DaveW

Yeah, Sano should be hitting third until someone else is able to be a .900+ OPS guy. Sano should be getting the most at bats as possible this year and should be coming up to the plate in the first inning of every single game. As far as the rest of the lineup goes, in a perfect world I would roll with this: 1. Buxton (assuming he starts to hit) 2. Mauer (Assuming he bounces back) 3. Sano (best hitter, hits third) 4. Dozier 5. Park 6.Rosario 7. Plouffe 8. Escobar 9. JR Suzuki

He did that while sporting a 25% k rate and a completely unsustainable .357 BABIP. The BABIP will certainly come down, the question is can he get his k rate down, as of now it's tough to say because of his big time struggles against the curve. If it doesn't you are looking at a guy who will struggle to hit .240 or so in the majors with not enough "pop/power" to make up for it. That doesn't mean he doesn't have a future, just he likely tops out as a backup moving forward. If he can get the k rate down, then he can become hopefully an average catcher. Color me skeptical for now though....he does have youth on his side though.

And no, Sano-Rosario-Arcia would absolutely NOT work in the short term.

Dude it's 29 at bats...you don't need to bring Quentin north at all. Suzuki also has a .971 OPS in ST this year....again SSS and spring training numbers are pointless overall, everyone is "mashing" because 50% of the at bats are against AAAA or worse type pitchers. Don't believe me? Mastrionni is above .820 OPS Sweeny is above .800

It's apparent that Suzuki is still the starting catcher, you don't need to trade a young guy with upside to fill a "back up catcher" need. If Suzuki wasn't around, I understand it a bit more, but in this case, it just seemed like a trade to make a trade. An OF defense of Sano-Rosario-Arcia is a little less than "sub par" it would be an unmitigated disaster.

JR Murphy had a .350 BABIP+ in his time in the majors and his numbers still weren't that good. One glance at that and his 25% k rate shows that it's going to take a significant improvement across the board to become anything more than a backup (his D needs work as well) More to the fact, by having JR Murphy on the roster, we are now forced to rush a guy in CF who clearly isn't ready at the plate and will struggle to hit .200 the first couple months more likely than not. Sort of reminds me on how the Twins rushed the guy who they traded for Murphy to begin with, it's sort of like deja vu all over again, no? (note: I think Buxton ends up being a stud, I just don't see how giving him the starting role out of ST where he will struggle more than likely is a good decision)

fine. I will talk about this trade, you seemingly want to give the Twins the benefit of the doubt on it. While I give the GM who has beaten the Twins 9 straight playoff games (and has won World Series) the benefit of the doubt on it. Ntm most everyone around baseball said the Yankees won that trade. If the wild made a trade with the Blackhawks would everyone just give Fletcher the benefit of the doubt? Nope. Also, the Yankees seem to be pretty damn spot on when it comes to evaluating catchers.

You are right, not all of those happened under the current GM (who has failed to win a playoff game in 10+ years and has won exactly one playoff series in 18 seasons) As far as being interested in what has happened the past 2-3 seasons: -Suzuki extension (terrible) -Pelfrey signing and re-signing (terrible) -Nolasco signing (terrible doesn't even describe it) -Hughes re-signing (terrible) -Santana signing (TBD) -Jepsen trade (good) -Park signing (TBD) -Roster crunch that forces your best player(Sano) in a position he can't handle (terrible) -Forcing young talented pitchers (May...Duffey perhaps) out of the rotation in order to give starts to mediocre or terrible pitchers (Nolasco, Pelfrey etc) -Colabello walking (Not terrible, but definitely a whiff) -Stauffer signing (terrible results, but meh) -Not fixing the pen earlier last season and relying on Boyer types in crunch spots (terrible, may have cost the Twins a wild card berth in a "down" year and a "lucky" year) Playoff appearances the last 2-3 years: (0), overall record during this time? 48 games under .500 Yeah, I'd say that's a pretty significant indictment.

Murphy becoming league average isn't a solid endorsement when their are already a ton of other indictments of the Twins scouting and analytics when it comes to trades (and DFA and FA) Garza and Bartlett for Delmon Young Letting Liriano go Letting David Ortiz go Nolasco signing Colabello etc Murphy has a long ways to be league average IMO, he can't keep up his .350+ BABIP, so he needs to get that K rate down or he is going to be screwed. Hicks at least had his defense to fall back on (though he was flawed offensively), Murphy? Not sure about that.

I think Mauer has a bounceback year and posts a .820-.840 OPS, plenty of rubes will still be crying that he doesn't hit the longball, but he will contribute quite a bit.

Park factors etc aside, the thing that stands out to me the most with JR is his 25% strikeout rate thus far in the majors and complete inability to hit the curve. I saw him play quite a bit with NYY last year, color me completely unimpressed. He looks like he will be a decent back up C, but nothing more at this stage. This would be fine if the Twins still had a guy like Mauer behind the dish or a good (or hell even average starting catcher behind the dish) but this hardly solves any issues as Suzuki is still going to play in 50%+ of the games. I just wish they actually went out and solved the starting catcher issue.

Sweeny has no business anywhere near the 25 man roster to start the season. If he makes the team over Arcia or Santana I may have to just boycott the season.

I wouldn't.

It is a hitters park (beyond just home runs)

Hey the Twins are to! Adding Sano to the OF and Abad to the bullpen is pretty much the same thing!

Two mediocre catchers doesn't make a right, hopefully Murphy can hit like Seth says, I just don't see it. Hopefully the Twins can address the position long term later this season (dump Suzuki for anything you can get and trade for a legit starting catcher) or this off season.

Keeping Quentin over Arcia would be an absolute disaster.

Graham really doesn't have a real place on this roster. The twins should let him go somewhere were he can play and contribute

First off, no need to call out individual posters bud, but since you did.Yes, I clearly don't understand baseball rosters, that is my problem. /sarcasm The problem with starting Nolasco 4-5 games over Duffey is that those 4-5 stinkers he may throw could cost the twins a wild card spot when it all comes down to it. Nolasco should not be starting ANY games until plan A, B and C all fail (or get injured) Let him earn it through pitching well in the pen and waiting his turn. Sending down Duffey to let Nolasco get any starts is simply absurd. What exactly did Duffey do in 2015 not to earn first crack at the 2016 rotation?? Especially over Nolasco!! Giving guy spots based on ST results is a terrible way to run a roster as well. (Unless you are dealing with rookies or reclamation projects)

Thankfully April games only count 25% as much as August and Sept games!

Uninspiring. I still can't believe we are actually going into the season with Sano in the OF. I didn't want to believe it, but here we are. Nolasco needs to be nowhere near the rotation and the Twins really have screwed Trevor May, which is unfortunate because he can be a solid #2/#3 in this league, the twins are basically robbing him of 60+ million additional in lifetime earnings. As the team looks now it looks to be a 70-76 win team, will 76 wins be enough to keep/save Ryan's and ST peters job? I hope not.

Puckett was my freaking hero growing up, man, 1991, I was 6 and a half years old, I was about 2 years into my total Twins fandom/obsession. Some of my very first memories are driving up from Nebraska to KC with my family, staying in the Twins hotel (back when you could do that) and watching them play (and meeting a few of the players form time to time) heaven on earth for a 5/6 year old boy growing up loving baseball. in 91, at 6 and a half my Dad got a chance to buy a pair of tickets to game 7 through his brother in law at the time, my Dad spent a good amount of cash on those two tickets, and instead of taking my Mom or a friend, who choose to take me instead (with my Mother's blessing of course). We drove up half way during game 6 to stay at a families friend, I believe it was Sioux Falls. They happened to be Braves fans, I will never forget knowing the Twins just had to/would for sure win the game, after all they needed to win it for me to see them in game 7 live! As we all know, Puck had, what is likely the greatest single game in the history of Minnesota Sports. We celebrated, drove up to Minneapolis the next morning, got to the Dome about 3 hours early and the rest is history. Game 7! Puckett wasn't the hero that game, but it didn't matter. That still goes down as the greatest day of my life up until now. Kirby and the Twins didn't win another world series again (or come close during his era) I finally met him the year he got injured (in that same KC hotel we went to every year....my Dad and Mom met him in an elevator years earlier, but were so star struck to even get out more then a couple words or ask for an autograph) He wasn't playing, I was on the early end of being a teenager, but God Damn if that wasn't one of the coolest moments of my life, meeting my childhood hero/idol. You can't ignore the other side of Kirby that came out after his playing career. I will never forget it, I read the article by Deford online when it came out, it really, really, really hit me hard, my hero suddenly was turned into a sex crazed (looking back this was a stupid angle of his article), adulterer and a Woman beater. This was a tough pill to swallow. I had a tennis tournament that evening and lost 6-0, 6-1 to get bounced in the first round, when I walked off my Dad mentioned that Kirby was on the front page of SI and that I shouldn't read it, of course I already had. It was tough to read it, maybe I was a bit naive at the time (most 17 year olds are I imagine) but that whole thing hit me like a punch to the gut. Now, my thoughts towards Puck are mixed, man, what a joy it was to watch him play, he gave us all a lot of amazing years as Minnesota/Twins fans. But I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little pissed at Puck for not being the great human/hero we all thought he was, maybe that's unfair as all of us are flawed, but still....some of his accusations etc are pretty unforgivable, especially now as I am older. I'm not sure how to feel about this all as a whole, I think we can separate our love for Puck as the player, and Puck the person (especially post playing days) Either way, in my experience, and especially in my memories with my pops (we are die hard Twins fans to this day) I must admit that my memories re: Puck involved are a ton more good than bad. I just wish he could have ended up close to as good as a person as a ballplayer. Oh well, that isn't the case and we have to deal with that. I guess what we can do from here on out is not try to make his same mistakes. Anyways, I'm sure that's a long rambling mess above, just good to talk about Puck and how awesome he was, and what we can learn from him.

One question: Is the goal to win a World Series? If so: the System has clearly been broken during the TR and BS era. 20+ combined years, and they haven't even been back to a World Series. Only once did they make the final 4. Last I checked there were anywhere between 14 and 16 teams in the AL during that time and 28-30 teams overall. That is failure plain and simple. Until they start throwing parades for "playoff participants" or hand out rings for them, I don't see how anyone can call the Ryan era nothing but a failure to achieve the end goals. Morale victories and going .500 or slightly above is for mid tier college programs. In the pros, you gotta get some hardware to "win"

:banghead:

The Twins system has been broke for Sometime. The worst thing for it is when Terry Ryan decided to come back as the GM. After the Smith debacle it would have been a perfect time to clean house a bit and bring in an outside candidate. Of course that would only happen with a franchise with an owner who actually cared about more than just the balance sheet. Don't even get me started on St. Peter, I can't respect him at after he greenlit and used a kid with cancer to push for a new ballpark. Ryan is at least a great guy and had a nice run for a while. St Peter? can't wait for him to be gone.