Craig in MN

Why is it a hard decision? Why can't you just dump Ramirez in favor of Borbon, and let Borbon be the bench guy for a while? When Mastroianni is healthy, then you have to make a decision about which of your 3 centerfield options to demote, but for right now it really couldn't be easier. The only problem is if the Twins think he isn't a better option than Ramirez or Thomas or whatever other CF they could use for the next 2 weeks.

Mlbtraderumors says a trade is extremely unlikely and he will be going to waivers. If there was any interest in him at all from the Twins a week ago, you have to think that interest has grown in the past couple days.

Borbon is at least as good, in general, as Ramirez (if not, then Ramirez wouldn't be a minor league free agent while Borbon is someone multiple teams seem to want on their 40 man roster). Borbon provides some depth in the event that Hicks gets demoted, whether that is tomorrow, in ten days, or August. If he keeps struggling, at some point it will happen. But Borbon also provides some depth in case Parmalee proves to be bad, or if Parmalee, Mastroianni, Morneau, Willingham, Mauer, Doumit or Hicks. There's some dead wood on the 40 man roster. If he's free, why not grab him?

Last year, it was May 17th before the Twins won their second series. By that time they were 10 games out of first place. It's mostly dumb luck that they did that in the first week of the season this year, but it's a hell of a nice change from last year.

I missed the end of the game, but my first thought when looking over how the game ended was "the piranhas are back".

You won't have any voice left for screaming at the bullpen after screaming at the starters this year. I can't say that I love this bullpen, but I'm thrilled to not have Burnett in it. The top 5 guys seem like they belong and I imagine the other 2 should have limited roles, be filling low-leverage situations, or be swapped back to Rochester fairly readily.

I'm very hesitant of extending Morneau. There's too many age & injury & decline questions to make it worth signing him to a big contract. There's some hidden things like just how terrible he is against lefties the past couple years (absolutely Butera-ish). How much would most teams want to pay an aging platoon first baseman with a lot of injury concerns? And if he's bad enough that he'll sign for a cheap contract, I think it would be time to move on too, as his reputation would get him playing time when he doesn't deserve it. There's a window where I'd resign him if he signs for between $4 & $8 million per year for a year or two where he'd fit, assuming Parmalee doesn't seem like a sure thing starter. Another plausible situation for him staying a Twin is playing pretty well for half a season and then having a new injury that makes him miss a big chunk of the season. That could scare off enough teams that he might not have any alternatives but to take a make good contract from a team that wants him back.

Matt Capps is a better pitcher than Alex Burnett. Both drive me crazy, but Capps is just better. If they seriously think Burnett is in the running for a spot, then I'd absolutely take him back.

They could always trade some of those guys for some pitching. I only see about 3 no-question #1 starters in the minors...we'll need a couple more. Otherwise, I guess we'll have to be satisfied with All Stars at 8 of 9 positions.

We're only a few days into games, but Rosario is getting more playing time than I would have ever guessed. With the middle infield up for grabs, I would expect the main 4 guys to get most of the playing time to see how they play together and fit together. And there's plenty of AA and AAA filler to give playing time to. I'm sure Gardy likes to see Rosario and the fans do to, but I don't quite get the point of giving time to an A ball player who's got a half a year's experience on defense. No point to this comment, really, I just thinks it's interesting.

If they don't have to give up anything to get him, I'd absolutely take him. If they need to trade something to get him, I don't know if I'd give up much. Probably the same for Elliot Johnson or any other utility infielder on the waiver wire. I'm really surprised that the Twins haven't already brought in a warm body to compete in the infield. They need 4 or 5 guys to play 2b, 3b, ss, and utility roles. They have 1 guy and 4 question marks. Having a 5th question mark only makes sense. With only Carroll having any sort of real MLB experience, I would imagine Gardenhire would give anything for an experienced guy he could feel comfortable with, while letting the unpolished young guys get playing time at AAA. Of course maybe Ryan is sick of Gardenhire being enamored with bad veterans. But there's no reason to think that Dozier, Florimon, Escobar, or even Plouffe are any better. They might piece it together, but if things go bad or there is an injury or two, things could be even worse than last year.

There's an impossibly high level of other factors involved to make that a useful stat, but I wonder what that stat is for Butera. That's kind of the real nut of the issue, if you remove all the other factors.,,,who hurts their team more. Simple math says .6% of the games worse over the course of a 162 game season is 1 win worse than otherwise, for what it's worth.

An interesting angle with Sanchez is that he is a legitimately good hitter even if he can't play defense. The best case scenario is that he's healthy enough to play regularly and he's a big addition for very little salary. Even if his health is bad enough that he can't really play 2nd (or 3rd), having him as an extra bat is still useful. He is a career .342/.383/.489 hitter against lefties. Morneau, Parmalee, & Doumit all have weaknesses against lefties, and Mauer could rest some days too. Having Sanchez available to DH against lefties, pinch hit on other days, and maybe play second for a few innings after doing so isn't a bad fallback plan. They are probably going to carry a second utility guy...it might as well be one that can hit and gives you some upside.

Of all the free agent starters on the market, I think Pelfrey and Correia were the worst two that I expected Twins would be interested in. They go both of them, and not even all that cheaply. I really couldn't be more disappointed. With all the rest of the roster shaking out like it is, I think this increases the odds of Blackburn being in the rotation to start the season, so it's sort of a triple whammy. I hope Ryan has some money left to upgrade the defense behind them or I think this will get ugly. And the offense too, for that matter. Notable stats on Pelfry: Opponents have a .691 OPS against him at Citi Field and about .842 OPS everywhere else. If Target Field plays a lot like Citi Field, he might be a half of a good pitcher...for 2/3 of a year.

I don't have any sort of hate for Punto, but it sort of brings up the question of what other players are out there that the Twins could bring in (cheaply) to add some depth and flexibility. I really think they need some extra depth in one or two spots. If Punto is the best there is, then I'd be totally fine bringing him back. Here are the other options, as I see it: Poor 2b & corner utility guys, could hit lefties: - Ryan Raburn, Jeff Baker, Ty Wigginton, Bill Hall Mediocre infielders, not outfielders: - Placido Polanco, Freddy Sanchez, Ronny Cedeno, Adam Kennedy (I'm left handed!) Just corner guys, probably can't hit anyone: - Casey McGehee, Don Kelly, Mark DeRosa Ultra flexible...has played corners, CF and MI - Chone Figgins I didn't expect much, but there's more to like there than I thought. I could see useful (if limited) roles for half of those guys. The Twins could use a MI, someone to provide depth at 3b, a backup corner OF. If I could only shop from this list, I think I'd try to sign Raburn and Sanchez.. If they aren't interested, I'd go with Baker and Polanco or Cedeno or Punto. At worst, Raburn is an ok platoon outfielder/DH. He fits well with our lefty heavy 1b/LF/DH situation and can play 2b or 3b well enough to let them carry one less IF. At best, he could start often in the OF or 2b. Baker is Raburn-lite. Sanchez likely is broken beyond repair, but if he can come back, he can be an above average 2b. Cedeno, Polanco, and Punto aren't embarassing IFs and allow the Twins to field a team if no AAA player deserves job. I'm really sick of infielders that can't cut it at AAA playing for the Twins.

Nothing good to say, especially for that price. Give me Feldman, Baker, McCarthy, Lannan, Jurrjens, a trade for a surplus Dodger pitcher, or almost any cheap other option that is or has been out there. Terry Ryan couldn't sign anyone and said sometimes you just can't give money away .....he just succeeded.

I've got as much confidence in Nick Blackburn as I do in Mike Pelfrey. Devries, Pavano or Deduno as well. Pelfrey has had one decent year in the last 4, and was pitching in the NL at that, and no one knows how he'll come back from TJ. I can see the Twins signing him cheap to fight for a rotation spot, but I don't see a point giving him even a guaranteed deal.

It's more like a low risk, decent reward situation. He makes a lot more sense today than he did a week ago, and I'd probably make the offer to him. If he hits .250 and gives them some depth in the OF & IF, that's a decent reward. But the worst case scenario is that Gardy falls in love with him, and plays him regularly, and bats him at the top of the order, while he hits .180 for two months until one of the AAA guys are close enough to ready to force the issue. That's a makes the risk higher than most might think.

Rick Ankiel could make sense, if no one else offers him a guaranteed a starting job. He could plausibly win a starting job, platoon with Mastroianni, or be a bench player/pinch hitter.

If it's a minor league deal, then it's fine. I wouldn't mind having him on the team if the need arose. But he's not really a short term solution to anything or a long term solution to anything. Looking at his stats, I'm a little surprised that he's never made even an emergency appearance as a corner outfielder. He doesn't have the bat to play there in reality, but he profiles a bench player and having him as an option as plausible 5th OF would give him some extra marketability for some teams.

Yes, but it could also mean TR might want to sign better starters first and see what money he has left before filling out the bottom of the rotation. It would limit his options.

I'm no Butera fan, but I don't really see the point in dumping him right now. If the 40 man roster was full it would make sense. But he's a super-2 backup catcher who can't even hit .200.....he's due probably a $50k raise through arbitration. They don't need the roster spot and they aren't out any appreciable amount of money. If they decide they need the roster spot, that won't stand in the way of him being waived or probably even another team picking him up. And if he did get released today, they'd probably have to waste time/money calling around for another catcher for spring training/Rochester depth. If he's released before the end of spring training, the Twins only have to pay him 20% of his salary. The cost to keep him around through at least spring training are rounding errors. If they weren't going to waive him last week when the roster was full, they almost certainly aren't going to do it today.

I bet the Twins will end up with one non-tendered pitcher, such as Jurrjens, Lannan, or Hochevar, etc. I wouldn't be all that excited about all of them, but there are some guys that aren't embarrassing to expect to be 5th starters. There are a number of interesting non tender candidates for relievers: Cory Wade, Clay Hensley, Kameron Loe, Jeff Karstens, probably others. Those aren't all world beaters, but they are better than Burnett, and I'd take any one of them. TR says he still wants to improve the bullpen. TR also says he wants to improve the offense, and he just traded Span, so he'll be looking there too. I think they should look hard at Ryan Raburn. I'm not quite sold on Morneau, Parmalee, Doumit and Mauer playing everyday or Mastroiani playing often, and god help them if there is an injury to one of them. Having one more right handed hitter there would do a lot of good, and Raburn seems like a poor mans Cuddyer. He can even give them a backup option at 2nd and 3rd for some extra depth.

Heads will explode! http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2012/11/nationals-acquire-denard-span.html

"Kenny Field" would be a better name for a Twins infield prospect.