Road trip

Chicks dig the long ball, as does Byron. He's bulked up a lot since his early 20's, and swings hard. A decade ago I hoped he would be a Tim Raines/Kenny Lofton kind of player. Nope. He isn't going to reach those heights, and it seems being a prototype leadoff hitter with some power was perhaps never what he wanted to do (or was coached to become?). Base stealing... just never became a thing for Buxton, or the Twins organization (arguably the slowest lineup in the league last year). And I'm at peace with it. If he can play good defense, stay healthy, hit .250 with 20-25 HR's, well I'll take that in a heartbeat. He isn't going to be a Hall of Famer, or even close, but he's very valuable when healthy. I'll look to the next generation of Twins players to hopefully bring base stealing back to the squad.

I don't see a problem. Most organizations can only dream of having a Brooks Lee waiting in the wings to play SS if their starter gets hurt. 12 months ago everyone thought Lee was the 2nd coming of Derek Jeter (I'm exaggerating, I know), and feared the Twins would stash him in AAA for too long. Turned out Lee's bat wasn't quite ready, or he was hurt, or both. But that top level prospect is still there, likely healthier, hopefully wiser from the experience he gained last year. If Correa has a long term IL stint just stick Lee at SS. He may or may not hit much this year, but the defense should be more than adequate.

"Injuries are guaranteed and underperformance is more than likely," This is the key phrase, unfortunately. There are a lot of pitchers on the list of expected contributors who have a history of injury (Topa, Paddack, Stewart), and frankly every pitching arm is somewhat of a time bomb waiting to go off. We will see every one of these guys, most of them by June at the latest. I'd expect Alcala first, if he doesn't make the squad immediately, but we are gonna see them all. Of guys not mentioned, I think Cory Lewis may get a couple of MLB starts at some point, unless our starting rotation remains surprisingly healthy and effective. Other non-roster guys like Blewett, Ynoa, and Misiewicz are certainly possibilities if they will accept an initial assignment to AAA. And of course Randy Dobnak someway, somehow, will probably get another chance (although I'm hoping it doesn't come to that, at least with the Twins).

Interesting picture... it must be due to the angle of the shot, but Wallner looks like he is about a foot and a half taller than Bader. 🤔

Julien had the sophomore slump, extreme edition. Some guys bounce back from that, some never do. I'm rooting for him, but... well I'm hoping to be pleasantly surprised.

I see France chose (or was assigned) #13. Like Margot. And Gallo. And several other players who had largely forgettable seasons wearing the jersey for the past 30 years. Tempting fate, aren't they? 13 Manuel Margot (2024) Joey Gallo (2023) Trevor Larnach (2022) Travis Blankenhorn (2021) Ehire Adrianza (2019-2020) Jason Kubel (2014) Todd Walker (1996) At least Larnach changed his number as fast as possible...

Agreed. And what makes it extra strange is that trading Nelson Cruz for Joe Ryan ranks as one of the best "trade a fading vet for a prospect" moves in Twins history. They couldn't have timed that trade any better, but they've never repeated anything like it since.

I would like to agree, but due to injuries, failures, etc the Twins have used 30ish pitchers over the course of a season for... well it feels like forever, even if it is only a decade or so. Might as well get to know all these pitching names now, because we are going to see the majority of them with the Twins at some point this year.

If you think Miranda is bad with the glove... Season Age Team Lg Pos G GS CG Inn Ch PO A E DP Fld% lgFld% Rtot Rtot/yr Rdrs Rdrs/yr RF/9 lgRF9 RF/G lgRFG 1B (3 Yrs) 1B 92 81 70 698.0 632 594 35 3 51 .995 .994 0 0 -6 -10 8.11 8.23 6.84 8.11 ..you are really gonna hate France. He's a statue. Season Age Team Lg Pos G GS CG Inn Ch PO A E DP Fld% lgFld% Rtot Rtot/yr Rdrs Rdrs/yr RF/9 lgRF9 RF/G lgRFG 1B (6 Yrs) 1B 530 507 475 4501.1 3892 3535 347 10 342 .997 .994 -16 -4 -7 -2 7.76 8.14 7.32 8.01 France has to hit to have value. He really should be a DH, but I'm very skeptical that he will hit enough to fill that role.

That pic is now making me wish I had modified the family Gremlin a few decades back... and is what I will now forever think of when I think of Tonkin. To be fair, Tonkin's tenure in baseball has lasted longer than 98% of the Gremlins that were manufactured. He's had a very nice career for a 30th round draft pick. 10 years in the majors along with stops at exotic locales such as Tijuana, Hokkaido, Santiago, and of course Beloit. He's also somehow managed the statistical anomaly of achieving exactly 0 WAR over 243 MLB games. And he's still out there getting after it and getting paid.. If that isn't winning at capitalism I'm not sure what is. So, I'm rooting for him, I guess, if I have to.

Keep whomever performs well among the relievers. Fretting about losing a 35 year old Michael Tonkin to waivers is kind of akin to worrying that someone is going to steal your '77 AMC Gremlin. Just leave the keys in it and if it's gone, it's gone.

To be fair, it was April 15, after the oh-so-patient Twins gave Wallner 19 at bats and gave up. He did look lost, to be certain, but so did several veteran players for far longer periods of time.

I'll be pleasantly surprised if Bader isn't pinch-hitting for Wallner/Larnach whenever a lefty reliever arrives mid-game... and I'll believe it when I see it.

I fear that 30 games in a corner is far too low a projection. After all, Margot racked up over 100 in the corners and his fielding was very suspect. I'll certainly not complain about the good defense, and defense has value. However our lineup looks rather weak even without Bader in it, especially on the days that Vazquez catches. I'll gladly trade offense for defense at catcher. I'm pretty reluctant to do it for LF. I think you can pretty much pencil Bader in for 400+ plate appearances. That should be fun to watch...

If the Twins felt signing a veteran Buxton backup was imperative, yes, Bader was preferable to the other options presented in the article. But sometimes the wisest purchase is no purchase at all. That's a good hunk of cash to spend on a player who will be (mostly) a corner outfielder who likely will be an offensive liability. I think we all know Rocco is gonna find a way to play him 5 times a week, regardless of his offensive output, long past the time when this board will be calling for Bader's release. If, in fact, Buxton is hurt for a substantial portion of the season, well, yes, the Twins will have a very capable defensive back up. But due to Buxton's injury, it will probably be a lost year anyway.

I wouldn't even be more than mildly interested in stashing these two at AAA on a minor league contract with gratuitous spring training invite. I still have great respect for what this regime has done to improve Twins pitching. I'm really losing faith in their ability to put together a squad of position players.

I really dislike this signing. Maybe it's recency bias due to Margot and other aging veteran contracts that didn't work out, but I don't think so. Bader's upside is very limited. His floor is good (no longer great) defense with a bad bat. Bader's value was in his speed, and his speed is declining, as is normal for all players as they age. Take a look at his Baseball Savant page and the decline is obvious. He's been a below average hitter since his age 27 season, which is a fairly typical peak age. You want a Harrison Bader type of player when they are 24 or 25, but not at this point in their career. As a backup CF, sure, he's fine if the cost is very low.... but it wasn't, at least in terms of opportunity cost for the very limited payroll dollars left to spend. As a corner outfielder his bat is unplayable. And yet, due his "veterany goodness" we are going to see him stealing at bats from other corner outfielders all year long. I fear we've seen this story before. It doesn't end well.

And there's the answer. As sure as the sun rises in the east, the Twins will have one or more pitchers getting shut down in March... It has happened every year for the past decade. If by some miracle the sun fails to rise, there will be plenty of other MLB teams in need of pitching by the end of March. Tonkin or some other semi-fungible reliever can be flipped for a very low level semi-prospect.

He'll never hit .280, but that's ok. Few power hitters do these days. Heck, Killebrew's career average was way below that. He has 580 PA's in his career...basically a full season. In those 580 PA's he has 29 HR's, so he hit that mark you are seeking. He's a little short at 88 RBI's, but to a certain degree that is a function of lack of baserunners due to the Twin's mostly terrible OBP as a team. I'm a little skeptical of "clutchiness" in hitters, but if it's an RBI guy you want Wallner's career splits with runners in scoring position are .303/.413/.613 - That is elite.

And who could forget Kirby Puckett. 5'8", 178lbs according to BREF. Yeah, he probably got heavier as he aged, but short stature didn't prevent him from hitting the ball hard. Heck, even all-time lumberjack Harmon Killebrew was only 6'0, 195.

I actually kind of understand the Reardon choice in '87. Those of us scarred by the memories of Ron Davis closing games in the years prior viewed Reardon as a bullpen savior. No lead was safe for Davis, and he racked up a staggering number of losses and blown saves in the early-mid 80s. By '87 Davis was gone and Reardon arrived, becoming an integral part of changing the Twins from perpetual losers to World Series winners. He wasn't perfect, but most leads were safe in his hands.

I tend to agree on Maki. Twins pitching ranked in the bottom 3rd in ERA, but was ranked 7th in MLB in FIP. That's a massive gap. It isn't the fault of the pitchers or pitching coach that the Twins defense was appallingly awful, nor that their catchers struggled to throw out base stealers. Now, I'm not saying that Maki worked miracles. The bullpen was legitimately bad. However Ryan and Ober have improved under his watch, and SWR certainly exceeded expectations.

Indeed. Gladden tells an occasional interesting story, but other times he seems disinterested in the game. Problem is, after all these years Gladden is now largely out of interesting stories... I miss the 1980s sometimes too, but I can only imagine how much hearing about that era for the thousandth time grates on younger listeners. He remains a significant liability when called to do play-by-play. I find that Atteberry is just grating to listen to. Perhaps I will become accustomed to him... although I almost hope not. Cory Provus was a difficult act to follow for anyone though, so maybe I'm being too hard on Atteberry. I sometimes wish Provus would return to radio, but I suppose he makes better money on TV. Radio remains important, especially when you are stuck in a car during a game. The wide geographic reach of the WCCO-affiliated stations really does play an important role for the outer reaches of Twins territory. You can pick up WNAX all the way down to Kansas. I fear a move to something like SKOR might mean losing all those regional stations.

Brent Rooker. Whoops, maybe we shouldn't count him in their credit line. 😝

Somewhat, perhaps, if you define "fixing" in terms of replacing players who don't perform. I actually fear that they are stuck in the past. The organizational philosophy seems stuck in the "3 true outcomes" era. That era has passed. They seek out power over speed, which appears to be a failure to recognize the opportunities for the running game and athleticism. The roster this year was very slow. Partly that was due to injuries, but it also was due to rostering backup players like Farmer and Margot (who used to be fast, not sure what happened). They can't/won't move runners or bunt, even in the bottom of the 10th when all they need is a single run to win the game. Nearly every hitter is looking for pitches to pull. They don't slow down the opposing running game well at all. Their defense is among the worst in the league, outside of Buxton and Correa, who are frequently unavailable. My hope is that they will seek out some players who increase team speed next year. Otherwise it will be another year of station to station baseball while waiting for a home run that usually will never come. On the brighter side, the organization's ability to develop starters looks promising. For all of the flaws that the young starters showed this year, it remains the best young group of pitchers the organization has sent out there in a very long time. For that they deserve some credit. So are they trend leaders overall? No, it seems to me they are a bit behind the trend curve. Cleveland, KC, and Detroit ended up better this year. All of them have significantly faster rosters, more frequent base stealers, better team defense (Twins team zone rating was 2nd last to W Sox), and seemingly less emphasis on power hitting.