Doomtints

They're cutting things to the bone. The Twins did similar when Ryan came back. Hopefully the Rays fare a bit better. It's a one year deal and it's impossible to be upset about that, though yeah this is the final nail in the coffin for Vargas unless something unexpected happens.

Kemp would be productive on an AL team and might even earn his $20m. But the Twins would never do this nor should they. Vargas looks like garbage on paper mostly because the Twins have bounced him around for four years. His performance is better than one would expect for a player on such a short chain. As for Morrison, last year was a strange uptick in his performance. It would be interesting to see if the Twins fall for this when no other team would fall for it when the Twins were trying to unload Dozier.

In the early 20th century, there was a fuss in colleges about how dangerous American football had become. Some universities stopped their football programs and brought back rugby, including Stanford. It became clear quickly that rugby was even more dangerous and within a couple of years all of the universities went back to football.

meh

I'm surprised anyone is too worried about this. It sucks for him that he got injured during what should have been his prime year, but the reality is he won't be back in form until his window has closed. Yes this is on the Twins, you can't hit the snooze button on older college grads too long. He was performing and he should have been up sooner. But it is what it is at this point.

If you can lock down a guy like Lance Lynn, you do it.

It was the most painful thing I ever went through as well. But the pain isn't where people think it is. The pain feels like one is being impaled through the stomach.

Gladden hit better in the playoffs than in the regular season, that's for sure. If you saw these games you could see how fired up he was to be there. He had the ability to turn it on when required, no question.

Kidney stones are usually caused by dehydration (ie, drinking things other than water) or by overuse of calcium supplements, so I'm not buying it. I have these from time to time and they're not fun, though they're also not what people imagine they are either.

Tom Kelly used 4-man rotations for parts of seasons, even the 87 season. But as time went on he stopped doing it, even when it may have helped (in the 90s).

I don't hate the idea. My main point is the Twins would never do it. It's too unconventional.

Yes, and mlb.com should have been able to parse this properly.

I read an article on mlb.com with one sentence buried in it stating that Molitor was considering using a four man rotation. My thoughts: - This would warrant a full article on mlb.com, not one small sentence buried in an article about something else with no explanation or source. - The idea of the Twins using a four man rotation is so preposterous I'm amazed anyone would type such a sentence in an article. I'm also surprised an editor would let it go through. The Twins are so afraid of breaking current MLB mores that they won't make Sano a full time DH because he's not a geriatric like most DHs are. If young DHs existed, you can bet the Twins would want one (or they'd just say they "can't compete due to pricey DHs" -- take your pick). Sewing up the DH role for the next 5+ years with someone of Sano's caliber would be a genius move. Geniuses win championships. Followers finish at .500. There is zero chance this team does anything but field a plain vanilla five man starting rotation unless half the other teams change first. My theory: mlb.com only knew of four pitchers they could write about since the last slot is a question mark so they threw this out there.......

Just looked. Cleveland has a lot of lefties, but I don't think anyone expects us to go toe-to-toe to them right now. Detroit has none that matter. The other two teams have a few, but there isn't anything there that should make a GM try to build a team to beat. I could see other teams in the AL Central being concerned with left handed pitching since the Twins and Indians both have lefty hitters who can hurt you. The Twins are built well to compete in the division.

Do the Twins need another lefty starter to compete in the AL Central? I'm honestly asking, I don't know. I feel like the Twins can smack around two or three teams in the division just with competent starters on either side, but maybe the AL Central is rampant with lefties and I just don't know about it. I haven't looked.

After moving to Chicago, I can taste the difference between a chain and a not-chain. And I can taste the difference between something someone bought pre-cooked from a distributor and just heated up or made fresh. It's a big difference! I don't think it's snobby, once you figure out the difference it's really hard to stomach chain food, esp. for a pricey dinner.

I'm not too worried about Santana being out. This is the year for Berrios to rise to ace material if he is ever going to do it. Santana starting his decline now, if it happens, is decent timing. Santana's performance isn't going to fall off the map in any case. "Regress" doesn't mean "drop to a #5." Santana will still win some important games and will be a trusted arm in the rotation. I don't see the Twins paying what Arrieta is probably asking for. We already saw them unwilling or unable to pay Darvish market value. As for Lance Lynn, yes he's the best pitcher on the board and he probably always was. The Twins shouldn't have wasted time on Darvish, but since they did I think it's unlikely they land Lynn either. Competition is hotter for him now. Cobb fits the profile of who the Twins usually chase as his market value is going to be driven by injury concerns. He's cheaper and he was good once, but the Twins would only sign him if no one else will, and then only to a short term deal.

http://i3.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/620/434/f9e.gif

If the Twins pick up another free agent starting pitcher, I think we can be happy about this offseason, even if the Twins weren't picking from the top of the heap. Right now, though... meh. We can be confident that the bottom of the order will be better at the very least.

At least you are realistic about him being a #5. We now have 1,2,5 sealed up, and we can hope some of the others on the roster land somewhere north of #5 this year. (And at least one of them probably will.)

This article focuses on his 30 home runs last year as the reason why last year was so much worse for him. How many home runs did he have the year before last? 29. No mention of this in the article...

0 WAR is an AAA player, or in other words a below average MLB player. He is already costing teams wins.

Doesn't matter. Teams still expect more from their #3 pitchers.

Odorizzi had a decent start last year but was terrible from midseason on. (And "midseason" is being generous). Of his 28 starts, 18 were bad outings (3 or more runs or lasting less than 6 innings). Teams expect more than 150 innings from their #3 pitchers. This is no #3. If he performs at his potential he is a #4. If he continues his slide, well.... It's weird how the Twins get tunnel vision on certain players, particularly pitchers. This isn't the first time Odorizzi has come up in conversation. Some are suggesting Odorizzi can play better with a better defense behind him. According to his BABIP, he was extremely lucky last year when it comes to defense, luckier than any Twins pitcher. The dude allowed 59 home runs over the past two years! His failures are all on him. Rays fans are happy to see him go. I suspect we have been Miloned.

People are saying this is Santana insurance, since Santana will miss a small amount of time. However, this makes no sense, you don't sign a #5 to fill in for your #1. This is Phil Hughes insurance.