bunt_vs_the_shift

Twins win! That feels good to say regardless of who we're playing. And now that we have the middle of our lineup figured out with Forsythe-Cave-Garver at the 4-5-6?...

The Minnesota Twins: "Trust us." (We really did win the World Series 1 time 2 times, even though half of you probably weren't even alive)

The managerial grooming angle is correct. Gimenez will be brought on board in an official capacity as the special assistant in charge of battling your tail off

While it's fun to speculate on early performance, I think 3 years is probably more reasonable to evaluate FO performance from a comprehensive standpoint. I'm sure Falvine pitched Jim Pohlad on a "ground up" approach and thus far, I think the stocking of the farm system aspect has gone fairly well. FA signings were a step up from the TR regime (which was a low bar) while they all haven't worked out as well as we hoped, I think those have been ok. Now please excuse my gratuitous Sano rant... The in-season intervention gets an A. The offseason lack of intervention gets an F. To me, this was a completely avoidable situation that they should have seen coming from a mile away. I can't speak to his minor league career, but as a major leaguer has the dude ever shown up in shape? He's coming off a season where he wore down because of the extra weight and missed a damn playoff game! As arguably the most talented guy on the team and with increased expectations, how did we not have someone on that??!! I am a "take responsibility for your own actions" guy. And Sano needs to own the fact he completely F'd up his own season. Hopefully, this will never happen again. That said... the FO needs to take some responsibility here too. If we needed to hire a team mom like Last Chance U or air drop a nutritionist to the DR to make him eat some damn vegetables and get in the gym, then do it!! The FO can't control in-season performance, but they can monitor what he does in the offseason. We didn't have to lose a season's worth of production out of him on account of how he showed up.

I absolutely agree with the adjustment statement. It's probably one of the biggest factors in watching Joe's "frustrating greatness" if you want to call it that. He's never adjusted to the adjustment. Watching him hit line drives is a thing of beauty. Watching him hit line drives down the line for outs to the left fielder is a thing of frustration. All that said, he is who he is as a player. It seems like he has the skill set to hit over .300 in his sleep, even at an old age... And yet, he doesn't. But I will still go down a Mauer supporter. Guys run hot and cold, but over time he has been consistent. In my 30+ years of watching Twins baseball, I can't think of anyone not named Puckett who I'd rather have up there in a clutch spot.

Hey folks, long time lurker, finally joining the party. Of all of the trades, this is probably the one that I'm most indifferent about. Rodney is not part of the future, so I don't mind cutting the cord. I'm all for adding pitching depth. We're adding bodies and sooner or later, we're going to hit on a guy or two. That said... out of all of the moves being made, can somebody explain to me why we're not taking a flier on a catcher? It seems to me like that's the weakest position in the organization. If we're adding bodies and taking fliers, why aren't we doing it there? We're a Garver injury from a Wilson/Astudillo experience. Now that we're in full on lost season mode, I feel like I can say that last part out loud.