Twins

[Minniman]

Gomez .. half swing.

Swing or don't swing.

[Demi]

Sweet, Gomez tries to do the same.

And friggin' Harris is up.

This is disgusting.

Sacrifice fly too much to ask out of either of those previous two? Guess so.

[SarasotaViking]

Sweet, Gomez tries to do the same.

And friggin' Harris is up.

This is disgusting.

Sacrifice fly too much to ask out of either of those previous two? Guess so.

That might of been the worst call i've ever seen.

[PurpleMustReign]

Good job Twins!!! Yay!! Bases loaded with no one out, and you don't score!!! YAYAYAAAAA!!!

[Demi]

Hope Billy Smith and the Pohlads are happy with their cute little division win. A little money and we wouldn't be seeing these bums blowing it inning after inning.

Reports are that the Twins made Johan Santana one one the largest deals for a pitcher in the history of MLB, but he knew that he could get more from New York, Boston, or L.A. teams. Santana forced the trade which had pretty poor returns for the Twins.

The problem is Smith tried to wrangle so hard he boned himself. Instead of the Red Sox or Yankees deals offered earlier, which both seemed to be better offers, they had to settle for what they got. (probably because the other options would have cost them more money)

[SarasotaViking]

Good job Twins!!! Yay!! Bases loaded with no one out, and you don't score!!! YAYAYAAAAA!!!

Mauer should have had a lead of double, and the Twins should be up. WTF were they looking at, that ball landed 2 feet inside the line.

[Demi]

Stupid #### Steinbrenner stadium. Home runs are a dime a dozen, especially if you market in ex-steroid abusers.

[Minniman]

Well, that's a run off the board thanks to a inept ump. As it was, the strike zone shrunk on Nathan when he came in. Calls that were being called strikes were all of a sudden balls to the Yankees hitters. Not that Nathan has a live arm anymore. Too many innings of work me thinks.

Would it be too much to ask for the Twins not have to face the umps as well as the Yankees.

Well, that's it.

Dec 23, 2008 ... Mark Teixeira has reached agreement with the Yankees on an eight-year contract worth $180 million, ....

[PurpleMustReign]

#### you Nathan, just go away. Don't even come back to Minnesota, we don't want you here.

[SarasotaViking]

New York Yankees $ 201,449,189

Minnesota Twins $ 65,299,266

That's a lot of hype up and down the Yankees line-up.
Reports are that the Twins made Johan Santana one one the largest deals for a pitcher in the history of MLB, but he knew that he could get more from New York, Boston, or L.A. teams. Santana forced the trade which had pretty poor returns for the Twins.

The Twins wanted Hunter, but they couldn't even come close to the contract that the Los Angeles Angels gave Hunter.

Losing Hunter forced the trade of Matt Garza and Jason Bartlett for Delmon Young and Brendan Harris.

Hunter, Garza, Bartlett, and Santana would make the Twins much better. It all came down to cash.

DOUBLE PLAY IN THE 10TH!

The Bartlett and Garza trade for Young was one of the worst trades in the history of baseball.
Screw the Yanks. The Twins built a new staduim but can't secure thier best players!!!! BULID THE VIKES STADIUM!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Minniman]

The Bartlett and Garza trade for Young was one of the worst trades in the history of baseball.
Screw the Yanks. The Twins built a new staduim but can't secure thier best players!!!! BULID THE VIKES STADIUM!!!!!!!!!!!!

Did the Twins build it? I think they had a lot of help.

Not only that, it is a little outdoor ballpark without parking and without a roof in Minnesota. Step outside Pohlads, this isn't baseball weather.

[SarasotaViking]

Did the Twins build it? I think they had a lot of help.

Not only that, it is a little outdoor ballpark without parking and without a roof in Minnesota. Step outside Pohlads, this isn't baseball weather.

The Vikes have spent millions on Favre, Allen, and others trying to build a solid team. Tell me why have the Twins let go of thier 4 best players bc of fiancial reasons and they get a new stadium before the Vikes?!?!?!?!? Hunter, Santana, Garza, Bartlet......

[Minniman]

The Vikes have spent millions on Favre, Allen, and others trying to build a solid team. Tell me why have the Twins let go of thier 4 best players bc of fiancial reasons and they get a new stadium before the Vikes?!?!?!?!? Hunter, Santana, Garza, Bartlet......

CONTRACTION! CONTRACTION! THE LEAGUE IS FALLING!



To be fair, the NFL does have revenue sharing and a salary cap. That helps a lot.

Major League Baseball is a joke.

[thatguy]

Well the Twins are down 0-2 in the series b/c of a few blown calls and whatnot...but with this team...there is no giving up.

They come back home for 2 games which I think we can win and force game 5!

GO TWINS!

[Minniman]

Here's the thing. Teams like the Twins and A's have stayed competitive because they could make deals for younger players. The Yankees, Mets, Angels, and Dodgers had to give something up to make sure they could get the players they wanted. It wasn't fair, but at least the small market team was compensated somewhat for giving up their big name players.

Starting about five years ago, these big market clubs stopped giving up as many prime prospects, and they just waited for the players to go into free agency. The market still forces trades, but the players in return are not as good.

The small market teams lose players via forced trades and free agency. If they try to compensate with other trades, they are at risk that one bad trade can sink a team. The Twins have avoided this in the past, but that era may be ending.

Bill Smith likely traded Johan Santana to the Mets to keep him out of the American League. What a PR nightmare it would have been to face Santana a couple times a year. Smith didn't get much for Santana. The deal was to include SS Jose Reyes, but Santana and Reyes have the same agent, and the Mets would have had problems signing Santana had the Mets traded Reyes. Smith asked for hot prospect Fernando Martinez as part of the deal, but the Mets declined. Reyes and Martinez both have since been injured, but they may or may not have been had circumstances been different.

The Twins ended up getting Carlos Gomez, Deolis Guerra, Kevin Mulvey and Phil Humber. Gomez is a bust at the major league level. He has the speed and defense to play in The Show, but he has a weak bat. Gomez had only batted .232 with the Mets, but he did bat .258 in his first year with the Twins. With 25 walks, 142 strike outs, and an OBP of .296, the writing was on the wall. Gomez was either unready for the big leagues or never would be ready. In 2009, Gomez was basically a defensive substitution and batted only .229 - recording 72 strike outs in only 315 at bats.

Deolis Guerra had a 5.17 ERA in AA ball. He is still a prospect, but he is not a high prospect.

Phil Humber had a 5.34 ERA at AAA, and an 8.00 ERA when called up briefly for the Twins. His statistics in 2009 were worse than his statistics for 2008. he likely is as good as he will be.

Kevin Mulvey was doing well at AAA 3.93 ERA and 113 K in 149 IP, but he was traded to Arizona as part of the deal for the Twins to acquire pitcher Jon Rauch.

In the end, it looks like the Twins traded Johan Santana for the short term services of Jon Rauch and a weak hitting defensive substitute.