Kelly Vance

Hello? It was ONE GAME. You don't make a blanket pronouncement based on one game.

Like death and taxes, it is a sure thing that Nick and I will disagree. No offense. Erv is our best pitcher and he is worth every penny. He may regress, but I remember several games where our BP blew his win in progress. He is an innings eater and when he is on he can throw a complete game... 7th in voting for Cy Young and was under rated at that. You bet on guys like that, not against them. I'd rather see him on the Twins, mentoring Gonsalves and Berios. Plus there is a dynamic some never seem to take into consideration. That is, that we don't want a mercenary front office with no loyalty. If we want to attract FA players, it is better to show some loyalty to our guys. It is also a good way to keep our current guys from wanting to bail. Think Calvin Griffith's Waseca speech in reverse.

Sure, trade our best pitcher and most reliable power hitter over the past few years just to "see what you get?" I'm pretty sure you were just thinking out loud, but man. a team on the rise needs to keep its best players and build around them, not send them away. Besides, they are both clubhouse leaders.

Dream on about Yu and Ohtani. This is their big chance to clean up. They won't go to a small market team. Oh would clean up in NY on endorsements and off field marketing. But maybe he likes walleye fishing. Twins need to get two solid starting pitchers and at least one dominant closer to go with two other solid BP arms. I could see Davis and bring back Kinz for set up. Don't extend Doze, at least not yet. He's got two years to go and by then he may decide staying in Mpls and not moving his kids to another school is worth something and sign for less than market. I think Granite can be a 4th OF/PR. He is at least fast and a good defender but needs to hit for more power. Im not worried about BU catcher. This is a make or break year for Vargas

the catcher from Oregon State

Yeah, I understand having your second best leadoff hitter batting 9th. I sometimes do that on the teams I coach. So Polanco hitting 9th? Or Rosario? I could see that.

The fastest guy on the team should bat lead off. Period. Bux batting third and Dozier leading off when he is a power hitter is dumb. And the idea that lead off puts too much pressure on Bux is nonsense. Batting third is the pressure RBI slot. If the kid can't handle lead off, he sure as hell can't handle batting third. Ancient relic Mauer leading off? Nope. That means we are not a running team. It is ridiculous Bux Mauer Dozier Sano Park Keps Rosario Polanco Castro This way, Dozier drives in over 100 RBIs and hits fewer solo shots

I have to laugh when I see an article saying it is a mistake to send down a pitcher with an ERA over 8. JT needs to work some things out and you don't do that in a low leverage spot in the big team's pen.

They are obviously hoping Arcia gets hot and hits a cluster of HRS, then h may have value. Never send Park down. Isn't he leading the Twns in HRs?

Not gonna happen and shouldn't happen. I read these articles and this one was well written but suffers from a bias. Saying trade Dozier because there is no guarantee that he will continue to play like last year, but doesn't that have a biased assumption Bruce wil get better or continue to play at a high level while assuming the opposite about Doze? Dozier is getting better. You either believe in him or you don't. And I like him better than any prospect in our system. And everyone who talks about trading Dozier forget an important point: Power hitting 2bs are rarer than a friendly ex wife. Hughes was obtained at a great bargain and has pitched much better than expected. So we trade him? No way.The last thing we need is to send away our best pitcher when we have a shortage of SPs as it is. But I like reading articles like this. Food for thought. Thanks.

Saying someone who has played in literally thousands of games lacks expeirence is less than dumb

Play the kids. No Masterson. May in the rotation. No Cola.Pamalee is more versatile and a little power, or Nunez. But audition Rosario, Buck and Sano to see if they can break camp with the big club. Mid season call ups more likely. Berrios in the pen, along with Reed and/or Bordi. Cut Milone and Pelfrey.

Look, maybe they know Joe and just don't like him. Maybe they have made the decision already, so why bother? I'm not getting excited about it. Joe is a decent manager, but he is not a genius. I mean, managing a baseball team is not THAT hard. Play the guys where they fit and, on most teams, the rosters are pretty much a given. Sometimes you make a switch and play the hot hand for a while. Maybe make a couple adjustments in a pinch, like Santana to the OF. But I think there are literally thousands of high school or even little league coaches that could manage the Twins. How hard is it to fill out this lineup? Santana SS Mauer 1B Buxton CF Vargas DH Sano LF Arcia RF Plouffe 3B Dozier 2B Suzuki C Yeah, you have to be a genius to write in those names. OK, to start the year, maybe switch Shafe with Sano and drop him to #8 or up to #2 if he hits and Hicks for Bux and drop him to #9. Still easy to do. Pitcher struggles? Get the next guy up, based on who is coming up in the order for the other guys and have a lefty for that situation where you need a lefty reliever. My word, how brilliant!!!! Geez, you need a Harvard degree for that, right? Nope. I think that managing a baseball club is far easier than being a trial lawyer, or a surgeon, or a school teacher in a ghetto school. Baseball is easy. If Ryan names Molitor, we all know he was just going through the motions before naming a guy he picked for the job last year. Who does he think he is fooliing? But whoever The Twins name has got a job a lot easier than yours maybe. And a lot more fun. I mean, free sunflower seeds, free food in the clubhouse, and the best seat in the house for a baseball game every day. Like I said. Easy

I think we go all in for the kids. Santana to SS, with Eduardo being a super sub to keep everyone in the IF fresh. Shafe in LF and Hicks in CF should solidify the OF defense. Arcia can improve. But for me, Reed and Burdi are ready. I mean, what more does Reed have to prove. 30 IP and one ER? These guys were top flight on top college staffs. Let em play. Bring Meyer up as teh 5th SP too. Go for it. Give them all a year to get acclimated, and add Sano and Bux in July. i say let the kids play.

Burdi and Reed are better than anyone we have on the big club. Perkins and Fein were looking a little shopworn late in the season. I can see Burdi as a closer in waiting.

Funny how a couple years ago folks were complaining that the Twins did not have any decent shortstops after trading Hardy. Open competition in a three way plan between Santana, Escobar and Hicks. If Santana plays well at SS, meaning better than EE, and Hicks looks better in CF than EE at SS, then you have EE as a utility. If Hicks disappoints and we do not make a move for another OF player, than maybe, and I mean maybe, Danny stays in CF. But if Danny stays in CF, then I think you make the move permanent. It is not fair to him to jerk him around by calling him the SS of the future, then not playing him there with Gordon and Rosario and others looking to move up. Esobar might be only a long term stop gap. If Santana is a long term CF, fine, then Bux moves to RF or LF when he comes up. If Santana is faster maybe he stays in CF. Sano maybe takes LF. I could see an OF of Sano, Santana and Buxton. Hicks or Shafe as the 4th OFer. Would that mean Arcia gets traded for a pitcher? I could live wih that. Sano has to be as good in LF as Arcia is in RF. I think the situation remains fluid through Spring Training. But like many others, I like Escobar as a super utility IF guy. And I think Vargas and Santana prove that maybe Terry Ryan is a little too conservative with the young guys. KC, a better team than the Twins, brought up Finnegan in his rookie year. He pitched in the College World Series and spent very little time in the low minors. That seems to me to be at least high A or AA level experience. I would bring up our Louisville Jet and his 100 mph fastball to be a set up man and Meyer and Berrios to compete for a rotation spot. Maybe give Reed a long look too. A little turnover in the bullpen is a good thing sometimes.And I obviously think Sano and Buxton are ready to come up soon. I really never liked the years in grade type roster hoarding. The Twins give a lot of lip service to "loyalty" but that door swings both ways. Keeping control is not fair to the players that deserve a promotion based on their effort and play. If they are ready, they deserve to come up. as soon as they show it. Not promoting them to keep one more year of control is a miserly attitude. I think you should be generous with your players and maybe they won't need to look for greener pastures elsewhere. It is time to let the kids play.

You know, both Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle started as shortstops. In fact, most ML players probably were the best players on their high school teams and played SS and pitched in high school. Moving to the OF is no big deal for Sano.

Jim, I have been saying this for months. Sano is younger and more mobile, I think. And his hitting will keep him in the lineup. Add Bux in CF and we can play Danny at his natural SS position. This would be a good offensive lineup and better defensively than last year. It also frees up money for a FA SP.

I wouldn't keep Milone. He has no fastball. If Hughes is a SP-1, you have to ask can he match up with other SP-1s in a low scoring 1-0 playoff game? Meyer should go north with the club. I'd flip Escobar and Santana. If Santana is your SS of the future, then play him there. Hicks gets one more chance, then its on to Bux. Or sign Torii as a LF for his leadership value and move Shafe to CF. I'd say bye to Parmalee. There has to be a slow pitch softball team somewhere Sign Shields.On MLB they were talking about what a leader/teacher he is for the young guys.

Neither was Scott Leius. Oh wait.....

Censorship is an ugly thing. Do you hear me moderators?

"but you don't just send your hero to another team because you think you can marginally increase your playoff odds." Why else would you make a trade? The whole idea is to get to the playoffs and win.

People go to the ballpark hopng to see the Twins WIN. I think the Pohlads are stingy, sure. But I don't believe for a second that Terry was asking for more high salary free agents, and Dave and Jim shot him down. Terry Ryan is by nature a conservative general manager, a garage sale guy. He looks for bargain basement players. That is NOT how to build a winner. Gardy wasn't soem genius that ownership did dirty. He played favorites. He spurned the kids in favor of his Kubel and Bartlet retreads. Ownership gave $23 million a year to a glorified singles hitter who is not a leader. It spent way too much on long shots like Pelfrey. This combination of stingy ownership, conservative GM and old school Gardy was a disaster. The proof is in the standings.They talk about loyalty. How about loyalty to the fans that want a contender? Twins need to have a salary level of $115 million to compete. You get what you pay for. Twins need to sign free agents that are winners. Not just a bunch of mediocre placeholders. The reason the Twins won two world series is that the roster was populated by winners like Rat, Hrbek, Kirby, Gagne and Gladden, Baylor, Winfield, and Bruno. Guys that you expectred something to happen when they came up with runners on base. And they had invested in top level pitching, Bert, Viola, Erickson, Morris.... Taps would be the best pitcher on the staff today.. Jim Pohlad better wake up. And Terry Ryan will never go out and sign a Price level SP. He is just too much of a garage sale GM. It is as if Calvin Griffith was still running the team.

The Dunslinger will say. They will make him an offer and avoid arbitration. Same with Shafe. Pelfrey will get a shot to redeem himself, as will Rickey. I'd like Olivares to get a real shot to make the big club. Pressley is an even bet to make it. I think Burton has an edge just because they used him as the closer when Perk was shelved. Not saying I agree with that. So Fryer is a low hitting catcher. That puts him with about 80 percent of catchers, not to mention backups. He stays. I'd be patient with Pryor. His velocity could save him. Parmalee looks like a guy who will be playing slow pitch softball next year.

Management and Gardy/Anderson are the problem. Consider the players the Twins let go. Not a bad lineup Revere cf Span lf Gomez rf Ortiz DH/1b Cuddy 3b Morneau 1b Hardy ss Ramos c Casilla/Punto 2b SP Santana Liriano Garza Lohse Worley Set UP/BP Neshek Crain CL Nathan