rv78

My thoughts on Dobnak are that.... his ship has sailed. He's not the type of pitcher that can over-power hitters and I think hitters have figured him out already. Watching him pitch, it is easy to see the difference in which pitch he is throwing. Lay off the off-speed stuff and clobber the fastball. Unfortunately we will all get to see how bad the FO has mis-judged him in 2022.

I'd like Bryant in the lineup over a Sano, Kepler, or Cave but with Miranda on the doorstep having another 3B/LF guy isn't where the priority signing should be. As long as Donaldson, Arraez, Kepler remain on the team a move like this won't happen.

I've said all along that 2022 will be a rebuilding year. The Twins have never been aggressive in the FA market even tho that is what Target Field was built for, (and to keep our top players) which we did do by resigning Buck but didn't do by trading away Berrios.The end of 2021 showed what the rotation would look like at the start of 2022. Ober, Ryan, Jax, minus Pineda however I think there is still a good chance he will be brought back, and then Dobnak. There are your 5 guys. Good luck filling Target Field.

I've often thought Radke should have his number retired by the Twins. He was a really good pitcher at a bad time.

Miranda to LF might make the most sense if Kirolloff stays at 1B and Sano Is the main DH guy. I mean what have you got to lose. Trying Miranda in LF isn't like moving Sano to RF.............. is it?

It's hard to imagine that they cannot find a place to play Miranda when 6 of the 9 guys in the lineup couldn't hit above .250 last season. It looks like the FO isn't going to give this team a major upgrade in the rotation and if they are willing to play the same lineup again in 2022 minus Simmons and Cruz then where, as fans, are we expected to see an improvement come from? Unless I am missing something, resigning Buxton was done to prevent a fan mutiny and every other move so far has been, well, laughable. Evidently their vision to be competitive in 2022 will rely on the youngsters like Miranda, Kirilloff and a stable of minor league pitchers making a giant leap forward.

More dumpster diving...... what else is new. I am wondering why the Twins need two Jake Caves. One is tooooo many.

Nice article. The discerning thing I noticed about Larnach was that he was a dead pull hitter. very seldom went to the opposite field. If he can only hit fastballs and they are constantly located on the outside part of the plate, the fastest way he'll be able to make pitchers re-adjust, is to start hitting the ball the other way, otherwise those outside fastballs will just continue to turn into K's and weak ground balls.

Looking at Lewis and Martin, if neither one sticks at SS then they play in the outfield. So Buxton is in CF. That doesn't mean they can't play LF and RF. Looking at the current roster we went last year with a rotation of guys in LF that never really took the position and made it their own and in RF is Kepler who is good defensively but really has turned into a liabaility at the plate. I find it hard to believe that Lewis or Martin would be worse defensively in RF than Kepler and would not be any better offensively. Maybe the outfield of the future, and that future maybe isn't that far away, is Martin, Buxton and Lewis. I'd much rather see a Kepler and Sano who are offensive liabilities be traded than up and coming prospects that the Twins have banked on so heavily as part of their future. Kepler and Sano don't look to be that important anymore.

The answer is quite simple at shortstop. The Twins will pick from the leftovers. just like they do with Pitchers. The last time this organization went out and got a difference maker was in 1991 which coincides with their last Championship. What a coincidence!

Hey this FO has made their big splash this off-season. Signing the best part-time player in baseball to a $100M+ deal. What are you complaining about? With the likes of Bundy, now Faria, and a couple more dumpster dives they'll be all set as usual. You know, Wes Johnson can tun these low end starters into All-Stars if they have 1 pitch that is above average. Look how well it worked last year!! This FO is a joke.

Looking at both sides of Buck, I know he changes the team when he's on the field. I think the W/L record even indicates that. But he also has to find a way to stay on the field and play a full season.... just once would be a good start. If you were running another type of business would you pay someone full-time money if they've never proven they can be there any more than part-time? Most businesses would part ways with that type of worker. In a way I can't blame this FO for being tied to a, what the H E double L toothpicks should we do? If they tie him to a 7 year contract and he doesn't play anymore in those 7 years than he did in the last 7 then everyone here will say they messed up big-time and were a couple of fools. If they trade him and he becomes the MVP like many of you feel he is already then they will have messed up big-time. Either way, if I'm the Twins or if I'm a team that gets him in a trade, his contract has to be incentived based on the amount of playing time he provides. Even Buck should understand that.

Current signings like that of Jake Cave and Jharrel Cotton indicate what this FO wants. Cheap players that they HOPE will perform beyond capabilities. It's a recipe for disaster. It seems they are either ignorant, incapable, stubborn, cheap, hopeful, or less intelligent than anyone ever figured. Starting to look like all of the above.

If it would take the 4 prospects you list to get him then it's an absolute NO. 4 prospects for a 1 year stop-gap pitcher? NEVER.

I will begin to believe in this FO when they quit handing out contracts to guys like Dobnak and Cave. at the same time letting guys like Rosario and Berrios leave. Until then, it looks like they want to hang onto the worst players they have and get rid of the better ones.

As Yogi would say, this is deja vu all over again. Resigning Cave has me wondering if Falvine have any brains at all. WAYYYYYYY too many better options out there for a 4th outfielder than Cave. I'd take Frazier or Goodrum over Caveman anyday. Makes me wonder since they gave up a good prospect in Luis Gil for him if they feel the need to give him extra chances to prove they didn't really make a bad trade, as it looks now. This FO needs to stop looking at the player production from 2018 and 2019 and focus on what their players are giving them now and make decisions based on that.

YES, he can have Jake Cave's spot on the 40 man roster.... please!

Last time I looked the Twins don't need a 3B having 3 guys already in position to play there, (Donaldson, Miranda, Arraez). If he was a SS I'd consider it.

After reading the comments on most of these guys it just makes me wonder even more why the Twins hang on to players that they get little to no production from like Smeltzer, Thorpe, Stashak, Astudillo, Cave, & Garlick. In addition, guys like Dobnak, Coloumbe, & Minaya are a dime a dozen that can be traded for or easily replaced with up coming talent. There's 9 open spots to use. Rooker, Garza and Barnes aren't anything special either but they are young and I wouldn't cut ties with them yet. In my opinion the Twins didn't do themselves any favors by playing 2021 September games with these guys including Colome and Simmons. If you weren't going to keep/resign them for 2022 they could have been DFA'd Sept 1 and you could have brought up a Palacios, Miranda, Gore, or Contreras. Geeze, let's just let these guys rot in the minors until someone does a Baddoo on us. With only the future to look forward to why play the rest of the 2021 season without looking at as many youngsters as you can? The veterans who have/had no future with your team should not have been playing.

Berrios was not a #1 and barely a #2. He could be lights out 1 game, average the next game and lay an egg the 3rd game. It was tough to see him go but how did the Twins do after he left? Did they start losing all of their games? I seem to recall they played almost .500 ball after he left and a lot worst than that when he was there, so maybe he wasn't the big difference maker everybody thought he was. We were brainwashed into thinking he was going to be the new Ace of the Twins. It didn't take a trade away from the Dodgers named Maeda long to oust him from the #1 spot in the rotation. Management has over-rated most of the players that came up for the Twins in the last 7 or 8 years and gave the fans all the hype about how good they were going to be. We are now seeing how wrong they were. I can name 2 guys on the roster that were worth a little hype, Polanco and Arraez. Buxton would deserve it if he could stay on the field but he can't be relied on to be there. Who else you got?

I never said the Twins had to get the return for Buxton value in a trade. I believe he will bring a good return wherever he would be traded. Hopefully someone with proven MLB talent and not some unproven prospect or two. What I would expect is if they don't use the MONEY on Buxton they could use it on a good SS that is proven and has durability. If the same amount of money is used for someone who can play everyday and impact your lineup everyday isn't that better than someone who only plays at a part-time even if he does it at a high level?

I guess I am in the minority here. I don't see a trade of Buck as all that bad. He should bring one helluva return and when you consider the guy will be 28 years old, has played in the majors 7 years and has never played a full season once, why would you break the bank to keep someone like that? I realize looking back isn't the best way to evalaute a player but in Bucks case you can't ignore it either. Maybe the best way to spend that money is to give it to someone who can play 150+ games a year, year after year, even if he is slightly less spectacular defensively and almost as good offensively. With some really good shortstops available this year maybe the money would be better spent there. Give CF to a 1 or 2 year guy and if you've got SS covered for 4, 5 or 6 years let Royce Lewis or Austin Martin go to CF since they are questionable at SS anyway.

Often heard the definition of insanity is, doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Yes we need pitchers but decisions need to be made on guys that are taking up spots on the 40 man roster first. Smeltzer and Thorpe are 2 that come to mind immediately. Little to no production from these guys that need to be released. Then go get 2 younger guys like Martinez and Wacha and take a chance on them. They probably have a better chance of making a contribution than Smeltz or Thorpe ever will. Don't go after the older bargain bin guys. It hasn't worked since Jack Morris.

The Twins have multiple players at the same positions yet no one at a SS or LF. Trade from your extras to fill those holes. It's not complicated. Who do you trade if you want to improve your defense? Your weakest players defensively. Just remember not to sacrifice offense to he point the defensive upgrades don't help. No point in holding another team to 1 or 2 runs less per game if you lose 2 or 3 runs per game of offense. Not that those are exact numbers but you get my point. Current logjams at 1B and 3B are the problem. If you are going to use the DH spot to give guys an occasional day off in the field then Sano is the guy that has to go. He's the worst defensively and his offense is spotty at best. I don't trade Donaldson because of his big contract that the Twins would have to eat most of in a trade and he still is a viable option at 3B in case Miranda doesn't hit in the bigs like he did in the minors. He's just not a known commodity yet that you can plan on for an entire season. Also, if he does hit it sounds like he can play in the OF so maybe he's your LF guy and you just don't know it yet. Arraez would have to be the 2nd guy to go if you can get a good return for his bat. There again, don't give up offense for defense unless it's a guy that can give you some of both. Don't want to see Simmons back even though I liked the signing at the time, as he turned into a one dimesional player.

Every pitcher has his good days and his bad days. Even Cy Young lost games. The more pitchers you use in a game the better chances you have of getting one of them on one of their bad days. I made a comment earlier about Joe Ryan pitching 3 perfect innings and then getting pulled only to have the next pitcher (Duffey) blow the game in the 4th inning. In the real world you'd let Ryan keep pitching because he's having a good game, not a bad one. If you are going to do that you can't continually use him as a 3 inning pitcher because he isn't stretched out and conditioned for going longer stints. The theory of having 3 pitchers go 3 innings each so they only have to face each batter once is great but in reality it isn't going to happen because all 3 won't pitch 3 perfect innings.