drjim

This is not a realistic solution. Sure it is nice for the Twins but every team in baseball wants that schedule. The best dates for attendance are always between Memorial Day and Labor Day. No chance the Twins get to load up on those days every year.

Do people who like baseball and/or actually go to games complain about a lack of a roof? Or is this a media story driven primarily by one of John's employers?

Dempster was as much a fantasy as Greinke. No chance he was coming here. And you would have advocated topping the Royals offer to bring in one year of Santana?

Brandon Warne from 1500 provides an update: Warne: It's early but investment in Kevin Correia looks like a good one - Minnesota Twins news | 1500 ESPN Twin Cities ? Minnesota Sports News & Opinion (Twins, Vikings, Wolves, Wild, Gophers) | Sportswire: Minnesota Twins Interesting that three of the options (Marcum, Lannan, Myers) have already broken down and another (Baker) has been unable to answer the bell.

Good analysis (though Harvey was a college pick). I'm still a little uncomfortable jumping to those type of conclusions on such a small sample. Each draft class is unique.

So Slowey has pitched 23.2 innings. His strand rate is way up, his k rate is down, his bb rate is up, his fb rate is about the same but his hr rate has dropped significantly. Yup, I don't think this "success" lasts much longer. By mid-May imagine no one will give a second thought to Slowey. Anything to keep criticizing the Twins front office in the interim I suppose. Kevin Slowey » Statistics » Pitching | FanGraphs Baseball

Opening day next year has Sano at 3B and Plouffe in LF. Everyone wins!

Sure, but what if they are the first three picks?

I think what changed was that Target Field along with increased revenues was on the horizon resulting in a subsequent increase in all budgets. The franchise finally had the ability to compete for the top prospects that they wanted. In the same time frame also they started going over slot a little bit more in the draft. These are not coincidences.

I appreciate this discussion as well, I think it is interesting to think of different ways to get out of the rut the Twins find themselves in. I would respond to your points this way: I was thinking of all the teams in baseball right now that are relatively competitive and I would say that every one of them has a homegrown starting pitcher (which I define as drafted by or acquired while still in the minors) in a key role (with the possible exception of Toronto). I don't think this is an accident. Even teams like Detroit and Chicago, which are more aggressive in building teams through trades and free agency than most, are built on the foundation of homegrown starting pitching. I guess I will concede again that there could be other ways to do it, it doesn't HAVE to be that way, but it would be extremely difficult to do otherwise. It is indeed a multi-year process. I do think it is easier and more practical to build the majority of a lineup through free agency if for no other reason than more good hitters are available every year than good starting pitchers. For the Twins I just don't see a practical way that they can shortcut this process at their current stage. They made the first step this offseason by trading assets for young pitching and I fully expect them to follow that up by drafting a pitcher and trading Willingham and perhaps Morneau for even more young pitching. As the young pitching starts to enter the majors it makes sense think about striking with a better free agent or perhaps to make a trade for an established pitcher with multiple years of control.

I'm a little unsettled with much of what has happened in response. I think this is new media at it's worst.

What are you talking about? They have consistently been at least a top ten spender and they landed one of the highest profile prospects of the past decade in Sano. Just because they didn't throw around ridiculous money doesn't mean they failed to target and sign prospects that they liked. I would also note that since 2009 (when I started tracking) they have always signed at least one (and usually two or three) of the top prospects listed by BA and they have been among the best in Australia and the emerging markets in Europe.

Bigger issue is lack of a third pitch. As soon as he can develop an average changeup he'll be up. The Twins can be patient.

That and the development of a merely average changeup makes him a legit #1.

Sure, but I would also argue that there just aren't that many quality free agents each offseason to build even 3/5 of a staff in this manner. Greinke and Sanchez were the only two premium free agents this offseason in my mind and those would have been tough contracts to match. I would argue a realistic plan in an offseason if you were ready to go all in could be if you had 3 established starters and maybe some guys competing you could sign one premium free agent and maybe another body to fill the #5 spot. More than that would be difficult.

I'm sure the front office is kicking themselves for not thinking of this. They narrowly dodged back to back 100 loss seasons and had minimal prospects for this season, no recruiting pitch can cover this up.

I concede this is a possibility but I would say extra difficult when the team needs to pretty much rebuild an entire rotation (along with the other holes the Twins have). And it is getting more difficult each year as more core type players get locked up around the league and the free agency pool gets shallower and shallower.

If you are replying to me I have no idea what you are talking about regarding Lannan. To the previous comment, I have followed offseason interviews quite closely and most of the threads on this site (at least until they denigrate into flame wars) and I guess I'm not as convinced as you are as to the conclusions you are drawing in this thread. The front office seems to be as straightforward and candid about free agency as one could reasonably expect.

Now I'm getting confused. Are you referring to your claims about the mindset of the Twins front office of which you have yet to provide evidence?

I admire the use of a typo to dodge his point.

I think this is the guy as well. He hasn't been at the Cape level but he has been solid and Law made the point that this has actually established a pretty solid floor based upon this season. If he was still at the Cape level he wouldn't make it to the Twins. The bats look solid but none of them have especially separated themselves either.

I would hope you would acknowledge the payroll limitations up until 2009 when talking about the last 15 years. And I would hope you would acknowledge that payroll was at a pretty fair level in 2010 and 2011 (if not invested the most wisely). As far as the free agents you are referring to, I'm not sure they really existed last offseason. You had a couple of premium free agents that got huge contracts, second tier guys that were really overpaid or didn't really fit a team need, and then a third tier of guys of the kinds you would complain about.

I'm personally not especially upset with the free agents that they signed. I thought they should have signed a couple of bridge guys for the rotation (which they did) and maybe a CF on a one year deal. I hoped they would sign better bridge starters but as the other thread as shown that is a crap shoot at best. "Last piece" is a bit of a stretch, but I would argue that a premium free agent should not be signed unless he is supplementing an established homegrown core. The Twins do not really have that right now, they may have it in a couple of years. The additional risk required because they would have to overpay in years and dollars does not make sense in the current state of the franchise. They do have the ability to take on one of those contracts for the next 3-4 years but at the cost of flexibility during that time, and similar free agents will be available in the next couple of years that they could sign instead. At this point they will theoretically be a more attractive destination if some of a young core starts to emerge (so they won't have to overpay as much as they would now) and they will avoid having to take extra risk in the next couple of seasons.

That is exactly how a baseball team does it. They have to wait for a core group of homegrown players to begin to emerge and then a team can supplement that with more agressive free agent signings and trades. It is hard to short cut this process. Larger market teams can speed it up a little if they do it right. An interesting study would be to examine teams in the past 15 years or so that had losing records and signed premium free agents to contracts longer than 3 years. I would imagine the success rate of that type of transaction is small (as in that player was a key part of a contending team). The reason would be to attract that type of player you would need to overpay in terms of dollars and years and if they started to decline (or got hurt) you would be stuck with that contract, he would occupy a roster spot, and it would be difficult to trade for any type of value. The prime example I can think of would be Soriano with the Cubs. Teams win with a homegrown core that they can lock up during their prime years and then supplement with free agents and trades. That is why the Twins have hit such a rough patch, they have failed to produce homegrown talent in the past several years that was worthwhile to lock up.

Spoke very highly about his defense. Said he plays 2B like a professional. Also very high on the bat of course.