Vanimal46

If I could give this 1,000,000 likes I would. The Twins have never, ever, ever in their history went after an Ace SP in FA. Give the FO some credit, even they knew they were going after 2nd-tier pitchers the last 2 offseasons for Hughes, Nolasco, and Santana. They didn't even come close to the true aces available those years (Tanaka in 13, Scherzer and Shields last year) Brock + others have brought up that if Gibson was traded, our staff isn't good enough for the playoffs. Worthy argument. However, how can you argue that the lineup would be good enough anyway for the playoffs? We're not trading for Tulo so he can be Ozzie Smith in the field. Hes brought on to be a #3 hitter in our lineup, so we can move either Hunter or Mauer further down the chain. If a guy in a "decline phase" still manages to have a 41 game on-base streak, I will take that all day long.

Exactly... We've been waiting for that ace pitcher for 7 years since the Johan trade. When should we set our alarms for the arrival of the next one? Who could forget the Twins battle in FA for Max Scher.... And Zach Grien...... We were neck and neck for Masahiro Tana..... Oh that's right, the Twins will never, ever spend big $$ on pitching.

I'm taking a page out of Mike's playbook, but it is Mind.Boggling to read so many who believe he's in a decline phase. Tulo is hitting .318/.361/.492 and is in the midst of a 41-game on-base streak. Repeat: 41 straight games getting on base! He's also on pace to play 145 games this season... I know he and anyone else can get hurt at any time, but he's shown durability this season. Tulo is 2 years older than Dozier. But somehow Tulo is over the hill, and Dozier has developed into an MVP candidate on this site. Are we going to toss Dozier aside too in 2 years when he's the same age as Tulo??

I'm sure we all can get behind that to trade away a guy who can't play in the OF and a guy who can't play C for Lucroy.....

At least it was a fun afternoon not focusing on work

I agree, but it depends what that price is to get him. I'm a big Berrios supporter, and would love to plug him into the rotation in 2016. But if he's the big prize the Rockies want, or Gibson + Kepler and another prospect outside of the top 10, I would pull the trigger on that deal.

Clearly I'm showing my age on this discussion. I was 2 years old in his last season with the Twins, so I have no recollection of him playing. Either way then our BEST SS was 23 years ago. The best SS in my fandom was Guzman, and even he left the team 11 years ago.. But hey, let's keep throwing out re-treads and Escobar/Nunez/Santana instead of a proven MLB All-Star at the right price.

Twins SS the last 25 years: - Greg Gagne, Pat Mears, Denny Hocking, Christian Guzman (arguably the best?) Jason Bartlett, Juan Castro, Adam Everett, Orlando Cabrera, JJ Hardy, Pedro Florimon, Doug Bernier, Jason Bartlett again, Nunez, Santana, Polanco. I think the carousel of SS needs to end one of these days....

I'm with you Dave and Mike on this fight. We're not talking about RB's in the NFL where once they hit 30, they fall off a cliff. If that's the case, we need to talk about trading Dozier, as he's nearing that terrifying age 30 season...Tulo can certainly man the SS position for the next 3-4 years easy, and make the transition to 3B or 1B once Mauer's contract is off the books. Injury concerns.... Yes he gets hurt. I will take that trade off of 100-120 games of greatness at SS, and figure out the times when he's on the DL. Same thing as Rob Gronkowski in the NFL; he may be out 4-5 games a season, but when he's in the lineup he's the best at his position in the sport. How often does a player like Tulo come into the open market for trades with a long term deal in place? I can't recall anyone in recent memory.. If Tulo were a FA this off-season, he would easily get more than his $20 mill price tag. The price makes or breaks this deal. We've ruled out Sano and Buxton. IMO, anyone else could be had for his services.

The show stopper for me would be Sano included in any part of this trade. Could you imagine him in Coors Field? 40+ HRs every year without a doubt. That would haunt our dreams....

This thread has gone to the subject of trading Buxton?! To quote Vince Lombardi "WHAT THE HELL is going on out here?!"

It goes both ways my friend. You could make it a law before Bill Smith thought it was a great idea to trade Wilson Ramos.... Teams swing and miss making trades for any position. If Berrios is off-limits, that's fine, and I agree with you because he's the best pitching prospect we have. But if he's off-limits, unless these teams value Gordon, Kepler, or an MLB player like Plouffe, we're not going to get Lucroy, Norris, Susac, Plawecki, or whoever the flavor of the month is.

I'm a little late to this party, but I agree with VodkaDave and others that the proposed idea of Arcia & Meyer for Norris would not do the trick. Even if they traded away Justin Upton, which is certainly likely by July 31, they have Kemp / Myers and 35 other guys to choose from to fill a corner OF spot. Would it be safe to say that acquiring a young C who can field and hit is similar to acquiring a young QB in the NFL? They're both premium spots in their respective sports, and if we really want a fix, we're going to have to pony up more than we'd like to get it done. Sure, the Twins could go for the bargains out there with AJ, Pena/etc. but we'll be back in the same situation next year because they are not long term solutions..... The reality is our farm system is not top 3 anymore with recent grads of Rosario, Buxton, Sano, etc. There's a couple left (Berrios, Gordon, maybe Kepler) that other teams would covet in a trade, and the rest are depth players that's not going to drive the needle up in trade negotiations. I would be very hesitant in giving up Berrios, but I would think long and hard about it if he were able to bring in a C for the long term...

At my 8-5, I learned I've been doing all of my clients a disservice by not asking "Do you believe in bigfoot?" to candidates in interviews...

It's a huge red flag in my opinion that Boyer is on pace for 76 appearances this season... Especially as Nick pointed out he's had 37 appearances in the last 4 seasons combined! I suspect the number of appearances to drop significantly in the 2nd half, otherwise a guy like him will certainly burn out by the end of the season. It took a little bit longer than we wanted, but Gibson is the real deal. I have the most confidence in him out of all our starting pitchers this year. I'm also fine with the aggressiveness on the base paths, even if it's resulting in more CS. I know there have been gripes on the game threads that base running has cost us additional runs scored, but what percentage does that actually happen?

To be fair May is handled much differently as a rookie compared to a vet like Pelfrey. They're still watching his innings carefully and on a firm 100 pitch limit per outing. Pelfrey can pitch 150 for all I care if he's pitching well.

I thought so, but apparently he's stuck in long relief duty. Ugh.

Pelf was cruising, but it shows that there is no confidence in the bullpen..

Come on Pelf let's get out of this jam!

Whoops, that's what happens when you Google "best free agent catchers 2014" thinking it was for the 2014 off season heading into this year.

Not much the Twins could have done this last off-season to upgrade the catcher position, at least from a free agency standpoint. The best option was Brian McCann 5/85 and the Twins are never going to win a bidding war against the Yanks. Other options out there: Jarrod Saltalamachia? He was terrible this season for the Marlins and got a buyout. AJ Pierzynski? 37 years old oh boy... I hate that we're in this spot with so few options besides Suzuki. But the only option to make an upgrade was through trades. And who knows maybe some of the rookies making an impact this season would have been offered to get a catcher...

It appears we are still a few years away from any internal candidate making an impact on the MLB roster, unless we're seeking Drew Butera like stats at the plate. I would call the Dodgers to find out their asking price for either Barnes or Farmer in their farm.

As a fan I'm a little tired of the Tonkin experiment. If he hasn't stuck the previous 12 times he's been called up, what makes it different the next time he gets the call? I still have faith in Burdi making an impact at some point since he's only 22. The others like Jones and Reed are getting to that age 24-25 where you question how much longer are they considered prospects for the future.

So if ROR gets the job done as a lefty in our bullpen, does that finally mean the end of Duensing? (crossing fingers that the answer is yes!)

I think an important note in the original article is this: "While Molitor seems open to the 6 man idea, GM Terry Ryan seems less receptive to the idea and is leaning towards replacing a current member of the rotation." I believe TR is going to win this argument, and we'll be going back to debating who's the odd man out at SP.