DaveW

Johnson can take Fryers 40 man spot, problem solved.

-What does JJ Hardy have to do with Pitching? -Puig was benched at least once (I think multiple times) by the Dodgers, and frankly is probably going to run into issues in the future as well if he continues to act as immature as he does. -The Twins didn't publicize the benching, they gave an honest and direct answer. These things happen all the time in the minor leagues and they didn't "hold a grudge" against Sano, it was a learning experience, and the only reason why it was a story was because: 1. Sano is one of the best 3 prospects in baseball 2. The Twins MLB was dreadful and the local press needed a story. Besides, he did deserve the benching, you don't show up players like that, it only leads to yourself or a teammate getting potentially hurt later by a beaning. -NOTHING Dickey did in a Twins uniform indicated he would suddenly learn the art of the knuckleball, and I am not exactly sure what Gardy/Anderson were supposed to do at the time to turn him into a Cy Young pitcher. There are like a handful of guys in ML history who have thrown a decent knuckler, what were the Twins supposed to do? Bring in a specific coach who specialized in a knuckleball for a guy who was basically the 25th guy on the roster? -I still don't get why they HAVE to go get a Latin American coach just for the sake of it. I have never heard of any issue with Latin Americans on the twins or in the org who don't feel welcome or whatever. In fact I find the entire notion that they should hire someone based on race on not on qualifications a bit disturbing and backwards. Their should be no communication issues since Cueller and I am sure other players speak Spanish, if they happen to sign a guy from Japan they will bring in a translator just like for Nishioka, other than that I am not sure what else needs to be done. - How did Diamond regress when he came to Minnesota? If anything he did much better than he had in the past and put up a pretty strong 2012!Worley was coming off a major arm surgery and frankly looked lost all year, tough to blame that on the coaches, by that measure, better blame em for that other guy we signed and didn't pitch one inning (I am spacing on his name...but he used to be a very good pitcher) Who are the other names in the hat? I am genuinely curious.

The Twins know what they have in Diamond, Albers (not a realistic option, great story, but not a realistic option), Darnell and Dean are interesting though does either one throw as hard as Johnson? Maybe they just want to take a look at Johnson or see something in him? Who knows, either way not a big deal.

Yeah, I'm not saying he wouldn't have helped in 2014, however I think most agree that best case scenario is Twins are a .500 team in 2014 even with a couple of signings (considering that its likely Buxton/Sano/Meyer will take some time to become effective major leaguers) The one nice thing however is that if Johnson does go off, San Diego has the advantage to sign him long term, that would have been the nice part if he would have been with the Twins. Oh well, onto Garza+Nolasco+etc

If Johnson was a righty I would be more inclined to agree, however, the Twins really were lacking LHSP, I think Diamond is the only other one in the system who is MLB ready? ( I don't count Duensing at this point) So yeah, chances are Johnson is nothing special, but Welker wasn't going to be special either and the Twins have/had plenty of arms in the pen. The need for a lefty starter (even if he is replacement level or tops out as a#5 guy) simply was a greater need then a bullpen arm project. At the end of the day though, its really not a big deal either way. There is about a 95% chance neither one of these guys posts more than 1.0 WAR in a season.

I stopped paying attention the moment Phil Humber was brought up as some case against Gardy/Anderson. The same Phil Humber who had a 7.90 ERA last year.

One could argue that 27 year old, bullpen guys with a lifetime BB rate or 4.8/9 K:BB 1.48 and a 1.461 WHIP, 4.19 ERA have a very small chance of being anything of real value as well. Did we learn nothing from Jim Hooey? Besides, when it comes to pitching the Twins current depth/strength by FAR is the bullpen, while the rotation seriously needs as many arms as possible at this point.

Yeah, it was pretty obvious he wanted to go someone south on the west coast (though SF isn't exactly "warm") but it made perfect sense for him to target the NL and a pitcher friendly park. Again, not to bummed, I would have been if it was a 2 year deal, but at this point any one year deals don't do a whole lot for this club anyways, would rather invest some of that money this year into a 3-4 year deal for solid pitchers.

This bit is getting tiresome, we get it, you dislike every single coach/GM/FO member on the twins. You know just like the rest of us that the Twins haven't been real active in the free agent market...well...really ever. Also Pavano more or less resurrected his career in Minnesota after 4 years prior of absolutely nothing.

Per mlbtr It seems possible Johnson and agent Matt Sosnick could have gotten close to that $10MM mark had they focused on the highest bidder, but the pitcher preferred San Diego for personal reasons. The Padres got a discount approaching 20%, just for being the Padres.

Johnson said earlier this week he preferred San Diego, and frankly gave them a huge discount. I wish the twins would have got him as well, however, not sure what a one year would have done for them...best case scenario is he has a nice year and becomes insanely expensive

The Twins were a playoff team in 2009. Blackburn, Baker, Liriano (sorta), Pavano, Slowey all seemed like better starting options then Dickey at the time. Swarzak, Manship etc weren't great, but at least were young and had promise. He had a terrible K/BB during his innings with the Twins, why on earth did they need to keep him at the time again? He was basically just the mop up guy.

I really could care less where the Twins farm system is ranked year in and year out, I am 100x more concerend on where the Twins major league team will rank in 2014, 2015,2016, etc. Also a guy like Stewart should be a mainstay in the top 25-30 for the next couple years anyways, and guys like Kepler, Polanco, Berrios, etc will start getting on more radars as well.

BOOM! http://deadspin.com/derek-jeter-gossip-we-desperately-want-to-believe-1466653210

This is a very slippery slope... a friend of mine's kid, steroids, radke, etc.

I miss BYTO

Which happens a lot with pitchers on long term deals. Also, I just think giving a guy a contract through his 39 and 40 year old years is a mistake. There is a huge % chance that he will regress a good amount.

Was he really though? He didn't exactly tear up AA, so his trade value wouldn't have been very large at this point IMO. As much as we all love him, we must realize he isn't even a top 100 guy on the majority of lists. (edit: I am wrong, I bet he will crack the top 100 on most lists, still though I think they would be potentially selling low on him at this point)

Will it? Minor leaguers don't exactly make that much, I'm guessing it will cost him about 10k tops.

I highly doubt it, it's not like last season Rosario came out of nowhere, he had very strong numbers in 2011 and 2012 as well, so if he was on some sort of "juice" he would most certainly have tested hot prior to this one.

Nobody is going to pick up Polanco or Kepler, while both are nice prospects, neither one project to be world beaters that are worth keeping on your bench for a full year. It is much easier to grab a pitcher and keep him as your mop up guy (since they are the most interchangeable players on the 25 man roster) Limiting an already small position player bench size by having a guy who can't play (insert Butera joke here) is a really poor move.

It sucks, but better this year than next year. He wouldn't be up in the majors til June anyways, and there was a good chance he wouldn't be up for more than a cup of coffee anyways (unless Dozier got hurt)

The problem with putting offers on the table early is the player might accept it. There is nothing wrong with waiting a bit, and Arroyo is far from the most "quality" meat on the market at this point. I would prefer they are more passive with back end rotation guys like Arroyo and don't risk overpaying, and are more aggressive with a top guy like Garza. Make Garza an offer or another top guy an offer, if they don't accept then goto plan B:Nolasco C and D: Arroyo

Yeah and by the same token if we are going to eliminate injuries from the equation, then we can't count Liriano as a "success after Minnesota" IMO since injuries were a large issue on why he was ineffective here later on. Also add Joe Mays and Kevin Slowey to that list of pitchers who did worse/didn't get better. The problem isn't the Twins letting good pitchers go and them becoming better, the problem is the pitchers the Twins had were never really good in the first place. If you look at the pitchers who all of a sudden got a lot better, it is more just random then anything else: RA Dickey- NOBODY saw this coming. Liriano- I wanted them to keep him, this one still stings. Loshe- Was pretty much the same pitcher the first 5 years after the Twins let him go, suddenly now he starts pitching better? He was pretty meidocre in his first 3 years as a Card as well, so that wasn't the reason.