diehardtwinsfan

If you feel that cash has no value, I'll be more than happy to take yours off of your hands.

I think you meant "goal is NOT to shed salary" If salary relief is what this is about, they could have giving Willingham away. I do think it would be wise to ask for a decent spec, and Xavier Avery was not that. Willingham has one more year left, and his value is low right now. It could easily be much higher next year and I cannot imagine it will be much lower.

I'm not terribly high on Romero. I remember liking him in rookie ball, but he has been utterly disappointing since then. His resurgence in Rochester is nice, but he's not exactly dominating it either. I don't have too much of an issue giving him a look, but I would much rather see guys like Parmelee and Plouffe get shots over him. There's far more potential there in my opinion, even if they turn out to be duds.

This is a pretty good idea of what will happen with Tanaka too. From what I understand he and Darvish would be pretty comparable situations. That said, if they don't reach a deal, the posting fee is refunded, so there's no risk if you win the bid and cannot sign a contract.

Callis is being rather generous I think here. Stewart will likely start next season in Cedar Rapids. To make it by 2015, he's got to realistically be pitching in New Brittan by the end of the year. I don't see that happening, especially when Buxton is still in Fort Meyers.

Plouffe likely has the rest of this year and about 1/3 to 1/2 of next season to prove himself. Otherwise, he's going to the utility infielder with some pop off the bench role.

I look at Ryan's actions and it screams rebuild. You don't trade away 2 CFers for prospects and promote a guy from AA who clearly needed more time in the minors if you are in a "win now" situation. You don't sign guys like Pelfrey and Correia if you are in a win now situation. I tend to ignore words because GM is going to come out in the winter/spring and say "we're gonna suck". You can choose to take him at his value. You choose to call him a liar. You can choose to say it's misplaced optimism. It might be one or several of those, who knows. But no GM is going to tell the press that they will be bad. They just won't.

I cannot see why we'd want Ellsbury. If you want FA on a long term contract, go get a guy that fits a position of need, not one at a position where the farm is relatively strong.

There's a lot of major league players that would disagree with that. They provide a second set of eyes to look at players. Granted, there's a rapport that must be built and a whole bunch of other things as well, but I don't think they are worthless. That said: 1) As I said previously, "not yet" in terms of his job security. He needs more than one year to prove he can do it, and he did a pretty good job in the minors over his career, so I think some time is required unless the guy is an absolute cancer in the clubhouse. 2) I grow tired of the "he doesn't have talent to work with". That's a pretty easy excuse that can be tossed around any time a player fails. I tend to think it's a pile of crap too. Any one that makes it to the show is a pretty talented player... Period. Now I agree that some are more talented than others, but a coaches job is to develop talent. Parmelee, for instance is a former first rounder, and he was putting up video game stats last year as a 24 year old in AAA. No question that there's talent there. The job of the coaching staff is to develop it. Will they succeed with everyone? No, but consistent failure is a red flag, and brushing it off as a lack of talent is silly. Dozier also had a minor league track record of success, and he appears to be panning out. Hicks got off to an abysmal start, but that start also masks the fact that he made some pretty big strides forward in May and June. Bruno was involved in that. 3) Gus like Morneau, Doumit, Willingham, etc. are all established major leaguers. I tend to hold the hitting coach less responsible for these guys simply b/c they've done this successfully and know what they are doing. They also know when to ask for help. Willie has been hurt a good chunk of the year, and that's definitely an issue, not as much with Morneau and Doumit. It's a bit trickier working with these guys, though some of that can fall on Bruno as well.

frustrating yes, but it's not like these prospects would come up and dominate. They are raw. You will see flashes of promise (hopefully lots of them) and see them fail in ways pros don't fail... Does make me wish I was near AZ though.

What's the average age of the MWL players? That to me is probably the biggest factor for or against Walker's prospect status. He was a flawed player when drafted, so taking it slow isn't necessarily a bad option. It will be interesting to see how he adjusts to high A next year and if they are willing to push him a bit more if he puts up similar numbers.

There's some truth to that, especially since both are well liked by the fans... Though I think from a business perspective, it's worth the risk.

He's done for the year (for the Twins). He's doing some sort of WBC competition in Taiwan.

Rebuilding teams do sign guys like KC, because they don't want them to block prospects. I didn't like the KC signing, but a 2 year contract is not that big of a deal. The Doumit extension had something to do with his role (keeping Mauer fresh while being able to provide above average offense at C). Pinto hadn't emerged as a prospect yet. It wasn't a bad deal, it was one year too long (though I don't know if it happens if it's a one year extension). That said, these are the types of moves rebuilding teams make. Quite simply, it's one or two year deals. Rebuilding teams don't go out and sign Anibel Sanchez to a 5 year deal. The question at hand is when is the rebuild going to end. Next year is the big transition year where a good chunk of guys will transition on to the major league roster. We will likely have a real good idea what that rebuild will look like by the end of next season.

You hit the nail on the head here... Though truthfully, we only need one of them to go for Parmelee to get consistent PT. Personally, I think it should be Doumit, but Willie or Morneau leaving would open up a spot as well.

I could see Thorpe, Jorge, Berrios, Pinto, and Kepler all as bubble guys here. I think Pinto is the most likely to make it.

nice night for Felix Jorge.

that could backfire if both teams chose not to revoke them.

No Yes, and Ryan would take it before they O's could rethink it.

I cannot imagine it being too long. I would think with stitches (baring infection) it would be healed up in a week or two tops.

I fail to see how adding him to the 40 this year is the right decision... I really do. He's improved in AA, but he still has some issues to work on. I'd much rather him work some of those out in the minors than in the majors. That's just good business practice. He'll likely be up soon enough next year. Either he will force it or Plouffe will. I'm quite fine with letting that situation work itself out in 2014.

I could go for Kingham.

Not yet.

Couple of thoughts. 1) Don't trade for the sake of trading. I do think he would be incredibly valuable next year in a bounce back year, and I doubt his value is any less next year at this time should the same thing happen as this year. 2) Don't trade to dump salary. They don't need to do that. My one caveat here is that if htey are dumping salary to make a run at Tanaka or Abreau, so be it, but make that run and don't come back and say "we got outbid". 3) Should get something of value. Yeah, it won't be Bundy, but what I don't know is how well the O's match up with the Twins needs. None of those guys mentioned in the previous lists really excite me much. I would hope they could at least get a guy with a K/9 around 9 in A or A+ ball. There's plenty of risk that far down in the farm that we couldn't get something similar to what we got for Butera. 4) Trading Willingham now would let Parmelee play every day for the remainder of the year. Judging by how he's doing in AAA right now, I'm guessing that there's something he's working on (and not well) given how well he produced there last year. I'm not convinced he's an answer, but I do think that this kid needs to play every day... and at this point, his season has been wasted. Even if he comes back and hits, people will say something about it being in September. The Twins really screwed the pooch on this one... or I should say, Gardy screwed up.

You mean you don't think Dylan Bundy is on the table?