Fred Wilpon just sold a minority share of the team for 200 million and is apparently announcing that the team is going to loose lots of money this year and the plan is to shed payroll.  I wonder if David Wright might be a part of that?  He's fit nicely between Mauer and Morneau.  He's owed 29 million over the next 2 with a 16 million dollar club option in 2013.  I wonder if the Twins could a) afford him, and b) have the assets to get him?

Heres the players i would start with

1) Valencia- We would have a 3b and they wouldn't.  He will be cheap for a couple years and has shown that he is pretty decent.  Not a huge trade peice, but a decent part of the package.

2) Slowey- Again not a real mover as far as prospects go, but he might have value to the Mets given his extreme flyball tendencies and they play in a huge park.  He's a decent pitcher that will be pretty cheap for them.

3) Kyle Gibson- I don't like trading him, but we need to add value to our package.  He'd be the center peice and hopefully his inclusion can get the Mets to eat a little of Wright's salary.  Not all of it, but taking 2-3 million a year would be helpful to us.  We have 5 starters signed for next year, i would love to have Gibson in the starting rotation, but i feel he'd have to be included.

4) Wilson Ramos (Damn this would have been a perfect spot to trade him) Just kidding

5) Benson- ANother player i would love to see on the Twins, but we need a little more value to our trade offer.  With Hicks, Arcia, Revere, Tosoni, Span, Young, Morales, Parmlee in the system next year (plus whatever toolsy OF we draft this year) we can use some of our depth in the OF to get a quality player.

Is that enough?

As far as the money goes, Kubel, Capps, Cuddyer, Nathan?, Thome coming off the books next year we might have a little more room than we think with payroll.  They could probably try to trade Young to get his arbitration money off the books, or maybe do something with one of the starters, but if we coudl get the Mets to take on a little salary this might be doable.

Thoughts

According to MLB trade rumors: http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2010/12/white-sox-have-serious-interest-in-adam-dunn.html.

4 yrs 56 million 14mil per year.  Wowza!

The article also states that they still believe they will bring Konerko back.  If so, i guess Ozzie's request for speed and roster flexibilty lasted all of 1 year.  Way to stick with it CHISOX.

 I am not sure how I feel about this.  Rios, Dunn, Konerko, Quentin is a pretty formidable middle of the order, but with Dunn as their DH that leaves an outfield of Quentin, Rios and ???.  I am not sure if this makes them a better team as a whole.  I guess we will have to see what other moves they have planned.

What does everyone think?

BTW, the cut Jenks loose, which means they have all but given the closer role to Chris Sale.

They have experience: Likely only 1 underclassman starting, and Nolen, Hoffarber, Sampson, Joseph, and Iverson have all played a lot of Big Ten minutes.This team shouldn't see anything throughout the Big Ten season that will surpirse adn they have all played all of there College careers under Tubby.

They have size:  Iverson and Sampson are as big as they come, and the addition of Walker and Mbakwe give them 4 legitimate bangers.  This should allow them to play a more physical game without having to worry about foul trouble.  Not to mention having Iverson, Mbakwe and Walker allows Tubby to play Sampson off the opposing teams big man which should help him offensively and defensively.

They have speed:  Which should allow them to play a more up tempo game and avoid there Achilles last year  an inefficient  half court offense.

I think the Gophers are flying a little under the radar right now and could be sneaky good.

We have seen a lot from some players since the Twins clinched that we may not have had a chance to if they hadn't clinched so early.  I think this is a good time to go over some of the things that we have learned.

Jeff Manship - Can be good in short bursts but seems to get shelled after and inning or two.  With some better control of his fastball and the groundball tendency he has shown he may end up being a good releiver.  In 2011 I hope that he sticks with the Major League club in the role of long man and learns how to get out major league hitters consistenly.  He may have a touch of Matt Guerrier in him and could be a good bullpen arm in a couple of years.

Alex Burnett - Has good velocity on his fastball, and has pretty mediocre secondary stuff which would be okay oif he were able to command either offering.  I imagine the Twins would like him to play some winter ball and develope better control of his fastball and hopefull sharpen his offspeed pitches.  If that doesn't happen i think he spends at least the first half in Rochester.

Pat Neshek - Still not back completely from surgery.  His fastball is down in velocity and his slidder doesn't seem useful at all.  It may be that he is suffering from dead arm or post surgery fatigue, but at this point he cannot be counted in the plans for next years bullpen.

Glen Perkins - Was up and down when he first came up this year, but he has looked pretty good in his last couple of outings.  I am not sure that he is still a starter, but a low-to-mid 90's fastball and a good curveball might be nice out of the pen.  If I had it my way he would be on the postseason roster in place of Mijares. (Thats if we must take two lefties)

Jose Mijares - Total mess. What happened to this guy?  I know he had knee issues and maybe we are still seeing rust, but he looks lost.  Who knows what is up with him, but I don't trust him and I get the feeling that the Twins don't either.  He could be trade bait, he could be the best releiver we have, or he could just be a LOOGY, but the way he is throwing right now who cares just don't make me watch him pitch.

Drew Butera - Exactly what the Twins said he was.  Good glove, no hit backup catcher. Not much else to say, except get used to him he isn't going anywhere.

Jason Repko - Nothing more than a defensive replacement.  Somehow he still takes the first pitch every at bat even though it seems that is always a fastball right down the middle.  Has less business swinging as hard as he does than Nick Punto.  I doubt he will be on the team next year as the Twins should be able to fill his role with Dustin Martin or Brandon Roberts.

Ben Revere - Still a year or two away from regular playing time. He will likely start the year in Rochester and may get a call up if someone gets hurt, but i can't imagine the Twins rushing him just to be the 4th outfielder.  Supposedly his best tools are his speed and hit bat but we haven't seen either yet.  His hits have all been singles (and not very well struck, for the most part) and he has yet to try to steal a base.  I think he's fast, but we'll have to see.

Lastly...

Danny Valencia- I know we have watched him most of the year and he has been great up to this point, but just an observation; does anyone look less interested in playing right now than Danny Valencia?  His AB's have been terrible since they clinched, his feilding looks even worse (what was the trip over the shoelaces routine he pulled last night?).  One thing is for certain, the kid still needs to be motivated in some manor to play because with nothing to play for it sure looks like he's doggin it.

 Sorry this is so long.  Did I miss anyone?
 

Fangraphs had an interesting article last week about Fausto Carmona's potential trade value, and it got me thinking about what it would take to otain him.


He's having a pretty good season, 4.13 FIP, and his grounball rate is climbing back up, 57.3%, which would fit nicely with the Twins strong infield defense.  He is under team control through 2014 at a resonable price, which helps us in the future as well.

Our best trade chip is Wilson Ramos, a catcher, and Cleveland is pretty fat at that position right now with Carlos Santana and Lou Marson.  Unless we can get a third team involved, or convince Cleveland that Ramos could be spun for something else later than he will not have much value in this trade. 

I believe that Gibson and Hicks are untouchable, and I will listen to offers for Ben Revere, but I am not sure that his overall trade value is very high.  Sano and Kepler are too far from the Majors to be a factor and Adrian Salcedo is almost in that same category and really can't be given high value here.  That leaves me with some decent prospects, but not upper echelon talent. 

My offer would be Gutierrez, Benson and Burnett for Carmona. 

I am a little hesitant to give up on Benson since he seems to have turned a corner so i would also think about sending a package of: Gutierrez, Bromberg, Morales and Burnett.

Thoughts on these deals?  Too much? not enough?  Is Carmona any good? Should Cleveland even think about trading him?

The Pirates just designated him for assignment and are willing to trade him.  He has been pretty lousy year thus far, and really has nothing but doubles power, but posted a .290/.350/.390 last year and can play 2B and 3B.  I know he is lefthanded and we are already thick with lefties, but has posted a pretty decent .289/.360/.391 over his career against southpaws.  I think he would be a nice spot starter/bench player and could be a nice buy low pickup and could provide depth at two positions.