Here's hoping you had a good Thanksgiving weekend. Here's your grumpy reset of last week's news, and a look forward to the week ahead:
* The Twins hired Gene Glynn to manage Triple-A Rochester. I'm ashamed to say I made it as far as "Glynn, 55, is a native of Waseca" before deciding that this is the best possible hire. He's a Minnesotan, which presumably means he was raised by Minnesotans, which must mean he'll do fine. (I'm sure you can provide examples where this hasn't worked. I'm equally sure I don't care to hear them.) Glynn has been the first or third base coach for half the teams in the major leagues, which I guess is a plus.
* Glen Perkins will not be the closer next year. It can't be a good sign for how your manager uses the closer when everyone agrees that it'd be better if the team's best reliever isn't the closer.
* Joe Nathan, who didn't want to be traded and who collected $1.75 million per saved game over the past two years, turned down the Twins and signed with Texas for only slightly more money because he "wants to pitch in the playoffs." To Joe I say, thanks for six great years in Minnesota, but I will not remember your exit as graceful. Also, I'll say that in six playoff appearances with the Twins you had the same number of saves, blown saves, and losses (one each), and you gave up nearly two baserunners an inning. Be careful what you wish for.
* The team will offer Michael Cuddyer and Jason Kubel arbitration. Even better, they will get compensation for Matt Capps without having to offer him arbitration and thus risk the fresh hell of another season of Matt Capps.
* The new CBA is (head spins). Head over to MLB Trade Rumors for the full breakdown. The biggest changes are the limits on spending on draft picks and international signings, which should be good for the Twins, who don't like spending money for anything. Also there are some changes to the playoffs, but I'm hoping everyone forgets about them before they can be implemented, because they are stupid.
* CHRIS HERRMANN IS THE FUTURE OF CATCHING. The 24-year-old, who spent most of the year at AA New Britain, hit .380 and had an OPS north of 1.000 in the Arizona Fall League. He'd never caught before last year, and played nearly 40% of his games in the outfield or at DH last year, but after one good season in the AFL I think we can all agree that the Twins might as well trade Joe Mauer right now because we have seen the future and his name is spelled with two 'R's and two 'N's.
Tracking This Week
- The Winter Meetings start a week from today. We could not possibly be more excited.
- If you stare at the above photo of Ryan Doumit long enough, your skin will crawl. I don't know why this is. Maybe it's the Pirates uniform.
- I heard Sid Hartman say on the radio that the Twins want to re-sign Cuddyer and not Kubel. However, I also heard him say at least two demonstrably false things, and one sentence that can only be written in the Klingon language, so take this with a grain of salt.