I voted Dozier because I have no idea how much Presley, Hicks, or Mastroianni will be playing. If one of those guys is playing everyday I'd probably go with them.
Someone has to get traded now, right? I don't see how Kubel fits with the 25 man roster with the guys you mentioned plus Willingham. Edit: Darren Wolfson just tweeted that it is a minor league deal for Kubel.
I don't completely agree. You can never have too much pitching, as has been said many times on this board. Look at what the Cardinals did last year. They had a couple injuries to the pitching staff and brought guys up from the minors without skipping a beat. A lot of our higher rated pitching prospects were in the lower levels last year. A couple of those guys might be fast movers, but I wouldn't expect those guys to be up for a couple of years like you said. However, we do still have Alex Meyer and a couple of other guys that will be in AA this year or were in AA last year that could make an impact soon. Having too much pitching isn't a real problem. You can always trade guys away or release them if you have to. I think these moves are more a factor of losing so many games the last three seasons along with Joe Mauer beginning to age and two of the top prospects in baseball getting close to the majors.
My opinion on not spending money last year is maybe Terry Ryan knew we were a well below average team with lots of holes to fill and didn't think it was time to spend money with our top prospects even farther away than they are now. Who were the top free agent pitchers last year? The free agent signings I remember didn't do very well for their teams.
I just posted this in another thread, but I figured it could be its own thread. La Velle E. Neal III released a report a little bit ago and in it he had an update on Miguel Sano.
He also hit 19 homeruns in 67 games. He still managed a .915 OPS with that .236 average. There is almost no way I trade the #3 prospect in baseball right now.