bird

Glad to see you've had a complete reversal, thrylos. Just months ago, you described the situation as a glass not half full, but shattered to pieces on the floor. Remember?

Be specific, not snarky, johnny. It'll help you mature.

Geez, I write a friggin treatise and get picked apart for my arithmetic. /s

Here's why I believe Howard should be slightly more optimistic: 1. The team'll probably go something like 78-85, but that means that, game to game, we'll have a better chance to witness a victory. Now, that's not good enough for some, and that's understandable. Most of us are quite tolerant of each other's thinking. But for me and many others, that improvement would be meaningful. Now, it may not happen. OK, jokin? You can be pessimistic. It's OK. Just try not to be snotty and mean about it. 2. The team will be more fun to watch. To back up my first point: 1. Anything is better than last year, including and especially the starting pitching, which, in my opinion, may be just a tad better than what the consensus believes. I base that on the health of Gibson and Pelfry and the expectation that Diamond, Hendriks, and Worley all come to work healthy. Florimon and Dozier will be decent up the middle. Hicks will be OK at the plate and stellar in center. Parmelee will be better defensively than many people think, in line with his past history in right field. Morneau appears to be healthy, as does everyone else. Plouffe is more likely to improve than not, defensively especially. Gardy can't possibly manage as poorly as he did last year. He had a bad year, like many players. I anticipate better energy from the field staff. 2. Hicks, Arcia, Gibson, a healthy Morneau, an improved Hendriks, better defense overall, intrigue at the trade deadline, maybe some nice surprises by guys like Benson Dozier, Robertson, and then, so much to watch for ithe minors. So, while my expectations are rather modest I believe, I'm going to have fun watching this team play baseball in 2013. By the way, jokin, what's the opposite of an apologist?

Apparently, being more optimistic than the insufferable jokin means one is an "apologist". Even when, unlike jokin, one makes his case citing actual facts and logic rather than a bunch of blather that really isn't very clever.

Thinking well out into the future, there are some impressive outfield defenders coming up, and most appear likely to be able to hit. Seems to me it would make sense to put a first baseman's glove in a few of those lockers just to increase the ability to keep some guys in the lineup. I'm thinking guys like Kepler, Arcia, Goodrum, Benson, Walker, etc.

A lot of the players listed aren't really THAT much smaller.

By the way, the Twins signed two international prospects ranked among the top 25 this year: Amaurys Minier (#7) and Mauricio Silva (#23).

gunnarthur, I wish everyone who believes the Twins are woeful at drafting and development would read your comments with an open mind. Factual, fair, and astute. One year in ten, drafting in the top third of the draft order, will impact even the best organizations, unless they hit homeruns with international signings. Read John Mayo's report, people. MLB's top 100 contains only a handful of players drafted in later rounds. 25% are international signings, and 50%, I recall, are first-rounders, most of them low first-rounders. It's a fact that the Twin's farm system went through a rough period.It's NOT a fact that the primary reason for this was their ineptitude. Based on the more current facts, like their high ranking among farm systems, it's much more reasonable to conclude that they're actually pretty good, relativeley speaking, than to conclude they're lousy at it, like so many of you guys like to say.

The Twins drafted in the bottom third of the draft order almost every year for a decade until last year. The Royals had the opposite situation. Does this not have a lot to do with the strength of the farm systems? Does a superior talent evaluation organization also play a role? One year in ten, a top 10 selection. I keep hearing about how bad the Twins are at drafting and development. If that's the case, then why is their ranking so high? Could it be that, like perhaps Boston and St. Louis, the Twins are better at it than, say, KC, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, and a bunch of other organizations?

This is funny stuff, thrylos, although it doen't top your "Slowey is the next Maddox" prediction.

Drew Butera? You have a problem with Drew Butera? Correia I get, but suddenly we're bashing Drew Butera?

The rest of the AL West had a combined 15 players named.

At TwinsFest, both Pelfrey and Gibson gave every indication they will be 100% healthy for the start of spring training.

Classy comment.

Careful, gunnarthur. There are a few indisputable facts involved in your comments. Not sure that's allowed. Unless they shed Gardy and Ryan in a poor light.

As to a refocus of wrath, I'm not so sure this is true of all but a few. On the second point, it's a matter of definition. And expectations. My expectation has been modest. The notion of CONTENDING in 2013 is and has been a pipe dream, even if we added three pitchers not named Greinke and Sanchez in my opinion. So, I was hoping that, when I turned on the game, I'd have close to a 50% chance of seeing a win. To do that, Ryan needed to sign TWO guys as good or better than Diamond, and trade for another. I would be happy with that, for 2013, especially given how much Meyer and May add to my hope for 2015 and beyond. Being COMPETITIVE, game to game, would sure be nice. By current appearances, consistantly competing game to game is not gonna happen, and I'm feeling let down. Now, appearances often fail to match reality, so I'm willing to see the results first before calling for Ryan's head. It could be we're all not quite as astute as we think we are, so I'm willing to wait and see if Ryan gets lucky. If 2013 is a third ugly season in a row, I'll shrug it off, knowing what's in the pipeline. But yeah, it sure looks ugly right now.

Are the first four Buxton, Sano, Hicks, and Arcia? Where is Rosario?

josecordova, thanks for joining in! Please continue to comment. You add a lot to the board.

May was a starting pitching prospect with the Phillies, but you can find scouting reports that suggest he may end up being a MLB reliever.

The SABR stuff has become glamorized. It's a bit overrated by us chatters. Your run-of-the-mill data analysts DO practically grow on trees these days. We're all proof of that. We have two dozen contributors to TD who are pouring through mountains of statistics, using all the latest software technology, and then communicating the results quite succinctly to anyone who will listen. For free. Statistics verify the story. They don't tell it. Give me the qualitative assessment, often hugely enriched by experience-based intuition, from scouts. Verify their story with a look at the statistical stuff. I mean, you guys are great and all, but...

The Twins have dozens of professionals in their scouting department. Bill Smith had almost nothing to do with the actual signings. Perhaps Terry Ryan is not the one with his head buried in the sand, johnny dakota.

If all things were fair and equal (TV and stadium revenues, etc.), and the ONLY focus was on winning the World Series, then each team would win one pennant during a thirty year cycle. Since things are not and never will be fair and equal, exactly how often would you expect a WS pennant victory?

Guesing most everybody agrees with you on this. I hate the Correia signing in a vacuum, but I'll REALLY hate it if Ryan doesn't find at least one more starter besides Worley that exceeds the Diamond Standard. Myers would be a poor man's solution to this. Kind of the tilapia of options, Greinke being lobster, Sanchez being sea bass....let's hope he signs him, because the options are getting pretty depressing.

The consensus within the TD community was that the Zumaya signing was a good idea. It didn't work out. Apparently we were wrong.