Looking back on the 2009 International Signing Period, We signed 3 really good productive players who are all still with the Twins today. While that may change soon. Here is some fun with numbers to show what they have done with us.
In 2009 we signed Polanco, Kepler and Sano. Sano was the star of the entire signing period and there was much debate over his actual age that teams were scared off from signing him and we were able to get him for 3.15 million. I think Kepler got 800,000 and
I was just thinking about the Competitive Balance Tax in Baseball and the negotiations going on and was thinking about the concept that was proposed of a 100 million floor. for a lot of small market teams that would be too high of a floor as it makes sense to dip down when doing a rebuild. but the thought that crossed my mind is.... why does it have to be a solid floor? I mean with the competitive balance tax on the top end of teams payrolls they have an escalating penalty each year they are
I guess its time to grade Falvey and CO at the 5 year mark of their run. They came in with a young roster with lots of promise in 2017. They were on the fringes of contention so they decided to go for it and traded for a pitcher. They traded Ynoa who is now a starter for the Braves. It took the Braves 4+ year to develop him so I don't hold that against this regime. I consider it similar to when we acquired Bartlett who panned out but wasn't a name prospect. after a week He changed course a
I have seen several overtures to Pineda wanting to stay in Minnesota. That is a hard find in the market and with our need of several starting pitchers, we should take a good look at what it should take to resign the veteran. Here is the article from MlbTraderumors.com I just saw which spurred this blog post. Baldelli Hopes Pineda Will Return To Twins In 2022 - MLB Trade Rumors. I would think its either a 1 or 2 year contract. Since we need money in the budget to sign others its probably in t
Well, Lookey there. It looks like we have the makings of a solid bullpen again. WHAT!. Here is what we have, granted we can still use some upgrades. Duffey has been solid with a few hiccups earlier in the year and has a 3.61 ERA. Thielbar has a 3.71 era and is striking out 11.3 per 9 innings. Alcala is back off the DL and pitched 2 scoreless innings and while his era is high this year due to giving up lots of homers, He didn’t give them up last year and I would expect him to normalize. Mi
Looks like the Twins are trying to corner the market on depth this year. Last year they didn't do as well. We didn't have options or options to replace our depth at the major league level (who replace Adrianza and Escobar on the bench when they were pressed into starting?) for when Polanco was suspended for half the season. or when Castro went down, or Buxton, or Mauer or Sano for that matter. This year we signed the following: 1B Willin Rosario and Lucas Duda IF Ronald Torreyes and Adam R
When I look at all of the starting pitchers who are available for trade I can't help but think that is the best way for us to get a good starting pitcher that we want for our rotation. Its no secret we won't bother trying to sign Lester, Schertzer, or Shields. We probably wont go after Santana either since there are not many options on the open market in his tier of talent so he will likely cost more than he should. But there are lots of starting pitchers who are on the trade market who are
We are currently 1 of 9 teams within a game and a half of the 2nd wild card spot. Knowing our major weaknesses can we fill them enough to be a contender this season? Our SS position went hitless in April causing a huge whole in the lineup. Escobar is currently at .347 with around 100 plate appearances. if he even hits.275 its a huge upgrade at that position. CF appears to be a patchwork of Hicks, Fuld, and Santana until something gets figured out. Still a black hole. but one hole is ok.
When I see the type of numbers Florimon ended up with last year I can't help but hope for a replacement. when I dig deeper I see he is not that far off from another long term SS who was at the time considered the fastest Twin and was near gold glove caliber. That SS was Greg Gagne. Gagne has a career batting average of .254 with averaging close to 10 HRs per season and 10-15 SBs too. while Florimon hit .221 with 9 HR and 15 SB. With just a little bit of improvement he could be a fine SS for
Miguel Sano has been tearing it up in AA the last few weeks as he has raised is average from .180ish to .243 as of today and his OPS has increased 100 points or so too. His power in AA has been constant where he slumped initially on arriving but hitting for average the last several weeks. I doubt he gets called up to the Twins this season as he doesn't need to be added to the 40 man roster. However, Rochester is in a playoff race while New Britain is not. Would it be better for Sano to finis
On May 31rst, Mike Pelfry started the day with a 6.85 Era. On that day he gave up 3 runs in 5.33 innings. Not very promising but it was better than what we were getting out of him. Back then we were clamoring for him to get demoted or designated for assignment. Including that start and everything else since then through today, he has averaged right at 6 innings per start with an era of 3.47. His peripherals have improved too as he has 31 k's in 49.33 innings and he has issued 13 walks with
Players the Twinsshould still consider this offseason: The main objective for any of these signings should be to put more competition intoour weakest areas on the team and give Terry Ryan ammunition to do what he doesbest which is to trade these players for other teams minor-leaguers near the trade deadline. All of these players are available or shouldbe at a low cost, Unless the objective of next season is to lose 90+ games forbetter draft position. These signings at the right price could bo
After the trading Span the other day we now have 70 million or so in commitments for next year. That should leave around 25 million to sign 3 pitchers. Since the Twins have announed they are unlikely to trade for a pitcher at this point. They can really only look through FA at this point for next season. The Twins have talked to 20 plus pitchers this offseason to guage what it would take to sign them and their interest level in comming to Minnesota. Several more pitchers are now on the marke
Twins Offseason: After reading 4 different offseason scenarios in the Twins offseason handbook I decided to throw out my offseason thoughts and see what you all think and start a thread where everyone can post their thoughts and offseason plans and come up with a Twinsdaily.com reader consensus. In the Book they used 90 million to budget the team I am going with 90-95 million as I think the Twins will allow a little breathing room in the budget to go up a little. The number 1 fix for the team
Here's some mindless fun with stats. The Twins are 29-29 since starting the season 6-16 and they are 19-12 in their last 31 games including tonights game against Detroit. (question here is can 1 or 2 more starting pitchers push us to the next level as our hitting, defense, and bullpen seem good enough to contend) Gray has a 4.08 era and most bloggers can't wait to get rid of him, but take out his worst appearance and he has a 2.80 era and 5 vulture wins. Waldrop tied Butera in K's this ev
Right now our offense is hitting on all Cylindars since Plouffe at 3rd and Revere in RF started hitting. Right now I feel our offense is a little "Piranha" heavy as we have 4 "piranha's" in the lineup any given night if not 5 or 6 (Span, Revere, Dozier, Carrol, Casilla, and Mastoianni) We also have 4 versatile solid power type of hitters Morneau, Willingham, Doumit, and now Plouffe with Parmalee trying to join the crowd. And we have 1 all round high average Mauer. If Parmelee could make his wa
I really hold back what I would like to say about then payroll arguments here. The fact that people don't accept the amount taken in dictates the amount going out requires one of two things. Extreme financial ignorance or fanatical bias that prevents the acceptance of something some basic. I did not change the argument. It's the same idiocy over and over. Do you really want to be on the side that suggests revenues does not determine spending capacity?
At this point in the pre-season, I’m just so happy to be seeing games again, I don’t care about the Twins record in 2023. I think they’ll win it all, unrealistically speaking 🙂