Thebigalguy

Thanks for the post. I agree that a lot must go right for improvement at the plate, but hey, with the exception of Rosario and maybe one or two others, the bar isn't set very high right now. I also think the lineup will change with one or more additions before spring training. Buxton is 25. Look what the Yankees did for Hicks. Maybe the new staff will do likewise for Byron. Sano's allegedly getting and staying in shape over the winter, which should help him stay healthy. A breakthrough year for Kepler isn't unthinkable. My bigger worry without Mauer and Grossman is consistency and OBP. You need them on base to knock them in. If they can plate 5 or 6 runs, they can win some games with the pitching staff they'll have. I don't see them winning a lot of 2-1 games, though I prefer to be optimistic until proven otherwise.

I think he's in a tough spot, given his age, 32 by start of season, and how much he fell off at the plate (and, to a lesser degree, in the field) with the Dodgers after a hot first week or so. I was reading a fan line where there was speculation about how he might fit a Yankees lineup. I like Dozier's steadiness and fire, but he didn't do himself any favors when you look at his stats. I'm just happy for him that he got a chance to be a part of their playoff run, even if he mostly sat on the bench.

These two young B men are crucial cogs in a dysfunctional machine. Buxton is aces in the field and on the basepaths and alligator meal at the plate. Baldelli is an Italian pony without Molitor’s experience or wisdom who wants to be a stallion like Mollie. Stranger things have happened. Baldelli is wise to court Byron. Without a resurgence from the B Man, the jigsaw puzzle at Target Field will remain an unholy mess and these B men will be playing to the peanut gallery. Time, which is short, will tell.

Not many have commented on the fact that Mauer, even in his post-concussion "second" career, had one of the best BA's with RISP in the league. He's a first-ballot HOF, that's for sure, given what he did as a catcher. Many complained about the lack of a fire in the belly, but if there's one thing that makes me laugh, it's locker room pep talks, which are cliche following cliche. He was a consummate pro and he gave every colleague his respect. We won't have Joe to kick around anymore, and he'll never wear a WS ring, but his history is indeed "storied," I'd say. Reverence might be too strong a word, but as sports culture loses its integrity and becomes only about winning, fantasy teams, and gambling odds, Joe will be a bright, shining light by which we can judge his successors and all of MLB. He's a yardstick and I'll measure next year's Twins by standing them beside that very tall totem pole with that TC cap on his head: backwards, probably, in recognition of his glory days.

Sean McVay is coaching the LA Rams to the top dog status in the NFL. He's what, 32? The fundamentals are the fundamentals. If a young alpha dog can teach players to put aside their narcissism and learn how to hit, field, pitch, and not sit on their butts fuming in the dugout because they're not celebrated 24/7, there's no reason the Twins can't compete with teenyboppers in charge. I for one was glad to see the NBA Wolves finally get rid of Jimmy "I can't get over myself" Butler, who though a veteran was a drain (with his solipsism) on the team and its talent. The same goes for the Twins. Now that Mauer and Molitor are gone, the Millennial and the Boomer, one in the HOF and the other a sure bet in five years, two men mature and considered in their games and their lives, why not put the unsettled, insecure tykes in charge, give them algorithms, and hope they can teach the other tykes, the ones on the field, enough about the fundamentals to succeed? After all, over 50% of average baseball fans are 55 or older. We Boomers like four hour games, because it gives us time to drink beer while we have philosophical conversations, but younger fans need lots of nerdy video game speed to keep their short attention spans interested while they vape and spit out post-literate acronyms. In 2018, MLB was less interesting for many reasons, many of them having to do with analytics, so my position is that the less experience MLB coaches have, the better off the players and the game will be, at least when it comes to younger fans. As for me and mine, the Twin Cities have so many cultural and entertainment possibilities, like tomorrow night's amazing poetry reading at St. Paul's University Club to celebrate a new book full of poems inspired by the life and work of Minnesota's own Bob Dylan, that baseball in 2019 will have to earn a place in our hearts and minds all over again. I'm hoping it does that this year, but not holding my breath.

It's well worth your time to spend some with the Handbook. I've had it since the World Series started and find it useful when it revisits various questions about who's ready and who's not for 2019 and when it offers a trove of information to digest. Well done, guys;

These are great comments. It’s interesting to see that some welcome Baldelli, who sounds personable. Since my mother’s side of the family is Italian (or, more precisely, Sicilian), I expect he’ll be approachable and maybe even garrulous. He’ll need it, since Falvine, through their own hubris, fired the reigning Manager of the Year just because they could. The one thing that might bring some of us back to slurp some of their Chicken Soup in 2019 would be a Mauer decision to return and Molitor deciding to stay with this team and collect his million plus for each of the next two years. Otherwise, many of us will let Falvine and Baldelli change diapers with our attention elsewhere- Minneapolis and St Paul are rich in cultural alternatives to MLB - until 2020 or 2021, when the youngsters are toilet-trained and competitive again. Molitor was superb at treating babes in the woods like the adults they’re supposed to be. With him at the helm, many of us would be in our seats come Opening Day. (Has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?) Without him and Mauer, if that’s the case, Many of us will do something with more pizazz come summer, like watch the river flow.

The Minnesota Twins took a major hit from many of us in the state who follow baseball closely but not uncritically when two inexperienced front office executives who remind us more of automatons than human beings fired reigning Manager of the Year Paul Molitor because they could. We don't hold the decision against Baldelli, their new manager, but many of us aren't likely to buy tickets next year unless Molitor gets another managerial job. There are way too many other things to do in Minneapolis and St. Paul, truly great cities, than support a Chicken-Soup-Is-Goo-For-The-Soul franchise. Their systems analysis approach to baseball is something like Robert Mcnamara's approach to the Vietnam quagmire in the Sixties. And we all know how that turned out.

I’m disappointed. Molitor did a good job in a season when most of what went wrong had to do either with free agent choices or underperforming or an injury (Santana) or suspension (Polanco). Falvine then traded away Pressly, a very dumb move. And now we have a housecleaning. Falvine now owns it. If it still runs with broken cylinders next year, they’re the ones who should go.

His average with runners in scoring position alone puts him in the Hall of Fame. Add his stats while catching, his .306 lifetime average, and the way he transformed himself into a Golden Glove caliber first baseman and the Hall should be a cinch if there’s a god and goddess in heaven (the verdict is still out). His team loyalty and good citizenship at a time when neither is much in evidence are intangibles that should help the cause.

The more I think about Falvine keeping Buxton in the cage in September instead of bringing him to the Twins, the more it stinks. Clearly, it's all about service time. I've tried to rationalize it in another comment on this site and one on the Star Tribune, but there's no way to do that. He should file a grievance. The MLBPA should make a public stink. Those of us who are still Twins fans want him in centerfield this month, not sitting at home stewing and sulking because he was scammed. We're being scammed, too. Yes, the season is meaningless in terms of playoffs for the Twins, but does that mean every fan should boycott? If not, if Falvine still wants us in the stands, then Buxton should be in uniform and showing us what he can do. No ifs. No ands. No buts. It's almost enough to take me back to my childhood, when I lived elsewhere and was a Yankees fan: Mantle, Maris, Richardson, Moose Skowron, Clete Boyer. Those guys had to take what the team dished out. Buxton can do more than that. And he should.

I find myself agreeing with much of what I've read here, both in Nick's article and in the comments section. Mauer's average with RISP hasn't received as much attention as it deserves. He hits when it counts. I'd like to see him come back on a two-year contract that includes not only playing time but also a role as consultant or coach. That would give him and the team a comfortable way to reduce his playing time as part of the plan, depending on his productivity and the productivity of alternatives. We all saw how LoMo worked out. I think Mauer has a place on the 2020 championship Twins. That's when Falvine will own it, for better or worse. After that, no reason not to have Mauer spending the rest of his professional life in some capacity with the Twins. As for Buxton: the Twins got rid of Span (and Ben Revere) too soon. Hicks wasn't ready. Buxton has been Hicks redux, with even more speed and defensive brilliance. Now at 28, Hicks is a .250 hitter with power and speed who has struck out 94 times in about 400 at bats. I see no reason Buxton can't do likewise (at least), with additional seasoning. As for bringing him up in September, why? We need to know if Cave, Granite, Austin (wow, sounds like a powerful archetypal tandem, if it's names alone that count) and a few others can make the nut. I'd keep the extra year of control and let him rest unless doing so creates an emotional chasm between Buxton and the front office. If the guy's heart is set on coming up, then keeping him off the September roster could be more trouble down the line than it's worth.

I hope he comes back. He has the best average in the league with RISP. On a team full of players who lose their composure with men on second and third, Joe is the Man. We need him.

I hope he comes back. He has the best average in the league with RISP. On a team full of players who lose their composure with men on second and third, Joe is the Man. We need him.

I respect all I’ve read but give Molitor more credit. A B+, in fact, and in decades of teaching I’ve not been an easy grader. Trading Pressley was a Falvine rookie mistake. The bullpen now is a hot mess. Molitor has taken lemons and made lemonade, which is a .500 team this year. They started 9-15 and are still six or so games under .500. Few timely hits. Inconsistent starters. A terrible record in one-run and walkoff games. That’s not on Molitor. I certainly expect him to have two more years. Time will tell.

I'm very surprised at what he's done so far here, and I like how he uses the whole field, which might teach his younger teammates something useful if they're paying attention. I wouldn't really think about extending his contract, though, after just a couple weeks, especially if in September the FO wants to see if Gordon can hold his own. We had a lot of one-year options this year. How did that work out, for the Twins, anyway? (I note that Lynn is now an ace with the Yanks, 1 run in 22 innings; maybe he needed a pennant race for an adrenaline rush.) These short-term rentals aren't the answer. Sano's improved. Bring Buxton back, bring Gordon up, and let's get it on with the new era. I would like to see them keep Mauer around for another year or two, maybe via a transition during that time to player-coach or player-consultant or some such thing.

If the Buckman is healthy, bring him up pronto, like yesterday. If there’s any question about health, shut him down. No ifs no ands no buts. Rochester is pointless. Buying a year of control is unethical and will cost more than it’s worth in goodwill. Give the Buckman as much rope as he can handle.

The truth is that they competed last year and not this year. On paper, they were improved, but they play on grass, not on paper. Berrios and Gibson performed as expected. Escobar and Rosario did their part. Who else? I have to wonder if Polanco and Santana would have made a difference the first half.

I'm cautiously optimistic. Reportedly they tried to keep Escobar but his agent wouldn't bite with free agency a few months ahead, so they traded him. In return for players who, aside from Eskie, wouldn't be back anyway, they got a small boatload of prospects. This is how Houston did it. It paid off. If this year made one thing clear, it's that there aren't very many sure-fire free agents. Last year was exciting; this year, meh. Better to cut bait and prepare for next year. The Indians are too far ahead, they've been a .500 team, at best, ever since they started 9-15, and there are no wild cards to be had. Disappointing. Se la vie.

Might be good for him, a Texas guy, but not so much for Twins next year. Others can better say what’s in the pipeline, but he came of age this year and could have been groomed to close. Giving the meltdown yesterday, a 4-1 lead becoming a six run loss, I’m giving them another week and then I’m tuning outuntil winter trades. SAD! as a certain Washington man might say. I hope the players we received in return pan out, but that won’t be next year.

I agree that Gibson has become a top line starter. If he’s traded, it tells me FalVine have decided the team is years from contention and that fans will suffer through next year when Gibson is still under control.

I don't think Mauer can be touched with his no-trade clause. The only way he goes is if he decides it's what he wants, a chance to play deep into the playoffs, and if the Twins eat up most of his salary for whichever team gets him. I don't expect that to happen. He'll play out the season and the Twins will resign him if he agrees to play for what he's now worth instead of what he got after his MVP year when he was a perennial batting champ and the best catcher in the league.

“This kind of move would allow them to pursue that goal vigorously while lessening their reliance on Byron Buxton and Miguel Sano to lead the charge.” How so without Kiriloff, Lewis, et al? If Buxton and Sano flop, the pipeline is loaded. I’m not as excited about Realmuto as many commenters, not at such a price. True enough that Ryan traded away Ramos and took Mauer’s longevity behind the plate for granted without loading the system as a safety net, but I wouldn’t buy this high. Still, it’s an intriguing idea and your logic is persuasive. I just think the price is too high.

Thanks for the very good situation report. Given how much the offense produced in the last two months of 2017, I didn't understand the decision to fire the hitting coach and bring in Rowson, and now I'm even more perplexed. Does anybody know? Is it a "fortunate son" situation? Did the previous coach resist the new emphasis on technology and computer analysis? As for Buxton and Sano, I have more faith in the B-man, given his attitude and work ethic, than in Sano, and hope the demotion straightens him out. Yesterday I was on the elliptical at the gym watching the game and the runners left on base almost every inning were hard to witness. Second and third, nobody out. Result? Zilch. I turned off the monitor on my machine and instead listened to the wonderful music of the Be Good Tanyas. Doing so improved my mood tenfold.

Maybe they want to pick his brain about the Cleveland pitchers and coaches. Once he’s debriefed, they’ll send him packing (unless he’s good) and bring up the AAA relievers.