Bringing Hope

By David Jensen

It’s been one hell of a November for Bill Smith. He’s made one small trade, one big trade and is rumored to have two giant ones in the making. He’s made no free agent signings, which is good and bad, and isn’t really letting on what will happen with Johan Santana.

Smith’s priority this winter has been to improve an offensive lineup that featured six outs in 2007. The first trade he made should have shocked no one. He sent a player to be named to the Cubs for OF Craig Monroe. Monroe is a middle of the road player you would expect the Twins to go after, and they won’t lose much. Before being traded to the Cubs in August, the 30 year old Monroe had spent his entire career in Detroit, playing mostly in LF. In five full seasons in the majors, he has a .256 batting average, .303 on base percentage, 104 hr, 388 RBI, with a career high 92 coming in 06. He has walked 165 times in his career, while averaging 99.2 strikeouts a year since 03.

A few days after making that trade, Torii Hunter signed a five year, $90 million deal with the Angels. The Twins offered Hunter a 3 year deal worth $45 million, despite knowing he would not sign such a short term contract.

On the 28^th, under cover of darkness, Smith shocked realist Twins fans. He made a six player trade with Tampa Bay. The trade brought Delmon Young, Brendan Harris and Jason Pridie to Minnesota. Pridie is a promising young outfielder who batted .304 with 14 hr and 66 RBI between double A and triple A last season. In his first season in the Majors, Harris batted .286 with 12 hr and 59 RBI in 07.

The centerpiece of the deal is OF Delmon Young. You may remember him for throwing his bat at an umpire in 06, which got him suspended for 50 games. In 07, Young had troubles with manager Joe Maddon. Young was pulled from a game in September for not running out a ground ball. Young later apologized and was allowed to play in the season finale. Despite his troubles, he is an outstanding talent. In 07, he compiled a .288 BA, 186 hits, 38 doubles, 13 HR, and 93 RBI on his way to being voted 2^nd in the AL Rookie of the Year race. He was 2^nd in the league in AB (645) and 7^th in singles (135) with out missing a game. He also had 16 outfield assists with four errors in RF and CF. But there is room for improvement. He struck out 127 times to only 26 walks and led the league in double plays (23) and outs (492). With experience and coaching, he’ll develop plate discipline.

Going to the Devil Rays are Jason Bartlett, Matt Garza and Eduardo Morlan. The trade shakes up a Twins infield in which Bartlett was presumed to be the short stop of the future. Now, it appears, Harris, Nick Punto, and Alexi Casilla will be competing for the middle infield positions with help at 3^rd base coming in another trade or free agent signing. The most surprising part of the trade is the previously off limits Matt Garza. But a chance to get one of the best young hitters in the game proved irresistible, especially when we still have Boof Bonser, Kevin Slowey, Francisco Liriano and Johan Santana.

Juan Rincon was thought to be part of the trade, but was replaced by Morlan at the last minute.

Still Twins: Johan Santana, Joe Nathan, Juan Rincon and Jason Kubel. But, for how long?

The Best, Worst, and Likely Off-Season Scenario

By: Sam Hansen

Well Twins fans, T-Hunt is gone, and there are rumors floating of Santana and Nathan possibly being traded this off-season. Here is a list of why the Twins did not do things right this last season, and what could happen this year.

During the 2007 season, Twins management acted poorly. We had a couple options. One, we could have made a push for the post-season and spent the $2 million on retaining Luis Castillo and went after another big hitter. Option two, the Twins could have given up on the 2007 season, dump off Castillo, Hunter, and maybe Rincon for some good talent to replace them to make a better run at the 2008 year. Instead, the Twins chose to do a half ass job on both 2007 and 2008. We dumped Castillo for nothing in return, and though we all knew deep down the Twins had no chance of re-signing Hunter, yet we never shopped him out, so we got nothing in return just like Papa Ortiz. Now Santana is upset, and we will now analyze what will happen no matter what they do.

The best case scenario folks, is that the Twins shop Santana, because we can't afford the $20 million/year he no doubt will command. This has not worked for large market teams, and will be a recipe for disaster if we try it here. So, who should we trade him for? This has the chance to be the biggest trade since Griffey Jr., I say we ship him to the Mets. They can afford him, Johan will get to hit, and the Twins won't face him barring inter-league play or (cough, cough) the World Series. Jose Reyes is the most exciting player in the Major leagues, and would give the Twins a table setter at the top of the lineup. He plays with the same style as we do, leading the majors with 77 stolen bases. They won't give up David Wright, and Reyes is signed through the 2011 season making about 6-7 million per year. In our price range. We get him and one or two top outfield prospects and we have to do it. Santana leaving hurts, but him leaving with nothing in return is like amputation with nothing to make it better. We do that, then trade Juan Rincon and another young pitcher for a Garret Atkins or someone like him, and we have a fun team with a chance to do things.

Worst case scenario, the Twins will think that we have a contending team and decide to stick with our current club. This shows me that we are simply too lazy to work anything out and let things go by before doing anything with it. Johan is not happy here, and we need to make the best of a bad situation. But that being said, nothing goes on this off-season in re-signing talks, then the Twins get off to a good start, everything seems fine. We start to decline with an injury or just bad play, then Johan walks just like Torii without getting anything back.

Most likely, Johan will be traded for a thousand dollars and a couple boxes of batting practice baseballs, maybe some bats if we're lucky. Nathan will be gone too, and Minnesota side armer Pat Neshek will be the closer. Mauer and Morneau would be next in line, and who knows what will happen then.

You Heard it Hear First!

Torii Hunter is an Angel.

WE GOT HIM!

TS

Well folks, the Twins struck it big this week by signing Rondell...I mean Craig Monroe from the Chicago Cubs. I think that we have already been through this one before.

Twin's selling points for Craig Monroe: he has a lifetime average of .256.
What it really means: He hit .219 last year, and was a bum for the Tigers so they traded him to the Cubs (where he also was a bum).
Selling point: If healthy, he may prove to be the jump start to the offense.
What it really means: He was injured all last year
Selling point: Monroe may have been a free agent next month.
What it means: Bill Smith is an idiot. He gave up a prospect for Monroe, when he could have got him for free next month.

Sum it up: We have a new Randell White. Don't hold your breath. When are we going to get our new Lew Ford?

Fan Free Agents

By Tyler Savage

Is it fair for Cubs' fans to suffer for 100 years? Well...no wait, Wrigley is like a huge party with all the Budweiser that you can find...bad example. Let's start over, is it fair for the Devil Rays' fans to suffer for a short and painful decade? No. It isn't fair. Any good player that comes up in the Devil Ray's system has the ability to leave for a winner. If the players don' t have any loyalty and can become free agents, why can't the fans?
My favorite columnist Bill Simons for ESPN has asked this question in a few of his columns. Why can't we switch teams? Why can't fans get fed up with a shitty organization and call it quits for greener pastures.
The last few weeks, I have been wondering if I am going to become a fan free agent. Monday is the deadline in baseball for current teams to negotiate contracts with pending free agents. I am seriously thinking about closing my negotiations with the Twins and seeing what I can get on the market. At the least, I could use this as leverage in my fan negotiations with the Twins.
Maybe the Red Sox would offer me more than 50% of its revenue to be spent on my team's players. I'm a pretty good fan, I don't yell for Lew Ford, or play TWINGO, maybe I could get rewarded for my years of hard work.
Maybe the Angels could offer me more than TC the Bear. Hell, they got the Rally Monkey, that has to count for something. I could even go to a small market with the Pirates and get to watch baseball in one damn fine baseball park.
Who knows, maybe a Dodger Dog is hands down a much better frank than a Dome Dog. Then their is the thought of just becoming a low life degenerate and rooting for the White Sox.
But no....I can't do it. I cannot think of the riches that I could get on the free agent market. I have decided to re-sign with the Twins. Why can't fans switch teams? It's simple, no one wants to be that kid in elementary school who comes to school with a new team's jacket each year, or the kid that switches the team he is rooting for at halftime in the Super Bowl, because when the game started he was rooting for the Buffalo Bills. It's about integrity, and even though players do not have it, fans do. Besides, maybe Tyner is the best center fielder that we have.

A Few Thoughts for Mr. White

Tyler Savage

I still remember how young and stupid I was back in the winter of 2006. The free agent signings were flowing, and the Twins were still scratching themselves and waiting at the open starting gates . During this winter, I checked many websites for the latest rumors, hoping to hear when the Twins would sign their first big free agent; while on a break at work, I found who that big free agent would be: Rondell White. Naively, I was pretty impressed with Terry Ryan's find, how ignorant I was. This week Rondell announced himself eligible for free agency, but claimed that he was 99% sure that he was going to retire.
Retirement should be moved up to 100% for White. During his two years in Minnesota, he had 446 at bats. To put this into perspective, Tori Hunter had 600 at bats--in 2007. White was said to be the Twin who could hit 30 home runs in a season, he only hit 11 in a Twins' uniform in two seasons. RBI was not a clutch stat either, he only had 58 as a Twin (even though they do not matter)*.
It wasn't all a loss however, who can forget all the fun that we had at White's expense. Thanks to White, we got to purchase beers for $1.75 at downtown Minneapolis bars (when White was batting, all beers were the price of his batting average). He also had a pretty kick ass spring training in '06.
With all of this in mind, we at the Beatwriters wish White the best in his future endeavors. The more we try to dislike you, the harder it is. It was a good run, but all good things need to come to an end. Tune in next week, when we say our parting shots to Lew Ford--the most popular average player ever to come to the Metrodome.

*Dave I was young and stupid when I said this. I really can only say that I am such an idiot.

A Second Chance

Twins Dream Land

By: Sam Hansen

The World Series is over, and now the Free Agency period has come. After the clutch re-signing of All Star Joe Nathan, Torii Hunter is without a doubt the top priority of the Twins. This should be a concern for Twins fans however, as new GM Bill Smith is giving a load of GM talk pretty much stating we are not going to see Hunter in a Twins uniform again. Texas is looking like his new home.

In my opinion, the Twins jumped the gun prematurely naming Bill Smith as our new GM. Though one appreciates the promoting from within stance, no fan in their right mind would ever second guess if the Twins gave the GM position to Minneapolis native Walt Jocketty, considered by many as one of the best general managers in history. No matter what happens to the Twins this offseason, the direction of the team would have been known with a proven winner in charge.

As far as the holes to fill up, the twins need help pretty much everywhere. Third is probably the biggest question mark, as Dorn didn’t fair too well this year. The prospect of A-Rod taking a pay cut to play in the glorious Metrodome is looking about as likely as the Twins taking a second chance on Tony Batista once again. There have been plenty of rumors (Ensberg, Koskie, Branyan to name a few) to answer this question, however the position need will be based off of what the Twins decide to do with Johan Santana. There are a lot of things to be done this off season, as another year with no moves again this year can not be tolerated.