Rosterman

He is a guy that will sign for less. How much less...who knows. Marquis $3 million? Pavano is even looking for $3 mill w/incentives. Van he drop lower? One of those guys that might just end up with a minor league split contract, which would be to the Twins advantage. t some point, ALL 40-man roster spots will fill and there will be some bargains. The Twins still have two roster spots, so they can make decent offers to the alsorans.

Dickey will age gracefully as a knuckleballer. He has already aged. Not sure how much older he can get and he'll just remain competent or downrite ugly. Plus, you need someone to catch him. Dickey is a bargain for his 39th year. There is no need for the Mets or anyone to sign him to an extension until they see how he repeats. Especially at those prices. Dempster MIGHT have more of an upside, but that third year IS the killer. If I had to choose between Dempster, Myers or that other reliever that used to start, I would take the other two over Dempsey, for probably a lot less. The Mets can rid themselves of Dickey and get a prospect (high) or two, they should go for it. The new team doesn't have to extend the contract. Everything works against Dickey, except that he marvelously WON a Cy Young somehow. Who would've ever thought.

I would give him $15.5 over two years.

Right now, a player is out there asking what you'll give me. I want two years. Will you go a third. Yes or no. Give me a dollar. If you say: "Two years at $12 million" I am not going to say "not enough." I'm going to call up that team that offered me two years at $15 million. You have to put your best offer out there, which means a player gets to call a bluff, or accept what they are really worth. So right now, for $16 or so million, the Twins could've had Blanton and McCarthy and still have $5 million to play with for a non-tender, and maybe something extra to sign Capps again (no one has mentioned Capps getting any interest).

Who is batting 1 and 2. If they aren't good, Mauer doesn't get to hit...much. Who is playing cenetrfield. We gave up two leadoff hitters for a number nine spot in the batting order. ho is at second and short. How will they play together, Yes, the Twins are two starters away from having a rotation. And, don't forget, for all the grips of 2012, I felt we had a chance with Pavano, Baker, Blackburn, Liriano and Marquis (plus Swarzak/Duensing/Hendriks as backup). 4 of the 5 should've started 30+ games and thrown 200 innings and all win more games than they would lose. You would've thunk. But we all know what happened. Right now, today, I would predict a Twins line-up of Benson, Carroll, Mauer, Willingham, Morneau, Doumit, Parmell, Plouffe, Florimon. A bench of Butera, Dozier, Mastro and someone undetermined. A starting rotation of Worley, Diamond, Gibson/Hendriks and two guys to be determined. A bullpen of Perkins, Burton, Duensing, Burnett, Robertson, Pressly, Roienke. There are defense problems in the outfield and infield. They is still the clutch-hitting that plagued the team alst year. Without Revere and Casilla, the Twins lost a lot of stolen bases and MAYBE toe ability to make something extra happen in the gameplan. If Morneau is traded, the Twins need an established outfielder. If Mauer would go, the Twins need a better-than-average catcher. Hopefully, both could bring some major-league ready bodies to the game (Mauer for 4 Red Sox, Morneau for a pitcher and a 4th outfielder or starting infielder). I can live with Parmelee at first. I can almost live with Doumit and another person catching (not Butera). I can't live with 2-3 rookies in the outfield (sorry Hicks, Arcia and Benson -- I still see Hicks one solid year away, and Arcia coming up early and learning and flaying on the job). The Hot Stove season still has two solid months yet. Let's keep our fingers crossed and hope the Twins can do something with $25-30 million. They have my money, I want to se them spend it rather than look at it!

The Twins will want Hicks in the minors...unless pieces look great in spring training and the Twins may compete. Remember: HOT STOVE SEASON has just begun. And Drew Butera is still on the roster. Quick, name 25 guys who are on the 40-man roster who played in the majors for the Twins!?

Boleska was listed as being taken from Pittsburgh. Ah, well...one of those oddball Twins.

It boils down to make me an offer, and if the numbers sound right, you grab it (either way). An agent may say....Dempster turned down 2 for $26 and wants three. You can believe him or not, but you have to offer a number with three then. Like last year, The Twins were thinking low for Nathan. The Range rs said $9...Joe liked that number and said an immediate yes. Could he get more, we'll never know. It's called gambling.

It's not a matter of bringing in free agents or not. The matter is, there is money there to heartily explore this route. The other route is to stand pat. The Twins are somewhere in-between. You can say suck it up and lets get rid of Morneau and Willingham and bring up prospects a year or two early and give them earlier cause to arbitrate, and not have potentially great stats while theya re force-fed the majors. We can stock the hometeam with hasbeens and wantabees for a couple of seasons and feed the rookies into the core. But, ask yourself...why do you want to attend Twinsfest 2013 and who are you excited about seeing at a table where you have to pay $10-20 for an autograph. The down-on-the-farm guys, and watch...the Twins will probably charge $5 to get in that line. They have a new stadium, Prices have held or slightly risen. You get 10% concession discounts with a season ticket package and All-Star game priority with a full season package (means you have to pay retail to mlb for ASGame tickets). I didn't renew this year. I'll take a chance buying a cheap ticket from a season ticket holder, bearing in mind that there will be less on stub hub as we will have significantly less season ticket holders...and I can always pick some up for most game days. The Twins, if nothing else, has to combat negativism. Not getting players, not spending OUR money, not doing anything with prospects, not putting the trees back up, not competing. I see a lot of negatives building up. Signing some guys will give hope. Spending money gives the thought of staying competitive. The only prospect that excites us is Kyle Gibson, and we keep being told he can't pitch a full season. All these negative vibes. And the ultimate negative vibe, if the Twins do nothing, it can only get worse. How getting worse than last place is beyond me, but it will be worse. Makes me want to be a Houston fan...at least they have nowhere to go but up.

You have to make a splash and throw some money around and do it early and go for the multi-year contract that may be reasonable unloaded if you fail (i.e. Marlins). It has to hurt that the Royals seem more competitive and bigger spenders than the...Twins. You don't get free agents by wandering the winter meetings and saying "we would like you to come and play for us in Minnesota...here is our one year offer with a nice option for a second year. Please come back and ask us what we really would pay you if you get another offer so we can shake our heads and go 'aw, shucks, what are they thinking.....'"

Dickey is a strange case. He's a bargain for 2013 at $5 million. Would I bother extending him, no. I got him for $5. He is also a nice trade chip if someone wants him. If he pitches great and you still got him, trade bait in July. Yes, he is a knuckleballer, but he is also ancient. I could think of better ways to spend $20-25 million over the next two years. I would love to see Santana return to the Twins. At what price? A couple of prospects. But having the Mets eat too much salary, you might as well keep him yourself, then.

If the Twins go into rebuilding mode, they need to advertise the team in a different way. They will save on payroll (might even get something from mlb) and revenue will slip. But that means - THEY HAVE THAT MUCH MORE TO SPEND IN 2014 - RIGHT?!?

Hey, the Twins have to do more than just offer, they have to blow guys away. Tell Dempster we give you 3 years for $36 million.Tell McCarthy you take 3 years and $27 million right now, today. The Twins are in a position that if they make an offer, it better be their best, 'cause no one is coming back to them and saying "so-and-so will, how about you going to this." And, I'm sorry, just making an offer doesn't mean that you are playing the game, in the mix of things, being aggressive. I can offer Dempster three years at $5 million per year. But I'm wasting my time and his.

Wow. Pitchers have stacked up for the starting five at both Rochester, and it seems, New Britain. Here is where the Twins have to make some decisions...better to block the future with hasbeens and washedups, or look to the future. I really don't see Waters, Blackburn being around for 2014. I wonder if Vasquez, Matais have any hopes of making it to the Twins. Hernandez is someone you want to looksee. DeVries and Deduno would be my stop-gap backups with DeVries in training to replace Swarzak until he is replaced by Hermsen. Heaven forbid they sign even more AAAA guys...I would rather see Jeff Francis or any of the non-tenders in the wings in Rochester. If Balckburn doesn't blow everyone away in spring training, send him on his way and eat the salary.

Joe Benson, the one-year wonder? Perhaps. Perhaps not. I would go after Johann now.

Liriano has several offers. Right.

It would be the chance for Benson to step up with Hicks in the background at Rochester. Or the Twins could sign some low-end guy LIKE a Juan Pierre. Maybe bring back Delmon, who along with Liriano will make the dugout old home week. Hell, trade for Kubel and/or Cuddyer, too. Bring back Jon Rauch. If the price is right, you go for it...remember Carlos Gomez!!!!!!!!

Nope, the only incentive is that if you play for a winning team, you get extra bonus money for playoffs or World Series. Otherwise...the bigger thing now is the option year with a buyout...which Haren scored bigtime on this year!

You realize just how good of a contract Span had and the deal the Twins got with Willingham and Doumit. Whew!

I would go 2-year $22 million...$10, $12 with a third year option of $14-15 million with a $2 million buyout to sign him. But not sure if I would make a similar offer to, say, Dempster, or someone else first.

Let's say the Twins had signed a Haren, or maybe will sign Dempster, and another starter. That gives them 8-10 wins easily over last year, depending on how Diamond and the back of a rotation pan out. The Twins still need two bench guys (one probably a catcher -- if he can play elsewhere, maybe a good DH/PH.) They probably have 1-2 spots in the bullpen that they can rotate around. But, again, two pitchers don't get them the pennant. If they sign a pair of starters, maybe we do need them around for 3 years minimum...maybe one 4-6 wouldn't hurt to be the veteran presence. But let's look beyond 2013. The Twins will need someone at first. If someone else is at first, then they need a catcher. Outfield will be young. 2B/SS/3B are far from overpowering, they will need to repalce two of those positions. The Twins will basically rebuild their line-up asis in 2014 and 2015, mostly bya dding unproven but promising rookie talent, which can raise havoc and send us abck to .500 or elow status. You don't add 3 or so rookies a season a expect them to shine. Okay, you do expect them to shine, but will they. It is a rock-and-hard place, and going back to an earlier discussion, TwinkieTown is n't exactly a joyous place that a pitcher would care to pitch in if thet aren't going to win. To win in 2013. Three front line starters, at least one infield upgrade, pray that Parmelee can prduce in right, and the bullpen stays strong. The Twins HAVE to spend above-average on at least thre players.

Who are them other 13? Knoblauch has burned to many bridges. No one can find him or he won't come to events. Tovar is memorable to few. Great guy. But has passed on. Smalley would be nice choice...two good runs with the team and now broadcasting (wish he would coach).

You got a different home plate umpire for every game during a series. They all calculate THEIR strikezone, a lot of times watching the pitcher throw...or do they actually review tape themselves to have an idea of if a pitcher pays the corners or not, throws high, low, etc. Then you have the pitcher. They can be all over the place. Some take a batter, some take an inning, some take the whole game to be consistent with their stuff. Then you have the catcher. Are they calling the game plan, is the manager/coach calling the shots, is the pitcher calling the shots. Another question is how often a catcher IS in the spot where the pitch is thrown...are they outside when it comes insides, etc. etc. It's fun watching sometimes when the catcher leans like two feet outside to catch a pitch. Then we have the batter. What bout the guy who swings at everything (Carlos Gomez, Delmon Young for example) Sometimes they hit it. The batter can throw everything off because they are oft unpredictable. They figure out the pitcher. They don't ALWAYS swing the exact same way, just as the pitcher doesn't always throw in the same spots, or the umpire might have a smaller or bigger zone this game, or the catcher has hurt legs or a hangover. So, in deciding this metric...who costs the most runs...the gameplan (caller), the pitcher (no control), the umpire (doesn't know what they do from game to game) or the catcher (who has a job of framing the plate and catching the ball).

The Twins, remarkably, managed to clear four roster spots, which means that if you look at the roster before the 40-man adds, they retain only 28 players from the mess at the end of the season, whew. Anyone know the number of free agents in the marketplace, now, with arbitration guys. Add in the minor league free agents....are any other team rosters this side of the Astros or the Marlins as empty as the Twins? Out of the 32 teams, are there 50 open spots, or 70 open spots? This is what makes the winter meetings a fun time. 10-12 get taken by Rule 5 guys. Each team may have one (maybe two) other guys they cut loose for free agent signings (Butera may be the Twins loophole for that if they fill holes). Otherwise, a lot of guys will be getting split or minor league only contracts to spring training.

Yeah, that would be great....Prior finally having to sign with the Twins. I would like to see him throw to Mauer for just one game.