kab21

I said it several weeks ago somewhere that I thought Hicks would struggle this year and hit in the .230's or .240's. He will still walk a fair amount so the OBP will be >.300. I also think his power will be disappointing this year. Let's give him a .100ish isoP and the result is a mid .600's OPS. Long term he will still be a good player but more of a .260/.340/.400/.740 type of hitter.

Add Monson and Tubby to that list. There is an initial honeymoon period at UM where coaches just need to get the right players and then the program will turn around but the Gophers continue to be a mid-tier BB and FB program at best. I hope Kill turns it around though because I have always liked UM despite not being an alum.

I find it humorous how he is trading away all of Dave's Twins that he stockpiled over the years.

NB might have gotten most of the pitching but they missed on every interesting hitting prospect. At least until midseason (hopefully).

The Yankees will do whatever is necessary to get below the 189M luxury tax threshold next year. It will be interesting to see if they can stay the course and not sign anyone after what looks to be a dreadfully awful season for them. Youk is their 2nd best hitter until Granderson/Tex returns.

This is the key. Of course Posey's deal is better but it also happened at a different part of their careers. If the Twins screwed up at all it was not getting an 8 yr deal while Mauer was in arb but I'm not sure the stadium was even approved at that point. Imo Mauer's contract is not that big of a deal. he makes a lot of money and so far he is worth it and more. It's likely that he might not be worth it during the last couple of years but that's pretty common with most FA contracts (big and medium).

Projectprospect nailed Zack Cox before the draft. Surprisingly I found the article. There was more discussion that I think talked about him lowering his K rate during the season but not hitting for any power and how that didn't project well. It's too bad the projectprospect team screwed up their community by ignoring the forums and going to twitter. Lincoln's 2010 Draft Board | Project Prospect Imo Cox remained high in prospect rankings due to pre-draft rankings. He was never very good in the minors and if he got DFA's by the Marlins he probably has very little value.

Nobody should have had any illusions of magically turning the Twins around in one offseason. The reason that you at least try to add better players in FA is that you could hit on a Josh Willingham and potentially flip that player 2 years later adding more talent to the farm system. The other reason that you bring a decent FA or two is that it's much better to watch a halfway competitive team instead of an absolutely awful team. And that keeps some fans in the seats (more money). Reasons to not add FA's. a) they block a talented prospect - clearly not the case in the MI, SP and RP they are long term deals that could hamstring the team in the future - virtually no 2-3 year deal hamstrings the Twins payroll considering how much money is being cut.

It is a much more difficult process when you are starting with a team that has 55 win talent. You also destroy your fanbase at the same time and it would be very difficult to draw enough fans that support a 100M payroll regardless of the new stadium.

The difference being that there is a big gap in MLB talent. And that is taking into account that the Twins are bad.

I think Twins fans can handle rebuilding but I think there would be considerable anger if a complete firesale happened right after opening the new stadium. Those players mentioned will get traded but it will be spread over a season or two (starting this offseason with Span/Revere). I also think people need to come to the reality that Morneau, Carroll, Doumit and Burton likely wouldn't return a any significant prospects at this point. Perhaps Morneau at midseason but Doumit and Burton probably only return a prospect that would rank near the bottom of the Twins top 25. Carroll only gets you minor league filler. I don't think anyone should point to Houston and Miami as examples of what the Twins should be doing. Those franchises could be bad for years and could see their attendance tank this year.

The Twins had a payroll nearly twice that of the Rays. Your comparison sucks. you are operating completely in hindsight using Young and Liriano as examples. Especially Liriano. He was pegged by many as the playoff ace that the Twins really needed. You don't trade that away when you are trying to advance in the playoffs and the rest of the staff is mostly made up of contact pitchers.

4.45 career ERA and only 3 seasons <4.00 out of 2000 innings. They were 3 recent seasons but I'm not as optimistic as the computer projections are for a 34 yr old.

The Cards don't get the 17th pick but they do get a sandwich pick probably in the 30's. It's a fair deal all around imo. Like most FA contracts I think it's likely that the Brewers don't get a good value in the final year of the deal but Lohse is a solid 4.00 ERA starter. That's a reasonable projection instead of just looking at his last 2 years.

I'm pretty sure that this is the story for every coach at UM. Initial excitement and then we just need to wait for him to have his own recruits playing.

Both guys sound like org filler to me.

While .830 might have been the median for 1Bman it should be noted that the average for the position was .778 last year. Are we sure that Morneau can meet your expectations of 1Bman? Is the upgrade the best use of the team's resources? Yes, the Twins have money to spend but signing aging 1Bman to multiyear 10+M/yr contracts is really low on my list of things to do. Trading prospects for one is also a mistake. I have always said that Parmelee would just be a placeholder at 1B for the team. A solid player that you try to upgrade but it isn't absolutely necessary.

Let's go through this a 3rd time. If you expect him to be average then you are probably going to be disappointed. He might be that good but it shouldn't be expected based on his entire (or even his recent) MiLB career.

Are you aware that there were only 40 MLB players that OPS'd >.830. And only 57 that were >.800. Anyone that expects Parmelee to be in either of those groups should prepare for disappointment.

The Twins had a payroll of 100+M that season. There is absolutely no reason that they should have unloaded two starters for prospects to stock the farm system when they were a contending team. If anything you do the opposite.

It's not the steroid era anymore. League average OPS has dropped by 30-40 pts since 2008. An OPS of .775 is pretty good and Parmelee would be the least of the Twins' worries imo. At least aside from his defense... I also don't expect the Twins DH to hit much better than .775 either.

These are completely different situations. The Twins should be trading Willy and Morneau this season but that doesn't mean they should have traded Young and Liriano for prospects after their best seasons. They were a competitive team and despite not really liking Young ever you don't trade him only to put an unknown out there.

Tell me about how his offense projects? He has very little power. He strikes out quite a bit. I think you're looking at a .275/.340/.375/.715 player tops. Downside is .250/.310/.325/.635. His defense is not extraordinary in CF but it is very good in the corners. If it's me then I look for more out of a starter.

I actually think that Sano can hit for a decent average (.280-.290) despite last years low average. I just want to make it completely clear but I don't think anyone has said to move him this year. The decision imo comes after the year where you assess the amount of time needed for his bat to reach the majors and the amount of time needed for his defense to be merely adequate at the MLB level. If the org thinks that it will take and extra year or two for the defense to be ready then you are faced with a difficult decision. I really don't care what position Sano played as a young teenager where he was by far the best athlete on the field. I also disagree with anyone that thinks he is done filling out at age 19 when he has put on 40+ lbs in 2 or so years. I also disagree with anyone that thinks he could be 20 lbs lighter. The kid is absolutely ripped and this is the body he was given. He's big and he's going to be big. It's not like he's the Panda or some other portly ballplayer.

You might be able to compare them to Prince/Miguel at single A but it's a long way to the majors from there. Vargas is interesting but I need to see a little more than 40 great games. I forgot about another nice 1B (maybe 3B) prospect in Harrison. He has some nice potential but he is more like Matt moses at this point. He was a 1st rd pick that had decent tools and a nice swing IIRC. it just never worked out for him and he never did anything in the minors outside of a solid half season in ft myers. I remember at the time '06ish that there were some projecting him into the the Twins lineup in '08 or '09 the same way that many on here are projecting prospects. some will work out and some will disappoint.