Thrylos

Hard to tell. He just had arthroscopic surgery on the elbow to clean up some bone spurs. He will be ready by ST. There is some question on whether the Blue Jays make a qualifying offer, but still I see him signing for a 3 year some place. And if the Jays make a qualifying offer and the Twins sign him, the Twins will lose only their second round pick (which is losing less than what they lost when they re-signed Capps)...

I would venture to guess that Buxton might be the top prospect in the AFL this season too (This is like saying the Mall of America is the biggest mall in Bloomington)

Agree about the planet part, but I'd rather have them sign Josh Johnson & Phil Hughes to 3 year contracts for the same $ than Tanaka. $20 mil a year for 6 years, is a Mauer-like albatross of a contract for an unproven player who is not Mauer...

I am still mad at everyone in the Twins' front office who was there and were part of the contraction, including the First Scout. Hard to talk about what ifs and hypothetical situations, but I would still follow baseball and not sure whether I would follow one of my NL local teams like the Pirates or the Mets (don't care about the Phillies) or not.

I think that Gibson will be better. Worley's got to be better. He was out of shape (so bad that it screwed his mechanics) and hurt. I am not sure about Diamond. His 2013 was just like his 2011 and given his limited stuff, I think that 2012 was probably the aberration here. Unless they trade Correia, he is in. I'd pencil in Gibson and Worley. I hope they get 2 FAs better than Correia and Ps who could be on top of most rotations, and that is the rotation. Correia is a place holder for Meyer in 2014 and this is it until someone from the minors really steps up. This could be a competitive rotation, depending who they bring on board...

I think that he is better than a lot of the reports out there. Saw him pitch in West Virginia a couple years ago. He is an one pitch pony, but his FB can be lethal. That 97 is average. It can go up to 99. The problem is that his secondary stuff is not there. At. All. Got a working slider but it is really a work in progress. Working with the guy who taught Johan and Pedro and Randy J the change up, will only help. Happy with the pickup.

We did see Part I of what happens: The people responsible for 99+96+96 were rewarded with 2 year contracts. Of course Ryan is accountable "only" for the 96+96, but that should have been enough for an owner who cared to hold him accountable. Part II will happen next week in Fort Myers, but I really do not expect much other than token changes like bringing in a seventh coach and maybe adding another guy here or there in the Front Office. In the apathy (0) to panic and over-reaction (100) scale, retaining the GM, Manager and all of the coaches of the 99+96+96 debacle is a 2. Firing the GM and/or the Manager and his coaches would have been more like a 50. Like it or not, it is the norm in any business (including baseball.) I would love to see in the Pohlad portfolio of businesses, whether in any single one other than the Twins, the C-suite would be retained after 3 seasons of ranking in the bottom 5% among competitors in the marketplace. That simple. If you want to win, you have to deem losing unacceptable. If losing is acceptable...

an ungodly .175 BABIP

Here is the issue with this statement that I suspect reflects the Twins FO philosophy: Presley's ceiling is a fourth OF, PR (if he gets better on the bases - totally not impressed), late inning defensive replacement. With Presley as their starting CF, the Twins are not fielding a competitive team. I suspect that he is like the 28th best starting CF in the majors. If the Twins are not fielding a competitive team, it make sense to give more reps to the young people who will potentially be the future of this organization (i.e. Hicks.) Even though, like with Presley as a CF, they might not be fielding a competitive team for a season or so with Hicks as a CF. Same arguement can be made for Doumit and/or Willingham vs. Arcia, for example. Going with a guy that might help them win 70 instead of 68 games, instead of having Hicks getting reps against MLB pitchers and not the AAA junkballers so he will develop, makes no sense to me.

If we are talking about which rookie had the best season, it will be hard to argue against Thielbar. The problem is that what he did likely will not happen again (.175 BABIP, 4.14 xFIP). I think that the most promising rookie season was by Arcia first and Pinto (who I know was just a Sept call up) second. Unfortunately no Twins' rookies with be in the AL ROY discussions... Hopefully next season.

HOF is about career achievements, thus cumulative vs. rate stats... If one player had the best season ever and then got a career ending injury (like the Bo Jackson premise) he does not belong to the Hall of Fame. There are actually guidelines for HOF voters, which unfortunately are not publicized much... As far as comparables, and lights out closers for similar career intervals go for Nathan, check out John Wetteland (who arguably was a better pitcher because of the steroid era) and ask whether he is a Hall of Famer. The voters' answer was a loud "NO".

I would actually be shocked if they did so... All they need to do is to add them to the AAA roster to protect them from the MiLB portion of the draft. Very low probability that they are taken in the MLB portion. Extremely low. They need to protect other players (pitchers) who may be taken and probably need about 5 spots for real talent at the MLB level.

Hard to see Nathan get in if Lee Smith is not in and I cannot see Lee Smith (3rd in total saves) getting in.

Depending on how you define "solid", the 1987 Twins had 1.5 solid starters (Viola, Blyleven) and the 1991, 3 (Erickson, Morris, Tapani.) 5 solid starters was a tall order even for the Yankee dynasty teams... So a few good starters are needed, but the Twins did not have any since 2010 with maybe the exception of Baker in 2011 What winning teams (like the 2 Twins' teams) have are: a. Veteran clubhouse leadership (think Puckett "ride on my shoulders" and Morris' game 7) b. Pride in winning (those Twins teams rarely lost at home. They just did not let their opponents to beat them at home. Matter of pride.) c. The ability to perform better as a team. Lots like the #1 the OP mentions. The last 2, in my book, are reflections on the Manager. The first , a reflection on the GM and the Manager.

Hard to throw all of those in the same bucket here. Some of these guys were out of shape and hurt (Worley) others are young and have an upside (Escobar, Hendriks, Hicks), a few are at or past their primes (Colabello, Walters, Thomas) and the jury is still out on Parmelee and Hernandez (even though I do not think much of Hernandez, but he will be better to keep in AAA than a 34 year old MiLB FA...) Surprised by the DeVries outright, I think that he potentially had a future at least in the pen...

Impatient? 1991 That was 22 years ago. A generation ago. How more patience do you need?

Let me twist your point a bit: if a General Manager does not give a manager a team to compete, then he does not do his job and should be accountable for this, correct? Cannot have it both ways. Ryan and/or Gardenhire should be fired if there were a single bone of accountability in this organization.

Hicks, like every other player, has the right to chose not to play winter ball. The Twins a. should not force him (they did not try to force Parmelee or Dozier last season even thought the stinkage was similar) and b. do not publicize the fact and their internal discussions (and throw him under the bus publicly, which, unfortunately has become the "Twins way" for players disagreeing with Terry and Gardy recently.)

The current roster loves Gardy and his pals and Terry, because in other teams they would be collecting AAA paychecks and not the $400K minimum MLB salary.

Allegedly (I was flying and could not listen to the press conference), Pohlad with the same breath that handed Gardy and his pals an extension, said that a lot of changes will happen in 2014 (can someone verify?) Other than the sarcasm in the inconsistency and mutual conflict between the action and the promise, one would have to assume that the Twins will: a. blame 2013 on the cement "settling" at TF and start watering it about an hour before doors open before every home game b. fire the bullpen catcher and replace the person in the TCBear costume (heck, 2011 was BS' fault, 2012 was Jerry's and Stellie's fault. This is a highly accountable organization. Someone deserves the blame.) c. As Ryan did when I was hearing part of his interview on ESPN1500 a couple of hours ago, blame the season on "luck" and invest in a whole bunch of horseshoes, voodoo dolls etc to improve luck. Heck, hiring a voodoo practitioner to add to the MLB scouting staff, will help as well d. Change the sausage & hot dog providers at TF. They got to do it every year, until it sticks. (see c. above.) e. Find a former Twins' player (preferably a light hitting one) and make him the seventh coach. He can coach the coaches or the aforementioned voodoo practitioner. Or be a voodoo practitioner himself. This is such a poorly run franchise, that is starting to move from a tragical to a purely comical situation especially when the same old people are praising the same old people's achievements even when those amount to having the worse record in the league cumulatively (i.e. could not do any worse) the last 3 years. Twins' fans got to laugh, because they have done enough crying and having their intelligence insulted by these guys, should not be an option any more...

Totally unfair to MacPhail and Kelly who won 2 World Champrionships in 4 seasons and were blocked on winning the division that era by the cheating A's of Tony LaRussa. The weak division winning and 3 and out Gardenhire teams cannot touch those teams...

I'd love it if the Twins do this, with the only caveat that I'd rather see one of Correia (trade him) or Pelfrey and Meyer as their number 3. And between Correia and Pelfrey I prefer Pelfrey because of his velocity, K/9, age, potential upside after TJ & many mentions of clubhouse leadership presence. But having them both in the expence of Meyer, no way.

Name recognition and wishful thinking

But they don't reflect on how well the ball was coming off the pitchers' hands or whether or not they can spin it out there, which are two of the most important criteria of success for the people who are ru(i)ning the Twins...

Not sure who started this suburban fairy tale (must have been Terry Ryan), but it is totally unsubstantiated. (copy and paste) Tim Lincecum Matt Garza Dan Haren Ricky Nolasco Josh Johnson Ervin Santana and possibly (they have options) : James Shields Ubaldo Jimenez Jon Lester Plus the oldies, but all of these guys are relatively young. You can build two very good rotations with those guys, unlike last season (end copy and paste) As far as Hendriks is concerned, I'd rather see May and Meyer and Gibson internally first and (because he is young) let him pitch in Rochester until he improves his stuff...