Goodbye Cuddy

[hanronson]

Yep...It's official...Cuddyer signed for 3yrs/$31.5M with the Rockies. Got it off the Twins HSOforum. Thanks Cuddy for your time spent with the Twins and good luck in Colorado!

[DonBo]

Absolutely the money was a concern for him, who would pass up 31 mill for 24? No one! Also, he'd like to play for a team with a CHANCE at post-season. Probably not going to happen with the Twins.

Sorry to see him go, but I wish him the best of luck!

[ozzie]

Great move for Cuddy. Gets more money, plays in another great city where the ball flies out of the park rather then one hop the fence, and he gets to play in the national league where he has a better chance for playoffs and goes against weaker pitching for the most part.

[Musky Buck]

Thanks for playing the game the right way and us really never wondering about your $. Never looked your way Cuddy and thought there's a spoiled overpaid athlete. Sure it's contract time and if any ballplayer is deserving it's that guy, any steroid rumors, any love boat rides, any DUI's, any social problems, any tweeting a bunch of garbage, any even rumors of issues, no. That a boy Cuddy, I'm glad I got to see you pitch, that was the highlight of the year for me. Is there internal Twins problems we may not know about ? Good Luck Elk and Mulie hunting also.

[popriveter]

I can't blame Cuddyer for earning $7.5 million more. I can't blame Terry Ryan for spending $10.5 million less for a basically equivalent player and a couple of draft picks. Everyone seemed to handle this the way they should've. I'll miss seeing Cuddy on my team, but I'll still follow him in Colorado. He should hit a lot more home runs there.

I take issue with comments like "we get two draft picks to try to build up the awful farm system that has deteriorated so much the last several years."

The low end of the farm system is seeing strong starts from many impressive prospects. Look at what Eddie Rosario, Miguel Sano, and Oswaldo Arcia did in the low minors in 2011. It's AA and AAA that are thin and draft picks won't address that until the cycle catches up.

Kyle Gibson needs his elbow back. Aaron Hicks needs to turn a corner. To me, none of the farm products we saw last year (with the exceptions of Revere, Swarzak) looked to be ready to step in on a full-time basis. Maybe Dozier, Benson or Parmelee are ready to make an impact in 2012.

Too bad I'm not naming more pitchers. Liam hendriks? Alex Wimmers? Carlos Gutierrez? Can any of you help?

[popriveter]

Musky Buck, I was watching the "Cuddy gets to pitch game" on DVR and thought, "Wow. This game is so horrible-the only reason to watch the rest of this is to see if a position player pitches in the late innings." My DVR stopped recording and I didn't get to see it! I was so ticked!

[DonBo]

Here's Cuddy pitching:

http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=17290129

[Musky Buck]

It was great, if I recall there was an error in the inning, he got out of trouble lol, I like when he was taking the sign from the catcher lol, kinda like wow, here I am guys, he didn't even throw his knucklecurveball lol, I wish he would've threw behind a guy and stared him down lol, ok now I watched it again, the beginning of Nishioka's end as a twin, geez, 1 inning and that guy was just befuddled out there. Gardy took his hat off lol.

[B. Amish]

a microcosm of the twins' defense last year.

a couple of painful nishioka moments in that clip.

[Musky Buck]

No doubt Amish, he was the most clueless ballplayer in the majors last year, did not understand the infield fly rule was embarassing, his play reflected the season and Punto would've took his contract, I pray our scout if we scouted him was wasted on (SP) saki ?

[Stratosman]

Alot of good memories with Cuddy! Good luck and here's to hoping you don't lead the Rockies in double plays next year.

[Musky Buck]

He wouldn't lead the rockies in DP's if he could hit those grounders to twins infielders ie. NishichokeA. Best Cuddy memories were vs Oakland in the playoffs as a rookie, not that he really took it to the next level, but hey b+ is better than most. Wait till you see his replacement, he'll have a thread here next year.

[SledNeck]

Hey, if anything, the twins wont have to pitch to willingham anymore. On MLB network they showed him teeing off a bunch of times vs twins pitching!!!!

[Scott M]

Great guy, outstanding character guy, good decisions by all parties. He will love it in Colorado, we'll miss him. Met him at a bar with friends once. Very gracious, took lots of pictures and flashed that woman melter smile. The girls were hooked.

[2k1stang]

Frustrating thing about this is the evil money has shown, a man that said he wanted to stay here in MN and was offered 24 million and then said he would sign for 30 million in regards to three years. So passed on 8 million a year to shoot for 10 million a year, when you make that much money does it even matter? I just believe that the overall factor for him was the money and not what he had said about staying here. Money the root of all evil.

Kettle

That was my first reaction, but after last season and how many holes need to be filled in the rest of the team, I don't blame him.

[Raider4ever]

Hey, if anything, the twins wont have to pitch to willingham anymore. On MLB network they showed him teeing off a bunch of times vs twins pitching!!!!

Kinda like when they show Payton and Sanders tearing off some long run and it seems like it is usually against the Vikes?

[popriveter]

DonBo thanks for the link. That was fun to watch. Good lock, Cuddy!

[Musky Buck]

tee off on twins pitching, didn't most tee off on twins pitching, players look forward to twins pitching and we can bungle enough defensive plays to keep them teeing off. Time to go treat Gardy's ulcer, it ballooned up to the size of a softball and inhibited his bowling in the off-season. That thing might be watermelon sized after this year.

[schmitty3]

Wow that half inning pretty much sums up the Twins last season. That was like watching 10 yr old community ball. Even the outs were tough to watch.