Blogs from our Community

Update on my Lockout OOTP Twins rebuild. 2022 Season Twins pre-play.

I’ve been playing the Twins season while trading, signing free agents and auditioning the Twins best minor leaguers. The bad news is that the Twins started 1-11. The good news is that I continued to trade, sign free agents and give almost all the top prospects an audition. You might be surprised at which prospect emerged. I’ve played all games except maybe a total of 1 when the AI took off while I napped! I also do pitch by pitch, which is pretty exciting, especially using the CF camera for pitc

Richie the Rally Goat in Twins Daily Community

February 9, 2022

Morneau & Mauer

Not Baseball, but Morneau and Mauer!!

mnfireman in Morneau & Mauer

February 2, 2022

Twins Daily Community

MLB Accessibility

I went off on a tangent in mikelink45’s extremely well written and thought provoking post “When Baseball was King”. But started thinking about why baseball isn’t king. In my mind a significant shift happened in the late 70s and early 80s. The sport that I think was a major contributor was the NFL and not just that the NFL broadcasted it’s games to wide regional audiences scheduled to minimize overlap and put premium matchups in prime time, there was one man… If you’ve been watching NFL game

January 24, 2022

CBA

Competitive Balance Tax Wobbly Floor

I was just thinking about the Competitive Balance Tax in Baseball and the negotiations going on and was thinking about the concept that was proposed of a 100 million floor. for a lot of small market teams that would be too high of a floor as it makes sense to dip down when doing a rebuild. but the thought that crossed my mind is.... why does it have to be a solid floor? I mean with the competitive balance tax on the top end of teams payrolls they have an escalating penalty each year they are

Brandon in CBA

January 21, 2022

Roster construction

Bring on the kids

In my first-ever blog entry, I implied that the Twins couldn't compete for a playoff spot. Moreover, I think they shouldn't worry about it. However, I don't think that means they have to give up on playing competitive baseball...putting a team on the field that fans are willing, even eager to watch. Nothing would make me happier than to watch some high-level prospects test themselves against major league pitchers and hitters. Besides, it gives the team a chance to test the limits of their young

Franz in Roster construction

January 9, 2022

OOTP: Acting aggressively to rebuild Twins

Frustrated by Falvey and Levine’s approach the last two offseason and with the lockout in effect, I bought OOTP baseball for $4.99 in order to build the Twins my way using trades, free agent signings and keeping the up and coming pitching. I set the trade slider a little more to the hard side the the easy side. It seemed to carry over to free agent negotiations but I’m not sure. Prime example: I offered Byron Buxton basically the same deal the Twins signed him for and he came bac

January 6, 2022

Roster construction

2022 = Development Year

I've read plenty of opinions on what the Twins should try to achieve this off-season, ranging from pleas to make a few big-ticket free agent moves to get themselves competitive in 2022 to demands that they tear it all down to start the big rebuild. I suggest a different path; one that management is perhaps already following, and one that the current roster is best set up to accomplish. The 2022 season is the team's chance to give their top prospects big league at-bats, to find out which of

Franz in Roster construction

January 4, 2022

Baseball movies

Is this heaven? No, it’s the all-time baseball movie lineup

Hey, it’s the Christmas season and there’s no real baseball on TV. Nor is there any real baseball news, and I don’t want to discuss one more time whether the Twins are in rebuild or retool mode. But it’s a wonderful life, and there are movies to watch. On a recent road trip with my son, we tried to come up with the starting lineup on the All-Time Baseball Movie team. These are the fictional guys. It would be too easy to insert Lou Gehrig from Pride of the Yankees and Babe Ruth from any numb

IndianaTwin in Baseball movies

December 26, 2021

Twins

A Trend With Twins First Basemen

Like many other baseball fans, I am very bored during this lockout. There are no free agent rumblings or really much of anything in the baseball world currently. I was doing some research on Kirilloff, and something got me thinking. Alex Kirilloff is a young, left-handed hitting first baseman, who projects to be the first baseman of the future for the Twins. The Twins seem to have a history with left-handed hitting first basemen. Some of those first basemen were named Kent Hrbek, Justin Morneau,

cjm0926 in Twins

December 22, 2021

2022 Minnesota Twins Top 15 Prospects

While we have no baseball right now because of the league locking out its players, there’s still minor league prospects to dream on. 2021 provided us a full season of minor league action and the Twins saw a ton of movement from their biggest names. It was certainly tough to see the injuries mount this season, but that can likely be tied to the non-traditional 2020 and having to get back into a demanding flow. The last update to the top 15 in this space came in June, prior to the Major Leagu

December 20, 2021

Twins

Revisiting the Twins 2018 Top Prospects

Prospects are exciting, but they do come with some risks. The Twins currently seem to have as deep of a system as ever, but until the prospects reach the majors, it doesn’t matter. Today I will be revisiting the 2018 Twins Top 30 Prospects, according to MLB Pipeline, going through #1 to #15 on the list, and give some reason for hope, and some for fear for the current crop. #1 Royce Lewis Acquired: Drafted 2017, 1st Overall Current Team: Twins Organization Royce Lewis w

cjm0926 in Twins

December 16, 2021

My Twins HOF vote

Here’s my Twins HOF vote, which at long last puts Cesar Tovar rightfully in (5 listed finishes in AL MVP voting)! Though Bostock’s time as a Twin was limited, what a great performance it was!

December 14, 2021

Danny Duffy for the Twins.

In case anybody missed it, here’s the update, credit MLB Trade Rumors, on Danny Duffy’s status. I would be strongly in favor of the Twins signing him to a 2 year deal, the first year at a minimum rate to pitch as a lefty out of the bullpen from sometime in July to the end of the season. Then a higher salary a/la Dylan Bundy in the second year for him to pitch out of the rotation. And sign Michael Pineda for sure plus trade for a pitcher, possibly from Oakland. Jon Gray would be okay to

December 14, 2021

2021 IBWAA Hall of Fame Ballot

While having until January to cast my annual IBWAA Hall of Fame Ballot, I decided to get it in before the holidays this year. Once again, the IBWAA is not part of the Official BBWAA vote to enshrine players in Cooperstown but with a large voting body this is a fun process to partake in each season. The IBWAA selection process allows for 12 candidates to be voted. My previous ballots can be found here: 2018 2019 2020 I didn’t hit the 12 max but did decide to open up my restrict

December 13, 2021

Twins Stuff

Mid-Offseason Reflection and Grade

While we are undergoing the lockout, nothing can be done by any team. So I think this would be an appropriate time to look over what has been done this offseason and discuss what to expect after the end of the lockout, and what the Twins still need to do. Buxton extended When we were all down on the Twins’ FO and thinking that a trade was inevitable, the Twins got it done. The Twins and Buxton agreed on a 7-year, $100M extension with incentives. That’s $14.29M per year base salar

cHawk in Twins Stuff

December 11, 2021

Twins Offseason Moves

Post Lock out Moves: Potential Twins Trades

There are relatively few guarantees in baseball, and even less when it comes to what a new CBA will look like. Let's take a look at a few potential additions, and how it can impact the Twins (and other clubs). Today I want to talk about one potentially significant change. Salary Floor Both sides have spoken about a potential salary floor in some form or fashion. When both sides reference the possibility of something then it is only a matter of the details. It WILL be in the new CBA.

Doc Munson in Twins Offseason Moves

December 5, 2021

Bundy Signing Isn’t from the Same Old Twins

Right before the final bell on the Major League Baseball offseason rang before Rob Manfred locked out the players, Minnesota got a deal done. The Twins signed former first round pick Dylan Bundy to a one-year deal worth $4 million. No, it’s not cut from the “same ole’ Twins” cloth. Take a quick glance at Bundy’s 2021 numbers and it looks like a scrap heap pickup. He had an ERA north of 6.00 and a FIP that suggests he was equally as bad. The strikeouts dipped, the walks rose, and he gave up

December 2, 2021

Offseason Blueprint

My 2022 Offseason Blueprint, Round 2: Manaea, Iglesias

Some of you may have read my article I wrote about 3 weeks ago with my plans for the 2022 offseason. If you want to check it out, the link is here I had us signing Stroman, Story, trading for Luis Severino (Which I still think would be a great idea), and trading for Zac Gallen. Obviously that wasn't going to happen and surely won't happen now. I decided to come up with a bit more of a realistic offseason we could possibly have. With free agents now signing it affects who we can go after. As a ma

cjm0926 in Offseason Blueprint

November 30, 2021

Buck. Got. Paid.

For months I have been tweeting that the Minnesota Twins need to pay Byron Buxton. There has never been a point at which that should have been anything close to an uncertainty. Today, it became reality. The Twins centerfielder has received MVP votes twice in his career. He has an .887 OPS over the past three seasons, and he was barreling towards and MVP award prior to injury this past season. Therein lies the rub. Minnesota was only in a position to sign their superstar thanks to his injury