Aerodeliria

Notice it is the agent who is saying this and in that particular tone, not Maeda himself. Of course, he told the agent what he desired but he didn't grab the nearest mic and say these things. Such behavior would be considered rude beyond measure in the Japanese way of thinking because it would indicate that you feel you are the most important person on the team. When you hear him speak after a game (even in Japanese), he will show his support for the team first. I can almost guarantee it.

I got to watch him play on team USA during the WBC here in Japan. Obviously, his range in the OF is somewhat limited, but he ran good routes on balls hit his way and didn't make any gaffes on the field, which could not be said of the other OFs. As for hitting, he appeared quite patient and boasted a +.400 BA. Granted, these are miniscule samples, but I liked his approach.

You won't get too much grousing from Japanese pitchers. When they pitch well, they are usually gracious to a fault. When they pitch poorly, they take too much of the blame.

I have to love it because I will be able to watch the Twins more than before. It was the top news on NHK sports, so I'm getting it second hand here, but they will certainly show some games pitched by Maeda. He may not be able to throw as many pitches as Yamaguchi, but he's still a horse. Let's keep him healthy and happy.

My exact thoughts...

Side arming is fine but but how many shortstops live by the side arm? It doesn't seem like many to me (but this is anecdotal). This makes me think 2nd base as well, but it's getting crowded in the infield.

It certainly would be nice to have a hard throwing starter. Maybe they will ease him into the starter's role. As far as blowing out an arm, I think it depends on how he is used and if he is susceptible to it or not. Some players just blow their arms out not because of any faulty coaching but because they are susceptible to it. Others can pitch until their arms fall off without many problems. For example, the Blue Jays have signed Yamada who has been pitching for the Yomiuri Giants for the past two years. He's basically a junk ball pitcher who throws sinkers, sliders, forks, curves, splitters as well as two-seam and four-seam fastballs. He is regularly allowed to throw +120 pitches in games and has exceeded +140 in at least two games that I watched. For some reason, he doesn't seem to get injured (but he did look tired in the WBC). In any case, Toronto while knowing all of this, ponied up the cash.

Just keep him away from sharp objects and Costco chocolate chip muffins.

Pinch me! One of the ironic things is that the Twins have now signed, using free agency (of all things), arguably two of the greatest Twin killers over the past decade or so!!

I recorded both Vikings game. There is a channel called Gaora and they are showing all the playoff games live. My wife said to me, "Sorry about the Vikings," after the sun was setting on another Vikings playoff loss. I told her it was no big deal. Now the Twins ? That's a completely different animal. I've been ready for spring training since the Twins trudged back into their locker room after Game 3.

Whether true or not, teams are going to be extremely reluctant to trade away major assets to get a guy whose career might end up being half a season.

I don't mean to throw a wet blanket on all of this, but the 'chatter' gives the impression that Colas is tearing up Japanese baseball. I've never seen him play and I watch Japanese games whenever I can. Colas is still primarily a minor leaguer here. He did come up to big leagues in 2018 and in 158 PAs, he slashed .212, .259, .432...Last season he had only 21 appearances and slashed.278, .381, .444, certainly better but it's hard to take much stock in 21 PAs. I'm not saying he's not a prospect but he's still light years away from being mentioned in the same breath as Ohtani.

I don't think you can count on getting much 'bang' from trading Buxton to be honest. What can you say? He has potential? Everyone knows that, but until you've put together a year of tremendous play, I doubt teams are going to consider him to be very valuable as trade bait. You'd get a lot more interest in Rosario IMHO.

On 2nd thought, Smoak had a precipitous and unexpected drop off a cliff with his BA. One has to wonder if he was dinged up or he just felt uncomfortable in Toronto. Maybe we should throw some cash his direction.

I'll pass on all three as well, but if we don't move Sano, I'd take a flyer on Smoak.

...not only the first name but he'll take a meat cleaver to the family name. The 'tsu' sound is tough on American tongues anyway, but double 'tsu-tsu' will cause pandemonium in the booth. (It will at least be amusing fodder for Twins Daily, though.)

LOL...it's the "s" word if anyone was curious...

My point was simply to mention Dobnak because he was being ignored as a potential "5th" starter in every discussion. At the top of the post I said let's get one of the remaining starters that are out there. That's the baseline.

I just saw on NHK News here in Japan that posted player Yo****omo Tsutsugo of the DeNa Baystars is interested in four teams: the Blue Jay's, the Pale Hose, the Tigers and the Twins. They usually get this info directly from the player, so I'm sure this is correct. (He's a left-handed power hitter, who hits to all fields. He hit .272 last year. He strikes out but also takes his share of BBs. He's quite strong and a better fielder than Cron.

If the Twins can land one of the remaining 'little guns,' I could say that we at least made an effort to reel someone in. The pitching staff is not as bad off as we thought just a week prior IMHO. Dobnak looked like he could pitch effectively in his playoff debut. He wasn't exactly getting hammered. He just was missing the strike zone. He was also getting squeezed by the HPU, which didn't help. Let's see what he can do this next season

I would sign him and give Perez yet another shot. Perez was basically a stud for two months. There must have been a reason for his success. Something changed somewhere along the line. I don't think it was a burning out and I don't think it was related to the law of averages catching up. Something was definitely different at a specific point in time. He throws 95-97 mph, doesn't he?

I'm all for extending the netting. It definitely fills some holes that became evident as the season wore on. Especially with the new rules coming into effect next year, having the extended netting will be a big plus. You sometimes need to spend a little money if you want the netting to remain competitive. Look at Houston, they extended the netting in mid-season this last year and they had a wonderful playoff run. I couldn't find any stats on netting extension in fangraphs, but I'm sure Houston as a team benefited immensely from extending the netting. This NY Post article sums it up nicely: https://nypost.com/2019/08/08/astros-become-latest-mlb-team-to-extend-stadium-netting/ It's good to see that the Twins are thinking of following in the Astros' footsteps. The Twins may be a step behind the Astros when it comes to netting, but the extension would be welcome news indicating how serious the FO is about closing the gap. Let's hope they are really serious about this extension! I don't want to be going into next season scouring other ballparks' junkyards trying to find decent netting. I'm tired of not having the world-class netting this club needs to compete, so I don't really care what it costs. If the netting turns out to be not as good as we imagined, at least we can say we tried to improve. One caveat though, let's get the netting under team control for at least four years. If we're going to spend that kind of money, I don't want it to be for a one-year rental.

I love this idea. I know a lot of people think Polanco is fine at SS but it seems like late in games (i.e., critical spots) is when he throws the ball away. His glove is fine as is his range, but that arm is a big ??? IMHO. 2nd base seems to be the best fit for his skill set.