Thegrin

We have the $$ available. Lets re-sign Pelfrey now. Secure him through 2015. The worst that can happen is he becomes Nick Blackburn.

I can visualize a coach running next to Sano screaming, "What the F*** are u waiting for ? Move your as*! We don't need no f**king statues out there!" etc etc etc

I think it is time to talk about TR's risk avoidance strategy. In football and basketball it is often said that the team that makes the least mistakes wins. In baseball they say, "Don't give them more than 27 outs." Why is running a BB front office so different? TR trys to avoid obvious mistakes. He doesn't overpay players, just because other GM's are. He doesn't pay average pitchers as if they were studs. He tries not to make obviously stupid moves very often. Check back in 2 years and see if Myers or May has made an impact on the rotation. We may be remembering not Correia & Pelfrey fondly and saying 2013 as a bad year because of the failure of Myer and May. We'll be saying that we traded 2 major league hitters/center fielders for unproven prospects that the other team didn't want. What "obviously stupid" trades they turned out to be. TR takes risks when he thinks the results are worth the risk.

Last year Diamond was throwing up and down, in and out, constantly changing speeds. This year he is laboring to hit his spots. He has been painful to watch.

Gibson showed he was not ready to come up in AAA. Again, he showed he was not ready, once promoted to the Twins. I don't think they had "no intention of promoting him until after he was safely past all potential arbitration strictures." I think they made a sound baseball decision to delay his introduction to the Big Leagues. However, after Monday's game, perhaps, if Gibson had been brought up early, he would have progressed at a faster rate and we would have had Monday's Gibson from June forward. (Of course, I am being wildly optimistic about Gibson's future performance. You overlooked Hendriks, in your list of injured. Taking Worley was an inexpensive risk, and coming out of Spring Training, it looked like it might pay off. Signing Perez and Harden were small investments with the potential for a big payoff. Hardly something that TR should be criticized for.

Ryan re-signed Deduno and Walters to minor league contracts. They could have gone elsewhere. According to Minnesota Twins Roster & Payroll 2013 by Jeremy Nygaard, Vance Worley *(Vance Worley (3/31 - 5/22) spent 53 days in the Majors. $525,000 x 53/183 = $152,049) $152,049 is hardly worth complaining about. *Mike Pelfrey can earn an additional $1.5 million in incentives in 2013. ($100K @150IP; $150K @160IP; $250K @170,180,190IP; $500K @200IP). At Pelfrey's current level of success, he is likely to receive all or most of these incentive payments. * http://twinsdaily.com/1272-minnesota-twins-roster-payroll-2013.html

After yesterday's performance, I think Pelfrey can be considered a success for Ryan. Perhaps Ryan will spend some of the $20 million, that he supposedly had available, to sign Pelfrey to a long-term contract. Besides pitching well in the last half of the season, he also is reported to be a good guy in the clubhouse.

It appears that Virgil Vasquez, now in New Britain, may be the most ML ready pitcher we have in the minors.

Maybe Hicks will learn something after watching Morneau's slide in tonight's game.

What happened in April and May is called history. We now can anticipate a good result when Pelfrey is pitching.

This is an opportunity for Hicks needs to run the base-paths like his hair was on fire. Not only would he score on situations like this, but he would look good doing it.

Since June Pelfrey has had Quality Starts in 4 of his 6 starts and given the Twins a chance to win in all of them. Plus, if you watch the games, his control is improving, his speed is up and his balls seem to break harder.

Last night was great fun. We are lucky to have Deduno. He reminds me a little of Dave Stewart. 30 years old when he emerged as a top starter. He is the only pitcher that I expect to win (and keep my fingers crossed while watching.)

1) We can't judge the Free Agents of 2013 Free Agents until the 2013 season is done. We have 66 games to find out: A) if Deduno can be a dependable starter despite his control issues. if Pelfrey can be a solid, innings-eating starter. C) if Gibson is more than just a prospect. D) if Diamond can regain his 2012 form. E) if Correia can actually throw 200 innings. F) if Blackburn can come back. G) if any of the other Rochester pitchers finish the season strong. H) if Myers and/or Mays shows they can be moved up. When we have analyzed the Twins pitchers and seen what the 2013 Free Agent pitchers did for a full year, Then we can measure the success of failure of last off season. 2) Ryan took over for Smith in the fall of 2011. Kubel and Cuddyer wanted more money than they were worth. Ryan tried to improve the Twins and A) Signed Willingham for 3 years. Signed Doumit and later signed him for 2 more years. (These 2 signings out-produced Kubel and Cuddyer in 2012) C) Signed Carroll to steady the young infielders. D) Signed Burton for 3 years. E) Picked up Fien, Wilkin Ramirez, Deduno and Florimon as minor league Free Agents. F) Picked up Matoianni and Clete Thomas on waivers. G) Signed Thielbar and Colabello from independent leagues. (What other GM can show any similar success. (I feel like I forgot someone, but that is a truly impressive collection of moves.) 3) 2013 Free Agent pitchers looked at the Twins infielders and saw there was little chance of improving them from Free Agency. Then the Twins traded away BOTH their center fielders. Free agent pitchers were not impressed with the Twins defense. This meant that if a pitcher was going to sign a one-year contract and hope to improve their stats for 2014, the Twins were not the team for them. 4) All of the pitching Free Agents of 2013, with the exception of Greinke average about 6 innings per start. There is no sense investing big money and long contacts on a 6 inning pitcher. 5) So far, Ryan got us Correia, Pelfrey, Presley, Roenicke as success's weighed against Worley. I'd say Ryan's off season was pretty good. 6) At least once a week I consult and give thanks for [h=3]Minnesota Twins Roster & Payroll 2013[/h] by Jeremy Nygaard

There are so many reasons to watch a Twins game. Watching Gibson progress and struggle is one of them. Every pitch carries hope and fear. This season is fun, regardless of their record. Of course we want more wins, but the results are not as important as the progress.

Will Valencia be among those banned ? or is he too small.

"According to Fangraphs, Morneau has been worth about $3.6 million this season and was worth $1.2 million last season. If the Twins can sign him to a reasonable contract, say 2 years, $14 million, then sure, go ahead. A longer or more lucrative contract is a waste of money." I loved Morneau before his injury. I'd like to see him as a lifetime Twin. However, according to your fangraph analysis, paying $14 million for 2 years would be paying far too much, for a player that could be replaced by Mauer, Plouffe, Parmalee and Colobello.

The Twins could have a + .500 record for a number of reasons. The strength of schedule is a good reason. The pitchers will pitch better and hitters will hit better. Much of the complaining will be forgotten. We have started by winning the first 2 of our last 70 games. The Twins play within the division for most of August. We only have 5 games with Toronto and 3 games with Tampa. We have a few games against Texas, Oakland and the Angels, but we have a bunch of games against Houston. If the Twins don't do well against this schedule, they deserve all the criticism that they get.

There are many ways the Twins can spend money to help the team. Unnecessarily paying the rest of Morneau's contract is not one of them. I doubt any team is willing to give up a decent prospect for him. I'd rather see the Twins invest in a long term contract for one or more of their upcoming talents (Hicks, Arcia, Sano, Gibson, Rosario or Buxton). Let us hope that the Twins can make sound investments for their future.

NOBODY is going to give us anything of value for Morneau. NOBODY! Don't trade him. Try and sign him for a reasonable contract (unless Colobello turns into a monster).

I expect to see Rosario with the Twins in 2014.

Depth Chart - Catcher All-Star Summary Monday July 15, 2014 Twins AB BA OBP SLG OPS Herrmann, C 13 .462 .533 .769 1.303 Mauer, J 353 .320 .402 .473 .875 Doumit, R 295 .237 .295 .393 .689 Roch AAA AB BA OBP SLG OPS Drew Butera 62 .242 .279 .355 .634 Eric Fryer 118 .186 .333 .322 .655 New Brit AA AB BA OBP SLG OPS Josmil Pinto 321 .318 .424 .511 .935 Dan Rohlfing 160 .250 .349 .300 .649 Kyle Knudson 47 .255 .345 .277 .622 Ft Meyer A+ AB BA OBP SLG OPS Matt Koch 239 .293 .363 .427 .790 Jairo Rodriguez 90 .244 .255 .267 .522 Cedar Rap A AB BA OBP SLG OPS Tyler Grimes 184 .261 .400 .435 .835 Michael Quesada 114 .193 .273 .281 .554 E-Town Rk AB BA OBP SLG OPS Mitch Garver 59 .288 .348 .441 .789 Stuart Turner 32 .219 .357 .250 .607 Bryan Santy 31 .258 .281 .290 .572 GCL Rk AB BA OBP SLG OPS Brian Navarreto 40 .275 .383 .500 .883 Jorge Fernandez 43 302 .311 .488 .799 Alex Swim 37 .297 .422 .351 .774 Joel Polanco 26 .231 .313 .346 .659

Depth Chart - Catcher Sunday July 14, 2014 J. Mauer C 4 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 .320 R. Doumit RF 5 1 1 0 0 0 2 0 3 .237 Chris Herrmann C 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 .227 Josmil Pinto DH 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 .318 Dan Rohlfing LF 3 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 .250 Jairo Rodriguez C 5 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 .244 Michael Quesada C 3 1 1 1 0 0 0 1 2 .193 Bryan Santy C 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 .258

I've forgotten Span and Revere already. Besides, Hicks will be playing RF as soon as Buxton comes up.

Depth Chart - Catcher Saturday July 13, 2013 Joe Mauer DH 4 0 2 0 1 0 0 0 1 .321 Ryan Doumit C 4 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 2 .238 Drew Butera C 4 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 .242 Josmil Pinto C 3 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 .320 Dan Rohlfing DH 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .255 Matt Koch C 4 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 .293 Tyler Grimes C 4 2 2 0 0 1 1 0 0 .261 Mitch Garver C 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .288 Brian Navarreto C 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 .275