SwainZag

I honestly think there are some on this board that if they took over the team would DFA Correia, Burton, Deduno and Matty G tomorrow and call up 4 prospects just because the Twins are "rebuilding." Let's face it, the Twins probably aren't going to win this year.....BUT they are in the hunt still. Why just DFA and get rid of guys who have value and are pitching decent because "they are above the league average in age." Who cares? Everyone knows those 4 and above 30 players Willingham and possible Susuki will be gone next year all replaced by 20-somethings. What's the rush? Why not see how they do as a team and see if they have value at the deadline than just get rid of them? What if you call up May and Meyer and they both struggle? I really think some people think that couldn't happen. Let's look at Kyle Gibson. The whole age thing mystifies the hell out of me. We know the core of the future is in the minor leagues right now and that's the major part of the rebuild.

Agree 100%. He will be 31 at the end of the year, is hitting 60 points better than his career AVG and OBP in half a season with us, and you want to lock him up now!? He is much, much more likely to regress to career norms than stay at his current value. ALSO he is a catcher, who we all know age so well into their mid-30s. Just a month ago half of this board was clamoring to sit him half the time to start Pinto. Instead we want to sign Susuki to a 2-3 year deal and watch Pinto be again blocked? Saying the only viable options at C next year are AJ and Russel Martine are very short sided. If the Twins are out of the mix by the deadline, I deal him for spects, promote Pinto, see how he does and go from there.

As much as I was all for DFA'ing Burton in April, the last 7 weeks he has been much better. In 9IP in April he gave up 3 HR, walked 8 while only striking out 5. Since then in 22IP, he has given up 2 HR, walking 7 and striking out 18. While he hasn't been overly amazing, his ERA has been much closer to league average. With a solid track record the past 2 seasons and the fact he is owed 1.6M or so for the rest of the season, why rush to replace him? Sure any of the AAA arms COULD put up better numbers, but they might struggle as well. Now....I would like to see him pitch in less crucial spots than he has been, but I don't understand the vendetta.

9+ years he has spent in the Twins minor league system. One of those things I truly love about baseball. The guy is 30 years old, finally going to get a taste of the big leagues. Good luck Yohan!

Which moves did the Twins miss out on when they had the nucleus to win it all? Sure there have been some bad moves....mainly the Nishioka and Hardy situation. Ramos can't stay healthy in Washington, outside of a few decent years Garza has been a league average starter and you really reaching if we are still going back almost 12 years on Ortiz. Livan was a Twin for 6 months, and he out dueled Jared Weaver in that opening day starter for a win. Opening Day starter means nothing anyways. The discarded Carlos Gomez for JJ Hardy and he didn't start to hit until 3 years after they traded him. Gomez's last line as a Twin is worse than what Hicks is putting up this season. Lohse was a deadline trade in a contract year who didn't become an above average pitcher until he got to St. Louis 3 years later. Dickey was a 34 year old who had never been good before after he the team. This is the first season since leaving the Twins that Neshek has posted a FIP below 4.5. While it's easy to count the "mistakes" why is it seemingly hard to count what they have done right? The found Casey Fien, Caleb Theilbar and Jared Burton off the scrap heap. Even the Liriano trade netted Escobar, whom at 25, is looking like he could become a serviceable major league player. What do the White Sox have to show for that deal? The Willingham free agency deal has worked out. Susuki and Hughes look like steals at what they signed him for at this point. Meyer and May both have huge potential while Span and Revere are struggling mightily for their respected teams. Even right now Gilmartin is looking a lot better than the .200/.230/.270 Doumit is putting up for Atlanta while making 3.5M. I like ripping management as much as the next guy but if the only good moves in the last 15 years you can come up with are (Nathan/Liriano, Meyer, and maybe Stewart) I think you need to look a little deeper.

I'm hoping this recent stretch of good pitching from KC will give him just enough trade value to land a prospect of at least a little value at the deadline, and I'm hoping that's the Twins plan as well.

Too early to even think about getting rid of Nolasco. You just don't sign a FA like that and give up on him after less than a half of baseball. He wasn't exactly helped out by that defense yesterday either.

3 hits, on base base 4/5 times and twice those hits came with two strikes. Really hope this gets things going for him, he hit the ball solid all day.

Ah, 3 batters faced from our old pal Korecky and the bases are loaded. How bout a slam?

Drew has always been an average bat with an above average glove with an inability to stay healthy. He has been healthy for long periods of time 1 out of the last 4 years. In the position the Twins were before the season and Drew's asking price, I roll the dice with the draft pick every day of the week.

The Twins took a different approach in it was not a planned rebuild. The 2010 team won 94 games and had a roster that was primed to do it again in 2011. What they didn't plan on was missing 328 combined games from Mauer, Morneau, Kubel and Span. The only position players to appear in more than 100 games were Cuddy, Valencia and Revere. There was also the fact Nathan was just coming of TJ surgery, Baker was great...until injuries derailed him in July and Liriano & Pavano were shells of what he was the year before. You go from a playoff team to a team that lost 99 games with a similar but injury ravished roster in one season. 2012 they had hope that 2011 was just an aberration with the injuries, but the team had no pitching and last season was obviously a rebuilding year. Talk all you want about the age on this team, the fact is the only guys over 31 won't be here long (Willingham, Guerrier, Bartlett (already gone), Correia, Burton, Kubel and Fuld). No player on that list is in the long term plan and there's a great chance all of them are gone after this season. There's a chance that when they break camp next year, Mauer at age 32 might be the elder statesmen of the entire team. After that most of the starters on the team are under the age of 30. Taking Nolasco and Mauer out of the equation (Both above average starters at age 31) you have Plouffe at 28, Hughes 28, Dozier 27, Gibson 26, Pinto 25, Hicks 24 and Arcia 23. The core of this team is between the ages of 23-28 and not to mention has one, if not the best system in baseball. As much slack as a lot of posters, including myself give the front office, IMO the Twins have done a pretty decent rebuild considering it didn't really start until after the 2011 season and realistically into the 2012 season. The future is bright my friends.

Well I certainly didn't say it was do-able, if I were the Twins though I'd be hard pressed to give up anything more than that with the current OF in the system.

I really think it depends on the prospect. Fien and a C prospect? Get it done. THe real question would be what to do with Jay after this season.

I agree with his 2nd point about learning to hit RH pitching from the right side on the fly, and I think most of us agree it should be in AAA. But I strongly dislike he used the phrase "embarrassing for all" for Hicks to give up hitting left handed. I think it would be more embarrassing for him to try and stick to something he doesn't feel comfortable doing against major league pitching and continue to struggle. A lot of posters here have been saying for years he should give it up. I think it's more of a mature thing to do than an embarrassing one. Just my two cents.

It looks like it's a phone app, but I'm not sure which one. Or MLB.com mobile site maybe?

Well the Mets are still paying Bobby Bonilla 1.19M every year until 2035 and he hasn't played for them in 15 years so....that one is pretty bad.

How many teams have 2 catchers that both have bats good enough to warrant being in the lineup everyday? I would have to assume the Twins are in a rare position here. That being said, if one of them were to get hurt in game, would it really be the worst thing in the world to give up the DH spot for at max a full game?

Love the Eggs Benedict.

Fien is 30 years old. Let him go arbitration and play it year by year, he has been good, but relievers aren't THAT hard to find out there. If a deadline offer came around from a team looking to invest in a closer, they would have to take a serious look at it.

Best case scenerio? I know a lot of people are down on him, but best case scenario to me is he turns it around with the bat and becomes a productive corner OF.

Trade him at the deadline. I'm just going to assume his hitting is not going to keep up at current pace and realistically the Twins should be on the outside looking at around the deadline. Grab a prospect or two out of him while he has value and let Pinto start full time. The same thing they should have done with Willingham instead of extending him as well. Get value while value is there, especially for vets on short contracts, at least IMO.

I honestly don't know what people expected out of this team. The rainouts at the end of the month really did something to hitting. 3-7 in 10 games since then averaging just over 3 runs per game and only scoring 5 or more twice. This 4 game set alone they went 1-3 scoring just 10 runs. I don't think it's depressing they are in last place with a 15-18 record right now. After that 15-15 start last year they proceeded to go 51-81. Way too early to be calling anything "a sinking ship."

The smart guess has to be Hicks and Arcia......but brass has been known to surprise us!

As much as I love to question the front office you make a good point. At what point before the season did the organization ask...what if all 4 OF go on the DL, and Mauer is hurting causing Bello to play 1B? What are we going to do then?? Yes, today's lineup was a cluster, but it was just patchwork in 1 day game in Cleveland in early May of a long season. If we were in mid-July and still having this kind of roster, I might be more concerned.

Dozier also leads the team in walks by a wide margin. While I'm not one of those thinkers who thinks you need speed at the top of the lineup, having someone that gets on base is a must for me. If he can keep the OBP up, I don't see why we can't stay leading off for now.