nicksaviking

I'm cheering for Jim Thome. Normally I'd cheer for the Reds and maybe the Nationals, but I'm cheering for them to lose spectacularly due to inept CF/lead off play which causes them to strongly consider overpaying for a commodity the Twins are chalk full of.

Alexi Cassila finishes below the medoza line had game 163 not counted in 2009, though I hope that wasn't the thought going through his head while he was running down to first.

Normally, if the Tigers were to clinch today or tomorrow, they'd probably give their star player an extra day of rest before the playoffs. If Mauer has the lead in AVG or Hamilton has the lead in HR, no break will happen for Cabrera I would suspect. If the Tigers clinch, I wonder what would happen if Hamilton sits because the Rangers have also clinched but Cabrera leads or is tied for HR and Cabrera has a two point lead in the batting race. Do the Tigers have Cabrera play and put his destiny in his own hands, or do they sit back and see if Mauer can catch him?

I think this also needs to include players who unneccessarily slide headfirst into first.

What is this based on? Years of 60M payrolls and/or having strong pitching staffs? I can almost guarantee that the Twins will sign someone this offseason to break your historical trend. Haren could work for me in the 3/30 neighborhood. He was injured this year but if he's healthy then he's a great #2 for a relatively bargain price. I'm just hoping that they don't lock onto someone and end up in the 5/75 neighborhood. The Twins have rarely had a strong pitching staff, and a $60 million payroll has no bearing on the length of a deal, nothing stops a GM from signing a #4 pitcher to a 2 year $3 million deal. The fact simply is that Terry Ryan doesn't believe the risk of a multi-year deal is worth the reward of the quality of pitcher that comes with those kind of requests. The only multi-year deal Ryan has ever given a starter who didn't wear a Twins uniform in the previous season was Bob Tewksbury in 1997. I agree that it's time for the philosophy to end but I'm not giving it very strong odds. Spending $20 per year total for Haren and Jake Peavy would solidify the front of the rotation and if they perform as expected and the Twins could be right back in contention. However, I don't think Ryan has the constitution to offer the multi-year deals necessary to do this. History tells us that instead of spending $10-15 million for a top of the rotation guy, Ryan will give $5 million for a replacement level guy and spread the rest of the money on a handfull of hit-or-miss position players. This has never made economical sense as that replacement level pitcher is never any better than the already crappy options in AAA but it lets Ryan sleep better at night as no risk was taken.

Yeah, I think Perkins for Trumbo was the thread we had here in April before Trumbo got hot. Hard to judge Trumbo's value now. Still, I don't know that he's an upgrade to Parmelee other than in name value. I think Trumbo is going to have a maddenly low OBP for a slugging first baseman. I'm sure he'll be a better player than his last two months have indicated, but judging by his minor league numbers, he's never going to get on base enough to justify the high strikeout rate. Trumbo was a more prolific HR hitter in the minors, but Parmelee tops him in just about every other catagory. While Parmelee's K rate improved as he advanced through the minors, Trumbo's K's increased against the better competition. Trumbo's age 24 season in 2010 was spent mostly in in AAA and it was his best, producing a very nice .945 OPS while Parmelee's age 24 season was this year at AAA with a 1.102 OPS. These two might be on a similar career arc only Parmelee is two years behind (and two years younger).

Didn't Brandon Roy walk away from the Blazers with money left on his deal? It seems to me he did, but the NBA is low on my list of favorite leagues.

In my book this takes him off the hook for the title of worst Twins free agent ever. At least the Twins recovered the $3.25 million where as the Twins had to pay Mike Lamb to be terrible for the Brewers after his release in 2008 and then pay him to be terrible for the Mets AAA team in 2009.

Dick and Bert both have been picked to do national broadcasts for FOX. Neither have shown discernable biases while working those games from what I could tell. Mitch Williams on the other hand...

Right? A one game sample size is not going to yield accurate results. True, Hawk would have been everybody's first choice as most obnoxious/homerish announcer going into the study; it's possible that could have already swayed the opinion of the evaluators. On the otherhand, I'm pretty sure his picture is next to the definition of "outlier" in several Statistics 101 textbooks.

Recently the big name athletes have often been hanging it up right around the time they start getting unacceptable contract offers. The Yankees may forever be put in a postion where they will always have to offer $8M+/season deals to Jeter as they still have to answer to the biggest market and biggest fan base on the continent, so you're right, he may play well into his 40's if he wants to do so. Of course at some point he's not going to be able to physically handle SS, will he accept a full-time DH role or will his pride force him to retire?

So there wasn't enough innings to go around for Slama or Guerra but Gardy can dig up a few for Capps?

Makes me want to impose a moratorium on my negative comments regarding the Twins front office. Something deeper is going on in that organization if the minor leaguers who are forced to ride busses and double up in motel rooms together for five months a year need to be forced into further bonding time.

He said he wants to play for a contender, that means the Twins would probably have to overpay to get him. Playing well in Boston is probably going to give him enough exposure to put his stock at market value as opposed to Willingham getting no press in woefull Oakland and being an afterthought for most teams, my bet is Ross isn't as overlooked as Willingham was last year. If Willingham was dealt for pitching, going after Ross might make some sense, otherwise I think the free agent money needs to be spent on starting pitching and middle infield.

I'd also like to toss this one back in the ring: http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/split.cgi?t=b&team=CIN&year=2012 A .249 OBP for a playoff team's leadoff hitters and .284 OBP for their CF's are going to have to be addressed for an up and coming team who's sites are set on being an annual contender. Either the Twins or the Reds may come to see that the other's offer didn't look half bad after all once the off-season begins.

Span has to be moved at some point, why not do it while his value is high and the team isn't contending. Besides, trading him will likely improve the outfield defense shortly. Granted, while Parmelee fills in until Hicks is ready it will be weaker, but adding Hicks will make the outfield better. Currently neither Span or Willingham are willing to budge from their postions, which is forcing the Twins to push Revere out of postion to RF. Seeing as Span is hurting the team by not playing RF now, does anyone really think Span and/or Gardenhire is going to be interested in a position change to enable Hicks' best talents later? or Buxton or Kepler or Benson? Not only do the Twins have a ton of OF talent, most of them are CF and by the time they are ready, it's possible all of them would be an upgrade over Span who seems reluctant to cede the position. He's got to go sometime, might as well do it in a rebuilding year.

You lost me after "one spot higher than Hamilton." Though I'm hopefull the Twins front office learns how to pronounce it correctly and use it when promoting Span's trade value.

Trout's up in WAR, Cabrera is leading in OPS. Rookies usually get a bit of a disadvantage in the MVP votes plus Cabrera is 4 HR away from the Triple Crown. I too think Cabrera's the front funner at this point.

I know the batting title isn't as exciting as it was when I was a kid, but Mauer is now just 5 points behind Trout for the league lead. Edit: Miguel Cabrera went 3-4 today and is up to .333. Still, nine points are easily made up in 14 games.

I was shown the ballpark dimensions, 315 down the left field line with quite a long HR porch continuing out for several yards. If Adam Walker gets promoted straight to Low A the Twins may have two consecutive Midwest League HR champs.

The A's and Orioles are in the drivers seat for the Wild Cards this year with what could be argued are inferior players to what the Twins have now. The Twins could get back in contention, but is it possible to get a winning attitude when the current players/managers are the same? Is it a coincedence the Orioles and A's bought into winning baseball AND they have new managers? It may not be fair to fire Gardenhire after giving him the most pathetic pitching staff in the history of the team, but in this day and age, rarely do teams go into two year slumps and suddenly come out of it without first having a major shakeup. Admittedly, TK did it, but he had the longest leash in all of professional sports and it took 8 years to do so. My feeling is the Twins cannot compete in 2013 and will look pretty much the same as we see them now. I'll bet 2014 will have a lot of new faces and optimism will abound though.

Wainwright came back just fine this year, he's 30. Chris Carpenter came back and pitched well at age 29, but maybe it's a St. Louis thing. I'm OK with bringing back Baker on a reasonable deal, but what happens to the perception of the front office if they do re-sign him or for that matter Pavano or Capps? Fans aren't going to see Scott Baker and think of him as an exciting new off-season acquisition, in fact most fans aren't going to think of him as an acquisition at all seeing as he's always been with the Twins and lately he's been a part of the terrible Twins. Of course when the front office tries to promote it's offseason signings, Baker WOULD be included when they sit down for an interview with Neal or Chirstianson come March to discuss how they upgraded the rotaion. In other words, what ever the Twins have planned as far as free agent money, don't bother trying to deduct the price of Baker from that budget because the fans wont be buying that Baker is new money spent. Like I said, I'd re-sign Baker, but from a PR standpoint, the front office may be better off using that money on a new name to try to sell everyone that they are attemtping to head in a new direction.

Sit him down. I think we need to have another look at Drew Butera's arm. Drew's best shot at making the team next year may be in the rotation anyway.

That was some on-the-spot decision making by Gene Lamont. Obviously that call isn't indicative of managerial success, but it has always seemed strange to me that Lamont has never gotten another gig as the head honcho. We was at the helm when the White Sox had their resurgance in the early 1990's then failed, just as everyone else did, managing the Pirates since Barry Bonds left.

As it stands, if Liriano gives up no more baserunners, it will be Escobar he would face to capture his second no hitter.