Players the Twinsshould still consider this offseason:
The main objective for any of these signings should be to put more competition intoour weakest areas on the team and give Terry Ryan ammunition to do what he doesbest which is to trade these players for other teams minor-leaguers near the trade deadline. All of these players are available or shouldbe at a low cost, Unless the objective of next season is to lose 90+ games forbetter draft position. These signings at the right price could boost the team a minimual cost and increase the Twins bottom line.
Middle IF
Alex Gonzalez, SS:or Kelly Johnson, 2B: Ronny Cedeno, SS Freddy Sanchez, 2B
Either would address our biggest weakness for very little or at leastprovide competition for the MI. I believe Dozier can be a useful major leaguer, but he should spend part of next season in the minors and these guys can keep him there.

3Bdepth

Brandon Inge, 3B
A minor league contract with spring invite should be a good opportunity for him.
Starting Pitching
One more starting pitcher should do the trick. Shawn Marcum if healthy is probably the bestoption or Saunders would be a decent pitcher if his price comes down. As much as I would like to see Gibson up I would prefer to keep him in the minors for the same reason I want to see Hicks start the season in the minors. Garcia could be a swing man if need be.
Shaun Marcum, SP: or JoeSaunders SP Freddy Garcia, SP/RP
Out Field
The Twins are spot on with their OF targets of Sweeney and Posednick who could be a 4^th/5^th OF spot whenHicks is ready and compete with Mastroianni for the starting job in springtraining.
Bullpen.
There are numerous bullpen options available so I think wecan easily just find 1 that will add more depth to our pen.
Crowd Favorites
Then there are the crowd favorites. If we are not going to win lets bring back acouple of fan favorites to keep fans interested at least.
Jim Thome, DH:who wouldn’t like to see Thome back in Minnesota. If he is still producing and a contenderwants him we can trade him there but he would bring fans back to the stands.
LaTroy Hawkins, RPhas own fan club in Minnesota
Punto (of course we have to trade for him but he wasour scrapper for so long that we miss making fun of him)
Which of these players would you like to see the Twinsconsider signing. Include others thatare still available and why.

After the trading Span the other day we now have 70 million or so in commitments for next year. That should leave around 25 million to sign 3 pitchers. Since the Twins have announed they are unlikely to trade for a pitcher at this point. They can really only look through FA at this point for next season. The Twins have talked to 20 plus pitchers this offseason to guage what it would take to sign them and their interest level in comming to Minnesota. Several more pitchers are now on the market as Lannan, Pelfry, Jurgens, and Karstens were non tendered today.

There are several ways to divy up the money and get starting pitching. the Question is whats the best formula for achieving that? there are several pitchers on the market that is going to get anywhere from 10-16 million or possibly more. Some one like Sanchez, Jackson, Dempster, or Haren is only a possiblity if we sign one of the bargain pitchers like the ones listed above or others including Pavano, Liriano, Villanueva, Bedard, Milwood, Lowe, and more or do we focus more on the midlevel SP Marcum, Myers, Blanton, McCarthy, Saunders, and so on, or we could sign one from each group or go the Twins way and see if we can get this done for 15 milion or less. I really hope we get one from each group as a 50 million (or large) contract would cause a lot of excitement in Minnesota. And if we were to get (1 from top tier and 1 form the middle tier) Dempster and Myers or even(2 from middle tier) Blanton and Myers for example, I would be fine with Karsten or Jurgens as our 3rd starting pitcher. What configurations of high dollar and low dollar pitchers do you feel comfortable with? Try not to spend more than 25 million per season. The closer to being between 15 and 20 million you can get the more realistic your guesses will be.

There are lots of options as I count at least 40 FA starting Pitchers on www.MLBtraderumors.com we only need 3 of them. Also with that last statement I wanted to point out there there are tons of options out there. So we have time to be competetive for next year.

Twins Offseason:

After reading 4 different offseason scenarios in the Twins offseason handbook I decided to throw out my offseason thoughts and see what you all think and start a thread where everyone can post their thoughts and offseason plans and come up with a Twinsdaily.com reader consensus. In the Book they used 90 million to budget the team I am going with 90-95 million as I think the Twins will allow a little breathing room in the budget to go up a little.

The number 1 fix for the team is the rotation. How do we go about fixing it? The Twins have mentioned targeting 3 starting pitchers this offseason. Everyone seems to be in agreement that we all want Scott Baker back at a reduced rate. I read 1 year 3 million with an option. I am going to go with 1 year 4 million base,and a 200k incentive for every 10 innings over 100 innings pitched. That should give him an opportunity to make 5 million next year and the option for 8 to 12 million is fine by me.

It appears that the 2 best matchups for a Span trade include Atlanta with all that SP and Cincinnati who is looking for a lead off hitting OF. I am going to go with a Span for Hanson trade straight up. I don’t know what to expect his salary to be next year. I am going to guess between 3.5 million and 5 million.

The third starting pitcher can come from FA. TheTwins need to sign a good free agent starter for several reasons. One is because we really need SP and the other is the fans have been asking for years for management to make a big splash in FA. I think Twins fans want a major FA signing so much that it would have a bigger impact on season ticket holder retention then the all star game (Maybe). This fills that psychological need, rotation hole, and sells season tickets. So the 20-50 million dollar question is which pitcher to sign and for how much. Greinke is one of the few pitchers that I feel comfortable with them giving a 5 year 90 million contract too, but I know that’sjust dreaming big so let’s try either Ervin Santana on a 2 year 17-20 million contract or Edwin Jackson on a 3 year 36-39 million or 4 year 48-50 millionmax. Annibal Sanchez is my third choice of FA pitchers that are possible to sign this offseason. I am going with Jackson, but don’t be surprised to see a Santana in the Twins rotation. Note Santana would keep me from going overbudget by a smidge too. These are also high strikeout and good velocity picks.

That fixes the rotation now on to the next priority the bullpen. The Twins are going to want a power arm in the bullpen next year. I am glad Bill Smith isn’t here as I see Arizona has 2 closers next year and we have a Parmelee. Hopefully he doesn’t get traded for Putz and his 1 year 6.5 million contract as a closer next year:banghead:. Here is where the Twins can continue to do what they did last year and go cheap and with quantity and bring in several options to compete for a bullpen spot. I would love to see the Twins bring back Latroy Hawkins as a middle reliever/ set up man on a 1 year 2-3 million contract though. He is the type of arm the Twins would look for to fortify the bullpen there are numerous other options for a “established”reliever too. Question is does TerryRyan want to invest that much money there. That is one spot covered. If Terry Ryan wants more depth I suspect it will come from minor signings and waiver pickups to compete in spring training.

The next fix will be the lineup. I do not see the Twins trading Morneau nor do I see him leaving as a free agent after next season either. Parmalee should be kept as 1B insurance and RF starter for next season and let the competition play out as who stays at 1B next offseason. If Parmalee establishes himself next year he would be great trade bait for a SS when the time comes if Morneau gets extended as I believe he will if healthy. Span and Revere are redundant and whichever one Atlanta is willing to trade for a starting pitcher is the one that should be dealt. Span is a great guy and I hate to see him go. Now that I have stated my observations about the offense let’s get moving along.

RF is Parmelee’s until Arcia or Hicks can wrangle it away from him. That will also satisfy the teams need for more power in the lineup. Trading Span or Revere will get rid of the lineup 1 of the 4 “Piranha’s” we currently have in the lineup.

The next step I would take would solve several problems with 1 swoop. Terry Ryan has gone on record as saying he is concerned about Plouffe’s defense at 3b and Gardenhire likes the idea of a 3^rd string C available. Let’s get both and be cheap about it. We could sign Inge to a 1 year 1-2 million deal to back up 3B and 3^rd C and I think he can play a little at 2b too if he goes on a streak and no one wins that spot outright. Inge plays good defense and used to be a Catcher. He is not someone to rely on out there but I think he could handle 100 innings or so as the 3^rd string guy.

Bench bat: If theTwins desire a bench bat for next year then there are a couple out there: Thome might be an option if he waits till late in the offseason and thinks these moves will get us to the post season, Or the player I am going with is Johnny Gomes a RH power hitter that play RF if Parmalee slumps out the gate or Morneau gets hurt. He will be inexpensive 1-2 million and has power which we need.

SS. As much as I would like to see this one addressed, I don’t think they will unless they invite one of the remaining options left on the market to come to spring training as competition, or if one is acquired for Span or Revere. Remember if Parmelee succeeds we have him as a trade chip too note it also gives Profar a chance to get established so we can trade for Andrus at the trade deadline....future Parmelee and ??? for future Andrus anyone?

How much did these moves cost…..
Baker $4 million
Hanson basically a wash in salary commitment
Jackson $13 million
Hawkins $2.5 million
Inge $2 million
Gomes $1.5 million
My math has us in the $94-$96 million ranges with this team. But outside of Middle IF find an area not fully addressed.

Lineup:
CF Revere
2b Carroll
C Mauer
LF Willingham
1B Morneau
DH Doumit
3B Plouffe
RF Parmelee
SS Florimon/ Dozier

Bench
3B -C-1B-2B Inge
OF-1B-DH-PH Gomes
OF- Pinch Runner Mastroianni
IF Dozier/ Florimon/ Escobar

SP
Jackson
Baker
Hanson
Diamond
Gibson with Hendicks/ DeVries/ and Dedunno ready to go if needed.

Bullpen
Perkins
Burton
Hawkins
Deunsing
Burnett
Swarzak
Robertson+ competition for last 1 or 2 spots

Here's some mindless fun with stats.

The Twins are 29-29 since starting the season 6-16 and they are 19-12 in their last 31 games including tonights game against Detroit. (question here is can 1 or 2 more starting pitchers push us to the next level as our hitting, defense, and bullpen seem good enough to contend)

Gray has a 4.08 era and most bloggers can't wait to get rid of him, but take out his worst appearance and he has a 2.80 era and 5 vulture wins.

Waldrop tied Butera in K's this evening.

which player is this Valencia or Parmelee: 100AB 19H 5 2B 1 3B 1 HR

The Twins could actually have 6 players with 10+ stolen Bases on the team by the end of the season. When was the last time the Twins had that many Pirahnas? (I don't know that answer) but here are the candidates: Revere and Casilla with 10+ already and Span, Caroll, Dozier, and Mastroianni.

A fun exercise: Rank the Twins starting pitchers from best to worst and beyond....
1. Cole Devries
2. Brian Duensing
3. Anthony Swarzak
4. Francisco Liriano
5. Jason Marquis
6. Carl Pavano
7. PJ Walters
8. Liam Hendriks
9. Nick Blackburn
10. Scott Diamond


Tyler Robertson pitched in 5 of his first 6 games after being called up. The Twins are taxing their bullpen.

One last thought should the Twins go to a 4 man rotation and bring up a 9th reliever? or go to a 14 man pitching staff at some point to help the bullpen with some of their workload?

Right now our offense is hitting on all Cylindars since Plouffe at 3rd and Revere in RF started hitting. Right now I feel our offense is a little "Piranha" heavy as we have 4 "piranha's" in the lineup any given night if not 5 or 6 (Span, Revere, Dozier, Carrol, Casilla, and Mastoianni) We also have 4 versatile solid power type of hitters Morneau, Willingham, Doumit, and now Plouffe with Parmalee trying to join the crowd. And we have 1 all round high average Mauer. If Parmelee could make his way to the starting line up consistantly then we could have a CF (Span or Revere) available to trade for SP.


The bullpen has been lights out as we can say we have 6 guys who have done an above average to great job so far this year. (Burton, Burnett, Capps, Deunsing, Perkins, and Swarzak after you subtract out his starting stats you will see his era in the pen has been pretty good) 1 below average Gray and 1 with the jury out Manship. We also have several prospect ready to come up just in case Slama, Oliveros, Guerra. And these guys are under team control for the next 2 to 3 seasons, and they are cheep comparitavely speaking. One other great thing about our pen is that they make the game a 5-6 inning game for the starting pitching instead of 6-7.

The rotation is where the main issues on this team lie. Lucky for us Bill Smith traded a relief prospect for Diamond against our better judgement and PJ Walters has filled in well too. Now if Liriano can continue his turn around and Blackburn is healty enough to give the team 5-6 innings a start. Like I said earlier with the bullpen giving the team a chance if the starters can go 5-6 innings makes it easier for Blackburn who got a win after getting lifted after 5 innings vs giving up 3 runs in the 7th against Baltimore in his first start of the season. We can get by with an average rotation. There are several pitchers available to consider. Joe Saunders of Arizona is available and has about 4 million left on his contract this year. Az wants to bring up their top pitching prospect in Bauer. I bet the salary relief would lower the asking price. Milwood should be available from Seattle after the all star break since he just help pitch a no hitter. I am sure there are other Plus Pavano could come back from injury.

There is also a hitter available on the trade market that could hit 20-25 HR drive in 80-85 RBI with a .760-.820 OPS at a cost of 4-5 million per season for the next 2 years and may not cost much in prospect but Soriano of the Cubs is available and he just hit 3 HRs at our ballpark so he can hit here. I think that is cheep for Cuddyer type production.

We are currently 2.5 games out of 3rd and 8.5 out of first place where the White Sox have 2 great starting pitchers and 3 who have era's near or over 5.00. I believe with a little reinforcement and not a major overhaul, we can get back in the race and compete this year.