Twins Wrestle with Trade Deadline Consequences of a Spring Decision

[TwinkieFan4life]

2 minutes ago, Rod Carews Birthday said:

I will agree that I thought that this team was capable of a better record, but being in first place, while a little lucky to reside in the ALC, is an excellent place to be.  If we're in first place, I can be pleased with that fact.  It provides joy to many fans, including me.  It is also a fact that the pitching rotation, which is most of the reason the Twins are in first place, is also the result of decisions made by the front office, so apparently they don't suck at everything.  I'm certain that I haven't agreed with everything they have done, but taken as a whole, we're in a position to be successful. 

So now that that has been established, what is the magic number at which fans should be pleased?  Is it .500?  is it .550?  .600?  How about .750?  That's a 120 win season!  Now that would be something! 

Reading people's comments I sometimes feel like anything short of 162-0 wouldn't be good enough and the outrage machine would still be fully engaged because we weren't winning games by enough runs.  Back to the original post, relief pitchers are far too unpredictable to fret over a seemingly logical choice made before the season started.  If we are going to do that, we must also fully rejoice the choices that do work out, like signing Stewart or Castro.

lol.  I think you have totally missed on my point.  It is possible and okay to be pleased with some things and disappointed with others.  This is called nuance.

I agree, the starting pitching is good.  Duran is good.  Many other decisions have been good.  The draft decisions have been solid to good overall.  Last year's deadline moves and offseason acquisitions have been not so good.  I am not outraged, just expressing a thought.

Seems that today people have lost sight of the fact that there is a middle ground between enthusiastic support and being enraged.  I would argue Twinsdaily strikes a pretty good balance within that middle ground.

[dxpavelka]

53 minutes ago, TwinkieFan4life said:

This rotation is more deep than top heavy.  The quality of your top two or three is what matters come postseason.  Most other teams in contention have added quality arms fo the stretch run (team stats acquired earlier in the season aren't that relevant).  Ober is likely to tire.  Ryan is....well we have seen how things have unfolded.  The remaining three starters are still solid.  They will have to be incredible give the lineups they will face, the lack of depth in our pen, and our lack of offensive firepower.  

They'll be able to choose from among 8 solid choices to fill four playoff rotation spots.  Even be able to use the other four to double up with the first four thus taking pressure off the pen.

 

[Rod Carews Birthday]

51 minutes ago, TwinkieFan4life said:

lol.  I think you have totally missed on my point.  It is possible and okay to be pleased with some things and disappointed with others.  This is called nuance.

I agree, the starting pitching is good.  Duran is good.  Many other decisions have been good.  The draft decisions have been solid to good overall.  Last year's deadline moves and offseason acquisitions have been not so good.  I am not outraged, just expressing a thought.

Seems that today people have lost sight of the fact that there is a middle ground between enthusiastic support and being enraged.  I would argue Twinsdaily strikes a pretty good balance within that middle ground.

I'm pretty sure that I agree with you, and indeed nuance is crucial to have the right perspective.  Twins Daily generally does strike a pretty good balance, but frequently some of the arguments go off the rails into the land of "Fire them all! Trade all the players! Anybody would be better than this bunch of clowns!  Move the franchise somewhere else because we won't put up with it!"  Hyperbole on my part, but I'm sure you get the picture.  I live near Chicago, so I deal with this mentality all the time unfortunately.  The target is definitely not you.  Sorry if it seemed that way.  I'll go back to yelling at the clouds in the sky now!

[Aerodeliria]

I think the crucial question raised by Mr. Palmer, which gets lost in the weeds of hindsight analysis, is, "Are the Twins good evaluating their talent?" I think another question is "Are the Twins good at maximizing the potential of the players they have in the system?" It's hard to put a positive spin on the answer to either of those questions, so I would say that hindsight is not necessarily 20-20 if it might lead to positive re-evaluation and reflection. As it stands, however, the Twins don't have a great record in this matter IMHO.