Friday,
December 3, 2010
Friday Twins Links and Notes
With the decision to tender a contract to
each of the necessary players and signing Pat
Neshek and Jason
Repko,
there is little more to say, so today, here are some links:
·
Adam Dunn signed
a four year, $56 million contract with the White Sox. After rumors said that AJ Pierzynski
was about to sign with the Blue Jays, he re-upped with the White Sox for two
years and $8 million. The team is also still trying to bring back Paul Konerko.
Dunn can hit home runs and draw walks and strike out. He will take care of some
position. He and Konerko are both old but solid
hitters who can’t play any defense. AJ is AJ. I know some think this is some
sort of difference-making deal, but there is still a lot of offseason
remaining. Dunn definitely helps the White Sox, but what would he have done for
the Twins? How would he have helped the Twins beat the Yankees in the playoffs against
Sabathia, Price, Lee, Pettitte,
Wilson, etc?
·
With last night’s
deadline for tendering contracts, there are suddenly a ton of bullpen options
available to the Twins. Left-handed options include Hideki Okajima, George Sherrill, Andrew
Miller and Ryan Rowland-Smith. Okajima could help on a couple of counts. First, he is a
pretty good lefty-reliever to team with Jose Mijares.
However, he also could help mentor Tsuyoshi
Nishioka through his early struggles culturally
in the States, if he has any. Could be a good situation.
·
There are some
interesting right-handers as well. Dustin
Moseley made some spot starts for the Yankees. Joel Peralta had a 2.02 ERA, struck out a batter an inning and
walked less than two per nine innings. He’s a fly ball pitcher, but that wouldn’t
hurt in Target Field. I am very intrigued by Jose Veras, the Marlins reliever who
throws an average of 94.4 mph on his fastball, but does walk a few.
·
Last year, the
running joke was that the Twins wanted a RH hitting DH/OF/PH option and ended
up with Jim Thome.
This year, a great option that fits those needs became available with Matt Diaz was non-tendered by the
Braves. He has beaten up left-handed pitching throughout his career. So while Jim Thome’s agent says that he is going to play in 2011
and the Twins could be a team he plays for, Matt Diaz is a better fit. In 2010, he hit .273/.318/.512 against
left-handers. Over his career, he has hit .335/.373/.533 against southpaws.
·
If you want a
speedier outfield, how about Tony Gwynn,
Jr. He does a great job in CF. Lastings Milledge has been an enigma since he was drafted, but
does have talent.
·
Trent Oeltjen was non-tendered by the Dodgers. I was always a fan.
·
David Winfree signed a minor league deal with the Diamondbacks.
·
The Royals have
apparently indicated that they will not trade Zach Greinke within the AL Central, and
that’s fine. They were already asking for the world. Ed Thoma,
the Baseball Outsider and a
great writer for the Mankato Free Press, wrote about the Philosophy
of trading within your division.
·
Aaron Gleeman
wrote about the Twins
tendering contracts to all nine of their arbitration-eligibles.
·
Roger Dehring posted his annual
position player rankings over at Twinkie Town. I’m sure you all know
who came out at #1, but there are plenty of surprises through his list of one through
eighty-nine.
·
Jeff A from
the WGOM posts frequent Tigres Tales to let people know how Twins prospects
are doing down in Venezuela, playing for Aragua.
·
Parker from Over
the Baggy asks Will Thome be Back?
·
Several Twins
bloggers asked, and then answered, the question, “What is the most important
position in baseball?” Here are some of the responses:
1.
From
K-Bro.
2.
From
Andrew at Twins Target.
3.
From
Andrew of Off the Mark.
5.
From
The Platoon Advantage.
6.
From Capital Babs and from Jim
Crikket at Knuckleballs.
·
Jim Crikket of Knuckleballs wrote about several
Twins topics in an article called Twins:
Foreign/Domestic, New/Old, Friend/Foe.
·
The
NoDak Twins Fan reports that Twins Zubaz are back!!
He also compared
the mega-contracts of Troy Tulowitzki and Joe Mauer.
·
And here is a new
Twins blog worth checking out and bookmarking. It’s called Twins Takes.
·
If you happen to
be looking for our Week 13 picks, click here.
What else is going on with the Twins or any
Twins-related updates? Please feel free to use the Comments
to discuss Twins topics (again, nicely, please), and if you have other stories
on the Twins throughout the weekend, be sure to link to them there as well.