James

I think you're pretty much on point with what I am expecting. I don't think I could have said it better myself. I don't think that they'll bring up Buxton just for ticket sales though. I think they know ticket sales are going to be bad unless they win games. I don't think they would mess with Buxton's development for a improved ticket sales for a few games. I think Sano will be drawing a big enough crowd for the Twins not to worry about this anyway.

I can't agree more with this. Game threads are really fun, but sometimes a little random. It's a great way to goof around, talk a little baseball and crack some jokes. It's definitely a great way to keep in touch with the TD community and make a long season more interesting. All these dates make sense to me. I'm pretty sure my productivity was at a low point on those days as I was posting, reading, refreshing TD all day. This was cool to see. It'll be interesting to see if some of the busiest dates are similar in 2015.

Japan might be a good spot for him. I certainly enjoyed myself when I went there. I even got to see a baseball game while I was there. Let me tell you, that was a totally different experience, but a totally awesome one. Crowd participation is at a totally different level over there. Anyway about it, I wish Parmelee good luck in the future, where ever that may be. Except if he ever plays against the Twins of course. Then I hope he strikes out flailing at a slider that is two feet out of the zone.

I'm going to have to go with Hughes. Possibly Perkins as well. If Mauer gets back to his career norms for the first half of the season, he'll have a shot too, but 1B has some pretty strong competition too. I think Dozier will get some votes overall, but I think he'll just miss out.

That is a great video. It looks like he hardly put anything into that swing and that ball went a long way. I think they're both great candidates to break out. I've been excited about Gibson for a long time. I think he showed some very good things last year, and like others have said, it's all about getting more consistent. Hopefully, Neil Allen can help him out with that. I think Arcia is more likely to break out. Just my opinion. I don't have the splits between first half and second half last year, but it did seem like Bruno was finally getting through to him. His plate appearances looked a lot better. Side question, I know I see people post breakdowns of player AB's posted by other users. What is a good resource to find out this kind of information? I'd really like to get some numbers behind my observations.

I don't think anyone should be too concerned over this move. Stauffer seems to have some decent numbers. I haven't seen him pitch, so I can't tell anyone how good or bad he is. If the young guys are really ready to the big league club, they'll show it in spring training or shortly after. I guarantee that someone in the bullpen will be struggling at that time and there will be a spot open. Personally, I don't think Stauffer will make it past the first half of the season. I see one of two things happening: 1. Stauffer has a really good first half and proves he's a back end reliever. He is traded to a contending team and replaced with a AAA guy that is dominant. 2. Stauffer has an ok or bad season, and he is released or outrighted and claimed and replaced with a AAA guy that is dominant. Basically, $2.2M isn't a whole lot of money for this team. So, they're not going to be too upset if he doesn't work out and they have to eat half of that. It's also not a lot of money for any other team either, so he would end up being a fairly attractive trade candidate if he's pitching really well. I just don't see a lot of downside to this signing. Sure, not the highest upside either, but you never know. No one thought much of Burton or Fien when they were first signed to minor league deals and Fien worked out and Burton actually had a good first season with the Twins. It's just hard for me to get to hung up on a one year deal, especially when some of the names people are throwing out there as alternatives have hardly pitched above AA, and the others have little to no experience in the big leagues.

Got to like the numbers: 3.63 ERA with 8.8 K/9, 2.9 BB/9 and a 46.3 percent ground-ball rate the past two years in the Padres' bullpen.

Word. http://www.stlcardinalbaseball.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Mark-DeRosa.jpg

I liked them all really. Trevor May with his cat is pretty good. I liked Duensing's sweater as well. I think I like Fien's greeting the best though.

No, but I get the feeling Berios wants to play a lot more than Hicks does. Hopefully Hicks will see how hard some guys are willing to work to get to that level. I'm glad the Twins told Berios to sit this one out, but man... that guy is a gamer.

There are a lot good candidates this year. I'd honestly have to look at the stats a lot more to figure out which 10 I'd vote for this year. I think R. Johnson, P. Martinez, Biggio, Piazza, Bagwell... I'd have to do some serious thinking about anyone else. I can't, and wouldn't in good conscience vote for Clemens or Bonds. I know that there were others that also got caught up in the PED issue, but these were some of the most obvious and least repentant. I just couldn't bring myself to do it.

Put me down in the "no" category as well. I don't really see what the point would be. I don't think you can count on him to stay healthy at all. Plus, I don't want a guy that is going to be charging the mound and breaking collar bones.

Thanks gang. You all do an excellent job keeping this a place where excellent (and fun) conversations can take place. Thanks again, and keep up the good work!

I would imagine that they are probably working on a Dozier extension right now actually. It would reward him by giving him more than league minimum this year and buy out his arb years. I could also see both Dozier and the Twins waiting until next year to work out an extension when he finally hits arbitration. Plouffe is harder to figure out. It certainly seems like he might be without a position here shortly. Tough to say what exactly will happen with him. As far as Hughes goes, I like this deal a lot. I'm really excited to watch him be in the rotation for the next few years. I know that we can't expect the same results as last year, but I think he's going to be a solid pitcher for the next few years. Definitely think he'll be worth the amount of money he's going to be paid over that time.

I think that he'll probably have a rotation spot before Pelfrey. I honestly think they're going to tell Pelfrey to get ready to be in the bullpen, because that's where he's going to be. I personally think May should get the 5th spot, but I wouldn't be surprised if they give it to Milone to start the season if he has a good spring. Meyer will be up if he cuts down the walks or May and Milone lose their spots. I think he's the first one called up after those two.

The real question your asking is, would we rather make jokes about losing helmets or head first slides into first base?

My reaction summed up in one word: "Good." (Proving that Mr. Berios's English probably already far superior to mine).

Also, do you think in Cuba, they just call that a sandwich, or is it still a Cuban sandwich?

Agreed. It probably came with an agreement for the Astros not to draft him again. The settlement would also cause problems for him with the NCAA if he had gone to the college he committed to, but I don't think it'll be an issue as we went to junior college instead.

We kind of tried that in the 50's. Turns out, it didn't work so great. (I'm not blaming the communist revolution in Cuba on the US, I swear!) From what I've heard, Cuba has done pretty well in the tourism department lately as they have been marketing themselves as a place for Europeans to vacation where there won't be any Americans. I just find that amusing. Interesting development. I honestly don't think that we'd see any of this for a while. I would guess that we'll see an international draft before relations open up, and Cuba will be involved with that. I don't know what will happen to the baseball academies once an international draft is in place.

Hmmm... Are you mistaken here or playing some sort of clever joke? Also, the joke doesn't totally work because Brock mentioned that players sometimes take less money to go to a former team. Sorry. I'm betting some other team could have gotten Lester, but they probably would have had to give an egregious amount of money to do it.

Have you heard anything about Lewis Thorpe and his arm? I know he had a strained ligament at the end of the season. What kind of Twins Daily events can we expect this year? I really enjoyed the Meltdown and the pre-Homerun Derby event. Do you think Adam Brett Walker starts at AA this year, and how do you think he might perform there? If he performs at AA (reduces strike outs and walks a bit more), do you see him manning RF sometime in 2016 or 2017? (I know, very long view predictions) edit: By make or break, I mean that he could really boost his prospect status, not that he couldn't end up repeating AA next year and still make it to the majors at some point.

This is a pretty interesting article. The data shows players getting called up from 2005 - 2009, so it is already 5 years old. There is something to be said about the prospects of that era as well. For comparison, from 2002 to 2009, the Twins never drafted earlier than 20th overall. In comparison, Tampa, which was much more aggressive in promoting, drafted in the top 5 in all but two of those years (and one year was 2005 where they drafted 8th). That also includes 3 #1 overall picks. So, someone could make the claim that the better talent they were receiving in the draft allowed them to promote players more aggressively. I'd really like to see this data from 2010 - 2014. I would expect that the Twins have moved further down the list and will be for a few more years.

Actually, in this case, he did have an attachment to Epstein and Hoyer. Lester apparently turned down a contract from San Francisco that was worth more money to go back to those guys. He felt they were responsible for his two world series rings. http://sports.yahoo.com/news/why-a-camo-hat-was-key-to-the-cubs-landing-jon-lester-151316403.html I remember reading about the offer from SF. It was over $160M, but not much. It probably would have taken the same years at $170 or so to get him to the Twins, or an extra year at the higher level.

And since no one has said it yet... I think we all know who the Twins should go after next. Mark DeRosa http://www.stlcardinalbaseball.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Mark-DeRosa.jpg