kab21

I would have already traded for Kinsler if I didn't have Dozier. but you aren't going to get much interest for him in this league. Even contenders seem to be rebuilding all of the time. If a player is over 30 you might as well consider him dead. I have never bothered to trade guys like cuddyer or Buehrle because I wouldn't get anything and they keep producing. Singlehandedly the most undervalued asset in this league. I live in the now.

finally took the Mccann trade. I was still using him as a platoon 1Bman since gillaspie can't hit lefties and I'm not even sure he will keep hitting but cuddyer, Votto or Vargas could be back/up in the next month. I need starters now. I'm down to 4 along with a couple of guys that have been called up and sent down pretty much every other week so far this season.

Why is everyone regarding Vargas as being green and not ready? he turns 24 in a week with more than half a season of AA ball. He barely even needs to worry about playing defense. It's not like we are talking about a 21 yr old, that hasn't played AA ball and plays a key defensive position (Polanco). The reason that I see him not being promoted is that the team wants full time AB's for Colabello, Parmelee, Arcia and Willy. I think this fascination will pass and Vargas will be up in August. edit - J was a little faster typing but yeah...

Why pay if you find a way not to? Another thing I never liked about BR was the lack of consistency from article to article. There were several catchy article titles that really failed to deliver anything other than the obvious or the writing just sucked (very amateur). You get what you pay for.

But this really isn't a reason. SD made this move to dump Headley and save money before he becomes a FA. I think they would have taken most anyone in return. Headley is an excellent buy low this offseason. If the Twins didn't have sano coming soon or if they didn't plan to keep him at 3B he would be a great target.

you just aren't making sense. Basically you are all over the place. You complain about all of the pitching changes but you are against something that would allow pitchers to pitch a little deeper into the game. do you have any correlation that a six rotation usually pitching on 6 days rest would abuse pitchers? Darvish and Lewis are claiming that the extra rest was very beneficial even though they throw more pitches/start in Japan. There should be absolutely no reason that they would need to add another long man since overall bullpen innings would be reduced. The one big problem is that there just aren't enough MLB caliber starters available and one of the not talked reasons for the steroid era was that expansion in the 90's diluted the pitching ranks. I cringe at the thought of the Twins needing to find 6 worthwhile starters since they can't even find 5 (or 4, 3, 2, 1?) most years.

just another reason to hate BR. The problem with this situation is that to be a writer you need published work but to get published work you basically need to start for free. I have thought about doing similar work for travel sites but it's just not worth it for the additional work I would need to do. I write my personal blog and there's no pressure or conforming and it remains fun.

I didn't think this would happen to me but people weren't lying about this. Ugh...

Dominating requires stuff as much as results. Basically the Dodgers sold high on his results. this was still a massive overpay for butera though. If you look at this year's results he has a 6.5 K/9. meh...

I think May would have been an option if he hadn't just spent a month on the DL. Kind of silly to give a kid that is a prospect his first big league taste when he is rusty. Meyer is a case where you don't pick the best pitcher but rather the best thing for his development. I think the Twins are more concerned about Meyer's arm than they let on and prefer him to be working on things where he might not try to find that extra oomph. there's also the issue of the 4.5 BB/9. Usually those numbers get worse at the MLB level so I can understand working on that in AAA before calling him up and potentially struggling. This topic would have been quite funny if it was more relevant. Instead it's just another 'the Twins FO are idiots' thread.

It's very difficult to build that established core if you keep trading from that core for maybe's that maybe will become that core in 2-4 years. I would like to have a few guys in place before the cost controlled years of Buxton/Sano are being wasted on a team at the bottom of the rebuilding phase. If anything the Twins should be looking at adding guys like Dozier that are in their prime with 4-5 years of guaranteed team control left. Not trading them away. If Dozier was set to be a FA in 2 years then I could see an argument for moving him

The Garza's comparison is interesting. Garza's biggest issue was that all he wanted to do is throw fastballs and he basically fought with the pitching coaches about it. To the point where he was labeled uncoachable. Ironically his best seasons (ERA and xFIP) were with the Cubs and he threw his fastball very little. However I wouldn't say that promoting him in 2006 was the wrong move. He destroyed the minors that season and in my opinion had to get knocked around at the MLB so he would listen to his coaches. Meyer's issues are different. Garza wasn't injured the year before and Meyer does have some control issues. I would like to see Meyer up but I don't think the Twins are necessarily wrong in keeping him down. I hope that he at least gets a late season callup because the only reason not to is to reduce his service time which means that there will be an incentive to keep him down starting next season.

Adrenaline has very little to do with not feeling the pain while playing baseball. While you are playing baseball your body is still loose and warm. The problem comes when you stop playing and your body tightens up and the swelling increases. By the next day after a night of sleep your body is so tight and the area so swollen that it hurts like hell trying to move that area.

Why would they have to carry more RP'ers? With more rest pitchers could stay in the game longer and reduce the need for so many RP'ers. The big problem with this is that it requires less brilliant managing. Modern baseball managers are geniuses for using 5 RP'ers for 3 innings of work.

The Headley trade shouldn't be looked at what kind of package can X player get. This is a straight up salary dump of a struggling player that is becoming a FA in the offseason.

Butera didn't bring in a dominating A type of prospect with potential. He brought in a non-dominant RP'ing prospect (SP'er for now) that doesn't project as an MLB'er. One that was later traded for a mediocre utility IF'er. it was a coup for the Twins but neither Sulbaran or Nunez are anything to brag about.

The problem is that the Twins don't have the pieces to get someone like Leake (or anywhere close to it) and a contender isn't going to trade one of its starters unless absolutely necessary.

Are you honestly blaming Suzuki for Nolasco's disaster, KC's normalness, Deduno's ineffectiveness or Pelfrey's complete ineffectiveness? I think it's silly that this site seems to blame the pitching coach and the catcher more for sucky pitching than the pitcher himself. there are certainly better catchers out there but things could be MUCH, MUCH worse than Suzuki offensively and defensively.

This isn't how baseball works. It's a team sport and you could have the best player in the world and still lose 96 games. To build a good team you need a core of really good players (such as Dozier) supported by players that don't suck (Plouffe) while avoiding players that completely suck (Fryer, Florimon, Kubel). If you trade every good player that you have away using your argument then you will never build that core. And you will certainly delay it by a couple of years. My target would be to start building that core now and hope to get the most out of Buxton's and Sano's pre FA years instead of being at the same place we are now for 2-3 of those years. this doesn't mean that Dozier is untouchable but rather that the Twins would have to be blown away by an offer.

And the Twins should be regarded as incompetent for not knowing the rules in the Travis Lee situation just as the Astros are in this situation. The difference is that the Twins were being nice and were allowing Lee to wrap up whatever summer competition (Olympics I think) he had going on before starting contract negotiations. Unfortunately Lee's agent used a loophole to screw the Twins. The Astros on the other hand were just trying to screw over the player. The MLB has wanted hard slotting for a long time and it's this kind of situation that could bring the MLBPA on board. Once that happens HS players don't have any leverage other than saying don't draft me if it isn't in the top X picks since there isn't any real negotiating to be done as far as contract value. This also greatly reduces the need of an agent before the contract is signed.

I'm perfectly fine with Suzuki for 2 yrs and double his salary for the same reason you say to not trade Plouffe. Pinto would be the starter but there are a lot of AB's for some crappy AAA guy and if Pinto gets injured/struggles then there A LOT of AB's for some scrubs. The reality is that a .250 hitting catcher isn't that uncommon and behind Pinto is a likely .150 hitting catcher. Correia has never had any real value. It hasn't gone up or down based on any of his starts this season. Best case scenario is that the Twins could get someone to pay his contract and get a future utility IF'er in return. That is and always has been the extent of Corriea's value.

The knew the likely demands before they drafted both of them. The issue here is the non-injury injury. I don't think that is a valid excuse to renege on an agreed upon but not signed offer. As for the 2nd player that sucks but that is the draft game. He knew that the only way the Astros could go overslot was to sign Aiken. When that fell apart so did his offer. I expect to see some more tweaking in the draft and int'l signings during the next CBA. They made significant progress in both areas but they clearly didn't think a few things through. I have been rather indifferent about the Astros but I'm not a fan at how they are conducting themselves and it will be interesting to see how this impacts them in the future in the draft and in FA.

I think they would trade Cingrani but certainly not for guys like willy and Suzuki. suzuki might get a prospect in the Adam Walker (optimistic end), Travis Harrison or Goodrum/FJorge type. I don't think he would bring back anyone close to Vargas, Polanco or Thorpe. I really don't see the reason that he needs to be traded if that is the return when the catching depth behind Pinto is exceptionally awful.

This thread is a painful read. Why on Earth should the Twins trade on its only good, established, young players because he will be a FA in 5 years? His value will still be very high in 2-3 years. The Twins do have a couple of nice 2B prospects but they are still question marks and this team DOES NOT NEED more question marks on the field. Parmelee hasn't shown any indication that he has turned a corner. He had 40 some awesome AB's in June and 40 some terrible AB's in July. He's nothing more than backup OF'er. Finally some people have come to their senses on Fuld. Plouffe shouldn't be moved anywhere or traded until Sano is actually back at 3B and knocking on the MLB door. I'm not convinced Sano will be at 3B for long and Plouffe is actually a solid MLB 3Bman despite everyone's angst against him. The fact is that despite a supposed depth of OF'ers that almost everyone thinks the Twins have they actually have very little depth anywhere. People didn't like my Delmon Young comparison for Arcia a couple of months ago but that is what he is right now. He is an extremely talented raw hitter and he could be a star (so could have Delmon) but he has some big issues that need to be addressed at the MLB level before that happens. Hicks can still come back and be an MLB contributor but his upside has dropped a lot in the last couple of years. Right now I would be happy if he became an solid MLB starter. Buxton can still be an elite player and is really the only OF'er that the Twins have that I would feel comfortable inking in as an MLB starter in 4 years. Walker has hit HR's but can't manage a .300 OBP in A ball. The opposite is true of Harrison (not a 3B for long). He can't hit HR's. Kepler hasn't hit anything. The point is that the Twins OF is hardly an organizational strength that we have thought it was. It's full of players (aside from Buxton and Arcia) that you hope are able to become solid MLB starters but most likely disappoint. It's possible that someone goes Dozier out their depth but you can't count on it. Or it's possible that Rosario and Sano are moved to the OF. At that point the Twins have a good OF but at the price of depth at every other position. And 2014/2015 MLB OF most likely will be below average. Possibly terrible unless Arcia breaks out or Buxton is promoted early.

I would certainly move him for a pitcher like Alex Wood. He shouldn't be viewed as untouchable but this team should not be in a hurry to move him because of Rosario or Polanco. The Braves have a pretty obvious 2Bman as gunnarthor mentions. That 2Bman is like this year's version of Dozier but with a better MiLB resume. He has a cumulative .322/.408/.474/.882 line from the minors.