tobi0040

I would guess most teams have very few commitments more than 6 years. The Twins have no contracts out more than four.

My understanding is Rosario could still play CF, but they moved him because of Buxton. I agree the question is his bat, but I think 30-40 2B and 10-15 HR is not out of the question for him.

If Terry and Jim Pohlad knew before they fired Gardy that Molitor was going to be hired, do you think they would have hired him the same day? I seriously don't think they would have handed the job to an insider without flying guys in and interviewing them.

I guess my counter to the cynicism comment is, lets just assume for a second that Terry Ryan knew the second Gardy was fired that he was going to hire Molitor. Do you think they would have fired Gardy and hired Molitor the same day, or within a few days? I think under no condition would the Pohlads or Dave St. Peter allowed that to happen. Not a chance. The optics of a franchise that has lost 360 games in four years that frankly did not take a step forward last year hiring a guy internally without a "process" would have looked really, really bad. So I think some credence exists to the cynicism. I mean, how long has Terry Ryan known Molitor? Two decades? He has been a roving instructor, at spring training, now he hired him for a bench role a year ago and he has seen him this year. Yet he still needed to interview him three times and it took him 31 days to decide? As far as where I stand, I would have been okay with Molitor or Luvollo. I can't really tell who will be a better coach. I do believe both are on different levels than Doug.

I wonder why we didn't claim Andy Dirks (Blue Jays picked him up). League average defense in LF, his numbers in 2013 were good. Give up nothing to do so. http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/d/dirksan01.shtml

I have kind of thought LF was going to come down to Rosario vs. Hicks. Rosario is facing better competition and hitting .397, 2 2B, 9 SB (3 CS), and an OPS of .834. Hicks is hitting .214. Point Rosario.

I am okay with that. A former center fielder HAS to be a plus defender in LF. And the guy has hit everywhere he has been.

Maybe it is a sign that you want the guy, but at the end of the day you get to approve or decline any trade. Sounds like the letting people call you is just being lazy, or frankly in the case of the Maddon thing a cop out. If he was the best available guy and we had some small percentage chance to get him but he never called, it seems like we missed out.

Here is a ranking of free agents. LF is very weak. They say Tomas has questionable defense and will get $100M. No thanks. Melky will get 3/40 and is a liability in LF. Rasmus 3/36 seems like the only real shot at upgrading both defensively and offensively, IMO. http://www.rotoworld.com/articles/mlb/49665/2/the-top-150-free-agents?pg=2

Yeah, 10-12 teams will call Lester and Max at 12:01 when free agency opens up. But we will wait for them to call us so we have negotiating leverage. Really drive their price down and pounce.

You mean OPS.

I think he could help this team quite a bit. Nowhere near a six win improvement though (6 for him and 6 for a starter). Walk and K issues aside, he has been around 20 HR and 20 2B the last three years while missing time. And he has a total dWAR of 2 over the last three years in center. Which tells me he would be a drastic improvement in LF or RF.

Some subsribe to the philosophy that the culture and acceptance level to mediocrity needs to change. That may help with the culture and attract others here. Like Joe Maddon, or maybe another free agent. I just think that no one player will add 25 wins, but using that logic will prevent from ever adding anyone. Especially in the context of Abreu, the guy has a 6 years deal.

The best part of Charlie is he LOVES Cretin. I will never forget a note in his quick hits about ten years ago, during the non-football season. "So and So, assistant football coach at Cretin Derham Hall, underwent minor knee surgery Tuesday" Thanks Charlie.

I went to delete that comment and it is locked.

I am capable of deeper level of analysis, but a chance exists here that a drive for deeper anaylsis is causing some to identify reasons that don't seem plausable or are extremely unlikely. If we want the answer to be something else or make this site superior to the star tribune comments, we can throw all sorts of theories. The control theory does not make a ton of sense to me. Tampa Bay makes more decisions based on money than we do and he has not spoken out or been a thorn in the GM's side, so I would not expect that to start anytime soon. Maybe he wants to be GM, maybe he wants a blue unicorn, you know what would be the best way to find out? By calling him. My theory is that Tampa has done a remarkable job flipping guys year in and year out and fielding a very good young pitching staff. That has allowed Maddon to platoon a decent offense and win a bunch of games. They lost Shields last year. They won 77 games and now lose Price this year. Hellickson and Moore are a question mark health-wise and he doesn't think this is sustainable much longer. He is at peak value and wants to cash in. On the timing front, the world series will be over soon and free agency will start soon. So chance exists that he would rather take $5M from the Twins on a buy low move, rather than potentially sit out this year or be a broadcaster. Maybe those things don't interest him at all. Again, a phone call is the best way to figure it out and it costs nothing. Not asking around. Hearing it from the horses mouth.

Well. We are on the market for a coach. He is the best coach out there. He likely opted out to be paid among the top coaches. So we know what that will cost. And we haven't called. Anyone that acts like another reason exists other than money for the lack of interest on our end is kidding them-self Satisfaction for me would be exploring all options to improve our team. I can understand not calling max sherzers agent. But not a 5m coach with no injury risk?

If it is not the money and he is the best guy on the market, why doesn't the gm make a simple phone call? Even if he thinks something, what will it hurt to make a phone call? I agree terry knows roughly what he is looking for and it is so much more than we are going to pay that he hasn't called. You have still the door open for another reason. That is the basis for the disagreement.

So we haven't called him because we think he may want something else? Seems an easy way exists to find out what he is thinking. Dial his number.

We all know that nobody has a better resume than madden. We also know that our due diligence has not resulted in a phone call. Yet we are still pretending it may not be about money. What exactly could it be? We are purposefully avoiding the best guy because we don't like his glasses?

Jay, 1) We have not reached out to him and he has been available four days 2) He would be pleasantly surprised if we did reach out Is this enough proof that we do not have the budget, as a source and multiple people on this site have guessed? I mean how would we know how much he is demanding if we didn't reach out to him? Or do you think the Twins don't view him as the type of talent as Molitor or Luvollo? It was always about the money

The only reports out of the Madden camp are that he is looking for a "big challenge" and would sit out this year unless a good opportunity comes along. Frankly, no way he does not accept an interview from the Twins right now. If anything it sounds like he is trying to goat us into an interview to boost his value. Meanwhile no indication we have reached out to his camp, interviewed him or anything. Luvollo is in line for his second interview and "Jim Pohlad is getting involved". Sounds like a fat no.

Right, but the reality is it will leak out that Maddon is getting interviewed by team X, who would have a manager under contract. I don't think that will happen.

No. I don't. I also think that he is not getting an interview and as the only team with an opening he has every incentive to appear interested in our position and interview for it, even if he doesn't want it. Every other team has to fire their coach and take a leap of faith that madden signs there. He needs our job for leverage or at least it would help his cause We will know shortly if we reached out and invited him in. As far as salary, maybe. Likely not more than 6.

Most gave the Twins a pass on Garza last off-season, because we had a verifiable offer out there that was in the ballpark (more annually) then he signed for. If we had a five million dollar offer out there and he signed with the Cubs, most reasonable people would give the Twins a pass there too. Luvollo had a second interview recently and according to La Velle, Pohlad has met with multiple guys and an announcement could come as early as Wednesday. So to me we aren't trying to get Madden, who still not a single person has said is not the best candidate available. I don't think this can be dismissed that easily as a number game.