LastOnePicked
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Everything posted by LastOnePicked
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Rooting for a crap team that is trying is worse. This team needs to build a championship caliber roster. Full stop. No .500 season is going to rebuild the fanbase at this point. No Joe Ryan going 12-9 is going to do it, either. There are only two pathways to that roster for a team in the Twins' position: buy it or build it. And they ain't gonna buy it. -
It's just a fandom preference then, and that's fine. If you want to watch a middling team that has a decent shot against poor teams and a poor shot against decent teams, then this is your ballclub. That's been the Twins' MO for years now. It hasn't produced a title - or even any serious playoff runs - but that's been the product for quite a while. And I find that kind of approach completely unacceptable. I'm fully over it. Excellence is a choice. Once that choice is made, the plan becomes clearer. I'm sure the White Sox of the last few years have been tough to watch. There was certainly a time when the Mariners, Orioles, Rays, Tigers, Royals, Blue Jays and more were tough to watch, too. All of those teams will be much more fun to watch in 2026 than the Twins. There's no EZ-Pass to success for mid-market teams. You draft high, develop well, make timely trades and strike free agency hard when your window opens. Or you can muddle through very long stretches of middling baseball. If that's your thing, you couldn't possibly have picked a better AL team.
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That was one full Pohlad ago. Time flies when you're not having that much fun. I mean, more accurately, the Twins bailed Correa out twice. Once with a one-year value rebuild contract, and then again we swooped in with a face-saving deal when all of the big boys saw his medical reports and tore up contract offers. And apparently that big splash broke the team's finances. So I wouldn't expect to see it happen again anytime soon. But yes, we did. Those were the days, my friend. From here on out it will just be a stream of reports on how many top free agents the Twins were "in on."
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We have almost no elite prospects in the system. Beyond Jenkins, there are very few with real potential. Two of our competitors - Cleveland and Detroit - are already vastly superior MLB teams with far, far better farm systems as well. Yes, we need more prospects. Especially since we can't, or won't, sign free agents.
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Everything they have done - and haven't done - this offseason telegraphs to everyone that they are not going to compete this year. They were just voted MLB's "Least Improved Team" by Sports Illustrated. They're not going to compete this year, period. They have no shortstop, no bullpen, no defense and a rotation that is now only one starter deep. Maybe not even one, now that Ryan has been scratched from his first start. The sooner this organization faces reality, the sooner they can begin to reshape their fortunes.
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Again, the time to have made these moves was four months ago. Tom Pohlad's flinching in the face of hard decisions has lost this team incredible potential future value. So, in short, they're getting nothing from Lopez (and now likely an injured Ryan) in the present, and nothing - or comparatively little - for them for a future core. This is how you set a team's fortunes back another full year or two with a simple inability to understand the needs of your organization.
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Fan interest has already cratered. I'd wager that the vast majority of people who attend 1-2 games a year don't even know who Joe Ryan is, or if they do, that he's still a Twin. Short term value means absolutely nothing for this team. They stink. If the focus isn't on finding and building a future championship core, there won't be one.
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No. To me, nothing is worse than watching a mediocre team mope through a meaningless .500 season. I'd so much rather watch a young core learn to gel around the teachings of a manager who preaches success through doing the small things right. And since when is Joe Ryan a leader in this clubhouse?
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Hoping it's minor. Guessing it's not. We'll just have to see.
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Has anyone interviewed Pete Maki yet? Or is he rocking himself in the corner of the laundry room?
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As will rain.
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If Pablo's contract was insured for full value, can we be 100% certain this wasn't sabotage? I mean, I heard he was trying to get a "see how many cases of water bottles you can carry with one hand" competition going this spring. Also called the "Jose Miranda Challenge."
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Exactly. These guys are hired to pitch, not to coach. If you have an organizational plan, you don't put this kind of expectation on past-their-prime veterans.
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Why the Twins Shouldn't Replace Pablo Lopez
LastOnePicked replied to Cody Pirkl's topic in Twins Daily Front Page News
Agreed, but that would take a vision, a commitment to that vision, and proper actions aligned with that vision. This organization isn't even capable of Step 1 at this point.- 39 replies
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- pablo lopez
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Why the Twins Shouldn't Replace Pablo Lopez
LastOnePicked replied to Cody Pirkl's topic in Twins Daily Front Page News
Nothing about their behavior suggests that they believe this. You can attach a basket to a balloon filled with these intentions, and you'll have a beautiful flight across Twins Territory. -
Why the Twins Shouldn't Replace Pablo Lopez
LastOnePicked replied to Cody Pirkl's topic in Twins Daily Front Page News
A+, Cody. Sound reasoning, smart conclusion. That basically guarantees the Twins will do the opposite.- 39 replies
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Wouldn't that money be better used on a Joe Ryan extension, for example? Or a real free-agent splash if a 2028 contention window opens? They might also make a savvy trade for an emerging or undervalued starter (or reliever, or shortstop) and then turn around and use that money instead to offer a contract extension to that player. Similar to what we did with Lopez in the first place. Or they might make a deadline trade and have to take on a large salary from a star on a floundering team. $40M is a lot to spend on a pitcher with a pretty significant injury history who may never return to form. Better to see how he is post-recovery than to needlessly limit future payroll resources. But I like Pablo a lot as well, and I wouldn't be too terribly upset if they took your advice.
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"it's also a very sensible baseball decision" Is it, though? Do you really want to lock up $40M on a player before you even know how they'll emerge from surgery? A second TJ surgery, I might add. That money would be far better served locking in any emerging young stars. No. Best case scenario at this point is that Pablo returns in 2027, pitches well, and can be traded for 1-2 solid prospects at the 2027 trade deadline. The REAL best case scenario would see Lopez winning playoff games for us next year, but that's not even a remotely realistic scenario at this point.
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There's our problem right there. I have zero interest in anything the Twins are doing to try to improve. I'm not an investor or a partner in the organization. I'm only interested in their actual improvement. Imagine eating at a terrible restaurant, and at the end of the meal the owner tells you all about the things they're trying to do to make the food better. For people they're bringing into the organization - cooks, investors, servers? Fine - let them in on your plans. For the customer, just make an excellent experience ... or shut up about it.
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Imagine using the phrase "playoff odds" and "wins in the bank" about a 72-win team with a roster that got worse even before the next season began. I know, it's all just fun with projections. And that's fine. But this is a team without an ace, a shortstop, a competent defense and a bullpen. Teams in that situation always share the same playoff odds: 0%.
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Unless there are major ST injuries for teams expected to compete, that time already passed, sadly. They would just be panic-selling at this point, and they wouldn't get back much in value ... or much respect from the league. No, they made their bed this offseason with their inability to make hard choices. Now they have to lie in it, and make even harder choices.
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You're never actually IN on a player until they're on the roster. The Twins need to get away from this small dog baseball mindset. We fans can help them by not tolerating these kinds of publicity spins.
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You have a far better chance at a "hit" higher in the draft than lower. But I agree that none of it matters much without top-notch scouting and player development.
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But they had payrolls in that range and didn't get very far. Also, nothing is stopping Tom Pohlad from having a payroll in that range right now. I do think MLB has a competitive disadvantage problem, but smart mid teams are still finding ways to win without waiting for bailouts from the elite revenue teams.
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Those teams had multiple Twins and MLB Hall of Famers. Do you remember how they got several of those players? High draft picks from being terrible in the early 80s. Draft high in the down years, develop well every year, sign well when your roster congeals. There's no other magic formula for mid-market success.
