jokin

Anyone with a career .879 OPS LHP split, with a BABIP-tastic career BABIP of .357 vs. LHP (2 years over .400 BABIP, 2010 and 2013), is worth a small gamble in a platoon-heavy role. No doubt that DannyV is a VERY limited player, but he is pretty darn good at what little he clearly does well.

LOL Was ranked 6th overall in OF defense, pre-Arb for the next 2 years, and a fighting chance that his bat is better than everyone on the Twins 2014 roster except Arcia.

It's probably worth a shot at a pretty cheap price for KC to try DannyV as (at least a part-time) platoon partner for Melotakis @ 3B. Melotakis' career split vs. LHP is OPS .606 and in 2013 it was OPS.546. Valencia hit LHP OPS .1031 in 2013 and has hit OPS .879 career versus LHP.

The O's made a pretty shrewd gamble. They just acquired 3 pre-arb years of Lough, who plays stellar OF defense, notwithstanding what he ends up hitting in the long run-- For 1st year Arb (due to make $1M+), Danny Valencia-- and they have already saved up to $16.5M that it would have cost them to retain a FA at the same position, Nate McClouth, for the next 3 years. Kudos to Duquette if he uses some of those savings elsewhere. I'll repeat, if he liked Valencia in the hope of capturing lightining in a bottle, he should love taking a chance on Plouffe in the same kind of role in 2014.

They drafted out of need and defied the consensus pick of who the actual BPA was.

And he has to get all the credit for Sano. I'm curious when people give all the credit to this "foundation of prospects" knocking on the door at Ryan's footsteps- Buxton was clearly the BPA- good for Ryan, but it was low-hanging fruit- and no credit to Smith ( who always drafted from well-down from the top of the pool): Here're more drafted/signed during Smith's era: Brian Dozier Aaron Hicks Kyle Gibson Chris Hermann Propsects (w/ Seth's rating): #2 Miguel Sano #5 Eddie Rosario #6 Jorge Palanco #8 Max Kepler #12 Travis Harrison #15 Danny Santana #20 Niko Goodrum #25 Michael Tonkin

Was that hindsight or foresight?

And Arcia, Florimon and Dozier still pre-arb, and possibly, Rosario instead, in either the IF or OF (if Arcia is moved to DH duty). The payroll for position players looks like what the Marlins are paying, less Joe Mauer.

"It had nothing to do with the opinion that he was a worthless player." I don't recall anyone saying that the Twins thought that Balfour was a worthless player. Off topic. "Valencia was a failed position player when the Twins got rid of him. To reinvent Valencia as a part time player while with the Twins would not have been an easy task." In reality, the onus is on Twins management to assess and maximize player value relative to their strengths and weaknesses. DannyVs career split: vs LHP OPS .879 vs RHP .629 And actually, it would have been a fairly easy task in figuring that out from his spotty performance in 4 years in the minors. Joe Mauer could have made a part-time platoon partner. Or they could have signed Eric Chavez for $1.5 M in 2011 like the Yankees did. Or, maybe traded JJ Hardy in a package for a better value than Jim Hoey?..... Say Brandon Inge, and have the Tigers throw in then-prospect Drew Smyly? These are just ideas off the top of my head, finding other ways to make the situation work better must certainly be out there, as well. "That any of these players were ex Twins factored into any decision by Duquette is absurd." Except the fact that Wayne Krivsky is an ex-Oriole executive. And that they actually have been regularly acquiring ex-Twins off waivers or through free agency at an abnormal rate since JJ Hardy.. If there is a player on the 40 man roster that the [sic] secretly covet it would be a classic sell point in that player's career. Except that every ex-Twins player that the O's have acquired up until Balfour have been at exactly the opposite, "classic" buy-low "point in that player's career." "It is hard to see Duquette overpaying. It is an unlikely scenario." Who said anything about trying to fleece Duquette? He likes moving personnel to shake things up, it's obvious from the waiver pick-ups and free agent signings that he is familiar with ex-Twins and not afraid to pull the trigger. I'm just talking about finding a willing trade partner and trying to get fair value and a mutually beneficial deal. That kind of deal can lead to an ongoing relationship when future interests intersect.

Only 23? So was Pedro Hernandez. But your point on Doumit is valid, it's time for even more moves like this, let's clear the clutter and gain the clarity on who we have....and who we should still consider acquiring.

All I was saying is that the Twins would be foolish to put all of their LH DH eggs in one Kubel basket, a basket from which the bottom alarmingly fell out from a career in 2013 in AZ. If Kubel remains unimpressive in ST, the Twins need better options than just Parmelee and Hermann as their LH DH options ( I'm assuming that if Arcia is with the team, they want him playing in the OF full-time). A trade seems far easier to contemplate, but can Terry pull off any kind of deal for Mitch Moreland, Adam Lind or even Mike Carp? They all could be moved from their respective teams at the right price. In FA, Chavez was about the last LH FA worth considering. Reynolds L/R split isn't all that different enough to automatically preclude him from consideration, plus he could play in the corner infield without embarrassing himself. The salary projections are anywhere between $3M and $5M- the Twins are said to be interested, but are up against the Yankees, who appear to be taking no prisoners in revamping their roster.

Draft Axiom #1 and 1A: Never draft for need....and.....Always choose the BPA. Buxton clearly was.

Yup. It drives me to distraction that myths like this get traction and go uncorrected. Howard also made some mention in his column that Doumit was done catching- but only for the rest of 2013. Does anyone actually think that the NL Atlanta Braves, desperate for catching depth, would trade for Doumit while unsure of his ability or willingness to play the position?

Yeah, it's great for those of us in that he's doing some of the things that we have been reasonably asking for the last couple years. This Doumit deal has to go in Terry's Top 5 Most Satisfying Chestnuts, possibly supplanting the one he claims is his #1 deal, ie, moving Scott Erickson. A couple more space-clearing moves coupled with a trade and a signing, we will have answered a lot of questions and positioned ourselves much better going forward.

Kubel on a minor league deal doesn't make another move for a DH next to impossible. I think a trade to clear out more bodies is still going to happen. Kevin Correia has to have some interest in trade that TR is waiting to pounce on should he land another pitcher Pinto's lack of experience and health concerns makes it pratically obligatory that a veteran Catcher will be added- not many "big names" left. Now that the Mariners have expressed interest in Suzuki, I have to think that he would choose the M's, all things being equal. If there isn't a significant sleeper in the 2nd round of the draft, the Twins have to consider Drew as their potential IF "Glue guy" on a 3 years deal to play next to Sano when he arrives.

That wasn't the point of the original post, the Orioles clearly have taken multiple shots at ex-Twins, that the Twins organization gave up on and traded for crappy minor league RPs, or simply left for dead. The Orioles obviousy perceive that they see something worth taking a shot on to see if they can do better. The latest trade for Valencia, is an example of how you can extract hidden value from a guy that only got the Twins a low-ceiling (too old for) Rookie-Ball OF.

Not tons of original thinkers in sports. A smart GM sees how another GM was able to extract value, and now he has a need and can plug that perceived "value" into his system. I hope the Twins are watching as well, because this is just the way that they could get a better deal for Plouffe when the time comes (even his last name practiaclly spells out "platoon").

Ba-dum-dum....ssssss

With the added legit ML depth, Darnell would only be the in the PJ/Liam 26th man emergency, double-header role, unless he shows something in Roc. that no one expects from him to somehow skip ahead on the depth chart. I had my doubts on KC too, but now I'm convinced that he has at least one taker for Correia's services in his backpocket, should he be able to sign one more FA SP upgrade.

Only if Kubel jumps through a lot of hoops, his entire contract is incentive-laden. (He'll have to somehow be extraordinarily better than he was last year in AZ.-- in a less-friendly hitting environment in TF that he already has a mental block over, to hit all of these incremental incentives. There's simply no reason to keep him around coming out of ST if he's not projecting to be producing at a rate better than Doumit's pedestrian numbers in 2013.).

David Lough? Wow. And what did we get for Danny V? Oh, that's right, a Rookie Ball OF way too old for his level. On second thought, maybe the Twins shouldn't try trading with Baltimore, they seem to know what they're doing with playing other team's castoffs to their strenghths and generating new-found value.

Right on, Jeremy! Gotta give Ryan credit, he knows that there is potentially untapped value in catchers, even bad ones. That's 2 straight good deals in a row now in dealing seemingly valueless catchers that we were seemingly stuck with. (Imagine what TR might have gotten for Wilson Ramos!)

Because it now appears that the Twins will not be willing to go one bridge farther to get an SP at the next level above Nolasco (Garza, et al), this "fix" is more closely resembling the bullpen remedy of two years ago- the "solution" being based on quantity, hoping that somehow a rotation shakes itself out and makes itself evident. Like in 2012, it's bound to produce better overall numbers from the rotation, but really, as in 2012, it's still more of a Band-Aid approach- I've predicted 70-74 wins after Nolasco/Hughes- pending further improvements, Pelfrey may (or may not) move that number to 76- My immediate thought on the signing of Pelfrey was that they must have a trading partner in mind for Correia in a package with some of the other extra baggage, to clear the decks for another signing and for the rookies to take their rightful place at some point in 2014. I hope that thought is still operative in TR's mind.

Missing the point completely seems to be your specialty, and blithely using reductio ad absurdum improperly seems to be your flawed method of delivery. Your argument flies in the face of logic, of a new outdoor Twins stadium, hardly worth dignifying even considering meeting the demand for evidence that you made, as clearly in your world, long-suffering Twins fans, as a group, would take no excitement in the breaking of all previous precedents- by signing the #1 or #2 pitcher in baseball- yup, they have the identical appreciation for this equational value for their sports entertainment dollar------- Cole DeVries/Pedro Hernandez start = Zach Greinke.....sure thing.

I see your five and raise you five more....