Thrylos

Sanchez is a really good NL pitcher. Unless someone has a bit of success in the AL, I will have a hard time translating those numbers. With the P up at least 2-3 time before he is lifted, to try to make AL equivalents of the DH, you got to subtract about 2 K/9, add about 1 BB/9 and add about .200 to the WHIP. Add those to Sachez' numbers and you got career about 1.500 WHIP, 5.7 K/9 and 3.5 BB/9. Which is Blackburn-like. True performance will be someplace between these numbers and what he had in the NL, but still...

Delgado was #46 prospect this season and #35 last season according to the BA. If the Twins get a 22 year old MLB-ready SP top 50 prospect for Liriano, it would not be bad at all...

I tried to find the source for this... it is Tim Brown's and the original is here. From what he wrote (which is a whole sentence ) : The Twins are listening to other teams and not actively shopping him. Major difference. As far as the return goes, most likely he got the info from a team that asked the Twins for Morneau. That is what the Twins asked from that team. Not to assume that the asking price would be the same for every team... Also, TR was saying that he wanted A-level talent because he expects that at that level, the return will be better. Unless he is lying, something does not add up.

Rangers, Orioles, Nationals, Angels, Dodgers, Red Sox, Tigers, Giants, Pirates are all looking for SPs. Scratch the Tigers out (for obvious reason), and this is more teams than pitchers available which is good news for the Twins. Only if Pavano did not decide to take a sabbatical... Liriano should definitely return something better than Dempster did. We'll see how Ryan plays it, but many of the teams who are looking for SPs are also looking for CFs so a packaging of Liriano and Span might bring some really good stuff back...

Well... the problem is that most "front line starters" would like 5+ year deals. The Twins (correctly) are not doing that . So their changes to get a top starter through Free Agency are nil. Unless they offer Liriano 1y $12.5 M contract (if they do not trade him) and he for some reason accepts

The Sano for Price trade talk reminds me of a trade of a top Latin American prospect (and others) for a 25 year old former 1st round pick (2nd overall) Starting Pitcher. Of course lots of others were involved... Josh Beckett, Mike Lowell and Guillermo Mota to the Boston Red Sox and Jesus Delgado, Harvey Garcia, Hanley Ramirez and Anibal Sanchez to the Florida Marlins. This trade (and actually Lowell closed another hole for the BOSox and Mota was flipped to Cleveland) was essential for the Red Sox' championships but I am not sure that they would do it again. Ramirez is a superstar and Sanchez a better than average SP, while Lowell is retired and Beckett has dropped to average level... but 2 rings are 2 rings.

Is Storen back? I thought he was out for the season. Alex Meyer would be nice but not sure that the Nats will let him go.

well... I think that it is a chicken and egg situation. The previous 2 seasons Twins' pitchers had the worst ERA and the highest opponent OPS with Butera rather than any other catcher. This season has been reversed. I suspect Liriano has a lot to do with that trend Here are the numbers (for the total Twins' pitching staff) : 2010: Butera: ERA 4.13, OOPS .747, Mauer: ERA 3.81, OOPS .723, Ramos: ERA 3.29, OOPS .707, 2011: Butera: ERA 4.92, OOPS .794, Mauer: ERA 4.43, OOPS .775, Rivera: ERA 3.91, OOPS .716, 2012: Butera: ERA 3.84, OOPS .655, Mauer: ERA 5.46, OOPS .851, Doumit: ERA 5.06, OOPS .801, So basically using your argument, based on 2011, Rivera and not Butera should have been the Twins' backup catcher.

Keiunta really gunned that runner at the plate last night with his gun...

They are on pace for 68 wins. 68 would keep fans in the park and 63 will drive them away? They suck. Period. Gotta do something to change the team. I don't think that trading your best power hitter (Willingham) is that something, no matter how awful he is on the field. In this league there is a DH.

Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch ---- With the non-waiver trade deadline just 8 days or so away, I decided to have a pretty much daily look at the talk surrounding the Minnesota Twins' activity in the trade market. To do this, I need to do establish a "baseline" of what is already been reported. So I am listing (with public sources) the players who have been mentioned in trade talks and the teams linked to them. From tomorrow on, the news will be posted as they come on a daily or so basis. I am excluding players currently in the DL, even though they have been mentioned in trade talks, like Carl Pavano and Matt Capps. Here is the list: Denard Span: New York Yankees (apparently the Yankees have asked and think that the "Twins are asking too much" for Span. Also, in the same piece is listed that the Twins would rather trade Span than Willingham), Washington Nationals, Florida Marlins (mainly due to previous interest.) Cincinnati Reds (also the Nationals are mentioned in this Twins Cities' reference.) Also this Cincinnati reference mentions the Reds as suitors. Fransisco Liriano: Cleveland Indians, Los Angeles Angels, Toronto Blue Jays, Washington Nationals, Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees (scouted him), New York Mets, Atlanta Braves, San Diego Padres, Cincinnati Reds. Several of these teams listed here as "believed to have interest in him and here. Here says that there are "8-10" teams interested in him, without naming names. Josh Willingham: Los Angeles Dodgers (reported that they "checked" on him) Justin Morneau: Los Angeles Dodgers, Toronto Blue Jays (most recently in this piece that also lists the Boston Red Sox and Cincinnati Reds. http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8006/7629811708_82df8bb17b_z.jpg

Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch ---- With the non-waiver trade deadline just 8 days or so away, I decided to have a pretty much daily look at the talk surrounding the Minnesota Twins' activity in the trade market. To do this, I need to do establish a "baseline" of what is already been reported. So I am listing (with public sources) the players who have been mentioned in trade talks and the teams linked to them. From tomorrow on, the news will be posted as they come on a daily or so basis. I am excluding players currently in the DL, even though they have been mentioned in trade talks, like Carl Pavano and Matt Capps. Here is the list: Denard Span: New York Yankees (apparently the Yankees have asked and think that the "Twins are asking too much" for Span. Also, in the same piece is listed that the Twins would rather trade Span than Willingham), Washington Nationals, Florida Marlins (mainly due to previous interest.) Cincinnati Reds (also the Nationals are mentioned in this Twins Cities' reference.) Also this Cincinnati reference mentions the Reds as suitors. Fransisco Liriano: Cleveland Indians, Los Angeles Angels, Toronto Blue Jays, Washington Nationals, Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees (scouted him), New York Mets, Atlanta Braves, San Diego Padres, Cincinnati Reds. Several of these teams listed here as "believed to have interest in him and here. Here says that there are "8-10" teams interested in him, without naming names. Josh Willingham: Los Angeles Dodgers (reported that they "checked" on him) Justin Morneau: Los Angeles Dodgers, Toronto Blue Jays (most recently in this piece that also lists the Boston Red Sox and Cincinnati Reds. http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8006/7629811708_82df8bb17b_z.jpg

Understood and at the field manager level, that should be it. And promotions to the majors and to the higher levels in the minors should be merit based (Like in business. These guys make more $ when at the majors and at higher MiLB levels.) Alas, that is not the case with the Twins. Too many ridiculous promotions and too many inequalities on the way the manager treats players. That said, at the GM and FO level, because unlike in a business where you cannot trade your staff to your competitors and get some of their people in return to improve your business, you can trade players to other clubs. That is why should be seen as assets as well. At that level.

They should had traded him while they were ahead...

Understood, but 99% of the non-players would not mind if their employer traded them to a team in Antarctica, if they were making a few million a year or even half a million minimum wage to play a kid's sport. Trenton is not too bad actually if you are in the right place during day time. And the ball park is pretty nice.

Trades will create space in the roster. And at this point nobody would cry in the Twins DFA Pavano/Walters/Gray and a slew of more people in the 40 man...

Terry Ryan is about to pull a Terry Ryan and trade Liriano to the Yankees for 3 A-level prospects.

OK. so your logical conclusion should be that since the Twins did not break through and win in the post-season, there must be something wrong with them. Correct? Unless 6 times in 9 years is not "enough". So, if you are there enough times and did not break through? Gotta do something? Maybe? And add the cherry of 2 90 plus loss seasons after doing nada with the enough times, and sometimes maybe one gotta stop being Minny nice... Or something.

Amen

Juan Morillo never spent much time with Cuellar. Just a couple of weeks. The Twins got him in the middle of the season (just in time to pitch in that storm in Baltimore), kept him in the majors for a moon, in the minors for a moon and cut him. Hoey was up and down elevator. If you dare to talk about Andy's misses on the other hand... and some of them were severe, like RA Dickey...

Other way around. They thought that he was starter material (not unlike a lot of the college relievers they drafted this year) so he started for a while. Then they scrapped that train of thought

I think that this is one of the most inaccurate truisms around baseball... The Twins have reached the postseason in the 00s plenty of times with nothing to show. If it were a crapshoot, there would be equal possibilities of winning the ALDS and losing the ALDS, equal but half of those the possibilities of winning the ALCS and losing the ALCS, and equal but a quarter the original possibilities of winning the WS and losing the WS. So we have 50% for winning the ALDS, 25% for winning the ALCS and 12.5% for winning the World Series (just math). So if the dice were not loaded, a team that reached the post-season 6 times (like the Twins this millennium), would have gone to the ALCS 3 times, to the WS one or two and would have been a World Champion 1 time. That is what should have happened if it were a crapshoot. Looks like the Twins' dice are loaded. Maybe the Manager of the Millennium is the reason. But something's got to change. If you look at the Yankees' run from 1996-2004, you'd see an example for Dice loaded the other way. not a Crapshoot. There are teams that are built to win in the postseason. The Twins have not been one of those and unless things change and people realize that it is not "luck", nada is going to change...

Some of us have been saying this for years (esp if you look at his track record with Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez and Johan Santana) But Andy is Gardy's buddy.

What I heard (about a couple months ago or so) is that they were targeting teams in the IL South area. Take that with a grain of salt, because I heard that AA and A will be at the Southern and South Atlantic Leagues (so everything is close to Fort Myers, which will serve more like a MiLB/player development hub), and they stayed with NB.

Rochester executives, press and fans have been openly hostile towards the Twins. That team is one of the few MiLB teams whose fans are not fans of the MLB team. Even in New Britain, which is pretty much the same fanbase + Red Sox, fans like the Twins. There is a Twins' fanbase in those parts of CT. Not in Rochester. Plus what they did with the Yankees this season (like selling Yankees' MLB merch through the Rochester Red Wings' website - I do understand doing it in the park- and cancelling Red Wings' games to accommodate the Yankees) is pretty inexcusable any way you put it. Plus the park has seen better days and so has the City (that got really affected by what happened to Kodak). In my book the Twins cannot leave there fast enough... I mean close proximity. Car ride away, like my local Phillies and the Braves do and several other clubs. 2 hrs from call to AAA to the ballpark is a major deal and the difference in playing with a 24 or 25 man roster for an extra game.