jokin

To remove some of the catcher clutter, perhaps maybe the Yankees would offer to trade Aaron Hicks to get back JR?

Nope.

Because in MLB there's always a PLACE for a PLACEholder.

Good. Let's get Porcello thrown out of the game early. It's about the only chance the Twins have to win today with Tepesch on the mound.

Maybe... And maybe not. After all, how many MLB greats started their careers at SS and transitioned well to other positions in the field? I can easily envision that all four of Polanco, Gordon, Vielma and Wander Javier all ending up on the 25-man roster together by around mid-2019 or 2020. Dozier moves on to FA in 2019. Sano moves from 3rd to 1st with the retirement of Mauer after 2018. Polanco gets traded for pitching during the transition of the 4 pieces in either 2019 or 2020. Vielma becomes the high quality utility guy.... and 2nd, SS and 3rd are all ably filled both defensively and offensively through 2025. It could happen.

Definitely concluding where Buxton hits in the order based on meaningless games in September was more wishcasting and pleasing Dozier than using good sense. It's clear now that Buxton is prone to getting into bad funks ala his debut season- falling into familiar 0-2 holes and literally looking lost at the plate without a plan. Get him down to the bottom of the order to work this out in real time while "hiding" in plain sight- also hitting in front of a high OBP guy might help him some in avoiding swinging futilely at those sliders in the dirt- Mauer doesn't appear to be that guy any more. When Buxton's struggling like this, just making contact is the best way out of this slump- the pressure at living up to the expectations for power in the 3-hole appears to be playing in Buck's head. Just watch the opposing batteries when Buxton is due up... they're all licking their chops knowing a sure out is coming up to bat. Since the Twins are off to the best start since 1987, maybe it's time to cut back on the experimenting and move up and/or keep up in the order the likes of: Sano (#3?), Kepler (#2 vs RHP), Castro (#5 or #6 while he is hot) and even Rosario (due to heat up at any moment- #5 or #6?) and Polanco getting a shot up the order (seems to rise to challenges- according to Fangraphs- Polanco is the only player with all three plate discipline stats @ 100%- Contact/ZContact/OContact- how about Buck looking at Polanco contact videos in his spare time?). If Vargas comes back healthy, give him a tryout in the Clean-up spot. Mauer seems destined to bat #6 or lower very soon. The braintrust appears to have made a non-rostering decision on Park to last at least until they make a decision on everyone else at the position on the 40-man roster-- Not a big Park fan, but I was more than a bit concerned with Sano at 1B, especially when Sano stretched for a throw from Polanco and did the mini-splits- that's a season-ending torn hamstring candidate in waiting in this early season cold weather.

Looks like a born set-up man to me. (I think either Falvey or Levine are one of those few bosses who actually reads their employees resumes!)

Either of them...? Which two do you have zero faith in..? Molly and Allen... or the "Wonder Twins"? Or all four of them?

Right, not very scary.

IOW... (Why did anyone, after he returned, EVER) Trust In Terry? 2013-14-15-16 Amateur drafts... Is anyone ever going to help the starting pitching staff in any meaningful way? If it is now apparently not going to be Jay, or Stewart (Are Kohl's health issues an unanticipated/disregarded underlying concern? Or is it his lack of baseball experience that is retarding his progression through MiLB? Twins coaching staff's persistent inability to develop very talented young arms into productive major leaguers commensurate with their upside potential? Some combination of all of the above?)

Why?

*** #1 Understatement of the Offseason. ### Will we ever find out whose bright idea this was? And is he in any way still associated with the Twins?

Perhaps you saw it over the weekend... the Cardinals (or Red Sox) broadcasting crew noted that Perkins doesn't look anywhere near close to being ready. Velocity was reported to be only 78 MPH. I'm guessing 60-Day.

After tonight, no one can say anything but that both teams were as serious as a heart attack . What a great game.

Congrats to Eddie Rosario for getting the Sac Fly that gets PR to Wed. WBC finals.

Either of you care to speculate on some names that might be on the short list? Seems to me there's still a lot of previous-management's team-favorite "dead weight" populating various rosters system-wide...

Suspect.

I agree that this isn't (likely) going to happen. But- Who is left and willing (and available, to spend $$$ on) that represents good use of the $10-$20M? *(Morneau, Manship, Worley, Swarzack, AJ, Nathan and Jepsen are all available and could all be brought back for under that price, combined.... J/K) Who are the best cost/benefit, risk/reward, signees (ala Ian Desmond 2016 and the Rangers getting that #1 pick back) looking for 1-year or 2-year deals? If the Twins are really in on Bautista, wouldn't Trumbo make more sense? Jason Hammel has no QO issues and would be good Phil Hughes/Berrios insurance at the backend of the rotation and possibly good trade bait by June/July... (NL pitcher, I know, I know). That's about it on the "bigger" FA names vis a vis the Twins' price range and fit (correct me if I've missed someone else) Would Neftali Feliz sign a short-term deal if the Twins paid a slight premium? They just missed out on Santiago Casilla- Oakland got him as a high-potential flip candidate- would have been a good get at a bargain price (2/$11M). It seems like signing one or all of: Sergio Romo (eye-popping career K/BB of 5.6- among RPs- better than Kenley Jansen and just under Mariano Rivera), Boone Logan (LOOGY extraordinaire) and Fernando Salas (came up with Cards org and plenty of playoff team exp.) on such a deal would be relatively cheap and very utilitarian, and if any repeats his recent success in 2017, a wonderfully possible trading chip come July. Feldman- (knows how to play the sign-and-flip game) Hundley- (upgrade in the catching corps.... RH bat complements Castro's LH bat... very flippable when someone's catcher goes on the DL, good temporary landing place- with Garver waiting in the wings) Chris Carter- will likely come inexpensively and on a one-year deal... besides, signing him will serve to help Twins fans see in real time what might have been with ABW...

Jim Thome, Part Deux?

"Pretending" or wishing? And Burdi has his own set of ???s. Not sure the Dodgers would bite on this deal- even if the Twins substituted Berrios or Santana for Gibson

* ...Insert "Slippery Slope Theory Here...

Uhhh, yeah? It takes some real champeen chutzpah and trolling for any Twins fan to try to find fault on the part of the GM from 86-92. From making exactly the right hire in TK, to breaking down and rebuilding a spent pitching staff in near-record time and then producing 2 WS champs and 2 more legit WS contenders over 6 full seasons required alot more than dumb luck and Calvin's young stable of inherited talent. Plus, he was dealing the entire time with an owner who had been talked into taking on the Twins by his buddies- Bud Selig and Jerry Reinsdorf- as a tax shelter, not to establish a winning baseball tradition.

Remember back when Gardy appeared wholly intimidated by all of Molly's newfangled stat stuff? Good times. Yep, and my best guess is that the new GM Is going to give Molitor multiple dings with respect to stat analysis on his performance review.... that is... provided that Molitor somehow survives in the position long enough to get a performance review...

Yup. I've documented elsewhere the numbers Vargas put up in May, 2015. He was by far the Twins best hitter- and seemed to have "made the adjustments" from the hitting habits that the Twins management chose to publicly chastise him for in April of that year. It's ironic that Molitor came into the manager's job with accompanying praise for his careful attention to sabremetric information to help guide him on when and how to utilize his available offensive weaponry- and yet willingly pulled the plug on Vargas when he was hitting on all cylinders, twice now.

Parade Leader Paul Molitor himself was quoted a few days ago- something to the effect of: "the gulf between AAA and MLB talent is just about at its zenith right about now." And AAA is the home for both many AAAA players as well as both future MLB stars and serviceable major league role players. It seems likely that the body of career evidence suggests that Parmelee has continually fallen just below the "serviceable major league role player" threshold- and thus, wears the AAAA label rather deservedly. And in conjunction with the Parmelee assessment, your defense of the SWB rotation is more an indictment and "denigration" on the Twins, rather than elevation of the SWB players' status and ML potential. Let's be brutally honest here: The Twins obviously have the worst team pitching performance in 2016- but they also have the worst team pitching performance for this decade- see Fangraphs line here: http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=pit&lg=all&qual=0&type=8&season=2016&month=0&season1=2011&ind=0&team=0,ts&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0 So therefore, it really isn't too far-fetched to think that the SWB AAA rotation would all probably likely supplant 5 spots on the Twins' 28 or so top pitchers depth chart between the major league 40-man and the top pitchers at Rochester. Just look at the Twins and Red Wings current pitching rosters- there's AAAA-ness everywhere you look. And given how poorly the Twins' hitters frequently look against unfamiliar and younger and inexperienced pitchers, even when they lack any level of pedigree... it's really not very far-fetched to envision that a good AAA staff could have a modicum of success the first time the Twins' hitters see them throw.