Old fox

My questions are; will these players count against the 26 man roster or the 40 man roster or clearing waivers to be sent to the minors, who pays these long term years remaining which have to be paid after the player retires. If a older high priced player can’t preform well then what makes him perform better for a weaker or poorer team. The giving up of a prospect doesn’t seem like much of a “loss or penalty” for reckless financial management. Do I have a solution; no.

Prospects are like baking cinnamon rolls; if under bake the rolls they taste doughy, if you over bake them there burnt but when you take out the oven at the right time they are darn good. If you make too many rolls then old, stale & hard & non-editable . The Twins seem to go through stages of drafting too many corner outfielders, then too many infielders, etc. The Twins always put up the lame duck argument that they won’t “sign”. Thats bogus because winning teams have less trouble signing their draft choices. The Twins better start shimming up to the bar and pay the going market value, this goes for FA & trades too or get left out in the cold.

The Twins will do 1 of 3; get better, get worse or stay the same. The only way the Twins get better is; trade for better players or sign better FAs. The ownership has been in the “hoping stage” and this doesn’t work forever and generally leads to demise. The Twins by finishing at the bottom of the central division & bottom 20% of the AL, and bottom 25% of all major league teams are at a critical point of existence. The changing of players or FO will not change the situation until ownership changes it’s philosophy, direction, decision making process. This ownership team tried to dissolve the Twins once before. It appears they are on the trail to doing it again.

There is always a market for very good & excellent player. There is nothing wrong with signing or trading for outstanding players and letting them play until prospects become equal or better. Then the team has residual value that the team can trade to improve its weakest position.

I am very Leary of this idea. (1) the big spenders will continue to be irresistible for spending badly with no remorse because the less spending teams will be the financial relief for poor financial decisions. I admire Tampa Bay and their style of management. T.B. until this year has no sacred cow players as the Twins model does believe in. (2) MLB can’t take on the financial sins of the big spenders & poor decision & management. There is already a built in relief mechanism either sell the team or bankruptcy. (3) How about going to the Atlanta plan where all teams have to become a public entity form and have to show financial records.

Yes, if you lack faith in Lewis & Martin to the bigs in 22.

If the Twins don’t like Simmons or the other cheap ss. Then go spend some money on Story which maybe a wise investment since there is concern that Lewis & Martin will not be able to handle ss on the long term. How about an outfield of Buxton, Martin & Lewis. An in field of Kiriloff, Polanco, Story & Miranda would be pretty darn good. If your afraid that Lewis &Martin aren’t able to perform, then trade them, now, for #1 pitcher.

On offensive stats he looks week but has outstanding defensive stats. It goes back to the old argument which came first the chicken or the egg. Depends on what type of club house personality he has.. I can tolerate him a 1 yr. contract. I do not like idea of flirting with moving Polanco back to ss. Gordon may have greater value as a utility player than at ss.

remember a catcher and pitcher are just pitch away from the injury list. The life span is relatively short and the regression turn down curve starts sooner. I prefer to to keep Jeffers & Rortvedt let Garver split time between catching, 1b, pinch hitter off the bench. I prefer trading some 1 & lower 2 skilled players like Sano, Arraez, Larnach, Sabal, Sands, Vallimont to “A” for Bassitt, Chapman, Manaea & Pisscoty. Sano & Pisscoty would be a salary dump as both are in the last year of their contract. Twins would save $2m.

I prefer bring up Lewis or Gordon or Martin as to wasting a rule. 5 draft slot on the 25 man roster.

I’m kind a on the fence deciding whether to keep Arraez or trade him for a lite hitting ss who a very good defensive ss. There both perils on the opposite ends of the spectrum. It boils down to; am I more satisfied with accepting 168 hits verses 120 hits per 600 at bats per year. More defensive plays with more errors or more defensive plays & less errors. More hits slowed or less hits allowed. Better skills or less skills. One thing to consider is; a batter may influence a game about 5 bats per game. A very good infielder may influence a game several more situations than 5. I would prefer a ss who hits 250+ and is an average fielder. The Twins have 3 options at ss (1) start Lewis or Martin, (2) sign FA Simmons, (3) sign FA Story. Any one of the three can be made to work. Pick one and run with it and develop a plan to enhance the decision made. Even when a team has a 600% winning season the team loses 400% of its games. How would an outfield of Buxton cf, Martin lf, Miranda rf operate. Then sign Story for Twins big dollars to play ss. Then trade Arraez, Larnach, Kepler, Sands, Vallimont & Cavaco to Oakland for Montas, Bassitt &Chapman. Then Kirilloff plays 1b, Donaldson to DH, Trade Sano to Milwaukee for Hader. Finally, sign FA relief pitchers Givens Strickland. The bench would carry Gordon, Rooker & Jeffers. Rotation would look like Bassitt, Montas, Ryan, Ober & Bundy. The bullpen would be Hader, Rogers, Duffey, Givens, Strickland, Thielbar, Cantanrino, Moran & Stromen. That’s my dream for the Twins.