twinsfan34

Unless Sano is hitting .280 with 40 HR at the MLB level, the position is open. You don't hold 3B for a guy who hasn't played a single MLB at-bat. That's ludicrous. You get talent and you let the talent force your hand. If you got two guys who can hit 40 HR who want to play the same position, welp, trade the other 40 HR guy for 5 top 100 prospects and 2 front end starting pitchers and the owner's daughter. Value is value. And a player doesn't own the position until he owns the position, Buxton included. Sano is less than half a season into AA. By all means, sign Moncada if at all possible.

Starting 5: Phil Hughes Ervin Santana Rickey Nolasco Kyle Gibson Tommy Milone (if only for a LH option) Others for #5/6th starter and 1-2 LR positions (pick 1-2) Alex Meyers Trevor May Mike Pelfrey Sam Deduno Logan Darnell J.R. Graham Relief Pitchers: Glen Perkins Casey Fein Tim Stauffer Brien Duensing Pick 1-2 Caleb Thielbar Michael Tonkin Ryan Pressly AJ Achter That's 12-13 pitchers.

I hope Torii plays good baseball in 2015 for the Minnesota Twins. Is this $10M a good investment or not? Well, the ink is dry. I hope he plays well in 2015. And I hope Mike B writes good baseball news as he is surely capable of.

Nice article. Good breakdown on the advanced metrics. I'd like to see Hunter vs. 'an average RF' not the best RF advanced metrics has EVER seen. It's like comparing Oswaldo Arcia to Babe Ruth. "Yeah...Oswaldo just doesn't seem to be as good as Babe."

Nice to know the Twins staff was hitting the video during Thanksgiving Break to find a coach.

Good points as well. He also gets away with taking pitchers (#3, #4 starters) who wouldn't have done as well in other ballparks, but play 81 games in Oakland vs say, 81 games in the homer dome. Twins are a top 5 most successful team of the past 30 years if you consider it in terms of playoffs appearances and World Series. Yankees, Red Sox, Giants, Cardinals, Twins, & surprisingly, the Marlins. The A's are in the next tier with one WS.

I thought of Plouffe in this situation. He's very similar to Lawrie. Plouffe is perhaps even a little better, at least from a production standpoint on OF. He's not near as good as Donaldson though. I would have taken Donaldson as is for Plouffe + 3 similar prospects as the A's got in our system. http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=5247&position=3B http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=7462&position=3B http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/p/plouftr01.shtml http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/l/lawribr01.shtml

I believe he sold Donaldson, at least 1-2 years too quick. For the 2015 Season: 2015 Payroll will be sans Cespedes and Jim Johnson as they are off the books at $10M a pop in 2014 ($20M total). Donaldson's Arb1 wouldn't have been that spendy (~$4.5M-$8M). For the 2016 Season: Donald's Arb2 (~$8M-$12M) would be comparable to Coco Crisp and Kazmir who are playing 2015 at $10M-$13M, thus coming off the books is $23M in those two players. The puzzling parts when you're trying to 'off salary'. Brandon Moss cost $4.1M in 2014 and for 2015 will be a Arb3 player...he'll cost ($7M-$11M) and provide 1/3 the WAR (2-2.6) as Donaldson (7.4-8). Add to the fact, it seems every year Beane just throws away $10M at someone. Recent ones include: 2014 - Jim Johnson (RP) - $10M 2013 - Chris Young (OF) - $8.7M 2010 - Ben Sheets (P) - $10M So who's Beane's candidate for 2015? I don't believe he's signed that $10M waste just yet, however, let's go with what we have. Let Billy Butler be presented as exhibit A. Butler will cost $6.7M, $11.7M, & $11.7M each of the next 3 years. Butler is at best, a 2-3 WAR player with no Def to offer in sight. He had a NEGATIVE total WAR in 2014. He'll be 29 next year and his affinity for Dunkin Donuts isn't getting any weaker. Donaldson is 7-9 WAR for the same cost for the next two seasons. Year 3, he'll cost more than Butler's $11.7M. But my argument was 2 years, not 3. I would look to trade Donaldson, in year 2 at the All-Star break (if not competing) or Winter 2016. Here's two articles making some guesses on salaries for the A's Arb eligible players: http://www.athleticsnation.com/2014/10/3/6895901/2015-oakland-athletics-salary-arbitration-and-payroll-estimate http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2014/11/projected-arbitration-salaries-for-2015.html Other References: http://www.baseballprospectus.com/compensation/cots/al-west/oakland-athletics/ http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/mossbr01.shtml http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/d/donaljo02.shtml http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/butlebi03.shtml

And with the possible redux trade of Matt Holiday-Carlos Gonzalez-Michael Taylor in the works (Samardjia)...could be a really rough few years ahead for Mr. Beane and his A's. Despite his trades, and to his credit, Mr. Beane is an expert in dumpster dives and drafting.

If you have insider, Buster Olney's blog covers this dilemma... CF -- Mookie Betts (bats right) 2B -- Dustin Pedroia ® DH -- David Ortiz (L) LF -- Ramirez ® 3B -- Sandoval (S) 1B -- Mike Napoli ® RF -- Rusney Castillo ® C -- Christian Vazquez ® SS -- Xander Bogaerts ® Not listed in that lineup: Yoenis Cespedes, Allen Craig, Brock Holt, Daniel Nava, Shane Victorino, Jackie Bradley Jr., Will Middlebrooks and Garin Cecchini -- all of whom have varying degrees of value to the Red Sox, or in trade. Just as Cubs president Theo Epstein has a stockpile of position players to talk about in any potential trade, Boston general manager Ben Cherington will be loaded with pieces to discuss in possible deals for pitching. To get his take, go here: http://insider.espn.go.com/blog/buster-olney/post?id=8704

I'd be all on board for somehow getting Mookie Betts without salvaging the farm. Betts is awesome and scare resource of strike zone management in this age. I don't think they'd part with him. They're more likely to part with Pedroia than Betts. Cost, injuries, and decline. Cost, because even though I think these two hitters are on the decline, regardless, they need starting pitching to compete and they're only $40M ?) underneath the luxury tax threshold.

I like looking. Again, Chris Carter cleared waivers for all MLB teams, could be had for $500K. http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/cartech02.shtml If he beats out the AAA or AA guy, I want the guy who beats out the other guys. I do like putting in the young guys - more than most. Speaking of a AAA or AA guy, who are you referring to? Willy Mo Pena is a .350/.440/.710 AAA player...who the Twins got in AAA that would hit that well? I don't think he'll stick with the Twins after ST, but he's worth a look IMO.

http://wapc.mlb.com/cutfour/2014/05/14/75453676/watch-wily-mo-pena-hit-a-490-foot-homer-off-the-osaka-dome-ceiling

Woah, woah, woah...this guy isn't getting 10 years $200M. It's a mutual interest. What do you risk? Cecil Fielder sucked. Chris Davis sucked. Chris Carter sucked. Until they didn't. The guy is one of the most powerful hitters in the world. Stanton of the Marlins is in his league, not the other way around. Bring him in for a look, this isn't going to be 10 year contract $200M contract. There's little to no risk involved here.

Surprised to see the Braves go for another pitcher, unless they're thinking Santana won't return (or too pricey to return) ? Besides Freeman, Heyward was the only guy with the ability to take a pitch for them. LaStella was the other other, both are now gone. If I'm not mistaken, Vizcaino, was a Brave before...must have really liked him to trade their starting 2B, or they firmly believe Peraza will be ready to man the 4 come ST.

On the ball caps: I don't like the TC on the caps either. It's generic and plain. White, then red. I like M's on the caps in Red, embroided. On the Jerseys: "Twins" or "Minnesota" across the front Two favorite throwback jerseys. 1985 and 1989. Then I'd love to see what they can do for some red uniforms.

Mauer is fine. He is who he is. Mauer doesn't ask us to act differently. As long as he's not committing felonies...all I care about is can he give us more .320+ seasons. I'm curious where Molitor will bat Mauer. Would love to see him hitting 1st. That, and MLB cracking down on this extra 24 sq inches of strike zone that's been added in the past 2 years. http://www.hardballtimes.com/the-strike-zone-expansion-is-out-of-control/

If you go the FA route, generally, you're going to overpay. If you trade a player away for prospects, you'll generally get ahead, not immediately, but generally you get ahead in the game. But you have to do it when the iron is hot. Tampa Bay waited too long and didn't get much of a return for Price by comparison to previous trades of James Shields and Jeff Samardjia.

I'm not sure what you mean by "productive"...(?) W-L wasn't bad 79-83, but they were still 17 G behind the Nationals, who had the only winning record in the Division. They were 2nd to last in runs scored (573), only the Padres (535) were a worse team when it came to putting runs on the board. Great pitching though.

Braves need hitters, they can't hit the broad side of a barn. They also need plate discipline. They have a solid SS prospect in Peraza, but he doesn't have much plate discipline (Altuve-esque approach). 26th in Batting Avg 4th in batter strikeouts 27th in OPS+ (1 pct off dead last)

Yep...and having good players. Even good ol' Joe Maddon finished dead last without talent (2006 and 2007) as well as any other manager. Front Office and the ML have to give Molitor talent.

What Jokin said... I would have wanted to heat 'no' under those scenarios. Honestly, I believe we're closer than the Cubs. Unless they can buy an entire pitching staff soon. And keep 3 of their 4 young players from striking out 200+ EACH - they're not necessarily that close to producing. Javier Baez was a .200 hitter and would have struck out 288 times if he played a full season. Nuts.