Dr. Fresh Inthehouse's 2014 blueprint

[freshinthehouse]

Stealing this idea from the estimable Mr. Wahl

 

2014/15 Blueprint

 

Free agency-

 

Sign Tanaka- I know this is the impossible dream of the Twins offseason, but if we offer a $55 million to his Japanese club we could win negotiation rights. Then offer a 7 year/60 million deal to Tanaka and bring him to Minny.

 

Resign Pelfrey- If he'll accept a reasonable two year deal. But if we can't get him for a reasonable price, fill his spot with another inhabitant from the island of misfit soft tossers.

 

Opening day lineup-

 

CF - Pressley

LF - Willingham

RF - Parmalee

3 - Plouffe

SS - Florimon

2 - Dozier

1 - Collabello

C - Mauer

DH - Doumit

 

Pretty ugly, eh? This would be the worst case scenario lineup if the likes of Arcia, Hicks, Pinto, et al lay eggs during spring training. The one plus to this is that Parmalee and Collabello would be getting regular ABs. Call me crazy*, but I still think one of those 2 could become a decent bat.

 

Throughout the season I am sure that the youngn's will force their way into the lineup. As this happens the Twins should move the vets. Willingham, Doumit, hell move Plouffe if Sano pushes the issue (though i dont see that happening. I also think Dozier needs to work on SS for the inevitable debut of Rosario at 2nd. Dozier seemed a bit bummed when he was originally moved off 2nd, so I gotta think he'd love to give it another try. Now with a year of MLB success under his belt, I wouldn't be surprised if he could end up being at least a mediocre SS.

 

Lineup by August.

 

CF - Hicks

LF - Arcia

RF - Parmalee

3 - Plouffe

SS - Dozier

2 - Rosario

1 - Collabello

C/DH - Mauer

DH/C - Pinto

 

Rotation-

 

Tanaka

Kyle Gibson

Correia

Pelfrey

Duduno

 

At some time Meyers will need to be put in the lineup. This would be a good time to move Correia.

 

Bullpen

 

Swarzak

Pressly

Thielbar

Tonkin

Duensing

Burton

Perkins

 

I'd love to see us move Duensing, Burton, or Perkins if the option arises. It would take a big offer for Perk, but if some team out there overrates closers, we have to jump at a good offer. I may be an optimist, but I think we can build a pretty good future bullpen out of some of the arms we have in the minors/AAAA right now.

 

Getting management to bite on a Tanaka deal would be the biggest obstacle. But if we can move some vets throughout the season we could shave 7-10 mill of salary off the books. A huge signing fee would put us over 100 mill, but seeing how we should have to go over 100 mill for the next few years, let's hope the Pohlad's would bite the bullet. We should also be pretty miserable again with this lineup, so I'd say we'd get another top 5 pick to play with.

 

2015 off-season-

 

Sign homer bailey to a 4 year/80 million deal.

 

I'm not going to bother with a beginning of the year lineup. Here's hoping that by mid-season we have a lineup of:

 

CF - Buxton

LF - Arcia

RF - Hicks

3 - Sano

SS - Dozier

2 - Rosario

1 - Collabello/Parmalee/Plouffe

C/DH - Mauer

DH/C - Pinto

 

I like the looks of this. 1st base may need to be filled eventually, but all bat no glove free agents can usually be found. Hopefully Keplar can become a player and can fill the spot, or take over for Arcia in LF and let Ozzie try his had at 1st. Or Mauer can play 1st and Arcia can DH. Whatevs.

 

Rotation-

 

Tanaka

Bailey

Gibson

Meyer

Pelfrey

 

It doesn't have a true ace, but I love that rotation. I'd bet that either Gibson or Meyer becomes a solid #3 starter. And the rookie ball kids would be knocking on the door soon.

 

And someone can correct me on this, but even with Bailey making 20 mill a year, I don't think payroll would be much over 70-80 mill.

 

 

 

 

 

 

*"You're crazy!"

[Mike Sixel]

Excellent use of "et. al.", btw.

 

Overall, I'd like one more FA signed.

[70charger]

You're crazy!

 

(What does it say about me that I scrolled down in the middle of reading this to look at your footnote?)

 

Also, I'm all for trying Dozier at SS again, but I'm not sure the right way to do that is by moving Florimon to 2B. I think Florimon's bat might force him out of the lineup anyway, at which point you slide Dozier to SS and put a utility guy over at 2B. If Florimon is serviceable this year, then I don't think you move him until Rosario is up. At that point, I think it's more likely that Dozier and Rosario is the better pair, so you relegate Florimon then and slide Dozier one spot to the right. It'd be a nice problem to have.

[Mike Sixel]

Why is Sano not up this year?

[freshinthehouse]

You're crazy!

 

(What does it say about me that I scrolled down in the middle of reading this to look at your footnote?)

 

Also, I'm all for trying Dozier at SS again, but I'm not sure the right way to do that is by moving Florimon to 2B. I think Florimon's bat might force him out of the lineup anyway, at which point you slide Dozier to SS and put a utility guy over at 2B. If Florimon is serviceable this year, then I don't think you move him until Rosario is up. At that point, I think it's more likely that Dozier and Rosario is the better pair, so you relegate Florimon then and slide Dozier one spot to the right. It'd be a nice problem to have.

 

I forgot to edit out Florimon and add in Rosario. Problem solved.

[Shane Wahl]

Excellent use of "et. al.", btw.

 

I agree!

[YourHouseIsMyHouse]

This seems like it's putting contention further away. You're basically throwing the towel in on 2015 since the 2014 team doesn't see much improvement. I'm not sure why you like Pelfrey after he pitched miserably in his extended tryout for us, but there's some optimism. This relies truly on the farm, when I think you need to take some more chances with free agents.

[Trevor0333]

The posting rules are different this year, Tanaka can choose the team he wants to sign with from the top few bidder's. With so many playoff ready high payroll teams that will be all over him this year he is not going to choose the Twins.

 

Twins fans need to move on from Tanaka...