Major League Ready

I don't expect much. I would like to think part of this was pure respect for the pro that is Jamey Carroll. He seems to have the makings of a great coach and I would like to see him back with the organization when he is done playing. Hopefully, the roster spot will be used creatively and I would be thrilled with an A baller with the potential to be a ML level player similar to the Butera trade. However, I have a sense it will be cash or an organizational filler. I think the Twins made this move for three reasons. Not necessarily in this order. 1. Open a roster spot. 2. Financial considerations 3. Respect - Give Mr. Carroll an opportunity at post season play in what is likely his final year.

I sure hope they get a decent prospect back for Morneau and then split the ABs between Parmalee and Colabello for the remainder of the season. It would be great if one of them stepped as a bridge to Vargas / Harrison / other. If not, 1B is a position they should be able to address through free agency. I wonder if Seattle will pick-up their team option on Morales? They are not likely to contend in 2014 and they have five 1B listed on their AAA roster.

Promoting from within and scouting multiple regions of the world are two completely separate functions/strategies. One has virtually nothing to do with the other. I can appreciate the Twins loyalty and hiring from within and there are some benefits to that philosophy. Personally, I make sure employees have every opportunity to improve their skillsets and advance. However, you have to believe the organization would benefit from aggressively recruiting the very best from other organizations. I would love to see the Twins go hard after FO / scouting personnel from the Rays, As and Cardinals.

I read or heard somewhere they had substantial interst in Morneau and believed someone would be willing to give up something for him if he heated up in August. Had they put him up right away, they must have believed someone would have claimed him but they would have been correct to assume they still would not give up anything for him and the window is only 48 hours. Now he has value. A non-contender certainly is not going to claim him. They are no going to pick-up his salary at this point. A contender could claim him and still offer nothing so one of the other contenders can't get him. Obviously, it would have been ideal had he cleared waiver but the Twins obviously felt that was not going to happen even if they had done it immediately. Let's think about this situation. Do you think the whole FO overlooked putting Morneau on waivers and then suddenly realized they should put him up?

Rosario or Dozier might end up being a very important trade chip to add a front of the rotation SP. Walker and Arcia might end up in this position too. Let's hope even more of the scenarios show up in the next couple of years because I think we are going to need to use or depth in position players to come up with SPs.

The debate here seems to come down to how to spend the International $$ pool we are allotted. One school of thought appears to be sign as many guys as possible of the top 30 prospects, defined by an aggregate of the various rankings. The other, and the one the twins seem to subscribe to, is sign one or two top guys and then spread the money out. The Twins have looked far and wide while signing alot of guys they obviously felt had potential but did not have the recognition of high profile prospects. These prospects have a much lower price tag and allow the twins to acquire many instead of banking on a very small number of 16 year old kids making it. It would be really easy to just go out and bid whatever it takes to land 3 top 30 guys. I much prefer the twins approach. They have committed substantial resources to scouting all over the world. They sign some top prospects but also acquire a large number of other prospects. This is a much better business model IMO.

Holy crap would we have some right hand hitters with Sano, Buxton and this guy. Pinto and Harrison could be studs too and let's hope we are seeing the Brian Dozier of the future right now. I think the line-up below could score some runs. Buxton Mauer Sano Arcia Abreu Hicks Pinto / Walker Dozier or trade Dozier & Harrison for pitching and insert Rosario Florimon Pluffe / Hermann / Escobar / Walker or Mastro on the bench

Cost cutting? You really think moving Jamie Carroll is about cost cutting. That of course is a rhetorical questions because that is ridiculous. Does it really make sense to take playing time away from others by playing Jamie Carroll at this point? Can we likely use that spot on the 40 man in ways that benefit the team in the future?

It is also a leap to presume the reports were correct they would not eat any of Morneau's contract. Reporters jump to conclusions too. Maybe they would not eat any contract for a particular mediocre prospects that was offered. Perhaps the FO was posturing for a better propects who they were willing to eat salary to acquire. As others have stated it is also way too soon to judge their international signings. Why would anyone assume they are not going to spend the money? Have the other teams spent all of their allotment in the first 6 weeks any other year? Maybe to more prudent question to ask is if it makes sense to drop most of their $4M pool on a couple of top 30 guys or spread it out. We are talking about 16 year old kids in a lot of cases.

No, it really does not seem likely. We are going to just have to see how he performs for the rest of the season. I am on the fence on this one until we see what he can do over the course of the last two months. The rest of the season is still a small sample size but I think the only way this conversation makes any sense is in the context of him finishing very strong over the final 60 games. What if he goes 300 / 370 / 500 over the final 60 games w/12 HRs which over the course of the season would be a 32HR pace? I don't see another team giving him 3 years even if he finishes this strong with the possible exception of the Yankees. And, we don't have an in-house solution. What should we do if this unlikely scenario unfolds?

We just don't have anyone close. The FO seems convinced Sano will stick at third at least for the early part of his career. I hope Morneau plays well for the remainder of the season and gives the Twins a reason to resign him but I don't think more than two years is a good idea. 3 years with a team option for a 3rd year. That way we still might be able to get something from him down the road if he somehow maintains his performance level. That short porch in Yankee stadium would fit nicely.

It's fair enough to say "hey, we were just responding to the OP. However, you failed to consider that what was being implied was that there were a number of potential positive discussion points that could have been made. Could Albers be one of those deceptive lefties that can be effective for a long-time in this leauge? Does Albers consistency make him more likely to stick than Diamond. I have no problem with knocking this around on a forum. That's the point of a forum. However, none of us were present. We did hear what Albers or Hermann had to say so personally, I am not going to presume to be in a position to judge. I also don't have 25 years of minor leauge and major leauge experience so I don't presume to know better than those who do.

We are all in need of something interesting to watch. Having said this, Hicks and Arcia should be good reminders of why we should not rush players. Two levels in one year is enough. Promote him to AAA the start of next year and call him up in June or July if he is dominating at AAA.

No kidding. Somehow people find a way to complain about a 7-0 shutout on a great debut performance. We should just be thrilled about the potential addition of a SP that can keep us in games as starved as we are for SP.

You are right. The financial realities might have dictated the timing. They are right at the bottom of the leauge in terms of revenue with approximately $50M less than the Twins. I would have to spend more time looking at the specifics than I am willing to invest in order to determine their options. Off the top of my head, they could trade Gordon, replacing him with Meyers, in the process adding more good prospects to their system. Between moving Gordon and the addition TV revenue, KC would have roughly $36M to cover payroll and arbitration increases. The financial perspective put in context does change my opinion somewhat. The window is pretty narrow when you are at the bottom of the leauge in terms of revenue.

You definitely have a point that many executives follow short-term thinking. However, that does not make it advisable to do so. I think there is also a bit of a misconception on how some of us are characterizing the need or pressure on Moore to make the team better every year. I won't speak for others but I am sure there was lots of pressure to be better this year. IMO, this plan presumed the core of the team would improve because it would make no sense had that not been the presumption. Thus, the team wuld have improved w/o Shields. Actually, Shields is 6-8. While he is better than his record, he is not the reason for the Royals improved record.

I think at least a small part of it was maintaing the confidence of a player trying to prove himself at this level. This has to give Albers confidence quite a boost. Removing him assured he would enter his next start with an elevated level of confidence. He shut out a team that scored 13 runs the night before. Confidence is a big plus.

You have to have been in this position to understand it and with all due respect I will point out that a very small percentage of people have been responsible for operations / organizations with a 9-figure operating budget. I can say with absolute certainty that my continued employment was much more securing making decisions that I could defend in terms of being in the long-term best interest of the company.

We have an instant gratification culture today. The GMs job is no maximize assets and manage for sustainability as much as possible. That's what my mentor told me the first time I had that type of role. This decision did not consider the relative positions of each club that you just described. KC is in a position to contend in the coming years but this trade deminished that position beyond 2015. KC took a largeleap of faith for the sake of expediency. There is no question IMO that this manuever would have had a better chance of success a couple years from now when their core is entering their prime and Detroit's key players are getting past their prime. In theory, if they wait a year or two ... * They trade their next top prospect(s) * That adds Meyers to their core. The cast supporting this move is therefore stronger * KCs players have two more years of development and are in or entering their prime * Detroit is likely to have declined and will have very large contract prohibiting FA moves

I would have to agree with the logic that you wait until a developing team has demonstrated they have arrived, not anticipate they are going to arrive, before you trade away an elite prospect like Meyers for a 2-year asset. There we those who were adamanent about Hick's starting the season with the big club. We would have had some angry fans had Masto not gotten hurt and been given the job out of camp. We have people talking about rushing Sano and Buxton too even after witnessing the result of rushing Hicks and Arcia. Everyone is in a hurry and some things just should not be rushed. We should also ask, how likely was the acquisition of James Shields to propel KC past Detroit. Not very likely IMO. Detroit has twopitchers not named Verlander who have a considerably better ERA and another .16 ERA points higher. If Verlander were not having a somewhat down year, Shields would be the #4 guy in Detroit's rotation. I would have liked their chances alot better two years from now with Will Meyers and an aging Detroit team. Had KC been a little more patient, they would have been in considerably better position to win the division. Now, unless they can somehow make-up 8 games on a red hot Detroit team, they have squandered a really valuable asset and deminished their chances to be a contender for a longer period of time. I am glad they made this move because 2015 and beyond they would have been quite a bit better with Meyers.

Duplicate post. Sorry.

Deduno and Dozier have to be the most positive trends this year. Next, for me, is Florimon. His defense has been great and we have sucked at short for quite a while with the exception of Hardy who I will never understand why they let him go. Pressly and Thielbar would fall under the category of positive trends. They came out of nowhere to look like they can be assets to the team going forward. Schwzak gets honorable mention. Arcia and Hicks were just not ready but let's hope they develop into the stars we hope. We really need these two guys to pan out. Hopefully, they both show very positive improvement over the remainder of the season. I was really hoping Plouffe would break out and be a 25-30 HR producer and I am really disappointed Parmalee did not come around with the bat given he was better than expected defensively. Let's hope they show us something in the remaining games give us reason to hope for next year. Hedricks and Worley were the biggest disappointments for me this year. Morneau falls into that category too. I would have been great if he rebounded. They could have signed him for a couple years to bridge the gap of gotten a good prospect at the deadline. Mastro getting hurt was a biiger deal to me than others might feel. Hicks could have been sent back to AAA earlier and Mastro would have been quite a bit better leading off than what we had in the first couple months of the season. Plus, he is fun to watch. Sano's defensive improvement and Buxton demonstrating he has superstar potential would be the two best things that happended for theis organization in 2013. Adam Walker also gave us some glimpses of potential greatness. Based on the BB/K ratio, it looks like he really needs to improve his approach. He just might be a beast if he learns to make pitchers pitch to him.

Good point. Perhaps the best practices among the three should be the goal.

No, my bad, I was asking you when I was really generalizing. It is sometimes hard to convey that type of subtelty in this medium. And, I don't think that others rules out free agency but they are pointing out that some posters bash the FO for not signing players that don't really exist. There other disconnect is that the best free agents get 5-6 years and the timing does not make sense right now and perhaps never. We have two stellar operating models to follow in the Rays and As. If we did things as well as those two organizations with a payroll budget that is roughly an incremental $50M, we would be in great shape.

What specifically would you have had them do last year? I really am not trying to be combative. I just don't think there were reasonable options. Therefore, how can you criticize the effort on FAs? I wanted Dempster and either Marcum or Saunders. Marcum has been really bad, Saunders and Dempster have nearly identical ERAs that are just a little higher than Correia. At least Pelfrey will be gone next year and they can try again.