tony&rodney

Both Martin and Lewis are expected to be good with their bats, feet, and gloves. I'll take Lewis in RF and Martin in LF if they play great defense along with decent on base and batting average skills. A power hitting outfielder that cannot catch the ball in the gap or run down a ball down the line hurts the team. I would never compare any player, ever, to Ricky Henderson who played LF. A reason that Kepler has a long rope in RF is his defense and speed. Hopefully he rebounds with his bat this year. There is always a place to put an athletic player who hits, runs, and plays defense. Lewis and Martin just need to prove themselves to get their shot.

I hoped against all hope that the Twins could pry Alcantara away from the Marlins in November of 2020. Miami signed him to a favorable contract. He would cost the about farm right now: Lewis, Kirilloff, Martin, and Balazovic. That is a no and the Marlins are going to hold tight to their young pitching.

Oakland is squeezing the market. It may pay off. Bassitt is better than Manaea and Oakland should have been fine with a Sands, Strotman, Rooker deal. On the other hand, the Twins may not be willing to go that high for Manaea. I really like Montas, but he does not have the pedigree of a Berrios or even a Gray. Montas has good stuff and one year of success. I was/am hoping for Montas but a package equal to Berrios would be just wrong.

USAFChief is correct that as the season goes along it is usually a mixture of which pitcher lines up against which opponent's pitcher. The start of the season and immediately after the All Star Game are different. I would begin the season with Gray, Ober, Ryan, and Winder. This leaves Bundy and Gray for the Dodgers. Unless the Twins add an experienced "good" pitcher via trade, they will need to use Winder and he is ready to go now. The only other option looks to be Smeltzer. I'm choosing Winder at the moment.

Trade? Yes. Otherwise ... Gray, Ober, Winder, Ryan, Bundy.

Good read. Ober is fun to watch. Last year, he was a mild revelation. Now, he looks like an emerging piece to a good starting pitching staff. Just watching him pitch on video, Ober controls the batter more consistently than any of the other pitchers. I think he has great value as a Sonny Gray type of pitcher and now the Twins have Gray too. It would be sweet if the Twins can add a pitcher to slot in between Gray and Ober.

Brooks Lee falls to the Twins.

The Twins are in a tough spot. Ryan, Ober, Bundy, and Dobnak are all back of the rotation pitchers. Winder could go in April, maybe Balazovic as well, but the hope has to be that at least one good pitcher is gained in a trade. Montas or Manaea look most likely. Still a couple of weeks to go.

The Twins are better on defense with Urshela and better on offense with either Arraez or Miranda. I would go with Miranda.

Won't it be expensive to put in the robo umpires in little leagues, high schools, etc.?

Not grumpy and not upset. There are a million actually serious problems in the world to be concerned about more than anything related to baseball or any entertainment. Fans just have different opinions, that's all. Life goes on ... for the lucky.

Almost everyone can agree that pace of play should be picked up. Thing is, there are already rules that cover this. For whatever reason, umpires are seeing their authority to patrol the game increasingly reduced. An umpire is allowed to order a pitcher to pitch and a batter to stay in the box. Last week a Twins rookie (Palacios) asked for time out and stepped out of the box. The umpire shook his head no and the pitcher threw the ball right down the middle for strike three. It's Spring Training and the batter is not Bryce Harper late in a tight game with the winning runs on base. Baseball could communicate to the players that umpires will be graded on keeping the game moving and pace of play/ shorter average game times could easily be accomplished without any rule changes. The players will comply. Baseball has reduced the role of umpires and refuses to allow them to do their job in favor of words and goofing around with inane ideas in the Atlantic League. There are other changes that impact pace of play as well. Teams (many writers, fans,etc.) want 28-30 player rosters. A team of 25 forces the manager to use his players judiciously. Pitchers must back off the max effort on every single pitch or face certain injury. This max out on every pitch is already an issue that threatens so many careers. I can get people out for for two or three innings and give up a couple of runs or pitch one scoreless inning. Tampa Bay used 41 pitchers last year, Forty-one. How is that in the best interest of the those pitchers or the game? They did get to say they were MLB pitchers, I guess. Baseball has allowed teams to manipulate players and the rules already in place for a long time now. Manfredball is not the cure. I would suggest that baseball read its own rule book and do some serious reflection.

Well, it is good idea if it also includes a pinch runner for the catcher, re-entry for any player, a 10 run rule, and games called after 3 hours. The games would be go faster if the batter started with a 1-1 count and only was allowed one foul ball too. There are a ton of changes to make as long as Manfredball received a couple of opportunities already. Why not?

A ghost runner is total b.s. Just let the game end in a tie, flip a coin, have a home run hitting context, or a pizza/hot dog eating contest. If fans don't want to watch, fine. The players have dates, I get that ... oh and it might force a manager to actually manage how to use a bullpen instead of using everyone and sending several pitchers back to the minors for reinforcements. The best ground ball pitchers in history get eliminated with a ghost runner. It completely changes the dynamics of the pitcher-batter struggle. I have heard every iteration possible of why this is tenable. It is a farce that is acceptable because players prefer a set work time and tv never wants to be inconvenienced. If it is a reasonable idea, why wouldn't it be used in the playoffs? Oh, well ..... that's different because we care about the integrity of the game then. That is, in fact, the verbatim response for the last few years. I do not consider myself a purist or person who opposes change but baseball faces some real existential challenges which will certainly make the adoption of the DH look simple. Circles for every fielder, time clocks with bullhorns, the elimination of umpires in favor of electronics and unlimited pinch runners, etc, Ok, plenty to disagree with here, for sure. Zero percent chance it hasn't already been lamely argued. I'm very disappointed in the PA, although not surprised by their convenient, limp position. Oh well, so it goes. Sizzle.

Ober*, Balazovic*, Duran*, Ryan*, Winder*, Enlow*, Strotman*, Sands*, Henriquez*, Vallimont*, Moran*, Alcala, Bundy, Cotton, Dobnak, Duffey, Garza, Gray, Jax, Maeda, Rogers, Stashak, Thielbar, Thorpe, Woods Richardson, Canterino, Varland, Mooney, Cruz, Cano, Bundy, & Maeda. There are pretty many items in the cupboard (reminds me of my hoard of coffee cups) and the drainline could be getting clogged with #5 starters and too many relievers. Then again, Tampa Bay did use 41 pitchers last season.

My guess is that the Twins will add at least one decent pitcher. If I had to rank the AL Central staffs right now ... CWS, CG, DT, KCR, & MNT. This will change in my opinion.

Both Arraez and Urshela are good MLB players and the Twins have Miranda too leaving a little bit of a surplus. While it would be cool if the Twins can retain Arraez and pick up a starting pitcher, I would think he would have more value than Manaea. I'm a little surprised at the difficulty of the current market. Oakland, Miami, San Diego, and Cincinnati may want to drive the market at their prices but each stands to lose if they do not make a few simple moves. Miami could move Jazz to CF. He wasn't that great at 2B and a Urshela or Arraez would boost their team as would Kepler, but the Twins need Kepler's glove. How about Arraez, Larnach, Duran, and a player from outside the 40 person for Pablo Lopez? San Diego would benefit from Kepler too and even Larnach may help them while it seems their team could use a Arraez or Urshela. Cueto doesn't move the needle much.

Yes, Duran would look good in the bullpen. Strotman may be another guy to stick in relief. However, I'm good to use both of those guys in a trade. The Graterol trade was fair for both teams and an example for a similar move this March.

Nobody has to worry about Trevor Bauer suiting up for the Twins. He dug a big pit of despair and is left with an uncertain life.

Celestino should be attractive to Oakland but I'm not too sure how they view Larnach, Wallner, etc.

I was putting Gordon forth in the event Urshela is moved in a trade and should have made that clear. Gordon doesn't look like a shortstop but he does look better than Martin. Hopefully, Correa plays 150+ games at shortstop and a fill in is not too crucial. Last November I was pining for Ehire Adrianza as a bench/ role player/ coach. So much depends on the ask from other teams as the Twins look to flesh out their roster.

No one saw the Twins as a possibility for Correa. I thought Story eliminated the Twins from any consideration last week when the Twins had still not made any solid moves to pick up pitchers. Story was not looking for another rocky scene. So Story gets to play with a perennial contender and the Twins get the better shortstop while maintaining their financial flexibility. Happiness all around.

Duran sure has an arm worth looking at and this may be what other teams think too. He could go as one of the parts in a trade and I'm good with that if the return is a solid starting pitcher. Duran reminds me of Graterol or Romero. Duran could front a rotation, be a closer, or bust and with the dozen pitching prospects available it makes sense to use a few for an experienced guy.

The Twins are hurting in the outfield if you agree that an outfielder needs to catch the ball. Rooker, Garlick, and Larnach are pretty rough out there. Kirilloff is just ok in the outfield but better at 1B. Arraez is a no and I have never seen Miranda in the outfield. Martin has looked rough at shortstop and could be the guy for leftfield. I agree that Sano prefers to play 1B, but Kirilloff brings a better glove to the position. Spring Training and a trade could relieve the situation in the infield. Right now, Nick Gordon looks like he has some real value because he can fill in adequately at shortstop and in the outfield. The Twins should be open to using any of Arraez, Urshela, Miranda, Lewis, or Martin for the right pitcher. I'm hoping they can somehow hold onto the last three but it may be difficult. It is almost impossible to predict what another team seeks from the Twins.

Oh, he gets his cut and has an ego to match anyone, for sure. I'm just not one to believe that Boras forces players into contracts against their will and only for his personal wallet. He does keep an eye on maintaining what he built and no one should ever mistake the Boras Corporation for a charity. I don't have any admiration for agents at all, but the player still makes the final decision. If the PA believes that agents are abusing the best interests of the players, there needs to be some actions taken (education) or interventions. I agree with your point that agents are business people.