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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.

Haven't noticed a waggle myself but I haven't been looking for one, interesting observation. I do think his struggles are coming from trying to change his approach and pull more, can't just erase tendencies and muscle memory like nothing. He does need to find a way to change though because that Mauer shift is rather effective.

Dozier has solidified himself as a really good piece for this team. After growing up a shortstop and transitioning his defense at 2nd is excellent and seems to be getting better. After some struggles initially at the mlb level, he really bought into and implemented Bruno's power/patience approach and has flourished at it better than anyone else on the roster. Even his base running is at an all time high aggressivly taking extra bases and stealing with a high sucess rate. It will be interesting to see where he ends up hitting in the long run, the power seems a bit wasted at the top of the order but the patient approach, obp, and his running game all play well lead off. I also wonder if the power isn't boosted a lot by the leadoff spot because pitchers have to pitch to him, lower in the order and 2-5 isn't coming up behind him. He isn't really an ideal 2 hitter because he does strikeout and doesn't have great bat control to consistently move runners over or hit and run. He isn't really a high enough average threat or rbi guy to be 3-5. His obp is kinda wasted 6-9. So I think lead off really is the ideal spot but I could see him ending up at 2 or 6 eventually as well.

I think you should smoke a joint and calm down a little.

The only person Mauer is really blocking anytime soon is maybe Vargas or Harrison in a year or two. First offers the least wear and tear, the smallest learning curve, and should allow him to not only stay healthy and on the field more but also let him focus his energy on hitting.

I can certainly see NY pursuing him (his power would pretty well there) but I don't think they, or anyone, is going to give up multiple top of the org prospects for him. If he gets moved to the Yanks I think it would be more along the lines of Dozier for Pineda (maybe plus a throw in). With Rosario's clock being set back essentially 1/2 a year I doubt Dozier will be traded at this point. I think you see what you have in him and let Rosario take his time now, no need to trade the 1 possibly above average MI they have developed since Guzman, unless they are blown away of course.

I am fine with Deduno as the 5th starter if he wins the spot, in fact I like a 5th starter that is a little more of a gamble not just the pitch to contact "reliable" 4.5 era guy. Deduno has some nasty stuff when hes on but he has little control of it and when hes off its ugly. I was not a fan of Big Pelf I hope they don't bring him back, erratic control on a sinker baller is a bad trait. He has mediocre at best secondary stuff and while his sinker has velocity and good movement he has little ability to control it. Also maybe more of a pet peeve for myself but he pitches at an extremely slow pace which does not help his mechanics get repeated or keep his defense on its toes for when he finally lays a sinker over the middle on a 3-2 count 7 pitches into the at bat.

He certainly could be a good fit, but I think it would be foolish for them to spend what fungible trade assets they have for a bat. There is no guarantee Pinto is ready to contribute but they can get a stop gap/ backup vet on the cheapish for a year or two to ease that transition and still have those assets to trade for pitching.

I love these break downs, the picture and .gif breakdowns of mechanics and positioning and all that are the most interesting articles in all of the sports world to me. Great and very interesting work.

With Mauer changing around positions more now it would be interesting to see if he could handle 3rd, he has played a nice first base and definitely has the arm to throw across the diamond