tony&rodney

A number of people have wondered about Kiersey Jr. He is a late bloomer (not young) and extremely prone to striking out. It does seem like his defense in the outfield, which looks above average for sure, could help the Twins. He also is also quite speedy and seems like a decent baserunner. The average is good this year and includes power. The Twins outfield defense looks like it needs some relief. At this point I'm not sure how Kiersey, Jr. would hurt the team.

The roster payroll discussion has been worked to death. The offseason was tough because some poor decisions were made on trades and player acquisitions. I have no idea what plan Falvey had last offseason or if he had some PTSD from previous years but the Twins were risk adverse in trades and surprisingly impatient as well. What is done is done. Nevertheless, the current team has enough positives to compete for an AL Central Division title. The time to forget the past offseason has arrived even if one had a complete distaste for those actions of the organization. While the team is less interesting than hoped, it isn't like any thoughts from here make a difference.

I thought the same thing. Also made me wonder who makes the playing time decisions. Sometimes players have forces opposed to their usage or so it seems. Nevertheless, Austin Martin and others need to prove they must be in the lineup. Baseball is a brutal profession.

Nice job; it's fun to read up on the guys who may be drafted and enter professional baseball. Had the chance to watch a young high school catcher play a couple of games this year who might be worth a look. Burke Mabeus (from Las Vegas Bishop Gorman ) reminds me of A. J. Pierzsinski in a way. He is tall, athletic, talks, and has a full set of tools suited for baseball. While his A. J. antics may irritate some, there is real talent in the player. I have no idea whether he is willing to go pro yet.. Was told that he has committed to play for Oregon. He did well in all areas of the game against top competition. Look forward to these articles .... thank you for putting them together.

Eventually, MLB will get interns to film, time, record, and diagram every ball to the outfield mathematically such as the information on outfielders will be as precise as swing speed and pitcher's velocity. Then people who need to see the degrees of variance from a perfect route along with reaction time, etc. will be able to pore over more math. There is already a trove of information but the absolute mathematical takeover of outfield defense has not yet been perfected. Until then us commoners will need to rely on our decades of experience as viewers, players, and coaches. The Twins miss Michael A. Taylor when Buxton goes down. I'm sure others will have their own ideas on the relative strengths and weaknesses of the current group of Twins outfielders, but I generally agree with your list.

Line them up and choose for yourself. It isn't a very good group aside from Max Kepler and Byron Buxton. I would take the others in this order: Castro, Martin, Margot Larnach, and Kirilloff. Martin made some poor plays and I expect him to go back to St. Paul soon, but I'm not sure why folks are acting like he cost us a game or is horrible at baseball.

Martin sure could use some regular at bats and playing time at the same position. It looks like that might be for St. Paul starting this weekend. It is harder for young players with limited experience to get comfortable in limited playing scenarios. Seems the Twins didn't have too much confidence in Austin. While it is true that Martin has not looked good in the outfield for the Twins, he isn't even the worst outfielder on the current team much less among the random outfield statues employed by our local squad over time. All these inexperienced players need to get it together because their jobs are tied to performance. Hopefully Austin Martin can become a decent major league ball player.

While I don't disagree that Festa needs to become consistent with his pitches, there are a couple of things to remember. Festa was around 6'-6" at 165 pounds. He is growing into his body and adjusting to the added strength/weight. Additionally, while he does have the pitches (stuff) there is a learning curve and confidence angle to be gained with someone who didn't grow up totally dominating hitters. I believe he is the Twins best pitching prospect and by next year he will be ready for MLB.

Festa has been trending positive for a couple of years now. Each level has been a challenge that he has met thus far with the incremental improvements noted in the Cameron's article. The past two years I have tried to catch his games via milb.com and have seen both the steady gains and areas where Festa can still improve. While I don't think he is quite ready at this time (mid May), a continued increase in command and control along with the opportunity to build stamina could make Festa a solid choice if the need should occur in mid season or later. Having both Festa and Varland available for spot starts or as replacements for an injured or ineffective Twins pitcher is a sweet option for the organization. Each would be exciting out of the bullpen late in the year or in the playoffs too.

The Twins have been relatively healthy thus far in 2024. Injuries to key players (Correa, Kepler, Julien) and pitchers (Lopez, Ryan, Ober , Duran) can change fortunes and playoff odds. Hopefully extended IL stints can be avoided and the team wins the AL Central.

Bullpens are tenuous even in a good year. Guys get hurt, have ineffective outings from time to time, and overuse is a constant concern. For example, Jax was used too often just recently, Stewart went on the IL, and Thielbar has been inconsistent. The Twins seem to have enough arms but will need to find ways to spread out the workload amongst relievers who are effective. The Twins were counting on Topa but he has been injured or not good for most of the last decade. Jackson might be a mirage as well. There are guys like Sands, Staumont, Funderburk, and more who could be decent through the year and support the pitchers we hope stay solid like Duran, Stewart, Jax, Thielbar, and Okert. It is a long season and there are going to be times when the bullpen is in a down phase. Hopefully that can be minimized. Perhaps one way to reduce stress on the relievers is to allow the starters to go another inning when they are throwing free and easy. Ober has been lifted several times with only 80 plus pitches thrown and the game well in hand. Perhaps he needed to be lifted but when the schedule has an off day it seems like Lopez, Ryan, and Ober would have little trouble going another inning after an easy stretch in the game where they reached 80-9- pitches.

To just add to this comment, there were a number of people who were interested in the Twins signing Rhys Hoskins. I never sensed the distaste for signing Santana but rather a preference for other players. To be clear, in lieu of the payroll crunch, I didn't expect any signing. As an aside i have wondered whether Kirilloff has been affected by the lack of confidence shown in him. That said, all players need to earn their playing time.

We are 3-4 weeks away from this conversation and plenty can happen in the interim. When Royce Lewis is ready to play again he will likely get some DH time. Miranda is a step slow at third base but makes most of the plays. He will need to hit in order to stay on the roster. As much as I like Kyle Farmer, he needs to show more with the bat. His roster spot will not be in any danger but those people who are still clinging to his defensive value are missing how much the previously awkward Julien has improved with the glove. Julien has better lateral movement than Farmer at second base. Farmer still looks smoother. If Julien can hit better, especially versus lefties, that position is his to hold. Julien needs to be more reliable at the plate. The pitching has been pretty solid from week to week and management will be looking for effective bats when the time comes for decisions. These decisions usually are made by how the position player is hitting. Right now, Austin Martin is struggling a bit. This is an important week for the Twins, playing New York and Cleveland. People have to be reasonably pleased with the Twins record right now, especially with the slow start to the year and the injuries to Lewis and Buxton.

Games like this happen almost every year to every team. Unless the Twins flail and become futile in the next week, we can just flush it.

One start. It is a long season. If the bullpen shuts down Toronto, we might not even be concerned. Vladdy is nitro right now. Look up on June 15 and assess the team at that time.

Jaylin Nowlen is improving.

Wichita has some good second basemen playing shortstop and the ball keeps finding them. I'm wondering if DeAndrade will be ready for a promotion in June.

The pitching for the Twins has been really fun to watch recently and I enjoy their starting pitching. It doesn't make any difference to me where those guys come from and how their journey brought them to Target Field. "..... their history ...." Slow down a little there. Maybe just go with "in awhile". The ghosts of 1970 and some others were pretty staunch in their day. From a wider point of view it isn't necessary to make these comparisons to appreciate the current pitching staff. We see the same out there opinions on Terry Ryan versus Derek Falvey or going back further even, Calvin Griffith versus Carl Pohlad. It is possible to laud a performance without making references or comparisons.

I'm always a little confused why some folks identify Falvey as a guy who was hired to develop a "pitching pipeline". It just doesn't stand up and also doesn't really matter. As TwinsDr2021 states, Ober is it thus far for Falvey. If people want to pursue the idea it might be useful to compare The drafting, signing, and development of pitchers within the AL Central and across baseball. Personally I think one of the main roles of the PBO (Falvey) is putting together a competitive team. The record indicates that Falvey has done that. However, almost any way one looks at past or current Twins starting pitchers in the Falvey era the idea of a "pitching pipeline" where the Twins sign and develop starting pitchers needs to be put to rest. I'm pretty happy to have Pablo Lopez starting for the Twins even if he wasn't signed and developed by the Twins.

McCusker is a really big dude and like most very tall hitters has some issues with maintaining contact. The thing that makes him a little different is that he is extremely athletic and strong. He has been improving bit by bit every week and last night was a show of his power. The Twins will have some thinking to do by June/July if McCusker continues to have good at bats for Wichita. Brandon Winokur, another tall athletic player, has looked smoother than I expected in his first month of A ball. A ton of swing and miss but also steady improvement from week to week and playing good defense at both shortstop and centerfield.

Comcast is no longer sending any money to Bally for Twins broadcast. Is that correct? How will Bally make money and meet deadlines for paying the Twins per their contract? I'm lost on this. It seems like Bally will eventually (July?) cease any payments to the Twins. Admittedly, my knowledge of the contracts, payment dates, and other details are missing, but this all seems like a repeat of the debacle Bally began last season. To be clear, I'm not weighing in on the budget. Despite my abhorrence of the deals last offseason, I did feel a payroll of $110-120 million was not going to doom the team if sound roster/trades were completed. My question is what happens when Bally tanks and cannot pay the Twins? Will people be surprised? I do agree that the loss of access to the Twins via television can only hurt their brand. I have no idea how much.

When I saw this come on the front page I had many thoughts about a response or two, but successfully stifled those urges ... well, until now. Twins Daily is a great site and has increasingly added to its range. If someone has other ideas they can always start their own blog or submit articles through various existing platforms. I believe it is one of the finest fan blogs in existence for baseball. Twins fans are lucky. My only real suggestion has been mentioned numerous times already. The thumb down button (which could potentially be useful) should be removed. There are readers (no reason to call anyone out) who have virtually no knowledge of anything related to baseball who use the button frequently to draw attention to themselves. Naturally, some will disagree with this opinion. My own journey into blogs began around 2001. I stumbled onto Aaron Gleeman's blog and was #11 on his counter, a funny memory. From there I began to write for a friend's blog for another team on the East Coast, essentially covering teams from the rest of the country. I phased out of that because work, coaching, and playing left little time for decent research to provide fair articles worth reading. From Gleeman I stumbled on to Seth, TwinsGeek, and many others. I joined TD early but quit it after a few years, although I continued to read occasionally. I rejoined TD (new byline) about four years ago and have added to the comment sections at times since rejoining. I'm sure I will continue reading at times but feel my comments should stay in my own head. I only add the above because perhaps others also face burnout from following a site or being active within the comments. That seems normal. Some people love becoming a part of a community of fans and participating at times. Some take the opportunity to meet up with those who are also fans, creating friendships. That is a wonderful thing. Others prefer to remain separate and anonymous, which is fine too. Sites such as Twins Daily are bound to attract a few people who are bitter about life, which spills over into their comments. Such is life. I mostly feel bad for those people who run the site and keep the content going when a few folks hijack a post or conversation or insist on their expertise to the detriment of an ongoing conversation. Keep up the good work and don't be too frustrated by the occasional downs because when I look over the articles or member's comments, they are mostly positive and generate fair discourse. Twins Daily is a real success story.

Santana, Margot, Farmer, and Kepler will undoubtedly be working elsewhere next season. Having Willi Castro as a utility player for around $6 million next year will not break the budget if that is what happens. Seems like this idea/conversation is jumping way ahead of where we are right now. It is May of 2024.

Emmanuel Rodriguez is being pitched around, no question. He might see one or two fastballs in some games and most are off the plate. The breaking stuff is almost always on the edges of the plate with a number of low pitches called strikes. Yes, Em-Rod still has to work on some things, but it is looking like even highly rated pitchers are just pitching around him in AA, thus a move to AAA might be necessary for him to work on his game. On a separate note, where is Walker Jenkins? I saw the play when he was injured and he came off the field looking normal but also with what appeared as a hamstring injury. Apparently the injury must have been worse than it appeared. Having witnessed many hamstring injuries of varying degrees, I cannot recall someone running so normal and walking off the field in such a relaxed fashion suffering a serious tear. I haven't found anything to clarify or explain his current condition and Jenkins is a pretty high profile prospect. I guess I'm just curious when Walker will return to the Ft. Myers lineup.

Excellent, even better. I guess I heard that on the radio but forgot about it. Good add. Martin has plenty to prove at the MLB level but I must admit I like his game.