RealTwinsFan357

Since this is the last year of his contract, I wouldn't trade for him. I don't feel like this team is a DH away from making a world series run next year. I think sorting through our rotation mess and building a strong bullpen are more important. To succeed, the twins need to establish their young core then sign complementary pieces

I disagree that the payroll issue is moot. Some posters, for example, think Eduardo Nunez is going to be too expensive next year due to arbitration and he will making much less than we would be paying Mauer on an annual basis. I understand you may not share that opinion, but my point is that I don't want the Twins to be unable to sign/extend talent years from now because they are writing an annual check to Mauer. It's easy to say that a couple million per year is no big deal, but for a team consistently below average in payroll, it might be the difference if they are operating near their payroll ceiling at that time.

The twins say no first if this is mauer's idea, mauer says no first if this is the front office's idea...it makes no sense for mauer to restructure his contract, even for more money in the long run. He is guaranteed a lot of money over the next couple years and nothing will change that. On the other hand, deferment of a contract is (almost) always a bad idea...let future payroll space be for future teams.

I think the Twins should target Matt Harvey. He's a true ace. Start the package with Dozier, add a couple top prospects (Stewart, Kepler), and see what happens

I think the Twins should consider targeting Starlin Castro as a potential bad contract swap. He seems to have fallen out of favor with the Cubs and is owed $7, $9, $11, $13+$1 buyout over the next 4 seasons. As recently as 2014, he was an above average player, so there is some upside behind this trade. Worst case scenario, he is an expensive utility infieldr. What do you think, Nolasco/Hughes for Castro?

That sounds a little bit more fair, I'd at least consider it from both sides

I see Nolasco for Upton as a fairly equal trade, which means SD is giving up Shields and Kimbrel for Polanco...I don't see it. I also don't think the first trade is fair to TB...Hicks and Vargas are probably worth only one average level player

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2015/09/dan-duquette-orioles-angelos.html I can't say this excites me too much...

http://detroitsportsnation.com/detroit-mlb/bdangelo/rumor-tigers-going-hire-ron-gardenhire-one-source-says-yes/44542/ This is all I could find on the subject matter...it isn't super convincing but time will tell

Looks like Molitor is starting Hicks and Hunter and sitting Buxton tonight...Hunter is hitting .164/.231/.279 in the second half while Buxton is hitting .189/.232/.256 on the year, so offensively, they're a wash at this point. I can't believe we're going with a 40 year old over the future of the franchise. I really hope this is a one-day decision, Hicks and Buxton are both in the lineup tomorrow, and I'm just overreacting...

I think and hope Hicks will come up and Hunter will be benched by this weekend. That would improve RF offense and defense

I'd be interested in Desmond, depending on contract length (maybe 3-4 years at 15-18 million per). Weiters is interesting although I don't know how durable he will be moving forward. I really don't want the twins pursuing more (non-ace) starting pitching this offseason...we have plenty of mid-rotation arms

I've been reading (and partaking in) some awesome debates on Twins Daily lately. One of my favorite topics has been the discussion about whether to trade Plouffe for a C/SS and open up 3B for Sano. I have also enjoyed reading and thinking about topics such as whether Hunter should be re-signed, whether Hicks should play RF next year, etc. I decided that I would look at some statistics regarding the Twins offensive production and try to pinpoint exactly what the Twins biggest weaknesses are. The statistics I chose are Fangraphs's WAR and wRC+. This decision is somewhat arbitrary, but I think these two statistics are the best at gauging overall value. My goal is to examine where Twins players (with at least 100PA) line up with other players (also with at least 100PA) at their position. I let Fangraphs decide which players qualified for which position, thus sometimes multiple players qualify at multiple positions. I also examined where a few players would be if they switched positions. For each player, I will give their WAR, wRC+, rank, and percentile at each position they qualify for.* The Data: Kurt Suzuki: -0.3 WAR (53/54-4th percentile at C), 58 wRC+ (44/54-20th percentile at C) Joe Mauer: 0.0 WAR(38/54-31st percentile at 1B), 91 wRC+ (34/54-39th percentile at 1B) Kennys Vargas: -0.5 WAR(18/22-23rd percentile at DH, 46/54-17th percentile at 1B), 75 wRC+ (20/22-14th percentile at DH, 46/54-17th percentile at 1B) Brian Dozier: 3.2 WAR(4/50-94th percentile at 2B), 122 wRC+ (9/50-84th percentile at 2B) Trevor Plouffe: 2.4 WAR(12/52-79th percentile at 3B), 110 wRC+ (18/52-67th percentile at 3B) Eduardo Escobar: -0.6 WAR(43/48-13th percentile at SS, 66/75-13th percentile at LF), 80 wRC+ (29/48-42nd percentile at SS, 60/75-21st percentile at LF) Eduardo Nunez: 0.4 WAR(28/48-44th percentile at SS, 12/22-50th percentile at DH), 92 wRC+ (17/48-67th percentile at SS, 15/22-36th percentile at DH) Danny Santana: -1.2 WAR(48/48-2nd percentile at SS), 43 wRC+ (43/45, 8th percentile at SS) Eddie Rosario: 1.2 WAR(22/75-72nd percentile at LF, 22/53-60th percentile at RF), 100 wRC+ (38/75-51st percentile at LF, 28/53-49th percentile at RF) Shane Robinson: 0.2 WAR(48/75-37th percentile at LF), 67 wRC+ (66/75-13th percentile at LF) Aaron Hicks: 1.5 WAR(20/49-61st percentile at CF), 103 wRC+ (22/49-57th percentile at CF) Torii Hunter: 0.9 WAR(28/53-49th percentile at RF), 99 wRC+(29/53-47th percentile at RF) Miguel Sano: 0.8 WAR(9/22-64th percentile at DH), 160 wRC+(2/22-95th percentile at DH) I also examined where a few players would rank at different positions: Miguel Sano: 0.8 WAR(24/50-54th percentile at 3B), 160 wRC+ (2/50, 98th percentile at 3B) Aaron Hicks: 1.5 WAR(19/53-66th percentile at RF), 103 wRC+ (26/53-53rd percentile at RF) Torii Hunter: 0.9 WAR(7/22-73rd percentile at DH), 99 wRC+ (13/22-45th percentile at DH) Conclusions: Overall, I have to say I'm disappointed with almost the entire Twins offense. Only Dozier and Sano are top 10 talents at their respective positions, Plouffe is a borderline top 15 third baseman, and if we consider the top 30 players the "starting-level" talent at each position (15 players for DH), no other player is in the top half at any position (although it is possible Rosario could be if I had only allowed players to qualify for one position). Again using 30 as an arbitrary cutoff for being considered "starting-level", the Twins do not have a "starting-level" player at C or 1B. At SS and all 3 outfield positions, the best player we have is rated in the 20s. Clearly, something needs to be done about this offense. It is curious to see that moving Hicks to RF would actually increase his positional rank when it comes to WAR. This must be because RF contains a lot of below average fielders. Once we consider that Hicks's defensive will probably improve even more with the shift away form center field, it looks like he could be a top 15 talent in the corner. It appears that Sano has the bat to be a truly elite player at 3B or DH, while Plouffe may not be as strong offensively as many (including myself) believe. In my opinion, the Twins would be wise to trade Plouffe for a top 20 catcher. Of course, they could also throw in some prospects to make this happen. Hunter is currently our 3rd best outfielder, but Buxton also deserves a starting chance. Arcia is also out of options next year and will only be able to DH if Plouffe is traded. Add in the fact that Kepler could debut sometime next year and it seems if Hunter comes on for another year, it should be as a 4th or 5th outfielder. I don't think we really need him for his production, but I can't speak about intangibles. Maybe they could sign him to be a player-coach who mainly just sits on the bench. There are worse uses for a bench spot. I really don't want to start another Mauer war, so all I will say about 1B is that it looks like we are in trouble. The good news here is that we don't have a true replacement for Mauer (sure Plouffe or Sano could play 1B, but neither of them is actually a first basemen. Likewise Kepler is primarily an outfielder. The only player the Twins have on the 40-man that is primarily a first baseman is Vargas and his offense has been worse than Mauer's). It is still possible Mauer turns it around, it is possible our young hitters develop into 3-4-5 types so we can move Mauer down in the lineup, and Mauer's contract should not prevent Terry Ryan from extending some of our young talent. We are not the only team with a bad contract, so there is no reason Mauer's play needs to sink this team. Overall, it seems like this offense has a way to go before it becomes that of serious a playoff team. I think we need to see top 10 production at at least 2-3 positions and top 20 production at another 3-4 before the Twins make it out of the first round of the playoffs. This season has been fun to watch, and I'm excited to see where this teams goes in the next few years. Thanks for reading!! *I acknowledge that the statistical analysis used here is far from perfect. For example, WAR is accumulated differently at different positions, so looking at the WAR of a player who has played multiple positions (or looking at the WAR of a player who could change positions), is not a fair measurement. In addition, there are players who qualify for multiple positions, meaning the 30 "starting-level" players at different positions may contain some overlap. As a result, a player rated int he 40s could still be top 30 at their position when only considering each player at one position. Nevertheless, I feel as though these statistics provide some insight into the nature of the Twins offense.

I was talking team rankings, my bad

I think the Astros gave up several top 20 prospects, maybe even a top 5, I don't have names fresh right now though

I agree that he's an improvement over Escobar, Nunez, Santana...not too sure about Polanco, but if Polanco can't stick at short that doesn't matter. My only real problem is the price-it's steep for a buy low candidate

I would want the cubs to eat significant salary, but I would be interested...Castro only has a wRC+ of 53 this year(and that number is at -5 this month), so I wouldn't give up much of anything in terms of prospects or dollars...one teens prospect and a PTBNL. The cubs seem desperate to trade him now, so no need to offer too much. If the cubs don't bite it probably isn't worth it to offer more

No trade clause doesn't mean he can't be traded, just that he has to approve his trade. That being said, he isn't going anywhere. I also think it's unreasonable to expect him to restructure his contract...that's just not how sports work

That's pretty much what I thought...oh well still fun to dream

He's a top prospect in the Yankees organization and his bat looks MLB ready...Is he the answer for the Twins at catcher? Do the Twins even have something the Yankees would be interested in? He's blocked by McCann in NY, so I could see the Yankees deciding Sanchez is expendable.

I would assume it's because Sano's injury wasn't healed enough for him to field...

When Plouffe goes on paternity leave, Kepler could debut. He would only be with the club for 2-3 days, but he could play RF while Hunter is the DH and Sano plays 3rd. It wouldn't be a lot, but it would be a nice little reward for his season at AA. Afterwards, they can send him to AAA and tell him if he has a nice month he'll be back in September.

If Escobar, Nunez, and Santana are going down, who is playing SS?

Do realize that most of his road splits come at other NL west parks, which I think are all pitcher-friendly. Target field is much more neutral

We'll just have to agree to disagree on this one