nicksaviking

http://twinsdaily.com/topic/9010-the-twins-dfa-liam-hendriks/ Less teeth gnashing than I remember in the Hendriks DFA thread. We must have been full of holiday spirit. Interesting that there were lots of folks questioning why Hendriks was DFA'd (with an option remaining no less) instead of, dun dun dun Eric Fryer.

More than when he was DFA'd?! Were you gone that month?

Damn it Dick, step on my take.

Did I just see the radar gun flash 95 for Liam Hendriks? Four times in a row? Why didn't someone in Minnesota think about putting him in the pen?

I wonder what the thought process is when considering to bring Boyer in here. There is one I assume.

Just got the kids to bed. Why's Duensing starting?

Ha, this thread made me laugh. Probably for all the wrong reasons. Talk about piling on!

I'll admit that Pliuffe is a better player than I used to give him credit for, but to say his .313 OBP and league leading DP isn't a negative factor for a guy who generally bats in the 3-5 holes means we are truly OK with low expectation. I'll take his career best .765 OPS, but for a contending team we can aim a bit higher than that for the number 5 spot in the order. Arcia is getting destroyed in multiple threads and he has a career .741 OPS. Also, to keep Plouffe probably means extending him, not sure I'm too hip to that.

Agree, I'm not always against spite, but I am if it's hurting the team now or in the future.

While very few would disagree that Mauer's lack of production isn't a problem, he's still owed $69M after this season. No team has cut bait on a player and eaten that much conract, you can't expect the small market Twins to be the first. He's also the local guy that puts casual fans in the seats. Whether Mauer plays 1B or RF, he's blocking Kepler either way, if that's the guy we are concerned with getting playing time, Mauer's position has little bearing on the situation. We can throw our hands in the air about the Mauer situation all we want, but there's not much that can be done about it so the front office will have to focus on the areas that can be fixed.

And there's the development angle to get the kids ready for 2016 also.

It's almost like Pythagorean took into account expected front office inactivity!

I might think the Twins are in the same boat as the Giants if they had Madison Bumgarner.

Can't wait to find out more. The initial sound of it seems like a firing, perhaps for selling instead of buying. Perhaps though this was planned and Dombrowski didn't want to make Avila have to start his career on a sour note. Also, so we can cross Alex Avila off the free agent catcher list now? That situation can't be fun.

If throwing in the towel means playing youngsters over vets, they should have thrown in the towel last offseason. I'm of the mind that playing the youngsters isn't throwing in the towel, but just the more stable way of making your team a year-in and year-out contender. Even if it meant losing a few extra games (and judging by the look of it, it wouldn't) I'd rather see a rotation of Hughes, May, Gibson, Berrios and Duffy/flavor of the week with any number of RFs instead of Hunter. I like most of the vets too, but they aren't as fun to watch as the kids.

If this team is going to miss the playoffs, it would be best if it becomes clear to the casual fans quite quickly, because it's the casual fans that the club is most concerned with tuning in and going to the ballpark. The sooner it's clear to the casual fan, the sooner the team can get back to rebuilding. There is only two months left to get things right for next year and the way I see it, the two biggest problems, don't actually look like problems at this point: starting pitching and the outfield. The starting pitching has been fine, unfortunatey it's still not good enough to compete and there are too many veterans in the way of any kind of youngster that might develop into the kind of starter this team needs. These guys need to give way to May, Berrios, Duffy or whoever else may have a shot at being a solid contributor. If we have eyes on 2016, do we really want to spend the first two months trying to figure it out then? Can't keep kicking the can down the road, do it now and get it over with. The outfield has also been very nice, however as we know there are more options than there are spots. If Hunter wants to play again next year (because the team is getting better and he wants to go to the post season again) will Ryan say no? How are we going to know if Arcia can contribute when his last option year runs out in two months? Will Sano, Plouffe, Pinto or Mauer need to learn to play RF or at least be competent at another position? Again, do we want to waste the beginning of 2016 to figure this stuff out? Catcher, SS, the bullpen? Those are easier off season fixes as these are clear needs and due to the performance of the incumbants, replacements are justifiable. The Twins can and likely will address these areas in free agency or trades; whether they do it well is another arguement. However, this team has always had problems managing it's current assets and there are a lot of veterans that need to be dealt with and youngsters that need playing time. This is something the team has always struggled with, but better to do it now than wait until next year.

The Padres also designated Tim Federowicz. He is a good defensive catcher from the sound of it. He's never hit MLB pitching but he's also never gotten much of a chance. He has hit well in the minors.

Yeah that was great. I also liked seeing reunions with Hunter, Kubel, Gurrier and Bartlet. I also like seeing Mauer add to his numbers and climb up team rankings. My compassionate side does anyway. But it has become quite clear that making decisions based on sentimentality is a losing proposition. If this team wants to win, they have to be guided by objectivity.

Are you suggesting all relievers deserve the same chance regardless of track record or talent? Bobby Keppel, Brian Bass and Tyler Robertsen are wondering when you'll start fighting for them.

Define "we".

The ginger beard I think. They are supposed to creep out the batter but this one isn't working.

No matter what people think of Arcia, he had an OPS+ of 100 with spotty playing time as a rookie and 107 with spotty playing time last year. This guy looks like he can produce if given a fair opportunity. This is his last option year as well and I sure don't feel comfortable using 2016 spring training to evaluate the direction this club is going to go with him. Besides, Kepler has been slow to adjust at every level until his promotion to AA this year. Are we really going to ask this guy to go from Ft. Myers to the MLB and produce in one season? I don't mind a call up, and I would want him to play regularly, but it seems to me the OP wants him up to help fix the lineup, and I think the chances of Kepler hitting right away at the majors is pretty slim.

Well that's what I meant. In my opinion all four-year+ contracts to pitchers over 30 are overpays. However this one seemed preferable to most others, including the ones that this team had already signed. I didn't want any pitcher that age under contract that long, but had I been forced to choose one, the Shields deal may have been it. I would have preferred Sheilds for four years to Santana or Nolasco; I don't much care about the money, I just care about the impact on the roster spots and the development of young players.

I also don't see any indication, but I would guess he's still pretty torn on the subject. One one hand, history seems to show that Ryan much prefers veterans to young players. On the other, he has always been averse to giving out long-term deals. I wish his fear of the later would have stopped him from doing the former three times.

I think it was an overpay, but I feel all of those type deals are overpays. So this one was probably one of the best overpays from my perspective. Of course the Padres got the benefits of the best part of the deal in the first year.