Oldgoat_MN

A painful day for the Kansas City Royals and baseball fans everywhere. RIP Yordano.

That's kind of what I've been thinking. I'm high on Hildenberger, et al, and wonder if the Twins can use a stocked bullpen to trade for pitchers who look promising in A+ or AA as a way of bringing in some potential top of the rotation pitchers (none of whom are a 'lock', of course). Right now I feel that all we have that might be really good is Romero.

Hmmm... The Tigers have money, too. Maybe not LA Dodgers money, but pretty close. Both Pelfrey and Sanchez come off the books at the end of 2017. I don't see them as a team concerned with dumping salary. And Jones is a wild card. Likely a huge drop off in production from Kinsler. I agree that the Dodgers could offer an OF that might look attractive to the Tigers, but the Dodgers already feel they need to improve their OF. Maybe they could give Toles and Calhoun to the Tigers and roll with Verdugo in the OF. This all depends how easy Kinsler is going to make it for the Dodgers, too. Off topic: looking at the Dodgers top prospects, do the Dodgers even know anybody who bats right handed?

There are a lot of us right there with you, brother.

You said what I was thinking.

I appreciate what Thrylos, DocBauer and others are saying, that it is too early to predict the season given that we really don’t know what the roster will look like in April. But here is my question: Why haven’t we gotten an outfielder? Or signed a pitcher? I think it is because we are not going to get one. The OF has nothing to do with Dozier being traded or not. Palka and Granite are not ready. We need a 4th OF unless we are going to roll with Grossman, and if that’s true it means we are hoping that there are no injuries in 2016 to our 3 starting OFs because no one (no Twins fan) wants to see much of Grossman in the OF while opponents are potentially hitting the ball somewhere near him. Had the Twins wanted to shore up the OF or SP one would like to think that they would have used something other than the Terry Ryan approach (when all the good players are taken we can sign someone cheap who is afraid no one is going to hire them). I believe that the evidence suggests that the Twins are basically standing pat. Had they wanted to hire an impact player, well, those guys are usually snapped up by this time. It doesn’t mean we cannot still get someone, but who is left that the Twins can sign and say, “He will make a difference!”? I believe we are going into this season hoping Grossman’s very bad year in the OF was something of an aberration (plausible) and we are going to watch what these guys from last September can do in 2017. Barring a Dozier trade, I see little that will make a difference at this point. Use platoons to help players succeed? Yeah, we don’t do that. I think last September’s team can win 70-75 games managed the way they were in 2016.

The most obvious platoon is first base and DH being between Park, Mauer and Vargas. Rosario's splits are not that great against LH pitchers, but they are better than Kepler's. I agree with tobi0040 though. Still not sure of any options Molitor might take advantage of.

We should talk to them!

BTW: Jose De Leon is their #8 RHP. Last sentence: "Though he missed time in 2016 with an ankle injury and shoulder inflammation, he projects as a durable mid-rotation starter."

Pleased to see they are this high on Gonsalves. I keep getting the idea that no one finds his stuff overwhelming, but he gets results and has done so at every level. I hope the Twins are more aggressive with him (put him in AAA and see what happens) and maybe we will see him before he is 26 years old.

Thousands of posts on this same subject and I'm still enjoying it. Clearly there is something very wrong with me...

If coach Allen can get Berrios to calm down we should expect to see a decent year out of him. Santiago is younger than Gibson and has had more success, so if you want to be optimistic about Gibson... I am not counting on anything out of Hughes, personally, but I feel secure that he will not be taking the mound unless he is actually good at getting batters out. ESan will almost certainly be ESan. Maybe something out of Mejia. I have limited expectation of Gonsalves. I think you're right. We clearly have to bring 'Little Red Corvette' back.

FanGraphs rated Hughes as the #5 pitcher in all of MLB for 2014. I believe It was a defensible decision based on the points ThejacKmp made. His post reminded me of our situation at that time. Remembering the potential upside of the signing tends to dissipate over time. And it was an unusually aggressive move by TR.

You realize that only 4 first basemen in MLB had an OPS of .930 or greater, right? Would you tell Paul Goldschmidt that one more year like 2016 and he is benched? A little harsh. Mauer was 2nd on the team with a .363 OBP. The OPS wasn't vintage Mauer, but it's not nothing.

I've still been wrestling with how we got to November with a choice of Donald or Hillary. This makes so much sense!

Nice article. Thanks. I think that the omission of Buddy Boshers is a mistake. He had a 1.167 WHIP with 9.3 K/9 and a 2.84 FIP. According to FanGraphs (for RP with >30 innings in 2016) he was behind Pressly and Rogers but ahead of Kintzler, May and Tonkin (as well as Abad and Jepson). His minor league numbers also suggest this was not an outlier year. Also, I'm hoping to see Shaggy as a closer before late 2018. Really don't know what to say about May. I really like him but I'm not so sure a move to the starting rotation is going to go as well as many seem to hope.

There was really no good reason not to believe that Joe Mauer was Hall of Fame bound when they inked that contract. He was an excellent catcher as well as one of the best hitters in the game. I don't think people expected him to have every year look like 2009, but had his decline been gradual his HOF case would have been pretty sound. Two more years of roughly what we got this year, I expect, though I also expect him to play a good deal less as Park and Vargas (or someone else) begin to give him days off more frequently.

This was great, Parker. Thank you. It's also fun to read how all the posters here remember it. Special for all of us. Interesting thing about your story: Gibson apologizing for his .286/.375/.476 (.851) slash line. Well, he apologized for the strikeouts. Look at that and you will see (or remember) how much game has changed as far as how people appreciate the contributions made by the players. Yes, "he walks too much" was once considered by some to be a put-down of a ballplayer.

I have to believe we will either see Wheeler this year or he will be released. At 26 years old it is probably time to see if he can get through an MLB lineup or move along and use his roster spot on someone younger.

If Dozier is that far down on the list because they expect him to regress then I wonder why 6 of the 8 above him being older doesn't factor in. We'll know more when the games have been played. I'll be very surprised if Dozier is in 9th place at that time.

nicksaviking nailed it on the 'defense first' issue and nytwinsfan pointed out the important OBP value. Peolpe talk about defense first players then complain when those guys get regular opportunities in the lineup. Like, every 9th time there they are again! And Florimon was perhaps the perfect example. It's frustrating and the 'magic' they display at their position loses some of its luster. For a guy with a pretty low BA Garver has consistently managed pretty good OBP numbers. That suggests that he may be able to figure out his issues with high caliber breaking balls. A nice review for the Twins at a very important position.

I had never heard of the BPro Luck Index. Fun stuff. If anyone else is new to it (only me?) here is Part 1 and Part 2. One thing this does NOT take into account is the manager having one of your best hitters bunt a runner to second base when you are down by one run in the FOURTH INNING! How much luck would you need to overcome managerial decision like that?

Evidence suggests that Polanco will be a good MLB player. However, without a track record I do not believe he would demand much of a return. And we already know that the 2B market is pretty cold.

Man mikelink45, I really wanted to LIKE this, but I just can't do it. Pitching wins games, you are right. More correctly, pitching gives you an opportunity to win games. If the Twins were holding out for Bellinger then they are being foolish. Not because Bellinger would not be helpful, but because Bellinger is an intricate part of the Dodgers future plans. If you grasp that then you need to be respectful in your demands. I don't think asking for more than De Leon is inappropriate. Even if it's just Mitchell White. Put he and John Curtiss together and see if one pans out, If they both pan out we have two excellent starters in 3 or 4 years. Cannot quite go for the 1:1.

And we picked up Joe Niekro in '87. And Les Straker had never pitched an MLB inning, but made 31 starts in 1987. Berenguer and Reardon each had 8 wins out of the bullpen, Atherton picking up another 7. I'm up for all that happening, but I don't think it's a very precise formula.