Morland

So, we finally get an ace for the first time since Johan and now we're ready to trade him. There's nothing any team would actually give us that would be worth trading Lopez.

If Johan doesn't get in now, I suspect he will be chosen in the future. That will happen when HOF voters re-evaluate starting pitchers based on current usage patterns. Right now they still have standards like 250 wins and 3000 innings that very few contemporary pitchers are going to meet. They'll have to make adjustments and when they do Johan will be standing there with very similar numbers to today's outstanding starters.

You want to send our 2nd or 3rd starter for a, at best, 4th outfielder and a prospect? What have you been smoking?

I think Reardon was chosen in 1987 because their closer (Ron Davis) had been so bad the year before and Reardon stablized the bullpen.

I call BS on "we decided to sell this summer." They decided to sell because of all the s**&^* they've taken over the last few months. I hope they're serious and not just using this as a way to get the fans off their backs. I also hope this doesn't become an excuse to do nothing over the winter and at next year's trade deadline. The excuse that someone paying over a billion dollars for a team would be upset at a few new two or three year contracts is not believable.

Trading Correa would be waving a white flag and telling fans that they could give a you know what about them.

Good choice. Before they use Jax as a starter he'd have to show that he could handle two or three innings in relief.

Did anyone actually read the article. Reusse didn't advocate a rebuild. He just said play the youngsters instead of singing some mediocre veterans. Right now the Twins' plan seems to be; hope that Buxton, Correa and Lewis can play 120-130 games effectively, that the youngsters (Lewis, Wallner, Miranda, Ober, Ryan, Lee, Julian, etc., can improve, that the bullpen will remain healthy, and that some minor leagers (Festa, Matthews, Rodriguez, etc., can provide quality depth. The beauty of this plan for the Pohlads is that they don't have to spend any more money and that when the inevitable injuries happen, they can say "Gosh, gee, injuries killed us."

When I heard that Pohlad was robbed of some jewelry last fall that suddenly explained everything. He had to cut the Twins budget by $30 million to make up for his lost jewelry. Perfectly understandable.

A reasonable question that I have several responses to; 1) The boys have grown up. We used to have Boys Day Out a couple times a year where only the guys would go out to the game and eat before or after. Now they're grown with busy lives. We talk about it but it's hard enough to get together just to watch a game on TV, much less go to the stadium. 2) There's a reason why I live on the east side of town. Whenever I'm downtown, or on the west or southsides, the traffic is horrendous. I realize people from cities on the coasts like NYC or LA will laugh at this, but I'm not interested in putting up with it. 3) Crime. The crime since Covid means I'm only interested in going to day games. I heard enough stories from people who were downtown for events in the evening and had bad experiences so I'm not going to night games. That leaves day games. Since the Boys work and my wife's not interested, that means I have to find a buddy to go. And they aren't interested. 4) Noise. It seems that every sporting event I'm at these days has to blast music whenever there's a stoppage in play. It's hard to carry on a conversation, which was one of the joys of going to a ballpark. I have one friend who's willing to go to a bar to watch a game because it's easier to have a conversation in a noisy bar than at Target stadium. 5) Charisma. The 87-92 Twins had high attendance because they were good and because they had Kirby Puckett. It's no insult to the current players to say no one has his level of charisma. Even local guys like Hrbek, Laudner, Perkins, Molitor and Mauer didn't bring the fans in like Kirby did. It's possible that Lewis could develop into this kind of player. That means he'd have to stay healthy and the Twins would have to market him. And the Twins have done a horrible job marketing their players, as has baseball in general. You get the feeling that baseball doesn't want to market its players because if they became too popular they'd have to pay them more. Look at the contrast with the NFL and NBA. Enough said.

This is ridiculous! Your money saving suggestion is to send Matthews back to the minors! He's on a rookie contract; that's the cheapest wage in the major leagues. And to sign Kepler as depth; also ridiculous. The Twins ownership will never spend the money for Flaherty or Santander. The Twins will probably let Santana go and move Miranda to first. They'll hope that their young players like Julien, Wallner, Lewis, Ryan, Ober, Festa and Matthews will improve, and that Buxton, Correa, Lewis and Paddock will stay healthy.

Bob Gorinski was one of many large men signed by the Twins in the 1970's in the hopes he could be the "new Killebrew". View full player

No. Next year Miranda will play first. Lee/Julien 2nd, Correa short, and Lewis 3rd. Castro & Lee/Julien are the backups. No room for Santana. Same with the outfield. Kepler's gone. Buxton and Wallner are set. The other outfielder will be a combination of Larnach, Martin, and whoever they get to hit right handers.

Agreed. If the injured players are ineffective they shouldn't be playing and being secretive about injuries is normal practice. It's very clear the players and manager want to win. The FO is clearly hamstrung by ownership when it comes to spending. That''s the only thing you can blame someone for. It's hard to blame players for being injured when injuries are all over MLB.

Owning a sports team is not a regular business. Regular businesses would love to have their valuation skyrocket as much as sports franchises have in the last few decades. IMO, saying that a sports team has to make a standard yearly profit (5%-25%) depending on industry you're in, is just greedy. You make your money owning a sports team by the increase in valuation, either when you sell it or as collateral for loans. Yes, the Twins are mid-market and yes, they can't be expected to match the Dodgers or Yankees in payroll. And yes, local TV revenue should be shared to a greater extent in MLB than it currently is. None of those are proper excuses for failing to invest in the Twins, especially when the team is clearly entering an up cycle that should last for the rest of the decade at a minimum. The comparison that a previous commenter made with Kansas City is apt. KC is a smaller market than the Twin Cities. Yet, they saw that their team was beginning an upswing and they invested this winter in pitching. They didn't target the top pitchers but signed several mid-rotation starters, a move which probably didn't excite too many of their fans. They've been rewarded with a career year by one of the starters they signed and are now in contention for the playoffs. There's little reason why the Twins could not pursue a similar strategy.

He was most famous for Tom Kelly's disparaging comment, referring to him as "Stanford, boula boula."

Since when is Tarik Skubal available? That's some fanboy's wet dream! I suppose you think we could get him by trading Farmer, Santana, Vazquez and Matthews or something ridiculous like that.

You fanboys have got to let this go. Rocco is no longer the guy pulling starters from the game with a shutout because they've thrown 60 pitches. Twins starters were among the leaders last year in innings pitched and pitches thrown. I've heard people complain because they're in second place. They've Won more games than last year; look at the record! Is it Rocco's fault that Lewis gets injured or that Pablo is pitching like a 5th starter? I don't see any major issues to complain about. If you think it's his fault when a pinch hitter makes an out you've got to give him credit when a pinch hitter gets a hit. You're sounding like a typical Yankees fan who's always bitching because they aren't on pace to win 120 games. Grow up and enjoy the game!

Julian needs to stop thinking that he's Ted Williams and is going to get the benefit of the doubt on pitches close to the strike zone. Learn to swing away or foul off close pitches. Julian draws enough walks and hits for enough power that a batting average close to .250 will make him a valuable major league player.

I first heard 60-60-42 from Tom Kelly. You can remove their good two weeks and say the Twins are a bad team; you can remove the bad week and say they are a great team. The truth lies in between.

The amount of third strikes that Julian takes is ridiculous. Even if he doesn't think he can do much with the pitch he's better off trying to swing and make contact. He's not Ted Williams and he's not going to get the benefit of the doubt on close calls from umpires.

Regarding the so called objections to Joe Mauer from Twins fans: speaking as Twins fan, I'll guarantee you this. If you invited Joe Mauer fans to a free celebration of Mauer after he's elected to the Hall of Fame, there would not be enough seats in the largest stadium in the world to hold them. If you invited all of Mauer's detractors to Target Stadium to unleash their negative feelings about him, it would look like the team was holding batting practice. In other words, his critics number a few hundred at most, they're just more vocal than the rest of us. And more jealous!

I agree. Those who think he's going to be a number 2 starter and pitch 175 innings are dreaming. We need to trade some of our surplus and hope we get as lucky as we did with Lopez. When we got Lopez, no one thought we were getting an ace pitcher.

I expect that Polanco and Larnach will be traded. Hopefully for a good right handed hitter and some pitching. Lee should start in AAA and earn his way to the majors. It sounds like the Twins expect Paddack to be a starter next year. If both Grey and Maeda leave and they don't trade for a starter then Paddack and Varland will probably be the replacements. That means the likes of Winder/Festa/Dobnak/SWR are the backups. As we've seen this year, backup starters are needed. I don't think those four are good enough so that's why another pitcher is needed.