mikelink45

I too am bothered by the constant digs at Rosario. On a team that I would argue had no MVP because it was such a team effort I find it strange that so many articles on TD seem to be intent on making Eddie the LVP. If we trade him for real value I am fine but not because I want him out of the lineup.

Musgrove is the only one I want from this list. Boyd is the best of the worst on Detroit, but that does not make him a quality pitcher who can improve the staff. I want more upside and more baseline quality in fastball and other pitches. I know this is just the first list so hopefully we will see more quality in the next essays.

Nice choice and your points put the pitchers in the right order from top to bottom.

No - obviously they can sign him if they want, I am not interested.

What is perspective - each of us comes to the team at different times. Each for different reasons. I came because they hired me as an usher the first year and then the team I rooted for moved from Milwaukee to Atlanta. I have been excited since the first year, but I have not had expectations, if anything, in 58 years I have learned to be just a little cynical, not expecting the worst, but hesitant to become too optimistic. This year was fun, it was entertaining and I have to admit I expected something similar to what happened, not because I did not like the team, but somehow the big lights of the big city has bitten us too many times. The Yankees, the Dodgers, it does not matter. I was delighted that we played the Cardinals in one of the strangest World Wrestling Association productions and then we beat the Braves that broke my heart when they went to Atlanta (and I attended all the home games). This was the year the Dome gave the team a big assist! Now we had no Dome, Hrbek could not apply a wrestling move at 1B and we were left with 2 starters and a star struck line up. Can they be better next year? Of course and I will root for them from day one of ST, I just won't place that WS bet in Vegas. We are Twins fans, we always hope with fingers crossed.

I disagree - fire is good when things are equal, but when Scherzer and Strasburg and Corbin are out there nothing makes a difference.

I like doubles - I am okay with a player who hits 320+ and gets 40 or more doubles. Arraez can be that guy.

The Cardinals won and moved on. I will take that.

Watching the Astros and the Yankees the defensive plays really standout in comparison to the Twins. And I hope people aren't thinking that Buxton can make up for our deficiency. The glove does matter.

Good take, but I suspect that Ruth would have grown up with the same advantages as today's athletes and would have enjoyed sending those 95 mph fastballs out of numerous stadiums and might have put the HR record into outer space.

What I find interesting is that the high upside, not quite ready group gives me much better feelings than the group we have to fill the rotation now. Dobnak and Smeltzer are going to be BP eventually. Thorpe needs to get himself settled - this last year was not a good year for him. Yes Graterol looks great and I see him and Berrios leading the rotation with him passing Berrios for number one in a year or two. I have read some projections that have Balazovic surprising in ST and taking a place in the rotation. I would love that. Those three with Odorizzi looks good to me. The rest of the names are interesting arms that can fill in, but these four are my dream and from there pick a name from the hat.

I always wonder how they choose a player for afL Are they ready are they proving something? Why not Kiriloff and Larnach? I remember watching Strasberg in Phoenix. He rose above the competition like Lewis is doing. Is this about proving Lewis is ready for the big jump?

Strasburg, Cole, Wheeler - beyond that I am not excited unless Bumgartner takes a big cut from this projection.

This is why records really cannot be compared. What would Babe Ruth or Barry Bonds have done this year?

Yes they were, but I also believe in the power of inspiration

Not enough. "angst about the Twins not having a better showing in their first season of a competitive window is hardly the place to bring it out." Many teams are lucky to get one shot, but when they do I want something more than isn't that Minnesota Nice that we got to go to New York and get our Christmas shopping done. We set a record that is tremendously embarrassing. We do not go around bragging that we got to four superbowls and lost. If you can guarantee that we will be back and better after ending with 4/5th of a questionable rotation as big ???? I will be shocked. What does "As Derek Falvey and Thad Levine look to build a consistent winner," mean? A year like 1987 or 1991 has a long lasting impact - how many of the teams that built our current world record playoff losing streak are being honored? We bring back the champions. Look at Clevelands attendance. Do they care that they have dominated the regular season?

This is a short Blog - kind of a reaction blog set off by the St Louis Cardinals (my favorite NL team). Did you see the headline - 10 runs in the first inning. The Braves were in never never land! What happened. A really good team beat another really good team and did it with fire! The articles say that the pre-game talk by the Cardinal Manager (who the hell is Schildts?) was angry, it pushed the limits and for a while was available on video. ESPN had this article - "In a video that surfaced online Wednesday night, St. Louis Cardinals manager Mike Shildt can be seen giving a fiery, expletive-filled speech to his team in the locker room following a win over the Atlanta Braves in Game 5 of the National League Division Series. "The [braves] started some s---. We finished the s---," Shildt says in the video, which outfielder Randy Arozarena later acknowledged he streamed live on Instagram. "And that's how we roll. No one f---s with us ever. Now, I don't give a f--- who we play. We're gonna f--- them up. We're gonna take it right to them the whole f---ing way. We're gonna kick their f---ing ass."" https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/27809815/locker-room-video-shows-cardinals-manager-expletive-filled-speech In contrast our manager felt fine just like Dave Roberts after his Dodgers bombed again. The bombs are not as fun as Bombas, by the way. It reminds me of the Vikings Superbowl bombs. I was so keyed up for them, but as I watched the players they were not. Just going through business as usual. There unflappable coach was stoic and the players were run over by the emotion, if not the talent, of Kansas City, Oakland, Miami, and Pittsburgh. Emotions count. Next year Rocco, I hope the players love you, I hope that they enjoy playing for the Twins, but when you get to the place where the season hinges on the game - get mad, get emotional, play like it is more than a game.

Good essay but I really object to the quote - "He will probably get a multi-year deal with someone other than the Minnesota Twins and all of you who hate Kyle will be extremely happy." I did not like his performance, even at his best I did not trust him in crucial games, but I do not know him and thus it is not personal, it is what baseball is - business. I would let everyone go except Odorizzi. With a finish like we had we need new people to come in who can move us to the next level. After the Pineda let down I do not resign him. I do not care if Perez would move to the pen, he would be out. The teams that let Schoop and Cron go last year saw what we should see this year - there are other options. Besides Arraez we have Gordon for 2B. At first base we have Kiriloff, Rooker, Larnach and if we move Sano it is really crowded. Personally I do not move Sano. Who else do we have for 3B that can give us positive results and not just some better fielding? Because I do not trust the FO to move on pitchers I would see Berrios, Odorizzi, Graterol, one of the pick-em group of rookies who auditioned this year and one FA in the rotation. Astudillo will be the first half back up catcher and then, unless he is hitting the cover off the ball we will see Jeffers come up and eventually 1B could be Garver.

I will be checking in on TD all fall and winter and again next season. I am hooked on baseball and this site is a positive part of each morning. The team will be different net year if nothing else the free agents that leave will change the make up of the team and the way the minor leaguers bang on the door will impact the team too. Somehow the FA and trade market is always more talk than action so if they actually make a big move I will be pleasantly shocked. Trying to figure out the rotation is a real puzzle - and I would not resign Pineda - get better, don't repeat what did not work. Berrios, Graterol,??? is my rotation going forward.

Michael Powell wrote - "There was a mellow quality to conversations with the Twins after their postseason finale with the Yankees on Monday night, a wistful pride at what they had accomplished before that 18-wheeler from New York City flattened them." Wow I can feel that! "Rocco Baldelli, the Twins’ young manager, slid into his seat Monday night, having come out on the wrong side of a 5-1 score in the deciding game of an American League division series. He shrugged. His team had just lost its 13th consecutive playoff game to the Yankees, a record of futility that extends to the early days of this century. “To be very blunt about it, they probably pitched a little better than us,” Baldelli said. “They probably swung the bats a little better than us and defended better than us. We’re not going to run away from what just happened." "The Yankees dispatched the Twins as a farmer puts down an old cow, clinically and with minimal fuss." "When the end came near midnight, many fans had long ago streamed through the exits, and the Yankees celebration, the usual waste of industrial strength Champagne, had a perfunctory quality. “This was our absolute best effort,” Baldelli insisted before departing into the night. “Nothing got in the way of it.” Nothing except that Yankee eighteen-wheeler." If you want to read more from Michael Powell - https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/08/sports/yankees-twins-michael-powell.html Or there is the game summary article - “We’ve got a really good team,” said Yankees second baseman Gleyber Torres. “We don’t feel any pressure.” Compare that to our listless Twin quotes. "The Twins became the first 100-win team to be swept in the first round of the playoffs since the 1980 Yankees were knocked out by the Kansas City Royals." Doesn't that make us feel good, we are the books with the Yankees. "In a series that was expected to produce seesawing action between the two best home run-hitting teams of all time, the outcome was decidedly lopsided. The Yankees, who didn’t add major-league pitchers at the July 31 trade deadline, held the Twins to seven runs in the series." Yes we expected something too, like the series we had during the season. "When the bases were loaded with no outs in the second inning, he got Miguel Sano to pop out on a 98-mile-per-hour fastball, and then struck out Marwin Gonzalez and Jake Cave on diving sliders." “That situation right there set the tone for the rest of the game,” Severino said. That situation also summed up the Twins approach - stikeouts do nothing, put the bat on the ball. "“Today we played the best defensive game of all season,” said Carlos Mendoza, the Yankee’s infield instructor." And how was the Twins defense for this series? "Three more outs were not nearly enough for the Twins to erase a four-run deficit with Aroldis Chapman on the mound. The Yankees’ closer allowed a two-strike leadoff single to Marwin Gonzalez and walked C.J. Cron, but that was all Minnesota could muster. Chapman struck out Max Kepler on four pitches — getting three consecutive sliders past Minnesota’s leadoff batter — got some serious help on a diving catch by Gregorius on a liner by Jorge Polanco and finishing things off by freezing Nelson Cruz with a 99.4 mile-per-hour fastball for a called strike three, and the ballgame, and the series." Here is the full game summary it you want to suffer through it https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/07/sports/baseball/twins-yankees.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_191008?campaign_id=2&instance_id=12775&segment_id=17677&user_id=df677009e65a80ff046d9aedfdc120f5&regi_id=275511921008

Sign me up for 2020. I have watched this team since 1961 and I am not stopping now. I have watched playoff futility throughout except for 1965, 1987, 1991 and it always leaves a bad taste - like watching the Vikings in the Superbowl in the old days, the league championship now (6 losses). We are the only team to be swept - every other underdog has found a way to at least 4 game series. It is the way we lose, the way we are overwhelmed like the Giants 51 - 0 thrashing of the Vikes or the listless ways we lost the superbowls. I wand some fire, some embarrassment, some anger. No Rocco, it is not okay to just show up, I believe you are all paid to compete."“We just went out there and were beaten by a team that played better than us for three games,” Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. “It’s OK to acknowledge that. We’ll be back.” WHY? I know we always think that the Yankees get the breaks. If they do it might have to do with the amazing way they play the game and the decisions that they make. I have seen articles about MOY and talk about Boone and Baldelli. It is Boone all the way. That team has a fire our team doesn't. We might have beat them in the juiced ball HR record, but in the end, who cares? The Yankees, when they were not hitting a HR still came up with clutch hits. Our 1 for 12 with RISP is horrible. Does anyone know how I can see the season record for hitting with RISP? I know some questioned Arraez on the roster (I could have seem him sitting out game one) but in reality he is the one who will at least have a chance to get on base. My questions are how Kepler and Adrianza could be on the roster when they had not hit for an extended period before the playoffs. When I look at the collective Playoff stats (today) Arraez is #7 in batting, Rosario is 23, Gonzalves is 30 and tied with Polanco. When I go to the bottom of the list there is Max Kepler 000. Would LaMonte Wade have done worst? Miguel Sano hit 083. By the way at this point the batter with the highest average in the AL in the Post Season is Robbie Grossman. Like I said - bring on 2020, at least it provides me with stories from February through November. We put Gibson on our roster while the Yankees left off Sabathia - the Post Season is not about sentiment.

7:40?? Why? What a strange time. Do I want it to be 7:40 or not? Is this my station or someone elses? Please give me a good night sleep.

I am following this game with hope, but no expectations. Am I alone in this shell shocked Yankee-Twins world?

I wondered how the New York Press would describe game 2 - here are some key quotes - and I cannot disagree with any of them: "Dobnak’s short outing was fairly predictable. A recent Uber driver against this lineup? Rather optimistic of the Twins. The last Twins rookie to start a game in the postseason was Brian Duensing at Yankee Stadium in 2009. Duensing gave up five runs in four and two-thirds innings and his father was hit by a car outside the stadium (he was O.K.)." "The Yankees did not homer off Dobnak, but they wore him down with hard-hit singles and doubles. Twins Manager Rocco Baldelli hooked Dobnak after the Yankees loaded the bases with no outs in the third inning and turned to Tyler Duffey, a reliable reliever during the regular season. But Duffey was no better against the Yankees’ buzz-saw of a lineup, which began to pile on the runs." "The best-of-five series will shift to Minneapolis on Monday, with the Yankees one win away from clinching a berth in the A.L. Championship Series. And if the Twins cannot neutralize even the Yankees’ struggling hitters, they have little hope of extending their postseason." If you wonder what they wrote after game one - "Yankees fans, spoiled by 27 World Series trophies, might be frustrated by their team’s decade-long drought without adding another title. But consider the plight of Minnesota Twins fans when they learned of their team’s first-round postseason opponent. The Twins, who last won a World Series in 1991, have been eliminated in five of their six previous recent playoff appearances — in 2003, ’04, ’09, ’10 and ’17 — by the Yankees. In 15 postseason games between the two teams before this year, the Twins had won only twice — the first games of the American League division series in 2003 and 2004." "Interspersed between the blasts and runs, the dawdling game, which lasted 4 hours 15 minutes, featured 11 total relievers as both managers tried to navigate through the other’s potent lineup." I have nothing to add - let's just start by ending this losing streak! A moral victory is at least a victory.

Is this BACK TO THE FUTURE? This story has been written - over and over and over again. Berrios is the only chance we have and he gets four innings. The best relievers might not see the series from the mount. I think we see how Duffey really ranks. Didn't we have a TD article telling how our pen is better than there pen? This is tough to take. Bring on the Central division again - please. But not the Yankees. It is tough to come up with positives. Arraez got two hits. Okay that is the end of the positives. This really hurts and it will stay with us next year no matter how many bombas we hit. I just hope Odorizzi gives us a great game, that Berrios comes back and Rocco sits on his hands and lets him pitch and then we get to game five and magic happens.