IndianaTwin

Odo, Pineda, and Thorpe for $36.5M.

Exactly. Negotiation doesn’t have to be adversarial. In fact, it’s much better if you can keep it from being so. Hopefully you have a good enough relationship with someone to be able to say, “Jake, we can’t go 2/$36M, but we’d really like to have you this coming year. We also agree with our ace consultant AMJGT that we don’t want to let you go for nothing. With where we are as a franchise, we think we can do 2/$26M. Is your preference to have the 2/$26M or would you rather take the $18M we’re willing to give you on a one-year deal and take your chances on having a good enough year to be able get $10M in 2021? And if you decide to go with neither, we understand, and we’ll give you a good reference because you’ve done a great job for us.”

Like in some past months, it felt good to look at the list and try to decide who I'd vote for, and then realize that I was just looking at the honorable mentions. You can't really give up a 40-man spot to do it, but De Aza is the kind of guy it would be nice to reward with a few days of service time and a few at bats to give him a chance to show people if he's struck lightning in a bottle as a 36-year-old.

Cool -- I was thinking of these questions yesterday and considered starting a thread. Here's my thoughts... Pineda: I don't consider myself a prospect junkie, but go back and read up on him. He was once BA's No. 16 prospect, he finished fifth in ROY and was an all-star as a rookie. As effective as he's been this year, he's still coming back from TJS. Folks are wanting to pick up an ace in the mode of Berrios or better and then have been complaining that Berrios hasn't been pitching as well as Pineda. I think Pineda is as good or better as Berrios. Yes, I offer a QO and try to negotiate to something like 2/$30 with an option, or even 3/$42. As noted, many QOs are declined, in which we get the pick. Odo: He didn't have quite the profile as Big Mike coming up, but has been incredibly durable. There can't be many guys who have had more than 188 starts in the past six years. I offer him pretty much the same as Mike, but maybe $1-$2 million less per year given that he's a year older and doesn't have quite the upside. Again, if he declines, we get the pick. Gibson: This is a tough one, and a lot may depend on whether he can get back this year and whether he gets the clean bill of health. Assuming those are good, I say, "Kyle, with your UC and your age, we can't give you a QO. But we're going to give you the opportunity to get QO money. For your service and generally solid year despite the health issues, we'll offer you a slight bump to $10M, with innings incentives that will get you to $18M at 200 IP." And perhaps even include some option possibilities. Perez: And I pick up Perez's option. But what about Brusdar and friends? First, even with those offers, I doubt you'll get the whole gang back together. But if they do, so what? The Twins have been incredibly lucky with health this year. Going into tonight, they have needed only seven (count 'em, 7) starts from outside of those five guys, and two of those were 26th-man starts. The odds of that happening again are very slim. One of these guys will get hurt and open a spot. And even if they don't, and Brusdar kicks down the door, remember that he still hasn't gone past 102 innings, so he's likely to be on some sort of innings limit. If he spends a month or two in Rochester going about 80 pitches per start, that's not necessarily a bad thing. And if Perez (and to an extent Gibson) don't stay healthy and effective, they aren't huge contracts to eat (think Addison Reedish). Or, they try turning them into bullpen assets before showing them the door. [Or even trade options, if they are suffering from an embarrassment of riches. (I'd be glad to be so embarrassed, by the way.)] As comparison, look at the Dodgers. They've gotten 24+ starts so far from Buehler, Maeda, Ryu, and Kershaw, plus 13 from Stripling and 10 from Hill. Now at the end of the season, they're looking for a spot for Urias, so they are transitioning him into the rotation shuffling Maeda to the bullpen (where he got a 4-inning save for my fantasy team last night, but I digress). We don't have Dodger money, but the model works. We also don't have money wrapped up in a Kershaw contract.

Frankly, even going just 2-4 against them means that they still have to make up four games in the loss column in the other 18 (Cle) or 19 (Min) games. Not impossible by any means, but still a tough task.

You missed one. Priority 1 is always "Beat the White Sox." With their loss last evening, we have now clinched at least a tie. A Twins win tonight or a Sox loss will mathematically eliminate them. Then we can move to your list, which I think otherwise is right on target.

Yes, let's silence Cleveland! I think you mean "moot." It's a common confusion -- you mute the television; irrelevant things are moot.

Thanks, Mike and Brock, for redeeming this thread and steering it back to helpful discussion.

Oooh, that's a tough one to get out of my mouth. Not sure I can do it. Can I pray for four days of rain?

Now that’s an outfield we haven’t seen in awhile.

max!!!!!!!!!! (I save caps for HRs.)

F And two of those seven starts came as the 26th man in a DH. Also of note regarding their health is that prior to roster expansion, all but nine PAs came from 15 players (not counting pitchers).

Is he hurting? I was at the Saturday and Sunday games and I was struck by how slowly and with bad jumps he went after balls. He was also playing unusually deep.

Well, by definition most teams have losing records against teams with winning records. Do you think Yankee fans are excited knowing they lost the season series to three of the five teams left in the playoff hunt? Are Houston fans pumped knowing they would carry a 14-14 record into the playoffs against NYY, Min, TB and Cleve? Among games among the five current playoff teams, NYY is 22-15, Min 17-16, Hou 14-14, Cle 15-18, and TB 16-21. The Yankee advantage is from going 12-5 against TB. Oakland is in the race, so add them and it’s Hou 24-19, NYY 23-21, Oak 22-21, Min 20-20, Cle 19-23, TB 19-25. In this one Hou gets its advantage by winning 10 of 15 vs Oak. And in all of those, I’d say there’s not substantive difference that can’t be overcome in a short series.

Folks, 99 mph is loud.

Do I see No. 51 warming up?

While playing behind the runner, Turtle just snuck up and pulled Miggy’s shirt-tail out. They’ve been yucking it up pretty good.

So you’re saying he’s kinda like a 4x100 team of Sano, Cruz, Turtle and Big Mike?

As a former pastor, I bless these moves.

And people wonder why I Miss The Metrodome.

Checking in from Section 122. Tarp is back on, though the grounds crew is standing with it. A few sprinkles, so it won’t be much of a delay, but they won’t get started by 1:30 as projected.

Harper, Hildenberger, Romero are all relievers. I suspect on or more will be up Tuesday after Rochester is done. They can’t deplete the roster too much with two games left.

17 strikeouts is a few too many.

Milldaddy35, any suggestions on PowerBall numbers?

Gotta like a lineup where the Twins’ weakest hitter would be leading the Tiger lineup in OPS by more than .050.