diehardtwinsfan

It's a name recognition thing... Linci hasn't been nearly as good as he used to be... I'd avoid that signing unless it's for peanuts. I'd add that I think Ellsbury is a similar situation. He's not going to be worth whatever he signs for and I think there's a very real chance he's outproduced by Presley, and I'm not expecting Presley to be some massive steal either. Other than that one season, Ellsbury hasn't been all that good.

I don't get the Ellsbury love, OF is pretty far down on the list of things to fill. What I'd do? Trade a couple of relievers for some prospects, promote Tonkin. Go hard after the two Cubans and Tanaka, hoping to get one of them (preferably Tanaka). Sign Hughes to a 3 year deal. Plan on midseason trades of Doumit and Willingham. Make a plan for phasing in Sano, Meyer, May, Darnell, Pinto, Rosario, and potentially Buxton.

I doubt he's expensive if he's going to be spending time in the minors.

Think about futility...

OK seriously, people need to stop with the drama. I get the Mauer is a high paid asset. He's also paid high because he's a catcher, and a month of Pinto against September pitching is not going to change my mind, nor should it change anyone else's, that Mauer is first and foremost a catcher and the team's primary catcher at that. I have no problems with them having a guy like Doumit or Pinto that can allow Mauer to spend time DHing or playing 1st, but his value is tied to being a catcher, and the success of the Twins next wave is going to largely depend on him being able to catch fairly consistently.

The problem I see with them is when do you start it? Morneau couldn't hit lefties that well when he first came up... He became MVP Morneau when he figured it out. The truth is that some of this takes time and repetition to develop. I agree that there's a point when you recognize that JJ cannot hit lefties. The problem is that you have to let him try enough times and fail at it to a point where it's obvious he isn't going to learn. And in this regard, TR is right, especially with large pitching staffs. You cannot build a roster around this idea... It certainly might help with an established roster and an obvious gaping hole where a guy that fills other positions of need becomes available who also has those favorable platoon splits... but there's a lot of ifs there.

Honestly, other than some bullpen trades, I see them doing very little. I'm hoping that very little includes getting one of Tanaka/Abreau... Perferably Tanaka.

I for one would just assume Gardy not get 1000 wins... Not that I hate the guy, but I'd like the Twins picking 4 and not 5 if they can pull it off.

I personally think that by the time he's "draft eligible" he'd be considered a better prospect than Berrios at 18.

Why in the world do they need to do something "creative"? Trading Span for Meyer is text book for "this is how you rebuild" as was Revere for Worley and May. Trading Morneau, Butera, and Liriano was as well. That's exactly how you rebuild.

Statements like this make it really hard to take what are saying with anything but a grain of salt. The Twins are clearly following a rebuilding plan. Whether or not you are I like it is beside the point, but there is a plan. I get your frustration with Doumit, but that one is on Gardy who continues to play him at the expense of guys like Parmelee. That said, I also think that this is one of many reasons why Gardy will not be managing next year. The Twins are clearly rebuilding, and they are doing it their way (hence trading Span, Morneau, and Revere and somehow blackmailing the Dodgers into Sulbaran). They are also making it clear that they won't be calling up guys until they are ready. So you aren't going to see Sano or Buxton waste a couple of years of ML service time before figuring thing out. The roster filler consists of guys who are getting tryouts to see if they are long term fixtures. This is how we ended up with Fein, Burton, and possibly Deduno. Young guys like Presley, Dozier, Plouffe, Parmelle, and Colabello are getting a shot. I don't have a problem with this. It sucks because the product on the field sucks, but that's how you discover that Dozier really can be a long term option to complement the next wave, and it's quite possible that one or two others turns into solid options as well. Those will have value when Sano, Buxton, and Meyer are all up.

I wrestle back and forth with the Twins and free agency. I think there's a few things that you have to accept as fact before going forward. 1) You cannot build a contender solely from FA. Perhaps if there are 15 allstars out there on the market, you could do it, but reality is that you cannot. 2) This team has so many holes that free agency cannot fill them all. People are making a big deal from Ryan's quote, but I find it strange to admit that very few people are willing to accept the obvious here. He's right, you cannot build a winner via free agency. The ideal FA aquisition is getting that all star to play at that position of weakness for a contending team. I won't argue with the people who don't like Ryan in that I don't think he would do this even if it was 2010 all over again. That said, I think the question at hand would be this. Would you rather get a few decent FAs and move a 90 loss team to an 80 loss team, or if you are lucky, high 70s, at the expense of a better draft position to stock up on star talent and potentially handicapping the team's ability to get a ring down the road vs. a few years of absolutely miserable performance to stock up on talent that may not all work out and potentially put you back in this mess? To me, this is the philosophical debate we are having, and it captures the downside of each of these moves. Overpaying for a few FAs won't suddenly turn this team into a contender, though it may make them more palatable to watch in the short term. Long term, it means lesser talent coming through the system and bigger contracts which could hamstring future moves. On the other hand, stocking up with prospects is far from guaranteed. They flame out... often. Where would this team be if one of Buxton or Sano turned into a dud? I tend to lean towards the prospects route personally. They can flame out, but if you have enough of them, you'll do fine. The Twins are building a nice farm system, the problem is that they are about 8 months away from starting to graduate them in mass. While doing a big signing would be nice, you don't want to block any of these guys, which means getting 3 pitchers in FA wouldn't be very wise. Getting 1 pitcher in FA would be, but then you have the problem that said pitcher might be dragging the team down in 2016/17 as these prospects establish themselves.... It's a tough conundrum to be in. That's personally why I think they should be targeting guys like Abreau/Tanaka, who are young enough that they should perform during their contract. But that likely means more bumps in 2014...

Tend to agree, though it's looking more and more like a 1B/DH spot will be open. I hope they go after Tanaka, but truth be told, Abreau still fits at a position of need.

We've had the BPA debate, not sure to redo it here. I don't doubt they will go with their BPA... That said, the best players (so far), fit nicely to our needs, though truth be told, ace pitching is always BPA... at least in my opinion. That said, the issue here is that BPA is a factor of many things, including closeness. Obviously, the college ace is desired, but there's a reason he goes 1-1. The next wave is weak in the infield and pitching. If you can count on a Dozier/Rosario MI for the next few years, then grabbing Trea Turner at the expense of Gatewood or a pitcher isn't the right choice.

Yep... hoping one is still there in round 2.

I think I need more data in general before buying into those. I think you have something if you can look season by season for a catcher and see either the same results or mild fluctuation, but I would want to see years worth of data before you can call this a good metric.

I don't think it works that way. The slot is just used to determine dollar value. They didn't use up a slot when they signed Diaz. They can trade away a slot as long as the dollar value of the slot is less than what they have left. I suppose they can trade it away if it's greater, but they incur penalties. Since he's already getting penalties, I wonder if Theo will trade away some of his space (or if he can). That said, I'm curious what this amount is. I thought they still had around a million. Personally, with international scouting, I think there's some intelligence to signing a bunch of guys for 50k or something like that. Projecting 18 year olds is tough. 16 year old kids who are all still growing is even harder. We all like talking about the Sano's and Keplers of the world, but we forget that Arcia's bonus was peanuts.

I'm curious what the bonus amount was. Last I checked, they had spent about 3/3.1M, but finding the accurate total seems to be a bit difficult. I'm all for throwing money at a 16 year old kid that can hit low 90s. He should be able to add some ticks to that as he matures. I think this is a very good thing and a guy to follow in the DSL or GCL next year.

Trea Turner might not be a bad grab at 4/5 as he should be an above average regular and much quicker to the majors, but I think they should know by June if Dozier/Rosario can be a decent MI combo. I think I'd rather take the HS SS Gatewood (higher ceiling than Turner) if they want a SS prospect or another power pitcher, because quite frankly, you cannot ever had enough of those. The nice thing about this draft is that it is appearing to be top heavy in elite talent at SS and SP, both of which the Twins can use desparately. I'm not going to cry if they walk away with an SP or a SS with that pick, and from what I've seen, they should have no problems doing that.

What went wrong in 2013? I think they were banking on 150 rainouts.

Yeah, my only quibble was number 7. Arcia was a top prospect and forced his way up. He struggled a bit, but sadly is still one of the better hitters on this team going by the numbers at least. I think he will be fine next season. He has adjusted well at every stop.

Not the way he hit this season. He's going to need to have a bounce back season to get some interest next year.

Meyer will get AFL time. His innings limit will be higher than 130

I have a tough time believing he won't be catching anymore. He's out right now b/c there's absolutely no reason to play him. Pinto is getting good experience and doing a decent job, and the season is lost. No reason to rush Joe back at all.

Honestly, the pen is the only thing I see TR being able to trade this offseason. Burton or Fein might fetch enough to warrant a trade. Perkins obviously has value if someone wants to overpay for him as well. Doumit and Willingham though will likely get moved during the 2014 season, assuming they have decent bounce back years.