DaveW

Additionally, the twins have very little commited money wise in 2014/2015, and have the best farm in baseball. It's not hard to see why a turnaround isn't going to be as hard as some folks believe, hell before Mauer went down (and morneau trade) it's likely the twins would have won 72-74 games this year,(an improvement over last)

This thread has gone way off topic, the twins aren't going to move and aren't in any danger to move, one more bad season or two isn't going to cause that, it's not how baseball works. Besides, teams like Miami, Tampa bay, Oakland, and more would move wayyyyyy before the twins would be on the chopping block. Dumping TR makes no sense, the twins now have the number 1 farm in baseball, he deserves two more years to right the ship. Gardy is a toss up, but if you fire him now you might as well have fired him two years ago since he literally had terrible rosters to deal with. I still maintain you won't find a better manager, and Gardy would be scooped up in about 5 seconds. Grass is always greener etc etc

I think its pretty clear, anything less then 100 million alone spent on FA wouldn't have turned this team into a winner in 2013

There are like 2 pitchers in the rotation currently who will be a part of the opening day roster, and maybe 3-4 position players.

AJ Burnett has said he is staying in Pittsburgh, also I doubt any pitcher really sees that as a great thing, in fact I think its the opposite, major leaguers are humans like the rest of us, nobody wants to up and move (especially with a family) in the middle of the year, also this is why they often want no trade clauses and long term deals (of course money is always huge) but never underestimate the value of "knowing where you will be"

It also stands to reason that Terry Ryan has no reason to tip his true hand, the Twins have never been one to have a bunch of rumors and stuff leak, (which actually though it makes for boring speculation, its a good thing), while not tipping his hand and somewhat managing expectations Ryan is doing what most good GMs do (besides the Yankees and Dodgers) Just remember how quickly (and quietly) the Span and Revere trades came together last off-season?

From that same article though, which shows you spending money just to spend money isn't always a great idea either, at the end of the day, I don't want the Twins to spend just to appease the masses, they need to make smart moves to compliment their nice core group of hitters coming up, that means giving out a couple 3-4 year contracts for nice pitchers, another 1-2 year contract on a high risk/high reward SP and a couple stop gaps for SS and 1B: Cleveland signed Nick Swisher last offseason for four years and $56 million; the White Sox signed Adam Dunn for the same contract before the 2011 season. Kansas City even signed Gil Meche for five years and $55 million in 2006 then added Jose Guillen for three years and $36 million the next year.

There is a huge difference though, Richardson, overdraft or not was def worth a top ten pick last year, and the beauty for the Colts is they don't have to pay him much at all, and they will end up giving a mid twenties pick for him at the end of the day. (Also Irsay isn't your typical NFL owner). *If Richardson stays healthy you could be looking a potentially game changing type RB What exactly has Toby done to warrant anything other than a throw away pick? (I count anything after the early 5th round to be more or less throw away) As far as KW goes, I just don't think he is an every down guy any more and is on the tale end of his career, if we could get a 4th rounder, do it! But I don't see it happening. JA is interesting, but I really can't see more than a third rounder, wasn't that what was given up for Brandon Marshall? (I know he had issues, but still, its pretty rare to see a 1st or 2nd rounder given up)

I'm not sure why everyone is freaking out, Ryan is simply saying he doesn't believe you can build a contender through free agency alone, and he is correct. The only team that is bucking that trend this year is the Dodgers, who frankly have shown they don't care one iota about money, the other teams that have tried it: Angels, Yankees, etc have all done very poorly. Free agency should be a way to improve your team in areas, but at the end of the day its always going to be all about home grown talent and shrewd trades that take you to the top (along with some GOOD free agent signings) I think Ryan realizes he needs to spend money this off-season and next, a couple 3-4 year deals for good to very good players, and another 2-3 solid players for 1-2 years is what we should aim for. Spending 150 mil on ANYONE at this point is not going to be in this teams best interests. Let's look at the playoff teams: Boston Red Sox: Actually they got bailed out big time by the Dodgers last year and got a ton of money and bad contracts taken off the books. The majority of their key contirbutors this year are now home grown players, or key signings (see: Ortiz several years ago) Detroit: The core of this team was put together in very nice trades: Miggy, Fister, Scherzer, etc along with a few key free agent signings: Prince, Sanchez. Plus the whole having Verlander in your system never hurt as well Tampa Bay: Built from within, smart trades. Cleveland Indians: Def not a team built through free agency. Texas Rangers: Built from within, smart trades, a couple key FA signings but nothing crazy (Beltre+Nathan) Atlanta+Pitt+Cin+STL All very good franchises, again they made some key signings in FA (without going over board) and made good trades and built from within. The Dodgers are literally the only team who took the whole "Lets spend a bunch of money on players right now" approach, and it wouldn't shock me if the whole thing goes belly up in 3-4 years ala the Yankees.

Lol Gerhart.... Williams might get you a fifth rounder at this point, Allen, maybe a third?

Why was my second post deleted? I said that Hunter often says questionable things? It wasn't a personal attack, you can't just choose to delete a post because I think that "one of your favorite Twins of all time" can often say eve rolling inducing things that nobody takes seriously.

Also for people pining for the old twins ways, how many series in the playoffs did the hunter lead teams win? Just one? I thought it was World Series or bust?

If the twins are going to be giving out fat contracts it shouldn't be for 1st basemen, it should be for SP, SP, Sp and maybe a SS

Per mlbtr: Seems to go against folks who say "The Twins won't spend any more money, Pohlad is cheap etc." He says he wants some 1-2-3-4 year contracts in free agency this year and isn't afraid to spend, and like it or not he is spot on with the "Avoiding 7-8 year contracts"

Yay, baseball!

Joe Mauer was one the best QBs coming out of high school and had a "lifetime" scholarship offer from bobby Bowden, I have a feeling he is just fine as a "leader". That fact that you don't hear about a lot of clubhouse discontent etc shows the twins don't have an issue

Yeah, that Percy harvin guy was certainly not a legit "weapon" Ponder sucks, he can't make the throws, end of story.

Ponder is dog****, I hope he breaks his arm ASAP

LMAO Pelfrey is not going to command a 4 year contract, Boras client or not.

Arcia will be fine in RF, putting him at first base is a waste.

Since coming back from the disabled list in 11 games Pelfrey has a 3.45 ERA, I'm not sure why people think that is some bizarre fluke or whatever.

So...you don't want to resign the guy who has been pitching much better as of late (after coming back really, really early after TJS) yet you want to give Worley a rotation spot based on what again??

Why?

I'd sign him in a heartbeat, he likes Minnesota, has family in the area and the twins have no better options, give him 2 years, 10 mil.

Why on earth would the Twins want to over pay for Ellsbury?