mikelink45

Those darn Astros - must be cheating again. I think they put Abreu in a garbage can and hid him from the Twins!

Fun speculation, but I say no. Let our young players develop the RBI role - I think Miranda is ready and hopefully Larnach and Kiriloff will be too. Abreu would be DH not 1B if I were to sign him, but I think we have plenty of bats that just need the coaches to get them mentally ready to drive in runs. My favorite part of the essay was the suggestion that RBIs do count. Yes they do Runs and RBIs are essential statistics. Sorry Analytic guys, but winning teams score more runs that the opposition (and of course the pitchers have to hold the other team which is why I still like ERA for SP).

At 27 Schulfer is not a prospect, but he could be depth for the roster. Headricks is intriguing, but Lawyerson is probably gone. I am most impressed by Cardenas - nice profile. Thanks for bringing him to our attention. Will he make the prospect list and if not, why? Nowlin can not be discussed until he has some control, we do not need a young Pagan.

I heard that the Twins were going to shock the world and pick up Justin Jefferson after confirming that he can catch everything! So long Carlos.

I loved the essay, but it is hard to see next year and project the roster before December. At least this points out the moving pieces that can be used - just like the Kiner-Felafa trade, we just don't know what is in the FO minds. If there is that interest in Pagan maybe he is being kept as that extra player in a trade scenario (I hope).

It is the holiday season - all is good. The Twins injury list will be purged and we will be surprised by the strength of the team. I see the current group looking like the Hrbek led young bucks that Kelly led to the series. I am ready to believe until New Years!

I disagree - this should be the season that Kiriloff and Larnach stay healthy and give us a strong duo to put around Miranda. Arraez will continue to do what he always does, Polanco perhaps stays healthy too. And as the theme of my response is health, maybe Buxton if finally ready for a full year. I will take Farmer if he is healthy. Correa ended great, but you forget all the Twins Daily columns about his lack of clutch hitting. Kepler will start, but Wallner has shown he can provide power. So the catcher position is the weak spot. It has been for the last two years. I expect to see Julien and Lewis this year, probably Martin too. No need to panic. Let's ride with the lineup we have and let if grow the the Hrbek, Puckett, Gaetti...years.

I think we will be fine. One of the things that people don't talk about with the change in the shift is that the 3B does not have to cover SS. The shift potentially put a lot of players in positions that they were not suited for. I think we will be fine with Miranda. He will continue to develop with more reps.

I am with you on the premise of this article and perhaps take a stance beyond what you are saying because I have not been in favor of us going after any megadollar - mega year contracts. You sited some excellent examples, but the league is filled with them. Good for the player, not the league and especially good for Boras and the agents who play on the owner's vanity. I would not go after any of the big dollar players - including Correa. Great players, but a team needs to build with some long term philosophy. The short term overpay for Correa was a great deal. I wish they could have pushed for a second year opt out instead of one year, but that is history. Houston proved that he can be replaced. Ultimately all the big named SS will be at second base before their contracts are out but Houston will see Pena in his prime. Go young - Acuna, Soto, Rodriguez... It is the hope of the smaller markets to hit the jackpot with potential rather than with history. Remember how everyone in BB agonized over Pujols contract dragging down the Angels? Yes his magically final year in St Louis was great, his contract years with the Angels was not. Trade the players at their peak and reap good prospects - I value the prospects more than once good players. Is BB the only sport where a new team pays a premium for the years that a player had with another team.

I agree with Linus - can Rocco and Maki help a pitcher improve and move up from 3 to 2? If we have a rotation of 3-4s and Rocco keeps using them for 4 - 5 innings the BP is key, but overworked. This is not an essay that gives me good feelings about the next year. Can Sonny Gray pitch the full year, can he stay injury free and mentally adjust to the Rocco method? BR comps - Lance Lynn and Trevor Bauer. I hope he performs at that level. Will Mahle come back from his injury and stay healthy? This potential ACE (?) has had one good year - 2021. Otherwise his ERA is in the mid 4s. Sorry, but underlying stats don't do much for me - I need to see performance on the field. BR comps - Paul Mitchell and Bud Norris! Maeda could be a mirage. One half year of great performance and fortunately it was the short year. Next he comes back with a more normal mid 4 ERA. That is what his career expects. His BR comps are very good - Jameson Taillon and Collin McHugh. Joe Ryan is really just 1 1/2 years in the majors. His age says that is where he should be and he definitely had the attitude to face anyone, his performance says he cannot face the really good lineups - yet. His BR comp is Yonny Chirinos - a Player I do not know. But I expect Joe to continue to be a workhorse if Rocco lets him. Bailey Ober has not pitched enough to really be much beyond a rookie - like Joe Ryan, but he has given us some very surprising results - I still do not trust him in key games. Tom McGuire and Nick Tropeano are his comps on BR - I have no idea who they are. So let's hope he improves and stays healthy. Chris Paddack is actually younger than Joe Ryan and Bailey Ober - I am shocked. He has four years of MLB experience and a poor health record. His four year ERA is 4.20 so I hope he comes back, and I hope he is better than he has shown so far.. His comps are Aaron Civale (I like that) and Joe Ross. I look at the numbers, the comps, the performance last year and see, at best, a middle of the pack rotation. I hope that some really improve on their current status.

I have no sympathy if they do.

So many options - only C and SS are infield positions of concern.

This is a really good essay to challenge our outlook as we tend to look at batting statistics first. At catcher Jeffers is best regarded as a framer, not a defensive whiz, 1B is a real question mark, 2B will be below league standards no matter who is there and the new - no shift - rule will make more so. SS is a question and Farmer does not give us elite defense (Correa did not last year either) and Miranda is not rated as well as Urshela at 3B. LF is Larnach or Kiriloff (neither elite), CF is elite or??? depending on how much Buxton is out there. RF is good with Kepler, questionable with Wallner. The only positive defensive position seems to be DH!

Spring training will determine the way that he begins the season, but I have thought that we have put too much into a partial season's stats. Yes he was great that short season, but Lopez was great for half a season and many others have put together half seasons only to see their results disintegrate as the season progressed. I think we have a real unknown. A good pitcher, but whether he is the quality we saw in the shortened season (2.70 era) or the pitcher we saw before he was shut down (4.66 era) is something we really do not know. The three seasons in LA before we got him were 4+ eras. I just have the feeling that we are expecting too much and he is not the answer to the rotation problem. He might be good in the BP.

Thank you. I appreciate Seth and TD for keeping me informed about our prospects.

I don't know the team strategy - it has confused me every year. Farmer could be very good, but my judgment on the trade and other moves has to wait to see all the acquisitions (read - excellent pitcher) that we complete before next season. We saw last year that we are willing to move a new acquisition before they even take the field so speculation on Farmer is not something I would do yet.

I am always unreasonable. So I will say - bring him up soon. Don't go through the sequence of levels. If he is good challenge him.

I am sorry but I could not read your entire essay and I love your work. But anything that lets Pagan off the scaffold is just not something I can handle. Please keep this essay handy and relook at it in June.

Financially he should be fine - $30 million is a good amount of money to live off the rest of his life. So it is not a dire situation and I think the Pirates and Miami both make sense for him. But I think about the Phillies and Ryan Howard - big man, big power, fell off quickly. Starting in age 31 season.

Twins vs Red Twins

Nice job - the trees are fun. Of course Escobar went to the Mets after going to the Brewers for Cooper Hummel and Alberto Ciprian. Hummel was in the majors with the Mariners last year. He is 27. He did not look that good, but he at least reached the majors. Ciprean seems to have disappeared. Escobar did collect his 1000th hit which is a real milestone. I did not follow up on the other trade names. Pierzynski was an outstanding catcher and Eduardo has proven to be an excellent infielder and hitter so we gained, but we also gave up quality.

Is he still with us or did we package him with Emilio Pagan and send him to the Yankees? What a strategy, draft a SS and package him with an unwanted quantity to clear the roster. I can hardly wait to see how the strategy plays out. And I am also waiting for the Twins to put together a bus to Cincinnati to see a roster of former Twins.

Fascinating. Slowly we are becoming the Reds. What have their records been?

Just not sure about this. I really need to see a bigger spreadsheet because I am not sure we have covered the bases with the quality we need.

Not what I would have done, but let's see how it plays out.