Pitchers and Catchers. Plus - Just Sign Joe Crede.

Twins pitchers and catchers report today in Fort Myers, Florida. Ahhhhh, this day serves as the glorious start of spring training, and the first true sign of the beginning of the end of winter. The Twins are returning virtually all of last year's players from a young team that nearly made the playoffs. While there is hope, the natives are restless because the front office did absolutely nothing this off-season to strengthen the team through free agency. I must say that I really like the 2009 edition of the Twins except for one position - third base.

First, the Twins were outbid by the Dodgers for Casey Blake, a player who has played with the team before and wanted to return to Minnesota. The Dodgers offered 3 years, $17 million and the Twins thought that was too rich for their blood. Now, Billy Smith and the front office is taking their sweet time with free agent Joe Crede. Smith is getting some heat locally for not making any deals this off season. Smith, a man in his 40's, almost seems like a guy who lived through The Great Depression (the one in the 1930's - not the current one). Let's just say he is a bit of a Penny Pincher. He also seems a little gun-shy to pull the trigger (sports cliche's) on a deal after last year's Delmon Young fiasco. I don't know.

The word is that Crede is looking for an incentive-laden 1-year contract in the range of $7 million to become their third-baseman. Oddly enough, it was thought that Crede was asking for roughly $5 million to sign, but his agent Scott (A.K.A. "Satan") Boras keeps upping that figure as teams get interested. The Twins are skeptical about Crede's health, due to a myriad of back injuries over the past couple of years. Boras claims that Crede is 100% healthy, but you can never truly trust an agent, particularly a demonic one.

Personally, I think the Twins should take a chance and sign Crede, for a few reasons:

1. Crede's only looking for a one year contract. If he is a miserable failure, they can part ways at the end of the year. The Twins are not going to get burned with a long-term contract in this case. If Crede was asking for anything more than a year, I'd laugh and walk away.

2. Crede is an upgrade from the team's current platoon at third of Brian Buscher and Brendon Harris. Nothing against Buscher and Harris personally, but Crede may hit more home runs and drive in more RBI's than those two if he plays half the year. Look, I have no illusions that a Scott Boras client is going to sign with the Twins long-term, but if Crede can provide some power, he may be the guy to put this young team over the top in 2009.

3. Crede kills the Twins. Sometimes you have to sign a guy just so he stops playing against you. Crede is one of those guys.

4. The Twins are waaayyyy under their self-imposed salary cap. The Twins have operated recently with a self-imposed salary cap in the $70-$75 million range. They like to say they always plan to spend 52% of their revenue on players. Currently, they are around $57 million. This gives the team some leeway to spend money on a player like Crede. When Target Field opens in 2010, by the way, they need to be at least in the $80-$90 million range to retain credibility with the fans who helped pay for that field. I have a feeling that resigning Joe Mauer and a couple of the starting pitchers will easily put them in that range.

5. There is really nobody else out there. Personally, I would stay with the platoon of Buscher/Harris rather than trying to make deal with somebody like Mariners third baseman Adrian Beltre. Beltre strikes me as a Head. Case.

So there you go. I think something is going to happen with Crede this week. It sounds like he with end up with either the Twins or the San Francisco Giants.

Anyway, pitchers and catchers reporting is enough to put a smile on my face. I guess we'll see what happens.

Jeff