TheLeviathan

The rush is that he's gone after next year. His ideal value is right now, any decision after this offseason and you're slashing his value.

"Ew" is all I have for this thread.

The Brewers have a lot of holes.....that's why they're dealing Lucroy and not so much worrying about the impact to their big league roster.

If you're going to reject the idea of going after Wieters, I can understand that. Particularly if you'd prefer we spend that money on the bullpen. But rejecting it based on some fantasy of trading Plouffe for Lucroy? No, I can't understand that.

I agree, trades that will never happen probably do look better than 4/60. Not sure where that gets us.

Man, there must be a tree somewhere that grows 24 year old catchers who hit, field, and never get hurt. Anyone know where it is or care to share the location with the Twins?

Not true. All you have to be is healthy and viewed as the "best" option. (In other words - no competition)

The low risk guys you're talking also have a high likelihood of being no better than what we're trying to upgrade from already.

We're talking about as a mascot right? Obviously the answer is "yes".

The Twins have long equated "pitch innings" with "good". It's one of the biggest problems with the organization's ability to find top-end pitching talent. I'll go out and pitch 200 innings for 4 million and I can assure you it will be anything but "good".

You simply aren't going to find a risk-less FA. By this argument we should just never sign a FA. I don't support that.

Sounds exactly like our CF plan the last few years. In other words, I heartily dis-endorse it.

Those gentleman are not "functional". They are "prayers". If you want to check in on Hedges or Plawecki - sure. But those guys will cost a ransom of near ready young players. Wieters only costs cash and a lottery ticket of a pick. If you're so worried about the cash, charge an extra dollar for every crummy Budweiser you buy at one of the 17,000 bars at Target Field. Call it Waterholes for Wieters. It's just money. We have plenty, why waste time dumpster diving?

His combination of offense and defense is considerably better than anyone else. If your hang-up about catchers is durability...we may want to petition major league baseball for a robot catcher. That's about the only way that concern is going to be avoided.

Who are we trading for? Outside of Norris and (30 year old) Lucroy...who are we acquiring for the "long term" I think people have a completely misguided notion on the availability of functional catchers in baseball.

C'mon Nick, there is a case to be made against Wieters but this isn't it. In every healthy season Wieters has had since his professional start he's been about a .750 OPS player. Soto has done that once and hasn't been a full-time catcher in 5 years. Navarro has only done it twice and only been a full-time catcher twice in his 12 year career. These guys aren't comparable. That's while you'll pay pennies on the dollar compared to Wieters.

AJ isn't even in the same universe as Wieters defensively. We're talking about a high end defensive catcher with a solid bat and all we have to give up is some money and a mid round draft pick? The evidence is abundant that later first round draft picks are more than a bit unreliable for future value. Signing Wieters means we get an immediate upgrade and we give up nothing that will be helping this team in the near future. (As it would to acquire Lucroy) I would be thrilled if we signed him. Thrilled.

Justify? No. My gut tells me they over thought it. The sneak should've been the first down play on a quick count. Then bust out the bag of tricks for a passing try after a tonight.

Snatched defeat from the jaws of victory....

Seemed like a good, down to earth guy. Sad he had to walk away from his dream job on terms that weren't his own. I hope he finds a healthy way to be around what he loves.

Good thing one belief or opinion being stupid isn't a bar we use here at TD to dismiss people or we'd all have no one to talk to.

You can hate an opinion without hating the person. Hell, its important to do that so you can work to change their mind. Fiercely defining a person by one mistake or one belief is a dangerous, and more than a bit preposterous, stance.

I will greatly miss the Funkadelic, it actually relit my interest in the Wolves a bit purely by how likable Flip Saunders was. He and Barreiro made for some excellent radio and that segment will be sorely missed. Barreiro's tribute show was excellent, it's another reminder how spoiled we are by that program and we rarely celebrate it for what it is.

It was a very good career and I hope retirement serves him just as well.

Well, that wasn't my argument at all. My argument (and it was stated pretty clearly) was that the best thing you can do is upgrade your 25 man roster and you should do that however the availability of talent allows you to do that. Don't fall over yourself for one position, but do what adds the most for the money you have. So no, that entire middle paragraph is a strawman. And I don't "think" this is true. The stats say it's true. Pull up the playoff stats for pitchers and see for yourself. Here are the three best starters from the last few years: 2015 - Estrda, Kuechel, Kershaw (Worst: Hammel, Cueto, Price) 2014 - Bumgarner, Lynn, Ventura (Worst: Shields, Kershaw, Peavy) 2013 - Lester, Lackey, Verlander (Worst: Buchholz, Lynn, Peavy) 2012 - Vogelsong, Fister, Sanchez (Worst: Bumgarner, Wainwright, Gonzalez) 2011 - Carpenter, Colby Lewis, Gallardo (Worst: Grienke, Verlander, Scherzer) 2010 - Lewis, Bumgarner, Lincecum (Worst: Sabathia, Hunter, Sanchez) It's all over the map. (Approximations) Guys go back and forth, in and out, every year. Colby Lewis twice kicked the crap out of the playoffs. Ryan Vogelsong pretty much won a World Series himself. Guys who are good often suck terribly. Sometimes they're as great as advertised, sometimes not. The same goes with hitters for that matter. The point is that there is no silver bullet. The best thing you can do is field the best 25 man roster you can and not worry about how many aces you have. Spend what you have available to make as robust a team as you can, you never know who is going to step up and be the hero if you have enough capable dudes on your team.