mcrow

That's not what I'm saying though. I would have loved picking up a big name starter. Or even a lesser named pitcher who is healthy. Or maybe you sign a durable innings eater fairly cheap and sign a guy like Marcum, then you at least have insurance on him. If he doesn't get injured and pitches well you have guy who is a solid #2 maybe #1 pitcher and still have the durable inning eater as well. Now if they had Saunders: #1 Marcum #2 Worely #3 Diamond #4- Saunders #5- Pelfrey, Correia, Gibson, Hendricks..ect If Marcum works out you have a competent rotation and depth. So I'm in favor of picking up both guys for around $12M, but not really that excited about a likely to be injured guy without any real insurance on the staff. If we could have both, I want both. If we can only have one I'd rather have Saunders and I'm not over joyed about settling for Saunders as the big FA pitching upgrade for the year either.

I think the Twins should have made an offer but I'm sure they kicked the tires and were one of the 15-20 teams asking about him. You never know what the agent might have wanted when they contacted him but either way they should have offered him some sort of contract. Absolutely under no circumstances should they have offered more than one year though.

Who cares? What would you be willing to offer a guy with an arm that's likely to come unglued? Looks like at least $4M, how many years? One year contract doesn't do much for a team not in contention. If he comes in and pitches great and is healthy he walks for big money next year, you sign him to a multi year deal and his are falls off in spring training and you're out maybe $8m+ with nothing to show for it. I say no thanks. I would have loved them to take a serious run at a real ace without major health questions.

Who have they made offers to that were worth offering 3 years? So, the Twins don't look to be a contender this year and we should bring on a guy who is likely to spend time on the DL this year? I think if you had a guy like Suanders already on the books maybe to take a stab at Marcum that way you have at least one guy on the staff that's likely to be an innings eater if Marcum goes down. You can slip a young guy in at the end of the rotation and if needed. When you have a rotation with Diamond who is young and you're really not sure how good he's going to be this year and Pelfry coming off of TJ plus Gibson coming off of TJ, broke down Harden, and mediocre Correia (at best) you need someone you can count on to take the mound. Twins luck would be Pelfry goes down, Harden is injured, and Marcum goes down as well. Actually, I think I might have just talked myself into liking the idea of Saunders.

That's another thing to consider. Rumor is that 15-20 teams inquired about him nobody was willing to do more than one year or more than $4m which should tell you something.

Did the Twins even make an offer? I think I'd rather have Saunders for $8m than Marcum for $4M. That thing with his elbow that nobody seems to know what was causing it would be a big red flag. However, the upside of picking up Marcum is a lot higher than Saunders. I can see why the Twins wouldn't want to go with him though, they really don't need another Zumaya issue and you already have Harden who is high injury risk. Would have been nice to get a healthy year out of Marcum but that weird arm thing sets off some alarms. Might have been worth a risk but maybe not.

Me too, I was 14 so at that point playing and watching baseball was pretty much all I did during the season. Hell, between baseball practice, games and Twins games I would even squeeze in a wiffleball game here and there. So, 1991 was right in the middle of my glory years of baseball and Pags was obviously memorable for that game.

What I mean is that critics will roast the Twins one way or the other if Morneau is healthy and the Twins are in a playoff race. They trade him people will say they're tanking the season, they keep him and fade then they'll say they should have gotten something for him. IMO, if Morneau plays well it's a win-win for fans and the Twins in that you have one of the players back that you need to have to compete quicker. I'm just saying that it will be an orgy for Danny B. at KFAN whichever way they would go in that situation.

Diamond definitely can be a solid middle of the rotation pitcher but given what we've seen so far it would be hard to imagine he can be a true ace or even a good #2. I think he can be a very good #3 though. Of course, in a typical Twins rotation that's a #1 or #2 starter.

Yeah, that seems to be the most legitimate knock on him, but like you said for a young player there's not reason that can't improve. He may never be great VS Lefties but he can certainly get good enough to not be liability when a lefty is on the mound.

I really think that Arcia might prove to be the best prospect in the system by the end of the season. I really like Sano's physical makeup and power but Arcia probably has more potential to be a better all around hitter. We will see though, it is nice to see some top notch talent in the minors again.

I don't really have an issue with keeping Butera around. Mauer staying healthy is far from a sure thing, Doumit could go down as well. If nothing else Butera is solid behind the plate though you are taking a big hit on the offensive side. I think they need to keep 3 guys on the roster that can catch and Butera is a better option right now than they have in the minors.

I'm OK with any player that can field the ball well and hit, problem is right now Sano can't help us and Plouffe can't play 3B...lol. Nothing to do with either being too big, though if Sano is getting as big as they say he's almost for sure going to be the biggest 3B in the league.

My take is that because he doesn't have dominant stuff, as indicated in his SO rate, his ERA will inflate a bit this year. Most players with the same rate as Diamond have ERAs in the 4-4.5 range so that's where I think he'll be. Hopefully closer to 4 than 4.5,

The reason I think he's likely to regress is that he doesn't have very good stuff for the type of ERA he put up last year. He's only a 4 K/9 type of pitcher. Most guys like that don't maintain sub 4 ERAs. Most of the guys with a K/9 under 5 have ERAs of 4+. So odds are that he'll be more like a 4-4.5 ERA this year. He can still be a nice #3 starter in a rotation but he's not a borderline Ace like his ERA from last year seems to indicate.

Well at the same age Pavano was closer to a 5 ERA but he did pitch about 200 innings.

I don't like the Correia siging because he's typically not going to get you 180+ innings per season, he tends to give up the long ball, and doesn't have the stuff to be much of strikeout pitcher. OTOH, he is an experience pitcher and the Twins could use that on the roster and if he can do what he did last year it could be a decent signing. It's not as bad as some think in that the market went way up for pitching this off-season and looks like it will be worse next year. So, if Correia performs well enough for the Twins (approaches 180 innings) then he could look like a pretty good deal next year.

Sadly he's basically Carl Pavano if we're lucky at around the same point in their careers.

Yeah, seems to be the route we're heading in but I'm not sure it will go quite that low.

I never said they would sign an Ace but either way that's what they need. Given the team's history signing aces I don't have high hopes.

Sounds like it's just an extra $25M in revenue so unless they've made some special promise to spend more than 50% that's all they said they will spend. They have said for quite a while now that they will spend 50% of revenue. Sorry guys, I didn't mean to turn this thread into arguement about the payroll/spending but I'm affraid the damage is done.

Yup, it's not that huge of a bump considering that the FA Market is probably going to be inflated by the influx of cash around the league. Either way if the prices is right Saunders could be a good pick up but I'd be pretty cautious about giving 3 years to him.

2/14 isn't too rich but 3/24 is too rich, IMO. I don't think a guy like Saunders is worth three years unless it's a very good price, though in 3 years $8m might be a steal for any warm body that can toss a ball.

Sorry, new to the forums and I didn't know there's been a ton of talk about that already. I just point it out because people seem to assume that the payroll will go up be we have little evidence of that being a sure thing.