Twinsfan2284

I will always have a special place in my heart for Denny Hocking. He came up huge in the 2002 playoffs against the As. Had a couple RBIs in the clincher and I think caught the final out in foul territory... But then he injured his hand during the ensuing celebration, which cost him a chance to play in the ALCS. Always felt a little bad for him...

Thanks Seth. What are your thoughts on Levi Michael? I know you had him as your 30th ranked prospect. Being a 3 year college player, and struggling in A ball does not really seem like it would translate to much big league success, however, I don't want to write the guy off yet (he is only 21). However, being that the Twins do have a void up the middle, what would you say his ceiling is? Guzman? Rivas? Punto? If it does 'click' for him in the next couple of seasons, what would you expect? With Keppler, and possibly Buxton and Berrios at CR, it might be time for a road trip south this season. Only 4 1/2 hours from the Twin Cities...

Just a quick question to those with a better idea than me. Is there a date or time frame when the Twins Minor League Rosters are usually set? (if this is posted somewhere else, sorry!) I think we can make good assumptions based on prior years, especially for the double A and triple A rosters, but just curious when they make those final decisions, especially for players like Sano, Rosario, Berrios, Keppler, Michael, etc... Thanks for any help!

I would agree overall with the article specifically related to this Twins team. Normally, I think I would agree that we need to be smart and sign good free agents and supplement those players with our good minor leaguers. However, what people seem to forget is that we were not close to contending last year or the year before. Before the Span and Revere trades, we are coming into this season with questions marks at right field, 2b, SS, 3rd base, and at least 3 members of our rotation. This is not discounting the injury history at 1st base and catcher, or finalizing our bullpen. In addition, there is at least 1 team in our own division (if not 2 or 3) that our much closer to competing for a title. And that is not even counting teams in the East and West divisions. So even if we were able to sign Sanchez or Jackson (80 mill and 50 mill contracts respectively) and maybe trade or sign a good middle infielder ($20-30 mill), where would that leave us? We would still have 5-6 legitimate holes to fill, a heavy reliance on young players, and several teams in the AL in a much better position to contend in the next couple of years. And who wants to give 5 or 6 years to Jackson or Sanchez, when they probably won't be key pieces of our team when we do actually have the ability to contend. They are good pitchers, but by no means elite. Even if we did the Blue Jays - Marlins trade as some suggested, we would be giving up a lot of young talent and be getting a couple of good pitchers, but still doesnt fix the massive amounts of holes that would be left. While I cannot defend the Correia signing specifically, I am not sure why people are so upset with this off season. Even if we had the Yankees payroll, the Twins would have a hard time contending the next couple of years because so many teams are in a much better position. Why spend money on mediocre free agents that still will not help you contend now, when you have minor leaguers that regardless of whether they 'deserve it,' the Twins at least want to look at. And in a couple of years when we have 'filled' some of our holes (hopefully through our higher upside Minor Leaguers), we can sign a couple of bigger free agents to supplement what should already be a good team.

I understand that Marquis has been bad, but honestly, what were people expecting. He was signed to be a back-end of the rotation guy, with the potential to at least eat innings and Pavano-lite. But anyone thinking that cutting him is going to make a drastic difference is kidding themselves. As far as who should replace him, Duensing should stay in the bullpen. We have seen this experiment the past two years. He was okay in 2010 and was drilled in 2011 (after teams figured him out), but his skillset in getting out left-handed batters lends itself best to the bullpen. If I had a vote, it would probably be Swarzak to take Marquis' place. He has started before in both the majors and minors, has shown the ability to be tolerable (i.e. a back of the rotation guy), and who knows, if he pitches well, we may be able swap him for some sort of mediocre prospect at the deadline if he pitches well and some team is desparate for a back-end starter (albeit very unlikely). And hey...he can't be any worse as a starter than Marquis, right? This move will also make way in the bullpen for us to bring up one of our many right-handed relievers in the minors (Slama, Waldrop, etc...). And I think at this point I would rather put Slama on the 40 man than Cole Devries. This team is not contending this year, so I don't want to jeapordize assets (read: serviceable players) that we have (Hendricks as a starter, Deunsing as a bullpen guy) to try and find a 5th starter on the last place team in all of baseball. We have righty bullpen assets in the minors and I think Hendricks could use some extended time in Triple A to develop some consistency. Anyway...just my two cents...