FrodaddyG

Arcia age 21 Season - .928 OPS between A+ and AA, 36 2B, 17 HR Jason Kubel age 21 season - a+ ball, .761 OPS, 20 2B, 5 HR At the same age last year, Arcia raked better than Kubel and with half his games at a higher level.

The tough part for me to grasp is where the real improvements come in the lineup and on defense. The lineup last year was about half acceptable to good production, and half meh. The better half has had Span and Revere removed from it, and they'll be handing off to question marks. Parmelee SHOULD (I hope) turn a corner at the big league level, but if his three true outcomes skew excessively towards Ks and he doesn't click, it could be rough. Hicks/Benson/Mussolini in CF, who can rightly guess, but you can probably assume at least a slight declione from Span's numbers. Willingham was a cornerstone guy in 2012, and had a career year. Can he repeat it at 34? I'd expect a slight taper off, but not a complete cliff. Doumit's 2012 was a career year, in large part due to actually staying healthy. I think he can maintain, but it will largely hinge on health, and it will take some good fortune to get 130+ games two years in a row out of a guy who has traditionally been injury prone in the past. Defensively, Hicks/Benson should fill in nicely for Span if one of them gets the gig out of ST, but Revere to Parmelee is a significant defensive downgrade no matter how you slice it. On the infield, Mauer should be Mauer. .320, 25 2B, 10 HR, OPS Mid 800s. Morneau could make a jump back to MVP form, but I'd say something more akin to the second half of last year is a more realistic expectation. 800 OPS, 20ish HR, 90 RBI. Solid. Outside of those two, the rest of those ABs (about 2000 over the course of the season) will be going to a whole lot of sub-700 OPS hitters. Plouffe may bounce back and lock down the hot corner, or perhaps he just had a ridiculous 40 game stretch last year, and the .230 hitter we've seen is just what he's destined to be. Up the middle, Dozier is the one hope of a productive hitter, but I also wouldn't put it past Gardy and Co to have a short leash with him if he struggles, and not hesitate to turn the starter's role over to one of the "slick fielders" or Old Man Carroll. (And that could happen in spring training and I wouldn't be shocked.) I'm not going to delve into the pitching, because we've been over all this before, and I really don't feel like making myself nauseous by looking at the 2012 pitching stats. The pitching should be somewhat better, if only because my mind rejects the idea of a staff worse than last year's being possible on this plane of existence. So, anyway, back to the offense. The lineup, with all it's question marks, will need solid to amazing/career years (with both top notch production and being able to stay on the field) from Mauer, Morneau, Willingham, and Doumit to even stay where it was last year, given the many gaps that likely will exist surrounding them in the lineup. When 3 of the 4 have had significant injury troubles in the past, the fact that losing any one of them for any significant period of time could cripple the lineup keeps my optimism tucked away behind my realist nature. But, weirder things have happened. (I'm just not sure there's enough bottles and lightning for both the lineup and the pitching staff to click enough to be competitive late into the year.)

Most pitchers don't need to work too hard on an "out" pitch when they are incapable of throwing three pitches in the strike zone without the batter being able to put one of them in play. And Frankie Liriano's slider takes offense to your "other than Santana" comment.

You beat me to the Tootle/Bashore/Bullock "power arm change in philosophy" draft. I just hope now they're shifting towards GOOD power arms.

They could always ship him in a wet paper bag and give him a bat. He'd never get out.

Particularly when he plays the one position your system is truly deep in.

Well, then that's on the Twins for not giving Sweet Drew his own hermetically sealed crate.

Ft. Myers is definitely a big step. It isn't like the Midwest League is typically a hitters' paradise, but the FSL is where hitting prospects (and most of the nation's elderly) go to die.

Do we? DO WE?!?!?!?!?

It's not like I linked to the site with the pics on it. We ended up having to host that site in Thailand or face Interpol's wrath. (Much like the Get-togethers.)

BYTO Hot Tub Get-together IV?

That's "mustache mojo".

Oh no, this could revive the "Berrios as Pedro Martinez 2.0" talk.

I think he was the consultant for the aforementioned Matt Harrington during his second go-round in the draft. Can't say that worked out well.

I like the idea of Ryan as FDR and the unpaid stat intern in the Oppenheimer role. Is there a way to get JR a mistress, a wheelchair, and polio just to add to the effect?

Yeah, Dozier!!! Woo!!! Wait, what?

As someone who played soccer as my second spring sport growing up, I'm digging these designs. I'd actually have to take a long look at one of these if they were real.

Could I put this Death Pool on my 2014 Death Pool list?

It isn't that important to the Twins that he may fall apart. I'm just not sure a rebuilding team needs to go for such a high degree of difficulty when building up a AAA bullpen.

If I had to guess, I'd say the inability to stay on the field more than half a season would be the primary concern for promotion.

Do you really want the Twins' staff getting a hold of a 41 year old who is coming off of a "rest and rehab" regime for his torn UCL?

Man, I wish I had Buck's Contreras photo from the BYTO forum. I miss Buck.

And he did it because he could!!!

I think it's what a stroke looks like when it happens mid-sentence.

I think you can if the pitching in question is 41. And that's a Cuban 41, which is probably closer to 50.