TheLeviathan

That's a good question. I complain about some of our decision making, but I'd stop caring about baseball before I'd want to be a fan of either Florida team.

HRs are a little worrisome but otherwise he profiles as a fine midrotation guy. But I hope they arent done. This is a nice palate cleanser though.

Its not the level of arm we need, but its great value.

If Rooker is ready after this year....give him the job. I appreciate Joe and think he's gotten a largely unfriendly reception to his production, but he's no longer providing enough from his position to justify continuing the relationship.

Didn't waste any time selling us on the ol' veteran leadership either huh?

If Sanchez won't take a ST invite or minor league deal....move on. There is simply no reason to attach anything else to any offer for him.

Why not just give him an invite to camp then? Everything about this smells like they plan to actually have him in the rotation. There is nothing about that anyone should be happy about.

The problem with throwing 9-10 guys at a rotation to see what sticks is that in-between finding the guys that do stick (if that even happens) you have a lot of terrible pitching to get to that point. Make no mistake, this rotation and the options currently in house, are akin to giving up on the season.

This is well said.

Well, we're getting a little late in the game here, no? I don't want to parse out what "priority" means, but I believe sport front offices need to say what they mean and mean what they say. If you sell hope, you better be prepared to either deliver or at least give every sign that you tried your rear end off to do it. And if you don't, the blow-back is on you. Otherwise, just don't stick your neck out into that territory. They could've just stuck with their "we're looking for pitching upgrades that make sense" schtick and we all know what that's code for. Fine. But that's not what they did and the expectations they built were evident here. Nick Nelson relied on them for a very upbeat blog not that long ago. So did several other regular bloggers here. There was clearly such a buzz in the fan base that the ownership threw a little gas on that fire at Twinsfest. People took them at their word. They started to feel hope. And now they wonder whether they ever should've bought it at all. That's fair. Hell, that kind of hope is what makes us fans is it not? So I don't appreciate the way you are bouncing from thread to thread basically insinuating we're all a bunch of silly persons for taking them at their word and holding them accountable to it. They need to be held accountable to it - it's the only way this changes. And it needs to change.

Two things: Whenever I've heard the FO talk they are careful to talk about upgrading their pitching as a whole, rather than specifically targeting starters. I appreciate that mindset because the bullpen did need work...but now it's the rotation. If he said that, that's good to hear, but it needs to happen. Maybe I'm wrong and I said something along the way that indicates I blame them personally for something, but my issues are all rooted in skepticism. They, ownership included, were adamant about their intentions. It seems odd to me that in November, when Darvish is slated by most to get 6 years and closer to 200M, that you'd balk at 5/100ish. What changed? Did they think in November that 5/110 was going to do it? If so, that seems....naive? If they were prepared to be in the 150+ neighborhood, why balk now? What they said, relative to what they did, opens a wide door for questioning. I think that's fair. What I don't think is fair is to just dismiss this disappointment and start making excuses for it. Somewhere along the lines the rhetoric didn't match the action and we do have a right to be upset about that. Personally, I was never of the notion we would sign Darvish, but comments in the wake of the signing by the FO and some here have been frustrating. I love many parts of this team right now and am pretty bullish on their chances. This market seems ripe to capitalize. I grant there is still time....but it's ticking fast.

The problem is that if we're going to rely on drafting and developing starting pitching....that might take awhile. The current offensive core is here right now. I'm all for this FO really investing the time and effort into fixing the structures that develop young pitching, but that investment isn't bearing fruit anytime soon and we're talking about upgrading now. Part of what made Darvish appealing is that he's a significant, immediate upgrade that wouldn't necessarily hamstring the team's future. Trading for Archer requires pulling from the farm. Signing Darvish only requires pulling from the wallet. I don't think anyone disagrees that this team is primed to have a nice run here.....but only if they acquire pitching to help right now. So talk of the farm is just not applicable to this conversation.

I'm guessing something in the neighborhood of 4/50 or 4/60. I always thought Cobb was the more likely target and possibly even a better value, but we haven't seen the team particularly attached to him so far this offseason. I think signing him could still do a world of good, but I would probably still get at least one other arm.

We balked, at least partially, at an opt-out clause did we not? On the basis of it being too "advantageous" for the player. We also balked at a 6th year, but that was the expectation for Darvish in November and we didn't seem to be balking then. Neither of those strike me as particularly courageous. They made good signings with Pineda, Reed, and Rodney. I tip my cap to them. But they deserve no shade here - their comments before and after have made this situation very questionable and should be approached with skepticism that reflects that rather than lining up excuses.

Less crappy outcomes do not equal "positives". You construed our best pitcher being out for April to help with September as "That's Good". Myself, and others, are responding to your arguments. We're responding to the blatant contradictions in your own blog posts on Darvish. We're responding to your manufactured, poor arguments as some desperate attempt at a silver lining. Sorry Nick, the landscaping doesn't look nice with the house on fire. The house is still on fire. That is not "good", no matter how many ways you want to spin it.

He had way more solid ground to stand on in that argument though.

Many other fan bases should also be upset at what is happening. I don't win brownie points with my wife when I tell her it's a priority to get her wine for V-Day at the store and all I muster up the ability to do is park in the parking lot. I'm not even really all that outraged at missing out on Darvish. What outrages me is the excuse parade after the fact. The bizarre, nonsensical arguments to spin the disappointment. To defend opt out clauses. To make a month of our best pitcher being down a "good thing". How we just couldn't compete in the most depressed contract market of our lifetime. On and on. That's what has me outraged. Not getting Darvish is just disappointing, but I had low expectations. But for the posters and bloggers here I'd expect more than this onslaught of nonsense.

Knowingly offering lesser contracts and throwing trade offers around as items to credit a front office with seems really patronizing. We have set the bar for credit far too low.

Lumberjack is a good look for Tyler Duffy.

Now this is a blog idea to help us all laugh through our misery.

I'm not arguing it's crippling. I just wouldn't spend any time trying to argue it as a positive. We lost our best pitcher for a month, spinning that into positives is just silly. There is a wide gulf between "Crippling" and "let me try to sell you this rock and tell you it's a lump of gold" I'm in that wide gulf. And I'd suggest the degree of silliness required to try that argument might be indicative of the value of your overall effort. Maybe, rather than go down paths that absurd, it would've been better to just try something else entirely. Or, at least, understand why people aren't buying your sales pitch that the rock is really gold.

Yeah, but Milwaukee has a bigger market and better weather. Wait....

Ok, so you want to balance the bitterness. Wouldn't a far better tact to have been an article titled, and themed, "Ok...here's what we can still do" and then go on to discuss our options in the wake of a disappointing result? Instead, in the face of disappointment to try and sell the idea that Ervin Santana not pitching is a good thing (among a host of other arguments that make "silly person" Monty Python memes seem insufficient) just seems desperate. Or disingenuous. Or insulting. Or a host of other unpleasant adjectives. That doesn't balance the bitterness, it only enflames it.

We could also save wear and tear on Buxton by sitting him until June. Anyone down for that?

You know what might help alleviate some of the brooding and pessimism? If we weren't trying to force feed optimism and understanding into this. If we just accepted, even for a day, that this sucks. No one pretending it's fine. No one making excuses. We all just accept it stinks. Then move forward with what's next. It's like watching your house start on fire and turning to your spouse to talk about how nice the fire makes your landscaping look.