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Greglw3

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  1. Greglw3
    The All Star nods tell a different story with Buxton having 2 and Rod Carew having appeared in 19 consecutive All Star Games. I don’t like the WAR stat, very flawed, IMO and in Bill James opinion but I guess you gotta use something when comparing players of different positions, eras and the type of role they played on a team. Another player I would rank ahead of Buxton by age 31 is Gary Gaetti. Another in Buxton’s league would be Dean Chance who had just a 7 year period of greatness but only 3 with the Twins. In 1964 with Angels he was 20-9 with a 1.65 ERA and 11 shutouts! With the Twins in 1967, just 19 days apart, he first threw a 5 inning rain-shortened perfect game, then 19 days later threw a complete game no-hitter. Also, Jim Perry. I think his body of work is clearly more notable than Buxton’s but as the author points out, Buxton could close the gap with a run of great seasons, probably not likely but very possible. Radke doesn’t truly belong in any discussion with Blyleven, Kaat, Dean Chance, Jim Perry, Joe Nathan or even Dave Goltz. One last player that had the same level of talent as Buxton but also has to be put in the "what might have been" category is Lyman Bostock. I consider him one of the greatest hitters to ever wear a Twins uniform but unfortunately, first Calvin Griffith let him go to the Angels for about 500k a year. Thus taking him out of the hitting environment that he enjoyed at Met Stadium. And, of course, tragically he was murdered, mistakenly, as a young man. I really feel he was a Hall of Fame caliber hitter and would have won a batting title in 1977 with his .336 average with lots of pop but his own teammate beat him out by 52 points, the quintessential Twins single season Twins achievement, when Carew hit .388 and won the MVP award on a 4th place team in a 7 team division. Buxton is probably, as it stands, one of the 20 greatest players in Twins history and could climb higher but I don’t see him ever being in the category of Carew, Killebrew, Mauer, Oliva, Puckett, Kaat, Nathan, Jim Perry, Chance. He could hopefully be the equal of Gaetti and Lyman Bostock with more seasons last year. In any case, let’s enjoy his hopefully good years to come and thrill to the Buck truck pull, the fire and passion of a great athlete!!!
  2. Greglw3
    I have confidence in Derek Shelton to choose the right mix. If Gonzalez, Roden or Rodriguez, as examples play lights out and Wallner strikes out his way through Spring training, I would hope that Shelty would pick the young talented and up and coming player with a multifaceted game to move into the Twins future. I actually see the outfield as competition as quite fascinating at this point. And I agree with all those who say Martin should be a full time starter. He has much more to offer the Twins than Trevor Larnach at about an 85-90% probability, IMO.
  3. Greglw3
    I think Jenkins.
  4. Greglw3
    Great article! Count me as one that pines for an OF with Jenkins, Rodriguez and Gonzalez. It could even be done with Buxton still here. I have to think it would be better than a .202 hitter in Wallner and then Larnach. A 5 man OF of Buxton, Jenkins, Rodriguez, Gonzalez and Martin! Let’s Go!!!
  5. Greglw3
    That's the guy they should sign is Littell. Still plenty of room for the young guys to pitch over the course of a season when 10 or more starters are sometimes used by MLB teams.
  6. Greglw3
    I disagree with your takes and find them extremely pessimistic and out of line with reality. The Twins have done a lot of good things since end of last season, at least very consequential. Fired Falvey and Baldelli, finally. Hired Derek Shelton who I keep hearing lots of good things about. They’ve signed Josh Bell, who after making adjustments to his swing, had a good 2nd half and hit righties hard.. They hired Grady Sizemore, Latroy Hawkins and Ryan Pressley. They added Banda and Chafin, and Orze, Taylor Rodgers, Liam Hendricks. Caratini is at least another bat that won’t duplicate the Twins achilles heel of having myriad .1xx to low .200 average hitters in their lineups the last few years. Wagaman hit .283 vs L and can make a good platoon partner. Every indication is they’re going to be aggressive and run this year. As far as Tom saying we’re going to compete, I think he meant they were going to compete when they finish the job of adding players AND payroll and indeed, they’ve been adding players since then that should help. And he meant they were going to compete, considering they have at least 5 players with star potential, close to ready or ready in Gabriel Gonzalez, Walker Jenkins, Emmanuel Rodriguez, Hendry Mendez and Kaelen Culpepper. And Rosario and/or Fedko may just find themselves as platoon bats this year. Neither Larnach nor Wallner should bat against lefties. The family also had the guts to kick Joe to the curb and install Tom. Let’s give him a real chance hear. Jeremy Zoll is another reason for optimism and the restructuring of operations so there won't be a Derek Falvey type position complicating things for the GM. Let’s let a little more time go by and see about any further additions to payroll and the roster. I also liked bringing back Laweryson, we’ll see.
  7. Greglw3
    For what he did in the total destruction of the team including Carew, Bostock, Hislee, Bill Campbell, Dave Goltz, Dan Ford, Blyleven - with no effort to retain a single one of them, he deserves a split verdict, under the reserve clause, what you say is true. Under free agency, he is quite possibly the worst owner of the last 50 years, the only competition coming from Charlie Finley. I will never pine for the days when he broke my heart by trading Carew to the Angels for a sack of baseballs and letting Bostock and Hisle walk for nothing.
  8. Greglw3
    Totally disagree. Was he setup to fail when he took a non-juicy payroll and had his one good offseason of his whole tenure, signing Cron, Schoop, N Cruz, etc.? After that, on average, he had a greater payroll than the Guardians, probably the Royals, Rays but had passive offseason year after year and never once had a good trade deadline. Dyson, Shoemaker, Mahle ( better than Luis Castillo, he told us), D. Bundy, D Keuchel, DeSclafani, Chris Archer, Jake Cave, Joey Gallo, Andrelton Simmons, stuck with pull happy ineffective Max Kepler way too long, Colomé, whiffed on Rooker, who can forget J.A. Happ, Chris Paddack. From 2021-2025, Falvey had payrolls of 121MM, 150MM, 156MM, 129 MM, 130MM. During that time his teams were 30 games below .500 with and average payroll of 137.2 MM. Compare this to the Guardians 2021: 57MM 2022: 66.5MM 2023: 88.9MM 2024:105.5 MM 2025: estimated 101-102 MM for an average of 84MM for the 5 year period. During that time, they went 80-82, 92-70, 76-86, 92-69, 88-74 respectively for a cumulative record 47 games above .500. So, on 50 MM less per year in payroll, the Guardians front office went 47 games above .500 while Falvey steered the Twins to 30 games below .500. Falvey had a few moments but was generally a poor trader, shrugged off lousy performers like Jake Cave and Max Kepler way too long and presided over a strikeout plagued era of one dimensional baseball and very poor use of analytics (Rocco also to blame there). I just thought Falvey was quite incompetent and Rocco was a decisive cut below the good managers I’ve seen in my day like Terry Francona, Tony LaRussa, Jim Leyland, Gene Mauch, Earl Weaver, Chuck Tanner, Joe Maddon.....the list his long. I’m happy the Twins have finally cleaned house and can now rely on the one bright spot, Sean Johnson’s scouting and drafting and rely on one General Manager...now we know who the general manager is! I’ve heard enough good about Jeremy Zoll to be optimistic. We shall see. In the end, nobody knows exactly how to apportion the blame among the Pohlads, Rocco and Falvey but the buck stops here. Ready for a new chapter and excited about Jenkins, Rodriguez, G Gonzalez (very high on him), Culpepper, Mendez, Rosario and maybe even Fedko. Plus I love Austin Martin, I think he will personify Derek Shelton’s son to watch Twins.
  9. Greglw3
    That’s a really excellent idea! I agree on the impact potential on winning, lengthening the rotation and especially it’s imperative that Tom Pohlad put his money where his mouth is and allow Jeremy Zoll to strike! I think with Jenkins, G Gonzalez, E Rodriguez, maybe even Rosario or Fedko and Culpepper and Mendez that the impact on the Twins offense could be significant. Let’s turn these talented studs loose!!!
  10. Greglw3
    Falvey went out and put a lot of effort into signing really good players ahead of the 2019 season. After that, he was quirky with a lot of bad signings and trades and Derek Falvey’s Minnesota Twins had a losing record, 18 games below .500 from 2020-2025 and 30 games below .500 from 2021-2025. I think Baldelli and Falvey were overmatched. What if thy could get Thad Lavine as the President of baseball operations (as mentioned on Score North Twins show today) and let Jeremy Zoll do his full job as GM. I believe, from statements I’ve heard lately that the Twins are still willing to spend 5-10 million more and I wouldn’t be surprised if it was 15 million. Plus we have Gabriel Gonzalez, Jenkins, E Rodriguez, Kaelen Cullpepper, Hendry Mendez all strong possibilities for imminent help. Let Austin Martin play a full year in LF and run, then run some more. He was tough to throw out late last year, I see a very good defensive left fielder and a guy who had the 2nd highest batting average on the team at .282. The moves to fire Baldelli and Levine were a long time coming. I don’t understand all the shock and complaining I’ve heard today, mostly or maybe ALL from non-Twins sources.
  11. Greglw3
    I agree, for me Gabriel Gonzalez is the clear #2 prospect for the Twins. I think he’s a pure hitter who will put the ball in play, hit for a high average with moderate power on HR but possibly more on doubles!
  12. Greglw3
    For me, it’s simple. Brujan had a .253 batting average.. Gaspar 158. I believe low batting averages, Cave, Outman, Gaspper, Clemens, Gallo, Wallner, Kepler have hurt the Twins egregiously in recent years. Brujan hit .268 vs L. If he’s in the lineup, that’s one step toward correctng the lineups of the last 2 years where there were sometimes 4 and 5 players batting .19x or low .200s. And they just made outs and rolled through 5-6-7, even 9 innings without scoring. Wagaman helps too cause he hit .283 vs L and .250 overall and Bell .265 ish vs R w 18 HR.
  13. Greglw3
    Wagaman hit lefties real well .283 with good sag pct and Bell hit righties to a .804 OPS plus Bell hit lefties at a .150 clip. A quick estimate shows the platoon with about a .274 ave. with 79 RBIs and 23 HR.
  14. Greglw3
    I agree about the great recipe for 65-70 win team. Right now, relief much worse and lineup marginally better with Bell, who I think could surprise based on the swing adjustments that gave him a strong 2nd half in 2025. However, we just can’t afford to run back the annual low batting average lineup of the last few years and expect different results. Outman about .160, Wallner .203, Clemens ~ .220, Lee .239, Lewis .230s. We have a new manager and a huge addition in Grady Sizemore, I see only 2 viable outfielders on the ML roster, Martin and Buxton and they could, if healthy hold down LF and CF. Rather than the mediocre Larnach and Mendoza line Wallner who had 10 RBIs all last season from a single, double, triple, groundout, hit by pitch or sacrifice fly.... I would give every chance for 2 of the following 4 to win the 2 remaining OF spots: Gabriel Gonzalez, who I think will hit and is a pure hitter, Emmanual Rodriguez (high on base at least), Walker Jenkins and Hendry Mendez (I like his offensive potential and he can hit for Lyman Bostock type power and a .290 average and I’d be very happy. And I hope Roden emerges. Further, spring training would be an open competition for SS between Culpepper and Lee. I think 60% Lewis has a significantly better year as he was maturing 2nd half of 2025 and sounds like Shelton might be a very good influence on him. Keaschall at 2B. They need to trade for one more hitter with at least Martin potential. Finally, I think, even though a little disappointed when he was chosen, that Derek Shelton is going to help this team realize their potential. Interviews with him, articles about his strengths, and importantly that he still wants to establish a go-go offense (Martin, Jenkins, Keaschall, Buxton, Culpepper). Falvey needs to get busy as he’s being out hustled yet again. There are hitters out there for trade. Even Binentendi would be an upgrade on many of our hitters and has a past with some solid hitting in it.
  15. Greglw3
    Great comment! A+ for just plain funny and witty!
  16. Greglw3
    Good catch Greggory on the 'or two' by Zoll, seems a lot of people forgot that but the Gregs latched onto it. I’ll take Ryan O’Hearn and I’ll take Miguel Andujar with hid .318 average. Adding two bats that would have finished 4th and 1st in batting average, respectively with some pop is the best thing to lift the Twins up from their multi year affliction of featuring myriad .190, .204, .220 type hitters in their lineup. In the outfield, I’m looking at Austin Martin, Byron Buxton and 2 of G. Gonzalez, W Jenkins, E Rodriguez, H Mendez, Matt Wallner and Larnach with a strong preference to fill the 2 slots with 2 of the young studs. With O’Hearn, Andujar and the ascendent youngsters, we could actually have a chance.
  17. Greglw3
    Ryan O’Hearn would be by far the best and anything but mid tier. High OBA, high batting average, maybe tied for 2nd on 2025 Twins) and decent power, a great mix. Sign O’Hearn, who can also play OF.
  18. Greglw3
    Trader Derek!
  19. Greglw3
    I agree wholeheartedly. Signing Arraez back would be the best thing they could do and I, too, saw Rod Carew and the havoc he wreaked with high batting averages. Arraez has hit .354 for a whole season, a rare accomplishment.
  20. Greglw3
    Mike is your thumb broken so it only points down? You were alive when the Twins had good offenses and won or at least played a bit north of .500 all through the 1960s, 1970-1971, 72-79, 84-87, Steve Braun, Steve Brye, Jim Holt, Bobby Darwin, Rod Carew, Tony Oliva, Lyman Bostock, Larry Hisle, Dan Ford, Gary Ward, Mike Cubbage, Roy Smalley, Glenn Adams, Ken Landreaux, all in the 70s. Bob Allison, Zolio Versalles, Cesar Tovar, Don Mincher in 60s and Gaetti, Brunansky, Puckett, Randy Bush, Hrbek, etc in 80s, Where are players the equal of any I named on the Twins now, besides Buxton? And Gene Mauch lead a team with a .282 batting average and a horrible pitching staff to an 84-77 record. The Twins offense has killed them the last few years, Not competitive in the least. If Wallner’s .204 is OK with 40 RBIs on 22 HR and only 10 RBIs all year from 1b, 2B, 3B, BB, HBP, Groundouts and SFs, then I see more pain, pessimism, pitiful play, pohlads ahead. I want to run from that as fast as I and Derek Falvey and Jeremy Zoll can. This is an extremely important pivot point in the history of the franchise, IMO. Kody Clemens .220, Outman .150, Larnach a player not in the mold of Braun, Brye, Holt, Glenn Adams - mediocrity....is that what we want? We have a chance to fill in LF and RF with better hitters, through trade and through the G Gonzalez, E Rodriguez, W Jenkins, Hendry Mendez pipeline. And Culpepper can give Lee a battle that would be good for the team. What is your solution for the outfield to move into a new era of winning baseball? I just don’t think relying on failed or mediocre at best players like Larnach or Wallner is a good plan at all. From one long time passionate Twins fan to another, lets have a vision for a brighter new day!
  21. Greglw3
    I think he should replace one of those guys you mentioned, not be on the much lesser used side of a platoon. He hit ~ 115 points higher than Wallner and ~ 100 points higher than Clemens. We need to replace these low average batting lineup anchors with some guys that can hit for average.
  22. Greglw3
    No
  23. Greglw3
    I think the answer lies in looking at Brooks Lee’s 64 RBIs to Wallner's 40. The worst part is Wallner only amassed 10 RBIs the whole year when not hitting a HR. I think if Wallner would stop chasing bad, mostly high pitches and use the whole field, he could hit .270 with maybe 20 HR 60 walks, then that would play but he’s shown no ability to make that adjustment. It’s partly on the manager and hitting coach to not accept his approach. I’d still rather see one of Gonzalez, Rodriguez or Jenkins take his spot.
  24. Greglw3
    I agree with you. The best hope for the Twins lies with the trio of Jenkins, Gonzalez, and Rodriguez. Larnach and Wallner have had extensive chances and been average to slightly below. Never has a "statistic", in OPS+, misrepresented a player’s season as much as Wallner’s. Did everyone know that Wallner had 30 RBIs on his 22 HR. And he had a grand total of 10 RBIs for the whole season via single, double, triple, Groundout, Hit By Pitch or Sacrifice fly. Truly astonishing. He also had the fewest RBIs on 22 HR in the history of the RBI statistic, since the early 1920’s. He missed tons of 95 MPH fastballs and has a hole up and in the size of the Grand Canyon. And a .204 batting average. Ugh. My ranking of the OF, in order, would be Buxton, Martin, Gonzalez (slightly ahead of Jenkins at this point but not necessarily better, long term), Jenkins, Emmanuel Rodriguez and Roden. I don’t think we should be looking at a new era with a new manager and a really nice coaching staff, with Grady Sizemore available to work with that trio of uber talented outfielders, and be thinking Larnach or Wallner fits in. Same with Outman. I think Martin and Buxton are locks and they just might find 2 of Gonzalez, Jenkins and E-Rod who are ready to be in the starting lineup opening day with Roden as a dark horse.. I would also have an open competition between Brooks Lee, Kaelen Culpepper and Fitzgerald for the SS job. Lee needs a legitimate challenge from Culpepper considering all the terrible chasing he did last year. I have a sneaking suspicion Culpepper has the better tools to be an exciting difference maker for the Twins.
  25. Greglw3
    All 3 good and astute suggestions, Cody. I like the suggestion of Lowe because he’s hit just about every place except the Nats and from 2021-2024 his on base percentage was somewhere around .359-.360. It’s interesting to note that even though he cratered out with the Nats, Wash and Bos combined he still had 84 RBIs compared to Wallner’s 40 and 62 walks and a career OPS+ of 116, which for 1B would be a big improvement for the Twins. I still can’t believe 22 HR and 40 RBIs, worst for 22 HR since the RBI stat has been kept since 1920s. Wallner had 30 RBIs from HRs and 10, count 'em 10, RBIs the whole rest of his season on 1B, 2B, 3B, BB, HBP, Groundout, SF) I think Lowe would be better than Clemens although the two of them could battle it out for the position.
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