THE DFC

Lewis Thorpe's last 10 starts in CR: 3.00 ERA, 45 IP, 61 K He's 18 years old. Brilliant stuff.

When we kept together a group of young, promising prospects, we rode them to 6 playoff appearances in 9 years and were continually about 1 player away from truly contending. As soon as we started relying on 30+ vets in free agency and trading our prospects, the team collapsed into what you see now. The idea of moving Aaron Hicks now at just 24-years-old (an age still younger than the breakout seasons of Hunter, Cuddyer, Gomez, Dozier, etc., etc.) when he's finally showing promise now to add a veteran pitcher at the very end of his career to a team that will still be mostly reliant on early 20s position players (Arcia, Vargas, Santana, Sano, Buxton, Rosario) is really just a recipe to top out prematurely and sputter back into irrelevance. Let's have some patience. The team has been awful without promise for years now, yes, but now it's becoming awful with lots of promise. And, next year, with another year of Hughes, Gibson, Dozier, Arcia, Vargas, Santana, Pinto, May, a resurgent Hicks and hopefully, the arrivals of Meyer, Sano, Buxton, Rosario and maybe Burdi, Berrios, Polanco, etc., that's probably a pretty average team with an absolutely insane amount of promise. Again, the concept of tweaking that to get 5 more wins instead of being patient is, frankly, pretty silly.

If Santana can keep up hitting somewhere in the neighborhood of what he has done this year, the thought of a line-up like: Buxton Santana Sano Vargas Arcia with Mauer, Dozier, Suzuki/Pinto, Hicks/Rosario to follow in some order is completely ludicrous. Heck, you could slice any combination of those players and pretty much any order, and it would be ludicrous, potentially. It's certainly exciting. Last point regarding Arcia, I made a post in an Aaron Hicks thread awhile back showing the OPS+ of recent Twins hitters that have become successful that I think is worth posting again: Gomez: 24 - MIL - 76 25 - MIL - 82 26 - MIL - 101 27 - MIL - 129 Dozier: 25 - MIN - 67 26 - MIN - 98 27 - MIN -108 Hunter: 24 - MIN - 80 25 - MIN - 102 26 - MIN - 124 Morneau: 22 - MIN - 73 23 - MIN - 122 (74 games) 24 - MIN - 93 25 - MIN - 140 Cuddyer: 25 - MIN - 100 26 - MIN - 97 27 - MIN -124 Here's Arcia: 22 - MIN - 101 23 - MIN - 109 ...and we've all seen him improve tremendously in the last month or more. Now, given that he's shown the ability to adapt and improve, consider that we all note very reasonable areas for continued improvement for him. I've said it before, I'm just a fraction less excited about Arcia versus Buxton and Sano. Outside of his range in the outfield, which is borderline laughable, you've got to love his attitude and ability to swing the bat.

Wow. Can we just keep this group together as a unit lurking toward the majors like the Death Star? Name - Age - ERA - K/9 - WHIP Kohl Stewart - 19 - 2.42 - 6.5 - 1.109 Chih-Wei Hu - 20 - 2.54 - 7.8 - 0.974 Stephen Gonsalves - 20 - 1.57 - 8.2 - 0.953 Lewis Thorpe - 18 - 3.34 - 11.0 - 1.13 (removing his first 2 starts) Throw in Fernando Romero, who looked good before hitting the DL, and that's ridiculous. I know they're young and everyone outside of Stewart hasn't done more than a half season at A- ball, but considering how prospects like Ryan Eades have performed and that all 4 are essentially performing equal or better than Berrios did last year, I'd love to see all of these guys get a shot to start in A+ ball next year and round out that rotation. I haven't seen any of these guys in person, but it's my understanding that all 4 have major league rotation stuff, correct?

Let's continue this... Gomez: 24 - MIL - 76 25 - MIL - 82 26 - MIL - 101 27 - MIL - 129 Dozier: 25 - MIN - 67 26 - MIN - 98 27 - MIN -109 Hunter: 24 - MIN - 80 25 - MIN - 102 26 - MIN - 124 Morneau: 22 - MIN - 73 23 - MIN - 122 (74 games) 24 - MIN - 93 25 - MIN - 140 Cuddyer: 25 - MIN - 100 26 - MIN - 97 27 - MIN -124 As we approach the wave of Sano, Buxton, Rosario, Polanco, Vargas, etc., etc. to go in with Arcia, Santana, Hicks, etc., we have to remember that pretty much every good hitter in recent Twins memory head a bunch of sinking/treading water seasons until ultimately breaking out around 26 or 27. Hicks is 24. Arcia is barely 23. Next year, Sano will be 22, Buxton will be 21.

Thank you, sir. This needs to be mentioned. Also, when Hicks does ultimately arrive in Rochester for the foreseeable future, it needs to be expressed to him that he needs to remold himself into someone that has a bat worthy of being a corner major league OF, and his competition for taking hold of an opportunity like that is with players like Arcia, Plouffe and Rosario. What does this mean? Well, maybe Hicks should modify his approach at the plate to, gee, I dunno, maybe swing more than once in a blue moon? I appreciate patience at the plate, and no one wants him to be the 2nd coming of Jacque Jones. But, in order to have a SLG that exceeds an OBP--something pretty much imperative from a major league OF--you need to swing the bat and drive the ball. What's funny is that he has the strength and bat speed to hit the crap out of it. Ironically, I wish he would take an aggressive approach much more in line with Carlos Gomez or Torii Hunter. I think that alone would make a quality MLB starter, or at worst case, I super valuable trading chip to give him an opportunity to excel elsewhere and get an Alex Meyer/Trevor May or better in return.

Feel free to re-post this thread before every game this year.

I'm excited about Vargas, but the amount of DH candidates we have coming up is a bit alarming. Arcia is questionable in the field. As is Vargas. As is Pinto. As is Parmelee. Plus, there's the very real possibility that Sano won't stick at 3B, which is a problem given that Mauer is planted at 1B. 5 hitters with major potential right around the corner. This could get tricky. Hopefully, Pinto can stick as a near full-time C, Sano sticks at 3B and at least one of Arcia/Parmelee can hold down a corner OF spot. It would really be a luxury to have all of those guys producing and to be able to fit Vargas in at DH every day. Then, we have to figure out where to put with Rosario with 3B/2B/DH/LF/RF potentially all covered...but that's a conversation for another time. It's an interesting situation on the horizon. Lots of talented options, of course. Glad to see Vargas throw his hat into the ring.

I think this will be our outfield by the end of next season, but why would Arcia be in RF and Hicks in LF? Hicks is the one with the cannon arm and can cover ground.

I'll bluntly say that I think Parmelee's problem is that he's in horrific physical shape. For a professional athlete, the way he maintains himself is a joke. He gets softer and puffier every year, and there's no doubt in my mind that that factor is heavily contributing to his decline. Hicks will be fine. He just needs time to develop still. He's a freak athlete, and something will click with him. It's worth the gamble to give him 2-3 years more of chances, at least.

"Remember, my whole premise is an ambitious one: that the Twins can compete in 2014." You spelled "silly" wrong.

This is great, and I've been saying the same thing to my friends. If the FO does not lock up Buxton and Sano like this as soon as they show real promise in the bigs, we should sincerely be rioting at Target Field

Hey, thanks for reading details. It's not like details are important or anything.

In 1999, the Twins regularly had this line-up: C - Terry Steinbach - 37 y/o 1B - Dougy Mientkiewicz - 25 y/o 2B - Todd Walker - 26 y/o 3B - Ron Coomer - 32 y/o SS - Denny Hocking 29 y/o LF - Chad Allen - 24 y/o CF - Torii Hunter - 23 y/o RF - Matt Lawton - 27 y/o DH - Mardy Cordova - 29 y/o Basically, it was a line-up of interesting young prospects inter-mixed with declining vets that amounted to a 63-97 record--good for last in the division. Sound familiar? Two years later in 2001, they rolled out this line-up: C - A.J. Pierzynski* - 24 1B - Doug Mientkiewicz* - 27 2B - Luis Rivas - 21 SS - Cristian Guzman# - 23 3B - Corey Koskie* - 28 LF - Jacque Jones* - 26 CF - Torii Hunter - 25 RF - Matt Lawton* - 29 DH - David Ortiz* - 25 This team went 85-77, just finishing in 2nd place in the division, and as we all know, went on to make a strong run of division titles. It's time for 2014 to serve as the transition year that 2000 was, so 2015 can be the year we make a run like we did in 2001. By next July, why shouldn't we see this? C Joe Mauer - 31 1B Chris Parmelee - 26 2B Eddie Rosario - 22 SS Pedro Florimon - 27 3B Miguel Sano - 21 LF Oswaldo Arcia - 23 CF Byron Buxton - 20 RF Aaron Hicks - 24 DH Josmil Pinto - 25 ...with Danny Santana working in with Pedro Florimon and Chris Collabello/Chris Parmelee/Josmil Pinto/Joe Mauer forming some sort of DH/1B/C rotation. The reason I'm posting this is that I hear a lot of odd statement regarding sending prospects back down to the minors (Hicks), keeping players down in the minors (May, Arcia, etc.), and retaining veterans in the offseason (Pelfry, Doumit, Morneau). This is incredibly short-term micro thinking that ultimately just causes more problems down the road that it solves in the short term. We have a historical model with this very franchise bringing up a wave of highly regarded young talent, letting them season in the bigs and ultimately be very successful. Now that we have an even stronger wave on the horizon, why would we deviate from that plan in favor of moves that have consistently buried us at the bottom of the heap over the last couple of years? That is absolutely ludicrous. And, if you can't accept, say, 10 more losses next year in exchange for getting to watch potential future stars develop before our eyes, you're a silly person. Specifically, Doumit, Willingham and Morneau make no sense on this roster. I know some people are excited by Dozier's glove, but let's get serious--Rosario is a way, way better prospect and is ready for the bigs. Plouffe? I don't see where he fits and probably could be moved for some decent value. And, it's the same thing with the rotation. Meyer, May, Hendricks, Gibson, Albers all need to be in the mix given the nobody but Deduno has secured a rotation spot for next year, and who knows is he's stable enough to hold it down? (I'm assuming Pelfry will Scott Boras another team in the off-season). Diamond maybe deserves one last shot, but why even work with with Correia and hint at Blackburn at this point? No one wants to see this garbage team of underperforming retreads anymore. We have the #1 system in baseball, and a good chunk of these kids are knocking on the door next year. It's time for Terry Ryan to answer. One last thing, in 2001, Tom Kelly hung it up and allowed Ron Gardenhire to breath new life into the clubhouse. It's time for Gardenhire to follow suit, whether you're a fan of his or not.

Jose Berrios - CR - 80.2 IP - 3.90 ERA - 1.43 WHIP - 9.1 K/9 Felix Jorge - ET - 31.1 IP - 2.87 ERA - 1.21 WHIP - 9.8 K/9 Randy Rosario - ET - 29.0 IP - 2.48 ERA - 1.17 WHIP - 8.4 K/9 Yorman Landa - ET - 30.0 IP - 1.20 ERA - 1.07 WHIP - 9.6 K/9 Kohl Stewart - GCL - 10.0 IP - 1.80 ERA - 0.80 WHIP - 8.1 K/9 Stephen Gonsalves - GCL - 14.1 IP - 0.63 ERA - 1.05 WHIP - 11.3 K/9 I really like this group. If we could pull 3 quality rotation guys out of this grouping in about 3-4 years, that would go a real long way towards solidifying quite the young core.

Agreed, and I would take it a step further--Parmelee is in horrific athletic/physical shape. I'd get that guy in the weight room and on a treadmill because he looks more like a softball player than anything at the moment. Sure, some players can get away with being productive hitters and looking like a pear, but there's no way it's optimal for peak performance.

Nicely done, Boone. Thanks for this post.

This is almost exactly what I'm seeing and perhaps why I'm more optimistic than some. Nick, you also raise a great point which I've seen discussed regarding Hicks every years--why does he switch hit? As you said, his right handed swing is quite a bit better, and I think it looks like he tracks the ball better from that side, as well. Do you know if switch-hitting is something that Hicks himself is insistent on, or is it just something that the organization is giving time and patience to because they really that flexibility to work out?

You're missing a very, very critical point for the organization because the faster Hicks can develop and prove to be a quality major leaguer and a known commodity the more intelligent tactical moves the front office can make. There's nothing worse than a talented question mark for a front office, and especially so when the question mark remains a question mark a multitude of consecutive season (see: Gomez, Carlos). Having known young known commodities that they have confidence in really allows a front office to be that much more strategic when planning and projecting out several seasons (which we have to be doing considering the age/success of the roster at big league level and the universal high regard for our farm system). If we are to assume that Hicks's natural trend is to start off slow at each level, per both of our statements and his consistent history, that would leave Hicks just now turning it on in AAA, only to struggle again for the early part of the season next year in the bigs. In turn, now that he's up and playing everyday with the big club, he has gotten that historic transition/adaptation period out of the way and is establishing a certain level of comfort finally. To say that this doesn't hasten the speed of his potential development if he is to get there just doesn't make sense, in my opinion and defies his historical production curve. And, to say that speed of his potential establishment as serviceable or greater everyday guy isn't really valuable to the future of our team just is a misunderstanding of how to optimally plan for the future...especially when we have Arcia, Buxton, Rosario (2B or OF), Kepler and even Plouffe and Parmalee to consider as cornerstone outfielders. I'm not sure because you seem to be inferring that he has not improved at all in those 500 games in the minors. Without knowing exactly how his improvement in center has gone along the way, it's hard to make a precise estimation. I do remember, especially coming out of high school, that Hicks was said to be quite raw in the outfield outside of his terrific physical tools, so I think it stands to reason that he at least incrementally improved over the course of those 500 games and will continue to do so. It's not like he's a horrific outfielder (he's definitely not at all). To me, it's just clear that he's still young and inexperienced. MLB pitchers and hitters have a lot more velocity and spin on their respective pitches and hits, so once again, to anticipate there will be no learning curve in tracking the ball off the bat is on the wrong side of probability, in my opinion. I would go so far as to say this another reason I'm happy he's up in the bigs now and should stay here. The quicker he can adapt to manning a major league outfield, the more valuable he is to the team for very obvious reasons. You have no argument from me here. What we've seen from Hicks in June/July is pretty much what I expected from him for this season, and that's where I believe I differ from what management's expectations are/where. Where I differ with you and many others appears to be in my belief that I think he's someone that takes awhile to calibrate with the enhanced competition he faces (he has continuously shown this to be true throughout his young career) . However, I think he's so talented that he can ultimately calibrate at 23-years-old in the major leagues now, and I think he's starting to prove me right. If we can skip a level (AAA) and have him calibrate several months are even a year or more quicker, that is absolutely fantastic. This major league ball club being what it is certainly allows for this type of scenario because Hicks's calibration period ultimately isn't going to cost us a playoff birth or any level of contention. The development of a player, as I said previously, is obviously an extremely delicate balance. Carlos Gomez's handling by the New York Mets shows us exactly what can happen if a player is rushed way before his time, but in turn (and especially as Twins fans), I think guys with major physical skills and solid mental perspectives can handle being pushed and challenged. For me, Hicks looks like he's just now starting to tread water, so to push him back a level like John Bonnes recommended just doesn't make sense to me one bit. I don't see how it's good for his psyche (I think the psyche aspect could be pretty disastrous actually) or for the speed of his development. I clearly addressed this in the first part of this response. It actually matters quite a bit. Listen, I get where you are coming from because you certainly seem to acknowledge that Hicks's development is a giant question mark--which it is. I understand you wanting to be conservative with him, and I think my stance is simply rooted in having more faith in his raw tools than you. If you take a look at the depth charts across the majors, there are a ton of guys that have had and/or are having solid to great success with merely a portion of the raw talent Hicks has. Now that I see Hicks getting comfortable, I want to see him everyday with the Twins, learning, developing, "calibrating" and hopefully translating those raw abilities to definable success as fast as possible. That happening isn't a certainty either, but once again, with those raw tools, the likelihood is still pretty great.

Aaron Hicks actually has a 721 OPS in July. Hicks is 23-year-old former 1st round pick, regarded with having 5 tool potential, has consistently been a top 10 Twins prospect and top 100 prospect and who notoriously starts off slow in every new league. Right as he is obviously becoming settled in the bigs (at least from a composure stand point...which is obviously huge), you advocate sending him down to AAA in favor of CLETE THOMAS, a 29-year-old career AAA guy fresh off an OPS of .686 in Rochester last year and touting a .727 OPS in the bigs this season (a whole 6 points above Hicks this month). The context of this move is to do so in a garbage season where the Twins are already 11 games below .500 and certainly don't have anything from a rotation standpoint to even remotely consider being realistically competitive this season. That is pure insanity. And, to the poster that inferred that Hicks will never play smarter and track balls better in the OF at this stage in his career, that is sincerely the most ludicrous statement I've ever heard. No, he won't become Willie Mays (that's obvious), but with his raw speed and terrific arm, it's really obvious that he's not even close to his potential. The reason he's not even close to his potential is because his anticipation and angles just aren't even close to optimal yet, but aren't those the very things that come with any athletic experience? Give him, say, 200 more games in the big and move him to RF when Buxton comes up, and given his tools combined with his added experience, I think it's far more likely that he becomes a strong plus defensive player. The development of tools into production is certainly never an exact science, but given Hicks' past production in the minors and the probability to create results from advanced tools historically with major league prospects (especially those with a good head on their shoulders), to be "down" on Hicks is unreasonable and silly. And, to advocate that he shouldn't get the opportunity to develop into a productive major league with the "big boys" at Target Field over the course of this season and the next when we will obviously be simultaneously non-realistiacally competitive and finding ways to integrate the next strong wave of young talent in Arcia, Sano, Rosario, Pinto and hopefully Buxton is really poor, micro-based logic and makes me even wonder if there are other outside factors that I'm not aware of that are contributing to one making such a flat-out bizarre statement.

Thank you. It's absolutely absurd to see the definitive statements in this thread--he's not Kershaw, he won't get past CR, he won't have another astounding season. The likelihood based on the rarity of elite pitching prospects and mind-blowing performances by very young pitchers coupled with Berrios's previous scouting report make the most probable answer that he'll have a good but semi-volatile season in A- ball. But, I think the notion that if he comes out dominating anywhere near the level that he did last season that there's still zero chance he gets to A+ ball or is a truly elite prospect is absurd. Sure, this scenario isn't likely, but given his performance last season, it's intriguing to not have to rule it out. I'm excited for Berrios mainly because he's put himself in a position to ponder that hypothetical scenario. That could bode very well for his long term future.

I bet we'll have 8, and let's hope Berrios and Kepler force the issue by mid-season next year. Hopefully, they can take the spots of Arcia, Hicks and Gibson, who will hopefully be thriving on the big-league squad. Very exciting.

Going for the youth movement is only thing that makes sense. Let’s look at the Twins’ situation at key positions of controversy: Catcher: We’re locked into Joe Mauer here for many years to come. Teams aren’t going to trade for him, the Twins aren’t going to deal him, Mauer isn’t going to approve the trade. Let’s let this situation go. In 2012, he was top 10 in the AL in OPS, OPS+, oWIN%, oWAR, etc. It’s very debatable if he lives up to the full $23M per, but he had an excellent bounce back season and is in the prime of his career. Let’s mellow on this topic. It’s hardly the biggest issue in the grand scheme of things. 1st Base: We’ve got one more year of Morneau on the books for $14M. Yes, he had a decent bounce-back season, playing 136 games and putting up above-average batting numbers. The reality here is that he’s not worth his contract anymore, and we have about-to-be 25 year-old Chris Parmelee destroying AAA at an embarrassing level right behind him. It was rumored that the Dodgers were interested in Morneau around the trade deadline, and big market have always overpaid for depth. One option would be to flip Morneau to a big market, pay maybe $5M of his salary (if we have to pay at all), keep the extra $9M and open a spot for Parmelee. Or, we could keep Morneau for another year in hopes he returns to MVP form. This scenario either pushes Parmelee to the OF (which I don’t think makes sense given our depth there...more on that in a few), makes him available for trade (would he net a prospect greater than the $9M+ we could get for moving Morneau), let him rot on the bench (not smart) or send back for more AAA (really a waste of time and talent). If I was TR, I would be considering Free Agency moves knowing that teams are going to go after Morneau after signing dry up and essentially bank on the salary savings as added potential payroll. Then, no doubt do I flip him before the season starts. OF: Kudos to Josh Willingham for have a career year at 33. He (and Plouffe) really showed the right-handed bats can have some serious success at Target Field utilizing that Left Field porch. Also, kudos to Denard Span for being an all-around great player for the Twins for the past couple years. However, both players are in a predicament--they have the most value trade value of anyone on the roster and have young prospects ready to replace their production. Willingham is owed $7M over the next two seasons, and Span is owed $4.75 in 2013, $6.5M in 2014 and $9M in 2015. To me, moving Willingham is an easy call. He had a Silver Slugger season and is only owed $7M a year for the next two years. However, he is 33, and odds are that this team won’t be going after a World Series in the next two years. On top of all of this, the Twins have rockstar prospect Oswaldo Arcia primed and ready to take over in LF. There has to be a team in win-now mode willing to part with a top starting prospect to get a Silver Slugger caliber hitter at a seriously affordable price. I would guess the potential for making this deal is equal to moving Arcia for a similar prospect. However, in the case of Willingham, we shed his salary. Plus, we stand to have a lot of productive years from Arcia at a minimal salary. Willingham is the guy to move. In regard to Span, he garners lots of interest league-wide. He’s a very good starting CF and a very good lead-off hitter. As discussed, his contract is great, too. So, why do we move him? We need starting pitching and his production has been proven nearly replicated by Ben Revere. How wouldn’t it make sense to have a small drop-off in production from Span to Revere, gain $4.75M in payroll and net a strong starting pitching prospect in return? So, given Rivere and Span were both playing most games last year, who replaces Revere you ask? Well, Darren Mastroianni proved to be a competent player last season, and of course, you have another rockstar prospect in Aaron Hicks coming off an excellent season in AA. In fact, Hicks’s arm strength is perfect for RF, and a defensive combination of Hicks-Revere is equally or more devastating than a Span-Revere combination. Moving Span makes a lot of sense. The only question here is--could we move Hicks for more or equal value than Span? That’s a tough question. Hicks is cheaper than Span and has a higher ceiling, but there’s certainly risk involved, and Span is young enough to expect a good 5 years of production from him. That being said, Span has had some odd injury issues. Unless the prospect for Hicks is significantly better than what we could get for Span, I’d go for the home run play which is to keep Hicks. So, why didn’t we discuss 2nd/SS/3rd? Not worth discussing. We have low payroll players here with minimal trade potential. We also don’t have any major league ready prospects here, either. Plouffe deserves another shot at 3rd after his torrid stretch in the middle of the season, and the cluster up the middle is passable. It’d be worth considering upgrades at any of these three positions with excess resources, but for better or worse, starting pitching deserves all of the attention. From a minor-league perspective, ideally, Rosario (2B) and Sano (3B) will ultimately end-up here. However, I would say those two are pretty close to untouchable, as they have ridiculous ceilings, and using the moves above, I think we’ve already made the moves needed to rectify our starting pitching. Where does this leave us? According to the plan, we now have an additional $15 - $20M freed up for payroll and two blue chip starting pitching prospects. The line-up is: C: Mauer 1B: Parmelee 2B: (cluster) 3B: Plouffe SS: (cluster) LF: Arcia CF: Revere RF: Hicks/Mastroianni DH: Doumit Bullpen: Perkins Burton Slama Duensing Swarzak Waldrop Alex Burnett/Fien Starters: With Diamond, Gibson, Berrios, two prospects eyed for the future rotation, I would prefer the money is spent on a Greinke, Sanchez, etc., to anchor the rotation. Be bold! We just got an extra $15 - 20M a year. Heck, use Span/Willingham to acquire an anchor. Just don’t mortgage the future. 1. Sanchez? 2. McCarthy? 3. Diamond 4. Deduno 5. DeVries In a year, this becomes: 1. Sanchez 2. Gibson 3. Diamond 4. Prospect #1 5. Prospect #2 ...with Berrios hopefully shredding through the minors. Easy call for me. Sure, the team loses 100 games next year, probably, but it brings excitement back to Target Field because there’s potential. In intent, it’s much like where the Timberwolves were last year and the Vikings are this year--if you have young talent and are having minor to strong successes, the buzz comes back. Simple stuff. If you build a strong young team, draft well and continue having waves of talent (it looks like we have one wave coming up and another in Sano, Rosario, Buxton, Kepler, Goodrum, etc., etc. a few years later), your window never closes. The worst thing we can do is sell young talent to "win now" when it's clear we're not on the cusp.

I think this is a pretty silly article. Just focusing on HRs as a target for FA is just not a good plan. The Giants just dominated the World Series and had the least HRs of any team in the regular season. More importantly, hitting is not our issue. As far as team .OPS (not a perfect statistic, I know), we were in the middle of the pack. Our issues are all pitching and aging position players. I'm still of the camp that we're not going to fix our pitching issues to the point of being truly competitive again until at least 2014. So, why bring in FAs that would block young talent? Chavez platooning with Plouffe? Are you kidding me? Why would we not just give Plouffe an entire season to be comfortable and perform after his ridiculous stretch before injury? And, anything that's going to prevent Hicks, Arcia, Parmelee and Revere from all getting field time next year is dumb. Too much short-term, 80-win thinking...which has plagued this franchise forever.

I appreciate a lot of the local sentiment that wants to grasp at straws to continue to roll forward with the Mauer/Morneau/Span/Willingham grouping, but the truth of the matter is that magically putting together a rotation that will make us competitive next season is like banking on hitting your number in one spin in roulette. We have a very intriguing wave of young players on its way. A far smarter model to follow would be the Nationals and the Rays who are building around young talent. If we can trade Span, Morneau, Willingham, etc. to fill in the gaps of this young talent, I'm all for it versus trying to roll a Yahtzee next season and running the risk of any of the aforementioned 3's value going in the toilet via injury. Play the odds and play the long-term game. It makes far more sense.