nicksaviking

Wilson is older, but he actually has less tread on his arm as he spent his first 5 years in the bullpen. I'd guess the Angels would have no interest in taking on the longer contract, especially since Wilson was far less of a disaster last year. Also, while a change of scenery may do both good, both are California boys and playing in Minnesota would probably at best have a neutral effect on their mental states. Fun side note though; when Joe Nathan went down with TJ surgery in the spring of 2010, the rumor was that the Twins and Rangers had at least some casual discussion of a getting Wilson to Minnesota in exchange for Kevin Slowey. I believe it was the Twins who balked as a promising young arm like Slowey was more valuable than a 29-year-old set up man. Of course had the Twins gotten Wilson, they likely wouldn't have had the foresight or need to convert him to a starter.

Contact brings the element of chance into play every time. Strikeouts prevent sac flies, moving runners over, errors, seeing-eye-singles, Texas Leaguers, hit-and-runs and your all too common brain farts that are a favorite of Twins outfielders. Hopefully May and Meyer will miss a bunch of bats, but Gibson doesn't look like he will. His sinker looks like it's made to induce a lot of contact. Hopefully Hughes stays a strong strikeout option, but it was a career year for him in that department (and basically every department) so we'll have to see how that plays out. Nolasco was 8.0 K/9 or better twice, in his mid 20's in the NL. He's not a strikeout pitcher any more.

Yes, all the more reason NOT to sign Vogelsong to be an "innings eater."

While you never want your pitchers to get hurt, the Twins are in a position where they need quality innings, not a quantity of innings. After all, if Liriano or Anderson can only get you 150 innings, doesn't that at least mean there are 50 extra innings available for Meyer? I'd much rather see 200 IP between Anderson and Meyer than 200 IP for Ryan Vogelsong or whoever is this year's version of Kevin Correia. I like the idea of Liriano, but not the years. I want one year deals, maybe with an option.

I guess I'll be in the minority but I actually have a few more concerns about Gonsalves now. I think most people expected his velocity to increase as part of his normal development, but didn't it go from low 90's in HS to more upper 80's last year? That concerns me a bit. Maybe even more than a bit regardless of results. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, I'd gladly sacrafice my take for some good news. My dark horse is Anderlin Mejia. He can play anywhere on the infield, has good on-base skills, low strikeout rate and can swipe a good number of bags. He's not sexy and has a low ceiling and no power, but I bet he's a utility player for the Twins after unexpected injury #2.

McCarthy will probably require three years or so, would you really want that? I sure wouldn't. Not even two.

I'd like to agree but when you throw the word "quality" into your sentance you've taken the Twins out of your hypothetical over the last half decade. If the team didn't have a track record of deciding rotation spots based much more heavily on experience than potential then I'd say the more the merrier, however, even experience with spotty results seems to weigh more than potential with this club often times.

That's likely Ryan's thought, but I don't like it. They're too old to hope they will force the issue. They need the issue forced upon them. No more coddling and pats on the back, turn these guys into fighters and less reliant on organizational glad handing. If their psyche is too fragile to handle the expectations of a MLB rotation at 25, odds are they're never going to be mentally strong enough to be useful.

I'll take any pitcher that only requires one year and can manage a minimum 7.5 K/9 in the AL. Otherwise, not interested. Also, if the Twins give one spot to Pelfrey or Milone and make May and Meyer fight for another spot, I won't be happy. The loser of the May/Meyer fight should have a shot at the Pelfrey/Milone spot also. In fact, unless Pelfrey/Milone really overwhelm, both spots should be going to the youngsters.

While I agree, seeing as the Twins clearly have an affinity for former players, UZR has a human element also. I'd guess that both sides are wrong, in opposite directions of the scale of course. People just need to build the robots and let them do the math. Maybe it's just because I can barely use a calculator, but people + numbers seem to be a bad fit.

He does play deep. At TF though that option is going to basically be taken out of his hands. You play deep in TF and you can still shake the 2B's hand.

Well I highly question their reporting, but aren't defensive metrics still based on an obvservation of range as well? 30 out of 162 is a pretty good representative sample size actually. I question the Twins ability to use advanced metrics, but I guess I don't know why a Twins scout trying to determine range would be any less credible than the John Does who are recording the data for the defensive metrics.

And presumably the team wouldn't need a ten second delay for their news conferences.

Probably not, but I think that really has more to do with the quality of the available OF than it does with the split among us TD posters. Perhaps Alex Rios would have been the compromise that would have brought us together, I haven't heard too much complaining about him even though everyone would be counting on bounce back offensive and defensive production from him.

I don't think I've heard the Twins or Twins pitchers blame the defense, which is noble. Still, if good defenders make the pitchers look better, or good pitchers make defenders look better are the options, I think you win more with the later. Good on both ends is ideal, but I think you fix the pitching first, as it seems more important.

I agree, the pitchers themselves likely are not able to change. That doesn't change the fact that the finding plus outfielders (and infielders) because the pitchers put too many balls in play isn't fixing the problem, it's just putting a band aid on it. If the team wants to make the pitchers look better, sure, you can get better fielders, but the team isn't going to contend until the actual pitching problem is fixed. We're basically just arguing if Torii Hunter is an adaquate turniquet. To win, they need to do more than simply try to stop the bleeding.

Yeah, which is on par with every other Twins mid-season trade lately.

Ha, thanks for the disclaimer Brock.

My take on the comment was perhaps the pitchers should find the catcher's glove more often instead of making the outfielders get all of their outs for them.

Agreed. This is the best discussion we've had since the trade deadline!

I agree with number 3 but only in so far as I'm not sure which direction the club is aiming for here. I wanted to go younger. However, how do we know that they aren't using advanced data? Perhaps they are using information not found on Fangraphs or any other fan accessable baseball site. All things being equal, he's a bad outfielder, but all things are not equal, namely Comerica Park and Target Field are not equal, not even close. Perhaps the Twins are thinking the now accepted defensive measurements don't work when comparing their stadium to stadium X, and perhaps they have forumals that adjust for range needed in TF compared to stadium X. We don't know Hunter's affect on the defense. I know many want to go by the book, but I find it highly unlikely that he's not an upgrade over Willingham and Arcia. And the fact that any data would suggest it, probably is good reason not to trust it. As for #2, I don't know what Law is on, but Hunter hasn't been barely better than a replacement level player since his early days for the Twins. Perhaps he will be in 2015, but he wasn't in 2014 or any time in the previous decade. Also, while it's likely he was the Twins top target, for all we know Rios, or any other OF already told them no, or that they are waiting until February to sign. The pickings were slim, I'm not sure how high you could really aim with this group.

True, but the same can usually be said about 39-year-old outfielders. I don't think he'll hit as well as he did protected by that Tigers lineup. On the other hand, I think there's a pretty good chance that he'll hit better than any other free agent bat the Twins could/would bring in. Rios was my choice if they were going to get a free agent OF, but if you have to wait for him, you might get nothing at all.

Boy, you know we've been starved for any kind of meaningful Twins news when a one year stop-gap signing brings this many hot-blooded points of view to both sides of the debate! $20 bucks says that in ten years someone's going to say, "Hey, remember that time the Twins brought Torii Hunter back for one season? That was so extremely......uneventful."

Yeah, I actually think this is actually a no-trade-clause that indicates a trade is even more likely. Demanding a full-NTC means Hunter wants control of where he goes, and if Hunter insists on the final say of where he goes, that likely means he wants to be playing in the playoffs ten months from now.

Sorry I missed that. I'm in the minority I guess, but I like that strategy. I guess I sound too much like Earl Weaver. Hope I don't teach my kids too many naughty words.