mnfireman

According to baseball reference, Revere is right at league average for runners advancing the extra base, even with his very much below average arm. He has turned my opinion of him around. Congrats young master Revere and may you have continued success.

These same guys would bash Carew, Boggs, and Gwynn, to name a few, because they would have gotten "Mauer Money" if they played today but "don't hit for power." Pretty sure their career OPS's were above league average over their careers.

I bet these same guys that hate on Mauer would hate on Carew for the same reasons, no power. Imagine if Boggs and Gwynn had played for the Twins, alot more complaints that they don't hit for power. Let's appreciate what we have here, a future HOFer and one of the best pure hitters of this or any era.

Yeah,my bad. Busy weekend. Couldn't watch any games, so I read the box scores at the same sitting. Or maybe I confused Mauer with our other HOF catcher who homered today.

BTW, Mauer homered today.

Sacrifice bunting in the first or second inning. Giving up an out that early doesn't make sense, but Gardy did it consistently during interleague play. Also when a pitcher hits a batter when he's ahead 0-2. Pitch inside yes, but not that far.

Mauer may not be "worth" $23 M per but who really is? It was what the market would have dictated had he been allowed to test the FA waters. And with 2009 being the exception, he is right around his career slash numbers. He has been fairly healthy this season and productive. Signing Doumit is a good idea in my view, he is putting up almost exactly his career splits and he's not so horrible that 1 or 2 days behind the plate hurt the team. Now if this was about Butera.....

I think the team should have erred on the side of safety and had the MRI done immediately. Not to take the trainers side, because their track record is not very good the last couple of years, but if the player is not forthcoming about how much pain he is in or what motions hurt or anything along these lines, then the teams hands are tied while the player gets "a couple of days off to figure it out". Being a tough guy is a good thing, but if your hurt admit it.

Yep, sorry missed that!

Why isn't Casilla on 2B? Need to show a little hustle, not take it for granted that the catch will be made.

Who cares. Everybody complains when Mauer and the team aren't forthcoming with information and now everybody complains when he says what he was doing and thinking on this play. Unbelievable. He stated he didn't like the slide but understands its part of the game. Would rather have his $23M on the DL like Posey or his career wrecked like Fosse? He didn't like the slide, he'll take a day or two off and the world wil move on.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/MIN/2012-roster.shtml?sr&utm_source=direct&utm_medium=Share&utm_campaign=ShareTool#payroll::8 I couldn't get the table too paste with just 2013 salary.

I was using baseball-reference's payroll tool. It gives a rough estimate using 3 year averages. Going back and lookingnat the players, it will not be $20 M. Casilla and Duensing will get the biggest amounts, Burton will get a contract and Burroughs will be released. I will amend that to $5 M, putting payroll down around $76.5 M. I threw this together quickly last night and didn't check the actual arb. eiligible players. That being said, with this new $76.5 M number I think the team exercises Capps option because he's a guy who "battles his tail off", plus I missed Gray probably not getting offered arbitration. That puts total payroll around $82 M, leaving $18 M to get to $100 M. This assumes no qualifying offers to Pavano and Liriano, because that would screw things up if either accepted, and no trades this season. I apologize for not doing my full homework on this assignment.

There have been alot of posts on here about all the money coming off the books next year. Let's take a look at the real numbers, as I have done on a couple off occassions this year. The team currently has 8 players under contract for next year and they will earn $63.8 M The team team has 4 arbitration eligible players that are estimated to receive $20 M. We are at 12 players and $83.8 M. The team has 2 players, Matt Capps and Scott Baker, with team options totalling $15.25 M. The smart thing to do would be to decline these, meaning we need to fill 13 spots. Using players that are in the system at the pre-arbitration average we get $9.43 M. We are at 25 players and $93.2 M. The team loses Pavano, Liriano, Doumit & Marquis (already DFA'd). Declining the Capps and Baker options means the team needs 3 SP's, a closer, and a DH/C. Remember also that Blackburn receives (not earns) $5.5 M and Nishioka $3 M. Removing Burroughs, Thomas and Hughes frees up about $1.6 M, pushing payroll back to about $91.6 M. I can see the logic that people are using to dream about Greinke, Hamels, Sanchez, etc... but unless payroll goes up to $120 M - $125 M, I only see about $8.4 M to sign FA's. Beginning to look like they are "Target"ing 2014 when estimated payroll drops to about $75 M, but Morneau, Blackburn, Nishioka, Casilla and Carroll become free agents. EDIT: I used Baseball-Reference's payroll tool. It estimated the Twins arbitration total at $20 M using 3 year averages. However, Casilla, Duensing, Burton and Burroughs will not get $20 M, closer to $6M. Also I missed Gray being arb. eligible and he probably won't get an offer. These new numbers make me feel that the team picks up Capps $6 M option, putting payroll around $82 M, which leaves $18 M to get to $100 M. I apologize for not being thorough the first time through.

There have been alot of posts on here about all the money coming off the books next year. Let's take a look at the real numbers, as I have done on a couple off occassions this year. The team currently has 8 players under contract for next year and they will earn $63.8 M The team team has 4 arbitration eligible players that are estimated to receive $20 M. We are at 12 players and $83.8 M. The team has 2 players, Matt Capps and Scott Baker, with team options totalling $15.25 M. The smart thing to do would be to decline these, meaning we need to fill 13 spots. Using players that are in the system at the pre-arbitration average we get $9.43 M. We are at 25 players and $93.2 M. The team loses Pavano, Liriano, Doumit & Marquis (already DFA'd). Declining the Capps and Baker options means the team needs 3 SP's, a closer, and a DH/C. Remember also that Blackburn receives (not earns) $5.5 M and Nishioka $3 M. Removing Burroughs, Thomas and Hughes frees up about $1.6 M, pushing payroll back to about $91.6 M. I can see the logic that people are using to dream about Greinke, Hamels, Sanchez, etc... but unless payroll goes up to $120 M - $125 M, I only see about $8.4 M to sign FA's. Beginning to look like they are "Target"ing 2014 when estimated payroll drops to about $75 M, but Morneau, Blackburn, Nishioka, Casilla and Carroll become free agents. EDIT: I used Baseball-Reference's payroll tool. It estimated the Twins arbitration total at $20 M using 3 year averages. However, Casilla, Duensing, Burton and Burroughs will not get $20 M, closer to $6M. Also I missed Gray being arb. eligible and he probably won't get an offer. These new numbers make me feel that the team picks up Capps $6 M option, putting payroll around $82 M, which leaves $18 M to get to $100 M. I apologize for not being thorough the first time through.

And we'll "casilla" at second!

And "plouffe" it was gone. LOL you sillies!

These all suck...even if just for fun. Just sayin'!

The team has 8 signed players, 2 players with options, 4 arbitration eligible players & 3 free agents. Barring any trades this season, declining the 2 options (Baker & Capps), and offering arbitration to the 4 eligibles, they have 12 players at roughly $83M. If they fill with pre-arb players from the system, they are sitting at roughly $92.5M. The point of this is that payroll needs to go up or we watch Losing v.3.0, only without Pavano, Capps, Doumit, & Liriano

Perk doesn't look very good tonight.

Don't miss any of the bases Doumit!! Nice HR.

To paraphrase Denny Green - "He is who we thought he was!"

So, do we think we believe he's turned it around or do we believe we think he's turned it around? It was a great start, no doubt, but was it a start to be great?

I don't think a drastic overhaul is necessary. Have a sit down at the end of the year and get everyone on board with the direction the team needs to go. I believe Pavano & Liriano are off the books after this season, Baker and Capps are team options, Blackburn is owed $5.5M and Perkins $2.5M. The rest of the staff are still arbitration or pre-arb eligible. Mauer, Morneau, Willingham, Span, Carroll & Nishioka are under contract, Doumit is a free agent and the rest are arbitration or pre-arb eligible. Looking at the list of free agents, I wouldn't think alot of them would want to come here, wanting instead to play for a "contender". However, if the team makes realistic offers to Greinke, Jackson, Hamels, Sanchez, and/or Dempster to show that they are serious about turning things around.... Hey it worked for the Marlins. Granted MSP is no South Beach, but why not throw some money out there and see who wants it.

Figured I would update the slash lines I started last week so as to get a picture of where our 2012 Minnesota Twins are sitting compared to the rest of the American League. Interesting to note with all the different line-ups that certain positions in the field and certain spots in line-up perform the same, good or bad, no matter who is in there. Anyway, here are this weeks updated slash lines: C - .284/.371/.358 .729 (6) 1B - .206/.286/.352 .638 (11) 2B - .231/.280/.288 .568 (12) 3B - .207/.254/.299 .553 (12) SS - .230/.291/.303 .594 (10) LF - .281/.385/.519 .904 (2) CF - .274/.332/.347 .679 (9) RF - .185/.263/.309 .571 (14) DH - .291/.392/.595 .987 (1) PH - .286/.385/.476 .861 (2) Overall - .244/.319/.372 .691 (11) 1 - .283/.340/.361 .701 (6) 2 - .204/.284/.282 .565 (12) 3 - .292/.402/.405 .807 (6) 4 - .224/.332/.418 .750 (8) 5 - .304/.396/.652 1.048 (1) 6 - .201/.247/.293 .540 (14) 7 - .217/.281/.335 .616 (12) 8 - .214/.272/.289 .561 (11) 9 - .253/.304/.331 .635 (6) SP - 1.57 WHIP (14) 1.94 K/BB (10) 5.16 K/9 (14) .912 OPS (14) 10-25 6.49 ERA (14) RP - 1.16 WHIP (4) 2.47 K/BB (8) 6.45 K/9 (14) .663 OPS (6) 5-5 3.95 ERA (10) Overall - 1.41 WHIP (12) 2.15 K/BB (9) 5.67 K/9 (14) .818 OPS (14) 15-30 5.49 ERA (14) Any and all comments appreciated. Thank you in advance.