Muppet

Ok... This is an answer to a question that maybe nobody asked, but it does make sense for the Twins to pour in a bunch of money on Correa (even if he is a tad overrated... just my opinion). Currently the franchise face is Buxton, who may or may not ever play more than a few dozen games per year. The old remaining 'franchise' squad of Polanco, Kepler, and Sano obviously wasn't enough to draw any interest among people who are just casual baseball fans. Correa would give us several years of another Mauer or Morneau caliber player ... which is currently sorely lacking.

We have a new trainer. With almost everyone constantly spending time on the IL in 2022, this is perhaps the most significant move they could have made in the offseason. They would have been a much different team if they had half of the injury time they had last year. Maybe not Dodgers good, but possibly Phillies good. .... OK maybe Phillies good is a bit of a stretch... .but they would have been good enough to win the AL Central... probably.

Looks like Larnach had a cannon and could be a really solid defensive LF. He might also end up a bit of an offensive liability too. It would be great to have two solid defending corner outfielders (especially if Buxton ever ends up actually playing CF), but it would be a shame if both (or all three) outfielders are unable to hit a combined .225.

I half buy into this strategy. Add to that a new competent training staff, they cut injuries down at least in half, and relief pitchers that aren't overworked and it might be something. The problem is, I'm not sure that this team with everyone playing at their maximum potential and everything going as planned is still a WS caliber team... but it will be much more fun to watch.

Looking deeper at his splits, he performs best when there is nearly nothing on the line. When the game isn't close, or when there are one or fewer people on base. He can't bat first or second, because then everyone is looking for him to provide that spark. If he bats third or forth, that's his sweet spot because he can hit in the first inning when almost nothing is on the line. All good for Max. Bad for the Twins.

He looks like he has good numbers against lefties. So add him to the Kyles and Miranda and the Twins will have a unique ability to slaughter 25% of the pitchers out there.

I guess the best case scenario is that we sign him for tons of money, he has 4-5 great years here, then leaves for the Yankees and starts to go south... We get his best years, then the Yankees get stuck with the ginormous salary of an overpaid has-been.

Yeah, falling off the cliff isn't inevitable. I'm just worried that if he keeps it up, he'll just jettison the Twins for a better deal in 2-3 years. If he DOES start to drop off, we're stuck with him. Don't get me wrong. He's a great player and I hope he stays with the Twins... but I do think he's a tad overrated, but still a great player.

How does a 10 year deal with a no trade clause and multiple opt-outs make any sense for the Twins. If Correa does really well, every few years he can go back and demand more money elsewhere. If he lays an egg and starts hitting in the low .200s, we are bound to pay him 30+ million per year. He is already only a borderline great player. He could easily go either way.

This would put them in danger of losing every 5th game 1-0.

One problem is that both Kyles play at least as much against righties as lefties. New Kyle had more than twice as many at bats against righties. If he ends up playing most days,.... bad news. I'd prefer Urshela's glove and bat next door at third. But... this is the modern era and we need to have almost completely new teams every year... so it goes.

I hope they look first for a great pitching coach and a trainer. Otherwise they'll spend a ton of money for a guy that gets injured after 6 starts and all the other pitchers will be overworked with sub-par stuff.

Cave will be an All Star next year.

Exactly. I think the front office should hire me right away. I have more tricks like this up my sleeve.

With an OPS of .644, Jake Cave is more than half as good as Judge (1.111), but is much much cheaper than half of Judge's salary. If we got two Jake Caves then their combined OPS would be 1.288. What a deal! Think of the money they'll save!

Ok. I've had plenty of time to go through the five stages of grief. Now that I'm out at the other end, I'm going to just say it. All things considered, this was a pretty good season. The Twins were a good team. Not a great team and not a terrible team. Sure they didn't win the division or a wild card spot, but the only reason anyone expected them to win in the first place was because the Guardians and White Sox were also not very good teams. We had times where the bullpen was great before it collapsed from overuse and regression to the mean. There were times when the starting pitching was better than expected before everyone got injured one by one. We had Ryan flashing elite stuff here and there. We had interesting experimentation with how to manipulate a pitching staff to compete with better pitching teams elsewhere by limiting starters (though this obviously didn't work as there were no innings-eaters to back them up and they ended up blowing through bullpen pieces... and keeping with the plan well past its utility... but... oh well... we got to see exactly how and why the plan imploded). Arraez broke out. Correa was fun to watch. Buxton had what most could consider a career year with just several dozen at bats. We got to see the potential in AK, Trevor Larnach, Miranda, and others. And I think they even beat the Yankees once or twice (though I could be misremembering). No the Twins didn't make the playoffs. And no... they weren't a great team. I'm not sure they would have made the playoffs with Polonco, Buxton, Kepler, et al in the lineup every day either. Baseball is fun. It has to be fun when the team sucks too. Otherwise you'll be disappointed almost every year no matter what team you're rooting for. I blame everyone's expectations. They lost. But the season is over. Let's move on.

Seems to me they should gamble bigger on coaches, trainers, and team psychologists.

He'll be fired by the Twins. Next year, he'll be picked up by the Tigers... or maybe the Pirates... and lead that team to win the World Series.

I stand by my words from April 4. Those of you who put in wagers, prepare to pay out big.

Many times in the past couple of years I had hoped that he'd get traded to a team that will play him more, appreciate him, and let him develop. He seems to have always been a bit of an afterthought here. I would imagine he'd get a few extra years playing MLB if he played somewhere else. This guy is a gamer. He's always one of the first to slap someone's hand when they score that tight run. He's always full of energy in the bench. He'd probably be more likely to get a hit with two outs and a runner on second than half the team. But everyone has always been quick to find reasons to hate on him.

Think of the prospect haul the Twins could get if they traded Correa, Buxton, AND Arraez!

There are times when they don't steal that make no sense... like when there are two outs and Arraez (who until recently is unlikely to hit anything but a single) is up. Get the guy on second and give Arraez the chance for an RBI. If they guy is caught stealing, Arraez leads off the next inning. But in a lot of cases... with Buxton at least, I think they assume a good hit can score him from first. So there is no sense in risking his knees or getting him out at second.

This stat would be more useful with a time scale. I feel like they have picked up on driving in their runs over the pat dozen or so games compared to early in the season.

Furthermore, in most instances the Twins have shown that they are far more likely to score zero runs in these situations.

"Donaldson allegedly called Anderson "Jackie," a reference to Jackie Robinson, that he thought was an inside joke between the two players." Donaldson didn't think this was an inside joke. And I'm a bit disgusted at the media reports that gave him inches of space allowing him to make this allegation. Donaldson and Anderson aren't friends. They don't joke around. Dondaldson is attempting to gaslight the press into thinking that this is just on-field chatter and not blatant racist harassment. The Twins would have been better off without him ever playing on the team. They might not have been good last year, but I'd be willing to bet they'd be a lot better than they were. Who hasn't experienced a toxic work or school environment at least once in their lives? You know what that does to your morale. He probably had one or two other sidekicks egging him on too. Combine that with a losing record, these guys were probably just hoping for the season to end faster, or that they'd get traded. The Yankees can keep him. Better yet, they could just DFA him. They'd probably be a better team.