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Fair enough, my numbers were guesses for arbitration... League minimum is more than 300k? On baseball ref it listed 300k. We are going to have to pay to get talent here, and we don't want aging players for 5 year contracts. Granderson fits perfect IMO. He isn't old, would be open to short term deal, which would build him up for a final good deal to end his career. Plus we have the money, Ellsbury will want long term deal, Choo can't really play CF at all IMO. Dave, my old friend, glad we could meet again. I agree CF is strong, if season started today Presley would be there. That isn't strong though. Granderson is going to have a huge bounce back year IMO, and can play CF til Hicks is ready, who will then give way to Buxton. Once either of those happens, Granderson would be above average in a corner outfield spot, or we'd have two deadlines to trade him off for a good prospect. I think Granderson is our best bet to improving our offense short term until the young fellas are ready. Gut tells me Hughes will take one year deal to build up his stock to get a long term deal. I'd have no problem going 2 for 24 if you wish, Dave. Target Field gives him a good park to build up his stock. I'd really love to see Ubaldo and Granderson happen. 2015 opening day would look nice. LF Granderson CF Buxton RF Hicks DH Arcia

Then two years later, Granderson's 22.5 million would be off the books as well, if we don't flip him for a good prospect at a trade deadline.

Don't freak out about the payroll being too high either. Correia, Hughes, Willingham, Doumit will all come off the books after the season. (27.5 million)

Here's how he'll do it. (or what i'm sending via email for him to do) Sign Ubaldo Jimenez (5 years 83 million) Sign Curtis Granderson (2 years 45 million) Sign Phil Hughes (1 year 12 million) Sign Stephen Drew (3 years 33 million) Let Brian Duensing walk. Let Anthony Swarzak walk. Rotation: (35 million) Ubaldo Jimenez (16.6 million) Phil Hughes (12 million) Kevin Corriea (5 million) Scott Diamond (550k) Kyle Gibson (300k?) Bullpen: (10 million) Glen Perkins (3.75 million) Casey Fien (550k) Jared Burton (2.75 million) Caleb Thielbar (300k) Ryan Pressley (300k) Michael Tonkin (300k) Vance Worley (600k) Position Players: (73 million) Brian Dozier (750k) Joe Mauer (23 million) Curtis Granderson (22.5 million) Josh Willingham (7 million) Trevor Plouffe (600k) Chris Parmelee (600k) Josmil Pinto (300k) Alex Pressley (300k) Pedro Florimon (650k) Ryan Doumit (3.5 million) Oswaldo Arcia (300k) Chris Colabello (300k) Stephen Drew (11 million) Payroll would be a little under 120 million. VS RHP: SS Stephen Drew 2B Brian Dozier C Joe Mauer CF Curtis Granderson DH Ryan Doumit LF Josh Willingham RF Oswaldo Arcia 3B Trevor Plouffe 1B Chris Parmelee bench: C Pinto IF Florimon OF Presley UT Colabello VS LHP: 2B: Brian Dozier SS: Stephen Drew 1B: Joe Mauer CF: Curtis Granderson DH: Josh Willingham C: Josmil Pinto 3B: Trevor Plouffe LF: Oswaldo Arcia RF: Chris Colabello bench: Doumit Florimon Presley Parmelee Main Points of Discussion: A) I realize outfield defense will be below average from the get go. -Hopefully Hicks is ready to take over CF by May, moving Granderson to a corner OF spot and either demoting Presley, or trading Willingham for a prospect if Willy is hitting the ball come deadline time. Mauer Catching/playing time for Pinto. -Mauer will catch around 85 games this year, hopefully. That leaves about 80 games for Pinto to catch, plus there is the possibility of DH/1B at-bats when he isn't catching. I think there is ample amount of PA for the kid. We know that Mauer can't catch 162, I DO NOT want to see Doumit catch 80 games or watch Hermann bat in 80 games. This hurts us in many aspects of the game. C) Hopefully in July, Hicks is fine & Sano and Buxton are both ready to break through. This would allow us the opportunity to trade some players and make room. Possibly trading Granderson to a contender, if he rebuilds his value the way I think he will. Otherwise and outfield of Buxton, Hicks, Granderson sounds okay with me for a couple years. Arcia could DH/spot outfielder Any questions? This team would win 80 games with the potential to be in the 90's.

I would venture to guess that status quo (assuming his head is FINE) means he will play about 50 games at 1B 75 games at C 25 games at DH This would mean they A) need to make sure Pinto is ready to catch 75 Games and platoon 1B with Parmelee or Sign an actual backup Catcher, Doumit can't catch. If we keep him he is strictly a DH/3rd catcher. That is all he should ever be used as, but then again what do I know about baseball.. Gardy just keep doin' what works.

Maybe I'm the lost one, but are we talking about Max Kepler? He is considered a 'toolsy' outfielder, I believe. Generally those guys stick as outfielders. I do believe if I remember seeing reports correctly, he would grade as a below average CF, but an above average corner outfielder in the bigs. Maybe you meant Hicks/Vargas at 1B/DH though.

Not to be negative Nancy at all, but he was a little wild (effectively wild when you throw that hard sometimes) and it would be nice to see his change-up slow down a few more ticks. Other than that, can't wait for him to get to the show. I realize not everyone can be Johan when it comes to vast difference between fastball and change-up, but it'd be nice if the gap was a bit bigger.

The thing with the Twins is that they act like one bad contract is going to potentially bankrupt the team. If you never take any risks, you will never reap any rewards. TR needs to understand to get better, you have to take risks sometimes! It gets ridiculous year after year when hearing the same hoopla from the owner and management. Either open up your wallet or prepare to go back to the mid 90's.

Call me crazy, but wouldn't it be wise(if we are able to actually increase our payroll) to spend some money this off-season in forms of 3 and 4 year contracts for FA? I know that typically we do not give out contracts longer than 2 years, but now is the time to do it if there ever was. We don't have really anyone we want to extend and we are 3-4-5-6 years away from extending some of our big name players,(if they end up being as good as advertised) Buxton, Sano, Meyer. At least if we were able to add a few 10 million dollar players for 3-4 year deals, we would hopefully have a little bit better chance of competing over the next few years until we should be loaded with our prospects. By the time the 3-4 year contract runs out, we are probably looking at adding certain pieces and extending our studs... Seems very logical to me.

So we traded Buxton, Meyer, Sano for Fernandez and Stanton?

Apparently this guy brings it in the upper 90's down in Cedar Rapids. I'm curious when he could be looking at a promotion? Seth?

The thing is this: It is fine for Gardy to let Correia go out for the start of the 8th, he was on a roll! The problem is this: Gardy needs to have a guy ready so that as soon as their is trouble you go straight to the pen(which should've been after the first double.) You have to understand the positive and negative. P) Correia was dealing through their lineup and N) He was going through the lineup for a 3rd time. He had thrown 93 pitches. You are trying to maximize his worth in the game, but you find out quickly that he is done(ala the leadoff double.) This should've been fairly obvious to Gardy that it's time to make the switch. Who cares if it makes you look like an idiot for letting the guy go out and pitch to one more batter, the point is that hopefully the next guy you bring in gets the next three outs and you go into the bottom of 8 with a tied score instead of down 2.

Let's just plan on this in 2015. CF Buxton LF Hicksinator C Mauer 3B Sano RF Arcia 1B Parmelee DH Pinto SS Random FA 2B Rosario

Why an extension? He is signed for next year already. I think at that point he will be 36? Then you can go year to year with him if you would like to keep him around, but we will have multiple OF'ers knocking on the door by then.

Glad he finally got going. Gives us a great bench-bat option, decent enough backup catcher and an occaisional DH.

Listen, we are a .500 team right now and I'm not sure we can get much better than that. THIS IS THE YEAR YOU CAN PLAY GUYS WHO YOU NEED TO FIND OUT IF THEY CAN PLAY OR NOT. We are playing .500 ball with the likes of Florimon, Escobar, Dozier, Hicks, Parmelee, Plouffe, Arcia all being question marks. That is fairly impressive to say the least and it says a lot about the future of this team. Also, quite a few arms in the bullpen are question marks. We are finding out that a lot of these guys might not be the WORST options around the league. Keep splitting time with Escobar and Florimon. Keep giving Hicks CF duties at least 5 times a week, when Mastro comes back for Ramirez he gets a couple a week. Keep giving Arcia at-bats everyday. Keep giving Parmelee at-bats 5 days a week. At some point Morneau or Willingham will be dealt this year, which will make those tasks much easier. I realize it's early in the year, but I think it's an easy decision on Morneau right now at the end of the season. This team will be better in the long run for giving these young guys the at-bats. They will A) have more experience and know what they have in each player.

No.

Don't forget outfielder as well!!!!

I'm hopeful that something crazy happens and we get Gray. Also, I forgot Diamond so therefore he is not in the Twins future plans, obviously. lol

Just for funzies, let's make some guesses and pull it up in a couple years. 1. Alex Meyer 2. Kyle Gibson 3. Liam Hendriks 4. Vance 'Romance' Worley 5. Jon Gray Hopefully I get 2 of 5.

Send down Ramirez, instead of Hicks or Arcia, PLEASE.

Straight switch: Hernandez for Gibson when it is time. Also, when are the Twins going to let Hendriks sink or swim? It's either that or find out if his stuff plays up in the bullpen...

He is 100% healthy is what he meant, I believe.

I think it's probably just time to add Buxton to 40 man and start him in CF and cut Hicksy.

Lol, the best part about this is that Wood is NOT an asset to this team. The Twins will somehow make it seem like we MUST have him on the MLB roster. Let me guess, he works in the low 90's with some sink on his fastball? I'm thinking we leave the bullpen alone, demote Ramirez and sign Thome. We just wait with the bullpen until we have an injury or Perez/Harden are ready, then you get rid of Pressley/Roenicke. Makes us a little more competitive. Hopefully Gibby comes around by June as well and can snag the last spot in the rotation.