ewen21

If you remember a guy named Tom Paciorek, he had some excellent years as a DH in Chicago during his 34, 35, and 36 year old seasons. Best seasons of his career by far.

Wouldn't be shocked to see him do as well as Darvish does.

It's pretty clear that the Twins are now operating on different terms than they were ten years ago. This isn't a small market team, we are mid-market and have enough resources to compete. If Mauer were not resigned then that money will be allocated to bring in other players. I actually am curious to see what this group can do without Mauer and a payroll equal to the one we have now. We might be able to make a MUCH BETTER team (which is what I am interested in, not whether or not Joe is allowed to play as long as he wishes).

kee How does this work? Joe turns 35 next month and with his history of injuries he is going to "keep getting better". When you extend out the timeline far enough everyone outlives their usefulness. In terms of baseball players, who gets better after 35??

The point remains. He is a player who claims to have post concussion symptoms going through three seasons. That doesn't exactly make him marketable. Please don't make the topic about me, Jim. Not sure why you initiated that

Excellent point. I love how Fangraphs determines how much money a player is worth. Are we REALLY using this as a benchmark for how the market should pay these players? I think they are using the Yen as their basis. Personally I don't sign Mauer no matter what he does this year. He had "post concussion symptoms" for three years. I am not putting out money for a 36 year old player with that history. Not sure how and why the concussion thing doesn't get discussed when talking about a possible extension. It seems to only be deployed when explaining away those three mediocre seasons he had in a row.

We released David Ortiz just so he could be our DH

I surely hope the new management team isn't of the mindset where they are thinking: "How do we shoehorn Joe into our roster?" Plus with his much ballyhooed post concussion issues (that apparently lasted three years) there is plenty of risk. Seems like when we talk about the last several years the concussion thing gets discussed. When we talk about resigning him? I haven't heard anyone bring that up. ​Doesn't this factor into the equation?

That's the same rationale as, "it's this way because this is the way we have done it the last two years" Because we used him as a 4th outfielder doesn't mean it has to continue for a third year. Seriously, it seems like some people feel like Grossman needs to be here. He does not. He is a perfect example of someone who can be easily replaced by a better player at virtually the same cost.

Grossman is SCARY in the outfield. He has run into Santana, Polanco and Buxton. He made more errors than all LFers in the league in 2016 in just SEVENTY FIVE games. I don't understand why people keep referring to him as a "fourth outfielder". That means if someone goes down he is next man up out there.

He's MUCH better? Make me understand how you get that.

Help me understand how that Arietta deal is so bad when some folks here were upset we didn't outbid Chicago to get Darvish.

Dozier has been an everyday player for the last four seasons, playing over 150 games each year. How many guys do that for 7 or 8 years straight? Are we supposed to bank on him being one of those guys?

I sure hope management doesn't think that Dozier is going to be the player he was the last two years for the next three or four. This is the trouble with baseball contracts. Too often you overpay for what the guy did instead of for what he is capable of doing. If you give Dozier too many years it's a mistake. I even think three years is too much, Take a look at a player like Chase Utley. He was better than Dozier was for a longer period of time and by the time he hit his early 30s his production declined pretty sharply: https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/u/utleych01.shtml I guess it is natural to get attached to players, but do what is right for the betterment of this team going forward.

How is it you were saying "whatever it takes, give me Darvish"? Offers of 120 million were insulting and yet with Arietta you post these kinds of numbers?? I would do Arietta for those numbers, but CLEARLY the Darvish contract was a stupid play by the Cubs. A very stupid one, in fact

These are things I just cannot get around when hear how deeply Joe was affected by his concussion. For him to slip through all the protocols implies rampant negligence. I also do not understand how he can experience issues to the extent where production drops so sharply and no one puts two and two together for three seasons.

I think Polanco and Kepler are two guys to watch this year, If they make even just a small gain offensively this lineup with be very tough

Houston and NY are pretty stacked. If we do make the playoffs I would hope that we can make some noise, though. I keep going back to the 2003 Marlins. There was a team that had a staff that was no better than this one at the outset of the season, but Dontrelle Willis had a great year and they had Beckett, Pavano and Penny all taking a step forward. We need one more pitcher, imo. I don't believe an ace is necessary. What is needed is for players to peak at the right time. That is what the Marlins did AND it is what the Royals did as well

I don't see how he comes back. When he was with NY he had what was diagnosed as "dead arm syndrome" as well and they sent him to the bullpen. He turns 32 this year. i would say he is fighting against heavy odds at this stage

I think you have enough information to form an opinion on Hughes at this point. The guy has had so many injuries and this thoracic outlet syndrome he is recovering from ends careers. Josh Beckett, Shawn Marcum, Chris Carpenter,,,,it is derailing Matt Harvey's career right now. Hughes has also had TJ. Who has had TJ and the procedure to fix thoracic outlet syndrome? Anyone else besides Hughes?? So I don't see how the front office can justify their optimism in this case.

I actually thought Hughes was a good signing at first. The extension and the fact that the team didn't allow him to hit his incentive to me was puzzling. I have soured on Hughes. I live outside of the market and saw national game in 2016. This was in Cleveland in (I think) May. CJ Nitkowski conducted a dugout interview with Hughes. When Hughes was asked how it is getting up for games when you fall so far back early like the Twins did that year Hughes answered, "It's like we are playing with house money now" I thought the answer was ridiculous. The very next pitch the Cleveland batter hit into a double play and Phil overjoyed to get out of the interview. He really rubbed me the wrong way with the "house money" comment. Maybe it was just a slip up and I am reading too much into it, but it bothered me because it reflects an attitude that says "these games mean very little to me" When you say "playing with house money" you might use the term when you get into the playoffs by the skin of your teeth as a Wildcard. Not in MAY. I don't care how far back the team is. That is just tone deaf

The only other explanation is that he really didn't have the ongoing symptoms from the concussion and used it as an excuse for subpar play.

The thing I have trouble with is how could it be that all these people around him on a daily basis can't detect something was amiss (for over two years). He described some pretty clear symptoms and yet this was apparent to no one in his life? Honestly, that is just strange to me

You are correct. No two concussions are the same. The problem I have is he withheld information from the team for over two years. I question that. If he had ongoing symptoms with a level of severity that affected his performance for three years THAT drastically why did he just keep on playing with no input from anyone? How is it the people close to him don't notice it? This would include his teammates, team officials, his family, etc.... I question that. The truth is no one really knows the level to which Joe suffered post concussion symptoms. What I am saying is that if he was having those problems then he should have kept the team in the loop. If I can't question it these things please let me know. I will never say another word about it.

A lot has been made about Mauer's concussion problem. It lasted for three years.... and now?? Suddenly it's all better?? Healed and good to go, just like that. It's as mysterious as "bi-lateral leg weakness". I saw the interview where Rosen spoke to Mauer that November after the concussion in 2013 and Joe said he was cleared to workout. Then over two years later, after some bad seasons, he says he had symptoms. Why did he not say something over all that time? How did no one notice? I am no fan of Terry Ryan, but he was dead right when he said all this: The bigger issue is that Mauer withheld health information from the club during some of his struggles last year. “The eyesight and the sunglasses and so forth, that caught quite a few people off guard including myself,” Twins General Manager Terry Ryan said. “I wish Joe would’ve been up front and brought it to our attention. Now I understand that with concussions you’re not going to be 100 percent every day coming off concussions.” Things always seem to be wishy-washy with the communication between him and the team, in my opinion. I think it is time to move on from Joe. It would also probably be best for him to move on as well. Why is he risking potential disaster if he had those symptoms for that long? He has more money than God and he has a family to raise. It makes no sense for him to keep playing provided the information he gave us last spring about the concussion symptoms. Not with what we know about them now. Why in the world does he need to keep playing? Because he loves it so much? I question it. I really do.