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LastOnePicked

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Everything posted by LastOnePicked

  1. LastOnePicked
    "Fortunate" and "bold" are maybe the last two words in the English language that I would associate with the Minnesota Twins, so that last prediction is a big no. A big, big no. In fact, this is a magical thinking wish list, not a set of predictions. Nice wishes, though, I'll grant you that.
  2. LastOnePicked
    How does a contention window that is already firmly shut somehow "remain open" with this extension? That's the only part that confuses me. Something has to be open in the first place to remain open. If this was his first TJ surgery, I think I'd do this in a heartbeat. But after his second? I think I'd get him ready for a strong 2027 and move on at the trade deadline.
  3. LastOnePicked
    And here I thought Gleeman and Bonnes had the hottest ticket interview this week with Derek Shelton. This blew that one out of the water. Great work. Did they have any thoughts on an early Spring for the Midwest? Seriously, this one goes in the all-time greats of Stu satire. Hall of Fame post. Come June, you might wish you were writing for Rockies Daily.
  4. LastOnePicked
    It's a swing only a spreadsheet could love. But hope springs eternal.
  5. LastOnePicked
    Is it legal to have two Culpeppers on the big league team at the same time? Hope they both make it, rules or no.
  6. LastOnePicked
    Cody, I get where you're coming from on this, and you've articulated well. From a certain perspective - heck, from Tom Pohlad's perspective - the future is now. Expanded ownership team. New manager. New-look FO. Arriving prospects. Let 'er rip! But for me, the most consequential moments already happened. T3 set this team on a path of short-term PR at the expense of longer-term success. Instead of value for Lopez, they'll get nothing. They have to pray for Jeffers, Ryan and Buxton to remain healthy and productive in order to recoup even just a bit of the value they lost by ignoring offseason trade offers. And I don't think they'll fall flat on their face right away. I think Shelton will lead the team to a better quality of baseball. I think folks will look at this team come mid-May, squint, and think that maybe everything might come together after all. It won't. By July, the rotation will look like Swiss cheese. The bullpen will be a carousel of waiver claims and St. Paul call-ups. Teams like the Tigers, Royals and Guardians will start finding all of the soft spots. The cream will rise, as they say. The wheat will be separated from the chaff. And the Twins, unable to get any further on T3 "good vibes" will sink to the cellar. Deadline returns - the lifeline of potentially-elite prospects this organization desperately needs - will be uninspiring at best. 2026 was lost on July 31st, 2025. Sadly, the pathway to contention as early as 2028 has already been set back, too. From here on out, it's just a matter of watching the slow-motion crash.
  7. LastOnePicked
    I can see it. I just can't see too many wins above that.
  8. LastOnePicked
    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.
  9. LastOnePicked
    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.
  10. LastOnePicked
    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."
  11. LastOnePicked
    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.
  12. LastOnePicked
    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.
  13. LastOnePicked
    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.
  14. LastOnePicked
    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.
  15. LastOnePicked
    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?
  16. LastOnePicked
    Hoping it's minor. Guessing it's not. We'll just have to see.
  17. LastOnePicked
    Has anyone interviewed Pete Maki yet? Or is he rocking himself in the corner of the laundry room?
  18. LastOnePicked
    As will rain.
  19. LastOnePicked
    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."
  20. LastOnePicked
    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.
  21. LastOnePicked
    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.
  22. LastOnePicked
    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.
  23. LastOnePicked
    A+, Cody. Sound reasoning, smart conclusion. That basically guarantees the Twins will do the opposite.
  24. LastOnePicked
    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.
  25. LastOnePicked
    "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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