Some minor news and some dates worth remembering
Posted on October 31st, 2007 – 12:17 PMBy La Velle
Teams now are allowed to contact free agents and talk in general parameters but not offer contracts (riiiiiiiiight!). So you’re going to hear about teams asking about Torii Hunter, like this one.
Some clubs are more forthcoming about this information than others.
I spoke to Twins minor league guru Jim Rantz. He said the club has signed Jason Miller, Tommy Watkins, Alejandro Machado, Armando Gabino and Josh Hill to minor league contracts.
Rantz currently is in talks with Felix Molina, Trent Oeltjen and Brian Bass, but loses exclusive negotiating rights on Nov. 13th.
Here are some other dates to watch for:
Nov. 20: 40-man rosters are due on this day. The Twins’ 40-man roster currently is at 36. It was at 39, but Hunter, Rondell White and Carlos Silva come off of it as soon as they file for free agency.
Dec. 1: Deadline for clubs to offer arbitration to their free agents so they can receive compensation if they sign elsewhere - a big one for the Twins.
Dec. 3: Baseball Winter Meetings in Nashville. Look for Torii Hunter to show up, host a special presentation of Best Da** Sports Show, take phone calls on MLB Radio and take the stage at the Grand Ole’ Opry to sing. `God Bless Texas.’
Dec. 6: Rule 5 Draft - we all know how much this means to the Twins.
Dec. 7: Deadline for players to accept or reject arbitration offers.
Dec. 12: Last date to tender contracts - another date that has special meaning to the Twins (see Pat Meares, 1998).
18 Responses to "Some minor news and some dates worth remembering"
Bass is having a nice VZ winter league.
Blackburn is now 3-0 in AZ.
Macri played SS and batted second Tuesday night for Phoenix. He’s hitting over .300, 6 doubles/couple dingers.
Plouffe hitting around .250…only 2 errors thus far.
Buscher hit around .300, dunno if he’s done, but hasn’t played in nearly the past week. He finished up with one game at first, and a number at DH. Former farmhand Luis Maza has been at third base for Aragua.
Pino/Mijares have been decent, not great…Sosa made his debut last night.
Remember wild thing Kevin Tolar LEN? He’s back at it with Aragua again this year.
Looks like Mike Cameron is probably not a choice to replace Torii Hunter now.
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ap-padres-cameronsuspended&prov=ap&type=lgns
Jama,
Not saying that we would want Cameron after this mess, but this could bring his money down to where the Twins would be willing to take a chance on him and it would be a huge upgrade over Craigs favorite Span.
Rule 5 Draft - we all know how much this means to the Twins.
Or at least how much it meant eight years ago.
Have we used rule 5 to our advantage recently?
Have we used rule 5 to our advantage recently?
The major league portion? Not so much. In fact, we lost Kevin Cameron and Levalle “I’m Cy Young v. the Twins and craptastic against everyone else” Speigner last year.
In the minor league portion, though, we did pick up Brian Buscher.
If Buscher can cut down on errors, he may be okay…
LaVelle you hit the nail on the head with your discription of what Mr.Hunter will be doing on Dec.3.I for one am tired of “Torii being Torii”, which constitutes him saying how much he wants to be a Twin followed by stating to anyone who will listen where he would like to play OTHER than Minnesota.I don’t begrudge him his right to find the best offer for himself but I a sick of him talking out of both sides of his mouth.he can play anywhere but Minnesota for all I care.It’s time for the twins to officially move on.
LaVelle do you expect the Twins to drop more from the 40 man? I can’t see McDonald and Cali being back next year.
I’m with you, Doug. I’ve really enjoyed watching him play ball over the years but I’m tired of his mouth now.
I also wonder… if you took a ’secret’ poll of the other players in the clubhouse, whether they wouldn’t say essentially the same thing. I’m sure he was fun to have around, but he’s about the last of the prior generation of players to come up through the organization and as a team mate, some of the things he was saying would not have set well with me. I really doubt M&M will mind him being gone.
As Ruesse states, you could probably get Torii Hunter to say he was on the grassy knoll on that day in Dallas in November of 1963 if you chatted with him long enough.
The guy will say anything and everything without truly saying very much.
He had a nice run here, but it’s time for him to go to a higher bidder.
Hope the Twins use that 12 million dollar free-up to go after someone other than CocoPop Crisp. He’s like having Jacque Jones all over again with very little discipline at the plate.
JimCrikket: Right,first Torii takes a swing at Morneau a couple of years ago. Then he takes a couple of verbal shots a Mauer this year.As I have said before,maybe both needed to happen, but not in full view of the public.
Torii has always fashioned himself as the leader of this team but IMO a real leader would have handled it in private.And I still contend that Hunters public shots at Mauer have as much to do with the Twins deciding that Mauer,not Hunter will be the guy that carries the torch into the new ballpark.
Does anyone know where in Nashville the meetings are? I will be there that weekend visiting friends and maybe i should show up and drop sublte hints to BS what he should do.
Speaking of the ballpark.
How does a person get to their premium seats behind home plate? The pedestrian plaza along the 1st and 3rd baselines are raised because elevated road ways (1st) and commuter rail (3rd) so there’s zero street access from those two sides of the building.
I’m sure they have this all worked out but its a really nontraditional configuration. Light rail in left so basically anyone who parks a car closer than one lightrail stop away will be entering the park from right field? Can that possibly be correct?
Winter meetings are at the Gaylord. Largest hotel complex in the country outside of Nevada.
And I hate that Opryland Hotel…..You realize exactly how large it is because there are no casinos to get in the way…..
[…] La Velle wrote an interesting post today on Some minor news and some dates worth rememberingHere’s a quick excerptSome minor news and some dates worth remembering Teams now are allowed to contact free agents and talk in general parameters but not offer contracts (riiiiiiiiight!). So you’re going to hear about teams asking about Torii Hunter, like this one. Some clubs are more forthcoming about this information than others. I spoke to Twins minor league… Read the full post from Twins Insider Tags: Uncategorized via Blogdigger blog search for free dating. […]
andrew fine furniture st wood working 2b design furniture las southwest vegas history of interior design and furniture high point north carolina furniture store center entertainment furniture home online white bear furniture lake log pine utah rattan and wicker dining room furniture customer furniture furniture liquidation return salvage carolina wholesale furniture east smithfield pa
