ND-Fan

This is not the player that was coming up through the minors and sold to the fans of the Twins. The potential that Sano has as player is now just shadow of what he could be. He may fit into this Twins line up and provide extra power to carry this team or i should say assist this team to winning. The bottem line here is that he had the talent to be so much more than that he could have been one of the elite players in the league. Now we get a player that is maybe 50% of what he could have been and if my guess is correct we will not be a Twin much longer because he is going to become expensive luxury that can be replaced by many coming up in the system. The assessment on talent potential was correct but the assessment on character makeup and individual makeup was way off. Thankfully some of the other Twins talent has exceeded first thought by everyone and now some of expected talent is getting there. I would be surprised to see Sano here by end of next season and i wonder even for this season.

I watched this and yes Garver did do good job showing a stike on pitch that you are writing about. But i also saw previous couple of pitches where the umpire missed a call on strike on the corner. I took this call more as a make up call for the strike that was missed earlier in the at bat. If you are right and catchers can influence the umpires to make calls on pitches that are not strikes then we are in trouble with pitch calling in baseball. If this is the case we are heading for electronic strike zone calling done by machine and if my guess is right its not to far away. With advancement of technology we see pretty much every pitch now if it is in the strike zone or not. If we start seeing where are distinct advantages for some players and not others public is going to demand that umpiring is taken over by the technology. I guess this should not surprise us on this tennis has already switched to verifying calls by electronic technology. My thoughts is more they use there technology to gain advantage the more they loose because people watching the game demand that their since of fairness in the game. Thus we end up changing the game and possibilities of having the human element of chance being removed from the game. What I worry about we soon will loose what was special about baseball the human element to the game.

This could be the next wave of development for baseball and we will be leader in player development. I have my reservations about this it may work for percentage of players but my experience over the years has been players learn the most just playing the game of baseball. Today we are seeing flood of players from carribean and venenzula these are hot beds where kids are playing the game year around. I think the current labor contract has hurt major league development by teams worring about player service time instead of letting players come up learn the game by playing it and being taught it from the veterans. We have whole generation of people involved in baseball that have played MLB on video games and also now play fantasy baseball but this is not what it takes to build quality players. I think its working short term but I think were killing the future of baseball and why it was popular for so long. I may be totally wrong here but the game has become more boring for me to watch because of analytical thought put into the game we have taken the human element out and reduced the superior players ability to show case there talent in the games by doing their analytical analysis. Yes this is smart thinking on giving your team a chance to win but these shows of superior physical plays also have been reduced so the game is not as fun to watch or remember because we have less of these to remember from the games. This was part of the game that made it special in the past. The example being for instance instead of Willy Mays making spectacular catch over his head that is shown in replay about him instead we had shift on that predicted that tendency for player hitting that baseball hitting that ball there we had player positioned there same outcome out but nobody remembers that play. This may be over simplified but I think its happening now to many times in baseball the game has never been played better but it has become boring where in past this caused situations where superior baseball player had situations to show case there talent and was reason for there teams to win. Today this has reduced number of players to equals on the field to where game has come down to more of equation of whose game plan is superior to that opposition. I am having hard time to explain this but game was much more fun to watch when you had human element variability in the game not as pure a game but was much more entertaining game to watch. Just my thoughts on this I may be way off here but it what I have been thinking about baseball lately.

This new wave of front offices that has changed how players are viewed is going to bring about whole new wave player strikes and labor discontent in next few labor contracts. I look at how labor percentage of revenue has drop considerably in last few labor agreements. Then add in how management is not paying now for early good years of player later in his career we have all flash points to create a labor impasse. I got to believe these new front offices have set in motion where they are going to have to be paying young players millions of dollars based on their potential to become stars in baseball. They may have contained costs for owners on short term basis for last 10 years but now they will entering phase where now players coming up to big leagues will be paid big money after a year or two in the big leagues. This going to lead where baseball will be paying more in the development phase of player and if that development doesn't happen as it does with prospects the costs of players are going to escalate. The old system where they didn't pay for stars until later in there careers was more certain payment plan where they paid for actual performance but when that performance may of happened. Now they will be paying upfront for the potential and when they are producing the most. The problem is now they are going to have also pay huge money for the busts in baseball. Take for example now where would have the Twins be now with Buxton and Sano they would be paying these players now millions of dollars probably locked into contracts when they are still developing. The other choice would have been to let them go and loose the potential and let some other club develop your talent. Not all players develop the same look at Hicks look like a failure on the Twins part now he's developed into top player for Yankees. I am afraid these new front offices may have put smaller market teams in much worse position than they were before they did all there cost analytical work to cut player costs. If Baseball is going to fix this they are going to have to go where they are going to guarantee certain amount revenues to players and then between ownerships that all clubs are guaranteed amount of revenue paid from high revenue clubs but with agreement they also have to spend certain amount of revenue to field a team. I don't know how it will all get done but if not we will have failing franchises if they can't fix labor and differences between markets in next labor contracts.

This is good signing for the Twins. If they would go out now and sign Kimbrel i would think they would have put forth a team that could win the central division this year. If the team would come together Sano and Buxton have exceptional years they could contend for American league title. I also would believe this would be sell to players they are in as front office and also would give them confidence in them as players. Also would help them in getting fans in believing they are in to win and not sitting waiting for it all to come together. I think this new managers influence with this front office and finally they are relizing they are needing to inverst in this team if going to be winner.

I have been very critical of this front office but this is positive step in my opinion for the Twins finally they are putting in place core of players that they can start building a team around. They are finally sold that they do have core of players to build around and move forward with. I think they will like to do something in the future with Buxton and maybe Sano but we will see what they will do with these players. I just see that they may have burned some bridges especially with Buxton with this last year on trying to limit his service time. Also if they don't pan out Kepler and Polanco will be here long enough to build with Lewis and Krillo so this to me is smart move. The next big questions will be what they are going to do with the pitchers but i have been thinking on this they may just put qualifying offers out on both Gibson and Ordorizzi for next year and i wouldn't be surprised if they might take the offers because i have hard time believing they would get much over that. They would be paying on the high side but its only one year deal and gets them close to their prospects coming up in the pipeline. I sure wish they could now sign Berios and Rosario to longer term contract this would be nice begining to nice core of players locked up and something to build around in the future. If Buxton has break out year i would look to signing him to longer term contract in the next year. I think agents are seeing the light under this current contract for baseball if you are coming out as free agent as 29 to 30 year old your market value or staying in baseball is going to become very difficult. This ensures Kepler and Polanco jobs till there 31 to 32 years old. Because even when they fight over the new player contract agreement players and Kepler are going to be to old see any benefit in new player contract. The game has changed for the players in baseball and last labor agreement has been bust for players like Kepler and Polanco because of service time management by clubs they are getting all their top years at reasonable prices and latter years they have been just going back to cheaper younger player because of how they have analysised the game.

Here's a look at where we stand as a team and compared to last year. First base appears we have improved us on power front from Joe Mauer but in doing so we have lost on base percentage and definitely went backwards on defensive side of first base. The net result I think were slight loss overall at first base because we have weakened whole infield with what joe did defensively. Second base we added SChoop looking at it objectively we have about traded even with what we had in Brian Dozier that is assuming that Schoop bounces back. SS we have Polanco should be improved when we have him for full year but defensively we will go back some because of first base. Third base with Sano this could be our biggest gain if the reports are right on him being healthy. I could see we have the player of two years ago. The big question can he recover his hitting skills if not were in serious trouble for the season. Catcher we will have Castro back but I think our future is with Garver and Astudillo I have feeling were going to see much more production from Catcher hitting than we have seen last few years. Left field with Rosario should stay same with improving as major league player. Center Field we will be better there defensively with Buxton and I can't help that he's going to hit for at least 230 to 250 mark this year which will be acceptable with all his other skills. Right field Kepler I believe is the player that will have breakout season hitting and defensively will continue to improve. DH is biggest improvement on this team with Cruz we will be getting increase in offense. Pitching I Think we will have adequate starting pitching to compete especially in AL central. Relief pitching is going to be process of finding right combinations of people I believe the Twins front office has come to decision to explore what we have in the farm system and anything they can pickup before season opens up. Overall I think we could see improvement in the team but my guess is were sitting with 80 to 82 win team. This is not enough to make to playoffs but would be a third best season in over decade. If I was grading this front office they have made necessary moves to keep competent team on the field if the core responds but in doing so they have cost us any chance of making a play off run if this core suddenly gels and probably may have cost us chance at the playoffs. My grading process player additions C, coaching staff I would give them B- with new manager plus but I have severe reservations about pitching coaches hired may just see where we start seeing more career ending injuries for all this allusive need for velocity; and finally overall Front office use of resources I would give a grade of D- because well knowing where we are if the core produces we are on way to having contender but just sit wait to me is great mistake opportunities only come around few times for major league club and when they do have to take the risk and the faith in your players and people you hired to get the job done. This front office lacks the confidence to believe in their players and unwilling to risk their reputations going forth with a plan to win it all and if don't believe that then you need to blow it up and start over. But this sitting on your hands and hoping things turn around is worst position to be in because your neither progressing or getting worse your just wasting time of players and fans. I believe it comes down to either you believe in what you got or you don't its simple as that when you have made that decision you go out use all your resources to win or if not tearing it down putting plans together to rebuild the club in next couple of years. This is where we are now not where I would want to be if was trying to sell this club to the public.

I remember about Cuddyer is when my son competed at the hit pitch and run at the dome. The competition was on early on Saturday morning at the dome where we were to be at the dome at 7 am in the morning. When we got there and waiting for them to get set up we saw Cuddyer at the dome already and he was running laps in the dome by going up and down stairs in seating section at the dome. I believe he was there working out for at least 1 to 2 hours and he had game later that day. I was impressed because we had been there night before to watch the Twins and see a player back at ball park that early again next day with game later that day. My son was impressed and it was good example to him that he worked very hard to be good player. My son for years after that had poster of Cuddyer on his bedroom wall given to him at the hit pitch and run and he had became one of his favorite players for the Twins. I thought I would share this memory of Cuddyer we have as a Twin player.

If the reports are right i think Sano could show most improvement this season if he can get back to recognizing pitches staying way from the slider to not become easy strike out hitter. My biggest concern is also can he hit hard throwing fast ball pitcher last year he was having hard time catching up to them. My guess he returns to player he was two years ago. Buxton is the player i have no clue on if he's going to hit or not. My gut is if he can just play and not get hurt i think one day he will figure it out enough where he becomes above average hitter. The problem i see is he play's so hard that i just think he's prone to hurting himself never getting to point where he can figure it out. Kepler this where I am going out on limb I think he's going to become one of these quality baseball players that becomes way above average player. I just think he will become this super player that in his early years he will be able to play center field, right field and first base if needed. Later in his career he will play top right field and when he is finishing his career probably end up at first and DH. I just hope we get to see this player because I just think he is just late bloomer and we just might trade him to someone else because his numbers didn't show up as analytical people think they should. I may be wrong but what my eye see is very good player and its going to come I just not sure when it will come. He has above average speed, above average arm, very good mechanics on his baseball swing and he barrels ball very well and he hits ball hard all the necessary tools become very good player. Also has good attitude and works hard as his game from coaches and teammates. Again I think he could become one the major league all star player. If these players all have productive years the Twins will be much improved club over last year. Pitching should be adequate with enough starters if they stay healthy to carry the club. Also the bull pen is not bad as everyone thinks May has making for closer, Taylor good eight inning setup man and Hildenberger seventh or eight setup man plus couple others to mix in their in like Reed. My biggest concern is that we may hit more home runs but we will have nobody on because we lack batters with on base capabilities. We will see how year plays out.

I would say we will either acquire a pitcher through a trade like last year or we will pick up player released during spring training. My guess we sign a reliever before spring training from free agent market. These are moves i expect us to make before season starts unless we have major injury then we could make a move. I was pessimistic about coming season but i can see possible path where we could make a run this season. I also could se where we just post another bad season again and wait for the prospects to arrive here. I also wonder what are long term plan is when we haven't locked up any players for the future. I look at where we stand even if we have decent year what is the plan for the 2020 year when we will be loosing three of projected starters for this year to free agency. Pitching has improved for the Twins but not if we loose all three of these starters because following year we will be looking for starting pitching and we don't have that kind of depth in minors to just fill these openings and pitching on free agent market is always expensive and risky. The chances of resigning our pitchers could become expensive and not lock to get them back on the pitchers we would want back to pitch.

I guess i have problem with putting prospects into top of the value for baseball. This seems what wrong with baseball right now everyone values players who haven't even played inning in the majors yet. I could see where we are at now some these players are maybe in top 15 through 25 value but until they have reached majors in mind they are still crap shoot there are so many things that can happen. I look at present former top prospects of Buxton and Sano they were sure no failure prospects and now we have real doubts about these players. Year in year out performance at major league level is what cuts it. That is why big market clubs are always ahead of us they are filling there teams with proven talent and supplementing with there minor league system. Yankees are pondering this delema right now do they stick with there young kids see if they develop or should they be signing some big name free agents now to win immediately. This is one of the reasons fans have hard time to understand baseball because its not like basketball or football where usually the number one draft picks accelerates you in few short years to top the league. Baseball is full of failure picks and then signing lower pick that turn into next big star. I agree these top prospects look to be real players into the future but until they are here there just growing crop that has great potential but we don't know that we will get to see yields they may have because something can up damage them before they ever get here.

Top 5 must have Buxton, Hildenberg, Berios, kiriloff, and Lewis. I guess i have hard time figuring Kiriloff and Lewis in the top 5 when they still aways away from making appearance in the major leagues. Lewis is at least more than year away from making the majors and even then if he sticks in the majors. I have gone through to many sure fire prospects to know that this doesn't happen many times looking in the past that i can remember Olivia, Carew, Blyleven, Puckett, Knoblauch, and Mauer were high prospects that came up and stayed. I know there were probably several more but look at the people on the list several on them hall of famers or near hall of famers. I also have hard time with putting Gibson on the prospect list when we are in last year of control of him before he becomes free agent. I just have the feeling were getting to point they are waiting to see how these players are going to turn out before they gain some control in the future. This sounds logical but I have feeling were going to get to close to free agency where names on this list do turn it around are just going to play it out to free agency. Because they know they are going to get good money in arbitration and do not extend their time to free agency. This leaves us with either trading or playing them until we loose them to free agency so we are in this continuous rebuilding mode trying to find a core of players to build around. I think at some point here they are going to have decide what players have future and try to lock them up to build nucleus to build winning club. Maybe I am wrong here but I look in past when we were successful that's what we did and some how we have gotten away from that. This should have been easier with the new stadium and general revenues increasing. I think because of the new stadium ownership and management haven't had work as hard in past to get people coming through the gates so they lost this competitive edge to put winner out there because if don't numbers really start to get ugly. I have feeling they are getting to where they may realize the honey moon is over.

I don't think Twins fans hate Byron Buxton and i sure don't either and i think he is quality individual when he has been interviewed and what he has shown to public. I have followed his career through minors and all the coaches speak highly of his talents and almost all of them think he has abilitity to become big time player. The two things that have me concerned with him is he's going to have learn to play his aggressive approach to defense but not put himself in positions where he can get hurt seriously. I think over time he can learn this but if he continues like this now it could end his career permanently something I hope I won't have to see. Second thing is his batting and what I am afraid has happened to him is that by his pure athleticism he has been able to hit without having to do much with identifying pitches and being able to work counts to his favor where his abilities are at advantage. I think he can learn this but its going to take time and being able to hit at the big leagues because he has proven he can hit next level below. The problem has been he hasn't been healthy enough to keep playing and second is he needs to work through this and I wonder if any Major league team will let him have this many at bats to learn this. The Twins have been a team with poor records we have experienced in the past should have had him up here working on this but here's the problem with that they don't want to give up service time to potential star player. So now we have player where fan base is wondering and up in arms on this high prospect why he's not performing and second we have player that's need confidence and belief in himself than he can do this. The Twins gave up on his predecessor in Hicks too because they thought he wasn't develop into the player they thought her would be and traded him now with a new club he had developed into the player we first thought we had. The fan base had all but given up on him when he was here and now everyone has opinion why did they trade him. That's the problem with baseball there is not a lot of patience on developing players by teams or fans because we all think that baseball players all develop the same way. Even the stats people are wrong on this look at many of the star players today some took longer to develop but they had long and very productive careers going later playing above the normal curve for a player. Buxton needs time and see if he can put all this together because of his talent he can still be above average player with just his defense and speed because every time he gets on he's basically in scoring position with his speed. Second his defense is probably going to save you at least 1 run a game so again high value to your pitching and your ability to win a game. Lets hope he can put it together.

This signing fits for the Twins in that it fills immediate need and lets them have time to bring Gordon up from the minors this year. The fit hits so many things for the Twins front office in that he replaces Dozier's numbers they had last year, plays adequate second base, the cost is cheap and is one year deal putting no financial burden on the club, also gives time for club to bring up Gordon this year, and if Gordon performs and he performs they trade him at the dead line pickup some prospect in the future. Also another thing little thing by delaying Gordons arrival they say service time on Gordon in the future whether as twin or if they decide to trade him the future. I like to say again the Twins are not going to spend money like everyone has been saying here that they have all this extra spending money. The big question still to come is are they going to invest in any of players long term or are we going to just let year playout and they either trade the player or do a qualifying offer to retain them for another year. My guess is that the latter may be true after i have been thinking about it. I could see the Twins doing qualifying offers on Gibson and Ordorizzi for the coming year. A 19 million dollar one year deal would not be that much higher than if they would have to sign these pitchers if they have good years on the Free agent market. I may be wrong on this but i have inkling this is what might happen. My guess is were looking at major league payroll of around 80 to 85 million unless we should trade for Santanna yet this year. This should leave room to sign a starting pitcher to fill in for the last starter and possibly to find relief pitcher for the bull pen. Everyone thinking they were goiing to have payroll like last year was never going to happen.

I think some of you people better go back and look at some Cave's numbers and it is pretty small sample size but there are some glaring weaknesses in his numbers. First is he is striking already out at 36% of time he comes to bat. I willing to bet that number will increase further come this year as teams have gotten more data on him and have found out what they can exploit on him. Compare this to Kepler he strikes out half the rate Cave does. Second Caves walk rate is half of Keplers walk rate so were dealing with player that put ball in play last year on short sample size got high percentage of hits with ball put into play. This is something i would worry about for the coming year. People on Kepler keep coming back to his numbers have been same for three years but the things i have seen in three years is marked improvement in his at bats they have become more professional in that he has been working the counts in his favor more but he has lapses in his at bats at pitch selections but it has improved each year. Second thing is two years ago he had absolute terrible numbers against left hand pitching but last year he proved he could hit left hand pitching. I look at his swing and way he barrels up the baseball you can see that he's going to hit and other thing is he works on his game and it reported that he works hard on improving his game meaning its only time before everything comes together because he has ability and the effort for this to happen. I also think another factor for him has been i think he has gotten worn down durning the season in past and it learning curve by players to get there body in shape for major league season. The big thing is he has continued to play and hasn't been hurt to where he hasn't played which alot of young players don't achieve. Like i have said earlier he's young player ready to break out become a star player and i hope this front office see's that also.

I agree that he would be decent fit for the Twins if we only have to give up some prospect or two if we get some salary relief. First of all he is first baseman and do like his career numbers on striking out and his hitting. I have no faith in Cron for the coming year for first base. Second its only two years and even if one kids come up from minors we still could use him in DH role / first baseman. Would add no long term commitments for the Twins or prevent the twins locking up some their younger players. The question arise does this fit this Front Office plan for the team because I don't think there plans are to be competitive this year or the next year were in there rebuild for 2021 when there prospects start arriving.

Trading Kepler will be big mistake in my mind because I think he's on verge of becoming a superstar. The numbers say he had underperformed but I think like what was written above if he continues hit ball hard that his numbers are going to improve dramatically. Second he did improve last year he showed he could hit left hand pitching. I think he just got few little things to clean up hitting and also get to better pitch recognition to what he's going to hit at his at bats. Defensively he is ideal player he plays above average center field if needed, very good right field defender and has proven he could also play first base if needed. These are what teams are looking for players that have flexibility and can hit both for power and hits, and has speed to run the bases. He still is 25 years old which means were going to trade a player that is just coming into his prime again for some future prospects time has come for the Twins to decide to keep some of their quality players and start building around them. Yes there are risks in keeping developing players but we sure have proven in past few years going out on free agent market it hard to find quality players unless your willing to pay premium price to acquire them. This Front office better start making some investment in the future because to keep waiting for prospects to develop and arrive all at same time may never come. It requires signing your quality players to longer term deals and continue to add with from your prospects to build a winner.

This front office in my opinion missed good chance to win there first year here but because i believe they came in with the impression that the Twins were so screwed up they were looking to tear down whole team and start over. If they had gone out the first off seasnon and signed couple of relief pitchers and looked for serviceable starter they had chance not only win the wild card but could have won the division. They still had chance even at before trade deadline but again they became sellers of this team and even with this team still made it in as wild card. these oppertunities don't come along often. Then last year yes they added free agents to team that had made wild card but with the back up plan they could sell these Free Agents off for prospects and guess what that is what happened. Second they then decided to trade away some our core players who were becoming free agents because they had not signed any of these players to extension. This would have been logical if we had propects being held up by these players but the fact is we had nothing in pipeline for several years. Also since we waited to last minute to sell these players we got very little in return several A ball players that have potential but we all know that even with high potential very few will make impact at major league level. So now we sit with all our hopes on our top prospects from 3 years ago if they can figure it out and perform at major league level. They are trying to follow the Houston plan to the Tee but what have worked for Houston is no gurantee it works for us. We all know that picking people in draft is not like basketball or football top picks don't necessary mean in three years competing competitively. We all have seen it where you picked higher in draft doesn't mean your pick is going to be next star. Look we had chance to pick Mike Trout once and we were not only other ones either because he wasn't picked until 22 round. Now he is best ball player in baseball so you see this idea of tanking may turn out great but it just lead us to another several years of loosing. Right now i don't see how they expect us to buy tickets to watch this team its bad enough if i want to watch them on TV. I love baseball but this past year its hard to watch this team. The analyticals have made baseball boring and it takes for ever to get game done. We have pitching changes nearly on average 4 to 5 times a game and then add in defensive shifts that create for slow pitching and lowering hitting of players we get game takes 4 to 5 hours with reduction in offense. Yes this has been done to win games but at what cost because with these changes we have ended up in slow moving game and hitters striking out more and trying to hit for home runs. Since baseball has changed because of analytical people making changes to the game we need to have new rules to offset what these people have done to the game. First is we need to limit number of pitching changes in game to say three and if you need a forth pitching change you loose that pitcher for say another 3 games. Also we need to set number of pitchers a team can carry on team. Second would be that position players you need so many on each side of second base and they need to have one foot on dirt cut of the infields this would limit number of shifts in baseball. Changes like this would be no different than what NBA has done with shot clocks, and outlawing zone defenses or Football limiting how players are set on lines or how people are defensed with limiting contact after line of scrimmage. I have been saying this for quite a while we have been in tear down mode slow way with the hope prospects we had would develop to build winning team around if not just continue sell of the pieces look to try to put winner on the field by 2021. I as a fan just hate to be used like this if this your plan tell the truth and then we know what were facing but this like slow torture of hoping they will make a move and in end nothing happens other than taring down and rebuilding.

For all of you posting we should sign Harper we have a better chance of winning the lottery than we signing him to come play for the Twins. First is the Twins would never spend than kind of money one player that he's asking for and second is he would never come to the Twins a small market club and one that is not competitive. The Truth be told i don't think we have shot at any of the top free agents right now they don't want to noncompetitive team like the Twins. Also the Twins are in no position to sign this type of free agent until they better idea of structure of this team. This team has regressed from last year at this time with only hope is that Buxton, Sano, Kepler, and Rosario continue to improve from their peak performances past couple of years. Second that Gordon can make the leap to majors this year and make some impact at the major league level. Also that young pitchers can come up provide quality major league pitching. All these things considered there are lot of ifs which usually equates in not that great a season ahead of us. I look at this club were going to really struggle to score runs not good thing with young pitching staff and more middle of row starters. Look at this team by position 1st. base Cron more power hitting but not the on base percentage of Mauer and definite down grade at fielding. Second base hasn't been filled but longterm probably Gordon; SS we have Polanco viable fielding and overall above average hitting ss; Sano at third base not sure what we have could be all star 3rd baseman or total flop if he doesn't figure out how to hit consistently; Catcher we have Castro adequate but still big question if he can come back from injury, and Garver who could become good backup catcher; LF we have Rosario a major league ready player that overall is slightly above average; CF we have Buxton already best defensive center fielder in the game but can he learn to hit in the Major leagues; RF Kepler above average defensive fielding right fielder and could become above average hitting right fielder. Cave 4 outfielder could be above average both fielding and hitting but here again very short sample size for fielder that has struggled to staying with organizations; DH position that still open but could be filled by several of the current players. This is not team that is poised win it all its a team that could be torn down by August if players have repeat of next year. The funny thing is that these players have won all way up through baseball until they have reached majors. If they fail this year will it because of the players or is it the organization that has failed to help these players win at this level by overloading them with information and new theories on how to play baseball. I think ownership and business people of Twins are going to be tested this year because the decline of attendance and fans following this club are going to continue to decline. Here again were following Cleveland model even when they been winning they have not had increase in attendance. The new baseball people are ruing the game by making it boring to watch and for ever to get games played in normal amount of time. They need to get rules on number pitching changes in game and how positional players are positioned during the game for starters and penalties for teams that are tanking to get better draft picks. These changes would add more offense and teams would go back to caring more positional players than pitchers and finally teams would have to try to win or they would loose their draft picks because of it. If not were going see gradual decline of baseball further and especially with younger generation.

C.j. Cron signing I believe will be another signing similar to last years Morrison signing by this front office the stat numbers look great but when we get on the field his numbers won't hold up for the Twins. I find it ironic that same club had both these players and both times they just let them go even with there stats line. This telling me if Tampa is not willing to sign them again with the numbers they had it means there's something they know more about the players and it probably not going to be good signing. This Front office is all about numbers but you also have sight evaluation of the players too. I think people here are so already sold on couple of players here for next year and my impression is we had short sample size for these players to already being ready to project them as future stars. The first is Cave he hit for average but I look at his major league numbers one thing that pops out to me is that he struck out nearly 1/3 of time with his at bats up with the Twins. If you would put it in full season he will strike out nearly as many times as Sano has been striking out. I just can't see how Twins have the at bats for type of hitter Cave is with that kind of strike out rate. Austin is other player he hits for power but that's about it he doesn't get on base much otherwise has low on base percentage he doesn't walk much you have all or nothing hitter. Probably why NY game up on him he needs work and they have plenty other candidates in the wings and I believe same to be true with the Twins. I just don't see how we have improved our selves with these moves for the coming year we have team to me is way to loaded with strike out potential all way through the line up. The loss of Grossman to me is who in this Twins line up can give you a professional at bat now. The two best we have is Polanco and Kepler and if the fans have there way Kepler would be gone now because he hasn't improved as much as everyone though he might this past year. Everyone thinks your past your prime if you haven't reached it by 25 but truth is most players don't hit there prime until 27 to 32 years in the majors. Look at Hicks it took to his 27 year to breakout become the star we thought he would when we drafted him. The sad thing there is we didn't get the player back in trade because we were looking for catcher to fit are financials and one that had team control. Here again the numbers looked good for small sample size but didn't prove out when we played regularly. I just don't see where were improving this club at the major league level it may be better down in lower parts of the organization but we still won't know for number years on this either. I don't think were going to sign much for free agents this winter either were in holding pattern to determine where Sano and Buxton are before any investment is made in this club.

I think Grossman is much harder nontender than most think because he gets on base a lot for team that has struggled to get people on. Also he is switch hitter meaning provides a bat from either side and I also think he is positive in the club house. With Mauer gone he provides them with always professional at bat working counts deep and walks a lot. I have feeling they might just want to keep him because a lot of ifs with Cave , Austin, and Cron for the coming year and he has proven track record on offense and how bad we were offensively last year.

I have thought Eovaldi would be good pickup because of his age and stuff he can throw but with this many teams involved there is no way the Twins will be in on him. First they don't have money or should spend that amount of money on one player and second is he won't come to noncontending team like the Twins. I agree we need to find another player like Eovaldi but right now not sure who that player would be. I am more convinced now than ever the Twins are not signing any free agent player that is going to be high cost for the coming year. The next question is are they willing to trade prospects for proven or for high quality young player ready to play at the Majors. Here again I thinking were probably year away from that happening because they want to see some progression before they start investing prospects into this team. Basically were bargain shopping and maybe willing to sign international player if that is possible within in budget. The next area for the Twins are they going to sign any of their potential free agents to long term contracts and here again its been awful quiet on that front also. The big question is our window of competing is slowing disappearing right now and maybe before this year is over it may be gone. I Think Chicago could be close now to competing this coming year and my gut has feeling that the Tigers might start show they are getting pieces together to challenge in the near future. The clock has been ticking for us but new geniuses are still learning how to drive the bus and may get passed by the above teams.

I am not on Pohlad side of this thing but i watched this team for better than 50 years and one truth i have seen in baseball very rarely does ownership gets cut first. We have seen GM's come and go over the years but we still have basic philosophy this team no money is going to come out of ownership return its just a fact. Now if I was owner like Pohlad's having billions of dollars already I would want my sports franchise to win even if I were in break even position. The reason I would have for this I would love to give my community the feeling of winning and beside that local fans would remember you as one that gave them that feeling. To be remember so positively by people would out weigh amount of money that you died with. Like I said you would be remember by people long after your dead. That is why I will never have kind of money the Pohlad's have. I think George Steinbrenner kind of knew this just he had nasty way of getting to winning but he knew he would be remember more winning with his club than all money he had.

The Pohlad comment is what i have been saying all along that the Twins don't have as much money as to spend as people think. The Pohlads look at the Twins as business investment meaning that priority one is that the Twins maintain there rate of return to the Pohlads based on value of the club. The club in last 10 years has more than triplled in value meaning the amount of money needed to maintain same rate of return has tripled too. I believe if you used 10% rate of return the increased value of the Twins would equate to needing another 60 million dollars from revenues. This may not what people want to hear but that just plain truth about baseball it comes back to business side of the business.

I find it interesting and funny both with what the Twins are doing with the organization we may win with this new philosphy. The funny thing is that Boston went back to more traditional head of baseball operations when they hired Dave Dombroski meaning more old school baseball people. It doesn't mean they abandonded their metrics side but i believe they were looking for balance between the two different schools in baseball. The look of present club looks like they got it right with how this club performed this past year and their run through the world series. Their new manager is of the new school but looking at way he managed in world series he also can manage like old school too. I have hope for our new manager and my first impressions of him have been good. The problem i see is that we have top management that is so involved in day to day managing that they won't let their people do their jobs. I have a theory the first year here top management had their plan already set in place to take place they were letting team perform which they assumed would fail based on their assessment. The problem is that they won even with no front office help of additional players and even subtracted from the team. So we have last year where they had all these problems injuries and club put together that did not have team chemistry and everyone playing for themselves we got last years results. I just see front office that has all these theories but it's one thing to have theories another to put organization together that can win and has common sense. Speaking of theories i wonder if we haven't overloaded these young players with so much information that we caused regression or lack of development by these young players. Second all these theories are not playing well with veterans to where there not happy getting performances we should out these players explaining why were seeing improved performances once they leave the Twins. Now we have this new approach on pitching i fear what were going to have here players getting hurt more to just to get more speed and i am betting where veteran players are have hard time buying into this approach. The only saving grace so far is the Twins play in weakest division in baseball which has allowed us to be competitive on record with other clubs in the division. I just have feeling that is going to change where were not the second best team in the division but we could slip to third because i have feeling Chicago is about have breakout year and Cleveland still will be very competitive no matter what they do this year. The other thing is i wonder if Detroit may play better than last year with development of some their players. The big question then comes how much is ownership and top management bought into this front office theories and there business plan that they are putting together organization to win long term. Because if we have another failure come next year because of players under performing and now start to see additional injuries to the pitching staff and fans choosing to go else where to spend their money than going to the baseball game. This is one possibility and other is that Sano and Buxton become top players in baseball and pitchers we have good years we contend for division crown. This is make or break year and this Front office I believe heads are on the chopping block nobody wants to say it but I believe it is and they may be given another year after this but would be very much like the previous front office removal.