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mikelink45

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Everything posted by mikelink45

  1. mikelink45
    When I read through the entire essay I find the comment, "Minnesota has a surplus of corner outfielders" to be overstated. We have an underperforming Kepler who peaked and has at no time come close to repeating. We have no glove Rooker, Larnach who fell apart last year. Then there is Kiriloff who will be a 1B. Then we have a stack of mediocre OF with no upside, but enough MLB experience to be emergency fill ins. The AAA OF prospects are getting older and Wallner is too young. Our corner OF survives if Buxton is there to cover for them.
  2. mikelink45
    I like all the Palacios comments. If he is good glove like the summary says maybe he can be our short term solution until we plug in Lewis. I am surprised he is rated this low. Contreras is another batter I would have thought belonged higher on the list. I expect both of these players to be grabbed in rule V.
  3. mikelink45
    We won't be bringing Rob Refsnyder back - he just signed with the Red Sox.
  4. mikelink45
    I like your premise, but I do not have a good answer. I think Larnach would be preferred over Kepler by a trade partner and I would be willing to trade either, not both. If we really want something good it could be Miranda that is the trade chip - not my preferred either, but teams want players with a future - especially the A's who might be dumping their first and third basemen. A good trade is always painful, but the risk reward is tough to figure out - sorry sabermetric guys, but you don't really have a good formula for evaluating these situations. With the lockout we have a lot of time to speculate. Maybe a series - if we traded ???? what could we get and who would want him?
  5. mikelink45
    Rijo is the only name I recognize. Can a team Rule V draft him and then immediately stash him on the IR so they can keep him? The rest of the pitchers are unknowns to me. The most important aspect of this report so far is the fact that we actually have 30 minor league pitchers worth talking about.
  6. mikelink45
    If our rebuild (sorry I know we are retooling) is going to have an impact on the future we need to start playing the future now and let them grow into their potential. I expect a trade and will be disappointed if the trade is just prospects and not players currently starting.
  7. mikelink45
    One of the weaknesses for fans is familiarity bias. I am as guilty as anyone. I read all these glowing TD accounts and think our prospects must be the best there is, but that is seldom true. So what do we do? If I was to believe that the FO thinks all the pieces are in place then Baldelli should have been fired.
  8. mikelink45
    This is a really valuable series. I would love to have you give us a fielding rating to go with the bats. With players like Rooker and Sabato the Twins have leaned bat first, but I really appreciate the guys that bring a glove too.
  9. mikelink45
    I hate to say it, but as soon as we flunked the high end market I moved on to the strategy you outlined. I would have loved to have Berrios lead this young group forward, but we flunked our own FA market so that can't happen. Maeda would have been nice, but his injury makes him a 2023 arm. I am tired of the Bundy/Happ/Shoemaker rehab signings. And now the question of trades brings up the reality that some of these young arms might be in someone else's rotation. So barring a trade I like the idea of a six man rotation and we start doing auditions. Perhaps the sixth man is a hybrid RP/SP, but right now I want to see if the future is here and I also recognize that Ober and Ryan will be watched for their innings so having lots of SP could reduce that. Last thought - even if we bring in one really good pitcher, will it matter if no one steps up from this young herd of prospects?
  10. mikelink45
    For a few years we had discussions on Dobnak, Thorpe and Smeltzer. Smeltzer has dropped out of the storyline and I think the other two will soon as well. If the younger prospects are even close to what we are reading then these borderline pitchers need to get out of the way. Dobnak has shown that he is not a RP and he is really marginal as a starter. He will last longer because he has a contract. But let's hope Balazovic, Duran, Winder, Sands...are better than this threesome.
  11. mikelink45
    Nothing against this article or the writer, but if this is the status of baseball where we really care about a twins writer appearing on a game show then I am too old to continue being a fan.
  12. mikelink45
    I'm beginning to think that the NFL and the NBA are involved in these negotiations or whether lack of negotiations. Baseball is doing everything I can to not just fall from being America's game, but being a footnote in history
  13. mikelink45
    I look forward to the day when all the stats reverse themselves and we discover that arms can't pitch every other day so a bullpen has to be set up with a starting pitcher that actually gets innings. I think we're either going to see pictures eventually start to take innings like they should or will start seeing six man rotations and they will be forced to extend the roster to accommodate for all the arms that are needed. Of course the problem is we see already is that there are not that many arms that are viable and so we will continue to have a lot of mediocre pitching. And I don't mean just the twins I mean overall in baseball. I see comments about not paying so much for proven closures and that's fine. But I also have seen numerous comments about the junk heap pictures that we keep grabbing hoping that they will rebound with another good year or find some magic in a slider. I'm sorry to say but this is one area where safer metrics has really adversely impacted baseball from my perspective.
  14. mikelink45
    I have been trying to follow Wallner and have really liked what he has done - not a Rooker, not a Sabato - lump those two together for now, but a ballplayer who makes contact, can field, can throw and does bat. I would love to see him progress to AAA this year. But for now I join the Lewis and Duran bandwagon, and yet the man I really want to see is Balazovic - never seen him pitch, but we have heard so much about him the last few years that my curiosity is running high.
  15. mikelink45
    Perhaps we can name a trash can for him!
  16. mikelink45
    It was an interesting path until I read "Fisher profiles similarly to that of Jake Cave". Now I am worried.
  17. mikelink45

    My Twins HOF vote

    mikelink45 commented on Greglw3's blog entry in Greg Allen

    Martin was amazing - he did great for a short time everyplace he went - of course the players were burnt out when he left, but they had wonderful years until then. 19 years and 48 ejections. The Twins won 97 games in his one year.
  18. mikelink45
    Thanks for finding something to write about. Let's see Maciel - what can we make of him to create another 5 stories? It's going to be slim pickings. After the 12 Twins of Christmas we will need to start an Alphabet series - the best Twin for each letter. Tough going and especially when they are not going to talk again until January. Why?
  19. mikelink45
    I hope he simplifies the issue for Larnach - I remember the first few years of Buxton and all the tweaks and changes that ultimately led to more confusion than success.
  20. mikelink45

    My Twins HOF vote

    mikelink45 commented on Greglw3's blog entry in Greg Allen

    I loved Tovar, he brought so much to the game, he was a talented Arraez in his time. So versatile and dependable. I would have my second vote for Roy Smalley. He has become an integral part of Twins lore and a great spokesman for the team. What is interesting to me is whether the Twins will continue to do this every year or is there a cutoff where no one is truly deserving of the honor?
  21. mikelink45
    Now the question - how do they fix this? They have a multitude of coaches. Who is working with him? What do they do to change this and save a good player?
  22. mikelink45
    Let's hope Buxton is healthy. This list is not filled with ready to go CF options, although I think Celestino really grew during the season and I would be fine if they needed him and called him up to fill in. Much better than Kepler and definitely better than Cave.
  23. mikelink45
    I am not excited about the SS market and the Twins willingness to sign one of the two remaining big names, but I did not see Donaldson being signed either. They could surprise. If not experiment with Lewis, Gordon and Martin rotating in and out. I think I am like most fans and don't expect 2022 to be a success so I think it is a good year to try out various options - SS and Pitching and get ready for 2023.
  24. mikelink45
    This was an intriguing list. Duran needs to make the Twins this year. I am not sure if that is a breakout - I think it is just inevitable. The same with Balazovic. Like DMAN I am not in on Sabato. I would be higher on Wallner who is much like Sabato except he make more contact and best of all he has an excellent arm and can field providing us with Kepler's replacement.
  25. mikelink45
    I am content with one FA if it is quality and your choice makes great logic. Rodon, Ober, Ryan and two of Balazovic, Winder, Sands, Bundy, Duran, Richardson, Canterino, Strotman would give me some hope for the future (even though I am a Bundy sceptic). They are not going to fill out the staff unless there is a massive trade, so a good anchor and a rotation of young arms lets us see what might be happening beyond 2022.
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