Wednesday Roundup

by Bobomojo on Feb 2, 2011 9:00 AM EST in News

As Jesse noted yesterday, Rob Neyer has joined the SB Nation family. Personally, I couldn't be happier about the move. I've been a huge Neyer fan for years - in fact I wrote about it just a couple weeks ago - and am hoping the change will lead Rob back to his roots writing lengthy, in-depth analysis and commentary pieces, something he'd moved away from in his last couple years at ESPN. Rob is a talented writer with an inquisitive mind, and he's off to a very good start in his new confines.
LENIII checks in on Pat Neshek, who is looking at Francisco Liriano's huge comeback year in 2010 as inspiration for his 2011 campaign. It's clear that our bullpen is a big question mark, but bounce backs from Neshek and Nathan could certainly turn a potential negative into a huge positive.
But forget the bullpen: the number one thing on Twins fans minds should be the health of Justin Morneau. Here's what we know: he's not 100%. He's working out, but not participating in baseball-related activities. The Twins are still looking at opening day, but have not committed to a timetable. Get well, Justin. Twins fans are rooting for a safe, healthy, productive return.
Phil Mackey has an interesting point on his blog: "Since the beginning of 2004, the Twins have handed out 16 total contract extensions to players already under team control, and 13 of those came between January 19 and March 30." Don't be surprised if the final move of the offseason is an extension or two.
On that topic, Kelly Thesier reports the Twins have not approached Cuddyer about a contract extension. This is good news; given the outfield prospects in our system, the Twins should be in no rush to guarantee Cuddyer a contract beyond this season.
The Orioles came to terms with Justin Duchscherer, yet another "buy-low" target snatched up by Baltimore. It's almost as if Andy MacPhail was reading Twinkie Town before making personnel decisions this offseason: they signed Duchscherer and Derrek Lee, are targeting Vlad Guerrero, and traded for our beloved JJ Hardy. Throw in the acquisition of Mark Reynolds and this may be the single greatest offseason a 96-loss team in a virtually-impossible-to-win division has ever had.
In some ways, it almost seems absurd given the ups-and-downs of his career, but 36-year-old R.A. Dickey just signed a two-year, $7.8 million contract with the New York Mets, which includes a team option for 2013. Dickey was a failed first-round draft pick for the Rangers, who became a knuckleballer in 2005 after battling shoulder problems. He bounced between the Brewers, Mariners, and Twins in recent years, before signing a minor league deal with the Mets last season. He proceeded to start 26 games for the Mets in 2010, posting an outstanding 2.84 ERA (and a very good 3.65 FIP). All in all, his new deal with the Mets seems like a good decision for both sides - a little security for him, a potential bargain for the Mets. Oh, and we can add him to the list of former Twins relievers who signed big multi-year deals this offseason.

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Orioles improvement

I agree, the Orioles have had a good offseason. Toronto looks improved as well. The Yankees are going to have an awful pitching rotation beyond Sabathia. If their older players get hurt they’re looking at 4th place. The Orioles could use more pitching.

by DJL44 on Feb 2, 2011 10:01 AM EST reply actions

I love the Orioles offseason

They look really good right now, too bad they’re in that division. I think I’ll be rooting for them a little bit since they now have JJ. Either way, hopefully they have a much better season than last year.

Baseball reminds us of all that once was good, and that could be again.-Terence Mann/James Earl Jones in FoD

by Twins33 on Feb 2, 2011 10:37 AM EST up reply actions

A really nice lineup.

Maybe even a decent bullpen. But starting pitching will kill them. They should at least be a pest instead of a punching bag for the rest of the division though. Ironically, the division might be deep enough that the wild card will come out of the West or Central.

by Luke in MN on Feb 2, 2011 1:20 PM EST up reply actions

Good point.

"FTYITAWAB" -less cowbell, more 'neau

by d-mac on Feb 2, 2011 2:33 PM EST up reply actions

MacPhail

also got or beloved Harris HaHa. Plus, how did he miss out on LNP.

by b1 on Feb 2, 2011 4:04 PM EST up reply actions

On Mackey's point

I’m not really surprised that the extensions have come spring training or earlier. When Smith said that he is only working on Liriano and Delmon for one year right now, I saw a few comments elsewhere wondering why he wasn’t thinking of extending them (mostly Liriano).

All he’s doing is getting the whole arbitration court thing out of the way, that’s the first step and a one year deal accomplishes that. I think some people assume that means that is it, like he can’t extend them for longer than that in March or something.

This is just normal procedure to me. Maybe he doesn’t extend them, but just because he’s only working on one year deals now doesn’t mean that he isn’t at least thinking about their possible long-term future with the Twins. He could be doing a one year deal and then extending Liriano to a multi-year deal in a month.

I hope that’s the case, get him cheap while you can, because I feel like he’s going to have another good season this year.

Baseball reminds us of all that once was good, and that could be again.-Terence Mann/James Earl Jones in FoD

by Twins33 on Feb 2, 2011 10:43 AM EST reply actions

Re: Neshek

I know a lot of people aren’t high on him, but I’m cautiously optimistic. An extra season removed from TJ, hopefully he gets a little more life on that fastball and, even if he’s not the Neshek from years past, hopefully he can still be effective. He’s one of those guys where you don’t really know what you’re going to get, but he’s also a guy where, if you can get him back, he’ll be a big, BIG boost to the bullpen.

by Jesse on Feb 2, 2011 11:42 AM EST reply actions

True

I’m kind of with cmath though. He relies on his elbow, because he has to…so I don’t know how much better he’ll be than last year. He’s all elbow and it seems like the guys who can strengthen their shoulder do better. Neshek can’t pitch another way than he already does.

He could improve, but I can easily see him struggling. I feel like that is the more likely scenario. I’ll be happily surprised and glad I was wrong if it turns out differently.

Baseball reminds us of all that once was good, and that could be again.-Terence Mann/James Earl Jones in FoD

by Twins33 on Feb 2, 2011 11:49 AM EST up reply actions

Re: Extensions

Honestly, I’ll be a little surprised if the Twins offer any extensions this year. Liriano is the leading candidate, but is one great season enough to convince the FO to commit multiple millions to him for a handful of seasons? With his talent and his potential, I’d probably take the risk and make him an offer…but I’m not the FO.

And with Young, maybe they want to see another good year out of him, too. Dude’s still young, but with all that potential and with all those young OF’s en route and with 2012 still an arbitration year, maybe they wait on him too. I mean, what would it take to extend him right now? If you want to buy out his first year of free agency, which I assume they would, they’d probably have to offer something like 3 years, $24 million.

Finally, Cuddyer. I like him. Great guy, great leader…but I probably wait until after the season to see how the roster is going to shake out. I might see if he has interest in coming back as a super-utility player.

by Jesse on Feb 2, 2011 11:47 AM EST reply actions

on Cuddyer

super utility player? Isn’t the main point of having one of those based on the ability to play defense at different positions?

Cuddyer has been a very good player for the twins. But not necessarily a good statistical player, and certainly not if those statistics include defensive metrics.

Maybe he could come back next year as the 4th OF/platoon bench bat?

Me? Just another sheeple on the internets.

by montanatwinsfan on Feb 2, 2011 2:36 PM EST up reply actions

Well, utility

in that he can field multiple positions. Not necessarilly well, but he can play the position.

by Jesse on Feb 3, 2011 12:02 PM EST up reply actions

To me, that isn't utility

By that definition, every player on the roster could be a utility player if they just bought a bunch of different gloves.

The only reason Cuddyer got so many chances to play out of position is the manager thinks he can play everywhere. He was decent at 3B. He was OK in RF. He was horrible everywhere else.

I don’t think h is an infielder. He played better than I expected at third because he was somewhat lucky and had a lot of balls hit right at him. Over the long haul, even Gardy wouldn’t play him at third everyday. That makes him a right fielder near the bottom of the league in UZR every year.

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

by cmathewson on Feb 3, 2011 12:17 PM EST up reply actions