diehardtwinsfan

I'm guessing the winning bid will need to be in the 50-60M range. Hope I'm wrong there, but someone is going to shell out some cash for him.

I never said otherwise.

I think Gardy is gone. He'd have gotten an extension if they wanted him back. He has not been extended. I want a guy who work well with rookies. Maddon is a great idea, but he's under contract, so I don't think it happens.

He's lost 2013, and he will lose 2014. He has 2015 to do his first year back, which most pitchers tend to struggle after this surgery. He's a 40 man decision for the 2015 offseason. I'm not saying operate just to operate, but there's definitely a legit quesiton as to why this took so long for the decision to be made. Allowing him to take his recovery lumps in 2014 might allow them to be somewhat aggressive with him in 2015 as to where he's placed to see if he's worth a 40 man spot.

Given the lack of anything decent in the SS pipeline, I'd rather move Dozier back to SS if his bat is for real. I realize there will be a drop in defense, but the kid has posted an .800 OPS for several months now. If it's no fluke, it would make him a top 5 SS.

Other than his arm, they think Buxton will be very similar... Nice to see.

Like others have said, there's no question the circumstances are different, but there's a history here that makes me skeptical as well. Looking at the next wave, signing to sign is silly as you and others have said. You won't want to block a prospect. We have 3 really good OF prospects right now in Arcia, Hicks, and Buxton with a marginal one in Pressley that could potentially have upside, so I wouldn't sign an OF. 2B looks good and C is pretty much set too. 3B has Sano coming up, so you don't want to block him. The pen is pretty solid too, both here and in the pipeline. That leaves SP, which has some nice prospects in Meyer, Gibson, and May and quite a few marginal ones (Darnel, Worley, Hendricks, Baxendale, etc.). Where we are week is 1B/DH/SS/SP in my opinion. If Dozier is for real and Rosario is too, you might be able to solve SS and move Dozier back, but beyond that, I don't see enough help to solve these positions. That said I personally would go all out with the 1 or 2 targeted signings at the young guy who could provide above average production at these positions (Abreau or Tanaka are the ones that come to mind right now). I really don't care if they do one guy, but I'd much rather them fork out the money for one of them to shore that up then to sign a bunch of lower upside guys as they've done in years past. Is it risky? Yes. Will this one contract cripple the team? Not really, but personally I'd rather do that than go after the Lincecums, Johnsons, or the Santanas of the world. There's a ton more risk there and in some cases, much less upside (which is why they will be cheaper). That said, I'm not convinced they will do it. I hold out some hope for Tanaka, b/c all they have to do is win the posting fee to get sole permission to negotiate with him, but like others said, there's history here... and I'm not comfortable with it.

With the exception of Gibson (higher upside) and Albers (doubt he has much of an ML career), the other guys look like they can be competent back of the rotation arms with potentially a 3/4 upside. That's not bad for any of them by any means, as they should be able to make some decent money in the majors. I got to like Rodgers just b/c he's a hard(er) throwing lefty, though it would be nice see a few more Ks out of him as he progresses.

I'm not a fan of Ibarra personally. He might be useful in a major league pen, but I don't think it's unreasonable to expect my relievers to be striking out a batter or more per inning. I wonder if the Twins will put the Joneses together in AA next year. I don't think that's a bad idea as both could earn mid season promotions and be making a case for the ML pen in 2015. Terry Ryan's position of strength right now is the pen. Between Tyler and Zach Jones as well as Tonkin, I could see one or two of our relievers being traded this offseason if the right prospect is dangled in return.

The other question I have to ask, is why in the world it took so long for this to happen? Is this another Twins medical staff issue? Chargois has been injured all year long and only now are they doing TJ.

This is speculation, but I'm not the only one who has said it. I honestly think that how managers use relief pitchers tends to increase the tendency of getting injured (particularly the way Gardy does it). I cannot imagine that it's good on the arm to warm up, throw at 110% for an inning (or a batter in Gardy's case), and then do it again the next day. Add to it the number of days they have to loosen up and never get called in. My guess is that it's far better for their arms to warm up and pitch 2 or 3 innings and get the next day off.

I think Chief may have mistaken this for an ipad commercial.

That tends to happen when you've been drinking.

It doesn't matter. Why am I telling you this?

The ironic thing about this is that I managed to procure a Galaxy Note S3 and an iPad mini within the last month without having to pay for either, and my conclusion: Get a surface.

If you don't agree with me, you are clearly part of the Apple defender camp who will go at all costs to defend Apple products no matter what crappy decision they make. Oh, and get a surface. iPad vs. Galaxy is a false dichotomy.

Because it's better? Because google will steal less of your personal information than Apple?

Is that even possible?

I'm on the Tanaka bandwagon personally.

This kid is 17. I'm curious who was on that US team. I know Kohl Stewart pitched for them. Anyone know who hte position players were?

Funny you should say this, I was going to post something similar about the opposite being true, as it looks like a pretty silly reason to bash the front office. I don't get the consternation over this one, I really don't. No one got cut to make room for these guys. The org just handed out a couple of very large bonuses that will more than double the yearly salary of several minor leaguers who will likely not see another paycheck like that again. Perhaps they want to look at them just a bit as well. Some of these more ready guys are also headed to play winter ball and the AFL. They are going to get extra work in, so perhaps the Twins decided to let them have September off. There's good reason to get upset at the front office. This isn't one of them, and it's hardly a "defend the front office at all costs" type situation. Besides, I can think of only one poster at TD who defends the front office at all costs (and I suspect he would disagree with that). I'm not sure why arguments are constantly being tailored in this way. It really does sell short a lot of good arguments. Just something to think about.

I'm definitely bullish on these guys. Rookie ball results are a bit hard to quantify. Some guys can put up video game stats there and never go on to do much. However, there's some good correlation between guys who put up those video game stats and do so at an age where they are young for their leagues. These guys were 17 and 18 and flat out dominated a league where the average age is closer to 20. Given that there's no such thing as a pitching prospect, I fully expect there to be some failure in that group. Not sure who that's going to be as of yet, but if the Twins hit big on 2 of them, there's going to be lots of rejoicing in target field towards the end of the decade.

I think both could be above average bats. While I agree that Vargas's production dropped after Sano left, that's going be true for anyone batting before or after Sano throughout his career. Both had pretty good seasons. I can see the case that they are a bit high, especially being 1B type guys.

I find it amusing that people are talking Tanaka like he's going to be cheaper than Abreau. Abreau is looking at 75M. Tanaka is going to be 5 or 6 for 50ish plus a posting fee that's going to be about the same. I wouldn't mind it if the Twins took their savings from this year and next and applied that to the posting fee, but as I said, I'm somewhat skeptical they will. The Twins have identified next wave needs right now at both of those positions. If they are high on either guy, they really need to go all out and get him.

Yeah this. Based on the scouting reports, I don't see this signing being a good one. He's not going to end up at a position of need, and I'm not sure you can easily trade a .750 OPS second baseman whose making 5M/year. What I get concerned about is that there are a couple of big name FAs out there that do fit nicely into positions of need (Abreau and Tanaka), and I suspect the price tag on them will price us out of the market. I'm not a fan of throwing money at guys just to spend it, but there does come a point where it's worth taking the risk. I haven't evaluated either of these guys, but based on what Abreau did in Cuba (better than Puig I might add), I'd say he's a worth while get. Based on what Tanka did in Japan (better than Darvish too), I'd say he's worth it as well. Unfortunately, I have little confidence that either will be in a Twins uniform come April, despite the fact that both have the potential to be impact players at positions of need for the next wave. That, to me, can be the difference between a ring and an early exit... or making the playoffs vs. not making them.