Paul Pleiss

http://assets.podomatic.net/ts/19/ad/da/paulpleiss/1400x1400_9054049.jpg This week on the podcast we have a full slate of beers and a full tray of Twins news. Christmas comes early this season for Twins fans as Ricky Nolasco and Phil Hughes are Minnesota Twins; what does it all mean? Seth Stohs joins us to break down Rule-5 Draft possibilities and to talk minor league ball. The Hot Stove is on fire this seasons, listen in for analysis of Twins moves, roster transactions and more. It's another long episode this week, but with so much news, and so many beers, it was impossible to keep it any shorter. Thanks for the download. Source

SIGN MORE PITCHERS! You can never have too many pitchers. The Dodgers, last season, had something like 9 starting pitchers and at one point last season had to resort to ADDING MORE ARMS, including the Twins new addition, Ricky Nolasco. More is better. I'd love to see the Twins go out and get one more guy before the winter is through, especailly if that guy is a front end of the rotation guy, a real 1/2, but another 3/4/ guy would also improve this collection of Talent.

"We've got to risk a full power start!" - Captain Kirk then slaps Spock silly. I imagine that this is essentially what Jim Pohlad said and then did to Terry Ryan, or something like that. Nolasco is a good start towards bringing this team around to contention.

OF COURSE Ricky Nolasco would get signed the day AFTER this podcast was released. Look for the T2C boys to cover the signing in next week's episode which will also feature not 1 but TWO guest appearances... Well, not appearances, because it's a podcast, but guests.

Will someone take Alex Wimmers? I like Alex Wimmers. I can't explan it. I just do. I'd also rather see Eric Fryer than Colabello dropped from the 40 to make room for another FA signing or rule 5 draft pick-up.

Cano doesn't make sense for the Twins. Brian Dozier, if his 2nd half numbers can be believed, is the poor man's Cano. Cano will not give the Twins 20+million dollars more value than Dozier. It seems like a no brainer to stay away from that hot mess. I do, however, like to imagine Terry Ryan and Jay-Z wheeling and dealing. Jay-Z is a professional hustler. Terry Ryan is... well, we know what Terry Ryan is.

I don't trust Eduardo to make the jump to being a successful MLB hitter. He's a utility man without any bat skills, and after this season he probably shouldn't have a 25-man roster spot with the Twins. A better comparison for Escobar, IMO, is Sexi Alexi. Solid glove, especially at 2B, but no use at the plate or as a PH.

Having 11 starting pitchers on the 40-man isn't a problem. As the tread points out, there's no need to keep them all, and most of them will start the season in AAA. Guys like Worley who will be out of options will cause the Twins to make some tough decisions if they get called up and can't perform. But if they can't perform, and they haven't performed before, exposing them to waivers isn't a bad thing, not for the organization and definitely not for the player.

When do you guys expect to see Meyer up with the Twins in 2014? Do you think he comes up before September? Before the All-Star break? My money is on a post August first call up.

In this episode we talked for a little big about Alex Meyer adn a lot about the genesis of Twins Daily and the Gleeman and the Geek Podcast. Eric asked me when I thought Alex Meyer would be up with the Twins, I think August first or later is the right time frame. What do you think?

Sign Big Pelf for a couple more seasons, if he can stay healthy he is an innings eater, and looking back at the past two+ seasons of Minnesota starting pitching, they could use a couple more guys who eat innings. Even with guys like Gibson, Meyer and (maybe possibly) May coming up this season, they'll most likely be on innings limits and guys like Nolasco, and Big Pelf are going to need to shoulder that load.

leeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!

Twins Daily is like Twins crack. On slow days when nothing is happening as far as new articles go I get down and have to go light off a new forum post or two to get my fix

You can view the page at http://twinsdaily.com/content.php/2504-John-Bonnes-Alex-Meyer-and-a-Turkey-Talk-to-Contact

Ricky "Don't call me Ricky Bobby" Nolasco is reportedly NOT a cowboy. As a young child his parents bought him a horse, but but Ricky had "No-Lasso" and his dream of being a wild west legend died then and there. The family later sold the horse to a glue factor.y

Episode 61 of the Twins baseball podcast, Talk To Contact (@TalkToContact), is now available for download via iTunes or by clicking here. No news is good news. Not a lot of Twins news coming out this week, lots of rumors and rumblings about free agent starting pitchers and catchers, but nothing concrete. This week Paul and Eric are joined by Twins Geek, John Bonnes (@TwinsGeek) from Twins Daily to discuss the origins of both the site and the Gleeman and the Geek podcast, more of look into "how the sausage is made" so to speak. We take a close look at the Twins top pitching prospect, Alex Meyer, and we get into a heated discussion about the possibility (or lack there-of) of Jarrod Saltalamacchia joining the Twins. http://puckettspond.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/2/files/2013/11/mauer_turkey001.jpg Thanks for the download. You can follow Cody on Twitter (@NoDakTwinsFan) or read his writing at NoDakTwinsFan, and you can find Eric on Twitter (@ERolfPleiss) and read his writing at Knuckleballs! If you enjoy our podcast, please take a couple extra minutes and rate and review us on iTunes. Ratings and reviews have magical iTunes powers, which helps Terry Ryan sign top-tier pitching talent in Free Agency. __________________ Follow me, @BaseballPirate, on Twitter. Check out the Talk to Contact Podcast (@TalkToContact) or email the show: talktocontact@gmail.com

http://assets.podomatic.net/ts/19/ad/da/paulpleiss/1400x1400_9028078.jpg No news is good news. Not a lot of Twins news coming out this week, lots of rumors and rumblings about free agent starting pitchers and catchers, but nothing concrete. This week Paul and Eric are joined by Twins Geek, John Bonnes from Twins Daily to discuss the origins of both the site and the Gleeman and the Geek podcast, more of look into "how the sausage is made" so to speak. We take a close look at the Twins top pitching prospect, Alex Meyer, and we get into a heated discussion about the possibility (or lack there-of) of Jarrod Saltalamacchia joining the Twins. Source

On this week's Talk to Contact podcast I get the chance to interview Carson Cistulli, noted sabermatrician and member of the BBWAA. During the podcast, (http://talk2contact.podomatic.com/entry/2013-11-20T20_19_43-08_00) we also discuss what the final value of the Metrodome "baggie" will be. Someone should start a kickstarter so we can purchase it and sell pieces of it on ebay or something. More or less than $5,000?

Episode 60 of the Twins baseball podcast, Talk To Contact (@TalkToContact), is now available for download via iTunes or by clicking here. http://puckettspond.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/2/files/2013/11/7874230.jpg 60 is a number worn my several Twins throughout the years, including current "closer" Glen Perkins from 2006-2007, and most recently by Pedro Hernandez (2013) and Jeff Gray (2012), but most notably by Jon Rauch and his terrible neck tattoo in back to back seasons (2009-2010). This week on the podcast we discuss a plethora of minor league happenings, including the pending 50-game suspension of Eddie Rosario and recent 40-man roster moves. The debate wages on over which starting pitchers make sense for the Twins to sign, as Eric, Cody and Jay each make their cases of Ricky Nolasco, Bronson Arroyo and Matt Garza. Who would you take? There's a considerably lengthy discussion about the true value of the Metrodome baggie and who the real winner is in the Prince Fielder Ian Kinsler trade. Also, if you are a Leinenkugel Beer affectionado, you may want to stick around for the "Beers from Around the World" segment. This episode also features an interview with noted sabermatrician, FanGraphs writer/editor and BBWAA member, Carson Cistulli (@cistulli). This is a long episode, almost 2 hours, but it's pure gold from beginning to end. http://puckettspond.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/2/files/2013/11/rauch.jpg Thanks for the download. You can follow Cody on Twitter (@NoDakTwinsFan) or read his writing at NoDakTwinsFan, and you can find Eric on Twitter (@ERolfPleiss) and read his writing at Knuckleballs! If you enjoy our podcast, please take a couple extra minutes and rate and review us on iTunes. Ratings and reviews have magical iTunes powers, which helps Terry Ryan sign top-tier pitching talent in Free Agency. __________________ Follow me, @BaseballPirate, on Twitter. Check out the Talk to Contact Podcast (@TalkToContact) or email the show: talktocontact@gmail.com

http://assets.podomatic.net/ts/19/ad/da/paulpleiss/1400x1400_9006857.jpg 60 is a number worn my several Twins throughout the years, including current "closer" Glen Perkins from 2006-2007, and most recently by Pedro Hernandex (2013) and Jeff Gray (2012), but most notably by Jon Rauch and his terrible neck tattoo in back to back seasons (2009-2010). This week on the podcast we discuss a plethora of minor league happenings, including the pending 50-game suspension of Eddie Rosario and recent 40-man roster moves. The debate wages on over which starting pitchers make sense for the Twins to sign, as Eric, Cody and Jay each make their cases of Ricky Nolasco, Bronson Arroyo and Matt Garza. Who would you take? There's a considerably lengthy discussion about the true value of the Metrodome baggie and who the real winner is in the Prince Fielder Ian Kinsler trade. Also, if you are a Leinenkugel Beer affectionado, you may want to stick around for the "Beers from Around the World" segment. Thanks for the download. Source

If you get tired of John and Aaron, really, check out Talk to Contact. http://www.talktocontact.com, they have guests, talk baseball, and keep their social talk to a minimum (sort of).

What does this signing mean for his 40-man roster status? With several roster decisions that need to be made in the coming days (Achter, Kepler, Wimmers, etc) it seems to me that Fryer could be cut from the 40-man and exposed to the rule-5 without much worry to make sure that prospects are covered, room is left for FA signings and a rule-5 pickup for the Twins.

Reports I've been seeing talk about the Twins wanting to add 2 SP this off-season. Bronson Arroyo may indeed be better than Correia, but will he still be able to help this team when the youngsters start to perform in 2015 and beyond?

There is new money available. Teams will get an extra $25mil or so from league media contract. So yes, new money is available. I also think there's new thinking. Teams are looking at long term deals differently after seeing some of them go sour quickly (Albert Pujols anyone?). Better to pay more now than to stretch out those years. That being said, you only have to convince one front office to pull the trigger. If there's a couple teams in the bidding war, things could get out of hand with the length of the contract. I like Choo better. He's (not so) sneaky good. The drawback is that he's better suited for a corner spot (RF) than center. Both players will cost a draft-pick. Neither should be an option for the Twins