Roy Oswalt asks for trade

[hurdleisu24]

Jim Bowden tweets that Los Angeles, Minnesota, and Texas are among the most realistic destinations for Oswalt.

[CrossCyed]

Haha, I wondered how long until a Cubs fan would say to go get him.


Bowden's targets do make sense.

[dinger]

Oh yeah forgot about our front office.

at least you have a front office. right now we are in one of the nastiest team sales i have ever seen. i mean mlb took offer the team last summer because hicks defaulted on his loans. now the lenders wont approve the sale to greenberg/ryan because they want more money. and unfortuantely they know there was a higher bid out there so they know they can get more money. meanwhile, we lead the (weak) division and nolan is still president but this isnt going to end soon.

[geburgess]

Jim Bowden tweets that Los Angeles, Minnesota, and Texas are among the most realistic destinations for Oswalt.

Huh.. LA maybe, although I don't see him going somewhere else in the NL. I don't that Minnesota can pay him, especially with Mauer locking up so much of the cashflow. The Rangers would be a cool fit if they can get their act together. Oswalt in the AL would be nasty though, someplace like the Angels or maybe my beloved ChiSox just to get a steady 5 man rotation.

[yez]

Zanatic | Nationals express interest in Astros' Oswalt - HardballTalk - Baseball - NBC Sports

Link via zanatic

[jdoggivjc]

Huh.. LA maybe, although I don't see him going somewhere else in the NL. I don't that Minnesota can pay him, especially with Mauer locking up so much of the cashflow. The Rangers would be a cool fit if they can get their act together. Oswalt in the AL would be nasty though, someplace like the Angels or maybe my beloved ChiSox just to get a steady 5 man rotation.

I don't think you realize first that the Twins as of right now aren't under the influence of Mauer's contract, second, it's a backloaded contract which means they'll be paying him more later, and third, with the opening of Target Field the Twins are no longer strapped for cash and have the financial ability to make moves after guys like Oswalt. I don't know whether the Twins are a realistic player in the Oswalt sweepstakes or not, but unless the bidding gets ridiculously high money won't be the thing that keeps them out of it.

Seriously - people need to start getting it out of their minds that Minnesota is this small-market team that can't afford to pay for premium players. Hardly anyone out there considers Detroit, Atlanta, Seattle, and St. Louis as small markets, yet Minneapolis/St. Paul is right there with their market size. That, and next to the Steinbrenners, the Pohlads are the wealthiest owners in MLB, and Carl's sons show a willingness to spend money on the team that would probably cause their father to roll over in his grave.

[RayShimley]

I don't think you realize first that the Twins as of right now aren't under the influence of Mauer's contract, second, it's a backloaded contract which means they'll be paying him more later, and third, with the opening of Target Field the Twins are no longer strapped for cash and have the financial ability to make moves after guys like Oswalt. I don't know whether the Twins are a realistic player in the Oswalt sweepstakes or not, but unless the bidding gets ridiculously high money won't be the thing that keeps them out of it.

Seriously - people need to start getting it out of their minds that Minnesota is this small-market team that can't afford to pay for premium players. Hardly anyone out there considers Detroit, Atlanta, Seattle, and St. Louis as small markets, yet Minneapolis/St. Paul is right there with their market size. That, and next to the Steinbrenners, the Pohlads are the wealthiest owners in MLB, and Carl's sons show a willingness to spend money on the team that would probably cause their father to roll over in his grave.

This is right on. The only people I've seen who still think of the Twins as a small market team are bitter Twins fans. Their payroll is what, 90 million dollars this year?

I think the Twins are going to look really hard at Oswalt. They don't really have an "Ace" kind of guy on the staff and they are looking to make a deep play-off run, if not a WS title THIS YEAR. Plus, they'll get Oswalt next year as well where they can hold onto him, trade him, or let him go as a Type A FA and receive compensatory draft picks.

[rebecacy]

Milwaukee could use him,.

Rumors in STL have serious talks underway -- Pujols will take less money if Cards Mgmt looks serious about continued winning. Oswalt would be a good fit as Cards open pocket book.

[jdoggivjc]

This is right on. The only people I've seen who still think of the Twins as a small market team are bitter Twins fans. Their payroll is what, 90 million dollars this year?

I think the Twins are going to look really hard at Oswalt. They don't really have an "Ace" kind of guy on the staff and they are looking to make a deep play-off run, if not a WS title THIS YEAR. Plus, they'll get Oswalt next year as well where they can hold onto him, trade him, or let him go as a Type A FA and receive compensatory draft picks.

I think you've got the demographic wrong. I think most Twins fans realize what's going on now. It's the outsider "haters" - the folks in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, etc., who continue to confuse playing in the ****hole aka the Metrodome where the Vikings "stole" a good chunk of their revenue due to lease agreements and an d-bag owner who refused to spend a dime more than necessary on the franchise, even if doing so would reap him and the team even greater revenues due to being competitive, that earned the Twins the misnomer of "small market".

Honestly, I think the Twins have the best of both worlds right now - the lessons learned about how to scout and manage talent development from the minors on up from when they were cash-strapped, and the newly-found ability to spend to keep home-grown talent as well as supplement with the free agency market and trading block, and combine that with the perennial disasters in Kansas City and Cleveland, and what's apparently developing on South Side Chicago, and the Twins have the opportunity to be a co-juggernaut (with the Detroit Tigers) in the AL Central for a LONG time.

[Clonegrad07]

Every GM in the league should at least make the phone call to see what it'd take get him....

[bawbie]

I don't think you realize first that the Twins as of right now aren't under the influence of Mauer's contract, second, it's a backloaded contract which means they'll be paying him more later, and third, with the opening of Target Field the Twins are no longer strapped for cash and have the financial ability to make moves after guys like Oswalt. I don't know whether the Twins are a realistic player in the Oswalt sweepstakes or not, but unless the bidding gets ridiculously high money won't be the thing that keeps them out of it.

I completely agree, but Oswalt is under contract for $16M next year, when Mauer's contract is in play. The Twins already have around $100M in contracts next year, if they add Oswalt they are looking at $110+M easily.

While the twins are no longer cash strapped, they still aren't the Yankees or Red Sox, in that they still have a limit to how much money they can spend.

I hope they figure out a way to do it, I see a veteran "ace" starter (in the Blyleven/Morris role) as being the one missing piece of a championship team.

[RayShimley]

I think you've got the demographic wrong. I think most Twins fans realize what's going on now. It's the outsider "haters" - the folks in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, etc., who continue to confuse playing in the ****hole aka the Metrodome where the Vikings "stole" a good chunk of their revenue due to lease agreements and an d-bag owner who refused to spend a dime more than necessary on the franchise, even if doing so would reap him and the team even greater revenues due to being competitive, that earned the Twins the misnomer of "small market".

Honestly, I think the Twins have the best of both worlds right now - the lessons learned about how to scout and manage talent development from the minors on up from when they were cash-strapped, and the newly-found ability to spend to keep home-grown talent as well as supplement with the free agency market and trading block, and combine that with the perennial disasters in Kansas City and Cleveland, and what's apparently developing on South Side Chicago, and the Twins have the opportunity to be a co-juggernaut (with the Detroit Tigers) in the AL Central for a LONG time.

Maybe this is more of the exception. But I've seen plenty of posts like this: http://www.cyclonefanatic.com/forum/...ubs-i-see.html (Ridiculous Problems in baseball dealing with the Red Sox and Cubs (as I see it)) from Twins fans bemoaning the payroll disparity when they are heads and tails ahead of 2/3 of MLB (I believe they are 9th highest payroll this year?).

[jdoggivjc]

Maybe this is more of the exception. But I've seen plenty of posts like this: http://www.cyclonefanatic.com/forum/...ubs-i-see.html (Ridiculous Problems in baseball dealing with the Red Sox and Cubs (as I see it)) from Twins fans bemoaning the payroll disparity when they are heads and tails ahead of 2/3 of MLB (I believe they are 9th highest payroll this year?).

Missed that. If those are the arguments Twins fans are making, they either think Carl Pohlad is still alive and running the team, or are still conditioned to thinking that the Twins won't spend a dime more than they have to in order to compete. I'm willing to guarantee that if Carl were still alive, the Mauer deal never would have gotten done, even though the Twins were more than financially able to complete it. But most of the "Twins are playing in a small market and are going to blow their budget" are the snooty New York/Chicago/LA fan who think they're the only ones that are allowed to spend money on baseball players.