halfchest

I don't see it happening mostly because I would think the Twins would like to give one last shot to our out of options guys Worley/Diamond/Deduno.

1. He should be solid #2 pitcher with strikeout capability and upside. 2. Yes, I believe so. Only way he doesn't IMO is if he can't stay healthy which is a legitimate concern. 3. Nice article, makes me want to sign him more. He's a solid above average guy. Pretty consistent and we would be one of those homer suppressing parks they mentioned, especially to lefthanders.

Santana is the only one close to the majors and his career minor league numbers are worse than Drews career major league numbers. He might pan out but I wouldn't hold my breath. Polanco and Goodrum have a better shot IMO but they're both 2-3 years away at best making Drew a perfect bridge to them if they do.

1. I don't think that's all that valuable, is it nice? yes, but we could use talent on the MLB roster that we dont' have. I probably value draft picks less than you do. 2. Drew hit well for SS and the numbers were right in with his career averages even if you include his awful 2011 and 2012. 3. Diaz would be awesome, I don't see him coming here though, but heck I hope they try. 4. Again, I agree, just don't know if he'll come here 5. Drew would be here for three years, I sure as hell hope the Twins are planning to be better than a 75-80 win team sometime in the next three years. He's older yes, but it's not lie he's 35 ready to break down completely. He's young enough to have 3-5 more solid years and could very well be a nice piece, plus who cares, not our money and shouldn't affect future spending that much. Again that's just an opinion. I think Drew makes a lot of sense due to who else are we gonna spend the money on and he would upgrade a significant part of our lineup.

That makes no sense, how are those two things at all the same? Drew is a proven player who was decent even in his worst years which were bad partially due to injury. He has a .764 career OPS and last year was .777? So yes he had a good year but it's pretty much in line with his career averages. Had a couple bad injury years, last year did much better and played much more. Nishi was an international player who didn't pan out and has no shot at a major league career at this point. So signing a guy who's had a solid major league career is equal to giving up a 2nd round pick and signing a failed prospect . . . I don't see the comparison. If you don't like Drew that's fine and if you don't want to give up the draft pick? cool, you value draft picks more than I do I guess. To me Drew should be a solid contributor. If anything Signing Diaz is more comparable to the original signing of Nishi in that neither one of them has played major league ball before. That said, I dont' compare those two either. Also, sure if we can get Diaz, great. I'd rather have the younger guy with upside too but I've heard no reports of us being linked to him. I think we could have Drew if we offered him a 3 year 33 million where as Diaz is gonna have his pick of where to play.

I feel like the only real argument I can understand is that he would cost a draft pick. Assuming we're right on that he would only require a 3 year contract in the 10-12 million per year area then he's not going to limit this team. Even with that contract I think we'd be around 75-80 million in 2015 with Correia and Willingham coming off the books. Doesn't limit us financially then either. I'm not a big believer that 2nd round picks are more than a guessing game. You like to have those lottery tickets and of course there are some great players taken in the 2nd round but I think it's more luck than anything. Do you sell that lottery ticket for a guy like Drew? I think so. He and Dozier could bring a lot of stability to the keystone and Drew might bring a nice veteran presence to a very young group of position players. Not worried about blocking Santana either and Polanco at best would be up in 2016 assuming he works out.

I'm hoping Plouffe can be valuable. He's had some nice surges of power/hitting. He's not a great defender but can at least fill in at the corners and in an emergency could be thrown at 2B/SS even if its not ideal. If he can OPS .700 to .750 and hit 15-20 homers a year, I like him as a solid bench option that plays 4-5 games a week at the corners/DH

Agreed, At this point they're all waiting for post Tanaka fallout. The Twins only shot at getting a decent deal would have been to attack early like they did with Nolasco. I think they probably did go after Garza fairly aggressively but he declined and I can't blame him. I also think this is why we haven't seen teams trading for SP yet either. Teams aren't full in on getting a Price or Jeff S-word until they know they cant get Tanaka.

I like the offenses chance to be a bit better but nothing makes me think they're going to improve too much. Hoping Mauer stays healthy for 150 games I the number 1 way to improve the offense. Also no one is really due for regression except maybe Pinto. Dozier won't likely be the guy we saw the second half but I'd bet his overall numbers will resemble last years and could improve a bit. Even slight improvements at 3B and outfield positions could be huge and seem realistic to expect. The real improvements should be 2015.when the roster consists of some combination of these players: Outielders Hicks, Buxton, Arcia, Pressly, Rosario, Parmelee Infielders Dozier, Sano, Santana, Florimon, Escaobar, Mauer, Parmelee, Rosario, Plouffe C Pinto, Hermann? Turner in AA or AAA maybe? DH Parmelee, Arcia, Plouffe? Could be a nice lineup out of that crew come 2015. Also depending on what the Twins do for spending the rest of this offseason, they could likely afford to add a Free Agent either to solidify SS or add a power bat at DH. (Still have my fingers crossed that Plouffe or Parmelee could help us out there)

Well done and really good points. Also need to consider that in all likelihood these guys may never see free agency. Bailey to me is the only lock to hit free agency. I bet both Masterson and Lester get locked up by their clubs. Shields I could also see hitting free agency. Garza really may be the perfect mix of age/upside/price.

Here's the thing. I was chatting with a friend who I consider to be " a great baseball mind". I was curious what he was thinking about the recent Pelfrey signing and continued interest in other pitchers. He said . . . "sign all the pitchers" . . . . I laughed etc. all that crap. However, he made a point to me. Pitchers are always tradeable, especially veterans. Even if a guy has been mediocre, as long as he has some sort of decent track record they can be sold. If they are doing well, they can bring great returns too. So can you have too much pitching? I don't know. They're always able to be dealt. Especially if they're on short term deals. Think of worst case scenarios here. Pelfrey . . . he's awful and you cut him part way into the season and have 6 million wasted next year. Correia . . . one year deal, not really any worst case scenario with a team like this and a low payroll. If he's awful you cut can run Hughes . . . Cant hack it as a starter, return him to a reliever role and his past shows he will be good. You're overpaying for a good reliever but it's not fully wasted. Good relievers (not closers) get 3-5 million per year. so you may have overpaid a reliever 3-4 mil per year for a couple years. Nolasco and Garza. . . I include them together. Both have a solid track record. I think worst case they underperform a bit but are still a tradeable commodity. May not get what you want for them but really what are you out by trading a guy you acquired as a free agent. As long as you don't include too much cash in the trade, your'e not limiting yourself. Point being, a Garza trade wont' limit this team. I just listed what are in my opinion the worst case scenarios. If they all turn out and worst case scenarios are what happen then the Twins are cursed and nothing they can do will help. Final point: I like getting Garza on anything that is 4 years + an option or less. As long as it's around the 15-16 million per year.

I like that the Twins are still getting after these guys prior to the Tanaka deal. Might be smart to get out ahead of that move when it finalizes. That said, Garzas camp is well aware of this too. If they do get him, I guess I'll question the Pelfrey signing. That said, I'm in the camp that agrees they could flip Correia pretty easily if need be to open an additional roster spot. Pelfrey and/or Correia's salary isn't so huge that it limits him from being moved to the pen to make room for an Alex Meyer/Gibson/May either. I'm all for a 4/60 + vesting option. I could see someone else giving him that guaranteed 5th year though.

Agreed, heck they could probably offer to send cash with him in order to get a little better prospect. OR package him with a prospect for a player we could use soon/now. I know there was conversation on here about packaging Willingham and Correia to the Mariners since they're very much in win now mode. That could/should actually net a decent prospect or two.

Agreed, it's not as simple as the IP/appearance. Maybe it should go on, how many innings each reliever pitched in comparison to the league (probably have to include minors). As well as how many innings our starters averaged. The bullpen consisted of 8 core contributors, Perkins, Burton, Fien, Swarzak, Pressly, Roenicke, Duensing, and Thielbar. Then there was about 20 innings or so spread out among other pitchers. I'm not going to do the math but that's a lot of work on just 8 guys for the most part. I think Thyrlos makes a good point that our pen wasn't great but rather average. I was surprised by his numbers up there. Some of it sure is probably due to being somewhat overworked. Just watching them compared to other years, it seemed like they were pitching a lot more. I'm not going to do the legwork to back my point up because I honestly don't care. Thyrlos points still stands, there's room for improvement in the bullpen as well and we dont' have quite the massive logjam some of us including myself had thought. I think we can in addition to the points he made expect that 2 of these guys end up on the DL to begin the year making more room. Deduno already sounds like he's unlikely to start the year out healthy and it's pretty safe to assume either performance or injury will land someone else there by the end of spring training.

Even if you throw out his first 10 games which were abysmal something like 2 for 46 and go through the end of July he had a .687 OPS. For comparison Denard Span has a .703 OPS over the last four years. It's easy to get fixated on the terrible batting average and not realize he wasn't completely awful last year. For a rookie who skipped a level to struggle seems pretty normal. It won't take a lot for Hicks to put up a .750 OPS in the future IMO.

I was thinking top 20 for Meyer was a bit high. Surprised Kohl Stewart isn't top 50 at least though. I guess he didn't have much time to prove himself this past summer, I assume he just missed the top 50 then.

Next year will be a nice way to see what areas can be addressed in house. I think to me the most interesting story will be to follow Hicks/Arcia. Mainly because I think both will have some success this year. I'd love to have Hicks and Arcia manning the corners for the next 5-6 years (this is assuming Buxton comes up and takes over center in the next 2 years). Should also provide great defense as well. I dont' think Arcia is as bad as he looked this year defensively and Hicks is solid in Center and would be great in a corner, especially with that arm. story number two for me will be watching Dozier/Florimon at the keystone. While I don't think Florimon is a long term answer at all if our other pieces come around we can probably deal with a light hitting defensive minded SS for a couple years. If Dozier can put up around a .700-.750 OPS with stellar defense and 15 homers per year, that will look great. If these young guys can put together nice years, it will be fun to see what the Twins do next offseason. They'll have a ton of cash, with nowhere to spend it on the position players. A lot of potential stud pitchers coming out and the Twins could be in a position to go all in and grab that missing Ace in the rotation. Even if it means cutting Pelfrey lose or trading him for a bag of balls. Sorry got a little pie in the sky off topic. I'm excited for this season to see how some things shake out. not expecting playoffs but hoping we at least develop a core of contributors out of this group.

I'm happy with the signing due to the short term and price. The only thing I don't like about it is the opportunity cost. By doing this signing the Twins have limited themselves from picking up a bigger name like Garza, Ubaldo, etc. Probably means they weren't planning to get one of them anyhow though. I guess if they find they can get a decent price on one of the free agent starters they could probably flip Correia pretty easily too though.

I did not research prior to posting about getting Franklin. If he can't play SS then I'm not that interested. He's not going to come for free and will require a decent prospect or two or more likely something Major League ready as the M's are in win now mode. The only other option would be if the Twins feel Dozier could flip back to SS. He looked good enough at 2B I could see it being possible. At the same time though I'd worry about that messing with his head again if he can't handle it defensively. He looks great at 2B and seemed to break out during the 2nd half. If Franklin can't play SS as you say, then I think the Twins have to pass.

Nice signing, nothing exciting. I agree with Cmathewson regarding offensive upgrades. I don't think there was anyone out there that really fit our team this year. Salty might have been a nice grab for the price but not concerned about it. That's where the strength lies in our farm system/young guys. I would expect improvements from Plouffe, Hicks, Arcia, Willingham, and Mauer this coming year. I could see Dozier regressing but not too much. He probably wont' hit as good as he did the last few months but won't his as bad as he did the first few months. I figure he should be good for a similar total production to last year. Florimon is florimon, great defense, don't expect anything offensively. Pinto won't be as good as he was last year but should still provide solid offense. Then we have our guys like Sano and Buxton on the way up by the end of the year or early 2015. Given our continued payroll flexibility we will have the money to add pieces come 2015 and our needs will hopefully be more clear with prospects having another year to develop and guys like Arcia, Pinto, Hicks, Dozier all getting an additional year to show if they can handle it in the majors or not.

I said this in a previous thread but dang, I don't see how anyone could not like this for the Twins. We're not likely to compete in 2014 unless a .500 record gets you in the wildcard (which it won't). I didn't expect to get much of anything and we get a guy who is a year removed from playing three levels and being effective. Is he a world changer? No. Could he be a solid mid to back of the rotation starter? Yes. I put him above most of the guys we trotted out there last year like Albers, Diamond, etc. He's a nice little wild card that could contribute. I also like his chance to convert to the pen if starting doesn't work out. Best bullpen guys are failed starters as we've all seen. Maybe he pulls a perk and adds a couple ticks to his fastball out of the pen. Suddenly that changeup becomes deadly.

I don't think Hicks is enough honestly. They're both coming off down years but Franklin is younger and a better prospect pre 2013. I would love to trade for him but imo you don't trade a guy like Hicks or Gibson who are both coming off down years. Both have a really nice shot to rebound. The Mariners are going all in right now with the Cano signing. They might want some more major league ready pieces like a bullpen piece and power. Burton/Willingham? Maybe add in a decent C level prospect? I might consider Perkins 1 for 1 honestly too, but only if you're sure he can play SS.

Exactly, Gilmartin may not work out but there's that shot where he could be a starter. Good trade for the Twins, didn't give much up got a prospect who could have value and doesn't take up a 40 man spot. Plus the best bullpen guys seem to be failed starters. Maybe he moves to the pen adds a couple ticks on his fastball and changes his game ala Perk.

oh just Fangraphs, BA (actually #4) and MLB.com Jerod Mayo. No one who knows anything. You may be right that he's not worth much but he has the potential too. This from mlbtraderumors is interesting too. "Gilmartin struggled through injuries and posted a 5.06 ERA across three levels in 2013, averaging 6.9 K/9 and 2.8 BB/9 in a total of 105 innings. Selected with the No. 28 overall pick in the 2011 draft, Gilmartin draws praise for his polish from both BA and MLB.com. BA writes that his 89-91 mph fastball has good movement and is complemented by a plus changeup and a slider with "sharp, late break." According to Mayo, "[Gilmartin's] ceiling is somewhat limited, but he's not far from being ready to step in as a middle-of-the-rotation type in the big leagues." Now if that Mayo quote is to be believed then this is a great move for the Twins a mid rotation guy is nothing to sneeze at considering the Twins have just committed like 85 million to essentially two 3-4 starters (Hughes/Pelfrey) and one 2-3 starter (Nolasco) this offseason. That might be overvaluing these three guys two It could be argued none of them are better than 3 type starter. Anyhow, I like the move, don't see the Wimmers comp. Sure both have lost value but Wimmers almost never had it. At least Gilmartin had a solid 2012 campaign.

Really? That doesn't make any sense. The only thing they have in common is they were 1st round picks expected to fast track to the majors. Wimmers has 77 career minor league innings over just over 3 years. Gilmartin has 285 over just over 2 years. Now he's not someone to get overly excited about but at least has potential to be a big league starter still. Was the Braves top 5 guy a year ago. I'm not gonna let one bad year for a 23 year old make me think he's worthless. Better return than I would have ever expected for Doumit.