Wookiee of the Year

I totally agree with this in theory--but in practice, I'm not sure I've seen evidence the Twins are good evaluators of process during spring training. Aaron Hicks puts up great numbers in Spring Training 2013 and Spring Training 2014, and the Twins said, "Yup, he's our guy!" Maybe there should have been some process clues that he wasn't ready. On the flip side, Jason Bartlett puts up a .093/.152/.093 line in Spring Training 2014, and the Twins say, "We liked his process. We're not worried about him." I don't know what they saw in his process that told him that, but it would suggest they need to hire some new evaluators. If I want to be charitable to the Twins this spring, I say their decision-makers really are convinced they were a good team last year but caught some bad breaks. I'm of the belief that on a bad team, you want to take risks on inconsistent guys who flash greatness, while a good team should fill the margins with reliable mediocrity where there's no risk the bottom will fall out. If the Twins really think they're a contender, maybe that's why they went for reliability. Of course, I don't think they're a contender, and so I remind myself the roster on May 15 and even July 1 is more important than the roster on Opening Day. If that roster still isn't willing to take chances with young guys who lead with their upside, then I'll be very disappointed. Note: I was very disappointed in 2014.

Terry Ryan: "He should have never been in that predicament in the first place. We gave them way too many outs." Sounds like a good mantra for 2015...

This was a good read. I'm glad the emphasis is on Dozier increasing his batting average without it affecting his OBP or his power. Honestly, I'm not too worried about getting Dozier to the next level or seeing him break out; I think he's broken out, and I'd take his 2014 season again in 2015 and 2016 and as long as he can deliver it. In some ways, hearing he's striving to make adjustments to increase his batting average makes me nervous, because I don't want to see him give anything back in order to do that. But I also know that the kind of player who's satisfied with the player he is is unlikely to remain as that kind of player. So on that count, it's good to hear Dozier's one who seeks continual improvement. Excited (with some trepidation) to see what his 2015 looks like.

I'm here to agree with Twins Twerp. At first at thought it was your microphones going, then I realized the audio quality's poor during the intro sound, too. Then I thought it was my speaker, until I realized quality is still fine on older episodes. Just listen to the first 3 seconds of the intro music in episodes 181 & 182 vs. 183 & 184. The difference is immediately apparent.

For those who think length of game isn't a problem, I'd suggest it might not be so much length of games as lateness of games. During the Front Office Q&A session at TwinsFest, I asked how concerned the Twins are about pace of games, and Dave St. Peter said the big problem is that the 7th, 8th, and 9th innings are supposed to be the most exciting innings, and on many weeknight games you look around the stands and half the fans have left before the game reaches its conclusion. I don't think this is ADD or a lack of attention span; it's that people have to get home after a weeknight game. I live in St. Paul, but when I take the bus & light rail to and from a game that's gone til 10:45, I'm often getting home close to midnight. People driving from the exurbs or further are experiencing the same thing--and if you've got kids, there's no way you're staying til the game concludes. That's a problem. I'm also curious about strategies to cut down on pitching changes; that holds much more appeal to me than a pitch clock (even if it is on the books, it just seems distracting for me as a fan--and impossible to implement with runners on base, when the pitcher can just throw over to 1st to buy more time). The three main strategies I've seen are: 1) Outright limiting the number of pitching changes (with adjustments for extra innings). To me, that feels difficult to implement in a way that both impacts the game and doesn't have a radical impact on bullpen management (though in many ways, maybe that's not a loss). 2) Requiring pitchers to pitch to at least 2 or at least 3 batters after entering a game. This one's intriguing to me, but also somewhat radical and could have some problems around the margins (injuries, rain delays, etc.). 3) Capping the number of players who are primarily pitchers on the roster. This one probably holds the most appeal for me--I'd think it would have the least dramatic impact on strategy while still offering strong encouragement to limit pitching changes. And it could give birth to some "go both ways"-style players, i.e. a Drew Butera who's your back-up catcher but steps in to pitch occasionally when the bullpen's worn down (though classifying these sorts of players could cause problems).

At TwinsFest, Terry Ryan said this season, managers will issue challenges from the top step of the dugout. That should at least do away with the long meander to buy time.

Nice write-up. Pardon my historical ignorance, but: Were there any owners who continued to serve as their team's principle General Manager later than Griffith, or was he the final one?

...Crossing my fingers that a Top 5 Moments in Dave St. Peter's Career is on the way this week...

Fun read--can't wait for the Meltdown! Any word on if there'll be a place to submit potential questions for Jones, Laudner, and St. Peter?

They did last year--I assume it'll be back again.

Sounds cool. I have a couple names I assume are near the top of the list, but I look forward to watching this unfold.

Can I ask: Who's freshly out of options this year? Milone? Pressly? Nunez?

It's all indoors. You're only outdoors for the initial walk in, and potentially for a brief stretch of concourse between the club level and Town Ball Tavern.

Which two players do you most expect to disappoint in 2015? And: Which two players do you most expect to surprise in 2015? (Answers can be 40 Man or top prospects.)

Awesome--looking forward to it. And plan on picking a couple up as Christmas gifts, too.

I'll be curious to see whether he even makes the Opening Day roster, or if he starts the year in AAA (assuming that's an option for a Korean FA signing?). It might be nice to figure out what we have before throwing him into the major leagues.

Looks like it is now. Is the video available somewhere?

To what do you attribute the success of Sam Fuld and Jordan Schafer with the Twins? Did the Twins get lucky with a couple of waiver wire claims, or did you see something in these two that indicated they could put up the slash lines they did?

I printed it out last year and will again this year. (I totally get the limitations to doing a bound book on your end, and I'm happy to do the printing myself--but since that's not a poll option, figured I'd chime in with the comment.)

Wellll, what have we here? Nice post--I enjoyed reading it. Third is quite the stretch; I'm just focused on beating the White Sox. (I hate finishing behind them!)

Damn. I don't even know what to think. As others have said, I'm relieved to hear it's not worse, while also recognizing a concussion is not to be taken lightly. Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

Hmm... 1) I totally get the "no game stories" philosophy--if the closest Twins Daily ever came to that was Brad Swanson's "Monday Morning Madness" posts, I'd be plenty happy. So I'm somewhat surprised the minor league coverage often takes that form. I understand that that's much more of a vacuum that Twins Daily's filling, but I'd like the minor league coverage to mirror the site's major league coverage in format to a greater extent. Even implementing something like a "Two Week Check-in" article that highlights the current significant minor league narratives would be great. In my experience, there's a gap between the daily game stories coverage and coverage that's at the 10,000 foot level, with a hole in between. 2) Get Gleeman over here. He's not blogging all that much anymore and it would reduce the number of websites I check daily by one. 3) I love the Off-Season and Prospect Handbooks--keep both of those coming! Plus, it's one of the few times every year I get to compensate you guys for the amazing work you do.

This is a great debate. Fun to see such strong opinions on both sides. I agree with this, along with halfchest's tobi0040's, and TheLeviathan's comments. Last July/August, I was banging the drum for the Twins to trade Perkins. I believed then (and still believe) there's a good chance that by the time the Twins are in the postseason, Perkins will no longer be an MLB closer. However, he signed a team-friendly contract this spring. It was billed as such at the time and the dollar figures bear that out. We're paying him at a rate that even if he's no longer closing and just a pretty decent bullpen arm, the pay is reasonable. I'm continually disappointed major leaguers don't show more inclination to sign deals with teams they want to play for or in locations they want to be rather than always chasing the top paycheck. Maybe part of that is knowing they can be traded at anytime, anyway, so why take a discount if you don't actually know where you'll be playing? The salary is the only part of the contract that's guaranteed. So when a player does explicitly sign a team-friendly deal, I want to reward that. Even if it doesn't make the best baseball sense in the short-term, it sends an important message about a franchise--both to MLB players and to fans.

My gosh--Buxton is making this delayed "spring training" look like child's play. I would've thought he'd spent 2-3 weeks at Ft. Myers before moving up to AA, but when every game's a multi-hit game with at least one falling for extra bases, he could be promoted any day now. I do wonder if Aaron Hicks' need for time in CF could be logjamming him--maybe Buxton says at A+ a bit longer just so Hicks can have some extra time as the primary CF at AA. It's so amazing to have a prospect like Buxton who leads you into having lofty expectations for him, but then still manages to beat those expectations. Incredible.

I'll be happy if Buxton finishes the year developmentally where Sano finished 2013--having spent some time in 2013 at AA with success but not outrageous success, leaving us to debate whether he should start next year at AA or AAA. If he can make it to that point by the end of the season, then even with the wrist injury, I'll consider this year a modest success in his development. Are the Twins slow to promote? Yes, but honestly, that bugs me the least with 20-year-olds like Buxton. At this point, every year longer it takes him to reach the majors is one more year of his prime that the Twins get at a reduced price. I mean, the Cardinals kept a 20-year-old Oscar Taveras at AA for 124 games while he put up a .321/.380/.572 line, then at AAA for 108 games over the better part of two seasons while he hit .313/.358/.485. In return, they'll control him until he's 28. The Rays are also known for sitting on guys who've mastered the minors to maximize their effectiveness in the majors. On the other hand, you have the Marlins, who slotted a 20-year-old Jose Fernandez into their starting rotation while they went 62-100, threw away a service year while Fernandez sits out with Tommy John, and will lose him to Free Agency following his age 25 season. There's a certain injustice to making a player who's ready to contribute at the major league level wile away in the minors, but I tend to think waiting for a player to demonstrate mastery of a level and then promoting isn't a bad way to go. I far prefer it to the current Aaron Hicks debacle.