer. We need to stop. Retiring Bert's number was foolish enough (and cheapens what great players Killebrew, Oliva and Puckett accomplished) but putting Danny Gladden in the Twins HOF because he managed to catch on as the announcer is absolutely ridiculous. We might as well place Marney Gellner in the Twins HOF while we're at it. She deserves it more.

"I would never judge a player, GM, manager, Quarterback, basketball player by the number of titles his teams have won." ----------------- Its interesting how that is different for different sports. Football and baseball have so many players that it is hard to blame people for not winning championships. Ernie Banks is no less amazing for having loyally served a cursed team. Golf and tennis are clearly sports where championships are a legit way to determine if a player is successful. I'd argue that basketball is a hybrid - because there are fewer guys on the team and a player can exert more of an infuence on the game, it is much more fair to say "Karl Malone never won a championship, which hurts his legacy." Its not perfect (Malone ran into Jordan e.g.) but it's much more palatable than baseball and football where guys have less ability to influence the outcome.

On a similar vein (and maybe this isn't the article for this discussion), can we solve the logjam at 1B/DH by the radical move of putting Joey out in left? He's reasonably athletic with an arm that can make up for any lack of range, his bat profiles better out in left than at first and while there is an increased risk of injury, at some point you need to take that risk and this seems reasonable. I don't think he'd be out there in five years but it would buy you some time and solve several acute weaknesses. In addition to filling the Twins greatest positional hole with a unique talent, this would allow you to make Vargas your DH and Pinto your primary first baseman (though he's never played in the majors and only 14 games in the minors, I'm confident he'd be better than Vargas after spring training) and backup/third string catcher. We'd get to see what Pinto and Vargas can do it defined roles with everyday playing time. Thoughts?

Outside the box solution: Trevor Plouffe will likely be pushed from third base by Sano. Why not be proactive and spend spring training getting him acclimated to left field (he's played 30 major league games and 7 minor league games in the outfield so its not totally new but he can't be just thrown into the fire). This gives you time to evaluate the following: 1) Is Trevor Plouffe a solution (short term or longer) to LF? (If not is Rosario the answer? Does Hicks move over?) 2) Is Santana going to continue to hit and handle SS? (If not, Escobar can move back from 3B and Sano or Plouffe can take back 3B) 3) Is Escobar more of a utility guy or an every day guy? 4) Is Hicks able to hit enough to be a replacement level CF until Buxton gets up? Does he figure some things out and profile as a corner outfielder? I know it seems like the Twins need to go get a stud LF but with Sano and Buxton coming up midseason, it seems like the Twins would be better to get all of these guys some playing time and see whose year last year was a fluke and who profiles long term. Its not crazy to think of a Twins future where Plouffe is holding down an outfield position - seems more likely than him being the 3Bman (knock on wood for Sano_.

trout

I know ESPN is moronic sometimes but I couldn't believe that I was reading an article where they judged a pitcher based on wins. I thought we were four to five years past that. I'm not asking for advanced stats either, just maybe ERA and strikeouts? Its especially frustrating because Johan was robbed in 2005 for the Cy Young by this very wins mentality. He had an ERA a full .6 lower than Colon (2.87 vs. 3.48), pitched 9 more innings and struck out over 80 more batters but finished third because he only won 16 games while Colon won 21. If baseball writers hadn't been so obsessed with wins and voted for the clearly inferior Colon, he would've leapfrogged Mariano Rivera and won it - giving him three in a row from 2004 to 2006. Especially tough because it would've helped his Hall of Fame case to win three in a row. Right now he's borderline and almost certainly out. He was one of the two best pitchers in baseball (alongside Roy Halladay) for five years in the mid 2000s but the issues with longevity will hurt him as will the fact that his best years came in small market MN while his hurt (though still very productive) years came with big market NY. It'll be interesting to see if he attempts to come back. He's only 35 and it seems his arm was still live but achilles tears at age 35 are brutal and he certainly doesn't need the money. He's 2 good years away from being a much more likely Hall of Famer and I'd love to see him find a way to do that. IMO he's much more deserving of the hall than a guy like Bert Blyleven who pitched for 20 plus years but was never anywhere near the pitcher Johan was. When Johan pitched during those Cy Young years, there was nowhere more exciting to be.

Booo! We don't need this kind of jinxing! Boooooooo! Hisssss!

The Twins and Ryan aren't interested in signing 3-5 year deals with pitchers because (IMO) (a) though they have money now, they want to make sure they have the funds to sign guys like Buxton, Sano, Rosario etc. early in their careers ala Longoria; ( they anticipate having the young pitching they've drafted bear fruit in the next 2-3 years so they see this - rightly or wrongly - as a short term solution; and © the Twins don't like signing pitchers to long term contracts because they are concerned about tying up resources in a commodity that bears more risk long-term. I can't say I entirely disagree with this assessment of their fortunes either. It would be nice to lock up the Twins core of talent early and there are pitchers I have high hopes for. That said, I hope they're willing to be flexible with the third year because the kinds of pitchers signing 1 and 2 year deals are the correia types. While I'd love to see the Twins take some shots on short term contracts for the Santanas (can we stick on a mutual vesting option for a second year?), I hope we sign at least one veteran pitcher like a Kyle Loshe (3 years $33 million). He's not the greatest pitcher but he's immediately the Twins best pitcher and when you start getting guys like Gibson and Stewart and Mays up in the majors, he looks very nice as your #3 pitcher.

I think we should wait to see what roles these guys play before getting mad. If Fryer is just a third catcher in case of injuries and Martis is only on the squad to eat innings in case of a 18-2 game or a game that goes into the 17th inning, then all the freaking out about why they're on the squad and how they're stealing experience from a real prospect is a bit outlandish.

This is minor but it seems odd to me that they have Wilkin down in the GCL for a rehab start. He's recovering from a concussion but you put him in a league of young guys with lots of power but little control? Seems like you're five times as likely to take one to the ol' bean in the GCL than in AA or AAA. Makes no sense.

Can we finally be done with the misguided notion that Drew Butera is an excellent defensive catcher? Seth is a really smart guy who repeatedly says this as fact when all of the empirical evidence says Butera is an average defensive catcher whose poor offense makes people assume that his defense must be really good. He never belonged in the majors in anything other than an emergency role. Mauer's defense is leagues above Butera. Leagues.

If Morneau had yanked a single to right on it, no one would be complaining. Baseball is a sport where failing 2/3 of the time makes you a great player. Lighten up sasquatches. :-)

This is pretty strong language from someone who wouldn't get the bat off their shoulder on that pitch. You're acting like before they swing every time, MLB players know exactly where the pitch is going - like every player could post a 0% rate of swinging at balls outside the strike zone. Morneau was clearly looking for a fastball on the inner part of the plate, got one and took a rip. It didn't work out but that's what MLB players do. I could see your point if it was an off speed pitch in the dirt or a face-high fastball but that wasn't that bad a pitch and it was in a place where Morneau likes to pull the ball. I'm not going to question a guy's plate approach. Wish you would feel the same.

Ummm, Google Translate says that El Pupo means "Longfin". Not sure why that isn't included.

I realize that it's a pop culture reference to a song but I find it humorous that on the day Twins Daily emphasizes its comment policy about refraining from insulting other members, the lead paragraph of the daily recap insinuates that all of the site's readers are in fact prostitutes performing illicit acts.