Kirby_waved_at_me

As usual, the SPAM is gone quickly and we can all go back to questioning the Pelfrey extension and the CF situation! To echo the John Bonnes thread - Cheers to the Admins and Mods that make Twins Daily great!

I took it into account - Bonds and Clemens were too good. I haven't forgotten that Manny Alexander and Dan Naulty and Juan Rincon took steroids PEDs too.

Too many deserving candidates this year! Hope none of the following are dropped from the ballot, they'd be my top 10 of the names on the list. Bonds, Clemens, Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, Mike Piazza, Curt Schilling, Tim Raines, Craig Biggio, Jeff Bagwell, and Mike Mussina. If not limited to ten, I'd add Trammell, Edgar Martinez, Larry Walker, John Smoltz, Gary Sheffield. If I'm being generous, McGriff, Sosa, and Jeff Kent can come along too. There are 22 guys on the list that are "likely" HOFers based on the Bill James HOF monitor. Ridiculous!

Much rather that that the Twins trade for Cameron Maybin or Seth Smith over Carlos Quentin.

While we stare out the window all winter and wait for Spring Training, here's a poem from Ogden Nash highlighting some of baseball's greatest players from the early part of the 20th Century: http://www.baseball-almanac.com/poetry/po_line.shtml Published: Sport Magazine (01-1949) A is for Alex The great Alexander; More Goose eggs he pitched Than a popular gander. B is for Bresnahan Back of the plate; The Cubs were his love, and McGraw his hate. C is for Cobb, Who grew spikes and not corn, And made all the basemen Wish they weren't born. D is for Dean, The grammatical Diz, When they asked, Who's the tops? Said correctly, I is. E is for Evers, His jaw in advance; Never afraid To Tinker with Chance. F is for Fordham And Frankie and Frisch; I wish he were back With the Giants, I wish. G is for Gehrig, The Pride of the Stadium; His record pure gold, His courage, pure radium. H is for Hornsby; When pitching to Rog, The pitcher would pitch, Then the pitcher would dodge. I is for Me, Not a hard-hitting man, But an outstanding all-time Incurable fan. J is for Johnson The Big Train in his prime Was so fast he could throw Three strikes at a time. K is for Keeler, As fresh as green paint, The fastest and mostest To hit where they ain't. L is for Lajoie Whom Clevelanders love, Napoleon himself, With glue in his glove. M is for Matty, Who carried a charm In the form of an extra brain in his arm. N is for Newsom, Bobo's favorite kin. You ask how he's here, He talked himself in. O is for Ott Of the restless right foot. When he leaned on the pellet, The pellet stayed put. P is for Plank, The arm of the A's; When he tangled with Matty Games lasted for days. Q is for Don Quixote Cornelius Mack; Neither Yankees nor years Can halt his attack. R is for Ruth. To tell you the truth, There's just no more to be said, Just R is for Ruth. S is for Speaker, Swift center-field tender, When the ball saw him coming, It yelled, "I surrender." T is for Terry The Giant from Memphis Whose .400 average You can't overemphis. U would be 'Ubell if Carl were a cockney; We say Hubbell and Baseball Like Football and Rockne. V is for Vance The Dodger's very own Dazzy; None of his rivals Could throw as fast as he. W is for Wagner, The bowlegged beauty; Short was closed to all traffic With Honus on duty. X is the first of two x's in Foxx Who was right behind Ruth with his powerful soxx. Y is for Young The magnificent Cy; People battled against him, But I never knew why. Z is for Zenith The summit of fame. These men are up there. These men are the game. Line-Up For Yesterday by Ogden Nash ©

Makes a person wonder if Dozier and/or Plouffe will get an offer this offseason as well. Both were discussed in depth on other threads already, but it seems like the Twins are generally in favor of extensions over finding a free agent replacement.

I agree that he has the best stuff, but is he the 4th or 5th best starting pitcher on the roster? That is up for legitimate debate. He hasn't had the chance yet to prove how good he can be at the major league level yet. Hopefully he gets his shot sooner than later. He should leapfrog Pelfrey and Milone by virtue of injury, performance, or trade. He has better stuff than Trevor May, too, but I think that will be a tougher hurdle for Meyer. When the Twins traded for Meyer, they didn't have Phil Hughes, Ricky Nolasco, or Ervin Santana yet - I think the equation has changed a bit for Meyer, but I think he's no less valuable or promising in the eyes of the Twins.

Just saw a rash of SPAM posts on the Twins Talk forum, and a few popped up on the MLB forum as well. the Mods/Admins have always been great at managing the SPAM, just wanted to bring this recent crop to everyone's attention in case it was a symptom of a larger issue.

His K/9 was pretty good in Japan (2012-2013) and Mexico (2014) and Venezuela this winter. Can't hurt to give him a chance. If he's no good, it won't take long to figure that out.

Opening Day Lineup Vs. LHP: SS Daniel Santana 1B Joe Mauer 2B Brian Dozier DH Kennys Vargas 3B Trevor Plouffe RF Torii Hunter C Josmil Pinto LF Oswaldo Arcia CF Aaron Hicks P: Phil Hughes Vs. RHP: SS Daniel Santana 2B Brian Dozier 1B Joe Mauer DH Kennys Vargas LF Oswaldo Arcia 3B Trevor Plouffe C Josmil Pinto RF Torii Hunter CF Jordan Schafer P: Phil Hughes Super Special Home Opener: SS Santana 2B Dozier 1B Mauer DH Vargas CF* Hunter LF Arcia 3B Plouffe C Pinto RF Hicks(LHP)/Schafer(RHP) P: Phil Hughes * Hunter moves to RF after the first pitch of the game.

The exciting thing to me about this rotation is fans are at the point now where they can talk about the Twins' fifth starter and have a legitimate argument that the pitchers (plural!) that don't make the rotation could be starting for another team. It's something I'm trying to be carfeul about - I don't want to set my expectations too high. But to me, this is the best transaction of the offseason for the Twins so far.

The Torii and Ervin Santana signings were indications to me that the Twins were going to favor "experience" over potential again in 2015. Meyer will, barring injury, start games for the Twins this year, but I think it is very unlikely to happen in April. If Nolasco gets demoted, one of Milone/Pelfrey is traded, and one of Milone/Pelfrey/May gets injured in the Spring, then Meyer is a starter out of Spring training. As it stands now, the Twins have 4 starters May/Meyer/Milone/Pelfrey to compete for the #5 spot. I suppose it's possible that Nolasco could be added to the list and then there's a 5 player competition for 2 spots.

McGehee is a placeholder for 2015. The Giants will probably not keep him in 2016 unless he has a ridiculous season. I think the Giants were just hoping to stay above replacement level there for 2015 and figure out the long term solution later.

SWEET. That's really a reasonable contract, too.

Minor league deal for former Major league lefty hurler Wil Ledezma. Last pitched in the majors in 2011, hasn't been in a MLB organization at any level since the Dodgers minors in 2012. had "good numbers" in the Venezuelan winter league this season, has been pitching in Mexico. http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=ledezm001wil

oops - I spoke too soon on the 'David Ross to San Diego' Rumors - thanks for picking up the slack on that one JB! Biggest names that are still looking for a deal: Max Scherzer, James Shields, Colby Rasmus. Kenta Maeda was not posted by his Japanese team, so the 27 year old will stay in Japan for another season. Korean SS Jung-ho Kang was posted by his team and there is a winning bidder. If the Korean team accepts the bid, Kang will have a 30 day window to sign a contract with the winning bidder.

glad he's staying in the Org.!

Eric Fryer's ears are burning . . .

offer a catcher, San Diego Loooooves catchers!

Padres added Catcher David Ross (Presumably as trade bait)

Lock up your catchers! The Padres are coming to trade them!

I agree - the plouffe for Myers was a little tongue-in-cheek. I'll say one thing for the Padres' moves so far - they needed to improve their offense, and boy did they!

I think Derek Norris and Yonder Alonso are going to be playing 1B for the Padres. Flipping Myers is interesting - how about Myers for Plouffe?

Could probably make a case for any of the three to play in Center. Kemp has the most experience there, Myers is the youngest, Upton might be the most athletic/healthiest one. I'm guessing they roll with Kemp and if he can't do it, they try Myers.

I think that the Torii Hunter signing was the biggest deal they were going to give to a position player. If they "missed out on" Torii, I think Rasmus would have been more interesting to the Twins. Wouldn't have been my preference to choose Hunter over Rasmus for the Twins, but I don't get to pick...