diehardtwinsfan

I'd be happy with Drew. Might create a bit of a positional issue if Dozier is for real and Rosario continues to hit the snot out of the ball, but that's why God invented trades. As for FA pitchers, I think you get 2 max.

I'd blame the ghost of rocket pig.

I don't agree with this at all. You can control a lot about your health. Yes, there are some things that you cannot reasonably prevent, but a smoker saying they didn't choose to get lung cancer is kind of silly. A fat person saying they didn't choose to have knee problems is kind of silly. People make lifestyle choices all the time that affect their health, whether that be working too many hours at work, to eating to much, to smoking, etc. Yes, there are some things you can't choose about your health, but the bulk of it does boil down to simple lifestyle decisions. The other thing is that you can also control how you deal with it. Some people don't want to wait in line to see the Dr, so they just go to the ER. That costs more. And a single payer doesn't discourage that. Nor does a single payer encourage innovation to reduce prices. Truth be told, insurance as it's presently implemented doesn't do that either. There's nothing efficient about it. They say this is to reduce prices, but in reality prices will do nothing but go up. Subsidies never lower prices in the long term. They create dependence.

My bigger concern is the names, not the injuries.

Yeah this. The average draft is going to get you what, 40-60 major leaguers? It would be awesome if the Twins managed to get 10-20 of them with their draft but that's just unrealistic. From about the 3rd round down, just about everyone picked is a complete crap shoot. It would have been great to get Wittgren, but every team is saying that right now. They all passed him up.

Absolutely right Kab on the silly money and the wtfs... there's going to be a lot of guys wishing they were free agents this year instead of over the last few. Supposedly the Dodgers offered Kershaw 300M and Cano is looking for a similar amount.

Or that this was his first taste of full season professional ball.

To be clear, I fully expect Darnell to take some lumps in MLB. I just think his future is brighter as he can be something other than a 5 starter/AAAA fill in. I'm not sure I understand the Albers love in particular. As soon as the scouting reports were out on him, he suddenly looked very very very human. I'll be real honest in that I am hoping that Albers is not in the starting rotation at all next year other than for maybe a couple of spot starts. As for Diamond, I'm not as confident as you are, though to be fair, Mark Buhrle made quite the career doing what Diamond can do. Perhaps he can find his inner Buhrle and have a decent ML career. The problem with guys like him is that it is such a fine line. Buhrle is the rare success story here, and that road is littered with failures. Being left handed probably helps, but Diamond has his work cut out for him.

This kid is sounding like the type of person that the Twins should pursue a Longoria type contract with.

Someone suggested this in another thread, and I think it's a good idea. I don't have the full list of FAs available, but I'll make my prediction for a few guys we've talked about. Feel free to toss in your own. We can revisit this come March. Masahiro Tanaka - 55M posting fee, signs a 5/60 deal with an option. Phil Hughes - 4/52M. J. Jiminez - 4/65M J. Santana - minor league deal T. Lincecum - 2/35... YAY... I got one right. O. Despaigne - 4/20. D. Hinjosa- 4/17 S. Yoon - 4/46M

Appreciate the levity... Since you are using AARP, I think you have to go with Jamie Carrol and Terry Mulholland.

Buxton, Jones, and Kepler are all playing talent that sits higher than where they played this season. I think the expectations are a bit high if we were expecting them to dominate. This is more a learning situation for them. They now know what they have to be better at next year. I see that as a positive. If you remember, Buxton didn't exactly light the world on fire in rookie ball last year. Apparently, however, it inspired him to go back home and work harder that offseason... and look what happened. I suspect this will be a good thing long term (at least for Buxton).

I'll say this, for all the consternation about being a Twins fan, I wouldn't want to be a WhiteSox fan right now. They have the problem of having little talent on the ML roster and nothing in the farm. Their rebuild is going to take much longer I suspect.

I find that statement amusing given that there were a lot of people complaining about the Twins draft strategy in 2012 (with all the college relievers in particular). I'm not sure I'm ready to call it best in history (though truth be told, I'm much of a historian here), but that draft class is looking promising.

I'd consider a 4 man if they had 4 good pitchers. This rotation is bad enough as it is to put additional stress on everyone.

I should note on Bill Smith that I suspect that with the Mauer thing coming and the whole TF thing opening that the org new they needed someone who was more likely to take those spending risks that Ryan wasn't going to take. That was likely the primary reason Smith was given the reigns. Situational awareness plays into big decisions like that. Unfortunately, I think that there were some consequences that were not clearly thought out.

I'm not quite sure where to begin with this statement, and I'm guessing it came across to say more than you intended, but talented people typically do not like being stuck in some role. It won't take more than a handful of times of being passed up that will cause them to leave. That's simply a fact of life. Put yourself in their shoes (or extrapolate it to a personal situation if one exists), but talented people are going to want to be recognized for their hard work and when more challenging and better paying positions appear, they are going to want them. It has nothing to do with being bribed as you put it. I do agree more with your second point that there's no harm in looking externally (especially for higher level positions), but to deny someone who has shown the ability to do it is not a good way to run an organization.

He hit a home run too.

There were about 50,000 threads on this site that were either started or hijacked over the issue in the May/June timeframe.

I'd be willing to bet that if you were looking at the 36-40 range prospects of other clubs, you'd likely see a lot of guys like this. You start getting up higher on this list, and you'll start seeing guys with better K rates.

It seems like they are saying that if the draft were today there would be more than 5 guys who would qualify as elite for this draft. That is nice. I doubt Rodon, Hoffman, or Beede are avaialbe at 5, and I suspect they are going to end up with the best HS pitcher again (Kolek), and I'm fine with that. I'd take Gatewood as a consolation prize.

Very interesting thread. I think the big problem I have is that there seems to be an assumption from some that Ryan's primary goal (rebuilding the farm system) is the definition of insanity. I get that Ryan is using the same methods he used in the late 90s and throughout the early part of the 2000s. The problem as I see it is that the method works (building a strong farm), and I'm failing to understand how baseball has changed such that this no longer would work. I've stated repeatedly that right now, I think Ryan is the right guy for the job, but I'm not so sure in a few years. I understand that Smith played a part of this as this process started under him, but our system was at best middle of the pack when Ryan took over. Right now, it is considered at worst a top 5 farm system and a lot of analysts this offseason will have our farm system as the best in the minor leagues. This, to me, is always going to be the core of any successful baseball franchize, and it isn't as though the Twins are targeting future 5 starts like they tended to do during the Dome days. People who are endicting Ryan for repeating the same mistakes over and over again are missing this. You can call it group think if you'd want, but this is always going to be core to any baseball franchize. Even the Yankees invest in the farm, and for good reason. That said, I get the FA complaint. He hasn't gone after those guys. But at the same time, even had they gotten Greinke or Sanchez, they would still have been a 90 loss team. That doesn't make sense. Where I'm a bit more concerned is along the point Jokin raised. In 2015, who is starting for this team? Gibson and Meyer should be locks in the rotation and hopefully producing, but the other 3 spots would potentially be taken by guys like May, Worley, and Darnell backed up by Baxendale, Deduno, and Diamond. May is the only one of that group that I think could be a very good ML pitcher, but I am probably in a minority on that one at this point, and while I don't necessarily dislike Worley and Darnell, they are back of the rotation type guys. That leaves little room for injury or ineffectiveness. To me, a lot of this is philosophical. What SHOULD a rebuilding team be doing right now? Some have argued to trade the prospects for legit players. I personally think that's a bad idea. Others want to sign everyone. I'm not sure that's smart either. Most I think want some signings, and I don't think that's a bad idea, but the concern I'd have is that paying big money now for a guy who will be under contract but ineffective in 2016-2018 is also a bad idea, as it will handicap the next wave at a time when signing that big name FA will make a lot more sense. That brings me back to my original point, Ryan is probably a good fit for the job NOW... 2014 is going to be a transition year when a lot of the next wave starts to graduate. I don't think they will lose 90 again next year, but the actions for next season have to be predicated on aquiring more long term talent for the next wave. That's why I'd spend the money on Tanaka along with some lottery tickets that could be flipped and strongly consider flipping Perkins for some pitching help in the higher minors. Ryan, I think, can do most of that. Come 2015/16 though, I'm not so certain. I'm also think this is where the Twins "group think" will start to bite them.

Darnell did put up some high K games this season (at least when I looked), so he can get the Ks. I haven't seem him pitch, so I'm not sure on his strengths and weaknesses and why he doesn't do it consistently. I like him because he's close to the show, and has the potential to be something better than a 5 starter/AAAA guy... Don't expect him to be a world beater, but I wouldn't be surprised if people are looking forward to seeing him pitch at somepoint next year...

I've got to think that Hughes and Haren will cost more than that... Maybe not Haren given the injury risk. I'd be all over Hughes for a little more than KC money. Something tells me though that he's going to get a 3-4 year deal north of 10M/year. I hope you are right, because if that's what the numbers are, we should see one or two of them in a Twins uni next season.

Kepler didn't excel in Cedar Rapids, he's not skipping Fort Meyers... and he'll be a CF as long as he can play decent defense there.