You might've been the only person in MN besides Gardy and Andy that liked that signing. Not unusual for athletes to turn it up in a contract year. He's more likely having a career year than a remarkable transformation. I'm very skeptical of Pelf despite his recent success and I'd be looking to move him unless the Twins get hot again and playoffs are a no doubter.
Maybe this rotation is good enough to sneak into the playoffs but very doubtfully good enough to advance beyond that. No one should be given away but with Pelfrey not being signed beyond this season they'll get nothing for him anyway by letting him walk at the end of the year. Unless they want to buy high on him in the off-season, which is more risk than I'd want to assume given his entire history.
CF Buxton, LF Rosario, RF platoon Hicks/Arcia, Kepler 1B, Sano 3B, DH platoon Vargas/Arcia. Wouldn't mind any 1 or 2 of Hicks/Arcia/Vargas being traded for the right piece. Long term DH I'd rather have Arcia than Vargas
Good point, but Duensing aught to be the easy choice, then maybe Tonkin when Nolasco comes back, trade Pelfrey when Santana returns might be how I'd do it.
My head says leave him go but my heart says re-sign him one more year (if the price is right). Love Torii and IMO the only OF in the organization that might currently be better than him is Rosario.
If he's having success this year as a RP then they should bring him up in that role and try to work him back up to SP for the long term. If he doesn't show he's got the make up to be a SP but is still success as a RP then that's what he is. If it was my call he'd be pitching out of the MLB bullpen very soon.
The old Joe Mauer is gone and he ain't coming back. His contract pretty much makes him untradeable so it is what it is. He'll be a decent player that's getting way overpaid but who still deserves to be in the lineup every day. If he's got any juice left after this contract is up maybe he'll re-sign for league minimum to stay in MN for how ever much longer he wants to or is able to play.
You're right, that was a bit excessive but with the injuries and underperformance he may be in the conversation if the next few years don't show improvement. It sucks to bash Joe because if he was making like $8 million a year we'd all be stoked with what he's doing but that contract makes him a huge target, as it should. If the Twins could creatively move him somehow it might be the best thing for the franchise, unfortunately.
I commented during ST that Mauer was no longer vital to the Twins' resurgence and got jumped on by a lot of posters. I like Mauer and was a big fan of the contract signing at the time but that deal just keeps getting worse and worse. He may go down as one of the most overpaid baseball players of all time.
They're definitely not gonna win 20 games every month. Still don't see them as contenders but they have some pcs falling into place as well as some potentially valuable trade chips. At least they're more fun to watch. Props to the new manager and his staff
I've always thought Perkins to be little over rated, he's still very good but the team as a whole is thriving on clutch performance more so than superior talent. They're flaws will be exposed at some point but I like what they have going for them longterm outside of the bullpen and it's been fun to watch so far.
Is Plouffe's D really that exceptional? Sure he makes the routine plays but I don't see him make a lot of phenomenal plays. His DWAR for 2015 is 0.1 which is good for 36th in the league. Sano has all the making to be a Twins (perhaps MLB) legend, Plouffe is at the top of his game and there's only one way to go from there. If the Twins can get a decent ROI upon moving him they'll be plenty good with Sano at 3B. Edit: 12th in DWAR among qualified 3B (I suppose that's important). Point is, he's good but not that good, and probably won't be good for a whole lot longer.
I think Ryan always takes best available in the first rd regardless of position and fills needs from there. Seems logical since there is generally a long road to the bigs from draft day
I wouldn't change much about Sano's approach and as a long standing critic of this organization in general, its getting tough to not buy in to what they have going for them at this point.
Well the Tigers have owned them and they've split with KC so those arent great counterpoints that they've been beating up on bad teams. It's early and the staff hasn't really shut down a potent line up and the lineup hasn't knocked around an ace SP so my expectations are still tempered.
Sano at 1B would be a waste of his cannon arm and there might not be a clear opening in the OF for him. His bat plays anywhere but all reports are that he can hold his own at 3B, so if he's on his game offensively, a defensive downgrade at 3B should still be an overall upgrade in the long term. I lean towards a Plouffe trade over an extension. Trading good players isn't really a bad thing. If the Twins tailspin toward another 90 loses again this year I think you trade him, if they hang around and indicate they're close it gets more complicated.