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twinsfan34

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Blog Entries posted by twinsfan34

  1. twinsfan34
    In lieu of the possible trade rumors (and likely just rumors) of the Cardinals availability of starting pitchers Lance Lynn and Shelby Miller in hopes of finding a top shortstop.
     
    The 2014 rule 5 Draft in June is already being touted as a pitcher heavy draft. The amount of high school pitchers throwing 92+ mph is easily 15 and counting, while the college pitchers heavily populating preliminary mock drafts with some showing as many as 15 1st round college pitchers taken already. It's early I know. Some will fall, but others will rise.
     
    All that said. The Lance Lynn or Shelby Miller trades for the likes of Jurickson Profar and Elvis Andrus leaned towards the Cardinals, yes, the Cardinals, likely having to 'sweeten the pot' to get a top shortstop as they appear to be more limited and thus, by demand more so than historical value, appear to have a greater weighted value in 2014 and indefinitely until there's more shortstops.
     
    For perspective, only five full-time (qualified) shortstops hit .280 or above this year. Jose Reyes, Hanley Ramirez, Evereth Cabrera, Johnny Peralta, Jordy Mercer, and Jose Iglesias would have made that 11 over .280 had they had enough at-bats. All-in-all, of qualified shortstops, only eight every day shortstops hit over .260. The 2012 season saw 10 shortstops hit over .260, 2011 had 14, and 2010 had 10 respectively. So it's not terribly down, but nonetheless, there seems to be a shared perception SS quality is down.
     
     
    I'm all for the Twins getting another top tier SP - although, our farm system seems to have too many starters vying for starts already as seen in Top 50 Twins Prospects 16-20 thread below below)
     
  2. twinsfan34
    I personally don't think the Twins should chase 30+ yr old pitchers. Only exception to 'add an arm' is when you're contending and one piece could make the difference.
     
    Here's an article found on a Boston Red Sox forum. Thought it was interesting they, who have little to no need for pitching (they did chase on Ryan Dempster though - which didn't turn out very well) and tried to get a few games out of Jake Peavy (in season trade).
     
    Lackey was a signing, ironically, at age 30.
     
    So...maybe not something the Red Sox don't do, but something this fan/writer is at least glad they don't have to play that Russian roulette again this year.
     
     
    Per Over the Monster,
     
    "The Red Sox thankfully don't need to invest in a Santana or Nolasco, because they've set themselves up to avoid that very thing."
     
     
     
  3. twinsfan34
    Jacoby Ellsbury, healthy only 2 of the past 4 seasons, and his agent Scott Boras are prowling the streets of the free agent market with the notion that Carl Crawford's $142M contract is well, "an old contract."
     
    Ellsbury who has a career AVG/OBP/SLG .297/.350/.439, a single GG, one season where he hit over 10 home runs, missed two of his last four seasons with injuries, he's 30 years old, and his agent believes he should get upwards of 7 yrs $180M.
     
    Scott Boras goes on...
     
     
    1. Is there new money available that wasn't previously? (TV deals?)
    2. Wouldn't Sin-Soo Choo be the cheaper AND the better deal? He's almost the same age (31), likely cheaper, has more power, and has a better a better Bill Jamesian (AVG/OBP/SLG) of .288/.389/.465.
  5. twinsfan34
    The New York Yankees extended qualifying offers to three of their 13 free agents.
     
    Robinson Cano, Hiroki Kuroda, and Curtis Granderson.
     
    Cano, they clearly were wanting to sign to a multi-year deal before he would hit free agency. Kuroda, they are perhaps not wild about as a 38 year old, but for $14M he's as good a bet as any for a 'decent' season. But Granderson, it would appear that the Yankees extended a qualifying offer to Granderson in hopes of jumping into one of the deepest pitching drafts (pre-liminary) in recent memory. The White Sox were rumored to be interested in Granderson before the QO was made. They coals might have cooled a bit in lieu of the recent news.
     
    But, I can't help, but wonder, how serious the Yankees were about signing Granderson. Sorta have a feeling they hope he gets signed rather than coming back for 1 yr at $14.1M.
     
    The Reds look to be taking that approach with Choo as GM Walt Jocketty is on record saying if Choo accepted it'd make it very difficult for the team financially.
     
    "We thought about it quite a while," Jocketty said. "We'll still be able to attempt to try and sign him, but if he ended up accepting, it would be very tough to fit it into the budget."
     
    So, they're clearly hoping to hop on that Draft Pick Gravy Train.
     
    That brings me to the other players who received Qualifying offers. Which teams, if any, do you feel are almost 'hopeful' the player who received the QO walks?
    In all, 13 players received qualifying offers prior to Monday's deadline. Here's the full list:
    Qualifying offer extended:
    Carlos Beltran, Cardinals
    Robinson Cano, Yankees
    Shin-Soo Choo, Reds
    Nelson Cruz, Rangers
    Stephen Drew, Red Sox
    Jacoby Ellsbury, Red Sox
    Curtis Granderson, Yankees
    Ubaldo Jimenez, Indians
    Hiroki Kuroda, Yankees
    Brian McCann, Braves
    Kendrys Morales, Mariners
    Mike Napoli, Red Sox
    Ervin Santana, Royals
     
     
  8. twinsfan34
    How did they do it? What were the changes?
     
    How does a team 'unload' most of it's talent and not really seem to acquire much more, yet, come out on top as it seems the Red Sox have done.
     
    The 1991 Minnesota Twins went from 'worst to first'...as did the Atlanta Braves that year.
     
    The 2012 Red Sox had:
    Carl Crawford ($102.5M over the next 5 yrs)
    Adrian Gonzalez ($127M over the next 6 yrs, Red Sox pay $3.9M/yr thru '15)
    Marlon Byrd
    Josh Beckett ($31.5M over the next 2 yrs)
    Kevin Youkilis ($12M)
    Aaron Cook
    Saisuke Matsuzaka ($10M)
    Cody Ross ($26M over next 3 yrs)
    Mike Aviles ($6 over next 2 yrs)
     
    Cook and Matsuzaka stunk. So they wouldn't have been back either way.
     
    James Loney, acquired in the Dodgers trade, was let go. They only have one prospect (BA's #71 for 2013) in P Allen Webster to show for that trade.
     
    The 2013 Red Sox acquired:
    Stephen Drew (FA, 1yr/$9M, 3.1 WAR)
    Johnny Gomes (FA, 2y/$10M, 1.2 WAR)
    Mike Napoli (FA, 1y/$13M, 4.1 WAR)
    Shane Victorino (FA, 3yr/$39M, 6.1 WAR)
    Ryan Dempster (FA, 2yr/$26.5M, -1.7 WAR)
    Koji Uehara (FA, 2yr/$9.25M, 3.6 WAR)
    Mike Carp (Trade, 1yr/508K, 1.3 WAR)
     
    Late season trade:
    Jake Peavy (2yr/$29M, 0.6 WAR, 10g played)
     
     
    The players who moved WAR contributions:
    Adrian Gonzalez - 2012 ~ 3.5 WAR, 2013 ~ 3.9 WAR
    Carl Crawford - 2012 ~ 0.5 WAR, 2013 ~ 1.7 WAR
    Kevin Youkilis - 2012 ~ 1.6 WAR, 2013 ~ -0.2 WAR
    Cody Ross - 2012 ~ 1.9 WAR, 2013 ~ 2.5 WAR
    Mike Aviles - 2012 ~ 2.3 WAR, 2013 ~ 0.6 WAR
    Josh Beckett - 2012 ~ 1.1 WAR, 2013 ~ -0.8 WAR
     
    And they're in pretty good shape for 2014 with a lot of salary flexiblity in that Napoli, Drew, Ellsbury, Saltamacchia, Hanrahan, and Matt Thornton are all coming off the books. I'm sure they'll try to sign, in order, Ellsbury, Napoli, and Saltamacchia. That's $49.5M to still arrive at their $154M number for 2014. Jackie Bradley should provide some value as a 2nd year MLB prospect, who knows, maybe he'd have to replace Ellsbury if they don't sign him. Bogaerts should add value to 3B, if not win ROY as well.
     
    The only thing better they could have done was keep Byrd or Ross instead of signing Johnny Gomes. And not sign Ryan Dempster.
     
    But is it just me, or was that off-season not all that impressive? If anything, it would seem like they would have had another losing season as it seemed more talent went out the door than what came in the door.
     
    What, if at all, would this look like in action on the Minnesota Twins?
  12. twinsfan34
    I'm not sure how much others in the organization are on the same page as Paul Molitor, but he is in the organization and a person gaining more and more influence.
     
    He was interviewed on 1500espn Thursday.
     
    Bullet List:
    - Robinson Cano getting $305M
    - Dozier and Arcia are bright spots.
    - Dozier should hit around .270 when all said and done.
    - Twins Front Office being open to putting something exciting on the field, point blank, seeing if young players can play
    - Miguel Sano - 50% he's in the bigs next year at the start of the season - it's on him.
    - Buxton - you can't put a regular time-table on the guy. There's something inside him unlike all the others.
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