diehardtwinsfan

They've yet to get the best of us, and I cannot help but think that this one is off to a poor start.

My guess is that if Perkins remains here, no one came to TR with two top 100 prospects which were either pitchers or short stops.

I don't think that Law meant that the kid is a zero as much as he meant that his season really is not telling us anything.

I don't think sitting him for a couple of games is going to set back his career or hurt his development. It seems appropriate. Actions like this have caused some pretty big dustups recently... If it happens in the pros, it's the type of thing that can 5 and 10 game suspensions for multiple players... and injuries on top of that.

Of course there was luck involved, though I think I'd rather call it risk than luck. The Giants would have let these guys go had they known how it would have turned out. Ryan and company did their homework and did it well. Nathan might not have developed and Liriano might have gotten hurt, that's how trades work.

This isn't Sano's first offense here. Earlier this year someone tried to take his head off. I don't mind the attitude, but I really don't understand what gloating is going to do for you other than make someone consider tossing one at your head (I'm not advocating head hunting either, just recognizing that it's a reality). It brings nothing, and could potentially cost a lot. But again, what value does excessive celebration bring to the game? I cannot think of anything, and I'd rather it be dealt with now than later.

Truthfully, I don't think the answer here is race. It's family. If you look at family structures, one thing you can say for certain is that the lack of a stable two parent family correlates much better to crime rates than the color of one's skin. If a kid grows up without a dad, he's far more likely to be in the system. I'm not advocating forcing society to stick to a two person family is not the answer, but I don't think you can have this discussion and ignore that data.

There isn't a person on this planet who can say they've never done anything wrong. To imply guilt because you are friends with someone who'se admited to doing something wrong is pretty low. I've been let down by friends before. I had a friend/former neighbor that liked to do Coke. I had no idea until he died of an anurism. Based on this logic, I should be under suspicion for drug use. I don't see much good from this type of speculation. It's certainly unfair to Plouffe, and unless he's been implicated in the biogenesis scandal, there's really no room for it.

1) You cannot DL a guy just because he's pitching poorly. But the problem is that you've suggested signing far more guys than spots are available. Even if you can DL a guy for pitching bad, you have to make the committement to sign guys prior to the season, not in April. Pitchers have agents who can look at a roster and recognize that there's going to be several odd men out. They won't sign in that situation. 2) Lots of people have lauded the Worley pickup. Just read this thread. I'm not the only one who likes it. 3) Everyone hated KC.

I suspect Pelfrey said no to an option. He hired boras for a reason. He still wants to maximize his revenue. An option won't do that.

Most of the time, they are getting pulled because they are getting hit around. I didn't watch the game. If Pelf was dominant in that 6th inning, I'd have let him out there one more. If he's getting lots of loud out, then Gardy made the right choice.

Pelfrey isn't going to sign here if he's going straight to the DL. He signed year so he get a 1 year, establish himself, contract and then parlay it into a multi year deal this offseason. Diamond wouldn't have had a say in it in that sense, but he was ready for spring training. There are issues with tossing people on the DL if they are capable of playing. The union won't necessarily back it. I agree that they didn't succeed. Though I find it amusing that their free agent aquisitions in Pelf and Correia haven't been that bad. The guy we expected to hold his own (Diamond) has not. Gibson has had growing pains, and Worley (who was lauded as a good pickup) has not been. It failed, but not for the reasons that anyone has predicted.

most hitters can put up gaudy numbers in a small sample. Walker has been pretty decent this year as it is, and based on the numbers, I'd say he's learned about all he can. Probably ready to get promoted.

I don't think it's as clear as you think. It has more to do (IMHO) with not having him rehab at MLB, especially given that the first few months back are rarely good... As well, judging by how Gibson has performed to date, it doesn't appear that the Twins were wrong. Go look back at my data. There weren't "clearly" more options out there. Most of the guys who have turned out really good were not options. And of the guys who were in the next tier, we got one of them and were in on two more of them (Liriano and Saunders). And based on the way Pelfrey is currently pitching, by the end of the year, we might be able to say we got 2 of them. It seems as though the complaint here is that we didn't get the right guy, and to me that's a hindsight argument. Worley was a smart move. It failed, yes, but it was a smart move as we were lacking controllable MLB ready pitching, and in his case, he had #3 upside. Unfortunately, Vance regressed. Diamond was going to start no matter what, so I don't get complaints here either. Harden was a $50k minor league contract with no roster guarantees, that should tell you what the Twins thought would happen here, and no one thought this was a bad signing, and no one was counting on Harden. You cannot sign 8 pitchers for 5 spots expecting 3 to get hurt. It doesn't work like that in MLB. The pitchers are going to want to play and will walk away. I'll state what I said before. They most definitely tried. Whether or not you agree with their approach is a different issue. But they did try.. Oh, and I'd add, if they had followed what was the TwinsDaily consensus, we'd be worse off right now... Are they above criticism? No. But I don't think it's unreasonable to suggest that they had a plan, executed on it, and generally knew what they were doing.

Wasnt' Liriano a PTBNL in that trade? It's still one of the most lopsided trades in MLB history... I have to wonder if Sabean still gets twitches whenenver he calls or fields a call from Ryan.

Except Phil Cuzzi... Oh, and I do think they need to automate balls and strikes... Way too inconsistent, and I'm not sure it's possible to be consistent... I'm not really knocking umps here, just see this as a huge flaw.

You maximize your return when the other teams drive it.

Last I checked he was innocent until proven guilty, and last I saw, his name wasn't associated with this at all. Perhaps when all this is done this will change, but right now he gets the benefit of the doubt.

Parm with his first HR in Rochester. Average also up to .320 now.

Most of the threads of late have devolved into arguing points that everyone thinks everyone else is arguing for. To answer your questions: Should they in the future? Yes, to fill in the gaps... and if the team is competitive, go out and get the top guy. Will they ever? Yes, they will always use it. Will they maximize it's value? I'm not sure. Should they have last year? Yes, but if top shelf talent like Sanchez wasn't interested in coming here, then go get the 1 year deals. Looking at the results from this article, I honestly don't think they could have fixed this rotation with the money they had to spend. I would also argue that baseball is clearly trying to become more like football in terms of a competitive balance. The rules are making it much harder for teams to always be good. Spending big on free agency short circuits the benefits to this, and given the wave of prospects coming up, accelerating that build isn't necessarily wise.

You of all people should know this was all preordained

It won't... That has been my point all along. Looking at what happened in hindsight tells me that just about any move that Ryan made would have shown at best marginal improvement. And I'd argue that with the exception of somehow managing to get Liriano, Colon, and Santana, none of the other signings would have either (and this ignores other questions like whether the money was there to get all 3 and whether Liriano would still be pitching this well). I said it before, and I'm not the only one, but I also think that Sanchez, Greinke, Kuroda and the other good aquisitions wouldn't have signed here for various reasons. We can look back right now and pick and choose whom Ryan should have signed, but the reality is that when we looked forward and said "sign this guy", no one got it right. Therefore, I find it pretty difficult to blame Ryan... not this time at least. Interestingly enough, Ryan was in on Liriano and Saunders, though he didn't get them.

I don't see this working as well as we'd like. Cole is already in the majors, so we are gunning for Tallison (who isn't available). If memory serves me right, they don't have blue chip pitching after that, though I think Sickel's number 3 for their system is an SS prospect that would be a good fit. Plus, Pit isn't paying for a "proven closer". I don't see them interested in overpaying for Perk.

I don't think you can say that they didn't try. They traded for Worley, Meyer, and May and signed Correia, Pelfrey, and Harden. They very much tried... Wether you or I like their effort is a completely different point. Also, Correia has improved the club. Pelfrey not so much as he clearly needed some recovery time, though of late, he's been pretty good.

I suspect Pinto moves up once the Doumit situation is settled. If Doumit gets traded, then no one gets released. If not, then they get rid of Fryer as you suggest. Scouting reports on Pinto indicate he's pretty good defensively too, so I don't think that's an issue.