EephusKnuckler

I thought that right away too but there are still reports trickling out about second interviews. Could've sworn I saw something today that said Lovullo recently had his second visit. If that's the case, then there's absolutely no excuse for not sitting down with Maddon. Imagine the tremendous gnashing of teeth if the team surprised everyone by going with Lovullo and thereby revealed that they were truly open to an outside candidate all along.

But aren't we past that point? I think the Rays already had their shot at retaining him but he declined and decided to opt out. If the reports can be believed, possibly a quarter of the league (or more) is interested in his services. He's gonna get paid. I guess I can't completely rule it out but returning to the Rays seems unlikely now, and I really doubt he'd say he's willing to sit out the season if he truly wanted to stay with the Rays. I wonder if the Astros, Diamondbacks, and Rangers are kicking themselves right now? The Twins are in a very fortuitous position with this. They should look at it like mana raining down from heaven because Maddon as the manager of the Twins makes a helluva lot of sense. They're an organization that wants to operate with a low payroll; Maddon has done that for many years and had success. *check* Pitching has been a major weakness but we have a lot of young arms in the system; Maddon's teams have consistently had solid pitching and did so with a lot of young guys. *check* It's Minnesota so we want a guy with a likeable personality; from what I've gathered, Maddon is a great guy and is well respected around the league. *check* I imagine there's a mutual admiration between TR and Maddon for how they both approach the game. Seems like everything lines up perfectly with him. Makes a lot of sense. Hopefully his contract demands aren't a dealbreaker for the Twins, which would be a shame because paying a manager $5+ million a year is peanuts in the world of MLB.

From the latest update on Rotoworld: Kind of a conflicting statement from his agent, no? Some kind of fancy agent-speak there. He's basically saying that Maddon will go anywhere if they meet his salary demands. He wants a challenge, so that means he's willing to go to a bad team...but they must be "committed to win", which is kinda tough to prove if you're a crappy team, right? How do you prove that a team with four consecutive 90 loss seasons is committing to winning? By opening up the checkbook, and when have the Twins ever been willing to do that? Just another sign that he'll end up with the Cubs. They've sucked for a long time so it would be a big challenge, plus they also look more "committed to win" than the Twins due to their recent hiring of a hotshot GM. And of course they'll be willing to pay more than the Twins.

More likely that Martinez stays in Tampa as the new manager, rather than follow Maddon somewhere.

Isn't a September call-up for Buxton being too optimistic, knowing the glacial pace this organization takes with its prospects? Look at how they're doing everything they can to avoid bringing up Meyer and/or May, despite the rotation being in shambles again. The recent injury gives them even more reason to put it off and the whole Hicks fiasco probably has them extra cautious. I'm gonna say we don't see Buxton in the bigs until the second half of next season. I hope I'm wrong and he goes on a tear and forces his way.

I like the thinking here but not sure I agree with the players you proposed. The Mariners signed Cano so now they're in a spot where they really need to put some talent around him. They'd look like fools if they didn't. So they're looking like a prime trade partner candidate going into the winter meetings. I just don't think they'll be much interested in Correia or even Perkins. They're looking for bats. Hammer of course, but would they also want Plouffe? Arcia? I like the idea of trading for a good SS prospect so Taylor is intriguing, but their glut of pitching talent is also interesting (according to fangraphs, 7 of their top 10 prospects are pitchers). Taijuan Walker is probably too expensive, but what about the other 6 guys? Shucks, would you trade Sano for Walker? But ya, TR should be talking to Seattle. Pounce, Terry! Pounce!