DaveW

My math was off, this would put our payroll right around 90 mil I believe. However, still would have 20-30 mil next off-season assuming they would go back to a 100 mil payroll.

I think it was a 3rd rounder for Allen, that is why the Vikes weren't able to trade him at the deadline (since nobody would give up more than that for him)

Couple things: This is in order to get the Twins to a .500 record in 2014, and to build them into a title contender in 2015, additionally money will be saved for the 2015 FA class as well with this plan (where they have another 16 mil coming off the books with Willingham, Doumit and Correia) I think currently the Twins have about 55 mil owed this year in payroll, this plan assumes they would go up to 88 million in payroll this year, and then have enough money to sign an ACE or more pitchers in 2015 with about 20-25 mil to spend in the market. Here. We. Go 1. Sign Salty to a 3 year/30 mil contract- Here is the thing, I like Pinto, but he is very unproven, esp defensively. Salty is a pretty damn good catcher defensively and has shown some nice power the past few years, he is still in his prime and give you some reassurance now that Mauer is the first baseman. IF Pinto proves to be up to snuff defensively and offensively down the road, you could always trade one of him or Salty who projects to be a 2.9 WAR player next year which is certainly worth 10 mil a year on a reasonable contract. 2. Sign Garza- 5 years 80 mil. Of course there is risk, but Garza is a damn fine pitcher and would immediately become the Twins ace (ideally Meyer passes him eventually) 5 years is a long time, but Garza should hold up and won't be insanely old by the end of the contract. 3. Sign Hughes- 3 years 30 mil. If you can get Arroyo for 2 years, I guess you can do that as well. However Hughes seems like a perfect change of scenary type guy, he has good stuff, has a respectable K/BB ratio and unlike Arroyo is still young. I think Hughes could be a very nice #3 for the Twins moving forward. 4. Sign Joba- 2 years 3.5 mil- See above, getting out of Yankee stadium could be great for him, the upside is certainly there and he shouldn't cost a lot. At best he could become your set up guy or closer (if they trade Perkins) 5. Sign Johan Santana- 1 year 1 mil (+ 2 mil in innings incentives)- This is a lighting in a bottle signing. By signing Salty, the Twins suddenly have nice depth at every position but SS for 2015. C- Salty, Pinto 1B- Mauer 2B- Dozier, Rosario SS-??? 3B- Sano....Plouffe (meh) OF- Buxton, Arica and a whole smattering of high upside guys like Hicks, Rosario who could fit in as well. (Also you can always get a big hitting corner OF) You can then add on another high upside pitcher in the 2015 FA market and fix whatever other holes the team may have.

If we can sign Salty (which I am 100% for) we suddenly have some nice pieces/depth at every position for 2015+ with the exception of SS and/or DH (if that counts)

IMO the concerns with Pinto at C aren't about his bat at all, its all about if he can stick as an every day guy defensively behind the dish. Herrmann is basically a replacement level guy, nice depth to have while he is making the minimum, but pretty replaceable most likely.

Why is this in minor league?

Tanaka isn't worth the money, if you want to dump 150 million+ into a guy, just throw a few more dollars at a Kershaw, Price, Sherzer or Lester in the future.

It was timely and hilarious. Nobody is saying it needs to go back to BYTO, however the occasional joke is fine and breaks up the constant arguing back and forth if Terry Ryan will spend money on free agents or not.

I would point out we have a celebrity death pool, yet a joke about a death 50 years ago is over the line. Got it. Just because a couple people didn't get the joke doesn't mean it has to be deleted or whatever.

Lee Harvey joke too edgy for these parts? Gimme a break, people need to lighten up.

Lefties have a lifetime .859 OPS against him, righties have a .764 OPS against him. Claiming he can suddenly be a LOOGY is as inaccurate as it comes, people really need to start looking up these basic stats before making these claims. If people want to claim Duensing doesn't deserve 2 mil a year, fine, but don't claim the solution is to plug Diamond into a role that makes no sense for him. Frankly, I don't mind them having Swarzak take another look as a starter, he showed some nice improvement last year, he could fit eventually as a #5, which is more valuable then his current Middle Relief/non 7th or 8th inning set up guy.

Diamond is not a LOOGY

I didn't realize it was too soon to post a harmless Lee Harvey Oswald joke. Also it wouldn't let me send a message back to you PM, so consider this my message. People need to lighten up and have a sense of humor.

Great, and I mean great post!

God no. Prince and Kinsler are both declining, Prince is going to only get worse as his body won't hold up. Mauer doesn't have the durability (yet) Prince does, but at least he is an average base runner and provides defensive value.

Glad the Pohlads are dropping $500 an hour on this bull**** instead of actually investing in relevant things for the team.

The difference between Rangers Stadium and Comerica is pretty minimal.

Prince is going to age poorly. He was mearly average last year, the only thing he has is durability at this point.

Also is mark derosa eligible? Noticed he wasn't on the blue jays 40 man roster

Makes stat freak look reasonable

Johan Santana or Roberto Clemente

Again, best case scenario is he earns that 10 million and then bounces for a 4-5 year deal the next year. I am the biggest JJ supporter on this board, but frankly the Twins were never a good fit for him, nor was he a good fit for the Twins on a ONE year deal. If we could have got him for 2-3 years, then yeah I would be more upset.

He had a 8.47 ERA in those 7 starts, why on earth wouldn't they release him at that point? He was downright terrible. And yes, he did get better, but how much of that was due to being in the pitcher friendly park that is Petco? He had a 5.61 FIP last year and a 5.5/5.2 k/bb/9 ratio last year, which is downright awful. If anything he left the Twins and got insanely lucky, which was helped by a pitchers ball park.

What's the story on Achter? I would protect Polanco and Darnell for sure. Maybe 50/50 on Vargas, though I doubt anyone is going to grab him as well since he has zero defensive value and isn't even close to contribute as a DH/1B (even then he is pretty iffy prospect)