70charger

I think you'll find those here: http://twinsdaily.com/topic/22517-article-what-to-do-with-phil-hughes/

Remember what seems like just a few days ago, when Terry Ryan cut Tommy Milone, JR Graham, Casey Fien, and Ryan O'Rourke? It was a good direction to go, I thought. Clear out some underperformers who were hanging on to the roster by their fingernails, and get the rookies up and playing (not that the second part actually happened, but that's another thread). Just for "fun," let's compare the only starting pitcher affected by that cull with Ricky Nolasco, who predictably gave up six runs without finishing three innings last night. Using ERA+, Tommy Milone's career figure is 97. With the Twins, he's been a bit worse than below average, clocking in at 89. That's demotion worthy, in my opinion. Ricky Nolasco is sporting a career figure of 90, worse than Milone. With the Twins, it's been a dismal 73. Another quick and dirty stat for the non-SABR-inclined. Milone's WHIP with the Twins was 1.411, leading to a 4.56 ERA. That's pretty bad. Nolasco with the Twins has managed a depressing 1.490 WHIP, leading to a hair-tearing 5.46 ERA. This isn't (just) a reaction to yet another mound meltdown last night. It's becoming crystal clear that, whatever money Nolasco was given, he isn't earning it, and in fact, his presence on the roster is worse than eating salary and sending him packing. Think about what we could do with the roster spot: Berrios could have had more than a one-game leash when he performed in a Nolasco-like way one time. Maybe we could even see what we have with Meyer without handing him a ticket back to Rochester the second he goes to the clubhouse after the game ends. Gibson's coming back; you better believe I'll riot if they move Duffey out of the rotation. Fact is, the Nolasco contract failed. We can compound the failure by trotting him out there because he has a contract, or we can recover from the failure by cutting him. At this point, the idea of trade value is as ludicrous as the idea that he's one of the Twins' five best pitchers. He's a prime candidate for outright assignment waivers, and I wouldn't even want him on the Red Wings. The leash is tightening around Nolasco's neck, right? It has to be.

On ESPN today: Twins: RHP Alex Meyer (shoulder) has not pitched since being optioned to Triple-A Rochester on May 4, but on Sunday he's expected to throw his second bullpen session in three days. Twins general manager Terry Ryan said that Meyer is being prepped for a return to the starting rotation.

So the game is technically over, but somehow I'm still waiting for the bullpen to blow it.

What just happened?

WHAT IS HAPPENING??

Holy ****! They scored!?

I don't even know what that means. Keep being you.

Not a bad day for Pat Dean, actually. Too bad the rest of the team is so ...uh, tragic.

Bring your green hat!

Dude.

Wat? That metaphor is so tortured it belongs in Guantanamo.

Wait, what? Just tuned in. Did Donaldson get ejected?

What is this, a Mel Brooks bit?

I love this series. Well done.

Seriously. This is some Dave Barry kinda stuff. From now on that's my story of how the Cleveland Indians came to be.

Thank you to whoever changed the title to read "Whom."

A few unwarranted barbs in there, but I generally agree with this trajectory. I would make a few changes: 1. Keep Suzuki to play out his contract, but keep him under his vesting threshold. Should be easy. 1a. Juan Centeno can stay up until John Ryan Murphy gets his groove back in AAA. I doubt that either Garver or Turner force the issue from AA, but if they do, so much the better. 2. Keep Nunez over Beresford unless you can get some actual value. A C-prospect in A-ball just isn't gonna cut. Not when Beresford is the other option. Let him get his cup of coffee (finally!) when rosters expand in September. 3. I'm not sure what to do with the pitcher situation. I think Hughes has a ticket to the bullpen either way, but Meyer or May? Maybe we go with their own expressed preferences. May starts, Meyer relieves. And yes, stick with that decision for the rest of the year. 4. I wouldn't be married to Taylor Rodgers in this year's bullpen, but I'm fine with him there now. Longer term, he's definitely a reliever.

I wonder if cutting bait ISN'T good business. Hear me out. If the Twins keep trotting out the same old cast of characters and keep losing 70% of their games, the butts will not fill the seats. That's a lot of ticket revenue and lost beer and hot dog sales. If - just for the sake of argument! - we had a starting pitcher who costs about $14 million a year and hasn't performed for multiple years, we could cut him, pay an exciting rookie marginally more, and even if said rookie struggles, get the same amount of performance. So you've swapped a $14 million annual cost for a $14.5 million annual cost, but in the meantime you've done multiple important things: 1 - you've signaled to the fan base that you think losing isn't okay; 2 - you've stoked fan interest because who doesn't want to come out and see the hot new rookie?; 3 - you've bought a lottery ticket in a rookie that could really, really pay off; 4 - you've set next year's team up for more success (and more butts in the seats) because the rookie can work out the kinks now. As counterintuitive as it may sound, I think accepting millions in dead money can be a financial winner for the team, even in the short term. I think that you get value for any guy that you can get value for. But if no one bites on your bad contracts, you can't be shy. Pull the trigger and put the contract out of its misery.

I don't know what the logistics would be, or the theoretical trade returns, but I'm loving all of the proposals like these that are showing up recently. This is the direction the Twins need to be going. They started the process last year; it's time to complete the process this year. Dozier is sort of down on my list of guys to trade, but for a good return I would. Plouffe and Nolasco ought to be traded, much more for their roster spots than for their returns. Gibson should be dangled like Dozier. If one or the other or both got something sufficient, pull the trigger. Ervin Santana may be hard to move for a good return too, but we need to get our guys into our rotation. Dangle him too, and see what happens. Continue to be unafraid of making cuts when you know that the guy is already marginal. We need Sano to move back to 3B. We need Arcia to have more playing time in the outfield. We need Polanco to get a sustained opportunity. We need May, Meyer, Berrios, and Duffey to get real shots in the rotation. We need Chargois to have a clear opportunity to bump someone else out of the bullpen this summer. (We need Burdi to get healthy, but that's neither here nor there.) I liked the direction they started going when they went on their spate of DFAs. But like I said elsewhere, they're on something like step 2 of 5. Yes, calling up Mastroianni wasn't exactly what we wanted, but I can't imagine anyone thinks of him as anything but a placeholder for Buxton, and clearing out the roster chaff is something needs to be happening right now. If they're not finishing this process by August, I'll be very disappointed.

Tonkin?

So not the point of the article.

Nope. Still not even then.

Literally the first time I've heard anyone lament the loss of Herrmann. Just goes to show you, we will never agree on anything when it comes to our baseball team.

Also, to clarify, step 2 of 5 was a simple descriptor of the short-term roster moves that ought to be made this season. It has nothing to do with years past. Let's leave the bull**** in the past.