I second JB. Quite amusing. I’m reading Ring Lardner’s “You Know Me, Al” stories right now, so some of those Senators names are familiar. Cool to see the photos.

Like JB, I also know every Twin. The photo of Tony Oliva makes me feel like I’m 4 years old again.

I am thoroughly enjoying your series about the Twins & Senators statistical leaders although it pains me (and ages me) to say I remember all of the Twins players. Good thing I don’t have personal memories of any of the Senators or I’d be feeling really old.

Thanks for all the work you’ve put in on this series of posts and for anyone who hasn’t taken a look, it is well worth your time. There’s an amazing amount of info.

If Cuddyer signs for 3/$24m, that puts the payroll at $104m per JoeC’s calculations. Take out Span’s $3m and its back down to $101m. Thus allowing money to pay a starter and still keep the payroll in the same range as last year.

Then the same would be true of the money the Twins pay their players. Under that scenario, the Twins are getting twice the value of what Cuddyer and Winningham are paid. That leaves you in the same spot relative to the money they need to save on salary.

Their real economic value is the price at which the Twins would let a guy walk rather than pay him a bigger bonus. A lot of people have overvalued those draft choices, just as you did here. Or maybe its just that major league teams undervalue them.

Craig -

No, the minor league system is actually pretty strong. And a couple draft choices isn’t going to add much to that strength. Its just two more rolls of the dice among the 50 chances they get. The players taken in the 50-100 ranger are going to have a better shot at helping than the next 50 players taken, but not much better.

I agree with you on the payroll. It was a number thrown out and Ryan has repeatedly said they will have the money if they think its warranted.

Thrylos -

I agree that pitching is a bigger priority. I don’t think they would sign Cuddyer if they thought that would foreclose adding a starting pitcher. That doesn’t mean they will be able to get someone they want, but I don’t think they will let signing Cuddyer prevent that.

JB_Iowa -

I agree with you. One of these guys is very likely going to get old in the next couple years. But these contracts are not so large that they will be a complete albatross.

There is no way the Twins are rebuilding right now. The TV contract expires in 2012 and they really need a lot of butts on the seats and even more glued to Dick-n-Bert this season, to negotiate from a position of power for the next TV contract. (The current contract, btw is a pathetic 5 year / $12 million contract)

We’ll see.

1. yes Cuddyer has more flexability, but with Doumit and Carroll, I think we’re all hoping the need for that much flexability will be lessened. In any event, if you have to play Cuddy at 2B or 3B, you’re probably in so much trouble that it doesn’t matter.

2. I used to think Ryan just pulled that number out of his… hat… too, but since then, I’ve read Dave St. Peter alluding to it, as well. I think it’s BS, but I think it’s what Ryan’s been told he should aim to do.

3. If supplemental round draft picks were guaranteed MLB stars, I might be more concerned about those picks. They aren’t, especially in this organization. The Twins already have pretty decent talent at lower-to-mid minor league level and they’ll have the second overall pick this year. If that talent turns out to be solid, they’ll be competitive in 2015 already. What they need is help to win now, so they don’t see attendance drop so much that they enter a death spiral of low attendance/revenues and slashed payrolls leading to lower attendance/revenues and further slashed payrolls.

A team with the revenue stream the Twins have right now should not have to “rebuild” with untested minor leaguers just because of one bad season.