Don Walcott

I think Santana and Tonkin are the most easily replaced. If Arcia is good, he has power from the left side that we don't have otherwise. I'm hoping he mashes in ST, makes the team, and finds at least semi-regular ABs in the middle of the lineup, protecting our very right-handed regulars.

I truly admire the passion of the fans on this site. However, the fact that this much is being said about a pretty much irrelevant signing Carlos Quentin to a minor league contract is a very sad commentary on how little the Twins have done to improve this team over the off-season.

Unfortunately, if the Tigers are competitive, they're also likely to add the best available pitcher on the market before the trade deadline. And the Twins are highly unlikely to do that (or even try). If Miggy stays healthy this season, he'll probably have another MVP season with the support from the Martinezes and Upton.

I totally agree that the Twins should have and could have afforded to sign Cueto, Zimmermann, Price or Greinke. But they didn't. No use crying over spilled milk.

Good point. How much the Twins spend relative to other teams is really the comparison we should all be concerned about. Right now, it seems like the Twins are supporting a payroll of a team with no ambition for the playoffs, despite last year's team and a window of opportunity for a team with a lot of underpaid young talent.

I had some sake at lunch, and fell asleep. What did I miss?

I was going to criticize May for not going deep in another thread, but looking at his performance game-by-game, by the time they decided to put him in the pen, he was showing the ability to go deeper into games. With small sample size and improvement, I though I'd be roundly criticized on this site for taking that position. Milone for his career goes less than 6 per game. Even in his best year, he only went 6.1 per game. Last year he went 5.6 per game. I think it's pretty safe to predict he'll need a lot of bullpen help, and I believe May will do better than that. I understand that we'd all like to have the Royals' bullpen, but that's not easy to do. The only franchise that has been able to do this consistently for a long time is the Yankees. I think the Twins should model themselves after the Indians and the Astros, whose bullpens were among the best at least partly because they had to pitch the least.

My problem with Milone as a starter is that he is incapable of regularly pitching deep into games. For his career, so far, he is averaging less than 6 innings per start. This, despite his apparent ability to "settle" into games and do fairly well the third time through the lineup. The problem is that the third time through the lineup happens in the 5th-6th inning. Last year, he needed the bullpen to handle 3+ innings on average. Having a guy like Milone puts too much stress on the bullpen, which leads to a tired bullpen getting tired and injured and worse as the season goes on (like what happened to the Twins last year).

This is a great debate about May. I think the team should see how he performs in Spring Training. If he's good enough, he should start. We can figure the rest out. Saying that he's so good in relief, that we need him there, is a bit like having the best player on an NBA team be a 6th man, because he'd be the best 6th man in the league.

I hope Buxton does start the season with the team. He is easily our best CF. I can understand hoping he can work on his hitting at AAA. But he can work on his hitting in the MLB, too. He'll be around a bunch of major leaguers who can help, Brunansky, and Molitor. Even if he takes a while to hit, he helps this team with his defense and speed. And if he can hit . . . .

In soccer transfers around the world (not necessarily in the US), the player gets some percentage of the transfer fee (10%?). This deal would seem more fair to the player if he received something like that up front. Or maybe his agent gets his payment up front from the Korean team. Very happy about the signing. Not sure about people celebrating the fact that the player gets a lot less than expected. Personally, I'd rather see the players get more money than the owners. And now Zimmermann and Price are off the board. Looks highly unlikely the Twins will be competing to sign Greinke or Cueto. Oh well . . . .

Apparently, Cueto just turned down $20 million per year for 6 years from the D-Backs. I understand the Twins are unlikely to be in the bidding for the top available starters. But I think they should be. I fear the team will regress with out a serious quality upgrade in the pitching staff. The Tigers look like the team everyone predicted would win the division in 2015, but now they have a closer to anchor their bullpen.

I just wonder if we could have had Zimmermann pitching for us instead of against us next season. For that price, he would have been a huge upgrade in the Twins' starting pitching, and I believe he would have helped our bullpen as well. Now, let's hope the Twins can get Cueto, Greinke or Price. The AL Central is going to be tough.

I like your point about starting pitching. However, the argument for signing Fister is an even better argument for signing Zimmermann, Cueto, Greinke or Price. I understand the concern about the risk involved in big contracts, but it's certainly a better investment to get one of these four proven starters than to sign another Nolasco. I think we have the money for this one gamble that could put us in contention next season.

I don't agree that the Twins can look to the Royals as an example for why they shouldn't go out and get an Ace this off-season. Cueto is at least top-5 in the majors over the past two years, and led the league in Ks and IP last year, 2.25 ERA in 243 innings, and was #2 in Cy voting behind only Kershaw. Cueto's an Ace. Although there were times Cueto did not pitch well, he was also the only threat to finish a game or even finish 8. Having that kind of pitcher is important. It is true that Cueto didn't join until the end of July. But the Royals needed him down the stretch and in the playoffs. The year before, they had Shields. He's not as good as Cueto, but he also can go deep into games consistently. He tossed 227 innings, going 62/3 innings per start and received MVP votes. The prior season he led the league in innings and received Cy Young votes. Having a starter who can go deep into games consistently helps keep the bullpen fresh as well. Last season, the Twins bullpen had no respite. And I don't think you can count on Santana or Hughes to consistently pitch deep into games like an Ace should. What the Twins could do to replicate the Royals' success is turn decent starters, like May and Hughes, into top shelf relievers. If we can sign one of the big 4 free agent starters this off-season, we can shore up the bullpen and have a top-tier starting rotation -- e.g. (Cueto, Zimmermann, Price or Greinke), Santana, Gibson, Duffey, Berrios. That's the upgrade I want to see.

Can we still enjoy Mel Gibson movies or Ted Nugent's music? I think it's an interesting question raised about Torii. I had a really hard time reading things and believing things that were written about Kirby. When you are a lifelong fan, and you have favorites on your favorite team, you'd rather overlook or ignore the flaws in your favorite players. I think it is amazing progress that people generally are against Torii's religious condemnation of homosexuality. Let's just not take it too far and condemn Torii for having an opinion most of us disagree with. I still have fond memories of Torii as a player. As a Clemente Award nominee several times, it seems he must have done some really good things as well.

I think the whole debate about whether an Ace does this in the regular season or an Ace does that in the post-season for your team is irrelevant to whether the Twins should sign one of the four clear #1 quality starters on the market this off-season. The Twins have a chance of improving on a great season. The Twins have the money to spend. One of Zimmermann, Price, Cueto or Greinke could provide the Twins with 200+ innings of sub-3 ERA. Add that to Santana, Gibson, Duffey and Berrios, and possibly Hughes (if he's back to 2014 form), and we will significantly improve the team's runs against. Top starters who eat innings also give the bullpen a rest, and that helps make the bullpen more effective. This looks like the best opportunity, this off-season, to sign one of these guys. If the Twins regress, and we want to get them off the books, there will always be buyers in New York, LA, etc. Regardless, the Twins have money, will make more money by signing one of these guys, and this really could take us to the next level. Even if Berrios could be an Ace, or Hughes or Santana could pitch that well (despite their histories of not being at that level), that shouldn't deter the Twins from improving the pitching staff with a proven #1 guy. In fact, getting that guy could make the other starters better. Like some other posters here, I'd love to see them get Zimmermann.

I like the article, and particularly the perspective the author brings to the debate about Mauer. This debate always seems to come down to blaming Mauer, the Twins, or some combination of the two for his contract. I think Joe earned his contract when he was signed, and nobody should feel bad for the Twins for it. What has happened since the contract is nobody's fault. Joe was badly underpaid from 2005-2010, considering his production on the field, and the sales of jerseys off it. I think he's paid about right, maybe a little overpaid, for production in the 2012 and 2013 seasons, and overpaid for production for 2014-2015. That's about 6 underpaid seasons, and at most 4 overpaid seasons, and I would argue only 2 overpaid seasons. And he sells jerseys and was an important player to the fan base when he signed the contract, which is important when analyzing a player's contract. I am hopeful, as most of the rest of you, that he returns to hitting .300 and has a .400 OBP, playing a decent first base, and playing in 150+ games between 1B and DH. Even if this doesn't happen, I don't think the contract was a disaster. Regardless of what happens next, I hope the owners don't attempt to use his contract as an excuse to not sign a #1 starter this offseason -- preferably Zimmerman or Cueto.

I agree with the last two posts about signing another outfielder and a catcher. I think the Twins should focus instead on getting one great starter. It's great to have 8 options for starting pitchers, but we could potentially get someone like David Price, Johnny Cueto, Zack Greinke or Jordan Zimmerman. Wouldn't this team look a lot better with a sure thing #1 starter?