Confirmed: #Twins and Carroll close on two-year deal. #MLB

November 11, 2011 2:44 pm via Twitter for MacReplyRetweetFavorite

@Ken_Rosenthal

Ken Rosenthal

Carroll seemed to be a hot commodity for many teams. He drew heavy interest from the Jays and Tigers as well. Carroll, who has bounced around in his nine year career, will finally becoming an everyday player. At 37, he will be the everyday shortstop for the Twins. He had full-time at-bats with the Dodgers last season, but split his time between 2nd base and shortstop.

The Twins got virtually nothing out of shortstop last year. The Japanese import, Tsuyoshi Nishioka was a major flop for the Twins. He had a .234 wOBA and a -1.4 WAR. Twins did not get any help from their other three shortstop options (Casilla, Tolbert, Plouffe), as they combined for .3 wins between them.

Carroll will be a nice fit at the top of the order for Minnesota. Carroll should probably lead off. He can get on base, but has little power. Denard Span, Joe Mauer, and Justin Morneau would benefit greatly from Carroll’s .356 OBP.

In what should be a busy off-season for the Twins, Carroll is a good start. Now the Twins will be looking to re-sign Michael Cuddyer and Jason Kubel.

Carroll’s deal is for 2 years and around 7M total.

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Ryan will replace Bill Smith who won two division titles himself in 2009 and 2010. The Twins had very high expectations going into 2011. They had their highest payroll in team history (113M), which was 15M more than any Twins team in history. Ryan does not expect the payroll to even be close to that.

“I think our payroll is going to be south of where we were last year, I’m not a big payroll figure guy. It’s not bothersome to me. Whatever it is, it’s going to be a heck of a lot more than I ever worked with.”

Minnesota has a guaranteed 65M to the 2012 payroll. This does not take into account the arbitration figures of Francisco Liriano, Kevin Slowey, Alexi Casilla, Glen Perkins, and Jose Mijares. You can pretty much chalk up another 12 or so million to the 65M figure. That leaves around 23M for Ryan to work with. That is assuming he is going to stay under 100M which Ryan referenced in his press conference.

Ryan’s main goal for 2012 is trying to re-sign their four main free agents. Joe Nathan, Michael Cuddyer, Matt Capps, and Jason Kubel all filed for Free Agency. Cuddyer and Nathan have already been courted by other teams. Kubel and Capps will definitely have a market for their services as well.

Twins have had success in re-sign their players. Just last year they re-upped Jim Thome and Carl Pavano after great seasons in 2009. I wouldn’t put it past Ryan to at least get 2 of the 4 back in Minnesota.

The only offense in the game came when, in the bottom of the ninth inning, Trevor Plouffe lined a single into left field allowing Denard Span to score form third. For the Twins Carl Pavano pitched a masterful game and allowed just five hits, while pitching all 9 innings and allowing no runs. Pavano allowed a triple to begin the inning but subsequently induced two ground balls to pull within one out of a win. Pavano then got Alcides Escobar to ground out and end any threat the Royals had of winning the game.

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Many fans have been disgusted at this season’s performance but what most people don’t realize is that the Twins key players have been injured for most of the season and those who weren’t injured have been mostly terrible, with a few exceptions. On Wednseday’s broadcast of KFAN, in Minnesota, fans were calling in left and right complaining about the Twins horrible performances this year.

Now although Twins fans listening to KFAN on Wednesday might now be depressed because of all the facts being brought up about the Twins this years host Dan Barreiro did say that Carl Pavano will be on the mound tonight so the 100 loss mark could still be avoided. But I’m sure at this point in the season to Twins fans it doesn’t even matter anymore.

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“I tried playing through it, and it turned into this,” Mauer said. “I was just advised by everybody that this isn’t the right direction that we’re supposed to go. Obviously I was frustrated with it, and obviously I wanted to finish this season playing, but I just wasn’t able to.” For Twins fans it is easy to say that Mauer should of made a return earlier on in the year coming off of a bilateral leg injury to help turn the Twins season around. But surely Mauer has gotten past his recent troubles and is looking forward to next season.

Now although Mauer has said that he will return next season there is speculation that his condition is worse than what is being advertised. It is not often that an athlete will make a visit to the Mayo Clinic, which is one of the most highly regarded medical clinics in the world. But Mauer has said that he believes the diagnosis of pneumonia is all that is ailing him. “That’s what Mayo does. They check everything, and that’s what they came up with,” Mauer said. “I trust the doctors and am doing everything they told me to do.”

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Slowey has pitched or made an appearance in 13 games for the Twins this season and the Twins ended up losing all 13. At the beginning of the season Slowey started off in relief but had a 4.91 ERA so was switched to a starting role where he then earned a 6.54 ERA. Slowey has not been known to last long throughout game and has pitched six innings or more only three times this season.

Slowey is 5-1 in his career against the Royals and has recorded a 4.31 ERA in nine appearances against the Royals. Now although both teams do not have anything to play for, considering both their season are done, Slowey certainly does have something to prove. If Slowey does not perform well today their is a strong chance that he will not be returning with the team next season.

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Joe Nathan came in for the Twins in the bottom of the tenth inning to record his 14th save on the season after coming off elbow surgery and sitting all of last season. Other notes regarding today’s game, Jim Thome received a standing ovation when he made, what might be his last appearance at progressive field, when he pinched hit in the 8th inning.

With only a few games left in this horrible season the Twins will look to play most of their call ups in an effort to scout out who can play and who can’t. Rene Tosoni is one of those players who was being looked at by Twins staff and will most likely be kept for next season. In the Twins upcoming games against the Kansas City Royals another young pitcher looking to make his way into the thin Twins rotation, Anthony Swarzak (3-7) is expected to start.

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Although Mauer has been shut down for the remainder of the season with pneumonia, the Twins best chances come when Mauer is healthy and fully capable of putting up the numbers that won him the AL MVP in 2009. Although Mauer has not played up to his expected level this season,  he has been plagued by multiple injuries the biggest of which being the bilateral leg injury that sidelined him to begin the season.

Smith also believes that a big building block for the Twins future will be the Twins currently injured shortstop Tsuyoshi Nishioka, also sidelined for the remainder of the season with an oblique injury. Smith is extremely confident that Nishioka will improve upon this seasons numbers and be a better all-around player when next season comes around.

“There’s no question in my mind that Tsuyoshi Nishioka is going to be a better player for us next year. With all the adjustments, all the transitions that a Japanese player has to make, to then get hurt and lose two full months at the start of the season, it’s been a tough year for him.”When he came back off the (DL after a breaking his fibula in late April), he’s in spring training form, and everybody else is in mid-season form.” Only time will tell whether or not Smith’s plan will truly work.

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Danny Valencia commented on the Twins season and on the mishap that happened to him Friday, “We need a rabbit’s foot, We have bad luck. It’s unfortunate. When you think it can’t get any worse, it does. “We had a great walk off win, our first in about two weeks, and the next thing you know I think I had a bomb drop on my car.” Well it’s nice to see someone can at least take a positive look on the situation.

Twins manager Ron Gardenhire also commented on the strange situation here’s what he had to say, “It’s not something I expected coming into the ballpark today. I expect a lot of things, really I expect just about anything, but that kind of put me over the top on what else can happen.” At this point in the season I’m pretty sure Gardenhire isn’t losing any sleep over whether a few guys are going to miss a game, especially considering the Twins record.

I mean Denard Span couldn’t even take the matter serious, “I’m laughing, but it’s not funny,” said Span, It’s been a rough year for me. It could have been a lot worse. I’m thankful it wasn’t.” Span has only played in 66 regular season games thus far and was expected to make his return today barring any unforeseen incident. Well that unforeseen incident happened. It just really hasn’t been the Twins year this year.

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I guess everything does go in full circle considering the fact that the Twins early 1980 struggles came on the heels of a mildly successful late 1970′s. The Twins late 1987 World Series win was a mild surprise to some and also came in the late 1980′s. Now although the Twins did not win the World Series in 2009 or 2010 they were considerably better than they had been in the early 2000′s. The Twins made the playoffs those two years, only to lose to the Yankees in the first round.

Now looking at the history of the Twins it seems as if the early years of each decade have not been kind to the Twins, while the later years have been the lucky ones for the Twins. Now if history has anything to say about this Twins team, then fans can expect good seasons in the upcoming years, but it certainly will not come easy.

The first thing the Twins will need to is what they did after that horrible 1982 season, and that is revamp the whole roster. After 1982 the Twins got rid of many of their players, including some of their biggest players and fan favorites. The Twins also removed those players who, due to age, just weren’t cutting it. Players in their late 20′s and early 30′s were gone and fresh faces were brought in to create a new environment in the organization.

If the Twins do follow this process once again then a few notable players who could be gone but include, but is not limited to, Denard Span (27), Joe Mauer (28), Jason Kubel (29), Justin Morneau (30) and Michael Cuddyer (32). All of these players have certainly been talks of possible trades and the return for the Twins would certainly be a step up from what these players are currently giving them.

Now although the Twins have won the most games this past decade then any other decade in franchise history, 863, they are certainly in a bad position right now. The Twins minor league farm system currently has no top prospects and, the injuries have forced this team to turn to inexperienced rookies who would, in any other scenario, be sent back down to the minor leagues to be developed further. The last turn around for the Twins took five long seasons, it feels as if this time it could be way longer.

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