Friday,
January 7, 2011
Friday Links and Thinks
I have not blogged too much this week, or
really the last couple of weeks. There are a couple of reasons for that. First,
there simply is not a lot going on with the Twins, or hasn’t been. Second, I am
working with a couple of other Twins bloggers to finish up the Minnesota Twins 2011 Prospect Handbook.
It’s getting close. Obviously my hope is for it to get better and better each
year. I don’t know if it will be quite the same as last year’s version, but I
think that the content will be terrific. Again, the meat and potatoes will be
the profiles. There will be over 150 prospect profiles on players throughout
the Twins farm system. Josh Johnson
is helping me with some of those. There will again be several articles by myself,
but also articles from Josh, Travis Aune and a couple of others. Anyway, hopefully I will
have a lot more information on the book in a week or so. Finally, John Bonnes and the TwinsCentric
guys, with the help of several terrific writers, are putting the final touches
on the Twins 2011 Annual with the Maple Street Press. It will again be
available on news stands around the Upper Midwest,
but you will also be able to order online a little earlier. Like last year, it
will be about 120 pages of ad-free Twins content. What’s not to like about
that!? I’ve written a few Twins player profiles, a big article on the top Twins
prospects by position, and a fun article on Elizabethton’s success and
specifically on manager Ray Smith
who is a very interesting person. I’m really happy with that project.
So I do apologize for lack of content here.
It hasn’t been due to laziness! Believe me! Today, here are a few thoughts and
links for you to read and consider:
Carl Pavano
Situation
On Wednesday early evening, I was sitting
around when an idea popped into my head. I should have blogged it to prove its true, but there are a few Twins bloggers that I talked
to about it. I said that Carl Pavano would have an agreement with the Twins by
Friday. I actually spelled it out like this. First, the Twins would let
absolutely nothing leak on the day that Bert
Blyleven got into the Hall of Fame, and they wouldn’t let anything leak on
Thursday when the Baseball Hall of Fame was hosting Blyleven and Roberto Alomar in Cooperstown. I said,
that I bet that later in the day on Thursday, someone would tweet that the
Twins and Carl Pavano
are close on a two year deal. I said that it would not be made official then
until an announcement on Friday. Well, at about 8:00 on Thursday night, FoxSports.com’s Ken Rosenthal tweeted, “Sources: #Twins closing
in on Pavano. Deal expected to be for two years.” I guess we shall see what happens tomorrow, but it
all does make sense.
What is the reasoning for my gut feeling on
the situation? Well, there were several things really. The first was simply
that Pavano and his agent overplayed their hand. At
this point, they had really no options. Bill
Smith played it perfectly again. The only teams interested in Pavano seem to be the Twins, the Pirates and the Royals. If
Pavano is the competitor that we saw in 2010, then it
should be easy to determine which of those teams he would sign with. And at
this point, why not just sign? What is the value of waiting any longer. He isn’t getting that third year that he so
desperately wanted. Pavano’s birthday is Saturday.
Suddenly he will go from a 34 year old free agent pitcher to a 35 year old starting
pitcher. Obviously teams aren’t dumb enough to alter their thinking based on
one day, but it also is a milestone that Pavano would
likely want to sign before. It just makes sense for Pavano,
and for the Twins, it will just be nice to have it done, and have that piece in
place in the starting rotation.
Starting last July, I started getting the question
about whether or not I would bring back Pavano. I
answered several times in this blog, and it came up a lot on podcasts. I said I
would offer Pavano two years and $18 million and
leave it up to him. If he signed for that, it would be a fair deal. Anything
more than that, I’d happily take the draft picks. Well, it is now starting to
look like that would be a good place to put the Over/Under
for a Pavano deal. According to Jon Heyman, the Twins increased their
offer to Pavano to two years just yesterday. He made
$7 million in 2010. He earned a raise, but I can’t imagine that he will get to
the $10 million range that we all thought was a given at the start of the
offseason. I think that 2 years and $18 million is pretty realistic. In fact, I
think it could be as low as two years and $16 million. For financial reasons, I
would not be surprised if he makes less money in 2011 and more in 2012.
No, the deal is not done. Nothing has been
confirmed, but there is little reason to think that it won’t happen, that it
isn’t imminent.
Jim Thome Situation
Does signing Pavano
affect the Twins decision to bring back Jim
Thome? It could. However, if Thome
is truly looking to make $8 million in 2011, then the Pavano
decision has nothing to do with not bringing Thome
back. The Twins have made a concerted effort to add speed to the lineup, and they
need a right-handed bat to counter all of their left-handed batters, and
because they traded one of their right-handed hitters. So, really… how much
sense does it really make to bring Thome back anyway?
That’s not to say bringing him back would be bad. Not at all.
I mean, the bench needs some pop, and Thome provided
that. There are so many intangible reasons to bring him back. But a
right-handed, power bat who could actually play some
defense, would be a much better fit. Man, Matt
Diaz would have been perfect!
Twins Fest – Sold Out
I got a press release yesterday morning
saying that Twins Fest was sold out. I knew that the Twins were encouraging
people to order in advance, something I’ve typically done, but I was surprised
to see that announcement. The National Sports Complex in Blaine is huge, but it
isn’t quite as convenient as the Metrodome would be.
I still plan on going. I just don’t know if I’ll be able to get into the event.
I’ll find a way!
Blog Spotting
As mentioned many times, there are a lot of
terrific Twins blogs out there. So even if I don’t blog, you can still get
plenty of great Twins content, and more. Be sure to check back here throughout the
weekend for more and more blogs worth reading.
·
Not a Twins blog,
but Joe Posnanski
is awesome and he wrote a tremendous blog article about the inner circle, Willie
Mays Hall of Fame attitude of some.
·
Here is the interview I
did yesterday on The Dan Hammer Show on 740 The Fan in Fargo.
·
Check out Aaron Gleeman’s
Link-O-Rama.
·
Twinkie
Town’s Top Prospect vote is now
in round 25. Vote now!
·
Nick Nelson wrote
a blog called “Settling”
regarding the impending Pavano signing.
·
Fetch posted
an interesting WAR Graph of
the Day over at Twinkie Talk.
·
Fanatic Jack
blogged about why
Blyleven wasn’t in the Hall of Fame.
·
K-Bro wrote
that Getting
into the Hall of Fame isn’t supposed to be easy…
·
Ed Thoma, in his Baseball Outsider blog,
wrote about Barry Larkin, Alan Trammell and the Golden
Age of Shortstops.
·
Jim Crikket of Knuckleballs wrote about the Twins
bullpen recently in a terrific blog asking if they are White
Knights or a Black Hole.
·
FunBobby of Hitting the Foul Pole asks if
re-signing Carl Pavano is a good idea.
·
On
the Road With… is writing it’s
Top 50 Twins prospects, and here
are 41-45.
·
Travis took
a look at the current Twins roster and its associated payroll and asks, “Are
the Twins done spending?” Must Read!
·
It has been a
very busy
week for the NoDak Twins fan! Check it all
out!
·
Here are the TwinsCentric StarTribune.com posts of the Week:
o
Seth wrote Change
or No Change discussing the frequent coaching changes with the Vikings
and the continuity with the Twins.
o
Nick wrote Eyes
on Diamond about Twins Rule 5 draft pick Scott Diamond.
o
John’s On
Bert, Zealotry and Jack discusses the Hall of Fame voting and such.
o
Today Parker wrote What the Twins could bring to the Twins in 2011.
o
Howard
Sinker’s A Fan’s View blog from
yesterday was probably the best explanation, for me, on why
it took Bert so long to get into the Hall.
o
NFL “Expert” Picks Champion, LaVelle E. Neal!
Well, the NFL “Expert” Picks finished up last weekend after Week 17. I want
to thank those who participated. With over 30 people making picks each week, it
became too much work, so it likely will be the final year of the contest. Below
are the final results and standings. Congratulations to the Star Tribune’s LaVelle E. Neal for dominating the competition
this year! He had five more games right than any other person and was correct
nearly 67% of the time. Chris Parmelee led all Twins players by accurately predicting
almost 65% of the games in 2010. Andrew Bryz-Gornia led Twins bloggers with 164 correct picks.
Last year’s champion, Dan Slowey, finished in fourth place, tied with Doogie Wolfson. Again, thanks to all of the below for participating. Please
take a minute and visit some of the blogs listed below.
|
Overall |
||||
|
Wins |
Losses |
Percent |
||
|
LaVelle
Neal |
Star Tribune |
171 |
85 |
66.80% |
|
Chris Parmelee |
Twins 1B
Prospect |
166 |
90 |
64.84% |
|
Andrew Bryz-Gornia |
Off the Mark |
164 |
92 |
64.06% |
|
Dan Slowey |
Blogonoscopy |
163 |
93 |
63.67% |
|
Darren Wolfson |
Twins Wrap |
163 |
93 |
63.67% |
|
Missy Lien |
|
163 |
93 |
63.67% |
|
Cody Christie |
NoDak
Twins Fan |
161 |
95 |
62.89% |
|
Jack Michaels |
ESPN 710am,
Bismarck |
161 |
95 |
62.89% |
|
Jeff Manship |
Twins Pitcher |
161 |
95 |
62.89% |
|
Summary |
|
161 |
95 |
62.89% |
|
BJ Hermsen |
Twins SP
Prospect |
159 |
97 |
62.11% |
|
Kyle Waldrop |
Twins RP
Prospect |
158 |
82 |
65.83% |
|
Mike Brasel |
|
158 |
98 |
61.72% |
|
Cory Hepola |
WROC-TV,
Rochester, NY |
157 |
99 |
61.33% |
|
Blake Meyer |
Twins Cards |
156 |
100 |
60.94% |
|
Andrew Kneeland |
Twins Target |
155 |
101 |
60.55% |
|
Emily Jipp |
Cheap Seats
Chatter |
155 |
101 |
60.55% |
|
Seth Stohs |
SethSpeaks.net |
155 |
101 |
60.55% |
|
Travis Aune |
Travis Twins
Talk |
153 |
103 |
59.77% |
|
Anthony Maggio |
FSNorth.com |
152 |
90 |
62.81% |
|
Kirsten Brown |
K-Bro Baseball |
152 |
104 |
59.38% |
|
Roger Dehring |
Twinkie Town |
146 |
110 |
57.03% |
|
Judd Spicer |
City Pages |
145 |
111 |
56.64% |
|
Vic Quick |
KOTA-TV Rapid
City, SD |
139 |
101 |
57.92% |
|
Topper Anton |
Curve for a
Strike |
136 |
104 |
56.67% |
|
Steve Blevins |
Twins RP
Prospect |
135 |
82 |
62.21% |
|
Phil Mackey |
1500ESPN.com |
131 |
77 |
62.98% |
|
Seth Kaplan |
Fox 9 - TV (Twin
Cities) |
131 |
43 |
75.29% |
|
Shawn Berg |
On the Road with
Shawn |
126 |
86 |
59.43% |
|
Kyle Gibson |
Twins SP
Prospect |
117 |
91 |
56.25% |
|
Josh Johnson |
Josh's Thoughts |
114 |
66 |
63.33% |
|
Dan Osterbrock |
Twins SP
Prospect |
106 |
78 |
57.61% |
|
John Meyer |
Twins MVB |
106 |
59 |
64.24% |
|
Matt Fox |
Red Sox Pitcher |
98 |
52 |
65.33% |
|
Dan Wade |
BB Daily Digest |
96 |
52 |
64.86% |
|
Alex Burnett |
Twins Pitcher |
95 |
59 |
61.69% |
|
Nate Hanson |
Twins IF
Prospect |
94 |
73 |
56.29% |
|
Matt Schuld |
Twins P Prospect |
85 |
63 |
57.43% |
|
Kevin Slowey |
Twins Pitcher |
73 |
48 |
60.33% |
Any thoughts? Feel free to e-mail me or leave
your comments here.