Blyleven2011

I think AK has the ability to be the twins most complete hitter in years. So yes he will be the key if his wrist is ok.

If you put Mauer on here, you need to put Oliva. Oliva had just as many great years as Mauer.
Blyleven a no-brainer if he hadn’t left at such a young age. Hard to overstate how good he was in first stint with Twins ‘70-‘75. In an era where starters paced themselves…no max-efforting every pitch, instead pitching 300 innings/yr…still nobody could hit him, and with a ton of swing-and-miss.

If you put Mauer on here, you need to put Oliva. Oliva had just as many great years as Mauer.

Four Hall of Fame Twins:  Harmon Killebrew, Rod Carew, Kirby Puckett, and Tony Oliva.  Cased Closed.

I like Joe Mauer & respect his numbers & career a bunch……. if he tares his knee up like Oliva after 8 years his path is doomed as well. Not his fault he stayed more healthy!!……………Oliva is my 4th guy!

To begin the '23 season, IMO a piggy-back system would be beneficial for both SPs. Much like Pineda/ Perez did in '19 that worked very well. Like Pineda, Maeda is coming off TJ and like Perez, Ober needs to be eased into the starter role. By the time both are stretched out properly, maybe that question would be solved. But hopefully not because I hate to see any those 4 down. If we are fortunate, then we'll have a dilemma.
I believe Maeda was used predominately as a RP at LAD. That's why Maeda was disgruntle w/ LAD and was their motivation of moving him. I agree with your logic of preference over Ober. Once Ober is acclimated with the rigor of being a MLB SP, he'll be a very good one.

Imho Ober should start in the pen up here vs starting at AAA. Its been done many times over the years with success, Think Liriano or Santana. I'm just not sure he can hold up to 180 IP per year and I think that's what should be expected out of a starter. He could still make spot starts or plug into the rotation if injuries cause an opening.

Or I won't be a lifetime twins fan  ,
That's how important I think he is to the sucess of the team ...

The analytics  are at times useful in identifying trends or potential talent, but running every game on numbers will give you exactly average for your level of "statistical talent". 
Teams that get hot, go on a run to the world series are the ones who develop synergy, play above their heads and most importantly believe they can win.
1980 hockey gold medal anyone?? Of you looked only at analytics, they shouldn't even have bothered to play. But Herb Brooks worked them into supreme physical condition, got them to buy into being on Team USA, not just some player on loan from college and developed a sum far greater than its.parts.
Thank God the "shift" Is gone. Play the game as it is meant to be played and go with your gut Instinct and the hot hand now and again. Jack Morris pitching the 10th inning in a game 7 was an extreme gut instinct move, especially when you have a proven stud in Aguilera available  to close.
But it worked, it was destiny, and they won. I guarantee you if TK had taken Morris out at any point earlier in that game, they would have lost
Leave the starting pitcher who is going well in. Get a set lineup for batting and stick with it until it doesn't produce. When you know who is batting in front and behind you, you will learn every nuance and what they will likely do with every pitch in every situation. 
Like Cousins & JJ or any great QB /WR combo, each will know what the other is thinking and therefore do. Stick another WR in JJ spot (pick any hall of famer) and you won't get the same results. Even though "analytics " say his #'s are better, they never will be.
 

Have been a Twins fan for 50 years... we have had our share of good and bad managers. But... After having Kelly and Gardy we know that we were clearly spoiled. There used to be a saying around baseball... The Twins way... meaning playing great fundamental baseball, running the bases well, good suituationaly hitting, Good pitching and quality back end pitching. At this point we are 1 for 5 ... maybe ... giving that the starting pitching is good but not great. I think we have the  back end pitching but Baldelli and the pitching coach completlely mismanged. 
I clearly am a bit old school but in looking at the great teams around right now .. other than the talent disparity ... thy all play "old school" fundamental baseball. The game has been aound going on around 150 years... those that think they can outsmart it are actually doing a disservice to the game and the fans. Pretty much why all the rule changes. 
The analytics and metrics that everyone seems to be enamored with are numbers... that is it... they are intended to assist a manager in making quality decisions... not "be" the decision as it clearly appears is the case as we watch Baldelli. 
I feel bad for Baldelli as it shows a lack of trust from the FO or lack in trusting his own baseball instincts. Whatever the case unless we get back to the traditional "Twins Way" we are in for more of the same... NOT GOOD!! 
 

I'll have to respectfully disagree. The perfect "puppet" manager would be more accurate. 

I was about to say the same thing, whatever he is smoking when he wrote this article i want some.  This piece is sooooo ridiculously absurd it's hilarious.  Honestly, at first I thought this article was an attempt at sarcasm.   Rocco is not a very good manager, period.  I'm sorry he just isn't.  I'm not bashing the guy personally, he's just...... not a good manager.
His handling of the bullpen the last few seasons speaks volumes in and of itself, but also his inability to motivate key players season after season to produce in critical situations falls squarely on his shoulders.  I don't care how good of friends he is with the players, that's not his job.  His job is to help this team prepare and get motivated to play it's absolute best and ACTUALLY WIN in critical situations, which has not happened EVER during his tenure other than 2019 (excluding the playoffs of course and again in 2020 when the got shellacked).  The past two seasons they've totally fallen apart in the second halfs, mostly due to key players not producing and then injury bugs as well.   
Tony La Russa is 10x the manager Rocco will EVER be.  It's absolutely laughable that this author takes cheap shots at him.  If Rocco is such an awesome manager and is better than La Russa where are the 3 world series rings Nick? mmmm.

Rocco and this FO will never lead the Twins to a Championship. I will gladly eat crow if they do but I don't see how it will ever happen the way they construct a team with below average hitters, under-utilize the starters, over-use the bullpen, and have no concern about a players health when they sign them thus throwing money away to injured players that can't play. Great Managers play their best players every day, not a different lineup every day because some paper trail tells them to do it. Kepler was at one time a good clutch RBI guy according to the "numbers". Point being.. "at one time" doesn't mean he always will be. Continually batting him in the middle of the lineup because some number tells you to do so isn't a smart decision when he isn't doing it anymore. Making adjustments that help you win make you great. Rocco is too slow at doing that. Like sticking with Colome/Pagan as closers. It's as if he is watching the game but doesn't see what is happening. He's dumbfounded because the "numbers" tell him something different should be happening so he doesn't believe it. What makes a Manager great? Being flexible and willing to throw the numbers out the window. He won't, so my guess is he will go down with the ship when this FO gets fired. Until then, we as fans will slowly fade away because the "numbers" that matter tell us this is not fun, exciting, talented, good baseball to watch. Tell Dave St. Peter that you'll only get fans to come to games that are the type they like to watch. Evidently the scenario we have now, isn't it.

It is a good idea for baseball fans to watch Francona manage about 100 complete games to get a better idea of the difference a manager can make within a game. Just watch how Francona talks with the players, press, umpires and how he goes about making decisions. 100 games of watching Cleveland under Francona is very instructive.
I don't have any problem with Baldelli specifically. He just lacks the skills of Francona. Not every team can have Francona either but if you watch at least 100 Cleveland games you should be able to understand the differences, and then you will know that Baldelli is not the perfect modern manager. 

Bingo. I want pitchers to be allowed to work out of jams. Obviously if they don't have "it" that day, the manager needs to make that call.
However, the scenario where the Rays manager, Kevin Cash pulled his starter Blake Snell in the 2020 World Series for no good reason wheh he was dominating the Dodgers lineup and lost the game and the series to the Dodgers is a perfect example of the stupidity of these analytics-only managers in today's game.

I like Rocco personally and like how he interacts with his players and staff.  I do think that he goes 100% analytics and 0% gut feel but I also believe that is the FO's method and he is told not to deviate from it.  So this I do not blame on Rocco.
My ONLY complaint is that he and his staff are NOT teaching fundamentals and obviously not practicing them in ST.  Everybody on this team MUST learn how to bunt, throw to the correct cutoff, and hit behind the runners.  They also need practice in reading whether or not to advance to the next base.
I love the Twins but puke when I watch these mistakes which previous managers (i.e. Kelly and Gardy) always corrected and NEVER tolerated.

I'm an analyst too.  I work with numbers all day.  I love sabermetrics and baseball analytics.  But, you also need to have a feel for the game too.  Baldelli does not.  He's far too analytics driven.  Tom Kelly kept Jack Morris in Game 7 of the '91 World Series, despite everyone (even back then) saying that 10 innings for a pitcher is insane.  He was ready to pull him and Jack Morris talked him out of it. Kelly then made a gut decision. His head was in the game, not a spreadsheet.  The data can tell you that the odds are better if you make a switch, but every situation is unique and different.  
Far too many managers these days pop up off the bench and spring out of the dugout like they've been shot out of a cannon once a pitcher throws his 100th pitch.  It's annoying.  Especially when they bring a reliever in who blows the lead.
I have heard John Smoltz makes this point multiple times, when you have too many relivers in the game, you're banking on ALL of them being on their game on that particular night.  Not just one or two.  He's right.  
Nolan Ryan's philosophy was that you could take him out of the game if there was someone better to come in.  
Obviously the game has changed and pitchers don't throw 30 complete games in a season, or 10, or 300 innings, or 250; but a starting pitcher can throw 200 innings.  They don't turn into a pumpkin once they throw their 101st pitch in a game.  A pitcher can work out of a jam.  They're just not given the chance too anymore.  
I'd rather have Sony Gray work out of his own jam than Emilo Pagan,  

Personally, I think there are three glaring problems with Baldelli's approach: 1) The numbers are not a sufficient substitute for preparation and being ready to play--focus supercedes all other psychological constructs; 2) the numbers do not necessarily reflect what is happening on the field; for example, a pitcher is at 75 pitches and facing a hitter for the third time, but the pitcher in that particular game has a better than his usual slider on that night; everyone knows it, but the numbers don't (it slices both ways; the next time out, he is getting hard right from the start; the numbers say leave him in, but everyone knows his breaking balls aren't breaking and his fastball has almost no movement), and 3) the numbers indicate typical trends for the situation at hand, but looking at the data is no substitute for assessing the intensity of the moment and reacting to it--call it 'instinct' as one Daily member did.
Perhaps, I could sum it up in this way: Baseball cannot be reduced to a board game (even though I think I may have a version of APBA hidden somewhere among my unused treasures). Trends and data only get the manager to the 90th percentile so to speak, but it is at that point where good managing really begins IMHO.

Nice article.  Rocco may be a good manager but we will never know.  The hard core analytics has ruined baseball!!  Attendance and ratings continue to slide.  Baseball used to be fun.  It has been a big bore the past few seasons and getting worse.  Too much stationary dead play.  Too many walks and strikeouts.  Everyone swinging for the fences no matter what the count is.  Station to station baseball.  No life to our Twins team.  Very poor fundamentals.  Plus our great manager is attached to the computer.  I remember a couple of times this past season when Correa and Buxton were given the day off on the same day at home.  Rocco's response was there day off happened on the same day and he didn't know what to do about it.  Really???  Poor attendance, people coming to the park in huge part to watch Buxton and Correa.  Then find out they are both healthy but it was their scheduled day off.  The manager said he didn't know how to fix it.  I've followed Twins for 60 years and still will this summer.  But if the future of baseball is here now, it is in big trouble.

My thoughts exactly 

Or I won't be a lifetime twins fan  ,
That's how important I think he is to the sucess of the team ...

Garlick will pass waivers & rejoin the Twins.

If I was owner, I'd make it known to the entire staff, from Falvey on down, this is a make or break season. Either win your way, change your way of thinking, or get fired!

I agree Baldelli is a pretty good player manager. He gets along pretty well with his players & makes everyone feel relaxed. FO hired him because of his analytics & that he'd copy the pitching formula that made TB a great pitcher team. And he has done that, the problem is we're not the TB Rays. The TB Rays have always had one of best rotation in MLB and a BP stable full of impact arms.
Even while Baldelli is trying to imitate TB with a weaker rotation, TB still pitches fewer innings. That's because of TB's superior short relief. The problem with Baldelli is that he's too analytical. He needs to get his head out from the numbers, take a step back, try to see where the problem is & try to resolve it, instead of keep plowing through with the same formula. If the rotation & short relief can't cut it, supplement with long relief.
You might say it's not him it's FO, still they're joined at the hip. I have other things against him like not focusing on fundamentals but that could be FO again. I agree that analytics are important. But personally I prefer a manager that goes by his gut & have a bench coach that can help him out with the analytical side. I'd say the same thing about the head pitching & hitting coaches.

Manfredball is horse manure, especially the ghost runner.