stringer bell

I do find it interesting that many on this site are calling to bring up the prospects to a club that has won more regular season games in the last two years than anyone else in the American League. In very general terms, if they hit like 2019 and pitch like 2020, the Twins would be dominant. Specifically with Polanco, if he hit like 2019 (particularly the first half) and defended like 2020, he could be an All-Star candidate again. He has had at least a season and a half of ankle miseries, which might explain his decline in the second half of 2019 and his poor 2020. If he only an average hitter and an average to below average defensive shortstop next year, perhaps then he could/should be shifted to some type of utility role. I know he played a couple of games at third in his first year and he played a lot of second base in the minors. I think he could adjust. An average bat with the flexibility to play three defensive positions adequately would make him a pretty good replacement for Gonzalez/Adrianza and with Rocco's managing style, he would get plenty of at-bats. To me, Polanco to utility is Plan B or C. Things would have to happen for that move to happen, but I don't think it is out of the question entirely.

I am not a huge Sanó fan, but I don’t think it is the optimum time to part with him. He’s coming off a bad, but healthy, partial season. Even with health, the big guy is so slump prone. For too many interludes, you’re hoping Sanó will “run into one”, rather than having confidence that he’ll make solid contact. He doesn’t walk enough to be even a “three true outcomes” guy (.278 OBP). I give the guy credit for his work and improvement at first base. I don’t think he’s a bad guy or has a questionable attitude, but he just hasn’t shown he can sustain the hot streaks to guarantee a spot in the middle of the order.

Comparing Buxton and Robert, though, is CF vs. CF. I believe Buxton led the Twins in WAR despite playing not 2/3 of the games.

It's not a perfect comparison because he became a DH, but the same was said about Paul Molitor early in his career and he was durable later in his career.

Cleveland has done a good job turning over their roster making it younger and continuing to reinforce their pitching. They aren't going away anytime soon, whether or not they retain Lindor. Chicago has a lot of good players and a lot of pitching that has a good chance to be very good or better plus they have an ace in Giolito. I think they will be above average or better. The Twins have a lot of guys who have had periods of outstanding performance. Some like Sanó and Buxton have never sustained it for an entire season. Kepler and Polanco each had one great season plus above average play in other seasons. The pitching staff has a good top of the rotation and some good bullpen pieces, but will need to fill out both the BP and the starting staff. There's a lot for the front office to do, but they have the pieces in place.

It is nice to start with three proven starters and only have to add two to the back half of the rotation with several in-house candidates available. Draft choices and trade acquisitions by Falvey/Levine can and should fill the bottom of the rotation starting in 2021. Personally, I'm not in favor of retaining Odorizzi, because of his inability to go deep into games. I certainly hope that the starters, with a normal season including spring training, will average closer to six innings per start and take some heat off the bullpen.

Buxton only played 39 games, but a case could be made for him over Robert. I believe Buck had a higher WAR and his hitting numbers (OPS and OPS+) were better, plus he is a better defender than Robert. Same old story. The Twins need to find a way to have Byron on the field for 140+ games and he might be an All-Star and perhaps an MVP candidate.

From what I have seen, you can be very proud of your son. He seems to be a class act who takes the frustrations and struggles that occur in stride. His story is a good one and he has a great future. Undoubtedly, Randy has been a good contributor so far. He faces the challenge of adjusting after the league has adjusted to him. I wish him well, not only as a Twins fan, but also as someone who cheers for those that have faced uphill climbs to reach their goals.

I haven't seen enough to give up, but I've seen enough to have plenty of doubt. Thorpe hasn't demonstrated sufficient command to get away with the stuff he has IMHO. Perhaps 2020 was more difficult for him than others due to the pandemic and whatever other issues he had in spring training, but I have to believe he's only going to get one more chance, if that.

I'm conflicted about Rosario. I don't think he'll ever be better than he is now and that he might not age well, however Baldelli has almost always kept him in the middle of the lineup. Rocco did the same with Polanco, batting him at the top or in the middle, but when he slumped he moved Jorge down in the order, that has not happened with Eddie. If the manager consistently regards Rosario as one of his top offensive guys, does it make sense to let him go, particularly as a non-tender? I have thought that the club needs to make room for the many corner outfield prospects who are near ready, if not totally ready to step in. Further complicating this is the nearly lost season of development with no minor league season. 25 plate appearances for Rooker and Kirilloff don't give enough information about their readiness. The one certainty is that arbitration-eligible Rosario would cost considerably more than an organizational replacement. If resources are limited, is this the place to save?

I am puzzled by Kepler's inability to hit for a higher average. As noted, he has a great natural swing, decent eye at the plate, strikes out relatively little and has good power. I see Kepler go through slumps where he continually hits popups and grounders into the shift. Could he be looking too much to drive the ball and not enough to hit line drives to the alleys? I don't know. The other thing is hitting against left handed pitchers. He was better against them than right handers in his fine 2019 season, but this year was dreadful in a small sample. There's a lot to like about Kepler's game and even in an off season for him he posted a 108 OPS+ and (full season adjusted) 2.2 WAR. At a still-young age, I think the Twins should hang on to the reasonably priced right fielder. I also think that Kepler should work on bunting against the shift, both down the third base line and past the pitcher (especially lefties who fall off toward third base). If he can "shorten up" the second baseman and perhaps move the the third baseman and shortstop closer to "normal" position, I think he could lift his OBP and batting average quite a bit.

As a fourth outfielder/bench guy I think I would too. It appears that the Twins coaching staff like Cave a bit more as a center fielder and Cave has more power, but Wade gets on base and has acquitted himself nicely at first base in a few games there. The thing about Cave is that he seems to do better filling in for a week or month, but playing a random game a week, he doesn't seem to perform as well. I see Wade as better getting a start or two per week. As was mentioned above, both Cave and Wade would be better fits if they were truly center fielders or hit right handed.

Getting anything more than a bucket of balls for Rosario would be a coup. I get letting Gonzalez go, He was paid starter money and last year, he was a replacement player. Not a lot of guys have his utility skills and he is a switch hitter, but last season he was pretty bad with the lumber. I don't think either Kirilloff or Rooker are locks to be ready. I said it before that 21 plate appearances isn't enough to make a judgment about Rooker and his minor league credentials don't say "future star" to me. I'm much more confident that Kirilloff will be a building block than Rooker, but I'm not sure if that is in April of 2021. I have mixed feelings on Cruz. Ted Schwertzler's blog entry gives me pause. The topline numbers were just as good as last year, but especially in September, Cruz looked vulnerable. He's smart and takes advantage of mistakes, but I really fear that he is going to diminish and not gradually. If he can't be had for a one-year deal, let someone else see him decline.

Lindor is not a free agent. He has one more year of team control, much like Mookie Betts last year. Cleveland is likely going to trade him this offseason (at least that was the CW until 2020 become that COVID season) and I still think they will listen, but they are going to want a lot of talent in exchange for Mr. Lindor. I don't think we'd really want to give Cleveland a couple top pitching prospects plus Lewis/Kirilloff/ Larnach for Lindor, but someone would and will give them a lot for him.

Most likely the prospects within the organization will get their chance in the coming year. 2020 was short and strange and didn't give many at-bats to the top prospects. Next year should be different. Most everyone on TD is more than willing to say goodbye to Adrianza and Gonzalez and that is especially true of Marwin since he had an eight-figure contract. I guess I agree, but given who the manager is and who his players are, utility guys are both important and will get lots of playing time. The combination of Adrianza and Gonzalez was very versatile, offered two switch hitters and gave the Twins solid defense wherever they were put in the field. That is much more than nothing. Neither hits well enough and both are past 30 years of age. It should be noted how rare it is to have a utility guy who not only can play multiple positions in the infield, but also is capable in the outfield. That said, one thing lacking in Ehire and Marwin is speed. The Twins have only one player who would be considered to have well above average speed and neither Adrianza or Gonzalez would even be average. I do think that replacements for the two Venezuelans should have the speed tool in their toolkit. Having versatile switch hitters would be nice, as well. I really don't like the idea of bringing up a rookie to be a bench player. They usually are accustomed to playing regularly and might not be able to adjust to playing infrequently and sporadically.

That is the "good" thing about catchers. Both catchers who make the roster in the spring (if the season starts on time) will get enough of an opportunity to get playing time. With only two catchers, both guys will get the chance to demonstrate they are the better option. I'm not ready to give up on Garver because of his disappointing season, but I think he will have to demonstrate that 2020 was the fluke, not 2019. It figures that he and Jeffers will be the catchers.

As I said earlier in this thread, the pitching substitutions are gray areas for me. Let me defend Baldelli/Johnson with these rationales: Maeda after 5. Kenta pitched scoreless ball for 5 innings, but threw 91 pitches and was under stress about as much as he had been all year. He would be facing the Astros for the third time through the lineup in the sixth and would be on a short leash due to the score and his pitch count. I don't think Wes/Rocco wanted to bring in May with runners on mid-inning and thought the chances were good that Maeda would get in trouble or go high on his pitch count in the sixth. Maeda had only exceeded 94 pitches once and that was when he was chasing a no-no. May for one inning--maybe they believed since May flew through the sixth, that he would be available today (Tuesday). When Duffey labored to get the third out in the seventh, they decided that he was used up and that he wouldn't be available on Tuesday, so they let him continue. Romo-I know he has struggled lately, but he has tons of playoff experience and he's effective against right handed hitters with that slider. He gave up zero hard contact, but after the error, he walked in the eventual winning run. Thielbar-he has had good success against left handed hitters. He needed to get Brantley, a tough out. Brantley didn't hit the ball hard either, but hit it in a good spot.

It is almost like Rocco was trying to justify having four catchers.

Turtle has been scouted. Yes, he doesn't strike out, but he swings at everything. There is no need to throw him a strike, make a pitcher's pitch and he should be out in a pitch or two.

I agree with the last three queries. Sending Maeda out for the sixth to face the lineup for the third time was questionable, but I suppose Rocco thought he would pull Maeda if someone got on base and with Maeda either at or over 100 pitches, and that he didn't want to bring in a reliever (May) with runners on in the middle of an inning. I disliked the catcher moves, why bat for Jeffers, why not save a player by keeping Garver behind the plate, and why send up Astudillo?

I've imagined Kirilloff to be a Joey Votto type of hitter, high batting average, relatively few strikeouts lots of extra base hits, but not a threat to win a home run championship. I've also seen him as the surest bet to be a major league regular of all of the Twins prospects. It's puzzling to see him called up now, but I guess the Twins must know what they're doing. The Twins have won the most regular reason games in the American League since Baldelli became manager. They are the only AL repeat division winner. Still waiting for postseason success.

For whatever reason offense was way down in the regular season. Here's two good examples: Nelson Cruz had an OPS this year of .992 this year versus 1.031 last season. Eddie Rosario's OPS this year was .792 versus .802 last year and both actually had higher OPS+ numbers this year. As a team, the Twins dipped from elite offensively to middle-of-the-road and were even more dependent on home runs to fuel their offense. Saturday's offensive performance was so different from the great majority of games--no homers, but steady pressure on the opponent, lots of doubles and good hitting with runners in scoring position. Run prevention improved almost as much as run production diminished and the Twins managed to win 60% of their games. They have a chance to advance deep in the playoffs, but some who were disappointing in the regular season need to be better. The American League playoff is a tournament where all the participants have significant strengths and weaknesses. I truly believe anyone can win and anyone could lose in the first round. The Twins have a huge monkey on their backs and winning both a game and series is the minimum for saying that progress was made this year (IMHO).

In this strange season, I think winning home field is more important than winning the division, although it would be nice to be the "home" team in subsequent series. For the record, I do want the Twins to win the division and #2 seed, but health of players is more important. Secondly, it would be great to see Sanó, Garver and Cruz get dialed in right now. Kepler looks like he's found his swing, Rosario is going well and Arraez demonstrated that he could get out of bed on Christmas morning and go 3 for 4.

The Front Office has made good moves, no question. Another phase will be development of players. This will be key in keeping on top of the heap in the Central and perhaps all of baseball. We really haven't seen much of highly regarded pitching prospects at the major league level. If the brain trust can develop an elite starter or two plus a couple of top-end bullpen arms, I will be convinced

While it depends on what the White Sox do, most likely there will be at least seeding position on the line for Sunday's game and it's entirely possible that the division title will be on the line even if the Twins win both tonight and tomorrow.