Joe Christensen makes a great point about how well this team works within the penny-pinching regime of the Pohlads. The next owner would be good to make the team work the same way in player management, until the one big signing that definitely helps the team.
Here's Joe, reminding us that it wasn't just Santana or Torii "Gates of Shinto" Hunter that were breaking banks:
"It would be easy for the Twins to get complacent, considering their current contract structure. Joe Mauer is under contract through 2010, Nathan 2011, and Morneau 2013.
Of their pending free agents, the Twins' biggest decision is whether to retain Nick Punto, and it sounds as if they will. They have only two players who are arbitration-eligible -- Jason Kubel and Matt Guerrier -- and neither will break the bank.
Meanwhile, the Twins have staged an absolute coup with their starting pitching.
At a time when former Twins pitchers Kyle Lohse ($41 million) and Carlos Silva ($48 million) are swimming in money, their current starting five could return for next season at less than $500,000 apiece."
This will be the last, or maybe second-to-last time I discuss the Twins until the end of the baseball postseason.
In other news, Jayson Stark is attempting to prove the old saw about a stopped clock being right twice a day. For the second year in a row, he's predicting The Chicago Cubs (the very definition of a stopped clock) to win the World Series. I'll predict that they won't win the NLDS, if they even make it to that game. I'll make the Phillies my NL representative in the World Series.
Jayson, as long as you keep picking the Cubs, I'm sure at some point in the next 80 years, you will be close to being right. (For those of you wondering: biggest problems for the Cubs--I'll give three--1. They are The Cubs. Generational Infamy counts for something. 2) Their Starting Pitching, when healthy, is good to great. It ain't healthy, and hasn't been in 5 years. 3) Alfonso Soriano is the most overrated leadoff man in the league, and for all the runs the Cubs offense produces, I don't really see a position in which they have a clear advantage over the Phils.
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Amen. Couldn't agree more about the Cubs and I think last night's game was a staggering look into how iffy their starting pitching really is.
And yes... the Twins are pretty set. My wish list for the winter is a 3rd baseman, shortstop, and reliever. However, if they are going to spend in free agency, they need to bring in an impact player... no more iffy veterans. We're already fairly league average with a Buscher/Harris platoon, Punto and a bullpen with full years of Neshek and Mijares.
In fact a 7-man bullpen of Nathan, Neshek, Mijares, Breslow, Crain, Guerrier and Bonser/Humber sounds pretty strong. Crain will be a full season removed from major arm surgery and Guerrier will be back in a more suitable role. Boof is my darkhorse to become a bullpen stud... he's got the pitching repertoire.
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