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minman1982

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Everything posted by minman1982

  1. minman1982
    My two cents, in order of who I would put in the Hall of Fame: 1. Joe Nathan: A truly dominant reliever and closer for over a decade. More than a strikeout per inning, 2.87 ERA, 1.12 WHIP, and 377 saves (10th all time) for his career. I think the biggest things working against him are the lack of postseason success his teams had and the fact there are very few relievers in the Hall of Fame (only 9) to begin with. Nathan is 50-50 for me. 2. Johan Santana: If only he did not get injured at age 31. His time with the Twins was marked by a stretch of pure dominance that only a select few pitchers have. Look at his 2004-06 stats. This guy was a true ace level pitcher. Given how short his career was, I think it is hard for him to compete against guys like Justin Verlander, Zach Grienke, or Max Scherzer. This seems like a Hall of Very Good player with the asterisk of "oh what could have been" next to his name. 3. Torii Hunter: For the record, I loved Torii Hunter as a player. He was a fun player to watch who made every game entertaining. Unfortunately, it is hard to say he was even the best player on the teams he played for and so he is not a Hall of Fame player for me.
  2. minman1982
    It is good thought but Correa has a full no trade clause in his contract. This would make trading Correa difficult to impossible. If he wants to stay, he is staying.
  3. minman1982
    Relying on Castro to be the starting first baseman takes away what he brings to the team that is of the most value, his defensive versatility. Someone is going to get hurt over the season and having a guy like Castro who can competently play multiple defensive positions and is not a total black hole on offense is a huge asset. Honestly, I think it will probably be either Jose Miranda or Royce Lewis at first (and the other at third) to start the season, given the current makeup of this lineup. Not sure if there is much available in free agency. According to MLB.com, the best available first basemen are 40 year old Justin Turner, Joey Gallo, and Anthony Rizzo. I think I would take my chances with a Miranda/Lewis combo over any of those options.
  4. minman1982
    That is why we watch the game, isn't it? If it was all based upon what the computer models say, it wouldn't be any fun. Plus, who would have bet on the White Sox to lose 120 games a year ago? That was definitely fun to watch. Personally, I think this is going to be a competitive division. Outside of the White Sox, who are still going to be terrible this year (probably not 120 loss terrible), all four of the other teams have a realistic chance of winning the division.
  5. minman1982
    That is my feeling as well. Lewis has a bat that we want in the lineup more often than not. The Twins need to keep him healthy and there is a smaller risk of injury playing first or third over playing second.
  6. minman1982
    The problem with bullpens and relief pitching is volatility. The underlying metrics could be good but all it takes is a few unlucky bounces and poorly timed runs given up to lose a game or two. With that said, both Duran and Jax have the stuff to be dominant out of the bullpen.
  7. minman1982
    I would like to see another year out of Soto but it would appear that his ceiling is potentially pretty high. As with any under 20 year old pitcher, the floor is also pretty low. What we can expect from Soto probably ranges from a solid number 2 on the high end to he never touches a ball on an MLB team on the low end. With Raya, I think the big concern is workload and durability. He probably has a lower ceiling as a result of this. I would think somewhere between MLB depth piece (a 4 or 5 guy in the rotation) to spot starter. His floor is considerably higher because I think his stuff will play at the major league level. A solid MLB reliever is probably his floor.
  8. minman1982
    It totally depends on when new ownership takes over. If the Twins have new owners by mid-season, then the first half is pretty important. Staying in contention would at least let us see how new ownership will be different than the Pohlads at the trade deadline. If the Twins don't get new owners until later in the season, I think that next off season will tell us a lot about the future of the team.
  9. minman1982
    Would Correa even want to go to New York (particularly the Mets after they offered him a big contract and backed out)? He has a full no trade clause. If he wants to stay in Minnesota, he can reject any trade offer that comes up.
  10. minman1982
    Given the financial constraints that ownership is imposing, I think it may have to be Miranda at first to start the season with Severino being the next man up. I would give Severino a chance to win the spot in Spring Training and if he performs, it is his spot. This is not my preferred solution (I would rather sign Santana to come back another year or make a trade to get someone solid) but it is probably the realistic solution.
  11. minman1982
    Maybe the Sox go into Detroit and sweep the Tigers. I won't bet any money on that but weirder things have happened. In other Minnesota sports news, the Vikings are somehow 3-0. These didn't look like fluke wins either. They have been dominant in each of these games. It is still early and there is plenty of time for the Vikings to Viking their way out of a good start but 3-0 from a team that no one expected to be good is fun.
  12. minman1982
    I am not confident that this team is going to even get in the playoffs. I would give the Tigers the inside track to get one of the two remaining playoff spot, they get the privilege of hosting the AAAA team from Chicago for their last three games and have been playing better than either the Twins or Royals down the stretch. Both the Twins and Royals have stunk the last few weeks. Schedule wise, the Twins might have a slightly more favorable schedule since they get a pretty bad Marlins team and than an Orioles team that should have punched their ticket to the playoffs by that point. The Royals have the Nats (who are doing better than the Marlins) and the Braves who may still be contending for their own playoff spot. I would bet the Tigers get in and then it is a coin flip between the Twins and Royals. I said last week that the Twins needed a series win in Boston to stay in the race. I did not predict the Royals getting swept over the weekend. The reality is that neither the Twins nor the Royals have played baseball that makes them playoff worthy over the last few weeks.
  13. minman1982
    Hopefully, the offense can get it together so that we could see Ober/Lopez/days off.
  14. minman1982
    Having Correa and Buxton on the shelf for a chunk of the second half hurt but I think the loss of Joe Ryan has really been devastating to this team. They were 63-50 when they lost Ryan in early August. Since losing Ryan, the team has been 17-23. The month of September has been especially brutal. We will see what happens in Boston but if the Twins don't take the series, I think their season is over.
  15. minman1982
    The MLB season is relentless. Think about it, 162 games over six months. The pressure to perform at your best day in and day out. For most of these guys, the knowledge that there is a guy in St. Paul waiting for you to stumble so they can have their shot. No one is one hundred percent right now. If you are eighty or ninety percent, you are probably leading the pack. Everyone is banged up in some way whether physically or mentally by this point in the season. Sometimes its the silly things (like a random sausage showing up in the clubhouse) that take your mind off the daily grind and help you to reset and refocus.
  16. minman1982
    What happens to Kepler after this year and who is going to replace him? Kepler is in the final year of his deal and I don't see the Twins resigning him at $10M/year. Any added positional flexibility will help going forward.
  17. minman1982
    Over the last month, the Twins have been playing about 0.500 baseball. Considering that two of the better hitters (Correa and Buxton) and one of the better pitchers (Ryan) have been on the IL, this isn't terrible. I think what makes this feel like such a gut punch is the fact that Cleveland has not been playing well either and the division crown is sitting there for the taking. If Cleveland had made it a ten or twelve game lead, I think the Twins would be counting their lucky stars that they are still in good position for a wild card berth. Kansas City has also been pretty underwhelming as of late. This weekend's Royals-Twins series will tell us about the state of both teams moving into the final weeks. The Tigers look like they are creeping up in the rear view mirror and if the Twins and/or Royals are not careful, the Tigers have enough time to make it interesting. They are only five games back with about three weeks to play and seem to be playing better than both the Twins and the Royals right now.
  18. minman1982
    If you look at the American League, the top four teams are New York, Baltimore, Cleveland, and Minnesota. The differences between these teams are small and I think it would be splitting hairs to rank them. Any one of the four could be the best team in the AL. On the National League side, you probably have Milwaukee, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia as the best teams. I might say that the Phillies are a hair better than the other two but it is still close. Of the seven best teams I listed, any one of them has a realistic shot at winning the World Series. It is short sighted to look at where this team is at and say "we can't afford to add anything here". This is the time to make an investment and go big. Take a risk. Getting back to the postseason and advancing further than last year is going to excite the fan base and bring people out to the ballpark. Maybe you take a loss this year to invest in your product and make it something that even fair weather fans want to cheer for. As for the broadcasting rights issues, the Twins should get as far away from Diamond Sports as possible after this year. MLB should be working with teams like the Twins to come up with a better solution.
  19. minman1982
    I would probably give Royce Lewis honorable mention. When he has been in uniform, he has been great. The problem is he hasn't been in uniform that often.
  20. minman1982
    Same here. What does Detmer provide for the Twins that they don't already have? An AAAA pitcher that can slot in as a 4-5 starter? The Twins have a few of those. A mediocre lefty out of the pen? The Twins have a few of those too. If the Twins are serious, they need to be acquiring someone that isn't on a bad team's scrap heap.
  21. minman1982
    I was there today and what a fun game to watch. The one thing that stands out to me is how deep the Twins offensive lineup is right now. It wasn't too many years ago where a couple of injuries was all it took to completely derail the offense. This weekend Brooks Lee got invited to the show and looked great today. Matt Wallner got the call from St. Paul today and he had a hit and an awesome catch in left. Jose Miranda came in for Farmer and hit the first pitch he saw. I hope Correa can avoid the IL (though, if he has to miss some time, at least the White Sox are a terrible baseball team). If I am an opposing pitcher, this is not a lineup I want to face right now. SWR looked solid, except for the second inning where he walked a couple of guys and ended up giving up some runs. The bullpen was good. Ryan looked good yesterday. This is going to be a fun team to watch down the stretch.
  22. minman1982
    I would rather have the Twins add a high impact relief pitcher or two before the deadline, unless there is an offer that is so good that you have to take it. Of these four, Snell costs too much, Verlander isn't leaving Houston, Cobb's hip surgery plus now sore shoulder are a real concern, and Blackburn is no better than the options currently at the back end of the Twins rotation or sitting in St. Paul.
  23. minman1982
    Could the Byron Buxton contract be a model for an extension here? A decent amount of guaranteed money with a lot of incentives that could make the contract a lot more valuable. Would Lewis take something like $80M/8yr with a bunch of incentives for playing time and performance where he could make $200M or $250M? Lewis is guaranteed to make some money, the team protects itself from Lewis not be able to play, and if Lewis stays healthy, he could get very rich.
  24. minman1982
    This should be a good test for this team against some good competition. Going 17-3 in the last twenty games has been fun to watch but you can still say that the Twins mainly took advantage of some bad teams in the White Sox and Angels. A series win would be the exclamation point on the last few weeks of baseball and a great way to head into the weekend facing Cleveland with first place in the AL Central on the line.
  25. minman1982
    Off to Toronto for three, then back to Target Field to host the Yankees for three, and then off to Cleveland for three. The next ten days should tell us a lot about who the Twins really are. I would be happy with the Twins going 6-3 over that stretch but would be okay with 5-4.
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