Keep the outfield intact. There are five quality outfielders, I know, but that is a good problem.

The bullpen is sound in my opinion as well. Although it is scary for one guy to have such an effect on the bullpen, Pat Neshek will bring this ‘pen back to it’s previous spectacular form. Little needs to be done with that.

The starting rotation shouldn’t be messed with either. The current five: Liriano, Baker, Slowey, Blackburn, Perkins are totally acceptable starting pitchers. There is depth in the minors as well with Duensing and Mulvey. They could make starts if need be in 2009.

The right infield is locked in for a long time. The left infield is the problem, though.

I would propose trading for Edwin Encarnacion. He quietly hit 26 home runs for the Reds in 2008 and is eligible for arbitration this year. Even though the Twins have Danny Valencia ready for action as soon as late 2009 bringing in a 25-year old does have it’s benefits. When Valencia is ready he will have competition for the third base job, and he won’t just assume it’s his to lose.

Also, having two capable third basemen is better than having one aging veteran and a young potential star. Although the normal answer among Twins fans would be to sign a veteran third baseman for one year, like Casey Blake for example, I would suggest trading for a semi-young, proven option. Another example of this would be Adrian Beltre.

“has a habit of double pumping his arm (by bringing his hands together after getting the ball in order to get comfortable before throwing)”

This means he grabs the ball from his glove, brings it out, then bring his hands back together again, then brings the ball back to throw, a very unnecessary motion.

If a trade for delmon young could be worked out (EE and one or a few other guys) I would do it, and I bet it helped both teams.

C – Mauer and Redmond….great combo, redmond recently renewed and mauer locked up…arguably the best catching duo in the majors

1B – Morneau…lack of homers was surprising this year, but still one of the game’s best driving in runs and playing gold glove quality defense

2B – Casilla…had some very bright spots and some dark ones as well….solid with the glove, nice speed, and a decent eye….good #8 type hitter ahead of gomez

3B – move proposed, see below

SS – move proposed, see below

LF – Young….power wasn’t there, but certainly wasn’t absent for those who saw his BP cuts….minnesota has a habit of taking a guy with a great line drive swing and turning him into a 15-home run hitter when he may have the power to hit 30 if allowed to finish his swing fully….i’d either allow the guy to finish his swing (a la the change boston made with ortiz that changed him from a backup DH to jeremy giambi into one of the most feared hitters in the game) or trade him….and depending on where cuddyer’s health is, the trade option could truly make sense….span slides over if a trade happens

CF – Gomez….lots of moments of brilliance….lots of moments of “WTF?!”….right now simply does not possess the patience to be a top of the order hitter, but still hits enough to be on base with TONS of speed to make something happen….perfect 9 hole hitter….great defender in center as well

RF – Span/Cuddyer….depending on Cuddyer’s health, he may force a move….i believe in span…as a solid #2 hitter….he’s not the high average, high obp guy of last season, but he does have good contact skills and would be a perfect guy to bunt a runner over or hit and run with, and possesses the type of speed to be a threat if the bases are empty ahead of him….cuddyer struggled with injury this year, but is not far removed from being a very viable threat in the middle of the lineup…his health at twins workouts during the offseason could spell the end of young….

dh – Kubel….very solid season, and still growing as a hitter….has streaks where he just disappears, though, especially against tough LH pitching….if cuddyer can’t go in the field, but can with the bat, kubel may move to the OF if young’s traded….

rotation – solid 1-5….Perkins was a huge asset in the pen in 2007, and if he could be bumped with the acquisition of another starter, he’d fill a needed long relief role….but otherwise, the rotation’s fine…

’pen – very solid….adding in neshek and the competition of prospect pitchers to break into the team through the pen will keep the ’pen very solid….

what i’d do….

trade with Seattle……they are losing Raul Ibanez to free agency and will be looking for someone to replace him….this is a chance for the twins to add some depth while filling a position of need…..Seattle sends Beltre and Greg Halman (with some salary) for delmon young….knowing the twins love for jarrod washburn, he may end up fodder in the deal with most salary paid by seattle in exchange for a low B/high C prospect added in….

i’d also use billy beane’s man-love for kevin mulvey against him and try to pry away one of his top pitchers by using mulvey and brendan harris….

last, but not least….sign raffy furcal….yes, i said the cubs should do this as well, but he would simply be a perfect fit for the twins….leadoff guy, solid defensive shortstop….they need both badly….

resulting lineup/rotation
Furcal, SS
Span, LF
Mauer, C
Morneau, 1B
Beltre, 3B
Kubel, DH
Cuddyer, RF
Casilla, 2B
Gomez, CF

Liriano
Baker
Slowey
Blackburn
Perkins (unless a deal is done with Beane)

or does Carew’s bat look like it’s bending like a bubble-shaft golf club? Or maybe I should not have eaten that mushroom given to me by Vida Blue…

The Twins needs are obvious. They have a clog in the OF and holes on the left side of the infield. Here’s what I’d do:

Trade Gomez and a couple of pitching prospects for JJ Hardy, perhaps Gomez/Humber/Slama. It wouldnt be too much. I feel the Twins would be much better for now going forth with Young-Span-Cuddyer rather than Young-Gomez-Span, and perhaps Cuddyer at 3rd or on the bench. I also dont think Gomez is that good, and since they have Revere and Hicks in the minors, as well as Span and Young already in the majors, they wont have any need for him in the future. For Milwaukee, unless I’m forgetting somebody (and that’s a strong possibility), they have an opening in the outfield after Braun and Hart and they could use some speed. With a lack of pitching in the minors and possible losing Sheets and Sabathia, they could also use 1 or two pitching prospects. I think this deal works out for both teams.

Sign Rafael Furcal, and move Hardy to third. I dont like the 3rd basemen available on either the free agent or trade markets, and it would work out best for the Twins to play Furcal at short and simply slide Hardy over to third. Furcal is their type of player and would probably come “cheap” considering he’s coming off an injury. It would also make Punto a utility guy, which is what he should be.

Sign Ryan Dempster, and slide Perkins into the bullpen. The Twins have got to go out and spend some money some time, why not do it now, when they’re close to going deep in the playoffs? Open up the pocketbooks a little, and go after Dempster. He wouldnt cost as much as a Sabathia or Sheets, and it’d give them a great 1-2 punch, plus a vet in that rotation to help all the young guys. I’m not really comfortable with Perkins as a full-time starter, even if it’s in the 5th spot. This would give them a great rotation and it would also improve their bullpen, making up for the loss of Dennys Reyes.

Lastly, sign Jim Edmonds or Juan Rivera, depending on who you would rather take a chance on. Edmonds still has legit 20 homer pop and could rotate with Cuddyer between RF/DH if they’re concerned with Cuddyer’s foot. He would also provide nice veteran leadership. Rivera is an interesting one. He’s coming off a decent season where he had to split playing time, and I think showed he’s recovered from his injury and can return to his form from a couple years ago. He would come cheap and could be an interesting low-risk/high-reward play

If they do these things, this is what their team could look like:

Lineup:

Span, CF
Furcal, SS
Mauer, C
Morneau, 1B
Hardy, 3B
Young, LF
Cuddyer, RF
Edmonds/Rivera, DH
Casilla, 2B

Bench:

Punto, UTIL
Harris, INF
Redmond, C
Buscher, 3B
Kubel, OF

Rotation:

Liriano
Dempster
Slowey
Blackburn
Baker

Bullpen:

LR/MR -Perkins
MR -Mijares
MR -Breslow
MR -Guerrier
SU -Neshek
CL – Nathan

That is a damn good team. It probably wont happen, but it’s definitely feasible.

I’d love for the G’s to grab Young, but I’m not sure if there is a good fit between the two teams for trading purposes. The Giants have a lot of young pitching; the Twins don’t really need pitching. Still, I think the Twins still owe us one for taking advantage of our idiot GM and stealing Nathan and Liriano from us… worst, trade, EVAR.

C – Joe Mauer
1B – Justin Morneau
2B – Alexi Casilla
SS – Yunel Escobar
3B – Brian Buscher
LF – Jason Kubel
CF – Denard Span
RF – Delmon Young
DH – Michael Cuddyer
C – Mike Redmond
IF – Matt Tolbert
IF – Brendan Harris
OF – Jason Pridie/Carlos Gomez

SP – Francisco Liriano
SP – Scott Baker
SP – Kevin Slowey
SP – Nick Blackburn
SP – Phil Humber/Kevin Mulvey
RP – Matt Guerrier
RP – Craig Breslow
RP – Jose Mijares
RP – Jesse Crain
RP – Scrapheap/Humber
RP – Pat Neshek
CL – Joe Nathan

How do we get here?

Let Reyes and Punto walk. They will only be paid for mediocrity

Deal Perkins/Bonser to the Braves for Yunel Escobar

Keep the Buscher/Harris platoon intact. When Gardenhire went to the straight platoon at the end of the year he got pretty good production at a fraction of the cost of a Beltre

Pick up a rule 5 type player and insert into the bullpen. I think that if Gardenhire has a weakness (beyond his love for futility infielders) its that he doesn’t do a great job of managing a stretched pen. He has burned out Guirrier the last 2 years and did the same for Neshek in 07. Crain, Neshek, and Mijares are going to be solid bridges to Nathan. If anything the pen has been burned by erratic starts by players like Bonser and Livan Hernandez. If the 7th and 8th inning guys only have to pitch the 7th and the 8th instead of being pressed into action in the 5th and 6th innings.

Don’t think about the Free Agent market over the winter. The Twins could overpay for an Orlando (Cabrera or Hudson) or even a guy like Furcal, but in the long run its going to be tough. The only thing is that they might want to get a guy like Juan Cruz to shore up the pen if they deal some arms for a 3B or SS

I would also like to see Gomez have to earn a spot in the lineup, or even the big club for that matter. As nice as it is to see the amount of ground that a Young, Gomez, Span outfield covers I believe it would be best to let Carlos Gomez work on his discipline, even if its just to make him work on it. As nice as the Twins were with giving him a job and letting him work out the kinks (which is a refreshing change from teams giving up on guys like Carlos Quentin and Brandon Wood in their first 200-400 MLB at-bats) there didn’t seem to be any pressure on him to work on his craft. He makes the same mistakes, and in some circumstances seemed to regress though the year.

Pohlad isn’t going to be a big spender, maybe in 2010, but not until. I think the moves above bridges to that point when the Twins might be able to get out from Cuddyer’s albatross contract and maybe get a bat to play an OF corner or a frontline starting pitcher to give the Twins a punch like they had in 06

He is listed as a 3B and from what I see he played 3rd a lot after getting to Rochester….but he played more as a LF while still at New Brittan. Is he a butcher at the hot corner? Did anyone get to see him and is willing to give me a unbiased report. The buzz between his very outlier offensive production, with babip nearing .375, no patience at all, and the fact that he might not be a true 3B all point that this might be one of the biggest flukes for the Twins in years

Wouldn’t signing Joe Crede to a short term contract make more sense than trading good players for Beltre or Encarnacion?

http://baseballhandyman.blogspot.com/2008/10/trading-pieces-san-diego-padres.html