Twinfan & Dad

Sometimes Plan A ends up being a disaster while Plan B and C work out much better. Plan A is usually spot on when written on paper but results dont follow. Again, time will tell.

First off for all of the Darvich fans, im sorry he didnt sign with the Twins. I speculate if he really wanted to sign here, HE WOULD HAVE. Falvey made the offer, the highest offer the Twins have ever made for a pitcher, we lost. Moving forward if you think that Falvey doesnt have a Plan B and a Plan C then again we are in disagreement. We know when healthy Santana is our 1 at this point. Berrios is our 2. Both of these pitchers could regress I guess and if so, we are in a world of hurt. If however Santana continues to pitch like he has with a WAR higher than Darvich and Berrios continues to move closer to being our ace then we are on our way. Gibson put some good starts together in the second half of last season. Is this the new version of what we will see moving forward, I hope so. If not then it time to move on from him because enough is enough. We have been teased for too long. These 3 will be in the rotation if healthy. This is where the confidence that I have in Falvey comes in. I think what he did in his first draft was nothing short of Brilliant. I know that only time will tell because a few of these draft picks have to hit the Majors for it to truely be a success but the way he navigated his selections was well thought out. He had a plan and he executed. IMO Falvey will get us another arm SOON. With Darvich off the board hopefully the rest of the free agents will come off the board quickly. Personally, I would prefer the trade route to find a quality, team controlled, young and affortable arm. We would have to move young assets to acquire but we dont have room for all of them anyways. Lewis is off limits though. Gonsalves and Romero will both get looks in Spring Training and my hope is that Gonsalves sticks. The guy can pitch. Teams have to give the ball to the young prospects at some point and see how they respond. Bottom line, if you know how to pitch and you have good stuff, repitition makes you better. I think he will stick this year. May will be back in May hopefully. Pitch count I imagine but with an improved bullpen if we could get him up to 75 pitches early maybe we can get 5 innings out of him. Again high hopes. As you might have noticed there is a lot of hope and if's in what I've said but isnt that true every preseason. Every player has question marks entering a new season. Can younger players make the jump up, will aging players regress and stay healthy, will players such as a Gibson be a contender or a pretender? I do know that I prefer to believe in this front office moving forward. I became a Twins Fan when I was 7 years old listening to the radio with my Dad and that was 50 years ago. I have been frustrated in the past as many of you feel now, but I am HOPEFUL that what we started last year with the young nucleus of studs continues and that Falvey fills in the holes. GO TWINS!

I guess we will just have to play the games then because we certainly have different opinions on Darvich and the Twins starters. Time will tell.

Santana Berrios May Meija Gonsalves Romero Slegers and whatever 20 million per year can buy us. I will take this flexibility over the unknown of a 31.5 year old Darvich for 6 years. An aging strikeout pitcher who has logged a lot of innings in his JAPAN and U.S. career and coming off a subpar 2017.

2014- 144 innings 2015- out 2016- 100 innings 2017- 186 innings To me looks like a 50/50 coin toss what you get next. Aging strike out pitcher who has logged a lot of innings when including his Japan stats. Coming off a average at best 2017. Worth 20 million. Not IMO.

08/17/2017Lower Back Tightness10-Day Disabled List06/09/2016Right Shoulder Discomfort15-Day Disabled List03/25/2016Recovery From Right Elbow Surgery15-Day Disabled List03/01/2016Recovery From Right Elbow SurgeryDay-To-Day04/05/2015Right Elbow Surgery - Out For Season60-Day Disabled List03/07/2015Right Elbow Surgery - Out For SeasonDay-To-Day Darvich also missed numerous starts while not going on the DL. He has averaged 166 innings in his 5 years of pitching.

I agree with you that I am looking at alot of things to break right and that our young pitchers will have growing pains. Hughes and Santiago both were awful and so whomever we compare to them in 2018 in the early part of the season, hopefully will perform better. We will miss Santana. I agree Darvich can dominate but he also had some bad stretches and with his injury history, I just couldnt get too excited about his signing. I am optimistic (maybe overly) that our young guys will step up. Gonsalves and Romero will be solid pitchers at some point I'm just pushing their timeline to being major contributors up!

Very true. Berrios slots into our number 1 at this point. What I dont see Dave is a Hughes or Santiago so I'll put a plus in the column for 2018 for that. I like what we may look like in May and June with Santana and May coming back plus not paying a Darvich type 20 million to sit on the DL or be a .500 pitcher.

Starting Pitchers – 5 RHP Ervin Santana LHP Hector Santiago RHP Kyle Gibson RHP Phil Hughes LHP Adalberto Mejia Opening day 2017.... Did we forget what we started with in 2017? 2018 Starting Pitchers - 5 RHP Berrios New trade or FA Gibson Meija Gonsalves or Slegers In May we have Santana and Trevor May available hopefully. Is this rotation that much worse than what we started with in 2017. Why don't we wait until the season starts to see what we have. Dont burn your Twins jerseys yet. Im hoping for a Santana Berrios Gonsalves Romero May rotation at some point next season.

I guess time will tell whether we missed out on Darvich or not. Just my opinion but I think we'll be glad we didnt pay him. Yes he would of provided us a true #1 when not on the DL but this also allows us to usher in our young pitchers and get the ball to May when he is ready. Santana will only miss a handful of starts so our rotation of Berrios Gibson Meija Gonsalves? Duffey? Or new signing??? vs. 2017 of Santana Santiago Hughes Meija Gibson (Berrios was called up in May) looks in as good as shape to me to start the year. Keep the faith Twins fans all is not lost! Gonsalves and Romero have a lot of UNPROVEN talent so add them to Berrios and we will see the makings of a young core that we can grow with hopefully sometime in 2018.

I guess time will tell whether we missed out on Darvich or not. Just my opinion but I think we'll be glad we didnt pay him. Yes he would of provided us a true #1 when not on the DL but this also allows us to usher in our young pitchers and get the ball to May when he is ready. Santana will only miss a handful of starts so our rotation of Berrios Gibson Meija Gonsalves? Duffey? Or new signing??? vs. 2017 of Santana Santiago Hughes Meija Gibson (Berrios was called up in May) looks in as good as shape to me to start the year. Keep the faith Twins fans all is not lost! Gonsalves and Romero have a lot of UNPROVEN talent so add them to Berrios and we will see the makings of a young core that we can grow with hopefully sometime in 2018.

Well this complicates things! Odds for Gonsalves and Meija in the opening day rotation just increased. Berrios Gibson Gonsalves Meija and your guess is as good as mine.

I am in complete agreement with so many unknowns. I like the idea of finding that stopgap guy who will sign a one year deal. We had great hope for May as a solid starter until his injury. I still believe he will be a solid starter hopefully by the second half of the season. I like May over Cobb and Lynn especially with the 3 or 4 year commitment the later two will be looking for. I also think that Gonsalves and Romero will both get looks in spring training and one will earn enough praise to earn a shot early on. So what I see post All Star game is Santana,Berrios,Gibson,May and Gonsalves or Romero.

Gordon, Romero or Gonsalves, plus 1 more prospect or Kepler for Archer. I'll take his contract totalling 30mm thru 2021. Last 2 years are team options. 4 years of control. We are already having trouble protecting everyone on the 40 man roster so we have the option to start cashing in on some of the prospects.

Romero and Gonsalves unless we trade for Archer.

Agreed but do you push your chips into the middle and go all in on Darvich or Arrieta as they are your only 1 and 2. We are the Twins and we wont have the opportunity to do this again until this contract would expire or do you keep what you have and see where things are at the trade deadline. I think the trade avenue could bear higher returns as long as Lewis is not included in the package.

By not buying into this free agent class and using the rookies initially in the rotation with Hughes and Mejia as fallback options if they falter, it also allows us to be buyers at the trade deadline. Look at what our 4 and 5 guys did pre All-Star last year. A disaster. IF,IF IF we are still within striking distance at the break, we can be buyers if the opportunity arises plus hopefully May is back as another shot in the arm. KEEP THE FLEXIBILITY AND DONT OVERPAY FOR THIS GROUP OF FREE AGENTS!

I know that this is a minority and probably insane idea with our starting pitching construction but hear me out anyways. I think everyone would agree that last season our 3-5 spots in the rotation were a who's on first mystery until Gibson settled in after the All-Star break giving us a respectable 1-3 along with Santana and Berrios. Colon gave us a shot in the arm over a stretch and Mejia was up and down. We have May and Pineda recovering from Tommy John with May estimated to be back by mid-season. Our bullpen is much improved and as we have seen high end pens CAN turn a starters job into a 5 inning night. WHY THEN CAN'T WE TAKE THIS APPROACH WITH THE 4 AND 5 SPOTS IN THE ROTATION? Give the rookies a shot. Low cost, high upside and flexibility to make future trades without buying in to this less than desirable free agent class of starting pitchers. Could the rookies perform any worse than our 4 and 5 last year before the break? WAIT I KNOW THE ANSWER TO THAT-YES OF COURSE IT COULD BE A DISASTER! But it is a option. We can always find another veteran to be an innings eater or use Hughes or Mejia to serve as a fall back plan. THIS VIEW IS BASED ON NOT BUYING IN TO THE FREE AGENT STARTING PITCHING. I am however all in on a trade for starting pitching but not using Lewis as a chip. Just an idea so fire away Twins fans.

We will have to agree to disagree on this one. Archer still strikes out over 1 per inning while Nolasco when we signed him had regressed drastically from his early years in this department plus balloned ERA. Two totally different pitchers IMO. Great we can atleast have this discussion about obtaining higher end talent. Darvich and his injury history scares the heck out of me. If the cost is Gordon, 1 top pitching prospect and 1 other lower rated prospect I'm in on Archer. No way if Lewis is in the package.

I sure am enjoying the offseason. Fortified the bullpen and having a discussion on adding a top end starting pitcher. In years past it was signing a Pelfrey, Ponsen, Nolasco, Hughes, Correia or some other reclamation project. Ive said it before and I'll say it again, THIS FRONT OFFICE HAS THEIR **** TOGETHER!

Bullpen now vastly improved. Dont forget about our young arms that also may help at some point this season. Now trade for Cole or Archer. Shorter term committment than Darvich and much cheaper for now. Buys us time to see what the young guys look like and how May comes back. Darvich is just going to take too long a contract at 25mm plus per year. He has too many question marks and has a history of the injury bug.

Bullpen now vastly improved. Dont forget about our young arms that also may help at some point this season. Now trade for Cole or Archer. Shorter term committment than Darvich and much cheaper for now. Buys us time to see what the young guys look like and how May comes back. Darvich is just going to take too long a contract at 25mm plus per year. He has too many question marks and has a history of the injury bug.

Spot on. Great piece.

Maybe we don't disagree. My point is we as fans aren't privy to what goes on behind the scenes. I would hope that Falvey has Plans A B AND C AND MAYBE EVEN D as the top pitchers start to sign. We don't even know for sure that Darvish is his main target as it could be a smokescreen. I will reserve judgement until all the offseason moves are complete. Go Twins!

You keep believing that the glass is half empty and I'll keep my belief that its half full. I think there is a little more to signing free agents than SNAP SNAP. You have to have interest from the player to sign with a given team and if Darvish decides he has no interst in the Twins than I guess were out of luck with him. I guess thats why they call them FREE AGENTS.