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Since these contracts appear to be pricing us out (and not that we can't afford it, more that the dollars exceeds their value too significantly), I'm hoping for two of these four options: 1. Sign Dallas Keuchel 2. Sign Hyun-Jin Ryu 3. Trade Trevor Larnach and Zach Littell for Robbie Ray 4. Trade Jordan Balazovic and Nick Gordon for Jon Gray

It was Houston's #3, #4, #5, and #22 prospects, which are fairly close to what was listed above. If you want to substitute Duran for Graterol, then it may be closer. But that is still giving up a ton for a 35 year old

To get Greinke (assuming he would have waived his no-trade clause which he didn't), we would have had to give up the equivalent of Graterol, Balazovic, Larnach, and Jose Miranda. Does giving up that much mean that we'd have a good (more than 50% chance) of winning the World Series?

I just played around with BTV.com, and I think we should do a few of these deals that were approved according to that website. It might help out our team this year: Royce Lewis and Adam Bechtold for Mike Trout Kiriloff for Freddie Freeman, Kevin Gausman, and Luke Jackson Graterol and Wade for Gerrit Cole, Michael Brantley, and Roberto Osuna. Do you guys think those deals would help our chances this year? Who says no to these deals???

I think the overall message behind this is that they want him to have a consistent position, not bouncing around between RF and 3B. Maybe they think that positional changes is what caused Danny Santana to struggle and want to simplify things for Sano. All I know is, Miguel Cabrera didn't play a game at 3B for the Marlins in 2004. Yet he was still able to become an MVP at 3B or 1B. Positions are fluid, it does not matter at all where Sano plays defense this year. The most important and difficult thing is to make sure his bat is his focus. That may be accomplished by keeping in him in RF to a) diminish his thinking about most things not related to hitting and keeping his weight in check/getting him used to a 162 game grind of playing defense everyday

For the record, I'm not saying Polanco is better than Dozier right now. What I'm saying is if we have a guy that is very close to being major league ready, and has great potential, why not sell high on Dozier? Do you really think he'll ever have a .841 OPS again? I don't know how you say trading Dozier for a position of need is short sighted... If anything it is too long sighted!

I think the most overlooked player on Twins Daily has to be Jorge Polanco. With how much scrutiny Buxton, Stewart, Gordon, Jay and all of the relievers get, and for how much we talk about Plouffe blocking Sano, is there any way that Dozier could potentially be blocking Polanco? Polanco's bat is major league ready and his glove, while still needing a lot of work, profiles best at 2B. Dozier had a monster first half last year but struggled brutally in the 2nd half. The real Brian Dozier is likely somewhere in the middle - an average 2B who hits a lot of home runs with a low OBP. I would love to trade him at his peak value to upgrade pitching while also pushing a promising young player into substantial playing time. Obviously this would signal another "we aren't ready to compete" year, but frankly, I don't think we are ready to compete with the Royals in the AL Central. Why not position ourselves in better position for the prime years of Sano, Buxton and Berrios? Before the Mets traded for Neil Walker, I would have loved to see a trade of Steven Matz and a high potential A-baller for Dozier and Phil Hughes.... Or Dozier, Tommy Milone, Kohl Stewart, Chargois/Burdi/Reed, and filler for Harvey, Syndergaard or DeGrom...

What if we all bought one of these new red jerseys? Would we have enough money to sign Bastardo then?

In other mediocre bullpen news, here's this tidbit from MLBtraderumors: "The Twins may be interested in Mets reliever Carlos Torres, who currently sits in DFA limbo, according to Mike Puma of the New York Post (via Twitter). He’s only owed $1.05MM through arbitration this year and his peripherals suggest that last year’s 4.68 ERA may have been a bit unlucky, so it’s not difficult to see the appeal for a Minnesota club that could stand to deepen its pen."

I think you hold onto Plouffe until two of Buxton, Kepler, Arcia, and Walker prove they are ready for an everyday MLB job. IMO, They could all use a little more seasoning, or in Arcia's case selective insertion into the lineup, so I wouldn't feel great about needing Sano to play 3B everyday

I agree with Beckmt 100%. I think this board can confuse "potential" and "unknown." Just because we know what Fien and Nolasco can give us, does not give them less potential than Tonkin. We have not seen enough of Tonkin at the MLB level to know for sure what he can give us but I think his best case scenario is to be as good as Fien is now.

Is there any strategy at all in sports then? Pitchers copy the status quo by throwing fastballs when behind in the count, managers pinch hit for weak hitting players, and pinch run when they need a stolen base. The whole sport is basically a routine because everyone attempts to do the same thing in every situation

That's really intriguing. I'm sure many football fans thought it was crazy for players to specialize on offense or defense at one point, too. I enjoy being nostalgic, however, and while that may make the game less entertaining for most people, I prefer the game to continue to resemble the game that I played when I was younger. If the game changes, I'm not going to stop watching, but just my preference!

If Lucroy sticks behind the plate and shows that he is past his concussion problems, the price goes up even more... At this price, I don't think it'll be worth it for him. We should be looking for younger, high upside catchers rather than older, established catchers that require a lot more in return

For what it's worth, David Schoenfield just posted an article on ESPN mentioning possibilities for a Lucroy trade and the Twins were included: "No, the Brewers aren't getting Byron Buxton or Jose Berrios, but the Twins have a lot of interesting prospects like Nick Gordon, Max Kepler, Jorge Polanco and Kohl Stewart. They could throw back Murphy or Suzuki (paying $2 million of Suzuki's $6 million salary to even out payroll) as well." No chance we are able to dump Nolasco, or add Will Smith, without giving up atleast 2 of those prospects as well as other minor prospects. Would anyone do a trade of Nick Gordon, Kohl Stewart, Trey Cabbage and filler Lucroy and Will Smith trade? That's probably a more realistic prospect expectation for them