Twodogs

Porcello signed 1 year 10 mill. That seems rather reasonable.

IDK Madbum has gone over 200 innings in 7 of the last 9 years. Last year on a terrible Giants team he pitches 207 innings and had over 200 K's, I mean what a bullpen savior. If they can get both Berrios and Madbum to go over 200 innings then guys like Odorizzi don't hurt quite as much. I mean I'd say he is worth 5 years 100 mill. If he pitches well in 3 of those seasons and average in one and poorly in one then that would prob be worth it. 5 years from now it will prob be tear down time anyway?

Twins need to make Ryu an offer, Madbum an offer, Cole an offer, Stasburg an offer, Tehran an offer, etc..... Offer all of them. Offer Cole the biggest contract possible, then force the Angels to outbid us, drive his price up, that, if the Twins don't get Cole, would hurt the Angels bottom line for a few years. Offer Madbum 4 years, offer Ryu a big contract, then if teams outbid the Twins it will hurt their bottom lines also. Put bids out on all of them, maybe we don't get any of them, but instead of reacting to the market, drive the market. Give competitive offers to all of them if one signs then pull the other offers. Tehran reminds me sort of like Ervin Santana. He has been fairly consistent in his career, has at times looks real good and other times just been average but he doesn't ever seen to be terrible. Maybe he has the ability to put together one superior season like Ervin did? Baily kinda reminds me of Anibal Sanchez. Bailey when he came up had tons of potential, kind of bogged down on a poor team and then found a new home last year maybe made some changes and produced. The nice thing about a guy like that is you can take a chance on him and just cut bait if it doesn't work. The Twins even if they lucked out and got some Cole in their Christmas stocking, could still celebrate with some Baily's and it might work out? If not you're really not down anything. Again I think the Twins need to put out the market value offers or maybe just a tick above to all of the big names right now. If one takes the offer then pull the rest, but drive the market, force the other teams to outbid us. I think maybe we did that with Wheeler, if we offered him 100 million, then the Phils had to pay more. Offer all of them win one of them, or force the other teams to overpay.

I think right now, if the Twins had Castillo, or Syndergaard, would they be looking for packages to trade them for? I mean are the Twins shopping Berrios if the right package of minor Leaguers came along? I just don't see why, before a season starts, that a team would be shopping their frontline starting pitching? I mean I just dont get it. These teams are going to wait until they are mathematically eliminated from contention before looking to off load guys like that.

They need to sign an impact starter, the easiest thing to do is to just do it. Quit diddledadling around and just do it. Then bring back Pineda, and you got something for the stretch run. Use the mixture of arms to fill out the #5 guy, and Pineda's spot for his time off.

How much did he turn down to stay in Washington?

Thankful for family, friends, and another holiday season. It was a great year for the Twins and even though my family and I live in Cali, we made it back to Minnesota this summer. During our stay, my son, a 9 year old, attended one of the Minnesota Twins camps. We went to two Twins games, one against the Mets and the second against the A's, where Eddie hit one out to win the game. My son got a foul ball at both games. But he also won the skills competition at his camp and was invited back for the last home game of the year to do battle with all of the other camp champions. After the last home game of the year was over one in which he got another foul ball, he got to go down onto Target Field and compete with everyone in the skills competition. He took 3rd overall. This will be a season that he, who was born in California, will never forget and I'm pretty sure with all of the choices for teams to follow out here he is now, for sure, a life long Twins fan!!! I'm also thankful for that!

I don't know how rule 5 works, I know that if you take a guy for the rule 5 draft that he needs to remain on the 25 man roster all year. But I don't know who qualifies to be picked in a rule 5 draft and who does not?

In Australia? A spider bite? A snake bite? Hopefully it wasn't similar to the Skaggs incident.

I personally don't usually see teams that have won 101 game trade starters off that team and replace them with unproven Milb ballplayers and then get better? That usually does not happen, I mean we can use TB and the Archer trade, but they got studs back for him, not oil can Boyd. Anyways I really believe that Cole wants to go to the Angels, So-Cal etc... However, I am all in on offering him something crazy like 8/280, because if the Angels can't pony up then you have him! If they do pony up, then it makes it real difficult for them to be any sort of a player on anyone else during the off-season. I mean with giant contracts to Trout, Pujols, and if Cole signs and Ohtani etc... They might be stuck without much more flexibility in the rest of the market essentially erasing them out of the equation for the other free agents? So yeah offer Cole big money, but I wouldn't trade starters for middle of the road pitchers IMO.

Twins need to be in on everyone.

It may have irritated me also had Boone won the award just because I absolutely hate the Yankees so much. But on the flip side, he did a magnificent job holding that team together with all those injuries all season, not to mention they didn't even make a big deadline splash like they usually do. Boone to me actually did a great job, whereas many of the Yankee managers of the past didn't impress me that much just because they had everything, but I really thought Boone did a great job holding that ship together with all those injuries all year.

No one is promised anything, look at the Red Sox coming off winning a world series??

How far is North Carolina from Atlanta in comparison to Minnesota from Atlanta? It would be like a kid who grew up somewhere in South Dakota choosing the Twins over the Braves because he is closer to home.

I think from the reports that I have heard is that madbum is probably going to the Braves, close to where he grew up. So it will probably have to be Wheeler that the Twins pursue?

Hamels has said he'd go to a win now team on a one year type of deal, so that is a good one. If you bring in both Wheeler and Hamels then you still have Berrios and probably a decent shot at Odorizzi. Then you could go with the 5th spot with one of the guys from the system Grateral, Balazovic, Romero, Smeltzer etc... Or go back and try to re-sign Pineda for the 5th spot? If you can't get him and you still don't trust the young guys bring in a guy like Homer Bailey, he should be relatively inexpensive on a 1 year deal and he did pretty well with Oakland? Or just go with one of the younger guys?

Remember a lot of that spending is going to have to be used on their young core also. So really can't go super crazy. Could get a real expensive pitcher but probably can't get like 2 or 3 expensive free agents.

Maybe he is an RP long term, but I feel he has to get a shot at starting first. A guy with his velo if he can handle starting duties it will in the long run potentially give the twins an ace. So that is what I'm saying, give him a legit shot in ST, because Dobnak will most likely never be an ace whereas Grateral has the potential, and if he doesn't hack it, then throw him in the BP.

If you go out and somehow sign a #1, which the Twins won't, but I can hope. But if they sign a #1, and Berrios is the #2, and Odorizzi accepts the QO, now you either get a Hamels or Pineda, or a Gibson type for the #4 and then Grateral can compete for the #5. I like Grateral more than Dobnak, I really don't think Dobnak is for real and Grateral throws 100. I kinda like that in the rotation. It would be possible for him to be the #4 for awhile if Pineda ends up coming back. But I really think he could be the 5. You'd rather have a veteran like Perez as the #5 more than giving Grateral a shot at it?

If you re-read what I said, I believe that I said give him a legit shot in spring training, not just go into the season with him, only if ye earns it in spring training. Give him a shot I think is different than give the spot to him?

IDK, it's a tough call, I mean on one hand Odorizzi does get a lot of swings and misses but he rarely goes past 5 innings and they have had to pull him in the 4th a few times due to pitch counts, even with the lead? So I mean even if he pitches decently he is still a drag on our bullpen. Whereas Chapman has been a lights out closer most of his career. I am assuming he will be once again next year. Not sure beyond that. But I mean even with the same numbers if Odo averaged between 6 and 7 innings per start then yeah he'd be worth a lot. But 5 inning guys, I just don't know.

I think you give him a legit shot at a rotation spot in spring training. I dont think holding him back will help him that much, these guys need to come up and see what it's like at the MLB level in order to be prepared. So if he earns it, let him start the beginning of the year in Pineda's spot if the twins re-sign him. Once he struggles then send him down. Give him a taste, if he earns it, I mean if he gets lit up in SP T. Then you have your answer. If he mows people down give him that shot. They need to be able to at some point trust the guys in their system.

Well the Twins could hamstring teams like the Angels by making a huge offer to Cole. Say they offer 7/240 and the Angles will have to beat that because of who Cole's agent is. Then the Angles will have to go even higher and now they will have a tougher time going after much more. When you look at their obligations as far as Trout and Pujols, etc... They will start to run out of room. So with the Twins spending capability, they could make some crazy offers so as to harm the financial futures of some of these teams. I mean it would help the Twins in the long run if they use their spending capabilities to hamstring some of these teams in the future. If they don't seriously go in and hardly anyone else does either because they know he wants bto go to Cali then Angels could get a decent deal on Cole. I mean it will still be expensive, prob 7/240 or something like that, but if teams like the Twins throw down offers like that then teams like the Angels will have to beat those offers and that could set up system failure for teams like the Angles? I think the Twins need to bid on those guys with the idea that they probably won't get them, but that it will cause the Angels more harm in the future because the prices will get artificially driven up.

At this point he is without a team also. So I'd think if you are on a team you probably have more access to the best recovery possible where as now he is on his own. Where does he throw bullpens, who is overseeing it, etc...

If Cole stays in Houston, I don't believe that Texas has much on an income tax hit? I wonder if players think about that much when they decide who to play for and they are signing big contracts? I know Minnesota is quite high like maybe in the top 5 or 6 heaviest taxed states?