Tuesday Twins Talking Points: Non-Rosters, Dan Wheeler, S2S, Carlos Silva, and Fangraphs

The Twins announced their non-roster Spring Training invitees, and there are enough of the to fill an entire Major League roster. There are 25 of them. When you add that to the 40 man roster, which as you may have guessed contains 40 men, that means that there will be 65 Twins players fighting for jobs this spring. So even if you’re not happy with the quality of some of their offseason signings, you have to at least be impressed by the quantity! Puckett’s Pond will have a lot more on the non-roster invitees in the coming weeks, so stay tuned.

I was just getting excited about the idea of Dan Wheeler pitching for the Twins, but then Lavelle Neal of the Star Tribune went and crushed those hopes. According to Neal’s latest blog entry, “a move for [Wheeler] wasn’t possible.” He left it a little ambiguous about whether this is because of money and/or roster space, or if there are additional secret reasons the team won’t bring in Wheeler. But unless the Twins were lying, Wheeler is probably not an option. Of course, teams lie all the time during Hot Stove season.

If you haven’t been following Seedlings to Stars’ Top 100 Prospects countdown, you have some catching up to do! The list has taken three months, but they’re all the way up to #4, a slot that is held by Rays pitcher Matt Moore. Three Twins made the list: Miguel Sano, Liam Hendriks, and Brian Dozier. It’s safe to say that no Twins prospect is good enough to rank in the top three this year. But with a little luck and a great season at A ball, it’s not impossible to think that Sano could vault toward the top of next year’s list.

Speaking of Twins from a few years ago, Carlos Silva just signed a minor league deal with the Red Sox. Remember that guy? I didn’t even know he was still in the game, but apparently he spent 2011 with the Yankee organization. Plenty of Twins fans remember the struggles Silva had in 2006 and 2007, but I prefer to recall his 2005 campaign, in which he walked fewer than 10 batters. Silva was actually pretty good in 2010 (his most recent Big League season), when he went 10-6 with a 4.22 ERA and a respectable 6.4 K/9 for the Cubs. If you ask me, Silva on a minor league contract would be a much better deal than Jason Marquis for $3 million…. But nobody did ask me, so I’ll shut up about it.

Finally, Brandon Warne of Fangraphs wrote a great article about the Twins offseason decisions. He compares them to a hitter at the plate: good decisions get a ball, bad ones get a strike. Umpire Warne gives the Twins a full count so far. I loved this article for two reasons. First, it is very well-written. Second, I agree 100% with every one of his points. It’s always fun when people think the same way I do.