On Episode 41 Cody and Eric talk about some high profile prospects earning a Minor League promotion, review the draft and prospect rankings infused with new talent, and talk about Denard Span and Ben Revere taking the field against the Twins. They discuss the release of long time MiLB favorite Anthony Slama, and they try and figure out who is the Twins’ best starting pitcher (protip: they have no idea!).

Down on the Pond this week is James Beresford, and on Beers from Around the World it is the return of BREADY BEER!

The boys then go Around the League and answer a couple of email questions. All together 88 minutes of pleasure for your ears.

You can follow Cody on Twitter (@NoDakTwinsFan) or read his writing at NoDakTwinsFan. You can follow Paul on Twitter (@BaseballPirate) or read his writing here at Puckett’s Pond. And of course, you can find me on Twitter (@ERolfPleiss) and read my writing at Knuckleballs!

Minnesota Twins MiLB shortstop James Beresford, Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

August 14, 2012; Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Pittsburgh Pirates starting pitcher Kevin Correia (29) reacts after giving up two runs against the Los Angeles Dodgers during the sixth inning at PNC Park. The Los Angeles Dodgers won 11-0. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

Why signing Kevin Correia for two years makes sense.

My brother got a raincoat for Christmas this year. If you’ve ever worn a raincoat while biking or hiking around in the spring, you know that a poor quality raincoat can leave you just as damp as if you were wearing nothing at all. A well-made raincoat is actually a pretty nifty piece of engineering.

But my brother didn’t want a raincoat, he wanted a parka. Or new boots. Or a nice pair of choppers. He had asked for this raincoat last spring, but right now he just wanted something to keep him warm. There’s no way that raincoat is going to keep him toasty this winter, and he’s going to have to wait a few months to really put his Christmas present to use.

We all wanted the Twins to sign a big-name free agent starting pitcher this off season, but instead we got Kevin Correia under the Christmas tree. Kevin Correia is not going to keep us warm this winter. He’s not going to lead a rotation, even one as bad as the Twins’. But if we can have a little patience and put it in perspective, I truly believe this signing will pay big dividends for this team in the long run.

We’ve got a pretty good idea of what we’re getting with Correia, right? A back-end starter, plain and simple. But every potential starter in the Twins rotation other than Correia has major question marks surrounding him coming into the season. Let’s take a look:

• Scott Diamond had minor off-season surgery and will probably regress from 2012

• Vance Worley had surgery in September and may have difficulty transitioning from the NL

• Kyle Gibson has pitched a total of 6.2 innings above high-A since returning from Tommy John surgery

• Mike Pelfrey is returning from Tommy John surgery and is switching leagues

• Liam Hendriks has struggled in the Majors to this point, particularly with consistency

• Rich Harden has had a rash of injuries the past few years, and would need to be on an innings limit if starting

With this mess of injuries, inning limits and other question marks, the Twins are going to need a solid long reliever. In fact, looking at the second half of 2013 and into 2014, the Twins may be more in need of a long reliever than any other team in baseball. That’s when we can expect to start seeing the likes of Trevor May and BJ Hermsen, and possibly Alex Meyer breaking into the big leagues.

In an ideal world, 2014 will see five talented but young pitchers in the Twins rotation, some sort of mix of Diamond, Worley, Gibson, Hendricks,

July 2, 2012; Detroit, MI, USA; Minnesota Twins manager Ron Gardenhire (35) takes the ball from starting pitcher Liam Hendriks (62) during the fifth inning against the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports

May, Meyer and Hermsen. Young pitchers get to the majors early because they have the talent to get the job done. But they also tend to be inconsistent.

That’s where signing Correia for two years really starts to make sense. Someone like, say, Trevor May might be lights-out one night, but get knocked out after three innings in his next start. With so many young pitchers, these short starts could easily become a semi-regular occurrence.

Who do you want going out to the mound in the third or fourth inning on a semi-regular basis to try to give a bunch of young batters a chance to put some crooked numbers up and steal a win, Anthony Swarzak? No thanks. Don’t get me wrong, I like Swarzak, but consistency is not his strong suit. A veteran presence on a young team will help when these young starters undoubtedly get beat up early in some games.

Kevin Correia has experience as a reliever, and has actually put up decent numbers in that role. Not great, but decent, and he’s been pretty consistent, which is the sort of thing that comes with experience. Through the first four innings, Correia sports a career ERA of 4.00. I can live with that from a long reliever. It’s after those first four innings that he starts to fall apart.

I want Aaron Hicks, Oswaldo Arcia, Chris Parmelee and company to feel that they have a chance to turn a game around when the going gets tough, and I believe that’s where Correia will show his true value. Like it or not, the Twins are going to have an increasing number of young, talented position players learning on the job in the big leagues, and the importance of confidence for young hitters―the mental part of the game―shouldn’t be underestimated.

Look, if Kevin Correia ends up in the starting rotation for the next two years, then it’s going to be a very long two years. But if he ends up as our long reliever sometime around the middle of 2013 and beyond, he could be exactly what this team needs. As cold as it is right now, the spring rain isn’t too far off, and my brother bikes everywhere he goes. It’s all about perspective and a little patience. The Twins just need Kevin Correia to get in where he fits in.

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A team’s fan base is a strong indicator of how an organization is doing and what direction a team is heading. The more support a team garners from their fans, the more revenues and financial cap an organization has to work with in adding improvements to a stadium or bringing in sought after players. Take the Minnesota Twins for example, in 2002 the Twins were a team targeted by Major League Baseball to be contracted, or eliminated as a franchise. However, after multiple playoff seasons in the 2000s and an increased fan base dedication, the organization righted the ship and was able to build Target Field with the new added revenues fans were bringing in. This example lends the notion that fan support and their opinions of a team really make a difference in future steps an organization takes. In this, the first edition of Longo’s Logic, I will be playing the part of a fan and putting forth my two cents while playing the “General Manager for a day” role.

As we all know, the Twins are in desperate need of pitching. An improvement here would give the best American League Central and 13th overall ranked offense (WAR ranking) a chance to succeed throughout the 2013 campaign. One can point fingers and blame a multitude of injuries, a few missed calls, or running into the wrong teams at the wrong time as a reason for a failed season. But the fact still remains, at times the Twins pitching staff looked like a Little League 12-year-old throwing batting practice at the All-Star game.

The only bright spot was Scott Diamond, posting a 12-9 record and an above average 3.54 earned run average. Despite those numbers demolishing any other starter the Twins had this year, they were not good enough to consider Diamond an “ace” of the staff by any means. What is scary about his 3.54 ERA, is in his last 10 starts his ERA inflated over half a point from a once stingy 2.97. His ERA was 4.85 during that ten game stretch, and five of those were against AL Central foe. Clearly, Diamond is not quite the “ace” the Twins so desperately covet at the top of the rotation. However, this year’s free agent pool is blossoming with starting pitching that could immediately impact the pitching deprived Twins.

• Bullpen: Currently, the Twins are expecting to keep the majority of their bullpen together. All the pieces are there for them to be successful if the starters can eat up some innings. Long-relief duties will undoubtedly fall on the shoulders of Brian Duensing and probably Anthony Swarzak again. Alex Burnett and Tyler Robertson will take on more circumstantial roles along with 2012 surprises Casey Fien and Kyle Waldrop. Then the 8th and 9th inning combination of Jared Burton and Glen Perkins will solidify the back end of the bullpen.
• Starters: The starting pitching is another story. I would like to see Scott Diamond be a no. 1 for the Twins, but he is more of a tough no.2 or no.3 in the rotation kind of guy. Newcomers P. J. Walters and Samuel Deduno definitely will be possibilities coming out of Spring Training as the 5th pitcher in the rotation, with all likelihood the nod going to Deduno. Despite Liam Hendriks‘ poor 1-8 record, he showed glimpses of success and battled tough against other team’s stud pitchers, (9IP, 3 H, 6 SO) such as Felix Hernandez of the Seattle Mariners. In my opinion, Hendriks gets the 4th slot in the rotation based on potential and the fact he is only 23. That leaves two open spots in my rotation: a number one guy and a number two or three complimentary to Diamond.

Sadly, I do not believe the Minnesota Twins have an “ace” or another solid no. 2 kind of guy in their system who is ready for the big leagues. One option, Kyle Gibson, suffered an injury in 2011 which delayed is projected quick ascent through the minor league system. I am assuming he will be starting the season in Rochester for more Triple-A starts before making the jump to the Majors later in the year. That leaves us to rely on free agency to obtain one or more top end rotation talent. With the Twins likely to rid themselves of nearly $30 million in their payroll, (List of potential free agents) that should leave them with plenty of money to spend on any number of the possible starters entering free agency.

• Aces: There are two, maybe three clear-cut “aces” in this year’s free agency pool. Zack Greinke is by far the best option, but the Twins will not win a bidding war for the talented pitcher, so he is out. Jake Peavy is a name Twins’ fans have grown accustom to over the past few years during his tenure with the Chicago White Sox. What is intriguing about Peavy is despite his average velocity not being what it used to be, (mid-high 90s to a low 90s) his pitch movement is insane. If he keeps the ball low and in the strike zone, swings and misses are abundant, considering his 48.5% swing and miss ratio which put him no. 5 in the American League for pitchers. Peavy is still good and, at age 31, young enough to put in a serious investment towards him. Another name that is exciting in the market is James Shields, who is also not likely to be re-signed by the Tampa Bay Rays organization. Shields is an inning eater of late, pitching in well over 200 innings every season since 2007. He struck out 223 batters compared to only 58 walks last year, which fits him in to the Twins style of pitching. Shields controls the strike zone and fixes the Twins desperate need for a strikeout pitcher.
• Second-Tier: If the Twins can acquire one of the top-tier pitchers I mention above, the need for a second-tier type pitcher lessens considerably. However, if Terry Ryan and staff believe they either need another pitcher or do not receive one of the a fore mentioned “aces”, there are a multitude of no. 2 starters left in the free agent pool. A few I like are Brandon McCarthy,  Scott Baker, who is still up for a club option for next season ($9.25 million), and even ex-Twin, Kyle Lohse. McCarthy is an interesting player. He was struck in the face with a line-drive which sidelined him for a couple months with an injury. Despite his shortened season, I believe McCarthy showed enough of his abilities for the Twins to take a shot on him. An ERA of 3.24 last season is safe and would be an excellent right-handed compliment to what Scott Diamond brings to a rotation.
• Scott Baker could also be an interesting choice to entertain as an answer for starting pitching. The Twins have no business offering him his club option of $9.25 million after missing all of the season with Tommy John surgery, but because of the injury, negotiating with Baker is a little scary and the Twins should be mindful of how he is progressing. If the Twins could somehow land him for a 1 or 2 year contract being under $2 million per year, the risk is definitely worth the reward. When Baker is on, he can be quite efficient. He has shown the ability to compete at the Major League level by posting a career record of 63-48 in 163 games. Also, if he signs a one year deal with the Twins and does not perform well, then the team can cut their losses and move on without hurting the pocket book much.

All of this information sounds like a fantasy for the Minnesota Twins who are often quiet during the Winter Meetings and free agent market, but that is exactly what this is, a fantasy. These are my thoughts concerning what I think the Twins need to consider when deciding on who is worthwhile for the bungling organization. Here is my final verdict as acting General Manager:

1. Sign James Shields or Jake Peavy: Both are 31 and have plenty of life in their arms, but more importantly, they both know how to win.
2. Sign Brandon McCarthy or Scott Baker (if the price is right for Baker): Neither of these pitchers are genuine “aces”; however, sometimes a team can be effective with 3 or 4 second-tier starters in their rotation.
3. Keep Kyle Gibson in Triple-A for a few starts to begin the upcoming season. The last thing a rookie needs after recovering from a surgery is the pressures of playing up in the big leagues to start a season. Let him and his arm adjust to a 5-day pitching rotation and see when, where, or if he is needed to sure up the Twins pitching staff throughout the season.
4. Samuel Deduno, Liam Hendriks, or P. J. Walters: Pick one, maybe two. Hopefully with the signings of one or two of the previously mentioned pitchers (see step 1 and 2) the Twins will only have to pick one of these three. My money is on Hendriks, but that is the fan coming out in me. I would love to hear some “Aussie! Aussie! Aussie! Oye! Oye! Oye!” chants after striking batters out.

Who knows what the Twins have in store for themselves or their fans this offseason. If I get my wishes as acting General Manager, the Twins remain solid offensively with the position players they currently have on the roster and the pitching rotation would look a little something like this:

1. Jake Peavy (The Bulldog)
2. Scott Diamond (The Craftsman)
3. Brandon McCarthy (Tree..standing 6ft. 7in.)
4. Liam Hendriks (The Aussie)
5. Samuel Deduno (Sick Nasty)…hopefully turning into Kyle Gibson (The Worm Killer; he produces a ton of ground ball outs)

Aug 23, 2012; Arlington, TX, USA; Minnesota Twins starting pitcher Scott Diamond (58) throws during the game against the Texas Rangers at Rangers Ballpark. Texas won 10-6. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-US PRESSWIRE