Major League Ready

I have to agree. Ploufee will be a valuabale trade chip if he continues to improve his defense. His plate discipline has been getting better but still inconsistent. He could be a lot more valuable in a year. If not, he would be valuable as a DH / Utility player once Sano makes the big club. How nice would it be in Collabello came up and played well. He could be a good bridge player for the next couple years or a trade chip. I am expecting him to drop-off just like Parmalee did but we can all hope. Refining Arcia's approach is really important too. He could really be great or he could be Delmon 2.0. Yuk. Delmon drove me nuts. Arcia will be a stud if he makes pitchers throw it over the plate. Next, give Albers a shot and hopefully get Worley in decent form. Let's see if Albers is crafty enough to pitch at the ML level. Now is the time find out. #1 goal / hope is that we get something decent for Morneau and a haul for Perkins.

I really like Perk but I also really hope someone makes an offer Ryan Can't refuse. We still need more top of the rotation prospects. A high ceiling SS would be an option too but I am not as inclined as others to oust Florimon. He is fun to watch play defense. A little better approach at the plate and his offense should be very acceptable given what he adds defensively.

I am not trying to take sides here but I thought it was not just aggressive but short-sighted because they only had Shileds for 1+ an option year. I could see taking your shot if the players you were getting back were going to provide benefit for three or four years but that was no tthe case. Giving up a top 10 prospect and others for a pitcher under control for 2 years is steep? (They have a club option in 2014, right?) None of their core was going anywhere for a few years. They could have waited until their young players proved they were ready to make a playoff run. This was a high risk / impatient move.

Ozzie is the last thing we need.

Me too! He might not be an ace be he would look like one at Target field compared to what we have been stuck with the past couple years.

Great idea if Hughes could be extended. I would not mind seeing that one come to fruition. However, I have this feeling that Pelfey is going to get back to top form and we might be able to retain him. How many guys do you want to add when hopefully Meyer and may are close and who knows what is going to happen with Alex Wimmers.

It sounds to me like alot of reading between the lines in general. The disagreement in this thread is that a lot of fans are not willing to sacrifice anything now to build a contender later. My perspective is that long-term success is a product of managing assets. Selling high is generally a good idea. In this case, we have a player who's contract will expire by he time a closer is a key piece. He will also very likely be past his prime. That's why there have been articles with a theme of trading Perkins makes too much sense. However, some fans are always going to be against trading away a good player if it means delayed gratification. Some would also mention the risk with prospects but that's a two-way street.

You have to believe Carroll will be traded to a contender before the deadline. There are a lot of pieces to fit together and movement expected on the ML roster very soon.

I am surprised Adam Walker did not move up with Bigley going to New Britain

I have to conceed that I did not specifically limit this to starting pitching but that was the intent if you look at the context of the post. You are also talking about retention of existing players vs acquiring free agents. This is common. Milwaukee retained Braun but let Grienke go and there are many other examples including Mauer and Santana. The point remains that many of you continue to complain about free agent pitching the fact is that the majority of those deals did not work out at all. And, historically, more of those deals have failed than have succeeded. Had Ryan done what most of you wished he just would have flushed the dollars.

Some of these points were no doubt made by others. I did not read the entire thread. I read three pages and it was all I could take. Tier 1 free agents require long-term contracts. Signing long-term deals at this point in the rebuild, especially for team with middle of the pack revenue would be grossly incompetent and I would bet every GM in MLB would agree. The vast majority of the Free agent SP that many of you are complaining we did not go after are performing very poorly this year. In other words, Ryan was right, those of you who continue to complain we did not go after SPs were wrong. Yet, you continue to complain even after it has become evident that those pitchers were not the answer. Could the FO do better you bet. Sure, I would take the Rays FO over ours in a heartbeat. We only had one good year at Target field. The Pohlads spent the money and retained Joe Mauer. Some of you forget this fact. St. Louis who has similar revenue to the Twins was not willing to do that with Pujols. This team or any other team with equivalent revenue is not going to land SPs in free agency on the level of Sabathia, Grienke, Lee, etc. Too many other teams simply have way more to spend and this team really can’t afford the risk. There are many examples of failures with very high dollar free agent SPs, including Johan Santana. That was not a complete bust for the Mets but it was not good either.

The Red Sox revenue is $120M more than the twins.

Good point. The twins have suffered through a long spell of mediocre or worse MI defense. You would have to believe they would be inclined to stay with this combo if Rosario could net a good SP prospect.

I have to agree with you completely. Meyer and May were a good start but it would be hard to argue they fixed the situation. Worley did not look like part of the long-term solution even before he tanked. I was hoping Morneau, Willingham, and Doumit would have big years and return something at the deadline. As much as I hate to see Perkins go, he is now the only chance of bringing on another quality SP prospect. I understand where you are coming from now.

Is there a guarantee with a different approach?

I think the FO has made their share of mistakes but that is pretty easy to say with the benefit of hindsight. However, there are a lot more example of FA starting pitchers that failed then there are that have been great successes. The top half-dozen or so teams in terms of revenue can take those chances because a bust won’t completely cripple them. What should the twins have done? Grienke – No way that was ever going to happen. And, no way would it have made sense for the twins to commit to 6/$147M at this stage of the rebuild. Sanchez – Doubt there was any way we were getting him away from the Tigers. And, it does not make sense to commit 5 years to a pitcher at this point in the rebuild. 3 years from now a player with the exact same profile might make perfect sense. Peavy – Two years makes sense. He was a reasonable target but once again it’s hard to get a player away from their current team when that team is willing to match your offer. Jackson – Many Twins fans wanted Jackson. He is 6-10 w a 5.11 ERA and entering his declining years. We will have to wait 3 ½ more years but I think he would have been a colossal mistake. Kuroda – Were we going to steal him for NY? Would we have wanted him? McCarthy – I thought he was a better option than Correa but he is 2-4 w/5.00 ERA Marcum who many preferred is 1-10. Dempster at 2yrs / 26.5M with a 4.24 ERA. He was a good target too but he has hardly been a difference maker. Apparently we took a hard run at him but it’s a tough sell with a guy toward the end of his career when the other bidder is a contender. Harren is 4-10 / 5.61 Blanton 2-12 / 5.53 Baker is out. Most of the options that were supported by posters have been a bust. Some of them for a lot more money. That is absolutely completely ignored by some but I think we need to at least acknowledge this is a business. It's easy to say I don't care what it costs. Try that when managing a payroll for someone else and you will be looking for work. We also need to be fair in what has transpired. Was it reasonable for the twins to assume Worley & Diamond would be solid performers? Had Worley and Diamond performed within reasonable expectations, a rotation of Worley / Diamond / Deduno / Correa & Gibson would give us a very good chance of winning most nights.

I thinked you summed it up nicely here. I can appreciate that many don't want to see one of the few players who has really performed well be traded. However, that's what it takes to build a dominant team from the position we are in right now.

Imagine (dream) about this lineup. Buxton Crawford Mauer Sano Arcia Pluffe (DH) Hicks Pinto Rosario

Very interesting, Jeremy. It seems to me that it really comes down to our willingness to be a little worse now in order to make an already good farm system even better. Personally there is no difference to me between being bad and really bad. Therefore, I say sell. I also hope for a silver lining in that moving veterans makes room to give more guys a shot to make in at the MLB level. How great would it be if one or two players out of Colabello, Albers, Tonkin, Hendricks, Worley, etc could surprise us and step it up if given the opportunity to develop in the majors. Morneau – If he is willing to sign an extension for 2 years at $14M it becomes an interesting decision. If not, and we can get a prospect with a decent shot at making the ML roster, you let him go. We can still try to sign him next season if that makes sense. Plouffe is actually the tough one to me because he has shown signs that suggest he might finally reach his potential. He has had a much better approach and been getting the barrel of the bat on the ball. At times he has drilled the ball the other way quite a bit but they were hit at someone. So, even if Sano does replace him, he could be a super utility player / DH. Holding on to him for another might also yield better prospects if he does in fact continue to improve. Perkins is pretty easy to me if he brings the kind of offers you have suggested. The twins are likely not going to be a serious contender until his current contract is up and a closer is not critical to a poor or mediocre team. Meyer, May, Sano, and Rosario likely will not be here until mid 2014. We can’t expect to be serious contenders their first full year in 2015. I think we need to be realistic about when this team could be a serious contender. Perkins does not fit into that equation.

Hello everyone, I have been following for a few months but never posted. When I saw this thread I decided to register so that I could pose a question. The question is ... If Morneau was worthy of a 2/20 extension would he not also be worth a pretty decent prospect?