DaveW

Good list, however the green river killer had a much better VORSK then Bundy. Also Pikes Place Market > MoA

I was supposed to be at this series this weekend in Seattle, after the brutal first 4-5 weeks of the season we decided to goto Paris, France (early next week) instead of west coast Twins watching. The best part about Paris is it will be nearly impossible to watch this team. Now THAT is a vacation. I think Pat Dean is in for a tough night tonight, the Mariners have some dudes that MASH LHP.

The problem with Nunez as a Util INF is that he is quite horrible defensively up the middle (and even at 3rd base) Basically he needs to continue to hit like he has to make it worth having him out there defensively. Polanco is a much better bet to work out long term IMO, so I think Nunez should be shopped very aggressively.

Yes, this really is one of the worst teams ever (as the team is constructed now) Terrible rotation, terrible bullpen, terrible defense. The offense is under-performing, but at this stage, other than Park and Sano, can we really feel confident that anyone else on the 25 man roster will even be able to be an "average" hitter moving forward? Dozier and Mauer could, but they haven't inspired much confidence as of late. I guess Nunez is playing well, but again, are we confident that this lasts? However, there is hope. If Berrios, Kepler, Buxton and a handful of bullpen youngsters can come up and play well, that could take them out of the "one of the worst teams ever" conversation hopefully, and keep them from losing 110+ How sad is it that we are now viewing the fact if they can lose less than 110 a somewhat of a success?

Gibson is my dark horse to be traded and actually bring back something of value. If Gibby can get back on the field and string together a few solid starts he should be the first guy the Twins shop aggressively. I would be shopping Ervin Santana aggressively as well. I would also be fielding offers on Park, who could bring back the absolute most in a trade as well, I would have to be blown away by an offer, but I think he could fetch a really nice return.

That is damning. We all like to poke fun at the Padres crazy GM, but his team is doing better than our beloved Twins.... Seattle is an interesting case, they never really did a rebuild, they simply try to put together a playoff team each year, and it looks like it's working for them now.

This, 100x this. We are now in the 6th year of the "rebuild" and things have actually gotten worse (we are going to lose 100+ most likely) Some people might toss out the Pittsburgh and KC examples, but those are the exceptions to the rule and those 20+ year droughts were HUGE failures during that time.

Yeah, I thought giving up Hu was way too much at the time. They could have gotten Jepsen for less IMO. Obviously this only confirms that fear.

At this stage they really should just consider cutting Nolasco outright, I know that they owe him a decent chunk of money, but he has been terrible this year and his attitude sucks to boot. He is never going to regain anything close to "trade value" so just dump him now, please. Might as well give Milone another shot, if he can reel off some quality starts over the next 8 weeks than perhaps we can get a C+ prospect out something at the deadline for him. Bonus if said prospect is a catcher with a smidge of upside. Adam Brett Walker is what he is, a power hitter that is going to strike out way too much, might as well give him a shot at the bigs and see if he can get that k% down to the 35% range or so. Good article overall Nick.

Agreed.

After taking another look, it looks like every draft the twins had between 2007-2011 were not very "special". Especially with huge question marks around Gibson and Rosario now. Yeesh.

Actually yeah, you are right. I was trying to give the Twins the benefit of the doubt in this case, I thought at least they had "done" the draft ok overall. But this looks to be another area that has to be fixed/personal changed over. I guess the international scouting has at least done a good job? Sano, Kepler, Park all are nice players.

It's important to keep in mind that a lot of the "worse" draft classes in that example were years the Twins were drafting mid to late in the first round. So basically, the last 4 year draft classes should definitely be looking more promising! That 2011 one looks rough currently, but looks to be the exception and not the rule. Overall if I had to guess the twins would Be slightly below average during this time, they certainly could have "hit" on more picks, but it could have been worse. Again that is purely a guess with no research.

Yeah, great points, I probably let my Perkins homer glasses blind me to these things haha. I hope he comes back strong for us at some point either way though.

Actually I would have been fine trading him at that point. My bad, I didn't realize it was that far into the deal.

Yeah the Perkins thing is a bit too 20/20 in my eyes. You typically don't trade a guy one year or so into an extension/contract that he signed with you. Especially one that is playing effectively (at the time). The last thing you also want to happen anyways is be stuck with a team with no real closer, that is how Ramos for Matt Capps deals happen, and those are bad.

#HireBurns (or Barry Bonds) http://eatslikeaduck.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Brain-Nerve-Tonic-Screenshot.png

Trout...Harper... We could go all day with this sort of thing, the reality is that a lot of first round picks in the MLB never pan out, at a much higher rate seemingly then other sports. One could make the argument that an NFL team should never draft a QB in round one because of Tim Couch, Ryan Leaf etc...again it goes round and round and doesn't really accomplish much.

That's a little unfair IMO. Buxton hasn't floundered at all yet, he still is wayyyy too young to say this and he is currently doing very well in AAA. Several top prospects struggle their first time in the majors, Trout comes immediately to mind. Also, Buxton likely wasn't ready to be brought up anyways. If he is still struggling in 3 years then maybe we can talk about him being a bust. Ditto with Stewart, he was a high school arm, those guys take longer to develop then the Jr/Sr college pitchers we have drafted quite a bit in the past. He was a top 30 prospect coming into this season and is pitching well as a 21 year old in A+. Berrios is another first rounder who has worked out "well" so far and has a bright future. Span was a very good CF for us, I don't see how you can include him in this list as well. He is a good player who will have a good career, most teams will take that 7 days a week out of their mid first round pick. Gomez was never picked by the Twins, he was part of the Mets system. Gibson and Plouffe haven't been all stars, but at least they have contributed and are solid players as well. You can't really call them busts. If you want to talk busts, then at least mention the busts like Hunt, Gutierrez. Overall I think the Twins have done a pretty solid job drafting in the first round IMO.

Yeah this is the most important part to me. There has been like zero turnover in the FO as a whole. Replacing Ryan with someone else internally (unless they were literally brought on in the last 24 months) is just asking for more of the same. The one exception to a "former Minnesota guy" would be Andy MacPhail, he has been away from Minnesota for 20 years now or so I believe, and has done a wonderful job rebuilding a Phillies team that was absolutely gutted when he took over.

1. 100% this, the Twins can talk all they want about their advanced statistics team, but they still are signing guys at their peak (after luck driven half seasons etc....Suzuki) and aren't efficiently finding talent in the FA market (or trade market). I would want the Twins to bring in a PROVEN advanced statistics expert and let him build out his team from there. 2. I disagree here. If you have a chance to draft a good arm, you take it. I would avoid RP like the plague though int he first 3 rounds. However, if you have a chance to get another Kohl Stewart you do it in a heartbeat. Shooter Hunt didn't work out, but I like that pick as well, high upside, high risk. No to the next Kyle Gibson or Alex Wimmers first round pick though (or Ben Revere) drafting mid rotation guys that high in the draft is a mistake. 3. I agree 100% here. Get an impact bat or an impact pitcher (i.e. an Ace or #2) with the money they spent on Santana, Milone, Hughes and Nolasco the Twins would have been able to sign Cueto (and one of Santana, Hughes and Nolasco). How much better would this rotation look with Cueto at the top for the next 5 years? Ditto with hitters. Get an impact player or don't bother, if you need filler types then your minor leagues should be able to produce you some back up INF, back up C, back up OF. I wouldn't mind some "middle" RP options though. 4. Yup 5. The Twins used to be very good at this, I think they have lost a few steps since Gardy was let go to be honest. 6. Agreed, it's kinda crazy that we are still waiting on this. 7,8,9. Yes yes yes. Well put overall and well thought out. Also one thing I would add is to set expectations coming in for the new F.O of the following: First 10 years: Minimum of 4 playoff appearances. (33% of the teams make the playoffs every year, 40% would be a little above average) Minimum of 1 world series title. Anything else would be viewed as failure. It might sound a bit harsh, but it's professional sports, the whole point of it is to win championships. Settling for sweeps in the first round of the playoffs (when you are fortunate enough to make the playoffs) doesn't cut it.

Why was May brought in to the 3rd inning? Does this team actually have anything that resembles a plan?

Good hockey and good basketball on tonight...we all know how this twins game ends.

Silicon Valley is one of the funniest comedies I have ever seen, The Americans is top notch television as well. Preacher looks promising, and while I am not super into GoT it is at least entertaining. Definitely start watching Silicon Valley and the Americans though, both are instant classics.

Caught the first three innings before a dinner. It appears I didn't miss much in the last 8 innings eh?