ThePuck

Barring any setbacks and expecting a standard progression, Meyer will be in AA this season. So you expect him to pitch 1 1/2 seasons in Rochester? I don't assume he'll start in AA and even if he did, 2015 would mean one year in AA and one year in AAA

2015 at the earliest...so that's what we are shooting for...

How does Upton deserve 15M a year...seriously? He's gotten steadily worse in CF, his OBP was sub .300 last year, he hasn't reached a .250 BA in 5 years. Yeah, he's averaged 25Hr over the last two years and stolen some bases, but really? 15M a year? WOW!

'I think he can be the best 3rd baseman we have had since Corey Coskie.' that's hardly a big deal...considering who has manned that spot since Koskie was gone :-) And I'm fine with continuing to give him a shot, all I was trying to say is, let's be realistic in what he's shown us so far...

That was funny :-) In truth, I'm a fan of every player who wears the Twins jersey, and I root for Plouffe just like I root for Span or Morny, but I do my best not to exaggerate a player's abilities. Plouffe is a former first rounder who only made the roster last year because he was out of options and we didn't have anyone better to slot in there (sorry Hughes fans). He's not anywhere near a good fielder at any position (yet), and he's already in his prime. Gardy hasn't done Plouffe any favors either by having him play, 'guess your position'....

I think it'd be a blast...but I don't think there are too many employers that would be willing to lose an employee for 7, 8 months or whatever it ends up being. As a person who has responsibilities, and also happens to have a job I love, it wouldn't be worth losing my job for.

Does the fact that he can't play any position at even an average level factor in? Just because Gardy decides to move him all over the place, doesn't mean he can actually play all those positions. And what teams are you talking about dying to make him their 3B if they had the chance. I mean, yeah, you can say that...but based on what? All those rumored traded offers for him? His great defense? His one month of great hitting? The fact he took forever to make the show and keeps getting bounced around cause he can't field well at any of them? I mean, what makes you think that?

There are more male baseball fans than female, yet when you go to Target Field, the male/female ratio is pretty even. Among the females attending the games, it seems like half are wearing a pink Mauer jersey and the other half are holding up 'Marry me Mauer' signs. Attendance would suffer. Die hard baseball fans who populate sites like this and waste our time analyzing stats on Fangraphs, contracts on Cot's and scream at each other about who should be the 25th man on the roster only make up a small percentage of the people who attend the games Indeed

The last time we had three highly stated ST competitions, the guy who did better in ST ended up losing. Span vs Gomez for CF (Gomez won), Harris versus Punto for 3B (Punto won), Slowey versus the 5 starters who made the rotation. (Slowey got sent to the bullpen). Yeah, remember that last one, where they said we have a surplus of quality starting pitching so we'll have a battle to see who the top 5 are...a surplus of pitching...yeah right

That would seem to contradict what Ryan said in his 2013 Offseason Handbook interview: I won't believe they'll sign anyone to replace Plouffe until I see it. I could see them adding a left-handed option. (St. Paul's Jack Hannahan?) But of the problems the Twins needs to address, this needs to be towards the bottom of the list. Ryan contradict himself? Nah, never....

Myers at 9-10 mil. per season? I was thinking more like 3/9-10 overall.... No one will give him a 3 year deal worth 9-10 million, that's for sure

Problem is, they aren't in our minor league system...so trades it is...

He didn't even get that much more in arbitration...and the Brewers jerked him around just enough to get him that extra year of arbitration to make him a more valuable trade chip...then we give that year away

So the assumption is if he got traded we'd automatically, right away, be better and winning 90+ games...even though, we still have to replace our best player and we'd have to nail that trade...like every player...and have them all ready to go right away...and that STILL might not do it. okay. In any event, I think people under-estimate the draw he is for this team...

Gardy's never satisfied with the shortstop position. He had two quality shortstops in the last decade and asked (or let) the front office to trade them without a viable replacement because he didn't like them: Bartlett, because he was quiet and moody in the clubhouse; Hardy because he's slow. Gardy never accepts his starting shortstop if he's not perfect. If he were a head football coach, there'd be a perpetual quarterback controversy. Bottom line, this wouldn't be a story if Gardy accepted that shortstop is a difficult position to fill; you have to accept imperfection and help the player get better; and the player will not improve if he's continually criticized by his manager in the press and benched on the first sign of trouble. I have no confidence this situation will improve with the current manager. That's true...but what is weird about that, is that Hardy has always been one of the best defensive shortstop in the game...even when he was with us. In 2010, his UZR/150 was 12.8. Better than any starting shortstop in baseball that year. His actual UZR was 8.1, which ranked him 5th. (and remember, that's even though he was battling injury).

wow...

You really think that if the Twins traded the current face of the franchise, who is their best player and a local boy done good, it won't affect revenue intake? Especially when the fans were told the Twins needed the new ballpark to avoid having to trade their best players or let them go...with him being the prime example?

When did he show the promise...especially at shortstop? Who thought he had huge upside (besides Gardy)? I'm sorry, I don't buy that at all... ...and as far a injury risk? Casilla isn't the model of injury-free

The Twins would have to get FOUR legit prospects for Mauer or three prospects and an MLB starter. Then, you could get Anibal Sanchez ($15 million) and another $8 million a year starter for the dollars. Or, you could get Edwin Jackson ($12 million) and another $11 million pitcher (or two $5.5 million pitchers). Well, that's his 23M...but I doubt that's what we'd actually end up netting if he wasn't with the team...

After considering how much revenue he brings into the team (tickets sales...and all the revenue taken in due to the people spending once they are at the park), how much of his 23M a year do you think we'd actually have left? And then we still have to replace him.

Theo Epstein isn't the Cubs GM...just throwing that out there.

Um, they rushed Parmelee? 6 years in the minors for the #20 pick in the 2006 draft?

Which post were you responding to?

He didn't have much money to play with last offseason and he had a lot of holes to fill. Outside of the Marquis disaster, he did a good job of putting together a solid offense with not a lot of money. He then drafted a bunch of pitchers this past June with the hopes of flipping a few of them into starters on the big league club within 2-3 years. He's not going to fix this thing overnight. Baseball teams change direction slowly and the guy needs more than 12 months and one draft to get the franchise back on track. I'm not even arguing that he's doing a good job of it, I'm only saying that fans need to have reasonable expectations. But he did manage to drop payroll by about 18M...but yeah, he needs more than 12 months to fix this...but he also needs to shoulder some blame as to why we are where we are

While you're not necessarily doing this, Puck, this kind of thinking is one of my biggest pet peeves of late. We just don't know what kind of influence Ryan had during Smith's term as general manager. He could have stamped approval on every deal the team made. He may have been ignored 90% of the time. Bringing up the fact that he was with the team and implying he held decision-making power during Smith's run is pure conjecture and it's really starting to grate on my nerves. Ryan is the general manager. Judge him for his actions while in the bosses' chair and let's refrain from speculating on what he was doing while somebody else was in it. Most of the time, it's nothing more than a platform to bitch about the front office with little or no substantiating evidence to support the claims. In this instance, my point is that he didn't just stumble into this situation...he wasn't completely removed...and the pitching situation has been how it's been for a couple years now (even with the fluke pitching we had in 2010). We've needed pitching for awhile now. We've known our system was weak in pitching, from top to bottom, for awhile now. It didn't JUST happen. So this whole, give him time stuff, just doesn't fly for me. Just my opinion. Our pitching is weak at the top (at MLB level and high levels) mostly cause of his poor drafting. On top of that, when was the last time he ponied up and got us quality pitching from the FA market? We were close in 2006...needed some pitching to get us over the hump...what did he get us?