Originally posted in reply to thread These Call-Ups Are a Downer

The Twins' 40-man roster is apparently at 39 right now, and the desire for waiver-wire flexibility is a reason given not to bring up one or two other players for September, such as Anthony Slama.

How can a last-place team have any issues at all managing their 40-man roster? Just sooooo many talented players, the other teams will scoop an All-Star-in-the-making right up, if the Twins aren't careful?

Indecisiveness, maybe that's the reason. Morneau, will he or won't he return to previous levels? Span, can we squeeze just a bit more out of a trade? Middle infielders, so many flashy-glove no-stick players to choose from, better hang onto a bunch and see if one steps forward.

Meanwhile, at least, the scouts and front-office can make up their minds about Slama not being able to translate AAA success to the majors. So I guess indecision can't be the culprit after all.

Without going through the 40-man, spot by spot, doesn't it break down roughly like this?

• your 25 best guys for the major league roster
  
• 5 AAAA guys to cover the inevitable injuries
  
• 5 young guys who are too old to be left off but on whom the jury is still out (a little indecisiveness is necessary and good)
  
• 5 contingency spots because what I just laid out here is too simple
  

What additional needs and purposes are clogging up the Twins' 40-man roster? With 21 pitchers and 18 position players currently listed, I guess the area of concern is clear. I'm not in the mood to discuss spots #39, #38, ... .

A forty-man roster is intended to be a bit of a headache for the "have" teams. Not the have-nots.

And so many of the guys, starting with the already demoted Thomas, Gray and Maloney, and adding such folks as Walters, Perdumo, let's throw in Butera, Carson, Manship, the injured Gutierrez and Oliveros -- to name but a few would be unclaimed and available again, or easily replaceable by other ilk in the systems. And why not give recognition and expsoure to guys IN your system that you have promoted and supposedly believed in -- Guerra, Slama, Bigley even.

I believe several of the mentioned above players will be outrighted at the end of the season, Manship, Carson, Butera, maybe Walters and De Vires. My guess is the roster will have to be cleared to add players that will need to be protected from the Rule 5 draft.

Have not had time to research the players that need to be added(sorry), but have seen a couple of lists in prior posts. Also add Casilla to the list of probably will be outrighted as he has been given 3 chances to take the position and is 0 - 3.

The Twins may actually be waiting to add Slama as a 40-man guy for the 2013 season rather than waste a year by adding him this year. So that might be good news. Again, anyone added in November can't be cut until after spring training, so you need some dead bodies to cut if you add free agents.

Slama's 28 years old, right? Not wasting a year on the 40-man thus prevents his prematurely reaching the free-agent market when he's, what, 32, 33, 34? I'm never sure.

Yeah, it doesn't really make sense. But they got another year of him in the system by not 40-manning him, something similar to what they did with Kyle Waldrop and, also, Cole DeVries. Be interesting to see if they try it with Carlos Gutierrez this fall.