Minnesota Twins Talk

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/power-rankings--reds-climb--mets-tumble--yankees--ndash--ichiro--anyway--ndash--take-a-bow.html Among the ranking of MLB teams comes this gem: 28. Minnesota Twins (40-58; Previous: 25) – After awful start in Chicago, Twins find buyers somewhat leery, ya know? Took me a moment to realize the wordplay. Groan or enjoy, your call.

So, just in case you didn't know, the market for Span, Willingham (not that he is officially on the market) and Liriano increased last night/early this morning, with the 6-year, $144 million deal given to Cole Hamels and the trade of Hanley Ramirez and Randy Choate of the Marlins to the Dodgers for Nathan Eovaldi and a minor leaguer. This means that there is one less proven big league pitcher on the market, and Liriano is starting to look really good to GM's desperate for pitching and can no longer trade for Hamels.

It's on MLBtraderumors.com, basically they want a team to take his entire contract AND get a major league/major league ready player back. I'd be sad to see the Canuck go, but if they could pull this off I wouldn't be opposed. If we got that 14 mil off the books next year Ryan could have some serious money to find us some SP help in free agency.

Can anyone else understand him when he does games with bremer? i find myself not being able to enjoy the game with his mumbling or whatever it is. Hurry back bert!

The Astros get Rudy Owens, a 24 year old LHP who is repeating AAA this season and is 8-5 with 3.14 ERA and 1.168 WHIP, 6.5 K/9 and 3.4 K/BB), Robbie Grossman a 22 year old toolsy CF who is hitting .262/.374/.403 with 7 HRs in AA and Colton Cain a 21 year old LHP who is pitching in high A with 4.20 ERA, 1.240 WHIP, 6.1 K/9 and 2.04 K/BB. Not top 100 MLB prospects and only Grossman was on BA's list of the Pirates' top 10 prospects at number 8. The Pirates also got some $. If you were the Twins, would you trade Liriano for that?

Since leaving the Metrodome for Target Field, the White Sox have punished the Twins. Is he right? Is the organization still building its team with a Metrodome mindset or has other factors (like injuries and poor pitching) been the more likely cause of this downturn?

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2012/07/quick-hits-yankees-span-giants-broxton-mets.html#disqus_thread Nice to hear the Twins aren't trading him for a 4th OFer.

Brett Jacobsen was released the other day, and it got me to thinking about the Chuck Knoblauch trade and how it still lives on in Minnesota. Knoblauch was traded to the Yankees for Eric Milton, Brian Buchanan, Cristian Guzman, and Danny Mota.Buchanan was traded to the Padres for Jason Bartlett. Milton was traded to the Phillies for Carlos Silva and Nick Punto. Guzman signed with Washington.Bartlett was traded with Delmon Young and Eduardo Morlan to the Rays for Delmon Young, Brendan Harris, and Jason Pridie. Silva and Punto left as free agents.Young was traded to the Tigers for Lestor Oliveros, who remains in the Twins system. Harris and JJ Hardy were traded to the O…

On ESPN 1500 during the 12:00 hour, Dan Gladden said the Twins had lots of talk with the Pirates about Liriano, but Ryan wasn't satisfied with the return he would get. Of course, the Pirates just went out and got Wandy Rodriguez instead, netting 3 prospects: a "B" level outfielder and two lesser pitching prospects. More on that on this thread. I gotta say, I don't think I would've buried Ryan had they got from the Pirates what the Astros did. Given Wandy Rodriguez's contract for next year, I gotta think they could have.

Justin Upton is having a bad season, hitting just .335 wOBA as a corner outfielder. He is owed 38.5m over seasons 2013-2015. He has righthanded pull power. http://www.hittrackeronline.com/detail2.php?id=2012_2027&type=hitter Denard Span is hitting .320 wOBA, is owed 11.25m over seasons 13-14 with a 9m team option for 2015. He plays premium defense in CF and would be a much better leadoff than Willie Bloomquist. Discuss.

What are the Twins going to do with him this offseason? If memory serves me correct he has an option that we will obviously decline...What type of contract could he expect to receive to stay and rehab?

I was bouncing off the walls and smiling with delight back in early November when it was announced Terry Ryan was returning to be the Twins General Manager again. Bill Smith is a very nice man but clearly made some very bad decisions affecting the future of the organization. I honestly believed at the time Smith was replaced because of his inability to evaluate talent but clearly it was more than that. I’m starting to play devil’s advocate and think the main reason was all about MONEY. I think Pohlad, St. Peter, and the boys met with Smith and asked him about his off-season plan to turn a team around that had lost 99 games. My belief is Smith looked at them and said …

I missed the Twitter exchange between Aaron Gleeman and Glen Perkins last night, but Aaron was kind enough to revisit it on Hard Ball Talk. I like that Perkins responded. I like that Aaron insinuated Perkins is a nerd. I like it all.

Adam Kilgore of the Washington Post wrote that the Nationals are interested in in improving their middle infield depth and have considered (among others) Jamey Carroll. (Link) I gotta say, I think it makes a ton of sense. Besides being a competent utility infielder/fringy starter, it gives the Nationals a decent OBP guy (their leadoff hitters have been dreadful) and gets Carroll back to the National League. From the Twins standpoint, I wonder what they would want? It would get Carroll's contract ($3.75M) off the books for next year and get rid of any chance of that 3rd year option vesting. But it's not like middle infield is a position of depth for this team. It's also…

In today's Strib (link), I was really surprised to hear that Trevor Plouffe and his aching thumb, which were supposed to be good go to on Sund, er Mond, er...will not be playing at all until at least Friday, a week after he injured it. At least two talkers here.... 1) Why can't this team just use the DL? Why can't they evaluate injuries competently? I'm somewhat willing to cut them some slack on this one, because there isn't really anyone they can call up, but it's just so crazy predictable. I could have told you how this was going to play out on Saturday. 2) Who do they call up? Valencia? He would seem the logical choice, but he's been terrible. Florimon maybe to s…

Under the new CBA, teams are more reluctant than ever to trade top prospects. So, should the Twins take advantage of this climate and shop their number one prospect, SS/3B Miguel Sano, for a current starting pitcher, in preparation to make a run in 2013-2014? Here are some candidates with 2-4 years of team control remaining, in no particular order: 1. David Price, 26 (FA in 2016) 2. Mark Buehrle, 33 (signed thru 2015 for 4/58) 3. Cliff Lee, 33 (signed thru 2015 for 5/120) 4. Felix Hernandez, 26 (signed thru 2014 for 5/78) I'll hang up and listen. -Willihammer

He is the only one in the system who even has the ability to come close to posting 25k's in his last two starts. I'd prefer 2/18 with a 10 mil team option, but would be totally fine with up to a 3/30 which is more or less what the Twins gave Pavano. The upside is to high to just trade him away for a C+/B- prospect at this point.

Who do you want to see? September is one of my favorite times of year. I am a big fan of seeing the young talent that is brought up to fill the roster. With so many knowledgable writers/posters on this site I would love to hear your thoughts on who gets a real look this fall. Also, is there any chance with some of the wasted spaces on the 40 man that some unexpected faces are brought up?

Reported in other threads, but I thought it worth bringing up in its own right. Ichiro is with the Yankees now. If the Yankees had an interest in Span, it would seem gone now. I believe the "asking a ton" for Span quote was in the context of a Yankees source, so this all adds up.

When I was thinking about whether Willingham should be traded I went and looked at his home/away stats and saw that he was significantly better at TF than on the road. That started me thinking about some other players mentioned in trade rumors so I took a look at Denard Span. I was really surprised to see the following splits for Denard for his TF seasons – all figures taken from www.baseballreference.com and all generated today: 2012 Split,PA,AB,R,H,2B,3B,HR,RBI,BB,SO,BA,OBP,SLG,OPS Home,207,178,27,60,19,2,2,18,26,18,.337,.422,.500,.922 Away,181,171,15,36,4,0,1,12,9,29,.211,.249,.251,.500 2011 Split,PA,AB,R,H,2B,3B,HR,RBI,BB,SO,BA,OBP,SLG,OPS Home,122,112,19,32,4…

Ok, I love Josh Willingham. He has come in and been exactly what the Twins needed, he seems like a great guy, and he likes it here. The problem is, by the time the twins are actually contenders, Willingham will be past his prime and on the way out. The twins are in position to bring in the biggest haul at the deadline. With Willingham being arguably the best rh power hitter available, and with more teams in contention at the deadline than ever, this makes so much sense. Willingham also has value in that he is under team control for a few years. Gone are the days of renting a player and still getting draft compensation for them. While I agree that the move doesn't l…

Torii Hunter will be a free agent in 2013. Assuming the Twins trade Span or Revere, if the price was right would you want the Twins to sign Torii to a one or two year deal? He's going to hit .270 with 20 HR and drive in 85-90 runs. He could play right field. Might be good for ticket sales. What say you?

Watching the Samuel Deduno's performance today is just a reminder of the value that Drew Butera brings to the Twins roster. I know. I know. He can't hit. And that's fine. That's certainly not his role. His role is to allow Joe Mauer and Ryan Doumit to be on the field at the same time. And his primary role appears to be working with struggling pitchers. It it clear from watching Deduno's first couple of starts that he has some "stuff." He just had no idea from pitch-to-pitch where the stuff would go. Enter Drew Butera. This is no knock on Joe Mauer (who has won Gold Gloves, for what that is worth) or Ryan Doumit (who has been much better defensively than I woul…

I was looking at the MLB.com list of the twins top 20 prospects...Is it just me, or is it a little worrying that only one of those guys is at AAA? Sure there are cases of guys who jump straight from AA to the bigs, but there are also plenty of stories of guys who were hotshots in the lower minors that never made it The Show.

I just hope Mr. Ryan does not pull a Bill Smith with Francisco Liriano and try to hold out for that greater deal. They should offer him an extension and if he rejects it the Twins won't look as bad if/when they deal him.

I didn't watch last night's game (fortunately) but I saw in the box score that Span was replaced by Mastroianni in the 8th inning. This morning I checked the injury report list, and Span is on there day-to-day for dizziness. Maybe I'm being paranoid, but is anybody else concerned about this, given his history of concussion symptons?

Last night in the 8th inning, Denard Span came out of the game because he was feeling dizzy. He wasn’t feeling well. Seeing Darin Mastroianni in the lineup set off a firestorm on Twitter. A night earlier, Trevor Plouffe was abruptly replaced by Brian Dozier as a pinch hitter. The question there was whether he was sick or injured. With Span, there was a far different discussion for one big reason. Rather than thinking that maybe Span wasn’t feeling well in the nearly-100 degree weather, the question jumped to “Has Span been traded?” Was he going to the Yankees, or the Rangers, or the Reds, or the Nationals? What would the Twins be getting in return? The trade deadli…

The Twins and the Royals are battling for the cellar position in the AL Central. Suppose you were a baseball fan in a neutral city and you had to choose between the Royals or the Twins to be your favorite team for the next 5 years. Which team would you pick? Royals: Stocked full of young (supposed) talent: Moustakas, Hosmer, Escobar, Salvador Perez, Danny Duffy (needs TJ surgery), Mike Montgomery, Bubba Starling, etc. Also have some pretty good players in Billy Butler, Alex Gordon and a decent bullpen. They are well on their way to rebuilding. Twins: Starting pitching in disarray and not much hope in the system. Established players are trade fodder (Span, Liriano) o…

Interesting read in the StarTribune today. The article basically says don't expect any deadline trade to produce pitching help for 2013. Terry Ryan states the Twins look for a "high ceiling guy" in such a trade. Given that teams are unlikely to give up such a player whose also major league ready, Ryan said the best target may be a Class A pitcher. The article also cites scouts as saying Brian Duensing has better overall stuff than Scott Diamond. http://www.startribune.com/sports/twins/163133146.html