clone52

Molitor wasn't looking for the play to be overturned. He was saying that the ump should have asked the 3rd base up before calling it a strike. Later in the game, the ump nearly rung up Sano, but before he did, asked for help from the 1st base ump who correctly said it was a check swing and Sano got a walk. They still lost, but had Molitor not argued the first call, Sano would have been called out later in the game.

I actually think May's improvement started last year. In his final 7 starts for the Twins, his walk rate was just 2.2/9 innings.

It was hard to see them tacking on a $20M+ ace in any scenario. This move just moves the chances of that happening from almost 0 to even closer to 0.

Those are crazy prices to get someone who had an OPS on par with Eduardo Nunez and Chris Colabello last year.

I don't think the Twins should do much in free agency this offseason. I don't think Jon Lester is a good idea. He's probably going to demand a 7 or 8 year deal. Committing that much money on a pitcher into his late 30's is a bad idea. People complain about Mauer's contract. Lester's likely would look much worse a few years down the line. Greinke is got a 6/159 contract (26.5). Hamels has a 7/153 contract (21.8). Cliff Lee has basically a 6/144 (24). Sabathia has an 8/182 (22.8). Felix is 7/175 (25). All of them except Cliff Lee were younger than Lester when they signed those contracts. If they could get Lester for $25/per and only 4years, go for it, but I think its going to take $25/per and 7 or 8 years to do it. Maybe there are other free agent pitchers, but you are likely looking at a risk like Nolasco. Don't worry about CF this year. Perhaps buxton will be ready, or Schafer could fill the void until he is. If you can sign a good defense, decent hitter to play OF, that might be worth it, but nothing more than a 2 year contract. LF looks like a gaping hole right now, so maybe sign a short term fill in. However, they need to decide what is going on with Plouffe/Sano before they really go down that road. They might also consider what they want to do with Mauer/Vargas/Arcia. Could they move Mauer to LF, Vargas to 1B and Arcia to DH? In my opinion, they missed a golden opportunity to trade for David Price. They could have had him for 2014 and 2015, which would have been enough of a bridge to see if their minor league was going to produce quality starting pitchers. I also think they should make some trades for the missing pieces. They have a glut of guys who probably should end up at DH (Arcia, Vargas, Pinto). Could they package one of them with some minor league talent and get a youngish corner outfielder. As for starting pitching, I think they maybe should also look to trades. I know its never going to happen, but if they could get a guy like Garrett Richards, that would be awesome. He would be worth giving up a couple of top prospects.