mikelink45

From contraction to confusion - the Twins have managed two WS in 38 years. We have gotten periods of hope dashed with frustration. Ownership has offered no solace to the Twins fans from broadcast rights to free agents. “Without a question, the television situation is having an impact on our business. But beyond that, we’re also just trying to right-size our business.” — Joe Pohlad. We were told that we could not play outdoor baseball in MN and needed a dome - good bye Metropolitan Stadium, then we were told that we could not win in the dome (although we did) and we needed a different outdoor stadium - good-bye Humphrey Metro Dome The sportsbusinessjournal has this 2001 quote, Carl (pohlad) believes owning a major market sports franchise that has proven to be around a 10% increase of asset value year over year is quote “a burden for the family” Minnpost had this quote after the firing of Terry Ryan, "“Obviously, we need a general manager willing to make tough, smart baseball decisions,” said Pohlad. “At the same time, we want him to be big and burly, like a lumberjack.” “You know, we’ve taken a lot of potshots over being old-school and ignoring the analytics revolution,” said Pohlad. “And I’ll be honest, some of those are warranted. But if we can find someone who uses sabermetrics, has a base of traditional baseball knowledge, and has immense forearms with wood shavings on them? We’d be very interested.” Joe has tried to confuse us as he accepts the ownership mantle with quotes like this when we traded Correa, “Those were truly primarily baseball decisions. It certainly set us up for more [financial] flexibility, but they were primarily baseball decisions.” And when they pulled the sale and were getting these minority angels to buy in we got this quote, “I don’t think we could have imagined a better outcome than where we landed.” And then I roll my eyes when I read this in Sports Illustrated: “And I would say to those fans: It’s my job and this new ownership group’s new job to do everything we can to set this organization up for success, hopefully in the short- and long-term both," he said. "Our fans are passionate," Pohlad added. "Our fans want to win. We have that in common — we want to win, too. I’d rather have passionate fans than fans who are disengaged." If that is the case Joe, quit doing and saying everything you can to get us disengaged.

be careful Luke - soon you will be too expensive for the Twins

Thanks - I liked this summary. Amick is my biggest disappointment. When I watched him in Cedar Rapids I was unimpressed, but knew it was too little a sample to make a judgment. But some players have an aura of success even on bad days.

WHY NOT? At this point I would take every potential SP that is not in the rotation at the end of ST and make them a reliever. Do they not understand that RP can be turned into SP when needed?

Take them all - its not like we have HOF players at any position. Take them, try them, cut them. Who cares - its low price for the budget basement Twins.

Fun speculation - something to fill the void, but too much can and will happen between times. However, I do like the looks of the lineup. I see Gonzales as the DH>

At this point most fans don't trust the Falvey additions - Kreider, Outman, Roden and they are not impressed by Wallner and Larnach. If it matters it is the hope for Walker, Rodriquez, and Gonzales that keeps fans interested. With Martin as the number five OF - Wallner at DH or 1B. As usual this kind of take does not impact the good old FO so we wait and see.

I suspect it is not the trade that underwhelms. For me the underwhelming aspect is if this is what we settle for as backup catcher. I can only hope he is better than Gaspar, but the bar is damn low.

I once thought Arraez could not be traded! I make no predictions - bold or otherwise. So I will just say we have five guys to build around and I would trade none.

I personally would eliminate Julien and Outman. Larnach is borderline and depends on whether they are going to move the young hitters up. If so we have a lot of mediocre talent to move like Roden and maybe even Wallner. I would like to see Walker, Rodriguez, Gonzales, and Buxton as the top four OF players this year. What have we got to lose?

I am totally against trading Ryan or Lopez. Nothing is more valuable than front line pitching. Let's get Gonzales, Walker, Keaschall, Buxton, in the lineup move parts around but don't give up your real assets to do it. I am an Arraez fan, but he is not going to make the difference in this lineup and I am not ready to say any of the others in the "pipeline" can make up for the loss of our co-number ones.

This story line is getting repetitious and frustrating. I would keep both, but Falvey and Pohlads don't care about fans. So sell them both, but if so please, even by accident, get a strong return. Like last year we will have rumors and speculation, but nothing concrete until near ST.

My favorite move was bringing Gardenhire to the Twins - he has the experience of working with young talent and might be the voice and brains to figure out how to continue their development in the majors.

It is hard to envision the rotation and the pen at this time. Can Ober rebound? Do we trade Ryan or Lopez? Has Matthews peaked or can we see him gaining better results? Is SWR now our third best rotation arm? Or will we see Bradley take one of these spots. Does Festa start or go to the pen? Morris next in line in AAA. Those have to be resolved. If I am reading the posts correctly we have Sands, Prielipp, Orze, Ohl, Travis, Funderburk, Raya, Topa, Abel, Klein and then one or two of the starters I listed above. Does that sound correct or am I missing something.

I am not expecting Winokur and Amick in MLB. Nice players, but I think their potential is low. I saw them in person and their performance in Arizona does not surprise me. Nice to have one pitcher doing well since we did not send our best arms.

Keaschall needs to prove he is not in the start fast and fade groups that we have seen too often. I am really excited by him, but Twin skepticism holds me back. Wallner and Lewis need to prove their first years are who they are and not the subsequent downturns.

At this stage none of them are very valuable. But they should only be moved if they are pushed out by someone better and I do not see that happening. The core is Ryan, Lopez, Buxton, Jeffers and that is it. Jeffers because there is no other catcher in the organization to take his spot.

How depressing - we are already suffering as fans - why speculate on what could be worse?

What if ober continues his 2025 production? Could we see him moved to the bullpen for shorter max effort stints? And where do the new acquisitions fit I didn't see them in the discussion and somebody like Abel seems suited for the bullpen.

Boy is there a lack of excitement. Coaches can only do so much. I think about Buxton and his early struggles until he was so frustrated he stopped listening and did it his own way. We hire a hitting coach that was not doing great and keep the assistant hitting coaches that obviously did what?

I always wonder why teams like the White Sox, Pirates, Rockies don't just load up on Rule V. The Sox found a star pitcher last year. These players all have potential and those teams stink - the cost seems negligible in baseballs economic system.

Three reai successes in 43 years! How does that rank us among the rest of the teams?

Why. What else have the Twins FO given us?

I give him a D - safe and boring, uninspiring and another loss of Twins Fan excitement after so many disappointments for all of us. If there was one thing the Twins needed to kickstart a resurgence in fan enthusiasm it would have been to grab a new, energetic manager who could fire up the team and the fans - at least through Spring Training. There will be a lot of seats available for Shelton to give to friends and family.

What can he say? I signed with the Twins because I was fired by one of the few teams worse than them with an owner who might make the Pohlads look semi-palatable. I came here because Falvey is looking for someone that will not give him grief and continues to keep things smooth until he fires me in a few years. And yes we have prospects - so does everyone else, we even had them with the Pirates! Its off-season, time for optimism and inaction. So let's dream on. Good luck Shelton.