Saunders and Lannan are the only ones with a chance to be better than the Deduno line, and both can be had for 2-year contracts which fits the 2015 timetable for the youngsters. I'd go after them both.

 

That makes a lot of sense to me. I would love to hear why others disagree.

 

Because they are $25MM below last year's spend, have Blackburn coming off next year, and are getting $25MM more in tv revenue next year. Maybe Morneau is coming off next year. I disagree because they have money to spend this year on good pitching. They have even more next year. There is no good reason not to sign pitchers that you expect to be good this year, next year, and the year after.

 

I was posting in reply to the question in the thread. Not to the exclusion of also going after someone better. Also, going after someone doesn't presume success since other teams will be bidding too and the player will have some opinion about where he'd like to go. My point was there is simply no purpose in signing someone who doesn't have even the potential to be better than the multiple AAAA options the Twins currently have for starting pitching.

Wow, then I totally read your post wrong! My bad. I agree, they should not sign guys likely to be about the same or a tiny bit better than their current options.