diehardtwinsfan

They don't get a pick for Lester. They cannot give him a QO as he wasn't with the team for a year. This is a bit of a surprising move in my opinion. Not sure Oakland is better for it... Now perhaps it's b/c they are going to go get Hammer... who knows. Do they need a catcher too? Beane seems willing to give up nice things right now. Hammer + Suzuki could probably yeild a nice return. EDIT: Just checked, they most definitely don't need a catcher... so much for that dream.

Something tells me that there may be more to the Nolaso situation with this. Milone is a good get, especially for Fuld, but he doesn't fit into the picture. The Twins have Nolaso, Pelfrey, Gibson, and Hughes starting next year without Milone. Add a very ready Meyer and May to this mix and too many guys. I'm wondering if the Twins have formally ruled out Pelfrey and Nolasco for next year, because otherwise this doesn't make much sense.

Not sure Slegers has done enough to get a promotion to High A.

I'm hoping the Twins do the Alex Meyer thing here and shut him down for a bit. Tightness could simply be not getting loose, or it could be a symptom of something worse. He's getting close to his workload from last year at this point, so giving him some extra rest is hopefully all that's needed. I won't feel comfortable though until he's gone a while without any reocrruances.

At 24, he's got a long hard road ahead of him. With his control issues, he isn't going to get rushed. Fast tracking, he gets there at 27/28... That said... Good luck!

Tabata is barely above the mendoza line in Indianapolis. He might be stop gap, but for what it's worth, Alex Pressley outperformed him in the same envioronment

Thorpe has been gradually improving over the course of the season. There's a thread in the minor league forum on that where his starts have been broken down into 4 game chunks. This was his nineth start of the season and he pitched an absolute gem, especially given that he's on a pitch limit of around 75 pitches. He went 5 2/3 striking out 10, walking 1, 2 runs (both earned), and giving up only 4 hits. On the season, his ERA is not spectacular at 4.74, but he seems to be adjusting to the MWL, and at the youngest player there, it's encouraging.

Now is when we pray for a blister on his throwing hand... or calf injury...

speaking of hell bent. I'm getting occasional prompts to run some java script. I refuse to download and run it, as I'm pretty certain it's ad related.

Plouffe really didn't show much until his until his final option year.

I don't expect much in the way of significant signings. I could see a 3 year deal to a a decent corner OF, but the CF/DH positions are going to be one year deals with guys like Buxton and Vargas needing a bit more time. I could also see them rolling the dice with Parmelle in LF for a year as well. I don't expect any SP signing. With the number of decent high minors relievers, I'm not even sure they do much in that area.

That was an inside joke between those of us who used to post at BYTO. Duensing was always added as a sweetner for some pretty ridiculous proposals.

Download attachment: Jackson_Edwin_Cubs_US_600.jpg In light of John's recent suggestion, I went ahead and compiled the results of the 2013 free agent pitching market. I excluded pitchers that ended up as relievers, and I excluded pitchers such as baseball's version of Gandolf the Gray (Jamie Moyer), who did not sign. The pitchers' results have been surprisingly better than I thought they'd be, but I'm not certain that we at Twins Daily would have gotten them right. [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] I'm too lazy to look up all of the suggestions from last winter, but the names I remember being tossed around were either unrealistic (Grienke, Sanchez, etc) or have horribly performed (Jackson, Haren, Marcum). Some of the multi-year deals obviously need to be vetted in terms of their length; I suspect guys like Lohse and Greinke will not look so good at the end of their contracts. One interesting observation is that the Cubs took three gambles in the FA pitching market. One (Scott Feldman) has worked out very well for them. One (Scott Baker) flushed $5.5M down the toilet. One (Carlos Villanueva) may also net them a prospect. The Cubs are a large market team, so they essentially used $15M this offseason to buy some prospects in what is a lost year for them. Given their fan base will show up no matter how poor a product they put on the field, this isn't a bad strategy for the lovable losers. The Good: Zack Greinke: 8-2 3.36 ERA in 91 innings. Lost time due to an injury sustained in a fight. Jake Peavy: 7-4 4.19 ERA in 73 innings. Also spent time on the DL. Peripherals better than Greinke so far. Anibal Sanchez: 7-7 2.85 ERA in 98 innings. Though the record hasn’t indicated it, he has pitched like an ace striking out more than 10 per 9 innings and walking fewer than 3 per nine innings. Hiroki Kuroda: 9-6 with a 2.65 ERA in 125 innings. Has pitched quite well for the $15M contract the Yankees gave him, though his K rate is significantly lower than the others; he may regress. Kyle Lohse: 6-7 with a 3.49 ERA for the Brewers. Peripherals don’t look too good, but he’s gotten the results thus far and justified his 3 yr./$33M contract. Ervin Santana: 6-6 with a 3.18 ERA for the Royals in 130 innings. Has to date justified his 1 yr./$13M contract and will likely be able to parlay that into a multiyear deal this offseason. Francisco Liriano: 9-4 with a 2.44 ERA in 81 innings for the Pirates. He signed a $1M deal with a second year option that will likely be picked up. He has been by far the best value deal of the class as he’s pitched like an ace. He turned down an offer from the Twins, and I’d say there’s a good chance he would not have pitched this well had he returned. Scott Feldman: 8-6 with a 3.86 ERA. Cubs were able to flip him and his 1 yr./$6M contract for prospects. Bartolo Colon: 12-3 with a 2.70 ERA for the A’s. Great value for $3M. The mediocre: Ryan Dempster: 5-8 with a 4.24 ERA in 110 innings for the Redsox. He’s been just better than league average, and not quite justifying the 2 year $26.5M contract. Jeremy Guthrie: 9-7 with a 4.41 ERA in 126 innings for the Royals. I hate to see how this will turn out in years 2 and 3 of his $25M contract. Joe Saunders: 9-8 with a 4.28 ERA in 120 innings. Great value from the $6.5M contract he got this offseason. Carlos Villanueva: 2-6 with a 4.16 ERA in 84 innings for the Cubs. Signed a 2/$10M contract and has earned his keep. Erik Bedard: 3-7 with a 4.41 ERA in 98 innings for the Astros. Could possibly be flipped for a prospect. Kevin Correia: I don’t think I need to summarize this one. He’s earned his contract, though not much more. Jason Marquis: 9-5 with a 4.05 ERA. Probably the best of the mediocre group and cheap at 3M. I somehow doubt he was going back to MN. Roberto Hernandez: The player formerly known as Carmona is 5-10 with a 4.9 ERA for the Rays. Only cost $3.25M. The Bad: Edwin Jackson: 6-10 with a 5.11 ERA in 100 innings. He has not lived up to his potential. Brandon McCarthy: 2-4 with a 4.99 ERA in only 66 innings. He was cheap at 2/$16.5M, but has not pitched nearly enough, nor well enough to justify the contract. Dan Haren: 4-10 with a 5.61 ERA for the Nationals. Has not justified his 1/$13 Mcontract. Shaun Marcum: 1-10 with a 5.29 ERA for the Mets. At least only cost them $4M. Joe Blanton: 2-12 with a 5.53 ERA for the Angels. Not worth the 2/$15M contract he signed. Roy Oswalt: 0-4 with a 7.64 ERA in only 17 innings for the Rockies. He has pitched well in AA. Freddy Garcia: 3-5 with a 5.77 ERA for Baltimore. At least he was cheap. Jeff Francis: 2-5 with a 6.58 ERA for the Rockies. Cost $1.5M. Chien-Ming Wang: 1-1 with a 7.13 ERA for the Jays in only 24 innings. Singed for $.5M. Jonathan Sanchez: 0-3 with an 11.85 ERA for the Pirates. The ugly: Colby Lewis: Has been paid $2M to not pitch. Chris Young: He did not sign a major league deal, so this really didn’t not hurt his team. He has not pitched well in AAA thus far. Scott Baker: I want get paid $5.5M to never set foot on a mound. Daisuke Matsuzaka: Signed a minor league deal and has yet to pitch in the majors. Carlos Zambrano: Signed a minor league deal and has yet to pitch in the majors. Has pitched well in the minors. Aaron Cook: Signed a minor league deal and is getting shelled in the PCL. Kip Wells: Signed a minor league deal and is getting shelled in the PCL. Breakdown: Good: 9 players Mediocre: 8 players Bad: 10 players Ugly: 7 players Since Ryan was clearly looking for shorter term deals, we can look back to see who were the best signings. The best contracts overall were for Liriano (who turned down an offer to return), Feldman, and Colon. Both signed short term contracts and have vastly outperformed them. We all know the enigma that is Liriano, so it doesn't bear repeating. There is significant question whether he would have pitched this well in Minnesota. Many of the mediocre contracts would have played out similarly to Kevin Correia. None of these guys would be major difference-makers, but most of them would be upgrades to our current rotation. Approximately 50% of the players that signed have performed well enough to earn their contracts. Given that a number of the good players, such as Sanchez, Grienke, Liriano, and Lohse weren't likely to come here due to either a large contract or problematic history, Ryan's odds of succeeding were less than that. The Twins would likely be in different shape had they signed Feldman, Colon, and Kuroda this offseason. These were not names that many were arguing for, and at 15M, Kuroda would have sucked up the entire budget. As a result, I'm not sure the posters at Twins Daily would have assembled a much better rotation than what Ryan did, and it most certainly would have cost more. Click here to view the article

wonder if the Mauer back to C movement has caught on yet. He'd pair nicely with Pinto and finding a decent 1B will be much easier...

That's probably true, but I'd imagine the further down on the list you get, the more upside you can receive. There's generally a lot more upside down in the lower levels simply b/c they haven't matured. As it is, this team has a bit of a pitching glut in the majors/high minors with Hughes, Nolasco, Gibson, Meyer, May, Darnell, Pelfrey, Gilmartin, Berrios, and even marginal guys like Johnson and Pino. Adding one more to that mix isn't going to help sort that picture out. I get the 40 man considerations, but I do think that there's merit in getting guys lower on the totem pole. Unless Baltimore is sending over an above average corner OF or C that can slot in sometime next year, I think I'd prefer going further down the ladder. In the end, Ryan will take the best value. Berry isn't a bad take at all for this, but I'd be holding out for a bit more.

I think Darnell has potential to be a decent starter. Other than maybe a cup of coffee, I don't think the pen is his destination. As for left specialist, I'd think Ryan Orouke (or however you spell his last name), is going to be that guy...

Minor quibble, he's a full time reliever, not a full time starter Deunsing should be a sweetner to any trade. Package him with Suzuki to Baltimore to get Bundy /BYTO

Berry strikes me as a mid rotation starter kind of guy... Not doing bad at all in AA. Would like that K rate to be a up a bit, but at 7.5/9, he's not bad.

I don't understand why Plouffe is being discussed. He's cost controlled for quite some time and is league average. He's heading into his prime. He's of some value ot about half the teams in the league right now, and that could improve if he improves. Add to it that Sano won't be starting 2015 in the big leagues. Plouffe can be traded when Sano is ready, or moved to a corner spot if one is available.

The velocity is up... that's a good sign.

Had a chance to look over the Yankee's list. They have a few guys that might be of interest. I'm guessing Greg Bird or Gary Sanchez is asking too much. They have a lot of B-/C+ guys that look kind of interesting. I'd really like Ian Clarkin. http://www.minorleagueball.com/2014/3/12/5501226/new-york-yankees-top-20-prospects-for-2014

I think the requirement is that Duensing has to be traded first for Walker to take his role.

Welcome to the site and enjoy your time here. We look forward to your posts.

I was noticing the same thing today. He's had 4 starts, and each one has been better than the last. Only thing I could find online is that he throws in the low 90s (90-93). He was a 220k international signing, so there's a decent investment there. Lot to get excited about though.

Jokin, my reason for calling this a witch hunt is because you keep changing your criteria for your dislike of Ryan, especially when it's shown that you are being unreasonable. My original point was asking where Ryan had ever been schooled in a trade. You referenced trades that were omitted. I showed that he trades when he gets value. You then countered with creativity, citing a bunch of stuff that most teams aren't doing. I point out that scouting talent in other team's systems is something that Ryan excels at, and then you run back to August trades as if you have no understanding how August trades work... Very little of meaning happens in August for good reason. Every one gets put on waivers, and the waiving team can call back any player that's claimed, so Miguel Cabrera isn't coming here in an August deal, as Detroit would call him back. The ones that don't get claimed are the contracts that no one wants. I don't think anyone would be thrilled if the Twins claimed Prince Fielder right now. He wouldn't get called back and he'd be a Minnesota Twin, at an impossible price with virtually no production to go with it. The only guys getting claimed are ones that fall in the middle somewhere, and the waiving team has every right to pull them back if they cannot agree on a trade. There's only one team to negotiate with at this point, which makes any kind of value difficult to get. If they make it unclaimed, they can be traded to anyone. Of course if the guy goes unclaimed, then there's also very little interest. Bottom line is that no one is giving up much value in August trades. That's why Justin Morneau was traded for Alex Presley and Kris Johnson. You know all this information, and if you wonder why it is I think you are going on a witch hunt, this is why. Your criteria constantly changes when someone challenges you. I've said before that when it comes to building a farm, Ryan has a pretty good track record. I'm not sure if he's the guy for the job when the team gets competitive again, but the one thing he does very well is acquire talent.