mikelink45

Thank you for a sensible response. I have never seen a group so anxious to trade a good player spend so much ink telling everyone how terrible he is. The HR and RBIs do matter. As a matter of fact with the HRs of Cruz and Kepler and Polanco it is amazing he found that many he could drive in. https://twinsdaily.com/blogs/entry/11683-%7B%3F%7D/

I was underwhelmed and confused by the Wisler signing. Why confuse the 40 man with someone who might get to be replacement level if he is lucky. There are alwas Wislers available by Spring Training. But as I look at the 40 man roster I find some names that are really interesting - for example Romero. Is he going to make it or did he just tease us a couple years ago. Or did the Twins mess with a starter and turn him into a lousy reliever? I feel that he has to be really great this spring or a DFA is in his future. I would jettison Dyson and Pineda for the let down they created this year. Sorry but they are not part of my dream team. Ryne Harper was a nice story. I hope he catches on with someone else this year. Hildenberger, Perez, and Stewart are not at the level this team needs to seek so they can fill in for some team like the Orioles or Tigers. Gonsalves??? I heard that name last year or was it the year before or the year before that. Once our number one pitching prospect or so it seemed. Either he produces big or he joins the other questionable pitching arms I listed above and seeks a chance elsewhere. Now comes my most questionable thought - if we retain Castro we drop Astudillo. Good story, but as much as I loved him this year I am not looking for him to be part of the team next year unless Castro goes. Then he is here for a year until Jeffers moves into the second catcher position. Wade and Cave - do we need both of them? Who has more value and where to Raley and Rooker fit in. At least half of them have to move on. That is my heartless thoughts today - tomorrow they might be different.

We could have a contest to pick his DFA date! Not exciting. Another project for Wes Johnson. Great he already has Graterol, Smeltzer, Dobnak, May, Duffey, Stewart, Thorpe, Romero, Hildenberger, Perez, Harper, Gonsalves, and Alcala on the current 40 man to work with and straighten out. Is his Erector set big enough to keep adding projects? I know many of these will disappear, but that just means we have more projects to replace them. By the way - what is happening with Gonsalves? I see him going away and wonder where is potential flamed out.

I am confused by Raley and where we will use him. Does he bypass Kiriloff and Larnach to come to the Twins in 2020 as you project? Does he bypass Cave and Lamonte Wade for the extra OF position? Where do we use him? And now, if Buxton is hurt again, it looks like Lewis might be the answer as none of the rest of these players are CFers. I will be curious to see who makes it up to the majors this year.

I just cannot get excited by Gold Gloves - some years there have been terrible travesties like Palmeiro https://www.sbnation.com/2011/12/2/2604446/rafael-palmeiro-1999-gold-glove "Palmeiro won the Gold Glove at first base in '99 despite starting 28 games at first base and 128 games at DH." Pitchers are hard to choose and there has always been a laziness - Sure Kuechel won a number of awards in a row - Jim Kaat won 16 in a row and Greg Maddux 18. We have had many discussions on this site about defense and I do not trust any of the metrics. I do not know if Berrios is the best, but it would be good if a Twin was awarded. On the other hand I argue that Rosario is not the worst left fielder in the league, nor would I think Robbie Grossman could get a gold glove as the best. These awards just give us something to write about.

I keep looking at these lists and thinking - no that is not what we want. We have the young talent that Wes Johnson can work with on the roster now (or soon) - if we are going to spend money it has to be for someone significantly better and none of these three would give us a better rotation. Fly ball pitchers in a HR period just do not seem like the right solution.

Wheeler and Odorizzi are the best two options behind Cole and I would be happy if we sign both.

Great response. That is my question too. Who is young enough to not be on the back end of their career like Archer and Kershaw? How do we find a 24 - 29 year old who needs just a few adjustments to move up as an excellent starter?

I love the chemistry, but I remember the Oakland A's dynasty and how dysfunctional they were - fighting each other, fighting their own, and beating everyone else. https://www.nbcsports.com/bayarea/athletics/swingin-highlights-dynasty-all-its-glorious-dysfunction You might also enjoy this book excerpt - https://books.google.com/books?id=2ktODAAAQBAJ&pg=PA203&lpg=PA203&dq=baseball+teams+with+dysfunctional+clubhouses&source=bl&ots=Z8KfZT_guc&sig=ACfU3U2lw6wlGvDIgSS869urYT8ibWYIvA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjY3pntgsLlAhUD26wKHYyVBy04ChDoATADegQICRAB#v=onepage&q=baseball%20teams%20with%20dysfunctional%20clubhouses&f=false In the end good clubs win on the field no matter how bad the clubhouse is. But a good clubhouse on a good team is a great thing.

I hope not. This is a nice story, but I am not buying into him for the long run. I do want him on the roster and if he is number 5 in the rotation I am fine, but I want a World Series appearance and if the cast last year was not good enough Dobnak is not going to raise the level. Graterol has the stuff to dominate and that is what I want in the rotation. I am not big on the large FA contract - the success of those big payouts is not very good. Just for a refresher read this https://www.sportscasting.com/27-worst-free-agent-signings-mlb-history/ Pitchers usually do not age well - Verlander is an outlier in this discussion and he is a sure fire HOF pitchers. That being said I am interested in younger FAs who have shown an ability that our pitching coach can work with.

I just read this really fun article in True West Magazine https://truewestmagazine.com/article/six-guns-sluggers/?mc_cid=1c6674cead&mc_eid=b66323b9da "Two sesquicentennial anniversaries in 2019 will commemorate landmark events in the history of the American West. When gold and silver spikes were gently tapped into place in a ceremonial laurelwood rail tie at Promontory Summit in Utah Territory to symbolize the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad on May 10, 1869, it opened the West as never before. Earlier in the year, the Red Stockings of Cincinnati became the first all-salaried, professional team in the fledgling sport of baseball. Undefeated as the year progressed, the Red Stockings rode these rails in mid-September to introduce professional ball beyond the Mississippi. The West offered opportunity and adventure, attracting people from around the world who flocked to the California gold rush of ’49 and the Comstock silver lode in ’59. Now, in 1869, these professionals came west to demonstrate their wealth of baseball riches to overmatched but eager ball clubs with a hankering to be part of the Red Stockings’ historic season." This was a fun historic article - you might remember I had an earlier Blog that had Wild Bill Hickok in a baseball game and Tom Custer was a good pitcher. https://twinsdaily.com/blogs/entry/11497-wild-bill-umpires-the-game/ It took a long time before baseball moved west in the professional sense. For a long time the West Coast had a minor league team with players like Joe DiMaggio and his brothers making it almost as good as MLB. St Louis was the team of the West for a century. "In 1859, the first organized team on the Pacific Coast, the San Francisco Eagles, was established. The next February, in San Francisco they played to a 33-33 tie with the Red Rovers of Sacramento. In September, the Eagles traveled to Sacramento in a rematch for the state title, emerging victorious 31-17. In a few years, the Eagles organization had grown such that with the overflow they formed a new club, the Pacifics. Both became premier teams among more than a dozen that organized in the Bay Area. The sport was invigorating to watch and spectators might even shoot their six-guns when excited. With gamblers betting on their favorite team, it’s said it was not uncommon to have enthusiastic supporters fire into the air to shake the concentration of batters taking swings or to rattle fielders preparing to catch the ball." https://www.sfomuseum.org/exhibitions/local-nine-san-francisco-seals-baseball-1903-1957 The San Francisco Seals had a very long and successful life in the bay area. After the 1957 season - another pennant for the Seals, they moved to Phoenix and the Dodgers and the Giants began the westward expansion of baseball in MLB. Now you might think this has nothing to do with the Twins, but if you had been around then you would have seen our local cities trying to get these teams to come to us. But - "Millers were top-level affiliates of the Boston Red Sox (1936–38; 1958–60) and New York Giants (1946–57). The Red Sox actually swapped ownership of their top farm club, the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League, for the Millers in 1957, enabling the Giants to move to San Francisco." The Original St Paul Saints - "The Saints finished first in the American Association nine times, and won the Little World Series in 1924. During this period, the Saints were a farm club of the Chicago White Sox (1936–1942), the Brooklyn Dodgers (1944–1957), and the Los Angeles Dodgers (1958–1960). The Saints played streetcar home and away double headers with their local rivals, the Minneapolis Millers. When the Minnesota Twins came to town in 1961, the Saints became the Omaha Dodgers while the Millers ceased operations." Note both Dodgers and Giants had a connection to the Twin Cities. The Dodgers were going to LA, but the Giants were not sure about SF and played games with the Twin City Press. https://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/17/sports/baseball/the-giants-almost-headed-not-quite-so-far-west.html "MINNEAPOLIS, June 16 - If not for Walter O'Malley, Willie Mays might be remembered for making a leaping catch 100 yards from a grazing cow. If not for a few twists of fate, Mays could have an "M" on the cap in his Hall of Fame plaque, and the scrum for Barry Bonds's 73rd home run ball might have occurred in the upper deck of the Metrodome." "According to newspaper and historical accounts, Stoneham discussed moving here with Minneapolis officials as early as 1955, when concern over declining attendance and the decrepit condition of the Polo Grounds prompted him to consider his options. The Giants owned the Class AAA Minneapolis Millers, giving them territorial rights, and Metropolitan Stadium was under construction on 164 acres of farmland in suburban Bloomington in hopes of luring a big-league team." The west won out, but the conversations were strong enough to interest the Griffith family in moving the Original Senators to that Bloomington field and here we are the Twins! And the story of the DC franchise which has had at least three professional teams includes 108 years without winning a series.

We agree!