tony&rodney

This to some extent is my malaise regarding the 2022 Twins. I'm ok that the Twins are secretive with their process and also don't begrudge the Pohlad family making money from their inheritance. I simply don't have any confidence that the Twins plan to win as a goal. The Zips AL standings projections are up at Fangraphs and they indicate what is common knowledge - the Twins will be one of the worst teams in the AL with their current roster. This is almost completely due to the fact that they do not have a pitching staff and also have a hole at shortstop. The roster, right now, is not acceptable by any means. Adding a shortstop as suggested by Ted or trading for some hopeful shortstop are easily accomplished. The Twins can compete in 2022 if they add a couple of pitchers and the reticence to do so may or may not change after the lockout ends. Then again, maybe baseball is cancelled this year. The hot stove has been drenched by MLB and the PA thus far.

Some solid reasons to sign Story in the comments and I agree. My concern is with where Pohlad sets the budget. If it is $115-120 million, there is room for Story. If the roster needs to come in below $115 million, it is too tight.

The Rays would likely want players that do not need to be on the 40 person roster. A phone call asking about any of their players but especially Glasnow, Walls, and Kiermeier sure can't hurt. Conversations should be taking place, absolutely. Glasnow, as previously mentioned, is worth much less than shown on BTV due to salary and injury. Finally, the Rays do not like to sit on players making good money while they only have a year left before free agency. Call and listen.

We send out false reports and he falls into our lap.

Brooks Lee

This is plausible, but what is the record for this team? Just wonder what happens with this experiment. Do the Twins lose 90, 100, or more games or do they get some decent results such as 72-90 or better? What is the expectations going with "whomever"? There are signs that point to the directions you list.

There is reality to this observation.

When Twins fans look over the prospect lists it should be a reminder that however much we like the guys we have in our system, which I do too, it is a necessity to sign one pitcher (Rodon, Greinke, ?) and trade for another (Montas, Bassitt, ?) to allow Ober, Ryan, and those up next (Winder, Duran, Balazovic) to develop in MLB. This might not have been if the Twins had Berrios and Maeda to lead the staff, but that doesn't matter/it's in the past. If the budget is small, go for Montas and Greinke. If the budget is larger, go for Bassitt and Rodon. Oh, and because I have been fixated on Miami for too long, let's trade Arraez, Jeffers, Vallimont plus for Cabrera and Meyer.

Yah. The Twins do not have an MLB starting five at this time. They have prospects only.

The most important consideration related to a potential trade for Glasnow is the Twins budget. He simply doesn't fit if the Twins are cutting back towards $100 million or so. The unknown is how Tampa Bay values certain Twins prospects. I would love to see a trade for Glasnow and Walls. Your offers might be enough for Walls too. The Rays have a packed 40 person roster and would want players that are not needing to be rostered at this time. This is especially true because neither Walls nor Glasnow figure into their 2022 plans.

Robo umpires is a perfect example of the dysfunction of MLB. Who does baseball see as their customers? A survey of all pitchers from 2021 and another survey that includes any player who had a plate appearance in 2021 (not to include pitchers in this survey) is in order. From there, MLB needs to do some real research into who is their audience. Personally, I would be surprised if 5% of the players wanted robo umpires. I have no idea if gamers or those who love video games now make up the bulk of people spending money on the MLB product and would like to see more technology, like robo umpires, in the game. Perhaps MLB needs to know though. I do know that there are a number of people who watch and listen to MLB baseball games and go to MLB baseball games and also actually enjoy watching Town Ball or Legion as much as the Twins. Some of these people also greatly enjoy numbers and analytics as well. I also know that a number of people love the analytics of baseball but don't listen to the games on the radio and also don't particularly enjoy watching the games, but do enjoy discussions, blogs, and the numbers related to the game. It really doesn't matter what singular thoughts you or I have, but it is important what the larger group thinks. Baseball needs to know the customer or it risks losing ground for the entertainment buck.

Your assessment seems correct to me. What I do not know is what will be done. The Twins obviously need pitching and a trade for a good pitcher is possible and necessary. I'm unsure about the budget. If there is room, and he wants to pitch at Target Field, I am all for Greinke. We have heard all of the arguments against his addition but you mention exactly why he is a solid addition. The Twins do need a shortstop and Trevor Story or maybe Villar might work but that seems unlikely. I want to know what it would take to get Taylor Walls from Tampa Bay, because the cost might be reasonable and Walls has a decent eye and his bat will improve greatly from his rookie year and he already has a great glove. Walls is also a switch hitter.

I hoped Miguel would work out at 1B. I hoped and hoped. It didn't happen and unless he reports below 230 big ones he is bound for DH duty. Although i remain a big fan of The Big Man, the shine is gone from his glove as both the eyes and numbers align to say the same thing - he's a DH.

Baseball can't get its act together at this time and hasn't identified an audience like football, basketball, or hockey. Tom Brady rumors light up the internet to focus the public on football on the Saturday before NFC/AFC championship games. That's marketing. Hockey figured out that clutching and holding reduces the skill and excitement of speed and now penalties are called, there is no arguing or a delay of game penalty ensues. Baseball has Manfredball. The CBA needs to be resolved quickly so that baseball can figure out its audience. Umpires are absolutely the least of MLB concerns.

Royce Lewis has seen a dramatic drop in his stock. A couple of years ago he was ranked as a top ten prospect and would have returned some very good players in a trade. However, the Twins were never going to trade Lewis so it really doesn't matter that his stock has dropped. It only matters how he plays now.

Ober and Ryan both had fun writeups on Fangraphs and the analysis explains what we saw of each pitcher. Despite different styles, Ober and Ryan seem to have managed to shape their repertoires to strengths and when they maintain control each can be quite successful. Personally, Ober seems like he might be stronger in 2022 because he gained more experience last year but Ryan also seems to have a bright future. Now if the Twins can add two solid pitchers to support Ober, Ryan, and the others who will get their feet wet this summer the Twins will have a team to watch.

Teams need to use a combination of strategies to build the roster. One that largely eschews free agents or trades except to gain players left after other teams have finished their business will inevitably leave a team short. Prospects are the lifeline of every team but Falvey needs to consider all avenues to improve the team. They seem very hesitant to trade players or sign free agents. Donaldson was a great move and he was good last year. The Twins can still have a good team in 2022 for less than $120 million. Somewhere along the line, this year, Falvey needs to take some chances.

It is really hard to defend Barry Bonds due to his petulant and surly behavior throughout his career. MLB and the courts went after him hard, spending millions of dollars and losing in every event with a litany of lies, false accusations and such when it was all said and done. Most people would agree that Bonds mastered the use of steroids as well as concealment. That is not definitive guilt. The era was rife with players involved and mass conversations skillfully excuse some for their minimal usage. Fact is, it didn't help most players at all because throwing and hitting a ball is pretty much skill based. Time and time again, people write about Bonds getting bigger, his big head, etc. There are more than a few players who entered baseball at 155-175 pounds and got much bigger. Think of your past Twins. Heck, Miguel Sano was a big man when he signed at 180 pounds and gained 100+ pounds over time. I will never say Bonds was innocent. Barry Bonds is just a scapegoat, nothing more or less. He was better at hitting a baseball than any player to ever play the game and nobody could accept this, especially because he was unable to be controlled by the owners. Spend twenty minutes looking through his numbers. He was ridiculous. Steroids was a clear product of the Bud Selig Era, MLB has some real problems to sort out. There will not be replacement players. The PA has been losing ground in the past CBAs, but they are not the air traffic controllers union. It is really difficult to see what the owners stand to gain by pushing the envelope so far as to lose their anti-trust exemption. Hopefully, a resolution will occur by mid February. The loss for the Twins will be the instruction and repetition time missed by their young players on the 40 person roster. The veterans need far less time to ramp up. Does anyone else wonder if there are some media contracts that might be endangered by a long play stoppage? The NFL, NBA, and NHL are increasing viewership. How is MLB doing? How might existing favorable contracts be impacted by a long lockout? I'm hoping both sides can give a little and get it new CBA done.

It was dismaying to me at the time that MLB, writers, and broadcasters all centered on Sosa/McGuire every single day with updates to each at bats later in the season. MLB pushed this hard and the writers were all over it. Meanwhile, the best of the best were largely ignored, but they were paying attention. It was a disappointment to see the pandering to Canseco's influence that I buried.

Wow, Sad. Embarrassing. The post was well constructed. One can appreciate a different point of view and disagree.

Henry Aaron was my favorite player in 1960 (I was a little kid that liked baseball) until the Twins started in playing in 1961. He was a model of decorum, dignity, and consistency. Imagine Mike Trout struggling to get a fair offer as a free agent, say two years ago, and receiving little acclaim for his skills. This was the life of a skinny outfielder who terrorized the National League in the 1990s. Barry Bonds was very late to the PED party and he certainly took notice of the adoration that Sosa and McGuire received from their feats. Bonds also knew that neither slugger was even close to him in baseball talent in any way or form. So he signed up. The result was a destruction of the hallowed records. This was a sad turn of events when Bonds joined with the hundred or so other players who proceeded him in using peds. He doesn't get excused either. You said what most feel - fun to watch the duo bash Maris' record but not fun to watch Bonds. This is a reality. I was never a Barry Bonds fan. He played for Pittsburgh and was displayed in print and on tv as a petulant athlete. So I didn't pay much attention to him but was amazed by his swing and approach as well as his numbers when I did see him in the mid 1990s. The fact that Bonds received and receives such widespread hatred from people who have never met him or know nothing about him while more or less accepting or excusing so many others (McGuire, Ortiz) is just ridiculous. I always liked Ortiz because of his gregarious personality, but I choose not to hate players who exhibit surly behaviors because I have no idea of the cause. There were hundreds of players who took PEDs, including some of our favorites most likely. It escapes me why Barry Bonds must be the individual to receive all blame. If I had to place blame at all, it goes to MLB, the owners, and commissioner as the face of the game. These are the ones who not so discreetly allowed and even pushed this era.

I get what you are saying about acknowledging all of the history of the game, but fixing (gambling) games is on a whole different level than forms of cheating (greenies, peds, sticky stuff, garbage cans, etc.). Additionally, one of the main points made by many concerning the peds is that these were nearly, not openly, encouraged by MLB until the hallowed records of the past began to fall. Jose Canseco introduced (or first to be candid) the practice in 1984. No doubt, every team had players who had used some peds by the late 1980s. Can anyone think of or remember other players who went from skinny at 21 to big guys a half dozen years later? After the strike, the use of peds spread even more across the league and the resultant glory of home runs was widely featured in every ad by MLB. It is a sorry period in the history of the game. It seems ridiculous to pull out a few players to punish when the practice was so widespread. Gambling and fixing games is in a separate category in my opinion.

That's capitalism, some will starve. Fans are starving for the hot stove and the lockout has us frozen stiff. I watched football for the first time in decades this weekend and the games were entertaining. I had never heard of the players except for Mahomes because of his dad. I think I'll watch the Chiefs this weekend.

Baseball in its current iteration has a tough time deciding what to do with "cheating". What is cheating? A couple of recent teams were caught (red-handed shall we say) cheating and no players received any punishments and the managers are now back on big contracts with different teams after a year of vacation. I do not presume to have an answer but it is really clear to me that neither does Manfred or MLB. The only time a clear line was drawn was when Bart Giamatti managed to get Pete Rose to admit to gambling on his own team and agree to his banishment from baseball. The owners, FWIW, did not like Giamatti.

Congratulations to David Ortiz. He was quite a hitter and very excellent in the post season for the Boston Red Sox. Sadly, his acceptance will be forever connected to the final rejection of Barry Bonds by the writers which is a stain on baseball. I was never a Bonds fan (Twins forever) but Barry never tested positive and when he got "bigger" everyone jumped all over him, maybe justifiably, yet Ortiz was allowed to slide. Bonds magic with a bat was consistent from ASU until his last contract expired and nobody allowed him onto the field again despite the fact that he was still one of the best players in the game. Correa is a free agent and carries the garbage can banging on his resume. Can you imagine that he never gets an offer at any price. I know Bonds was at the end of his career and it is a fairly lame comparison but this vote brings back some sad circumstances: Bud Selig the Hall of Fame commissioner, who relished the PED use; Andre Dawson, who was shut out by baseball, signing a blank contract with Chicago Cubs because he wanted to play and no team would offer him a contract; and then no team in baseball was interested in the best free agents in the game from the mid 1980s to the early 1990s (the collusion scam which likely allowed the Twins to win two World Series which I enjoyed). Bonds was not nice to writers, Ortiz was and the entire debacle of inconsistency by the writers is bad for baseball. I loved watching David Ortiz and would like to celebrate his election without other thoughts, but I can't do that under the circumstances.