SF Twins Fan

Not a chance would I spend that kind of money on Cueto. He's been solid in the NL but that's the NL. He's not nearly as good as: Kershaw, Arrieta, DeGrom, Cole, Bumgarner, Harvey, Melancon, Rosenthal, Chapman. Pitchers who move to the AL typically struggle, because they don't get to face a pitcher a couple of times a game. I believe the Twins have enough options for the starting rotation already in Hughes, Santana, May, Milone, Duffey, Gibson with Berrios right around the corner. No need to go spend a ton of money on a starting pitcher. The Twins need to figure out the bullpen and add a solid catcher who can replace Suzuki a couple of times a week.

I have absolutely no faith in Vargas or Arcia. I don't see how the front office and honestly justify trading Plouffe away this winter and trying to rely on Sano at 3B and Arcia or Vargas being viable options at DH. They should be bench bats and nothing else. If either of them were average or great this season I'd be fine with it but neither of them were. Arica was especially bad. I'd much rather have Plouffe, Sano and Mauer rotate between 1B, 3B and DH than have either Arcia or Vargas to start the season as the every day 3B.

I guess I don't understand what signing Heyward would do for the Twins. He's a career .268 hitter who has only averaged 59 RBIs a season. Seems like a lot of money to be tied to very pedestrian offensive numbers. The Twins basically have 4 center fielders who all play great defense. With the Twins have Rosario, Buxton, Hicks and Kepler all pushing for playing time next season who do they get rid of?

I agree for the most part with the 4 years of expectations. I don't expect TR to stay for the 4 years as it sounds like he's getting ready to hand the team off. He'll be here next season but I'd expect him to retire or do more scouting starting in 2017.

What makes me the most nervous about getting rid of Plouffe and Hunter is losing the HR's (44) and RBI's (167). Most likely Sano's numbers will increase with a full season, but I doubt he's going to hit 40 HR's and 138 RBI's, which is what he'd need to hit to cover his stats from this season plus Plouffe's. Then you also have to replace Hunter's numbers. Counting on Arcia really scares me. Yes he has HR's and a solid OPS, but he played terrible this season and can't be trusted in the field. It seems like Hicks has figured it out, but I'm not fully convinced yet. Rosario was great this season, but is he another Santana or Vargas? Buxton will likely start the season in AAA unless he comes to spring training and is hitting the cover off the ball. So really the Twins have Rosario and Hicks for the outfield to start next season. Who will play RF and please don't say Arcia? He shouldn't even be given a glove next season.

Yea those jerks... Trying to have fun and stuff during the game.... Can't have any of that...

I agree, but I just hope if Nolasco is in the starting rotation next season it's because he earns it next spring and not because of the big contract (which so far has been a waste). I wouldn't mind seeing him start next season in the bullpen. He's been injured so much the last 2 seasons it would be tough to imagine him making it through a full season and 185+ IP as a starter.

How is that poor roster management? How were the Twins supposed to know Santana was going to be suspended for the first half of the year and not eligible for the playoffs. And having a rookie help with the push for the playoffs is great not bad management. He will be so much better off in the future having gone through a playoff race and potentially the playoffs. Hughes was great last season and has been injured all this season. The starting rotation of Santana, Hughes, Gibson, Milone and May to start the season should have been an asset. The front office had no way to know Santana wouldn't be able to pitch and Hughes ( after having a great season last year ) would be injured off and on all season.

I'm all for skipping players who are ineffective, but I'd be nervous about sending him out on 3 days rest two times in a row. He's pitching outstanding right now and that type of change could make his last 2 starts go from being very good to mediocre. It's a shame Milone has fallen apart the last few starts. The Twins only have 3 effective pitchers right now. It would have been nice to finish off the year strong with Santana, Gibson, Milone and Duffey.

Never going to happen. May might be good for 3 innings tops. He hasn't thrown more than 30 pitches since Aug. 14 (which was the spot start he made) Next season I'm assuming Berrios will be in AAA until the end of April (Same thing Cubs did with Bryant this season and it makes sense to do. Twins will hopefully start the season with Santana, Hughes, Gibson, May and Duffey as their starting 5. (No particular order) Pelfrey is gone as he's a FA and the rotation is full and he doesn't want to go to the bullpen yet. It will be tough to find a spot for Nolasco and Milone. Nolasco could potentially go to the bullpen and maybe that would be best for him since he hasn't pitched much the last two years. Milone doesn't project as a good bullpen arm with his low velocity. Not sure what to do with him.

Here's a good article I think you and everyone else should read... http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/8391985/minnesota-twins-joe-mauer-ignores-critics-extends-career-espn-magazine

Well I'm assuming Carew doesn't follow Mauer around in the offseason.

This post was such a waste of time. I like how you take little parts of all of these posts and only the parts that seem to make it look like Mauer doesn't work out in the off season. If Mauer started to stretch in an off season to increase his flexibility is that a bad thing???? It doesn't say anywhere in the article that was all he was doing. It just said he incorporated more stretching to help him out. I like how you completely skip this line from the first article: "To his credit, Joe works," Brunansky said. "He'd even say, 'Come on, let's go out early.' We'll say, 'We're going to go play.' No one's around. It's nice. It's cool." To me that shows he's willing to put in extra work for his transition to 1st base. Here's another quote from Rod Carew: "His footwork over there is good," Carew said. "The more he plays, the more balls will get hit at him, and his reaction will be OK. He's going to make some plays. The diving plays, and the stuff like that, that's all reaction. As long as he makes the routine plays, he'll be fine. He's working at it. Since we've been down here, he has put a lot of work into it." If you're going to pull little "snippets of information" as you say then you should pull some from both sides of the spectrum. Otherwise you're just cherry picking quotes to make your point and it's not all full facts. You're not giving the full truth to what the articles were saying.

That's because Santana has only made 14 starts this season because of his suspension, and there is no way Ryan or anyone else would have known he was going to be suspended. I don't like the Nolasco signing anymore than anyone else (mainly because he just doesn't seem to want to be in MN) but at the time of the signing he had a solid track record. Hindsight is always 20/20. If you really think the Twins could have signed a true "ace" 2 years ago that's your opinion but there is no way I'd have ever put money on it and by reading this thread neither does most of the people.

I don't even think if the Twins signed an ace a few years ago instead of Nolasco or Hughes would have really done the team that much good. It's not like the Twins were an ace away from contending for the WS or even making the playoffs. They were a TERRIBLE team the last 4 years all the way around from starting pitching to bullpen to fielding to hitting. Adding an ace wasn't going to make them a good team. All it would have done was prolonged the mediocre play and draft picks. With the Twins going full rebuild 3 years ago it allowed them to get some big time prospects that are now making it to the majors. This off season or the next is the time to make the move for a true ace not two years ago when the whole team was awful. The team is young and is moving in the right direction now.

After last nights loss this will be a pivotal series for the Twins. If they can take at least 3 out of 4 and Houston continues to slide the Twins might be able to pull even. Houston has another game against Texas tonight and then plays Oakland this weekend.

Seems like a lot of people don't feel the Twins could have signed a true "ace" a few years ago. Santana definitely has had some bad starts but after these last 4 starts has now had more good starts than bad. Yes his ERA is high but the 8 good starts are more in line with his career than the 5 clunkers he's thrown this season. Here are Santana's starts including last night. IP H R ER HR BB SO TP Jul 5 @ KC 8.0 3 2 2 1 3 8 93 Jul 10 vs DET 4.0 8 6 6 3 3 5 81 Jul 17 @ OAK 7.2 5 0 0 0 1 1 103 Jul 23 @ LAA 8.0 4 0 0 0 0 7 91 Jul 29 vs PIT 5.2 8 8 6 2 4 3 107 Aug 3 @ TOR 6.0 6 3 3 2 3 2 108 Aug 8 @ CLE 2.1 10 8 8 0 2 1 71 Aug 13 vs TEX 6.0 8 5 5 1 2 1 92 Aug 19 @ NYY 7.2 7 4 4 2 2 6 108 Aug 25 @ TB 2.2 8 5 5 0 2 1 60 Aug 30 vs HOU 7.0 6 0 0 0 0 10 109 Sep 5 @ HOU 8.0 6 1 1 0 2 11 119 Sep 11 @ CHW 7.0 6 2 2 1 2 6 107 Sep 16 vs DET 7.0 4 2 2 0 4 5 109 Santana has had 8 very good starts (Red), 1 average start (Blue) and 5 very bad starts (Black). I'm all for getting an "ace" and would love the Twins to get one but it wasn't reasonable at the time. You can say money talks but it doesn't because most players want to win and go to a team they see winning during their contract years. They are going to get multiple big money offers from good teams. The Twins were terrible the last 4 years and weren't even supposed to be good this year. I could see the Twins waiting to sign an "ace" until after the 2016 season once our prospects have experience and they can free up rotation spots. It's not like Sano, Buxton, Rosario, Escobar, Hicks, Kepler, Gibson, Berrios, May and Duffey are going anywhere. Most of those players are 25 and younger and under team control for a long time. This team is now being built the correct way from the ground up and with mostly their draft picks. That's how you build an annual playoff team and hopefully an annual WS contender.

So Santana is at best a number 3??? His last 4 starts including tonight he has gone 29 innings and only giving up 4 runs. That looks pretty good to me. He's definitely not an ace but he's better than a number 3. Two years ago who Ryan signed Hughes and Nolasco the Twins were in the middle of their 2nd and 3rd straight 90+ losing seasons. What "ace" in their right mind would want to come to the Twins and play when they have multiple options and can pick a good team???

I feel like people need to stop over analyzing this kid. He's still only 21. A lot of all star players don't make it to the bigs until age 23 - 25. He's always struggled when he moves up to a new level and like you said he missed almost all of last year. If by the middle of next season he's still struggling then I'd start to worry more, but until then he's still a young kid with elite potential who just needs experience.

I'm definitely excited for some of the young pitchers in the Twins system. Felix Jorge, Mat Batts and Stephen Gonsalves all could start next season in the A+ league and move up quickly to AA or AAA by seasons end. Berrios is knocking on the door to be a starter for the Twins. He probably won't start next season with the Twins for financial reasons but will / should be up by May. (Similar to Kris Bryant this season) A starting rotation next season of Santana, Hughes, Gibson, Berrios and May looks to be solid. With Milone and Duffey as options as well. It makes you wonder if Terry Ryan will try and trade Hughes and or Nolasco this offseason. (Crossing my fingers)

The only way I'd trade for Shields is if the Twins can include Nolasco and Hughes to get out from under both contracts. I'm assuming the Padres wouldn't accept this deal even if the Twins added a few good prospects with Polanco, Arcia and Stewart. If they did it would then free up a rotation spot for the Twins. Trading for another aging, expensive pitcher with a long contract to get rid of Nolasco doesn't make sense unless they're able to get rid of two contracts. The Twins have May, Milone, Berrios, Gibson, Duffey, Santana, Hughes and Nolasco signed for next season so they need to move at least two of those players to take on another pitcher.

I'd rather keep playing Escobar for the next couple of seasons at SS and see what they have in Gordon. He's still relatively young at around 26, under team control, cheap, great teammate (which you can't say for Reyes after this article just came out of him whining), can play multiple positions if needed, can hit if given enough at bats and plays average defense. I'd take that over an aging, poor defensive and expensive Reyes any day of the week. Gordon has been playing great the last couple of months. I believe this is his first full season in the minors and will likely start next season in high A ball and depending on how he plays could potentially move up to at least AA by seasons end. Once a player gets to AA they could be in the majors shortly after that if they prove themselves.

He's been able to strike out people at least left handed batters. That's a good thing. I like O'Rourke as well, but he is young and inexperienced.

Well you brought up benching Hunter, so I responded to that part of your comment. Taking playing time from one of them and giving it to another is all related since they all play the same position. If you bring up Buxton you want him playing everyday, so you either have to bench Hunter ( which 2 weeks ago when Buxton came off the DL I don't think they would have done since we were still in the playoff hunt) or bench him (Hunter) a couple of days and then take time away from either Rosario or Hicks. Since both of those players are still young and need as much playing time to help their development, that to me doens't make sense to do. So to help all of their development's it made sense to send Buxton to AAA and continue to have Hicks and Rosario playing everyday. Now that Hicks is injured and Buxton is playing well it's logical to call him up. Hopefully he plays well and once Hicks comes back those two along with Rosario get the playing time, which since they aren't going to make the playoffs now makes sense.

Let's be realistic here. If they bring Buxton up two weeks ago (when they were still in the playoff hunt) they weren't going to sit Torii on the bench for more than half the week, so then you're rotating players around to try and get them playing time. Robinson is only playing right now when Hunter has an off day or to give Rosario or Hicks a day off. It's not like he's plays 3 to 4 days a week and taking time from Rosario and Hicks.