Doomtints

The idea is inflation and/or increasing player salaries will make today's commitments cheaper when they actually have to sign the checks. I wonder if it would be legal for the Twins to sell bonds to cover a player's salary.

Polanco hasn't done this yet. I expected him to do it by now.

Yes, I did read that. I'd be more interested in knowing which teams rather than "several."

Doubtful. Think about it: This is very close to the contract Brian Dozier had. The Twins are budgeting the same money for the middle of the infield. Nothing has changed.

On the negative side, is $25M the right rate for 15-25 throwing errors per year?

I love Polanco but I would have preferred to see another year of him before making this move. But with Sano and Buxton falling on their faces, if you're gonna hand out an extension this is the only one to make, at least on the position player side. Right now Polanco is the only player on the team the Twins have committed to build around. Interesting.

Sounds like a fun toy, but other teams are able to get pitchers going without it. Let's hope they don't overthink this and make pitchers adjust to things that ruin their ability to get people out or cause injury.

The earlier you recognize you have something serious and get to a hospital to get IVs (and antibiotics of course), the quicker/better your body will fight it. It's scary how quickly this can dehydrate your body, it would be very difficult to get over the initial hump just by drinking fluids alone.

He could be a good starter but there's no doubt he'd be a good reliever. I say work him in, a la Johan Santana, as a reliever for a while. If he flashes greatness and longevity, a rotation spot will open up sooner rather than later, should the team wish to go that direction.

This reminds me of signing Byungho Park when we had both 1B and DH sewn up. Duda does not fit anywhere and the Twins are screwing somebody with this signing, as we again have 1B and DH sewn up. Like Park, he's not much of an upgrade, if one at all, to the current options. In the meantime, the Twins don't have a bullpen they can trust, so this seems like a waste of time.... I like Duda (if anything his weakness is he wears down during games, thus he's not "clutch" unless he comes off the bench). I don't know why he takes a deal like this unless he was promised he has a strong chance to make the roster, and if promises like this are being made to him I have no clue what this team is doing. Whatever happens will cause drama in the clubhouse.

Your response is elite. You should be running the team.

“Not when you’re got your fingers underneath the window and you’re trying to jam the window open. I want to do it when we’re projected to win the Central and we’re ready to put our foot on someone’s throat.” Seems like you make the move when the market has something good available if you plan to contend later. Next year may not have the same talent available, or the year after, or the year after....... An upgrade is an upgrade!

32 starts would be never missing a game. Don't take that bet on Pineda. I would be surprised if he averages one start per week, and that's 25 starts.

I'm surprised Duda takes a deal like this, but hey that's on him. If he doesn't make the team (he won't), he won't putz around in the minors for the Twins.

Now we know why he won't spend any money on the team this year.

I would think it's more likely a small sample size issue. But to address your point, I think every team would take a player who hit 17 HR in 1/3 of a season very seriously. The Yankees thought they were selling high on him, we will hopefully find out if that's true or not.

We need a term like "microeconomics" for baseball stats for situations like this. We are comparing two completely different players by pulling out two stats instead of looking at even half of the full picture. We may as well talk about how Nick Punto and Miguel Sano have the same batting average.

Many people use strong words to describe last year because some of us had very high expectations. 90-100 wins was a common prediction. The reality of course was they were still a .500 team if everything worked out right because 2017 was such a down year for the AL. As other teams got better for 2018, the Twins improved just enough to tread water. "Disappointment" is probably a better word to use than "failure." It wasn't THAT hard to predict 2018 if one looked at the entire league and not just the Twins.

As things stand today I would expect them to go 12-16 over this stretch, including the three games in March. The schedule next year will be the easiest for them in August and September, so if they hover around .500 until then good things could happen. Right now I don't expect them to do so.

Great to see you over here, Stu.

Most of the available players at the moment are on the older side. The market of players young enough to be worth signing to long term deals and building around is pretty small. The Twins probably aren't in the running for anyone interesting as there just aren't enough interesting players. Still, loading up the bullpen with one year contracts wouldn't be a terrible plan I should think. There is an utter deluge of free agents in their 30s and the Twins still seem thin in the pen.

Rumors are Everson Griffen will be cut. Right choice? He is clearly important to the team as evidenced by his issues last year coinciding with the team dropping off a cliff in the middle of the season. So he's good and probably undervalued. On the other hand, if he has a relapse and the team needs him this much, falling off a cliff again is another possibility. Key players having issues will affect everybody. On the other other hand, if he relapses and he's not on the team anymore, would the players still be heavily affected then too? Perhaps so.

I feel like I said, twice, that the Twins don't need to try to spend the most money. Your examples are flawed in two ways: 1) This isn't at all what I said, 2) You're assuming someone like Arrieta or many of those other guys would not have been an improvement for what the Twins had last year (apart from Darvish, they would have). You also might want to look at Arrieta's deal, it's basically a football contract in that very little is guaranteed. He could be a free agent again at the end of this year. Who could they pick up now? If the Twins are throwing 1-year deals around, Clay Buchholz. He will be better than Martin Perez and the money might not be much different. Now your turn, who would you pick up?

It's insane that the Twins act surprised by Astudillo's performance. His numbers in the minors are enviable. It's basically down to what he looks like, he's not built like the stereotypical baseball player. I'm wondering where in the Twins shiny new advanced metrics spreadsheets his frame is scored.

(Hint: It's neither. The Twins could spend a little more and spend it smarter than the other teams.)