BeefMaster

This is pretty much exactly my thought. I was heartened by Antony's comments (in the TwinkieTown Q&A) that he considers Doumit the backup catcher, but I have a feeling that Gardy will fight for his security blanket, because as we all know, losing the designated hitter results in a forfeit and the summary execution of all parties involved.

On the plus side, we now know the going rate for two-year-old saves. Really, this is a pretty impressive series of events set in motion by the Nationals not having anyone better to pitch in the 9th inning at the beginning of 2010. If Capps happens to sign with a team that already had a closer after the Pirates let him go, he doesn't accumulate any saves, the Twins trade for someone else (or let Rauch work through his struggles), the Twins only lose 90 games last year thanks to better catcher (Ramos) and closer (Not Matt Capps), Bill Smith keeps his job, George and Lorraine don't go to the Enchantment Under the Sea Dance together...

I trust that you have some specific free agent slugging shortstop(s) in mind? If not, I don't see the problem in signing a guy that does something well (getting on base, which also happens to be the most important skill in baseball) rather than waiting for someone who may or may not exist.

I'd say that it'd be a lot more of a positive if it was, say, September or October.

That'd be pretty much impossible at this point without eating his salary - no one's going to take on $6M in salary obligation for a guy who might amount to a AAA utility man. If you're going to pay the guy regardless, there's no downside to giving him another shot, whether in Minneapolis or Rochester.

I've honestly wondered whether there was any level of pre-signing scouting that went on before the Nishioka signing. It's somewhat defensible for there not to be - the Twins haven't had much of a presence in Japan, and he was a reasonably well-known player coming off a very good year in a competitive league. I'm not sure when he announced that he was coming over, but if it was reasonably late in the NPB season (or after it), it's certainly plausible that they could've said, "Hey, that guy just won their batting title and we need a shortstop - let's see if $3M is enough to get him," without sending someone over there to take a deep look.

Out of curiosity, do you happen to know what any of your teammates do? I imagine it's especially difficult to find things because lots of seasonal industries (e.g. construction) are active in the summer, not winter - contractors don't need extra guys in Rochester in December. I think that's an underappreciated part of being a pro ballplayer from the fans' perspective - for all the "you get played to play baseball!" stuff, there really isn't a lot of money in it at the lower levels.