Sweeney signs with A's

by Jon Marthaler on Feb 10, 2008 11:27 PM EST Comment 7 comments

Anyone hoping that Mike Sweeney would provide some occasional power for the Twins can give it up: the oft-injured ex-Kansas City slugger has signed with Oakland, according to MLBTradeRumors.

The free agent market is starting to thin a little bit; not surprisingly, the Twins appear to be set on going to spring training with the team they have.

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I liked the thought of Sweeney...

but looking at the roster now, especially if we go with 12 pitchers, there's just no room for him.

The A's do continue to impress me with low-risk, good, cheap moves. 2 years ago it was Frank Thomas. Last year it was Stewart and Piazza. Piazza didn't work out, so Beane goes out and gets Cust for peanuts.

Now this year, he's got all of Foulke, Brown, and Sweeney.

Basically Beane does what the Twins have done, but does it with research, and well. He is still easily the best GM in the game for my money.

by djskilbr on Feb 10, 2008 11:43 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Agree there's no room

Yeah, but we'd have nowhere to put him. Perhaps he would make someone like Monroe expendable, but until one of our young OF (Gomez, Pridie, Span) step up in ST, we need Monroe as a backup option. Sweeney would have been a more realistic possibility if we had not traded for Young. I'm glad we did though...

by Adam Peterson on Feb 11, 2008 7:50 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

my 2 cents

If the Twins feel like Gomez should start the season in the minors, I hope they release Monroe and get Lofton to platoon with Pridie in CF. Especially since Lofton can play all 3 OF spots and bat leadoff. That's the only tweaking I can see that needs to be considered for now.

by doofus04 on Feb 11, 2008 8:06 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Gleeman

Has a good running analysis of just where Monroe fits into the landscape of other options. To wit: If he makes the opening day roster, he will be paid more than twice the highest paid alternative in his role. Each of the eight alternatives Gleeman highlights have performed better than Monroe over the last four years. If Monroe fails to make the opening day roster, he will still make more than five of the eight options.

Sweeney is one of the eight options. Tony Clark is another. He was the one I wanted. He signed a $900,000 deal with San Diego recently. If the Twins wanted Monroe for his defense, they could have gotten a better and cheaper alternative in Bobby Kielty, who signed an $800,000 deal with the Red Sox. Kielty is a better defender, a switch hitter, a better base runner. Neither is a world beater with the bat. But at least Kielty is cheap and has more versatility.

My take is Bill Smith was new to the GM role. He liked Monroe, so he acquired him before doing all of his homework. He thought he could give him a 40% pay cut. After checking with the league, he can only give a 20% pay cut. So he's stuck with a more expensive option than he expected, even if it's the option he wanted. It turns out this is the one year Smith will afford to make a mistake like this. And it's really a minor mistake, considering the small impact bench bats have on seasons. In the scheme of things, there are lots of more important stories going into spring training. I'll focus my attention on those.

"You're thinking too much. Just have fun." -- Bennie "The Jet" Rodriguez in Sandlot

by cmathewson on Feb 11, 2008 11:26 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

Agree.....

Man, Clark, Sweeney...both still decent bats for under a million, it looks like. I would consider Kielty before Ford or Tyner, even though he's no longer a switch-hitter. But doubt he wants to come abck.

The Twins did get hosed on the Monroe signing. If they ahd waited until he was non-tendered, who knows, he might still be looking for a job today like Doug Mientkiewicz, Shannon Stewart or Mike Piazza.

Depending on how is the centerfielder, ir could be two of the three of Pridie, Gomez, Span -- the Twins still have a 4th/5th outfielder named Jason Kubel. The back-up for first is Lamb or Cuddyer. Then you have to have a third-base backup in Punto, Macri, Buscher or Harris, who would be backed up by any of the others.

So, is MONROE needed? I would've liked to have seen a bigger potential bat off the bench, who can also spell Morneau, and play more of a bonafide DH role, if need be. Not Rondell White (also still available).

Was surprised at the deals Mike Sweeney and Mr. Clark.

Yes, surprised at the success of Mr. Beane of late taking rejects off the free agent pile, at least compared to the Twins successes in the offense department.

And what's with Sammy Sosa still treading water? Hey, even Gonzalez got a chance to reprot to a spring training site?

How badly do we need that 12th pitcher, or 6th outfielder. Looks like we are going with only one abckup infielder for now. Hopefully, no need (ever) for a third catcher.

check out Twinkies autograph collection at www.TwinsCards.com

by twintown on Feb 11, 2008 12:21 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

I wouldn't

I wouldn't mid cutting Monroe at all if it meant getting another young guy on the team. I'd honestly wouldn't mind seeing Denard Span as the extra outfielder around to see what kind of bench duty he's capable of.

Baseball is great because you cant take a knee or kill the clock. You gotta put the ball over the plate and give the other guy his damn shot E Weaver abridged

by AdamOnFirst on Feb 11, 2008 3:43 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

+1

Amen. Monroe offers a power bat off the bench. That's nice, but he doesn't offer much else, or much upside, potential for improvement, etc. Take his $3 million (after we pay what we owe) and put it toward an elite college pitcher in the draft. Put two of Gomez, Pridie and Span in the majors, leaving more at-bats (and games in CF) for our CF prospects in the minors.

by snolls on Feb 12, 2008 8:14 AM EST reply actions 0 recs