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The dome and the state of the organization made the Twins heavily favor groundball staffs. Now Target Field is nice and spacious and the organization is moving away from the dark ages some. It scares me that Bert and Jack Morris are being talked about as pitching coach candidates, I like them both in the booth but keep them the hell away from the pitching staff.

The Maulitor

Good link thanks, the article mentions Lee adding a sinker as a major factor in his turn around season and I think Hughes adding the cutter is his major pivot points. It won't get the same gb rate but but its in the same vein as a hard breaking ball that can be throw very accurately. This sets up the 4 seamer better than a slow curve or medium slider and is much easier to place allowing the extreme control. I love what Phil Hughes did last season and I think it is sustainable, my only worry about him going forward is he has always been known as a tinkerer. Hopefully he doesn't tinker himself out of success like he has done before.

I will be happy with any of the 3 finalists but Molitor is the 3rd on that list for me. He has all the playing achievments and stat head inclinations that are appealing and would certainly be a welcome change from the way Gardy ran things. But he doesn't strike me as someone who is going to be a very good players manager or a very long term solution. I am still holding out hope for Mientkiewicz, I think he is going to be a very good manager and probably not available for hire the next time the Twins are in the market.

I think they need some new blood. I still want Mientkiewicz as the manager but it doesn't seem promising for him that it has taken this long and Molitor got more interviews. I would be ok with Molitor but he doesn't really excite me. 0Of the external people they have interviewed Louvello (sp?) is the most promising looking though I would still like to see Dave Martinez get a look. I like Molitor in his current role but idk if he would stay in it if passed over. I think Bruno should stay the hitting coach and Glynn is in line for a promotion to a base or bench coach job. Pitching coach should be from outside the org and preferably have never met Rick Anderson. That leavesa couple spots for fresh blood, a Latin influence, internal promotions, a catcher, ect.

Probably would have to be Dozier. I doubt they want future potential much as the window on Strasburg may be closing for them. I would lean towards trading Dozier for Gio straight up but I seriously doubt TR is going to trade the clubhouse leader guy after replacing the manager.

Ah I was under the impression they viewed Rendon as 2nd base of the future. Ya probably, how high does it have to go? Stewart/ Berrios are probably off the table, Thorpe?

Get Gio! Plouffe + a minors arm (Duffey? Eades?) maybe gets it done.

If I owned the Twins I probably wouldn't care about baseball and just spend my days in a swimming pool full of money. Actually I would care a little bit I would at least go to the field once and watch that monstrosity in the outfield get torn down and replaced by a gigantic light up hypnotic pine tree.

Ideally one of your top 2 is a lefty because they benefit from being a rarer opponent to face. The majority of lefty starters get by with lesser stuff so one that can pitch at the top of the rotation almost gets a second platoon split because even when throwing to a right handed batter, said batter hasn't faced another good lefty in awhile. I think in theory if you were to compose the ideal staff (that isn't all aces) it would have a bunch of different styles and looks so the opposing teams are never getting a series where they face 3 right handed sinker ballers (the old twins mold). 1 power rhp 2 power lhp 3 workhorse rhp 4 lhp 5 sinkerballer rhp I think they should try and trade for Gio Gonzalez to add not only a pretty good pitcher but also another wrinkle to the top of the rotation. Plouffe + a lower minors arm might get it done.

I want Mientkiewicz to get the job. He was an eccentric, smart, savvy player that succeeded with a less than conventional skill set. He also had the "fire" "grit" and "leader" qualities that translate well to managing. His coaching track record is short but he has garnered nothing but praise and sucess so far. The punching another manager thing is a red flag, but I am willing to file that one in the "fire" category. It seems like a pretty good situation to be able to bring in a young coach who has worked with the incoming crop of prospects to a team that is going to have at least a year or two of teeth cutting to do. He will gain needed experience as the prospects do and the nucleus will grow together. Throw in Molitor/ Steinbach/ Glynn or an outside the org vet as a bench coach, keep Bruno around as hitting coach, and get a outside the org pitching coach.

Mientkiewicz would be my choice but that would be a pretty damn bold thing for TR to do. Martinez and Maddux both intrigue me as guys that will bring a drastically different approach to managing than we are used to. I like Molitor in his current role but I don't think he is a real long term solution. No one is talking about the dark horse candidate though, the one the only Saint Nicolas Punto! The fire of a phoenix, the grit of a sand blaster, and all the gaming strategy of a man that would dive head first into the bag like it was a giant fluffy pillow.

Yes it will, the current leadership has done good things over their time here but are continually falling farther behind the way the game is going. Its not quite the country club that Glen Taylor runs with the Wolves but its getting close, there needs to be some new energy and ideas injected from outside the organization. I could probably be sold on Dougie Baseball as the next manager but that is about the only in house move appealing to me, and that is just because I have a massive soft spot of Mientkiewicz..

This fits right in with the rest of the way the twins are run. Management pretty much throughout is stuck behind the curve. Much like Ryan and Gardenhire are stuck in antiquated methods of evaluation and game theory the media team is stuck in the past with regards to the internet. They make fantastic tv commercials and do all the stuff everyone already has been well but fail to embrace the digital age. The youth movement is here with regards to the players but it needs to sweep over the entire organization.

I am a diehard Minnesota sports fan and it has been a rough couple years nothing but beer and loathing. The Twins have been terrible, the Vikings have floundered, the Timberwolves have been the Timberwolves. There has been a major vein of dysfunction across the board as the teams have seemed stuck in the past in their approach to doing things or just plain bad at it. The Twins suffered a sudden and hard fall from grace going from perennial division winner trying to figure the playoffs out to bottom feeder, and the corpse of the organization has just been laying at the bottom of that fall twitching for three years now. Bill Smith helped start the demise and Terry Ryan and Ron Gardenhire have watched the game evolve beyond them yet kept their positions. The roster has been filled with AAAA prospects, hurt vets, and just plain bad players save for the rare flower in the cement like Brian Dozier. The Vikings have been mediocre at the best of times and terrible at the worst. They have been unable to solve the coaching or quarterback problems and wasted Adrian Peterson's prime on the likes of Leslie Frazier and Christian Ponder. The Timberwolves have always been bad save for when a Kevin falls into their lap and carries the team for awhile. Glen Taylor employs his country club of comfort as the rest of the league fills W's into their schedules when facing the wolves. There is a wave of change coming however. A youth movement to wash away the grime left on the collective memory of the recent past. The Twins have the top prospect in baseball as well as one of the best farm systems. There are power arms and bats slowly bubbling to the surface of the majors right as it appears the out dated regime of Ryan and Gardenhire are out the door. Buxton, Sano, Vargas, Santana, Gordon, Meyer, Stewart, Berrios, Thorpe ect, ect, ect the Twins are going to be loaded with talent in the next couple years. The Vikings are finally free of the Leslie Frazier (Brad Childress)/ Christian Ponder (Tavaris Jackson) era and there is a promising new coach and quarterback supplemented by a lot of young talent. Bridgewater, Patterson, Barr, Smith, Rhodes, Khalil, ect there is a lot of explosive young talent on both sides of the ball surrounded by some very good veterans The Timberwolves are a little behind the curve like usual. They had a chance to be good last year but now Kevin Love is gone and the re-re-re-re-rebuild begins again. The good thing about it however is they received maybe the best return for a outgoing superstar ever in the Kevin Love trade. Rubio, Wiggins, Lavine, Dieng has the chance to be an awesome young core. I am excited for what these teams could become in the near future and there might actually be merit behind that excitement for once. Maybe two years from now it will be champagne and gloating.

May has a ton of minors xp and has made large steps forward to improving his game over the last year or so. He did a couple good interviews on the talk2contact podcast and sounds like someone ready to make the jump while not over thinking or stressing out about it. He is never going to be an ace, but I think he could prove himself a valuable 3rd or 4th starter on a good team that can eat innings and rack up some k's. I am hoping 6 or 7 innings, around a hundred pitches, and a couple strikeouts happen tonight.

His name is Robert Paulson! His name is Robert Paulson! I mean Brandon Poulson!

Wow I like Sam Fuld and all, but I never would have thought he would return a decent mlb ready arm. Milone is a soft tossing lefty but seems to have shown a fair of promise so far in the mlb to maybe be a Jason Vargas type guy eventually. Good job TR, now go move Zuke/ Hammer/ Duens/ Corriea/ ect. And congratz Mr. Vargas he should be fun to watch.

I like these Royals announcers lol, one just got scared of a moth he called a ptereodactyl, and the other asked him if he was trying to kill or eat it.

If anyone gives up even a filler prospect I would be rather surprised. KC is organizational relief at this point because if he sucks people are not going to be mad whereas if a prospect struggles they are going to get worried. Give his innings to prospects that have a chance to help down the line, be that with his trade for a low minors neverwillbe or his stashing in the bullpen as ultimate mop up man. There is once again futile innings aplenty to go around, lets cut some teeth with them.

I think Meyer's chances of being promoted this year were somewhat slim to begin with and died with his cold streak. He was already on an innings limit and the twins have not been an organization that likes to cut starters teeth in the bullpen. He isn't in full command of his stuff, is working on a new change up, has said innings limit, isn't working deep into games, and above all else is a crown jewel kind of piece to the organization and that is not something they push ahead of schedule. May's situation on the other hand baffles me, he has a ton of minor league xp, a lesser prospect profile, and has seemingly turned a corner this year. I think he should have probably gotten the call a few times already this year but even before the futures game/ injury issue it did not seem like he was next in line. I don't see how they hold him down much longer now that the season is "officially" lost, the rotation from here on out seems like a much more fluid issue.

They really should trade him, sell high for once especially if he is seeking big bucks or more than 2 years. He was a good signing who has provided far beyond what was expected of him and there is no loser in the Twins and Suzuki himself cashing in on that. I'm not saying give him away, but I think they missed a big chance to sell high on Willingham. Cashing in on older journeymen who are having good seasons is a pretty solid practice for a rebuilding team. Suzuki has a rep for being a great defensive catcher and while he certainly isn't a bad one, he really isn't a game changer in a good way. He is super quick and agile behind the plate and makes some ridiculous blocks and grabs, but half those flashy stops come with no one on base. He is a pretty major negative in the base running game with a weak to low average arm (just once I want to see a twins catcher that can throw behind people!). Pitch framing seems to be gaining ground as a useful metric, though it certainly still needs refinement, and Suzuki rates pretty poorly in it with a decent date size. I get that there is a pretty big gap between having Suzuki and having a prospect like Turner be ready to take a mlb starting job but bridging that gap is easier for a rebuilding team who doesn't need optimal catcher performance. He should net a decent prospect that could contribute to the future Twins teams that will benefit from a time when the team was weak and had assets to sell.

Damn just got called into work for the 3 hours the game is on, its like they know!

Wow didn't see this coming. Seems like a waste of an option year doesn't it? I expected something more along the lines of Romero getting called up, but gotta keep those under preforming relievers, where would we be without Burton or Guerrier. All the aside I am happy for him and I think he is going to be a pretty good big leaguer in the future.

Pitchers duel!