ND-Fan

Everybody is looking to blow this team up and yes they need changes but what is the plan to get to successful season. I hear all people on the web sites we need to trade all these players but bigger question is who are we going to replace them with. Especially pitching at the major league level. We just went through 4 years with hhiring lower tier pitchers to fill spots. Now we have several pitchers that fall in middle tier of pitching. I look at the farm system we have Berios that could come up to pitch at major league level but will need seasoning before he's quality major league pitcher. From there we have Gibson and May that could pitch at major league level. So who do we fill in those last two sports for next year. We may have Hughes back from major surgery but its unknown if this will return him from Two years ago. If we get rid of Santanna, Nolasco, and Milone who's going fill that last spot in the rotation and who will be our depth. Are we going out again and sign another free agent pitcher that will be hard to do with ownership already feeling the pain of previous signings and high risk now in signing free agent pitchers. To trade for top pitching your looking at trading some of very best young talent probably trading of Buxton or Sano to with couple of veterans to get number of young pitchers. Now you see the what Twins management has been facing with new baseball its nearly impossible to trade with teams to acquire front line pitching unless your willing to give up huge chunk of your young stars. Going free agent route your going to get aging player past his prime with injury possibilities likely hood. That has been Twins failing of current Twins staff in that their pitching selections have failed to make it to major leagues as starters. To name a few is Wimmers, Myers, and several others putting pipeline very bare in near future. They do have pitchers down in A and some moving to Double a but they are still a couple years away from improving this team. Like I say to get this team to be contender they are going to need pitching and that is not easy task to do in short period. It going to take a lot of money and giving away lot of their positional talent to get there so we could see team that may have pitching but will struggle to develop offense. Also if we get new GM from outside the Twins are going to see significant increase in operating costs if they are going to be like a lot of the clubs today. They will need to create whole metrics department that can coordinate with scouting department. They are going to have to create whole medical staff and conditioning staff fro players from major league level all way down to their minor league level. So Pohlads are going to be in sticker shock when they see how much more overhead is going to be needed. Also they going to be asked for higher salary range if they are going to start winning now. This is where I think all this gets interesting because this is when high rate of returns they have had are going to go other way and for them to even cover this they are going to have to win right away and even if you do this there is will be sure thing to winning. I will like to see what all you experts will say if this doesn't work and were back to where we were when we were in the metrodome being low revenue team and ownership wanting to minimize there risk and putting a team together again on long term by development. I still believe that ownership sets how team operates in long run and this ownership is willing to only go so far in what they will do. If you look what they said they could spend on players when they first moved into Target field by how they set payroll in Metrodome the Twins Could have increased their pay roll to some where around 130 million. If the Twins had done that invested it in pitching with what they have spent they could have had likes of Price and Greinke both pitching for them with even Santanna what would that have done for the Twins. I have been around to long this turn around is still aways away and may take whole new round of picks again to get back to be a winner. It takes a little luck in finding pitchers and getting them to majors so far Twins have had not much of that lately.

Trading Plouffe would be answer but the problem is nobody is willing to take him at his cost. Nunez will be traded soon as the all star game is over. I really think they should trade Dozier now and get what ever they can for him I think his numbers are improving to point where somebody would be interested in him for the stretch run. That would leave you with Polanco at second and Escobar at SS and Sayno at third with Danny Santanna as your backup. Dozier in my mind doesn't fit into Twins longterm plans for this team because he will be to costly and better talent is pushing for his position. Also if Escobar doesn't work Gordon is soon to be here for longterm shortstop. I also have my doubts about Sano for the future he going to have to rededicate himself if he wants to be big time baseball star. I have doubts about that now he looks to satisfied right now and wants to play in social life. Park I think needs just at bats at major league level because he's proven he can hit triple A level in Korea. I just don't see where the Twins get much return because major league baseball clubs know that they have jettison some of this talent to keep there young talent and they know Twins will never trade any of their young talent away.

I hate to be pessimistic but I think this is lost year for the Minnesota Twins. They have dug themselves hole they are not going to dig themselves out of. I see three major problems for the Twins this year and I see no way they are going to get this corrected in time to save this season. First is Sano has read to much of the press about himself that he has failed to prepare himself for this season and he may get there before the season is over but the Twins were counting on him to carry a big load for this team. He needed to come to season in better shape and he clearly has not done that. Also he will need to prepare himself better on pitchers he's facing and how they are going to pitch him. I do believe he will learn these are important parts of the game or else he will never live up to his potential. Second the Twins need to decide if they are going to keep this relief staff in place or are they going to take a risk and start bringing up some this talent. They have held on to many average relievers and have had to put them in high leverage positions where they are going to fail. If this season gets out of hand like I think it going to they need to look at there young talent start moving relief pitchers to give chance to these young relievers and if they don't pan out they will have to look at nest years free agents to fill there needs. Three they are going to have to decide who of these young outfield candidates they are going to keep and who they are going to trade. I think they are going to need to trade these to fill some of their glaring holes in other positions. I think they are going to need to find a veteran catcher that can hit and my guess is they should bel looking lucroy from Brewers. I would think they would be interested in trading with the Twins like if they put up Arcia and couple low round pitching prospects because by time they are rebuilt he will to be old and will be free agent. For the Twins fans that thought Tori Hunter didn't have much influence last year look at this year club. They need that leader that keep them on track and also doing little things to win ball games. I just see to many young players worrying about there statistics not doing the little things that wins games. Molly will blow a fuse before this year is over. But from a positive note this going to lay the seeds to these players on how to win in the future. This going to be long season for us to watch a lot of mistakes and a lot of games that should have been won but lost. We could see this team approach a 90 loss season again unless things start turning around very soon. A number of players could be gone before the season is over like Plouffe, Arcia, Nolasco, Milone, Jepsen, several other relievers, and even more starting pitching. I know everyone thinks it early but were nearly done with a month in the season and if the Twins played 500 ball now till end of year they would have 86 losses. Now if they continue to loose for another couple of weeks like this it will take above 500 baseball to stay away from 90 loss season. So you see we could easily see even more slippage to 100 loss season I never thought this possible but this is situation they are facing. Its a young team that needs to learn how to win they have lots of talent but now they need to learn to do little things that determine winners.

You talk of projecting but I would also have to say Mauer, Dozier, Plouffe, and Escobar I would have hard time projecting their numberas well. In my mind Plouffe is probalbly the easiest of the group I am thinking he will have similar numbers for last two seasons and I think maybe with slight upward tick he's learning to hit right hand pitching. Next will be Mauer but is he going from this past year point or are we going to see return to where he hits like around 300 for the season this will mark second free year post concussion Morneau seemed to make that leap after his concussions. Dozier has shown signs of wearing down so his hitting numbers and fielding number have been hurt in second half of the season previous 2 seasons. I think The Twins will address this some by controlling his playing time and his ability to pace himself for the season. Then we come to Escobar I thought last season he turned the corner as hitter in that he wasn't swinging at every pitch and he was working himself into better counts to hit. I think its where young player finally learns how to hit a major league level. I am thinking he could have vastly improved numbers for the season. The rest of the new players is another area where I believe where no one will know how they will hit. My guess it will be streaky for each of them until either they learn to hit or pitchers dominate them until they learn to hit Major league pitching. My guess is were going to have mid year slump on offense until these kids can adjust to how they are being pitched.

Plouffe is stick the Twins need in this line up. Even with him in the lineup last year they were one of poorer scoring teams in American league. By trading him he would have weakened the Twins lineup further and if they would have traded him they would have been getting some future prospects nothing that would put another proven bat in this lineup. They need Sano's bat in the lineup and putting him at third would mean they would need to find a bat equal to Plouffe bat for the outfield and they sure weren't going to sign outfielder with all the prospects they have coming up through the organization. So if they weren't going to sign another outfielder they were then go into this spring on counting on Rosario, Buxton, and Arcia or Kepler to provide big league at bats with all four with less than full year of big league experience a recipe for disaster in my book. It also I believe is going to be key to this year how the Twins outfield bats for the coming year. Yes there's risk to Sano playing the outfield but there also is in him playing 3. Also Park is not proven replacement yet to be DH we could still see Sano filling that role yet this spring and early part of the year. The Twins are going to be counting on number of young players this year Sano,Buxton, Rosario, Arcia, and Kepler. Also Vargas and Santana will probably will be needed for this year too. Winning at major league level usually takes time and learning so this year could be take a step backward or they could prove they are ready to make next step make it into the playoffs.

I don't want to be party pooper but I think this year is going to be tester of our patience. I wouldn't be surprised we have sophomore set back a regression to say the least. This is year where these young kids learn to win on their own and who will be leader of this team. I just feel its going to be one of these years where they don't get off to their best start and by end of the year they will have figured out how to win but will be couple games worse than were last year. I think it will be like Clevelands year last year where they came on late in the season. All young teams it takes couple years together to learn how to win and I just feel they are year away from that. I guess until Sano and Buxton learn how to win and they get some of their young pitching talent here making a impact. I could be wrong but that's just my gut feeling about this team. To many if they play this way players and not strong track records of knowing how they will play.

I think people way over reacting to what the Twins didn't do or not do at the Winter meetings. The Twins have a lot of options even as they sit now. If they go with May, Jepsen, and Perkins those are three strong arms and proven talent that could be very effective in the bull pen. They all throw above 96 and have reached as high as 98 last fall when they were pitching. Also the Twins have a lot of relief talent down in farm system with some big arms which I think could be called up a lot of teams would have already called up. Look at this past year the Mets took rule 5 draft pickup of Gilmartin and look at year he had and Mets are counting on him for coming year. If these options don't work out they could still go and trade for someone yet this year. I sure don't want the Twins weighed down with some big longterm contracts for relievers that have short life in the majors usually. They need to keep this payroll managed so they can lock up Sano's, Buxtons, Rosario's. and some these future propects coming up because looking at these new contracts being offered now Mauers contract will look pretty small in the near future. We could see for kind of talent we have contracts that will be 300 million plus in near future.

I think people are writing off Mauer way too quick he's still getting on base still leads the Twins of its regulars this past year and he still has ops in 700 hundreds. This down from his peak but the Twins need to get somebody on if Sano, Plouffe, and are going to be of value. Also he's still better firstbaseman than Sano, Vargas, and probably Park in fielding playing the position. The question is where do you bat him in the order 3 may be wrong position but you end of with lower on base percentages from some of other players or takes away from where they are batting in the order. I also think his numbers are still going improve from this year if he can remain healthy and put some more distance between his concussion. Sayno to be effective needs person ahead of him getting on base and he also needs Plouffe behind him give him some protection so he see's some pitches he can hit. I think thats why they are looking at Park also need another big bat so teams can't pitch around the Twins two home run hitters. I think the Twins were so hoping that Buxton would have shown that he could get on base when he was up. He was just striking out to much and Twins were hoping same thing from Santanna this past year but all the changes in position and expectations i think just derailed him last year. The problem is he's out options and so he can't refine his skill at short now with out the Twins loosing him. I just don't believe they are going to trade Plouffe until somebody else in their line up can show they can hit for power and drive in runs. The Twins loss of Hunter means they already have lost 25 home runs and 75 RBI out the line up. Taking Plouffe out line up means loosing another 25 home runs and 80 RBI bat out the line up. The players they are talking about replacing them with so far on prooven or haven't hit like that yet in the majors.

I don't think Plouffe is on trade table unless somebody comes and makes offer that terry can't turn down. I think he will be trade candidate in July if the Twins are out the running and are sellers. My feeling is that they can't trade Plouffe now because it would mean they would be loosing over 150 RBI"s and 40+ home runs from last years team if Plouffe and Hunter are gone would be relying on unproven talent going into this season with Park trying to replace Hunter and Plouffe. Also Sano needs a hitter like Plouffe batting behind him to give him some protection. Plouffe become expendable if Park develops into power hitter and Rosario, Sano, and Buxton continue to develop their power. Buxton starts year out at triple A to help him develop and also to give the team one more year of control they will want his best years under team control and hopefully with one contract they can lock him up to his 30 to 31 years of age. The Twins are going to sign one quality reliever to be 8 inning or the closer, and they also will sign one left hander specialists too, and after that I expect them to sign couple veteran relievers to minor league contract to see if they can make the team. I think Danny Santanna if he shows he can hit this spring will be opening day starter in center field. My guess is we open the season with Mauer at 1st, Dozier at second, Escobar at SS, Plouffe at 3rd, Rosario in left, and right fielder to be found yet or comes up from minor leagues, DH Sano. and catcher Suzuki , Bench will be Murphy, Nunez, Arcia, and Park. Starting pitching will be Hughes,Gibson, Santanna, May, and Nolasco . Relief pitchers will be Perkins, Jepsen, Malone, Pressely, to be signed, to be signed, and Fein or Tonkin. Also the Twins will be looking to trade Nolasco for any return either in pitching or position player. I think they are going to keep Malone because they have so little depth from the left side at major league level. Duffy and Berios start the season out at triple A until we have injury or they are able to trade Nolasco which I betting happens in early May if not before season opening and he end up on National league team needing pitching my guess will be somebody like Padres, Marlins, Phillies, and Brewers. The more I look at this team for coming year is my guess we will be lucky to repeat last season numbers we are going to awful young team and will be transition of who's going to lead this team especially when we are talking about trading Plouffe, Suzuki in his last year, and Mauer ( not fitting that type of team leader. My thought its probably going to happen in 2017 beginning and when everything comes together will be 2018.

I don't understand why we would want another first baseman/DH when we already having hard time finding playing time for number of our young players in that category. We have Mauer, Vargas, Sano, and Arcia fitting into that position already with couple more coming through the minor league system. Also everyone is wanting to trade Gibson one of our younger pitchers that has been improving yet each year and learning how to pitch in the big leagues. He just made another plateau this year with innings pitched, wins, and how to win with not your best stuff. Also he still affordable pitcher for the Twins. If were looking at trading pitching its should be Nolasco where they trade him to National league for some young catcher that's about to reach big leagues even if it means eating fair amount of Nolasco salary. They could look at as same as signing some free agent catcher but it would be for young catcher with upside potential. It would then free room for the Twins to bring up some there young pitching.

This is very good article about pitching and was something I emailed john Bonnes about in there blog on the Twins. They ( Gleeman and Geek) have been so critical of Twins pitching but as avid followers of the Twins we always see there short comings as players and players for other teams we don't always see there short comings because of only see them couple times a year. I truly believe if the Twins pitchers were healthy down the stretch here we would have been one of the teams in the playoffs. We would have had very good bull pen set up with May, Jepsen, and Perkins with high velocity and nasty stuff to hit. Hughes,Gibson, and Duffy would have given us quality starters to go into series with compete. Hughes is quality solid number two starter when healthy, Gibson is solid number 3 starter, and Duffy would have been number one starter with his curve ball and nobody having faced him before would have put teams at great disadvantage. This coming year I believe the Twins will have a lot of talent choose from to build good rotation from with signed players and kids coming up through farm system. I believe they could use some help in bull pen if right pickup can be found they could upgrade on the bull pen.

Yes the Twins are in terrible tail spin right now but don't go off the deep end. Look around at their competition they all have gone through terrible tail spin too. Not long ago Houston was thought out of it loosing number gains until they were at 500 hundred. Now they have rebounded and that was before they made dozen moves. I think the Twins fortunes will turn here before all is lost baseball is long season with many ups and downs. I have feeling that offense will turn around here not all these players are going to hit under 200 for ever and when that does pitching will improve too. I also think Ryan is not done yet with this team with additions I willing to bet we get few more pitchers and maybe a catcher yer before this is done. I think they are hoping to get to September when baseball changes and be in the hunt for wildcard spot. September is when teams change with call ups happen and Twins will be very different team because of strength of their farm system we saw it last year the offense just exploded for the Twins. I think this will happen again and defense will improve too to help the pitching. Like I say don't write season off yet. The Twins are in very most difficult part of season with playing Toronto, Yankee's, California, and A's out west look at their history with these teams for last 5 to 10 years they have record of less than 400 ball against these clubs. I don't know the reason for it but its proven fact they just have hard time beating these clubs. They just NY left of these clubs until next month with Angels. The Twins I think will hang around this 500 and hope they get their winning streak to happen that's baseball. Game of streaks both losses and wins hopefully wins come soon.

I just wish he get what ever he going to do over with it. These kids on the Twins are playing terrible baseball now and reason I believe is there worrying about if they are going to be traded or sent down with new players arriving so they are not concentrating on baseball. You can see it closer we get to trade deadline more mental errors are happening. There's no coaching that can prevent this and these in experienced players we have are just loosing it mentally. Hunter can't help this because these kids are worrying about there future and in so doing so speeding up their exit from the show. I also don't think their agents help them any either because their always pushing these kids for flashy numbers instead of just steady play and what they can do now instead of letting them grow playing the game. Arcia is prime example of this mental attitude and reason he's in the minor's. I think Santanna is so worried about his job that he's is playing himself out the show again. I also just believe that Ryan is not ready to trade their prospects away yet but he is willing to trade some of veteran players and this is why we haven't seen much happen yet. I believe Pelfry, Nolasco, and some veteran relievers have been on trading block with likes of Arcia, Polanco, and maybe younger quality starter if its for a catcher and reliever. I wouldn't be surprised if they don't make a move and he tries to find something on waiver wire when everyone else is making deals and will need to release someone to make room for a player.

Twins will trade for Piernzski or somebody like him now player to rent for remainder of the season and will only give up relief type pitcher lower minor league position player for the second half. Ryan will never make big trade in mid season if it involves some quality prospects. I just don't see the Twins making many moves going into Trade deadline. There going to look for reliever and fill in catcher for remainder of the year and even at reliever it just may come from the farm system.

Plouffe has developed into good third baseman and I continue see improvement in him again this year. The Twins are coming to point to what are they going to do with him because he is becoming valuable commodity because around mjajor leagues third baseman is not a lot of strong young players at that position. There are number of aging players that are coming to end of their careers. The question will be if Sano will be upgrade at position in next year or so or should they be signing Plouffe to longterm deal. Also Sano maybe could be a first baseman but they already have Mauer there for several more seasons. Then you add in that Vargas will be competing for first base or DH position and things get crowded. Plouffe or Mauer could play outfield but we could also be dealing with very crowed outfield of very young talent of Hicks, Buxton, Rosario, and Arcia plus several more in minor leagures. The Twins are going to have make decision fairly soon what will be Plouffes future will be with the Twins and if not what they will need to get in return for him to fill other needs of the club which will be my opinion finding catcher of the future.

I listened to you and Gleeman on the pod caste and your right that he has shown improvement in last couple of weeks. What you guys forgot is that the Twins have been in love with Nunez since they acquired him last year and he ready to be activated so Vargas goes. Gleeman has hard time understanding the Twins decisions but if you look in past its somebody in baseball operations that likes certain players after they have acquired them. I also think that Molitor had grown tired of finding spots for Vargas to hit and like he said he wanted him full time hitting and getting some confidence. I also think the Twins are not ready to cut some of these players because they have so little faith in likes of Hicks, Vargas, Rosario, May, and Santanna that keep these veteran players around if they should struggle. There past history is that sooner play with marginal veteran than to struggle with bunch of younger players. I also believe that the Twins are not even close to getting Buxton, Sano, and Myers to big leagues they are going to have to be deystroying pitching at the levels there at before call up comes. This goes to Twins philosophy that there not going to waste playing time on major stars unless they are totally ready. They want to get full service time from these players only when they are ready to play at Major league level. If you look at how many of Twins stars of the past have come up this way they have controlled them through most of there most productive years before loosing them to free agency.

Yes I believe we have this difference in how people perceive how the Twins run the organization. I also think the Twins run organization is more looking at long cost of having a player come up from the minors. If Twins develop that player completely in the minors and he comes up at later age they have him for his optimum years at the optimum price. They have brought up players earlier but for most part that has not been as successful as they would have liked. "The last example of this is Hicks. They tried with Hunter too and it took several reboots before that worked out. The biggest fault I see in Twins is they seem to not draft the high end pitchers or are looking at different factors when drafting pitching. I can't remember when the Twins developed hard throwing pitcher that dominated baseball. Even some the most successful pitchers for Twins have come from other organizations. Santanna, Milton, Reed,, Nathan, Loyse, Young, Tapani, Agrilara, Larino and Jack Morris, In that same time the pitchers the Twins developed and kept for awhile were Frank Viola and Brad Radke both very quality pitchers but more know for control and their change up. There may be more reasons for this but I look at Washington Nationals, New York Mets, St. Louis Cardinals, and some of other teams they keep bringing up these hard throwing pitchers that just dominate the majors leagues and we have hard time to develop one of these pitchers every 10 years. To me this is where the Twins need to address their organization is type of player they are drafting to become pitchers. They have been very successful in developing skilled players over years that have become elite players of major leagues but not at the pitching level.

I got to believe that Pelfry or Malone are on the trading block this spring and one of them will be dealt to another club. My guess is its Pelfry and that why they are only talking starting for him as a pitcher. The number of teams that have already lost pitching this spring I can't but help they will be able to move him and get prospect for the future for him. I look at starting pitching and its at premium to find capable pitching to fill in rotation. Malone the The Twins want to keep because they have nobody else ready as left hander in system for couple years ready. I believe Mays will be pitching with the Twins this year if not out of spring training but soon this year he may be the Twins 3 best starter before years over.

From the pictures of Sano he does not look like he's over weight and I believe he's big strong kid. The Twins are going to make some tough decisions in near future and its going to be hard find playing time for a lot of these prospects. Plouffe is developing into very good third baseman and major league baseball analysts will start giving him his recognition if he has another good season this year. Its hard for players like Plouffe to get recognition right way coming from small market team. You watch here now Mauer is going to have better numbers at first base and its because of Sano and Vargas pushing to get playing time. I would think that Sano could also could be developed into corner outfielder if push comes to find him spot in line up. Arcia is going to have bring his numbers up if he wants playing time because of talent coming up he's got to cut down on his strikeouts and give better at bats. The Twins are going to have decide what players they are going to keep and who they are going to trade. Plouffe is in this category if he continues to develop will they trade him or sign him long term. if he continues and develops into one of top 10 third baseman in Major leagues which I think he could. Also Sano may be like Greg Nettles was to the Twins they thought he was to big and not good enough to play third base and traded him see how that turned out for the Twins. Its hard to know how person is going to play a position until they have played it for awhile and especially third with requirements for hitting and fielding for that position. But like I say the Twins are going to have some very tough decisions in near future because of prospects coming up and some of the players that are young making their spot with the Twins of who keep and who move improve themselves in other areas or get another prospect to help them in the future. Its going to take front office with ability to find highest quality diamond out of many diamonds they posses now and how to get future diamonds out these present diamonds.

I thinking that the Twins will be trading a starter this spring to somebody and maybe two starters if Mays and Myer look like they are going to be ready. My guess trade candidates are Milone, Pelfry, and Maybe Nolasco if right offer comes along. Especially if Mays and Myer live up to expectations this year.

I think there are many things that were going on for Joe Mauer last year and past several years. First I am thinking that concussion may have effected him more than people realized and case in point is Justin Morneau it took him several years to recover from the concussions. Its not something that you can see that's effecting a player but it shows up in his performance. Also last year he was starting to hit much better and oblique injury happened and I think that also effected his bat after that. Also another thing I think that may have effected him is his personal life and changes he has had last two years. First getting married changes your routine and priorities right away and it takes time to get priorities back to your job. Then add in having twins last year and shakes up routines and priorities again for preparing yourself for baseball. I am betting this year things improve for him with another year away from the concussion, another year married and the twins are older and he's seen decline in his performance which I believe will motivate him to return to his career norms. I can hear all of you shouldn't effect him with what he is being paid but it does he just human.

I will be surprised if they make as dramatic jump as experts are predicting this year. It could happen but I have feeling that they may not have season everyone is predicting it takes time to put a winner together and play together. Also I wonder if they could run into some health issues before season is done they are depending on couple of big stars to lead them to contention and my experience is something usually happens when your dependent on couple of players. My guess is they play around 500 baseball when all things are said and done.

The Twins need to play good baseball from the get go! If the Twins can get Mauer to return near his career averages and Nolasco to pitch close to the numbers he had when they signed him. With the the young players like Santanna, Dozier, Plouffe, producing like they did last year. Then for Arcia, Vargass, and Hicks keep hitting like they did last fall the Twins will have very good offensive team. The starting pitching needs for pitchers pitch effectively like they showed last year on consistent basis because I believe the twins bull pen will be very effective. Contrary to predictions if this club can stay healthy and this group of players play like they can play could be very exciting team to watch and could contend if things broke their way but should improve to 500 team. Yes AL central looks to be one of the best divisions in baseball but funning thing about baseball what happens during the season very few times happens as it is laid out on paper. The Twins have had several bad years but I also believe if the Twins would have been healthy couple of those years outcome could have been much better than final result we got. Also this time around the Twins are much deeper than they were in last four years when somebody gets injured now talent level at triple A and Double A is much deeper and may have player that could perform better than who they replaced but still needed time in minors to perfect their baseball skills. I believe the Twins are much closer to contending than experts like to think. Also the change of Molitor and Hunter in club house is going to change how the Twins play. My guess is number crunchers are off because team numbers are so low based on history last couple years because of all the change this club has gone through and being forced to play some of these kids when they were not ready to play at this level or playing out of position their offensive numbers suffered because of it. I got excited last fall watching this group players play baseball they were fun to watch and looked like they had upside potential to become a better team. So I am looking very forward to this years team.

I believe the Twin defense will be much better this year than last year look at last year we had Colabella playing outfield for more than month, Willingham playing outfield, and Santanna playing out position and learning to play centerfield. I look at Twins last month of the season the Twins played much better outfield defense than did for the first half of the season. Hunter is still better outfielder than we had playing outfield last year his routes will be better and he can fundamentally play position much better than we have had. Also Arcia I believe will get better fundamentally he still young and with Schafer and Hicks available he can be replaced in late innings by one of them. The outfield defense will be improved over 2014 season and we should be much better hitting outfield too! Also I believe there is help also on the way that Minnesota in future could have elite group of outfielders. We could in the near future have outfield of Buxton, Rosario, Arcia, and Hicks which could be quite outstanding defensively and if all can carry through with minor league numbers on hitting could be quite an outfield. Which should make any pitcher happy to have behind them.

I have few thoughts on make up of this club and I think Ryan has been urged to win this year now and let prospects show up when they are ready if ever ready. My thinking is Harold Reynolds made a predicition that the twins were in on Shields for anther pitcher.then the Twins are looking to reach the playoff spot coming year. Shields would put Twins on projection of 81 plus wins in contention for wild card spot. I wonder if Molitor doesn't have ownership and Dave St, Peter ear that you try to win now not try to base a team on future unproven prospects. Also wondering if Twins are coming up on TV contract renewal in next few years and need to have competitive team help ratings to sign new contract. Gardenhire may have difficult time getting new job because of youth movement in MLB in general managers and he being more of the old school manager not using saber metrics and defensive shifts like this new group in baseball are using. I am thinking he may need become a bench coach on one of the teams using all this data to learn all the strategy in using this be manager again. If not he could become middle man between General Manager and minor league teams and scouts to check on player evaluations and judging the talent coming in the system. I think that was what Ryan had in mind for Gardenhire. I think this club could be a lot closer to winning than any one of us has been thinking. I wonder what numbers project out if Twins get offense these kids showed last couple of months for whole season and Mauer hits close to career numbers for the coming season. Then add there pitching if all these pitchers pitch to the numbers they were expected when they signed with the Twins what would twins numbers come out for projected wins. The central division is a lot closer together than people think. Detroit is aging and lost pitching so I see a drop in wins for coming year. KC I believe has lost pitching and I am betting they have down year after world series. Cleveland could be good but still unproven and will need to stay healthy, Chicago has added a lot of talent on paper look much better but will they be on the field and that will be question mark for this club. Also injury bug could come and bite them before season is done. Twins moves should make them better and like Cleveland a lot of young players have to prove they can win and play full season and one thing they have is they a lot of young talent that could come up and change whole dynamic of team beyond anyone's expectations transforming the team into real contender in baseball.