Thrylos

I'd trade him for Chapman, Betances, Miller, Kimbrel, Britton and a handful of others, any day of the week. "Elite Closer"? As far as relievers go, he is 67th in the majors in K%, 27th in WHIP, and 46th in SIERA. Total 132 relievers > 30 IP. So, subjectively, he is top 1/4 of the RPs. Nothing "Elite" about that...

8 years (2016-2023) : Sano Polanco Buxton Minier Diaz Meyer May Berrios Arcia Gonzalves

Regarding those who want to trade Arcia: I'd love to hear who you think will provide LH power in this team...

Nope. Very early in the season. April 22.

esp. for a fly ball pitcher

Ballpark. Finnegan was #55 and Berrios #36 in the BA list in the beginning of the year. He is a lefty, which is a premium, also he has been successful in the majors. Ballpark. Hard to find exact comparable, but the closer the Twins have is Berrios.

Steep price: 3 LHSPs 22 yo (MLB) Brandon Finnegan (Royals #2 according to BA, MLB #55 according to BA) 24 yo (AAA) John Lamb (MLB #11 in 2011 according to BA) 22 yo (AA) Cody Reed in Twins' terms: Berrios (but LH), Rogers, and Rosario... for a rental.

Add Papelbon, Diekman and Nola and this might be a balanced trade...

Power arms and O'Day belong in the same sentence, as much power arms and Milone. As a matter of fact, O'Day's fastball (86.7 mph average) is slower than Milone's (87.7 mph average; this season.) Orioles' power arms? Tommy Hunter, Keving Gausman, Zach Britton and Brad Brach. The last one and maybe the first one in the list might make sense for both teams, even though Hunter has a down season. I would not mind seeing Brach in a Twins' uniform? O'Day? Not. So. Much.

SSS, but guess which team against which he pitched for 8 innings or more, Cueto has the lowest ERA, WHIP and highest K/9? After this trade, the Royals have a single starter with FIP < 3.59, Cueto. The Twins have 2 (nevermind that neither is in the rotation right now.) The Twins should look to close their holes and not be concerned about what others are doing. The Royals are a couple sweeps away from a tie in the division if the Twins go about their business. But that they should do.

...

Those are trades of prospects for current players. Of course it will take time for the prospects to show value. We are talking about major leaguers here...

Derek, Dan or Bud Norris? Neither of them are shortstops. If you are talking about the 26 year old Catcher with career slash line like Suzuki's (.241/.320/.393 vs .255/.312/.371), no way.

Based on scouts gut feelings? Alright, two words: Todd Van Poppel (ok 3)

This is not a dilemma at all: Does Duffy project as a top of the rotation pitcher? Are there other starting pitcher who prospects who project higher than him? (N and Y.) So you make him a reliever (in Rochester) and hope he becomes a top line reliever (think Perkins) or trade him. Cannot bring average prospects up and hope to win. As far as 2015 goes, May got dibs on the next rotation spot, and if they need another starter from the minors it will likely be Berrios, based on all the noise by the newspapers on Berrios these days. That is the Twins' FO MO... The writing is on the wall.

I am higher on Polanco than Buxton... Same age, different production and one of them actually does not hurt himself all the time. Guess who is better?

MLB.tv ($120 a season for every single game, or 75 cents a game.)

Welcome from about 4 hrs S from there. Trying to answer your questions: -Twins' fans are great towards Twins' fans anywhere. The Twins themselves do not think that Twins' fans exist outside MN. -As far as History goes, the Twins' franchise was one of the AL founding franchises and started in Washington as the Senators; moved to MN in 1961. Lots of books to read out there, but Shirly Povich's Senators book is an excellent place to start for the early days, unfortunately there are not any books that good for the MN years. Thorney's Minnesota Twins' Baseball is pretty good, but synoptic. Arguably, the best book written about the Twins is for the 1965 World Series team, Cool Of The Evening: The 1965 Minnesota Twins by Jim Thielman. - Good eye for picking up players. Arcia, Polanco and Tonkin have been in the majors, Ortiz is an interesting guy who is getting better every season. Arcia and Polanco will be up again this season. Likely Achter. Not so sure about Tonkin. - Top up and comers are Miguel Sano, Jorge Polanco and Byron Buxton (in my book) - Some of us follow the minors. I actually watch the Red Wings play occasionally Nice to have Twins' fans on the east coast!

Sure. Ramos for Capps?

Barraclough was drafted by the Twins in 2011 (but didn't sign.) TJ Chargois might be a good comparable for the Twins these days. Chishek's velocity dropped 2-3 mph across the board this season, which makes me think that he is hurt. Not. Good. Twins' dodged a bullet with this one...

I really see no reason for Milone to be in the rotation instead of May, other than because they want a lefty. May should start, period. There are problems of transitioning starters into relievers (and potentially back) and has to do with warming up and getting ready, routine before starts and frequency vs. intensity of pitching, as well as recovery period after pitching. Few people can master and make the transition successfully during the season. That's why I suspect that May is not used in High Leverage situations out of the pen, or that often. I was all for May to be on the pen, and I think that he will be good there, but the transition should had happened during ST. He has been successful as a starter, and he should had stayed there; not the weakest link in that rotation

I think that, if anything, Law is guilty of overvaluing some Twins' prospects like Buxton and Gordon and maybe even Berrios.

In the first part of this series, I suggested that the Twins trade Danny Santana, Mike Tonkin and Jake Reed to the Oakland Athletics for Ben Zorbrist and Tyler Clippard; and to promote Jorge Polanco as their starting shortstop. In the second part of this series, I suggested that the Twins trade Tommy Milone and Jason Wheeler to the Phillies for C Carlos Ruiz and LHP Jake Diekman and move Trevor May back to their rotation. With these 2 trades, they would address their deficiencies at Catcher and Shortstop positions and would add a RH and a LH set up pitcher. They would also add post-season experience and one of the most versatile players in the game in Ben Zorbrist. This third trade would be the cherry on the top, not only allowing them to improve both the pen and the rotation and add considerable bench help, but building for the future as well, and it is a blockbuster. and addressing another elephant in the living room: Lack of LH power. Trade number 3: The Twins send Oswaldo Arcia, Ervin Santana, Casey Fien and Blair Boyer to the San Diego Padres of SP Tyson Ross, RHP Joaquin Benoit and OF Melvin (don't call me BJ) Upton. I thought hard about that one, and it can help, but there is a catch: Other than Oswaldo Arcia (and switch hitting Kennys Vargas) The Twins do not have much left handed power, so: The Twins trade OF Eddie Rosario to the Miami Marlins for RHP Carter Capps and Minor League LHP Raudel Lazo Why would the Twins do it? 24 year old RHP Carter Capps (no relation to you know who) has the third fastest fastball in the majors averaging 98.1 mph, routinely reaching triple digits, leads the majors with 49.5% K%, has a miniscule 1.37 ERA (and even smaller 1.16 FIP and 1.07 xFIP,) spots a 0.750 WHIP (with an average .293 BABIP) and has probably the most devastating knuckle-slider in baseball. Why would the Marlins give him away? Well... they do not like him. It might be the delivery. It might be something else, but they do not like him. And they do have AJ Ramos and Sam Dyson ahead of him; and maybe for a good reason. But he is hot. The hottest pitcher around. The Twins should take advantage of that. Raudel Lazo might be a relatively unknown, as he is a 26 year old who just got promoted to AA, but is a Cuban defector who just started to find himself, and on the mount could be Aroldis Chapman's little brother. Giving up Eddie Rosario might hurt, but with Aaron Hicks finding himself, needing Arcia's left hand power badly, Byron Buxton up and coming and Max Kepler and Adam Brett Walker in the wings, Rosario is expandable. And you have to give quality to get quality. Lazo would likely play for Chattanooga in this scenario and would compete for a spot next season. Oswaldo Arcia would get called up to take Rosario's spot. Why would the Marlins do it? They have a huge need of outfielders, with no OF prospects in the pipeline. Rosario is versatile, will hit, can play all OF positions well and can run well and all they have to give are two players they do not count on for the long run. Plus Eddie gets to play an hour away from home by plane. Recap: Here is what the Twins' roster would look after these trades (newly acquired or promoted in italics) : C - Ruiz 1B - Mauer 2B - Dozier 3B - Plouffe SS - Polanco LF - Arcia CF - Hicks RF - Hunter DH - Sano Bench - Suzuki Bench - Zobrist (rotating to OF and SS and playing 80% of games) Bench - Robinson (Buxton waiting) Bench - Escobar Bench - Nunez (*) SP - Hughes SP - Gibson SP - Santana SP - Pelfrey SP - May CL - Perkins (L) RP - Diekman (L) RP - Clippard RP - Capps RP - Duensing (L) RP - Graham (*) Alternatively another pitcher (eg. Pressly) might occupy that spot.

Here.