GACbaseball

I just played around with BTV.com, and I think we should do a few of these deals that were approved according to that website. It might help out our team this year: Royce Lewis and Adam Bechtold for Mike Trout Kiriloff for Freddie Freeman, Kevin Gausman, and Luke Jackson Graterol and Wade for Gerrit Cole, Michael Brantley, and Roberto Osuna. Do you guys think those deals would help our chances this year? Who says no to these deals???

Realistically looking at the Twins management and ownership, I just don't think it's a good idea to put all of our eggs into one superstar. If that guy bombs we are screwed because the Twins ownership is not about to call it dead money and eat the contract. He will continue to play for us, block better and younger players, and inhibit us from signing free agents. Obviously that's pretty pessimistic but with the Twins current ownership, I think management is following the best strategy by signing multiple above average players with the hopes of one or two of them outperforming their contract like Phil Hughes did in 2014. If Hughes can bounce back to that level, Santana pitches like he did at times down the stretch, we have an ace-caliber pitcher without the risk associated with a monster contract. Although Nolasco might be used as an example as why we shouldn't pay mediocre players, I think it's a good demonstration of what happens when we pay for above average players. For every Santana and Hughes, we are going to have a Nolasco contract. But the difference is, we can afford to stash him on the bench/DL or cut him without it really affecting the construction of our team. If the one megastar we sign tanks, we don't have other options and don't have the money to pay for another try at a good pitcher.

Obviously only a single example, but Hayward reportedly took less money to go to the Cubs. In my opinion, the Twins' offer would have to be substantially greater than the next best offer to land a free agent because of our contender status and market size. And right now, I don't think it is in the Twins best interest to pay someone like Hayward $20,000,000 for 10 years. I don't want a 34 year old Jason Heyward being the reason we can't sign a 29 year old Byron Buxton to a long term deal. And if you think the Twins can afford all of these players and retain our own guys, then you are just not being realistic. Wishful? Yes. Realistic? No.

At this point, I don't think his control issues will ever be "corrected" enough to be an effective starter. I'm just hoping to get strong value from him at this point, and I would rather have him focus on controlling two pitches out of the stretch, to become a dominant reliever. Working on 3-4 pitches, from the stretch and the windup, makes for a lot of things the guy has to work on to repeat consistently. Yes, he likely has the greatest potential as a starter. I would just like to simplify things for him and lower the potential slightly by making him a reliever but raise his floor substantially

It's 2016, can we get rid of the traditional closer role? Jensen and Perkins own the 8th and 9th innings. Try to match them up to give us the best chance to win

I prefer to give up on starting and transition to a reliever full time. No more questions about his role will be and his stuff should play up in a limited role. No one is questioning if Trevor Rosenthal, Aroldis Chapman, or Wade Davis should have been given more opportunities to start....

I am glad we have stayed away from the humongous contracts for star players. Most of the time, by the end of the contract, they end up looking like Joe Mauer. Overpaid and blocking several players. We have not been in the position to spend money on big name free agents. First of all, why would Cueto, or Heyward, or any other big name player come to the cellar-dweller Twins over the last few years? Sure, some of them like Greinke would be willing to follow the money, but that would mean winning bidding wars with teams like the Dodgers and Cubs, which we aren't going to do and SHOULDN'T do. I prefer to avoid having massive albatross contracts for overpriced, aging veterans when we should be having the payroll flexibility to add the necessary veterans around an in-their-prime Sano and Buxton in a few years (and have enough money to keep them long-term)

I don't think there's a way to make it fair. It seems like Japan, Venezuela, Cuba, and some other countries will not participate in the world draft. I wonder if these countries (other than Japan probably) would agree to be a part of the draft if charities in their country received a matched amount of money that their players signed for. Example: Twins sign Wander Javier for $4million after picking him in the draft. They then must spend $4million building roads in the Dominican. Obviously this isn't very realistic but it would atleast help the countries where these athletes come from

I'll be attending this game - what are the chances I see Pelfrey's last start as a Twin?

I love how much depth plays a role in National League games. You need to have a solid bench to have good pinch hitting options. You then need to have a deep bullpen to piece together innings at the end of games. It becomes much more of a "team" game I understand that watching a pitcher strike out on 3 pitches is not as fun as watching David Ortiz, but I enjoy the thinking game that NL managers go through late in the game

I really don't want to count on Kepler, Walker, Harrison, or Rosario as our future until they prove something in AAA. Even though we have been promoting from AA, I'd really like to start getting back to using AAA as a final stepping stone. Arcia should not be traded yet... he has proven he can hit major league hitting for an extended period of time and I don't want to give up on him for the "promise" of any of the minor league guys. I don't want to give up Denard Span again because a guy like Hicks is ready for the big leagues Let's keep all of our guys until they distinguish themselves more against higher levels of pitching

If we make a DH in both leagues, why not take it one step further and make it like football? 9 guys can play defense and then 9 different guys can hit! That way we don't have to see Hanley Ramirez in the field or Aaron Hicks at the plate. That should make the game way better!

Still can't believe people are worried about Plouffe "blocking" Sano. Trevor has proven over several years to be very average so the Twins shouldn't hesitate to replace him with a far superior talent

Scary thought - Byron Buxton=BJ Upton? http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?id=1817488

Love seeing May settle in up here. Would be nice to see what Meyer can do with a major league pitching coach