Liriano to the DL, Humber up
The Twins placed starting pitcher Francisco Liriano on the DL after last nights game. He managed to give up 7 runs in 2 innings of work, telling Gardy he had “nothing left in the tank”. Not sure if he is physically or mentally done, but its probably both. He will be replaced with the always entertaining Phil Humber. Great.
The Twins have exactly two pitchers who I can count on to get outs: Guerrier and Nathan. They don’t pitch early in the game though, so it doesn’t matter. Baker seems to be coming around, but does it really matter? If we have 4 train wrecks and one decent pitcher in the rotation will that really help us make up the defecit in the division? I highly doubt it.
The worst part is that we are wasting incredible seasons from Mauer, Morneau and Kubel (and to a lesser extend Cuddyer). What reason does Joe Mauer have to stick around if we can’t surround him with the pitching we need to win. I am in the camp that thinks he cares more about winning than the money (this may contradict something I have said earlier, but if you go back in the archives and look it up: fuck you). How can the Twins upgrade their pitching this offseason? It is clear there are problems in both the bullpen and starting rotation. If Bill Smith takes the “well, our young pitcher will surely rebound from a bad 2009 and pitch well in 2010 so I won’t change anything” course of action, then he might as well book Joe a plane ticket to the east coast. We have to open up the wallet and probably overpay for some pitchers. It is damn near impossible to sign a good free agent player to a team friendly contract. When the Yankees signed Burnett to that 5 year deal, they probably knew he was going to be bad for the last two, but that is just the price you pay for talent on the open market. I don’t know what pitchers will be available this offseason via trade or free agency, but we need to take a good look at all of them. I think we might have some bullpen answers in the system in Delaney and Slama, but as far as starting rotation? There isn’t too much in the minors that we haven’t already seen. Other than the Twins specialty, “projects to be a middle to back of the rotation starter at best, Phil Humber at worst”.
What do you think the Twins can do to upgrade this offseason. Or, if you are the optimistic type, what can they do over the next six weeks to make a playoff push?
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Right now, obviously, it seems like we’re really far away. But it’s probably not as bad as it seems. They need 1-2 new arms in the bullpen (and might be getting Neshek back), and 1-2 new starters. If we had 3 guys we could trust, we can put ourselves in position to hope that 2 of our 6 shitty young starters can rebound in 2010.
Then we need a 2B, a SS, a 3B, and an OF (or improvement from either Young or Gomez). Mauer/Morneau/Kubel have really done a lot to paper over the massive holes on the offense, and the pitching staff has done their share of the work to push our offensive shortcomings to the background.
I think that “1-2 new starters” is key. We have pretty much already seen every option that farm system has to offer and it is less than impressive. Duensing still might have a shot to be a starter, and same goes for Manship. But I don’t like what I’ve seen out of Mulvey or Humber. and the really bad part is we have used them, they have sucked, so therefore we can no longer trade them for anything. although maybe some brian sabean will take humber, mulvey and young for Cain or Lincecum. Thats basically the same as the Johan trade, so its fair, right? Right?
Pretty sure even Sabean isn’t that dumb.
It’s remarkable how horrible the Santana and Garza/Bartlett trades have been, isn’t it? I mean, everyone we got back in both trades sucks. To the point where we would have been better off just releasing those (awesome) players to avoid stocking out major league and AAA roster with sub-replacement level shitheads.
But I remain high on Manship. He’s looked pretty good in his 2 outings.
2010 Bullpen: Nathan, Guerrier, Neshek, Mijares – are set I think (as long as Neshek doesn’t hurt himself again, that will fill a large void)… then I guess you fill the last two spots with Delaney/Slama and/or whomever doesn’t make the rotation? There are options..
I think the bigger concern is who can be in the rotation and be effective all year.. it seems we are missing an “ace” on this staff. (Baker, Blackburn, Slowey) I think they all stay as your 3 solid guys, but then between Perkins, Duensing, Liriano, Swarzak, Manship there needs to be some decisions made…Humber/Mulvey are not capable of being starters and may not be worthy of a bullpen spot…
OF: Keep Gomez (he just needs to play everyday and his defense is what brings value to the team) Trade Young (for pitching)Cuddyer, Span, Gomez, Kubel can handle the OF duties…
2B/SS: Casilla gets another shot, Punto needs to be regulated to the bench and we need a viable SS for next year…
3B: Valencia gets the nod
C: Sign Mauer, bring Morales up
1B: I think we are okay here
FA Moves or Trades: We need to get a legit starting SS (as we did last year also) and now we need an ACE on the staff… those things would go a long way to showing the Team you are committed to winning now and show the fan base that we’d like to win and not just show off our shiny new stadium for the next 3 years.
That all sounds about right. I don’t think there are going to be any Aces on the market this offseason. I’ve heard the D-Backs might trade one of theirs (Webb or Haren) but I doubt the Twins have the prospects to pull that off.
Webb has an expensive option for next year, that the D-Backs very well may not pick up because he’s been injured for the last year and a half and missed almost all of this year.
He’d be a risky signing, especially since teams are sure to still offer him like $50M.
If I were a betting man (and God knows I used to be), I’d put a good chunk of change on the following starting rotation: Baker, Slowey, Blackburn, Liriano, Perkins/Swarzak/Humber/Duensing by committee (whichever one has the least “tired” a.k.a “likely to get completely shelled thus essentially ending the game in the 3rd inning” arm). If recent history is any indication the Twins will put proving themselves right (i.e. “we have 5 #1 starters”, platooning Gomez to salvage the Santana trade, inexplicably starting Nick F#$%@ing Punto to justify his absurd salary) ahead of necessarily improving the team, even if it costs the team an entire season (i.e. 2009) or, potentially, a face-of-the franchise free agent (i.e. Joe Mauer).
I think the team should give up on Liriano as a starter, but they probably won’t. He hasn’t had more than like 2 good starts all year. We have to make a major investment in new talent this offseason. No way around it. We can’t sign scrap heap players (Ponson, Ortiz, etc.) we need to be signing good free agents to market value deals. This is going to cost the team a lot of money, but it needs to be done.
http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2008/12/2010-mlb-free-a.html
That is a list of free agent starting pitchers. Not much out there. A trade might be the best route.
Given that list, and knowing full well the Twins won’t make a trade (they would’ve had to give up – the horror! – Glen Perkins to get Jerrod Washburn), I predict they make exactly 1 move: sign Mike Hampton to a 1-yr minor league deal, then cut him before Memorial Day.
I don’t like any of the names on that list.
Also, I’m reasonably sure it would have taken more than Perkins to get Washburn.
I’m assuming Cliff Lee’s option gets picked up. Bedard is too much of an injury risk, and I think Washburn is overrated. Duchscherer intrigues me, but not sure how healthy he will be.
Yeah, Ducherererer is at least as much of an injury concern as Bedard. Harden too.
Sirsean, probably would have taken a low-minors prospect too, but I can’t imagine much more. Not a huge difference between Perkins + no-namer and Luke Thousand Island + no-namer.
Anyway my point is don’t count on any trades.