Riverbrian

Deepen that thing!!! Keep going... bring in the arms!

Thad Lavine offering to personally come by the house with Pizza and Beer to box up the dishes and the Sno-Cone maker X-mas gift unused from 5 years ago would certainly work with any free agent.

They show up all the time when given the opportunity. From Altuve to Muncy to Santander to Goodrum to Aristides Aquino to Edman to Voit to Danny Santana. The lack of opportunity is what makes it seem like they don't happen very often, they are often blocked by Vets who are allowed to fluctuate, perhaps more than the possible fluctuation that yoy say is possible from Arraez. And you are right Arraez isn't a lock to repeat his performance. When he gets the call. Give him AB's, If he performs let him continue.

I am a big believer in this front office. However, here's the deal. Need is a funny thing. When you place yourself in a position of need, you expose yourself to the possibility of being a victim of freewill. The Twins or any intending team that needs to jump into the free agent waters are exposed to the possibility of their preferred free agent having Arizona Horse Dreams and they can't do anything about that. Except not put themselves in the position of having that need. We got need this year. If this taxes future years. That future tax or risk that Ryu is dead money in the 4th year or possibly every year of the contract must be baked in because we have need NOW and they got to do do something. As the solid free agent options fall off the board, they are forced to trade now. The trade will cost us prospects, those same prospects that they didn't want to part with back in Late July 2019. I'll wait until the team breaks camp to be fully critical but the FA door is about to close and Orange Pylons will be placed in that lane.

Dobnak might work out great. I'm not going to stand here and doubt him. I'm pulling for him. However, it is unnecessarily risky to hand him an opening day rotation spot after 28 innings because if he if he sophomore slumps it, then where do we go? We still have him and he can be the guy we turn to if someone else without options doesn't work out. Why spend your depth instead of money?

Between "Just You-n-Me". "I've been searchin so long" for a post like that. A post that can "Make me Smile".

In my opinion... This is the most important article written thus far in the off season on Twinsdaily. I'll start by saying that Minnesota clearly did not trust Dobnak to start a playoff game... They were left with no option but to start Dobnak in a playoff game because of Perez Performance, Gibson Sickness and Pineda Suspension. Because they didn't trust Dobnak in a playoff game, they were forced to hold back key members of the bullpen in Game 1 to plan for needing key members in Game 2 because they didn't anticipate Dobnak giving us multiple innnings. This led to the usage of Stashak in game 1 after Berrios didn't throw enough innings and Littell got nervous. So they threw Stashak in a close playoff game because they had Dobnak in game two. And they threw Stashak after not trusting Stashak in high leverage situations during the regular season. This all happened because they minimized the use of Dobnak and Smeltzer and placed all hope in Perez turning it around and this did not happen. Not to mention, they had to be aware of Gibson's E Coli issues. I started talking about all of this last June. The 5 man rotation was doing fine as of June and our posters were primarily focused on the bullpen when talking about trade deadline needs. I felt back in June, that the bullpen need would become much much worse, if we had to depend on the bullpen more. And we would need to depend on that bullpen more if anything happened to anyone in the rotation. And anything happening to anyone in the rotation was almost sure to happen because nobody goes through the season with a healthy 5. So I stated that... yes we need bullpen help at the deadline but our number one need is going to be a starter because as of June... we were relying on our starters to carry the bulk of the water. Not only did we need to identify or trade for a 6th (or 7th or 8th) starter for 2019 success. Any longer range planning into 2020 would be a neon sign that we would have to make some off-season acquisitions since 3 of our starters were pending FA's. So this made the acquisition of a starter with at least an extra year of control... extremely important. At the trade deadline, when no starter was acquired, Perez was already in a funk. His ERA had soared over 5 and the possibility of Perez being a poor choice for a playoff roster was an absolute possibility at the end of July based on his performance, along with the possibility that I mentioned in June, of any of the other 4 pitchers getting hurt (or suspended). So once the deadline passed without any acquisitions... They committed themselves to finding depth from their own system. Who is the better MAJOR LEAGUE Pitcher? Dobnak? Smeltzer? Graterol? Thorpe? Who is it? I don't know but they needed to find out but they remained committed to the starting 5 including Perez who was clearly struggling. And just to be clear... the front office doesn't have this down to a science. No front office does. If they had it down. Nick Anderson would be in a Twins uniform today and Martin Perez would have been on the playoff roster. The only way you find out if they can help you in the playoffs... is by handing them the ball. Once the trade deadline passed... Smeltzer or Dobnak should have been placed immediately into the rotation, taking the place of Perez. I was worried that they would reach the playoffs with Perez still being Perez and any of the other 4 or two of the other 4 getting hurt in September and this will force the Twins to simply toss a guy with minimal MLB innings into an important playoff role... and... this is exactly what happened. So for 2020... here is what they need to do. 1. Decide if you are going to go with a traditional 5 man rotation or use the Rays model (Which I'm fine with). 2. If they go with the traditional 5 man rotation. Dobnak, Smeltzer, Graterol and Thorpe are DEPTH. Get two more starters. They can choose one of the 4 to show what they can do in April while Pineda sits out his suspension but under no circumstances can they justify any thought of trusting Dobnak, Smeltzer, Graterol or Thorpe after going out of their way to not trust them last season. All any of them had to do last season was pitch better than the 5 plus ERA that Perez was providing and the organization did not elevate any of them above Perez until the final second of choosing a playoff roster. Nothing will have changed in the off-season to just hand the keys to a pitcher that they wouldn't hand the keys to in August of last year with a playoff breeze coming through the window. You can't say... we didn't trust them in August or the playoffs really but now we trust them to get an opening day roster spot so we don't have to acquire someone better. Especially with a team that has realistic playoff considerations going into the season. 3. If they go with the Rays Model... OK... but get serious about the bullpen. Don't plug and play here... You better be on Betances and others because you've just gone from needing 8 bullpen arms to needing 10 or 11. 4. The front office and manager will show you who they trust by how they utilize them. They have no trust in any of the 4 players listed above based on how they were utilized last year. 5. Start these guys in Rochester... let them compete for next man up. When the next man is called up... Utilize them... if they fail... go to the next guy but they need to be in constant search for depth. 6. Never ever... ever.... ever. Let a guy like Martin Perez with a 5 plus ERA keep his job just like you should never... ever... ever... let a guy like Logan Morrison hitting under .200 keep his job. 7. Not only did the Twins need to know who they trusted in the playoffs but they needed to know who to keep and who to let go in the off-season and they needed to know how many free agent signings or trade acquisitions they would need for the rotation during the off-season. This is all information that could have been gathered by letting Dobnak show that he was indeed without question better than the 5 plus ERA that Perez provided. More innings were necessary to gather more information... Perez was not good enough... we had the need, we avoided it and went with Perez... this was a simple enough move last year. If Dobnak or Smeltzer or Thorpe were to fail... They would have that information for the playoffs and off-season roster setting. They already knew that Perez was failing. We lose nothing replacing a failing starter for a failing prospect, we gain everything identifying an OK or good prospect over a failing vet. 8. The offense had depth last year and they had depth because they played that depth to find who was depth. They need to take the same approach with the pitching. 9. Go get some pitching. THE BREEZE... FEEL IT. This article is extremely important in my eyes.

I think you are correct. The Twins have the room in the budget to spend some cash. You are also right that it is getting increasingly harder to spend our financial resources on pitching as names drop off the board. Pitching may have to be addressed via trade leaving some cash to improve the team offensively. It is very solid logic from the Twins current context that you are making. However, in the assessment of the current market for Donaldson... I do have a different opinion from yours. The Nats need power, they are under the CBT and historically not really afraid of the CBT. As things stand today for the Nats... They have Kendrick at 1B, Difo at 2B, Kieboom at 3B and Turner at SS and nobody interesting behind those 4 to compete or share time. The Nats are the very definition of a team that is offensive desperate enough with the resources to pay the 4 years Donaldson is asking. They need to look at Donaldson plus a 1B or 2B or all three. They don't have much choice. The Braves agree are in great shape. They have Riley who can play 3B and Culberson and Carmargo plus decent options across the infield with Swanson, Albies and Freeman. Yes, Donaldson would make them even stronger, deeper and they'd love to have him but they don't have to pay the 4 years Donaldson is asking because they can add offense almost anywhere across the diamond with money or trade because they have young pitching coming out of their ears. I don't see the Braves. The Dodgers are absolutely not afraid to move Turner anywhere and it will be no factor in their decision to add Donaldson or trade for Profar or do anything to make the team better. They can sign Donaldson and have Turner play some 1B while Muncy plays whatever. They can trade for Lindor and move Seager to 2B or 3B and Turner to 1B or wherever. They Dodgers do this sort of thing all the time. They just want good players on good terms. However... The Dodgers as they stand today can do absolutely nothing this off season and make the playoffs in 2020 with relative ease.They can wait until the trade deadline to pick up a difference maker. They they do not have to cave to Donaldson's 4 year ask or to the Indians asking for Lux, Verdugo and May for Lindor. The same goes for Bumgarner... the Dodgers don't have to pay 5 years for Bumgarner because they have a 5 man rotation with 4 pitchers in the minors who can replace those guys. They will try to bring Bumgarner in to make that rotation potentially better but they don't have to pay 5 years and will probably try to land him with less years. And if they don't get him... they don't get him. They have no need to over pay anywhere. The Twins on the other hand just might have to overpay in order to land Bumgarner because this is where our desperation is. But... they do not have to add Donaldson because our offensive depth doesn't force desperation... especially with Larnach, Rooker, Kiriloff and Lewis knocking on the door. IMO... Josh Donaldson should be shopping for a place to live in Northern Virginia right about now.

Absolutely every day of the week and twice on Sunday. However, failure to do so means... We must pay at this moment.

Yes In theory, the Cron spot on the roster could be filled by a player who plays a different position. Any position. We don't have to limit ourselves to replacing Cron with a 1B only and therefore settling for a Bird dice roll. We don't have to shove Arraez into a static 2B role to replace the Schoop roster spot either? We also don't have to take name Marwin a starter anywhere either and take away his flexibility? The Twins can absolutely consider the best player regardless of position and acquire whoever that is. Mookie Betts could absolutely be the guy who replaces Cron. The current Twins roster could make this work... rather smoothly.

Minor league deal only for a contender.

I'll say it again. If Astudillo simply stops swinging at crap. If he learns to work the pitcher, while continuing to improve at the catcher position. With those contact skills. We will all see a rocket in terms of value increase. You keep this guy... you work with him... you fix him.

When you research the trade history of Terry Ryan over the past decade and then compare it to the other 29 teams during the same time period. The Twins were an orange pylon. The new front office has changed this. A new player acquisition door has opened and the tree has the sunlight needed to grow.

My question is quite simple. What has changed between now and when the Twins were really trying to minimize his use in August and Early September? 28 Innings? I am all for getting Dobnak a chance to show us that he is better than we think. I believe he might be better than we think. It's possible, I won't doubt the guy but we don't know and the front office doesn't know. However... it would be bad roster management and a pure dice roll to plan your 2020 opening day roster with Dobnak taking one of the spots after trying really really hard not to utilize him 28 innings ago. It's 2020... It's a pivotal year... Don't mess around. Sign or trade for some arms with a track record. This is what contending teams do in the off-season. They don't mess around.

It's nice to have a catcher who has caught Robbie Ray. Just sayin'.

Doesn't the article talk about what the front office has done with it's resources? Limited resources or not. The article doesn't mention Dave St. Peter or Jim Pohlad. I agree that being a blogger doesn't make anyone more credible. However... Responding to an article about THIS front office by just tossing it into a "20 year" implied systematic lowering of expectations. Implies (to me at least) that you either: A. Didn't read the article B. Didn't care what the article said because you have a 20 year opinion that trumps any adjustments the new front office has made in 3 years, when the current front office and what they might do was the focus of the article. Either way... your response had very little to do with the article itself. Unless, you were just trying to reduce the article as worthless because you believe that there is just "no hope" and you just wanted to type that for those like Ted who have hope.

Super Utility is real. The National League MVP is Super Utility. If an MVP award doesn't legitimize the concept... I don't what else will.

I'm a value guy... I frequently question why you would pay a guy millions if a guy making 600K can produce the same. However... when it comes to free agency. You can’t approach it with a spreadsheet. If you want the guy, you got to outbid the other guy. The guy's agent and the other guys bidding for him may not be aware or care what your spreadsheet says. Hard lines will force you to sign your 6th choice instead of your 1st choice.

This is the best description of free agency on the planet.

Based on the research I'm seeing. Santa has to deliver to approximately 6 thousand kids a second. In order to get that many presents delivered that fast, the only thing that makes sense to me. There would have to be some throwing of the presents involved. This takes velocity, accuracy and almost perfect rapid fire mechanics. In other words... there is no way he is doing this by Reindeer and foot speed alone. The guy can no doubt throw.

I continue to not understand why others don't seem to understand. We all saw it last year. We all watched Baldelli move the pieces around and we had to see the benefit it produced. Arraez played, 2B, 3B, SS and LF in 2019 and yet we can't help trying to put him into a static role for 2020 and checking that box as filled. You can quote all the defensive stats you want and call him sub-par. We watched the games... Arraez did not kill us defensively and the fact that he could man four different positions, helped us tremendously defensively. By splitting 4 positions in less than a full season... he isn't going to get enough time at any of the positions to get defensive stat accuracy. Put those Arraez defensive stats down and simply think back to the games you watched. It should come back to you that his defense didn't kill us. He can play 4 positions decently... why would anyone want to take that skill away from him? Sano to 1B... OK... but why do we need to take away his ability to play 3B so he plays 1B everyday? He can play both. If you want to get Garver some more AB's... Garver can play some 1B and Sano can shift over to 3B to make room when he does. Maybe Rooker gets hot and can play some 1B and Sano can shift to 3B to make room. Why would you take away his ability to play 3B so he can just stand in one spot and restrict movement from other players on the team? The 2019 Twins used flexibility to their advantage and produced 101 wins. We watched it... It went well... Why do we want to go back to the old way, especially when that old way didn't work so well?

I am of the opinion that contending teams have to be deep enough so the loss of one player (no matter who the player is) or two or three will not kill you. Losing Byron Buxton... Tough blow... would love to have had him on the playoff roster. However... He is just one guy. Specific injuries are impossible to predict but an injury with someone somewhere somehow is pretty damn easy to predict because it happens every day, month and year. Buxton getting hurt or Yelich getting hurt should never cripple a club to the point of saying... Yeah we would have won if Yelich was around to hit 5 home runs in the playoffs. The main "What If" moment or at least pivotal moment in 2019 was the Trade Deadline. When the Twins failed to acquire a starter at the deadline... they failed to deepen the rotation. Once they failed to acquire a starter, they followed that by failing to deepen the rotation from the system. Once they failed to deepen the rotation from outside or inside the system, they were left vulnerable to the predictable, happens every year, routine stress points of Gibson (Health), Pineda (Suspension), Perez (Not Performing). A team can navigate the playoffs with just 3 starters. Once they were left vulnerable, this led to starting Randy Dobnak in game two of the playoffs after trying really hard not to start him during the regular season. Once they decided to start Randy Dobnak, this led to a strict bullpen plan to manage Randy Dobnak's start. Once they decided on a strict bullpen plan to help manage Randy Dobnak's (we don't have confidence in you) playoff start, this led to complete chaos in the bullpen in Game One after Baldelli had to turn to it sooner than he would have liked. None of these "Once they decided" points I'm making are the complete reason they lost in the playoffs nor would the trading for a pitcher at the deadline been any type of guarantee that the Twins would have done better in the playoffs. However... IMO... The True... "What If" moment occurred at the trade deadline when they did not pick up significant depth for a rotation that had been healthy until the deadline. It's a mistake I hope they learned from as we get ready for the World Series Title in 2020.

I can understand... The thinking with all these plans to move Sano to 1B. What I can't understand is... Any plan of moving Sano to 1B and then removing all trace of his ability to play 3B.

I agree with this as well. As I throw support toward Astudillo as a catcher... I also know that injuries can change things on a dime. All I can do is hope that they find someone better than Wilson for AAA or hope that Jeffers has Helium.

I hope so because I’m brilliant.