jmlease1

If Bartlet makes this squad I might vomit. And I say this as someone who didn't want him dealt all those years ago. But he's done nothing to indicate he's got anything left in the tank, and with Escobar in place there's not even any playing time available. So what's the rationale, other than the "veteran presence" card? (which the Twins have in guys like Willingham, Mauer, and Suzuki btw) I hope that Pinto's presence doesn't mean we carry a 3rd catcher. Again, Pinto needs to get PT there, so there wouldn't be a lot of ABs for Herrmann so it would be mostly a dead roster spot as a security blanket if Pinto got a start at DH. That's a waste. Colabello would be better as a bench bat, has some positional flexibility and balances Kubel (assuming he beats out Parmelee) as a RH bat. I'm a little concerned at how the bullpen is shaping up as Deduno doesn't seem to be necessarily all that well suited to the role and no one knows about Diamond. (It would be interesting if Diamond can add a little mph to his fastball as a reliever, though; with good control and a little more gas he could be useful) But realistically the bullpen rises and falls on Perkins/Burton/Fein/Duensing and everyone else is fairly marginal. Hopefully a deal gets made? I still have a lot of hope for Gibson and I'm hoping he really does get the last slot. (I do find it interesting that ESPN: The Magazine actually has our pitching staff getting worse this season, however. Sigh)

Of these options, Morales is the one I like the best, which isn't entirely good. Dozier is a huge asset at 2B, both on offense and defense (assuming the second half of the season is who he is as a hitter) and Gardy doesn't like his defense at SS so moving him doesn't seem like a real option. I agree about Pinto being an option to improve the offense, but there's no way Gardy will DH him. Yes, it's a little silly, but it is what it is. The better hope is that he hits his way into getting more starts at catcher. Morales is the most realistic option considering this team and its manager. He'd be a nice player to backup Mauer at 1B and be the primary DH, and as a switch-hitter he'd give some lineup flexibility. He's not too old that a 3 year deal would be foolish either. But clearly, the offense needs some help until Sano and Buxton are ready.

If we couldn't get one of the top starters on the market, Phil Hughes was my number 1 target out of the next batch. I always wanted him, and I was ecstatic when we got a 3 year deal on him at this price. Frankly, I was worried that we'd only get him on a 1 year reclamation deal and his price would double after he had a bounce-back season pitching a) away from Yankee Stadium and pitching in Target Field. I think he's going to have a very solid year for the team and be a really nice addition to the rotation as the young guys develop. I'm really hoping Cuellar can work on an effective change up with Hughes; a 3rd pitch in the arsenal (I'm not thrilled with his slider, and was happy to see him go back to the big curve that worked for him earlier in his career) is going to help stop players from keying on that fastball.

This suggests that Pinto might well make the roster: http://www.1500espn.com/sportswire/Mackey_Why_the_Twins_are_probably_going_to_start_Suzuki_over_Pinto031714 I'm fine with Suzuki being named the starter right now, I just don't want him getting 80-90% of the starts if Pinto is on the roster. I liked the Suzuki signing as a guy who could help the pitching staff and mentor Pinto, but if Pinto is on the roster he needs to PLAY. If he's not getting 30-40% of the starts by mid-summer and at least 50% by fall I suspect they'll have done it wrong for Pinto's development...

I think it's a reasonable scenario, barring a trade that brings back a bench bat. Colabello is probably the odd man out because I suspect Gardy would prefer the known quantity, veteran presence of Kubel and TR won't want to lose Parmelee for nothing (I doubt he would get through waivers) while he still has a chance to be a productive MLB player (although his window is closing fast). The options may be what decide this one, not what might be the best fit for the roster this season. But it's possible Gardy could insist to TR that he give him a RH bat.

I would prefer to have Pinto be on the MLB roster and catching at least 50% of the time, but I think the team feels he needs more working on his catching skills and will want him catching every day in the minors. It's not the worst idea, but I think it will hurt the offense, and offense is where the team probably needs the most help right now. Love seeing Hicks as the primary CF and Presley as the 4th guy (who will play a lot late-game in one of the corners anyways, I suspect). The last 2 spots are starting to look like they're coming down to Kubel, Parmelee, and Colabello. Kubel's experience makes him a better bet as a LH bench bat, but Parmelee's positional flexibility is a good thing. Colabello could be a nice RH bat and the balance would be good. I think Gardy would prefer the veteran Kubel to make the squad. I'd love to see Colabello & Parmelee hit well enough and earn the last 2 spots and be real contributors, but both have enough question marks that it's hard to have confidence in them.

since I also said that I'd want Pinto playing in no less than a 50% split with Suzuki, I don't think I've contradicted myself. I see a need to develop him as a MLB catcher, so sit on him in the minors because Gardy would rather have a second catcher who is more advanced defensively and can't hit his weight. And why not Hicks? He's already the best defensive OF with a realistic chance to make the squad (Buxton isn't going to play in MLB this season, period) and this team needs guys in the PF who can cover some ground, especially if Arcia, Willingham, Parmelee, or Kubel spend extensive time out there in the corners.

I hate the idea that Pinto won't be coming north with the team. I see zero upside for Fryer/Herrmann and a real need to develop Pinto. I agree with the status on the OF. But I'm really hoping Hicks makes the squad and starts in CF. Need his defense, and I think he'll adjust as a hitter, given the time.

I really want the position players to read: C: Pinto 1B: Mauer 2B: Dozier SS: Florimon 3B: Plouffe LF: Arcia CF: Hicks RF: Parmelee DH: Willingham Bench: Escobar, Kubel, Suzuki, Presley I want Hicks to win the CF job. I think the team needs his range and his defensive ability will make it worth it even if he struggles at the plate again. Give him time with Bruno to figure it out. I want Pinto to get the starting catcher job, but really, I just want him to get at least 50% of the starts. I don't see a lot of advantage to him going to AAA and rolling with Suzuki/Herrmann and we need his bat. I want Parmelee to make the team and be a real hitter, but I understand that he might only be a AAAA guy. Still, I'd rather find out definitely one way or another and he could be a decent rotation guy to play OF/1B/DH with Kubel & Willingham. Kubel has the best chance of being a quality bench bat and this team needs one. Presley is probably best as a quality 4th OF who would consistently be a late-game replacement in one of the corner spots for actual defense. Team definitely needs an upgrade on offense; there's only one elite hitter in the lineup. We have to hope Dozier's second half is the real guy for this year, that Willingham is healthy, Plouffe finally figures out how to have a consistent season, and that Arcia realizes some of that potential to have a respectable offense. That's a lot of ifs. (and as Sam Jackson says, "I don't want to hear about no m-effin' IFS!") But I do want to see preference given to younger players over older all things being equal.

Hughes was always one of the guys I felt the Twins should target this offseason, and I'm pretty happy with landing him for both the length of the deal and the price. But his long term success if going to depend on whether or not he's able to find some consistency with his secondary stuff. Is there any chance Bobby Cueller will be able to help him refine a change up as a third pitch to go along with the return of the curve? One of the things I felt might help Hughes was a new coaching staff (that and just getting the hell out of New York, away from the park and the fan pressure) and while I've had my issues with Anderson on occasion our pitching coaches seem well-suited to help Hughes succeed. Hughes should be a good bridge starter for the franchise: if he plays to ability, he's a solid 2-3 starter even on a good team and should be able to grind up innings and hold down a spot while the prospects develop. He's experienced enough to be a good mentor to younger pitcher, but he's not just a guy trying to get by on guts and guile. And the contract is a good one for the team, but not a bad one for the player, which could be important in years 2-3 to reduce the likelihood of a nasty holdout/renegotiation fight if Hughes pitches well. Now, here's hoping the team (and I) were right about this.

I'd prefer to have Pinto be the starter with Suzuki the backup, and hopefully by midseason that's the case. I expect Pinto to eventually be an asset at the plate, but I think it is going to take a little time; Sept's numbers are wildly unrealistic. But we know Gardy would prefer to have a good defensive player with a crap bat over a plus bat and iffy defense.

The Twins should be looking at carrying 6 bullpen guys, considering they're expecting significantly better pitching from the starters, but with guys like Diamond & Worley out of options they're more likely to carry 13 pitchers than 11! (Even though you'd hope there'd be barely enough work for 11) The relief corps for the franchise looks good; there are solid options for the MLB club and it seems like the team is learning that you can put together a good bullpen without spending huge sums of money on limited role-players. The club is still less than optimal in its bullpen deployment in games, but that's because of managing, not talent.

Willingham needs to play some in the field to show that he can survive out there; if he's an exclusive DH it would reduce his trade value as it'd be a message that the club thinks he just can't hack it out there. But I don't think it'll make much of a difference to his value having him out there every day. I'd rather have Kubel & Arcia in the field, despite their deficiencies. I think Kubel is the most likely going to make the team, unless it becomes clear that last season wasn't a blip. I think it's possible for him to cut the KO's back down; he took a pretty big jump in AZ, enough that it signaled a big change in approach. Historically, he's been much more in the 18-20% K range and hopefully he's ease back on swinging for the fences at Target Field.

I'm interested in both Jackson & Turner. If Jackson can stick at catcher with a plus bat, he'd be a nice fit for the system and with Pinto looking like a MLB-quality player the team could give him time to really learn the position and develop his bat. Love to know more about him and whether or not people think he's the real deal. Turner doesn't look like a Levi Michael type to me and SS is a position where you can never have too many prospects. I like the speed and if the bat is legit he could do really well.

I really want Hicks to be the starting CF. Especially with Willingham likely to play at least some OF and Arcia likely to be starting in RF. His defense will be needed even if his bat is still struggling. But I really like the idea of Willingham being the primary DH and guys like Kubel, Parmelee, and/or Presley getting most of those OF starts. I think Hicks can get the job. He's got the talent and after his horrific start did start putting together competent ABs during his time with the Twins. Let him work with Brunansky for the full season and play fantastic defnese for a team that has enough flyball pitchers that we'll need his range and arm.

I would currently bet on Deduno being the 5th starter with Gibson starting out in AAA because he has options left and so he can pitch consistently every 5th day. I'm thinking Diamond beats out Pressly for the last bullpen spot so they don't lose him for nothing (which actually might work well for his career). I think Hicks will beat out Mastroianni, but I don't know if he'll get the start. I do see Willingham playing a lot more DH than LF this season, but he'll probably be the Opening Day starter there. Parmelee might get the DH slot, but I agree Kubel probably has the edge. This might be the first time in several years where I don't object to the Twins carrying 12 pitchers. I want Pinto to be on the opening day roster, but I'm betting Gardy will want someone who "can really pick it back there" or something equally silly. That said, Pinto isn't going to hit like he did in Sept, but his bat should be a real asset at catcher and this offense needs it.

Dan Barreiro will for sure, especially if his RBIs top out in the 70-80 range. But you can't worry about the clueless. I'm looking forward to Buxton making the club in 2015. Here's hoping for health and success!

I certainly don't think it's likely, especially for Bartlett. It's always a little more likely to shuffle things around in the bullpen, but unless Guerrier really looks great he's unlikely to crack the team either. Injuries combined with superior spring training performance are the only ways either is going to go north with the team.

I still have a lot of hope for Hicks, and would really like to see him in the Twins OF this season. I think the team will need his defense and to be brutally honest I'd really like it if I didn't see Willingham rumbling around out there. Hopefully, he's made some adjustments and will have a better approach at the plate. While I liked his patience and willingness to take pitches, it seemed like he put himself too far in the hole and really paralyzed himself up there until he eventually would flail at something. Mentally he was a mess at the plate. Hopefully, Carew & Brunansky can get him settled down so he can use his talent. I really think Hicks is going to be a mainstay in the OF. He can hold down CF just fine until Buxton is ready, and I think he'll hit enough to slide over to a corner slot and give the team a solid defensive alignment even with Arcia in one of the other corner slots. It's worked for the Twins before, when Gomez & Span covered 3/4 of the OF on their own and gave Kubel or Cuddyer some relief from having to chase down everything.

I felt like we overpaid a little on Nolasco, but I'm ok with the aggression. Considering the Twins major needs and the state of the market, it's probably a good idea to be aggressive. It's not like the twins were just looking for one guy to fill in the back end, you know? The Garza contract is interesting; I expected him to be a bit more expensive, but I wonder if injury concerns were a bigger fear with him? I would have preferred Garza over Nolasco, but you can't know if that's a real choice. I vastly prefer Nolasco over say...Arroyo.

I like Pinto as well, and I see little reason for the Twins not to give him a shot to win the starting catching job, but the comparison to Parmelee's 2011 call-up may well be apt: the sample size is about the same and both were able to take advantage of late season fastball chucking. Pinto also had a BABiP of .440, which is clearly unsustainable. In Parmelee's call-up year, he had a BABiP of .390; when he lost over 100 pts of that in 2012 & 2013 the results were pretty ugly. Pinto is a solid prospect who could be the Twins starting catcher and soon. But I expect him to face a lot of adjustments. but wouldn't it be nice if he turned into Brian Harper?

A great Twins player with some serious personality defects. (anyone else remember his "take a lot of drugs" interview? Great advice, Chuck!) But his record on the field with the Twins makes this a well-deserved honor, despite the baggage. Hopefully he's getting his life together.

The Twins medical staff has done nothing in the past seasons to inspire confidence in their decision-making, so Sano's elbow makes me incredibly nervous. how many times have they botched one?!? Ugh.

Slightly unfair; Morris wasn't great/elite at preventing runs for his whole career. His first 10 years as a full-time starter Morris was a fine pitcher; unfortunately his last 7 seasons (excepting for 1991) his only real skill was durability. Those last 7 years really pulled his ERA+ down. While I think it's fair to look at peak value in assessing HoF as an important factor, it's A) not the only factor, and needs to be pretty high to overcome a decline period that's well below average. Especially when one of the bigger arguments for Morris is durability, innings, etc. Morris' durability is impressive. 10 seasons of 240+ innings pitched. 11 seasons with 10+ complete games. 11 seasons with more than 30 starts. Great durability. But there are too many seasons where he was an average pitcher (or worse) and too few seasons where he was a dominant starter. There's a reason he never won a Cy Young: he was never the best pitcher in the league. he was durable and he was pretty consistent but he wasn't elite. Post season? 1984 & 1991 he was pretty great, 1987 and 1992 he wasn't good at all. How many of those extra point for the 1991 WS get taken away for his awful 1992 post-season? Not making the HoF shouldn't be a rap on Jack's career. He was a terrific pitcher for a long time and a real asset to his Detroit teams and that magical year in MN. But he's short of my HoF standards.

A minor league deal on Santana seems about right and it wouldn't be a bad fit. Let him get rehabbed without pressure and see if he has anything left. I'd think he'd be a good guy to have around as a role model for younger pitchers, especially those needing to learn how to throw a change-up. It wouldn't hurt the team's reputation around the league either, looking out for someone who was one of their guys. I'm not interested in any of the other pitching options at this point, since it looks like Garza isn't an option. I'd rather go with Gibson/Deduno/Diamond for a 5th starter and see if any of them are viable options after this season. If the Twins are going to spend some more real money this off-season (and they still should have some money to spend) I'd much rather see them get another bat; the offense still has a lot of "ifs" in it, outside of Mauer: can Willingham get and stay healthy, was Dozier's second half for real, can Arcia avoid a sophomore slump and cut down the Ks, how far will Pinto drop back when his BABIP goes down to a sustainable rate, can Hicks be an acceptable MLB hitter, can Plouffe show some consistency...I mean, that's a LOT of questions for the offense. Reminds me of the pitching staff going into last season where there was some opportunity, but the only certainty was Perkins in the bullpen. I like Suzuki as a catching option. Either him or Buck would be reasonable backups for Pinto and would be good bench options. Here's a question: with the Twins investing heavily in starting pitching that should (should!) give them significantly more innings from their rotation this season...will they finally go away from a 12-man staff and put together a bench with more options? Because if the starters perform as expected, you shouldn't need more than a 6 man bullpen: closer, 2 setup men, 2 middle relievers, 1 long man. Hopefully your middle guys have enough juice to occasionally set things up and/or go 2-3 innings on occasion...but you're not going to pitch that extra guy if your starters are throwing reasonably well more than 1-2 times a month otherwise. So hopefully that creates room for a platoon?