SB Nation User Blog: montanatwinsfan

2010 Free Agents

montanatwinsfan — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 23:52:29 -0000

Given all of the speculation regarding Iwamura today, I thought I would lay out the free agents for people to see. Here are the players up for free agency in 2010 according to Cot's Baseball Contracts.

A = type A free agent; B = type B free agent; *means club option

Second Basemen
Marlon Anderson NYM
Ron Belliard LAD (B)
Jamey Carroll CLE
David Eckstein SD
Orlando Hudson LAD (A)
Akinori Iwamura * TB
Omar Infante ATL
Felipe Lopez MIL (A)
Mark Loretta LAD
Placido Polanco DET (A)
Freddy Sanchez * SF (A)

Shortstops
Orlando Cabrera MIN (A)
Juan Castro LAD
Alex Cora NYM
Bobby Crosby OAK
Adam Everett DET
Alex Gonzalez * BOS
Khalil Greene STL
Ramon Martinez LAD
John McDonald TOR
Marco Scutaro TOR (A)
Miguel Tejada HOU
Jack Wilson * SEA

Third Basemen
Adrian Beltre SEA (B)
Geoff Blum HOU
Craig Counsell MIL
Joe Crede MIN
Mark DeRosa STL (B)
Pedro Feliz * PHI
Chone Figgins LAA (B)
Troy Glaus STL (A)
Jerry Hairston NYY (B)
Mike Lamb MIL
Melvin Mora * BAL (B)
Juan Uribe SF

Starting Pitchers
Brandon Backe HOU
Josh Beckett * BOS
Erik Bedard SEA (B)
Daniel Cabrera ARZ
Bartolo Colon CWS
Jose Contreras COL
Doug Davis ARZ (B)
Justin Duchscherer OAK (B)
Adam Eaton COL
Kelvim Escobar LAA
Jon Garland * LAD (B)
Tom Glavine ATL
Mike Hampton HOU
Rich Harden CHC (B)
Livan Hernandez WAS
Tim Hudson * ATL
Randy Johnson SF (B)
John Lackey LAA (A)
Cliff Lee * PHI (A)
Braden Looper * MIL (B)
Jason Marquis COL (B)
Kevin Millwood * TEX
Brett Myers PHI
Vicente Padilla * LAD (B)
Carl Pavano MIN (B)
Brad Penny SF
Odalis Perez WAS
Andy Pettitte NYY (B)
Joel Pineiro STL (B)
Sidney Ponson KC
Jason Schmidt LAD
John Smoltz STL
Tim Wakefield * BOS (B)
Jarrod Washburn DET
Brandon Webb * ARZ (B)
Todd Wellemeyer STL
Randy Wolf (A)

Since the list itself is a little dull, how about I spice it up with a question. What are the chances we could pry Omar Infante from the Braves as our second baseman? He's not a type B player, but has a career hitting line that isn't too bad for a 2nd baseman ( .264 .310 .391 .701 ) and still has good defense. Those offensive numbers aren't great, but then again he's only 27 and the average for his last three seasons is about .285 .340 .390 .730. Not bad. His 2009 contract was 1.85 million.

Redmond determined to keep playing

montanatwinsfan — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 00:46:42 -0000

According to MLB.com, Mike Redmond is determined to try his hand in the free agent market this winter in hopes of continuing to play somewhere in major league baseball. I am not in any position to analyze his worth over Morales or Butera or Ramos so I'll leave that to the heavy lifters here on this site.

Apparently Redmond brought a lot of good energy to the clubhouse, and every team needs some veteran leadership. In addition, it sounds like Redmond is interested in coaching and might be an effective coach for the organization, so it might be beneficial to keep him around. Nonetheless, I find it hard to believe he is worth keeping after a season where he "batted a career-low .237 with two doubles, seven RBIs and a .588 OPS in 135 at-bats. He also threw out only five of 40 runners while behind the plate."

No matter how raw Morales is, its hard to imagine he wouldn't be a significant upgrade over that.

Poll

so who should be the backup catcher next year?

Redmond (NBP and veteran leadership make up for declining skills)

5 votes

Morales (last season proved he's capable)

86 votes

Butera (when Mauer is down, defense is the highest priority)

2 votes

93 votes | Poll has closed

Twins prospect Sano issued work visa

montanatwinsfan — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 00:41:02 -0000

Twins prospect Sano issued work visa

Twins prospect Sano issued work visa
Club hasn't decided first step for 16-year-old's career

More Bad News

montanatwinsfan — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 17:09:13 -0000

Twins put Matt Tolbert on disabled list, activate Brian Buscher. I suppose this should be a fanshot rather than a fanpost as I don't have any real analysis to provide here, but I find this a bit discouraging.

Tolbert had really been getting some pretty good wood on the ball lately and had been playing well enough defensively that 3rd was no longer the twilight zone that it was for awhile after Crede went down. I have always liked Buscher and Harris, but let's face it, they are backups.

I've played enough competitive games to know how players can really rally when they are suddenly short-handed. That uphill battle can create a 'band of brothers' type mentality amongst those of you who are still strapping on the pads in the locker room. I think we witnessed this when Morneau and Crede went down. Suddenly our team turned it up another notch on the focus and intensity meters.

Nonetheless, its pretty hard to win when you have no choice but to field 2 or 3 backups every single night.

Liriano Slotted for Bullpen

montanatwinsfan — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 23:49:14 -0000

I guess this is a bit of a self-serving post as I've been calling for Liriano to go to the pen for the past several weeks but it looks like Gardenhire had finally decided to pull that trigger until Glen Perkins complained of pain in his shoulder. Since Perkins is scheduled to get an MRI, Liriano has been temporarily included in the reshuffled rotation. Francisco Liriano will apparently make the Wed start this week, with gardy and Anderson still trying to decide between Swarzak and Duensing on Thursday.

Gardenhire believed that putting Liriano in the pen will help him regain his confidence. I'm skeptical. A move to the pen seems like more of a demotion than a move to AAA to work on mechanics and such if the org. believes he will continue to be a starter. Am I wrong here? I for one think Liriano's starting days are over and that he/we will all be better with him in the pen from now on, working toward being that 8th inning set up man, and maybe eventually a closer.

Anyway, in a 'related' note, as per mlb.com, Nick Blackburn, who is scheduled to start the series tomorrow night,
0-4 with a 7.89 ERA in four starts since the All-Star break.

Twins need better performance from [starting] staff

montanatwinsfan — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 02:26:45 -0000

Was thinking of making this a fanshot as I suspect most of you have already seen the article written by Kelly Theiser over on MLB .com: here, but I figured its been a couple of days since we had a fanpost and there is likely a lot of things to discuss regarding the starting pitching. The article, while fairly well written, had such an obvious topic I couldn't help but comment.

I for one, thought the Twins were set for SP last offseason with 5 strong candidates for a season's rotation. Not that all five were likely to be above average pitchers, but amongst the five, on any given night we had a possible #2 type pitcher taking the mound. Sure none of them are ace material and never will be, but 5 solid consistent #2-#3 pitchers can win a lot of games in the regular season.

However, by the end of May it was looking bad. Even though the Twins starters weren't doing terrible overall, none of them seemed to be able to get through 5 or 6 innings and the bullpen was being taxed. I suspect no one needs a reminder about what that level of exposure meant.

Kevin Slowey, was at one point 10 -2 and -deservedly or not - a legitimate contender for the All Star game when he was DL'd. Those of you who have a skeptic's eye might note that his numbers didn't appear to be sustainable, and that his inflated record included a heavy dose of luck.

Baker and Blackburn are about identical on the year according to "wins above replacement" and "runs above replacement" with both being tied in WAR at 2.2 (also tied at 2.2: Matt Garza) and Blackburn holding a slight edge in RAR at 22.2 over Baker's 21.9. I suspect it has been somewhat merciful for us fans that the two of them have struggled at different times (Baker early; Blackburn lately) so that we always had someone who we could look forward to. I am not sure that either of them is a solid #2 slot pitcher at this point.

And then there are Perkins and Liriano. Y'all might be able to figure out which one is performing worse than the other, but I can't. After tonight's shellacking I'm inclined to say Liriano. Then again, Liriano has been a little more consistent in giving us short outings where he leaves the team trailing...but still in it. And Perkins; for every gem he pitches (and he's had a couple of 8 inning 1 run games), he has had a horrible start where he gets pulled in the first through 4th inning having completely demoralized his team and the fans.

Anyway, according to Ms. Theiser, the starters have been inconsistent, have taken a collective step back from last year, and have had too many short outings where they have pitched 100+ pitches before the 7th inning, even on "good" nights. Some suggest too many innings pitched last year (yep, its in the article); another factor cited is the intentional team philosophy of pitching to contact which has lead to the rotation having "allowed an AL-high 689 hits and the 88 home runs they've given up rank second in the AL." Ouch.

Poll

Does the starting pitching have you worried?

1. Didn't bother reading the article because the headline screamed: "no duh!"

20 votes

2. Shoulda traded Valencia, Revere, and Ramos for Halladay

6 votes

3. Even Jarrod Washburn would be an upgrade at this point

11 votes

4. Send Liriano to the pen, replace Slowey with Swarzak, and reduce Perkins' starts (hey they're young)

12 votes

5. What, me worry? Starting five will be fine, its the bullpen/bottom of the order that scares me

5 votes

54 votes | Poll has closed

Teams Coveted Valencia and Swarzak

montanatwinsfan — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 18:46:16 -0000

According to Charley Walters teams were asking for Anthony Swarzak in return for the pitching help that MN so desperately needed at the deadline. We know teams wanted Valencia. We know some teams whose pieces we might have coveted (Pittsburgh, Oakland, and Toronto) were asking for some serious prospects in either quality or quantity before the deadline.

No one got Halladay, or therefore any other Blue Jay of note, Sanchez went for a pretty penny, and the White Sox gave up a lot to get Peavy (probably more than we even had to offer). Its lazy to blame Bill Smith for not making moves that we don't see, but the smarter analysis uses info that we do have to decide whether Smith made the right decision. Example: some people were yelling that the Twins should trade Young, Crain, Perkins, Keppel, Punto... but seriously, who the hell would want them? And who could we possibly get with that package combined?

According to Walters, "the Twins and Texas Rangers had trade discussions about Minnesota outfielder Delmon Young before the deadline, but couldn't make a deal." So its likely that Smith tried to unload used or damaged goods as well. But look, there's only 40 spots on a 40 man roster and who doesn't already have a Punto, a Crain, and a Perkins on it? It looks like the real question was would you have been willing to give up Valencia, or Swarzak for relief help?

Twins lose an awful game and give me nightmares about Cuddyer/Young

montanatwinsfan — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 17:47:05 -0000

Seriously, I went to bed last night in a foul frame of mind after the Twins blew a huge lead. I woke up with the distinct "memory" that right before I had turned off the game the Twins front office announced that they had traded Michael Cuddyer for Freddie Sanchez and were moving Delmon Young into right field "where he belongs."

The Twins outfield would then be set at Span, Gomez, and Young with Kubel a full time DH. I don't know what would have possessed me to think that the Twins would make such an announcement at around midnight Central time, but I was shaken this morning to the point of having to scan the web for confirmation of that nightmare.

Then, after a little work, and some time spent harvesting some young vegetables from the garden, I got to thinking: would a trade that sent Cuddyer to another team and placed Young back in right field be so bad?

Someone feel free to break down the RF/LF splits for Delmon, but we all know Delmon was a much better defender in right field. Even in left field his range factor is identical to Cuddyer's this year, suggesting that he can get to all the balls Cuddyer can and when moved moved back to RF he would likely have a fielding percentage which is equal to Cuddyer's.

Young is not quite 24 yet and making $1.1million while Cuddyer is already 30 and drawing a salary of $7.6 million.

Offensively, despite our general gnashing of teeth Delmon is not that far behind Cuddyer.

Young career totals: .289BA; .323OBP; .404SLG; .727OPS

Cuddyer totals: .269BA; .345OBP; .451SLG; .796OPS

The big difference there is in the SLG percentage. SLG often separates out good outfielders from average outfielders but Delmon's past, and size sure do indicate that he is capable of matching a .450 SLG.

I really like Cuddyer. He appears to be a clubhouse leader and a great guy. I don't want to see him traded, but if it meant some good prospects, or an above average middle infielder it might not be sucha a nightmare.

Anyone want Julio Lugo in a Twins Uniform.

montanatwinsfan — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 00:04:15 -0000

Ran by this article on Fox earlier today where Rosenthal mention the Sox were desperate to move Lugoas they are likely to have to DFA him soon. He's played mostly at SS, but can play a little 2b as well. Offensively he has a line of .284 BA, .352 OBP, and a .367 SLG for an .719 OPS.

Red Sox are so desperate to move him they have agreed to pay "virtually all" of his remaining salary $9million this year and next, and "would accept a fringe prospect in return for him."

Was thinking about running this earlier when it was clear the Sox would accept a fringe player, but decided he wouldn't garner enough interest until this resurfaced at mlbtraderumors.com with the added benefit of Boston agreeing to pay for "virtually all" of his salary too.

Red Sox "Desperately" Want To Move Lugo

p.s. sounds like his defense is pretty darn bad.

Twins' Midseason Report Card

montanatwinsfan — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 19:41:46 -0000

Twins' Midseason Report Card

Fox sports article hands out midseason report cards for all of the teams and has this to say about the Twins:

Twins — It almost doesn't matter how the Twins are expected to do, or what their talent level is. They seem to always be in a fight for the Central title come September. This year is no different. And if Minnesota can add a hitter like second baseman Freddy Sanchez to the lineup, the Twins will no doubt be playoff contenders once again.

Grade: B+