diehardtwinsfan

That's still going to generate a six figure income on a yearly basis... very smart move. He can do whatever he wants for the rest of his life if baseball fails.

I'm pinning this, assuming it's a game thread.... baseball.... it's back. Good times are ahead.

Perhaps I'm misreading some of this, but it sure seems like there's a lot of consternation about this move. I'm not a fan of them missing out on Darvish (mainly b/c I think they lowballed him badly given that the Cub's offer was a substantial low ball), but this was a great move. They guy was a pretty good pitcher last year. I know the peripherals have some flags, but that's why he came by cheaply. He's also a good bounce back candidate as he has solid years of play before that. Even if he replicates last season, he's a huge improvement in the rotation, and there's good reason to think that the odds are far more in favor of a 27 year old reverting back to old form after a bad season than say a 35 year old in the same situation. For the cost, this was worth it. I'll continue to be not happy about Darvish, but this was a great move by the FO.

well, the second part at least. I'm quite fine with him having a winning record in 2018.

This is a really good example of putting words in people's mouth. My point is that there are tons of different reasons as to why people can and cannot lose weight. Some people can be far more efficient at turning food into energy as others. That's a fact. Some can burn more energy by doing the same tasks. That too is a fact. It's really an oversimplification to simply say that a weight number is simply assuming that one is consuming more calories than they expend. There are tons of things that go behind it, and not all of it is known, and a whole lot of it has to do with body chemistry and genetics, and those food labels you read on the box of food are nothing more than guides because of this. We've all me the person that can eat a horse and never gain a pound. We've also all met the person that continually struggles with their weight despite running marathons and restricting caloric intake. That's what a person's efficiency at those tasks will do. It's a big, complicated issue that doesn't summarize itself into the tidy world view that you've decided to use to excoriate Sano.

To me, this is a bigger issue. There's certainly a possibility of a culture gap here, which is why some have asked for more Hispanic coaches on staff... it could just be that he's an immature 24 year old that's never experienced failure and never listens to anyone. The org can only do so much there, and if this is a constant issue, then this is also the type of thing that says "go year to year" with the guy.

um.. yeah, to an extent. Efficiency is a huge part of this equation.

I can get behind this, but unfortunately, there was too much in your original article that didn't center around this piece. You brought it up with your two points of accountability and fallout from it, but most of what you said didn't center around accountability. It centered around pounds. This is sadly a hot topic, and it's bolstered by the fact that way too many people (not you in this case) aren't too terribly interested in actually understanding what people are saying. There's a lot of talking past people in this thread. I'd advise everyone to pay more attention to that. For my part, I expected him to be a bit out of shape due to the injury. Expectations were set for that this fall. I certainly hoped that this wouldn't be the case, but there's just no way he was going to be as active as anyone would have liked post surgery. There seems to be a lot of assumption that the number is the only gage for whether or not he's in playing shape. I'm not sure that this is the case. I'm pretty much with Levi on this one. I don't know what his number should be. I do know based on his body type that his number is going to be higher than what is traditionally considered acceptable. I don't think he's hiding 50+ pounds of fat as has been implied. I don't think his number is simply due to him being lazy (it might be, but none of us know that), and I think it's unfair to state that his genetics doesn't play a role in this (quite frankly, that's an unreasonable take). I think concerns about his long term outlook at a high number are legitimate, but I don't think that the fact that his number is higher than we'd like means that Sano doesn't care or has done nothing. For all we know, he did try. Truthfully, I have no idea what Sano does or does not care about if he tried to stay in shape or not. None of us do. The character assassination here is getting pretty thick. There are plenty of people reacting to the character assassination, which makes it hard to have any sort of reasonable discussion on the matter. Sano very well may deserve some of it, but I don't think many of us are without sin either... so let's stop casting stones.

great article. Hope it gets moved to the front page.

With Santana on the DL, I think Mejia will get a shot in the rotation personally. I'm fine with that. There's some pretty unrealistic expectations on this forum if we think that what we saw of Mejia in his rookie year is what we get, and I'd probably say the same again regardless of how he does in 2018. Baring injury, he should improve. He may not ever be a #1, but if he puts up anything even remotely close to his minor league career rate, then he's pitching like a 2/3 type. His career walk rate is around 2 in the minors. His K rate is a bit lower than I'd like, though from here it looks as though there was something going in in AA (injury I'm guessing but I'm just spitballing based on the number of innings pitched) that likely affected it, as he's been up over 8 per 9 in just about all of his other stops, which included a stint in the PCL (note his major league K rate is already in line with his minor league career numbers).

He definitely wasn't my first target, but I'm not really going to argue with the price. The question, as I see it, is whether 2017 was an aberration or the new normal. Odorizzi was a pretty decent pitcher in 2015 and 2016, definitely well above average. He was basically a very slightly better than league average starter in 2017. His walk rate spiked pretty high. I've got to hope there was a reason for that, whether that was due to his back injury or not. He's not a bad bounce back candidate, and could pitch like a 2 this season. For Palacios, I'm not going to argue with the move.

I think you need to look a bit harder at their career numbers, not just 2017.

hope he does well. That said, it would be a lot easier to keep him around if he could play some 3rd and RF. I'd imagine 3rd would be easy to transition to, and we know he has the arm for it... RF might take more practice, but if he could move around the diamond a bit, it would certainly make a ton more sense to trade a guy like Kepler... I don't know why the Twins haven't done this with him. It only adds value to him, and I'm not one to believe that his offense suffered the last few years b/c he was learning a new position.

This is a fair point... the guy is still pretty meh to me at last. I suppose I would trade a guy like Jorge or Slegers for him, but I'm not sure I'd send anyone over with upside. Houston might have to deal someone like this, so you could potentially get him cheap. But this certainly isn't my first target right now. I'd rather get Lynn or Archer.

yeah, no reason not to sign Lynn if they want a guy like this. Spending a prospect for what would likely be the same production as a FA isn't smart in my opinion

Isn't the opposite true that he's betting on himself? Again, I don't get the logic. It's not too much to plan around this, especially given the context that we have a lot of decent prospects in AA/AAA. Two years from now, it's quite possible these guys will be out of options and need to be traded or added. If they aren't that good, then the worst case with an opt out is that we are back on the FA market looking for an arm. If he doesn't opt out, then it means he hasn't outperformed his contract, but that's a risk we take anyways. I can see scenarios where an opt out isn't a smart idea, but I don't think this is one of them.

I actually think the opt out would have been beneficial to us as well. I don't know if I agree with our FO on not allowing for that personally. If he's opting out, that likely means he out performed the contract and just gave us the following years back where the risk is much higher. With a nice stable of arms in AA/AAA, we would likely have a decent replacement in waiting. This gets us through the "wasting the prime of Buxton/Sano" concerns and let's the farm system replace him. Just my two cents. If the opt out was the reason he's not a Twin right now, then I think our FO didn't think it through.

I think I'm more upset by the terms... 6/126 was a lot lower than most of us expected, with most saying 5/125 was reasonable. That obviously wasn't on the table or Darvish would have taken it.

I like Vargas, but I'm losing sleep over losing him either. You can argue he was jerked around by MN, but at the same time, he's had plenty of opportunities that he has not capitalized on. The case built for Napoli got a lot more interesting with regards to his injury. I honestly didn't realize he had that injury. The flip side though is that this is his age 36 season and he's been bad for 2 years. Perhaps has a bench bat, he could have some resurgence with a bit less play who knows... But.. if that's what it takes to get Darvish... I'm quite fine with that.

Depends on the state to be honest. Some states have reciprocity agreements with other states (Wisconsin and Illinois are good examples). Some have clauses specifically written to tax professional athletes.

Honestly, I'd just give Darvish the 6th year and get it over with. I get the hesitance, but this is a unique opportunity that won't present itself anytime soon.

This... logan Morrison is still available. He could be the 1B/DH type and would be a huge upgrade.

Interesting that every team considered in on Darvish isn't considered to be a favorite..

I'm not sure how "more favorable" is going to work though. There's also some really big FA names out there, namely guys like Kershaw, Harper, and Price. I don't see the Yankees/Dodgers/Cubs et al going and signing 2+ 150M contracts to get all the big names and then ink guys like Darvish/Arietta if they were back on the market... I think there's a new normal starting to take place here. Lots of 1 year deals would likely make said new normal very much a reality for anyone not elite going into their 30s. I'm not sure I'd call it collusion, as some would suggest. But team's revenues are capping and baseball's viewership is aging. More teams are being smart with their money.

I still think Lynn would be worth a long term deal outside of Darvish... but on this idea, I think both Cahill and Vargas (preferably Cahill) make sense. Not liking the idea of a 1 year deal, but I could see the logic and get behind it, especially since Cahill is a reasonable bet to put up similar numbers to Darvish... It's the shoulder injury that I'd need to be comfortable with.