spideyo

I would be ecstatic if we carried 12 pitchers all year in 2014, especially if the other 13 guys were actually all healthy. It's tough to manage a team well when you keep having 2-3 guys availible off the bench. As far as ripple effects go, I really think that Plouffe and Parmelee are at high risk of being out of the Twins organization before opening day. They both have been inconsistent with their offense, and neither have shown stellar enough defense to ride on that. Even without Sano, Plouffe is going to have competition from Escobar, Bartlett, Bernier, and possibly Florimon. Only one of those guys can be the starting shortstop and I'm sure the rest would rather be starting 3B than utility guy.

If he's smart, Collabello is spendng all off-season working on his 3b skills. I'm really curious now to hear how much Doumit will want to catch next year, that could really shake things up.

Any idea if his contract will have one of those clauses where if he isn't added to the major league roster by X date he can ask to be released?

I would be willing to bet money that this really was a situation where they said "Joe, it's your decision, but here's a deadline we'd like to know by so we can adjus our offseason plans accordingly" I do think Morneau probably was a bigger influence on this than anything, both because of his history with concussions, and if this switch was made while Morneau was still with the team (or had entered FA straight from the Twins) it could have looked like Mauer was pushing Morneau out the door, and I don't think Mauer would have been willing to go along with that. I do think he has more worth as a Catcher than a first basemen, and it does sadden me to see him walk away from a position where he arguably was one of the best ever. Maybe this is what takes though, for them to finally make serious improvents to catcher's safety and better concussion protection and treatment. From an organization standpoint, it does work out for the best I think. While I like Collabello and Parmelee, I think they've bother missed their window at being MLB superstars (or even regular starters on competitive teams). Pinto's future on the other hand, is very bright. On top of that, if you are going to bring in a FA for one of those spots, there is a MUCH better crop of catchers than 1B.

While I think Kelly and MacPhail were good at their jobs, the Twins only had 4 winning seasons out of the 8 they worked together (the only winning seasons in macphail's ten years and Kelly's 15 years with the twins)

I think calling it a fraud is a bit harsh. It's not like people were throwing games or juicing up (at least on our team) or playing dirty or anything. Did the schedule weighting help them? Maybe. But if they didn't have the weighted schedule, if they didn't have three divisions instead of two, and those wild card spots, who knows what the effects would have been. Would the Yankees have had such an incredible dynasty if they hadn't been playing so many games against the craptastic Blue Jays, Orioles, and Rays? All I know is, that stretch of time is the only period in my entire life where the Twins had three or more winning seasons in a row. I'll take that.

I think Hicks, Mastroianni, and. Pressly compete for CF in ST. If Hicks doesn't cinch it, you start him at Rochester and give the opening day start to whomever is healthier and hit better between the other two, and make the other guy the #4 of At this point, I think if rather see a Collabello/Parmelee platoon at 1b than a "rent-a-bat". You can always pick up a spare 1B bat later in the season if they end being contenders. If neither of those guys work out, you can always try Plouffe their (giving 3b to Escobar) or start teaching 1b to Hermann, Pinto or Arcia.

I think Hughes would be an interesting addition. If I recall correctly, the Twins tried getting him as part of a package for Johan. His career arc reminds a bit of Liriano. Inconsistent, marred by injuries, but when he's been good he's been VERY good. He is also only 27. He's coming off arguably the worst season of his career, so he should be cheap. A change of scenery and a pitcher friendly ballpark could be just what he needs to reboot his once-promising career

I don't think Plouffe is going to net us anything right now. Better to let him ride and hope he builds up some value by the trade deadline. I also am not excited about the idea of jumping Sano up to the bigs right away. He still got things to work on, and I'd rather he work that all out in ST. As for catching, I don't think Mauer is done yet. Plus, Pinto's numbers were gaudy, but it's unknown if that will be sustainable. My plan would be keep Mauer at #1, Doumit #2, Hermann as 3rd catcher/4th OF, start Pinto at Rochester. Brin Pinto up to be #2 when Doumit gets traded

All this talk of sending a huge package of players for Price is starting to give me flashbacks of Herschel Walker. No matter how good a starting pitcher is, at most he will be contributing in 32-33 games during the regular season. Even if he managed to never miss a start and we won every single game he started, that alone will not be enough to be champions. Gutting our farm system and/or getting rid of a fantastic and affordable closer is certainly not going to help us win any of the other 130 games.

I think it greatly depends on what position you are looking at. At this point, no pitching prospects should be traded. In fact, I would say we should be trading any pitching prospects until we have a minimum of 7-8 A level pitchers in the big leagues (which may not happen for years). You never know when you will get a TJ case, or a late bloomer, or a guy who does better in the pen then starting (see Perkins, Swarzak) Any 1B only guys should be dangled. We certainly don't have a sure thing in Parmelee or Collabello, but the future could hold Mauer, Plouffe, or Sano at 1B. Plus there are always old guys who can still hit but can't field much beyond 1B on the FA market. If you believe that Dozier can play like he did in the second half for years to come, and that Rosario is destined for 2B only, we might as well float his name out there and see what we can get. 3B/SS are still too unsettled to send off anybody. The OF has a lot of good prospects in Hicks, Pressly, Arcia, Buxton, Walker, Keppler, and probably a bunch of guys I don't know. Don't trade Buxton and don't trade anyone you think will be a MLB starter in 2014, but beyond that, if the deal is right we could afford to lose one or two. Catchers of course, totally depends on if/when Mauer stops catching completely. Of all our prospects, Pinto might be the most likely to get a MLB ready arm (Buxton and Sano are still too far away), but would also be the riskiest. If Mauer is the primary catcher for the rest of his contract, and you send Pinto as part of a deal to get an Ace, you look like a genius. Then again, you could have a repeat of the Ramos trade.

I'm strictly wondering about who even gets an invite to come to ST as a starter. I'm not even going to begin to guess at what Terry Ryan will do in FA or trades.

MLB really should be pouring craploads of money into better catching gear. Mauer is the squeaky clean, no-ego, home town boy that MLB needs as it's poster child for a long time.

I think everyone's in agreement that we need at least a couple of starters from outside our organization, but I think at least a couple of our "fringe" arms are at least going to get a chance to earn a job in ST. Corriea, Deduno, Gibson, Diamond, Albers and Worley are for sure going to be in the mix. Who else would you want to see stretched out in ST? I'd like to see: DeVries Swarzak (although I think he's more valuable as a long reliever) Duensing (see above) Meyer Mays Pressly Hernandez

I'm totally with you on Colabello. People are so ready to throw this guy aside, but he was ROY in the International League. I do realize that there are a lot of guys who have success at AAA but not in the bigs, but I think he's at least earned another shot. If it were up to me, I'd be going into ST with Colabello and Parmelee penciled in to platoon at 1b, and let them play their way out of a job. Spot on with Plouffe too. While he did look better at 3b this year, he was still the weakest link in the IF, and his offensive numbers were simply not good enough to counterbalance that. I'll admit, I was a Dozier hater last year, and expected him to disappear. I'm happy to say I was wrong. I'd love it if Hicks comes back the same way. He played defense very well, let's hope he's pissed off that he didn't even earn a september callup and comes back determined to never play minor league ball again

Done and done

Who do you think the Twins should add to their staff? Personally, I think we need to go outside the organization and bring in some fresh blood. Top qualifications for me would be: Fluency in Spanish (preferably a native speaker) Able to work with our young hitters, esp the Latin American ones A fiery personality that can get some real energy going in the clubhouse. Is Ozzie Guillén still looking for a job?

My initial poin of this post wasn't that we should cling to Gardy no matter what. My point was more that he is NOT a terrible manager. If he needed to go just to have a fresh face in there is one thing. But it's foolish to claim he should be fired for being incompetent and terrible, that is simply not supported by the numbers. Strictly by the numbers, you can arge Gardy is the best manager the Twins have ever had, in their 50+ seasons of play. That doesn't mean, nor did I mean to imply, that he should have a job for life. If you need to move on for the sake of moving on, that happens. I'm just gettin really sick of all the people claiming Gardy is the worst manager ever.

What can I say, I had a slow day at work. Really what they should do now is send Gardy to Venezuela or Dominican Republic for the winter so he can learn some Spanish and find an assistant hitting coach that can relate to Pinto/Florimon/Ramirez/Rosario/Sano/Arcia/Escobar

I think you need to do a little more research. Let's look at your three examples. Joe Torre: Mets: 77-81, fired without having a single winning season. Braves: 82-84, made the NLCS his first year, but each record declined each of the next two seasons an he was fired. Did not manage 85-90 Cardinals: 91-95, winning records his first three seasons but no playoff slots, fired in June of 95 Yankees: 96-07, had a lot of success, but also had arguably some of the best teams ever assembled playing for him, including several known juicers. Turned down a one year contract that seemed like an insult from Steinbrenner. Dodgers: 2008-2010, had some post season success, retired in 2010 at the age of 70, 50 years after his baseball career began. Terry Francona: Phillies: 97-00, fired after four straight years of losing Did not manage: 01-03 Red Sox: 04-11, won a couple titles and had a lot of success, but ultimately got fired after the Red Sox collapsed and he apparently lost respect and control in the clubhouse Did not manage: 2012 Indians: 13-present, so far so good Tom Kelly: Twins: 86-01, in his second season as manager (first full season), won the World Series with a team that had one of the worst winning percentages and run differential of any World Series team. After the amazing 91 season, presided over a long depressing decline, and eventually resigned amidst discussions of the league's plan to eliminate the Twins franchise entirely. So there you have it. Torre and Francona have both been fired repeatedly, neither of them winning, well, anything at all with the first team they managed. Francona never "stepped aside", TK only retired when it looked like the entire team would be gone after that season, and Torre was on his fifth team as a manager, and going into his 6th decade in baseball. Compare that to Gardy. He will be going into his 13th year with the Twins, a longer tenure than Torre had with the Yankees, and only two seasons short of TK's tenure. TK most certainly did NOT have more success then Gardy, when you view his managerial career as a whole. Including this year, Francona has now led teams to post season play 6 times, same as Gardy, but 5 of those were wild card slots, whereas all of Gardy's teams won their division. Yes, Torre has had more success than Gardy, but he only made it to the post season once in his first thirteen years of managing. With the exception of World Series rings, I think Gardy compares pretty well to these guys. He hasn't been fired, he hasn't had a complete clubhouse meltdown, and he's certainly had more consistent success than TK ever did.

I've started hearing the complaint come up again that Gardy can't win in the playoffs, and we'll never be a championship team under him. This argument always annoyed me, so I finally decided to actually look at the numbers. In the 12 seasons he's managed the twins, they've gone to the playoffs 6 times. In the 41 seasons prior to that, the Twins made it to the playoffs 5 times, under four different managers. Gardy may only have 6 wins in the postseason, but all other twins managers (other than TK) managed only 3 wins. Speaking of TK, while he did have championship teams in 87 and 91, he only had three other winning seasons in his 15 years as Manager. If my math is right, Gardy has been manager for a full 1/3 of all Twins winning seasons since they began play in 1961. So how come people think he's so awful?

Who do we hold accountable for blowing away the team strikeout record? Hicks and Arcia could have been ROY candidates if they had actually connected with the ball more often. Plouffe, Willingham, and Parmelee regressed noticably. Collabello was ROY in the international league, but looked lost up here. How much of that is on Bruno? Isn't it his job to help young players adjust and get the whole team prepared to face major league pitching? Even if Ryan spends $200 million on a rotation full of aces, we won't win if we keep staring at strike three

Y'know what? I'm happy with what Clete has been doing here. Nobody expected him to come up and become an offensive powerhouse or become a human highlight reel, but he has done his job, and held down the spot while Hicks heals.

Yeah, I don't think we'll be hurting for OF, we've got Willingham, Doumit, Arcia, Parmelee, and Thomas, and if we really needed it Plouffe and Escobar can cover OF as well. My guess is Escobar becomes the backup CF for now, which is much easier to do with Plouffe taking back 3B.

I think it makes sense, especially if he's willing to sign a minor league deal and spen some time at Rochester knocking the rust off