dgwills

What's your argument? Above average pitcher who gives you 200+ innings a year is a good upside for May. I've never heard anyone say he has the stuff to be any better than that. I'll be doing cartwheels if he makes it that far.

You're not wrong. What I was saying is that they signed some starting pitchers when they shouldn't of. I think this often, but try not to say it. To much hindsight. To easy to say now. I did not think those teams could of been competitive either, so that colors my views as well. If you run the Twins you can't really say you're punting this year, but still want people to buy season tickets. I take it back. We should really just discuss what the Twins should do from this point forward.

Really the Twins should of been aiming for this year to be active it free agency. You know about when your highly touted prospects are going to become major league players. You know when Elite players from other teams and yours will hit free agency. Imagine if we had Buxton and Sano entering their first full year with Cueto leading the rotation. No Nolasco, Hughes, or even Santana to worry about. Sure we'd have to add another pitcher, but there would be better options. Hindsight is 20/20 of course.

I'm pretty well convinced the Twins are not as cheap as they have been in the past. The contracts for Mauer and Nolasco are pretty good examples. As far as using the resources well......Then that's another story. In these rebuilding years they should of blown up their international pool money at least once. You're not spending it anywhere else and it's a good way to acquire assets for the future. Maybe they did not see players that were worth the investment at that time. Most of the big market teams have already done this, so this year should be a good indicator of how important it is to the Twins to build a contender.

It is interesting how the Twins have collected so many power bats. I can't wait to see how it works out. I believe Parker had an article about the Twins maybe finding a market inefficiency there. Perhaps he was on to something. In the era of power hitters the Twins had good defense and the piranhas. Now in the era of WAR, OBP, and defense the Twins have power hitters. Not sure where the pitching will come from though.....

Wow. They have the Royals at 76 wins and last in the AL Central. Makes me feel better about the Twins projection.

It's been a pretty disappointing offseason for sure. The overall payroll is not really the issue for me though. If they would of been able to move Plouffe and Nolasco and replaced them with relievers or prospects I would of been happy. Maybe that wasn't possible. In previous seasons they signed some guys to long term contracts when the team wasn't going to compete anyways. They spent money, but it was kind of wasted. The Twins just need to make better moves and have a plan. If they didn't like the players available this year the smart move would be to spend that money in international free agency. I hear it's a strong group and you could gain a lot of assets that don't even have to be on the 40 man roster. The odds of the Twins doing that is pretty low of course.

The Mets would not move Duda to make room for Wright. Wright hasn't hit in 2 years and they can't rely on him. Moving him to 1st would be as bad as us moving Mauer to first. I do like your creativity in moving Mauer to the outfield, but I think he's way to slow. If we were to acquire another first baseman we would have to get rid of Mauer. Better of just keeping Arcia and hoping he can be the left handed power bat and play outfield. The simple solution is just moving Plouffe for a reliever.

When we were having the debate about Mauer moving to first I felt the hall of fame was on the line for him. I don't blame him for moving, but becoming a below average first baseman that early in his career probably stops him from getting in. The same thing goes for Santana and his injuries. If they had been able to win a couple of World Series titles they may have still been able to get in. As it is now I don't see it happening.

Are you sure? I did look it up If a player with Article XIX-A rights is outrighted and elects to be a free-agent immediately, his contract is terminated and he receives no termination pay. But if the player accepts the Outright Assignment and defers his right to be a free-agent until the conclusion of the MLB regular season, the player continues to get paid, receiving the balance of his salary through to the end of the season. And then if the outrighted player is not subsequently added back to an MLB 40-man roster prior to the conclusion of the MLB regular season, the player can elect free-agency anytime beginning on the day after the conclusion of the MLB regular season through October 15th.

If he still wanted to play he'd have to elect free agency then. I'm sure the Twins would be happy with that. I don't think Nolasco would do that of course. Most likely he would just take the paid vacation for the rest of the year.

This person does not get jokes. Not to mention the fact that his premise is completely wrong. Baseball teams charge as much as people will pay. Then players ask for more money to get their get a share of the revenue. You'll notice this because its mentioned all the time during negotiations. The reason cable companies spend a ton of money for sports programming is to stop people from getting Direct tv or Dish network. The reverse also happens (NFL Ticket). It's kind of a racket and is a big reason why a lot of people are getting rid of cable and dish. Player contracts have nothing to do with it.

I'm not mad about it. Other teams were just not interested in what the Twins were selling. I'm always skeptical about free agent relievers anyways and I think they were overpaid this year. Some of my friends are Tigers fans and for a couple years all they needed was a good bullpen to win a World Series. They signed free agents every year just to see them fail.

The reason it was a good trade is that these guys are the best available. Most have big defensive problems at a defense first position. Catcher is a very thin position and this group proves that.

He probably wanted some time off. Which is fine by me. Wanted to let them down easy and say the Twins didn't want him to play. Ryan would make a terrible wingman. You should just go along with the lie at that point.

That sequel to moneyball is not looking to good. Probably ends a substance abuse problem.

Alright maybe not any team. How's Chris Colabello doing now days? How did dropping David Ortiz because of his bad defense work out? No I'm not saying Vargas has the same level of success Ortiz did, but I do remember a lot of people telling me how he would never be successful in MLB. Some hitters take longer to develop and there's no reason to give up on someone with that kind of talent.

Vargas had a .910 OPS in the minors last year and had some success in MLB in 2014. He still has plenty of time to put it together. Any team would claim him given the opportunity.

I was following that trade too. It's important to note that the A's were likely getting rid of Lawrie due to his negative presence in the clubhouse. Either way though, the White Sox got him for basically nothing. Pretty disappointing. I'd rather just keep Plouffe than make a trade like that.

I could see Michael turning into something similar to Eduardo Escobar. I'd hate to lose him. Who knows where he'd be without the injuries.

It's not my money. Sign him up! Should be able to find some teams that need a #4 pitcher.

I wouldn't waste his service time by having him sit on the bench. He hasn't hit AAA yet, so I doubt he could hit major league pitching yet anyways.

Years ago myself and 3 coworkers went to a bar in North Minneapolis. It took about 10-15 minutes before we made it through the metal detector and and to the bar. Many people there were giving us odd looks. The bartender told me "You don't want to be here". I thanked him for the advice and we left. I also lived near the Cardinal on Hiawatha and had to take the bus through the Lake street area to work when my truck broke down. It was not pleasant. If you think advising white people to go to a bar in that area is a good idea, you live in a fantasy land. I also did a job at Century plaza in Minneapolis which is the headquarters for welfare in the area. 95 percent of the people there were wearing bulls and bears gear. They certainly seemed happy to be there and everyone on our crew was shocked by what we saw there. This was around 2002, so many of those people are likely your students parents. Now I'm sure that just by relating my personal experiences in the area you think I'm a horrible racist. That's actually not true. I can't even think of a bad relationship I've had with a black person whether it's a friend, co-worker or boss. As far a the black community as a group in the Minneapolis area, I would say they kind of suck though. It's certainly not someone's fault if they're born there though, so I'd give anyone the benefit of the doubt until they gave me a reason not to. Still though, saying that the rest of the community has to go out of there way to appease them is going way to far. Now if you're just sticking to the issue of holding police accountable for their actions I'd agree with the protestors. Cops have had the ability to go way overboard on the use of force for a long time without consequences. This can lead to the death of anyone regardless of race. Unfortunately this is something I have experience with.

I kind of agree with you. If nothing happens I will not be too upset. The Twins should be able to complete as they are. No where near elite though. I can see that there are risks in trading Plouffe, but if you're not willing to take a chance on an elite talent like Sano then when will you? You're not going to win a championship by always playing it safe. Guys like Plouffe can help, but you have to be willing to move them too. The Twins need pitching and should trade Plouffe for it. Even it's prospects. Of course it takes two sides to make a trade, so we'll never know what the market is unless a trade happens. You're just never going to reach an elite level with a pitching staff full of #3/#4 starters. I definitely don't see how Fister would help that. Although it's hard to see the Twin's signing an ace considering the pitchers they've signed recently. I certainly wouldn't mind it though. In the end if were getting elite pitching it will most likely come from the farm system. Hard to say what to do with the bullpen. So unpredictable. Get as much talent as you can and sacrifice some chickens?

Hicks did have a good year. If you include AAA it was real good. He's just so streaky though and given his splits the value I see is as a good 4th outfielder. The Twins could of used that, but catcher was a huge problem. I didn't like any of the free agents, so I think they did pretty well. There's just not a lot of good or average defensive catchers who can hit at all. Murphy just has more value to the Twins than Hicks did. Walker could make an interesting 4th outfielder in the future anyways.Good analysis. Thanks.