HokieRif

wth is Larnach doing with that throw???

is that snow?

Its not like our batting order makes sense, ever. The only two that are probably in the right spot (IMHO) are Correa and Buxton, and that shouldn't last long if they keep underperforming the way they are currently.

wow... on a ball that short, with Jeffers on third, he gets sent and scores???

I'm less worried about that right now, and more concerned that the Mendoza line may be superseded by the Kepler line.

or is it because its a mere 35 degrees out right now?

Where's the crowd tonight? I know we're playing one of the worst teams in baseball but it shouldn't bad THAT bad to have a draw like this tonight... should it?

So what you are saying is get ready for a bitter game because the ONLY Twin to score this year is going to be riding pine. Right now this team's offense IS Buxton. If he sits then we aren't winning.

I cannot believe Pagan is going to make the opening day roster. This lone inclusion on the roster already has me prepared to be lingering in the basement of the Central most of the year.

I mean, when you put it like that, I would much rather have just lit the money on fire. That, or have a few home games this year with a free round of beer for the first 30k in attendance. Maybe save those for after the all-start game in case things start to tank badly.

That last paragraph is all I have to cling to. I’m very frustrated that this happened or even had to happen, and we traded an proven player for someone that we hope will be great.

I'm legitimately mad at the front office for this. They've overloaded the outfield, now the starting rotation is overloaded, and we just lost an MVP-caliber player. WTAF.... Great, we got Correa... who in the hell is he going to turn 2 with all season long? Who the hell is he going to score from 2B? This offense was already anemic and it just got a lot worse.

The only thing I can add to this thread is that I had the privilege to watch Taylor a lot while he was with the Nats. He's an above average defender with speed, but his bat is just mediocre and I'll be surprised if he's batting anything higher than 8th, and I would not expect him to be a regular unless the injury bug bites us in the arse again this year. Taylor is going to quietly go about his business and wont be a spark plug, but he'll be a great 4th OF to help keep the starters mostly fresh during the season. Now with that said - I have to expect that Kepler is going to get unloaded. We have too many outfielder's,

So I was originally excited about this announcement, particularly the part where the Twins didn't kneecap their spending ability for the long haul. After all, he's relatively young and the Twins should know better than any team at this point what the true nature of his ankle is. Then I remembered that this is the same medical staff that couldn't keep anyone healthy this year, and has taken 4+ years to figure out how to keep Buxton on the field for more than 81 games. I still like the deal and I think this will work out well for both parties. I just dropped in to say that anyone claiming the Twins staff knows this ankle better than any one - I call BS.

Regardless, Correa better be telling himself that he’s ready to see this contract through. Boras (I think he’s his agent) too. Back tracking on a contract will make every GM hesitant in the future, and Correa just did himself some PR damage. EDIT: That comment was under the assumption that Correa and Boras were back-tracking. I didn't stop to consider that this was a change brought-on by the alleged issue with his physical that came up. If that was the case and SF wanted to renegotiate then I can see why Correa went elsewhere to get something comparable to the deal he had on the table.

I’m not sure what the tax situation is like in either state, but San Fran isn’t exactly the cheapest place to live. The financials are probably pretty comparable, the difference is NY is ready to win right, and SF has several parts that need to be addressed.

This was the first thing I thought of when I read the news. I'm sure we'll know something soon and whether or not the "accidental" needs the quotations. I'm hoping he was playing clean while he was in MN.

Didn’t we just not re-sign Sano for this same level of performance? And we added an outfielder which is exactly what we didn’t need. The only scenario I can see him filling is a DH role but just that - no more platooning parade of who needs an off-ish day.

Keep him for now. Maybe ink another team friendly extension in the off-season. Worst case is that no extension is signed and he's a summer rental trade chip next season in the event we are sellers. There are worse situations we can be in.

On a competitive ball club these two have the traits of guys that help make a good team great, and make the lineup great from 1-9 in the order. On the Twins though, they are the marquee players. But just imagine for a moment where the entirety of the Twins stayed healthy this season*. I think we stay a lot more competitive throughout the year, and given the strength of the central we probably win it by 10-15 games, easy. Guys like Arraez and Miranda become the anecdotes in the season that help push this team to the division championship, and not the reason we hope to stay competitive... If I'm in the front office there are of course things I'm looking to change / pick-up in the off season to re-tool the pitching staff. But I'm also taking a very hard look at the strength, conditioning, and the medical staff. The amount of injuries that happened this year, and the way many continued to find themselves hampered by those injuries (not playing up to expectations, heading back to the IL, etc) tells me that something is really not right with the way the players are being handled. I'm also focusing on off-season conditioning so that these scheduled rest days that Rocco loves so much don't have to happen in the first place. * Except for Buxton. I honestly believe he's always going to find a way to get injured and miss extended playing time every season. At some point you have to look at the history and know that this is a predictable pattern and not some unlucky trend. In 8 season, he's only managed to play more than 92 games ONCE, and that was 5 years ago. If he can just get to the first tier of his plate appearance bonus next year I'll take that as significant progress.

This collapse continues. The team already made the point that they weren’t a contender but now they are really trying to emphasize it.

Now we can clear our heads and start complaining about the Vikings! Yay new season!!!

So this is basically it for the Twins this weekend. A strong showing (wining 4 or 5) is going to make the last couple weeks really watchable. Anything short of that pretty much eliminates us unless there is a monumental collapse in Cleveland.

I don’t think anyone is complaining about the current defense. During the last 3 series (10 games total, excluding tonight) we have scored 3 or fewer runs in 8 of those games, and 2 or fewer in 4 games. In the games we lost, the average run difference was 2.5. I don’t see Hamilton saving 3 runs a game by himself while contributing next to nothing on offense.

Low risk move, but what does he add to the actual squad? We already have a speedy outfielder with great D that’s struggling to hit (and injured, again) and two others that are floating around the same batting average. If they add him to help platoon with Buxton and Kepler that’s fine I guess, I’m just concerned more about who would have to be sent down to make room on the roster for the moment.