mikelink45

This was a fun essay - I loved it and I disagree with it. The pitcher recommendations are the opposite of what I would have. Talk about break downs - May has a career of break downs, but he has great talent - that sounds like a relief pitcher. Romero is the guy that can take us into the back part of the game - he has the ability and the stuff and I love starters. Astudillo is a really fun story, but there is a prejudice against pudgy guys. They will not do it and I am as sorry as anyone. I love his energy.

The articles I read continue to have me question the real value of Free Agency. This lottery with players at the end of their career, coming off a down year, declining in production, unhappy, taking up too much money or space. Free Agency is such an attractive time for fans and probably for FO dreamers as well, but the real value is seldom in the big stars. How many pennants have the Nationals won with Harper or the Angels with Trout. The key is to build a total roster and going huge for a single star and then backfilling is not a good formula. Signing one year players that you hope will do well, but will leave if they do does not build a winning culture either. I know I am glad I do not have to make these decisions, but if I did Harper and Machado would not like my offers.

Slugging and striking out are still the big headlines for Cron. I am fine with a cheap and expendable signing, but we have Rooker in the wings who can do both of those things. I would like to see us start looking at the OPP hitters, more hits, more walks, better average, more speed. The launch angle is already getting old. But we can get by with the Cron/Austin/Sano/Grossman/Rooker/Cave/Kepler 1B list for now if we address the rest of the infield. Whether it was Mauer or Keith Hernandez at first, infields were not judged as quality by the glove of the first baseman. We need the rest of the infield to measure up with some new additions. Missing out on Donaldson was a big disappointment for me. Were we ever in the conversation? All I can say is thanks for giving us something to discuss and perhaps obsess over in the dark days of November.

I believe that the Rays won 90 games last year. How many did the Twins win?

I am one of the negatives. Sorry, I know you would like someone to agree with you, but I consider Hanley to be a career disappointment. He had 0.2 WAR on a Red Sox team! He has 38 WAR in 14 years and in the last four it has been (-1.3), 2.8, (-0.3) and 0.2. Lets move forward, his value days are long gone and he is not a good cyber Monday deal. In 14 years his total wins above average is 16. Not a star. His totatl defensive WAR is a negative so no value there. Why would we want him?

If we had the old bench - he would be there as a pinch hitter, but today he needs to be a RP. I am sorry about that because he contributed much more than he is given credit for.

I like your statement that you do not know enough to know that Molitor overused his staff. I do not know either. But I know that it is too easy to blame Molitor and to forget that the FO could have stopped any abuse. The other coaches including the bench coach we retained could have stopped abuse. It is time to look to solutions and get off the Molitor blame train.

Thank you for the honest assessment. Molitor used what he had like every other manager.

What other arms was he supposed to use. I am beginning to think I need to change my name to Molitor defender, but I feel that the constant harping on Molitor needs to stop. The FO gave him his BP pitchers and if they burned out it was because they were supposed to be openers and closers. We keep asking more of the BP, but their arms are used up by the end of the season. Not pitch count, but number of appearances. MLB has not figured out how to work with its new paradigm.

I think this is just the beginning of the relief pitcher era woes. Use them and use them and somehow they are supposed to hold up longer and better that SP. We are going to see more high priced RP signings be bust and there were a few last years beyond Reed.

Poor Molitor - every pitching ailment is his fault. Sorry. He used what he had and he did not have much to work with.

How can I comment intelligently. I know what I hope, I do not know what I expect. Obviously Austin did not impress enough to grab the position. But Cron has a one year resume so who knows. Both are cheap in baseball numbers so let them fight it out. We know one will be 1B. Now lets concentrate on the really big needs - SS! CF! SP! AND RP!. I am waiting.

I really thought a lot about that - still do not understand the Rays cutting him. I really think this is a good move. Now they still have the money to invest in other needs. Thanks for pointing it out.

I guess Molitor did a good job with him! I agree he is an excellent success story. I had hoped that Hildenberger would be right with him. But Molitor must not have done so well with him. The BP requires 4 very good and 4 okay arms to function.

Nicely done, I always appreciate your thoughtful postings. I do not want to give up on the Twins. I follow them every day of the season and off season, but I do not want to be caught up in the hype until I see something really working.

Nicely done. So much to work with here. Where is our hope?

Too bad all our rejects can't rejoin each other in one good pen just to rub our nose in it.

Oh how I wish your dreams would come true. I am afraid my fears are on my blog, but I can appreciate what you wrote - I hope the FO reads it. https://twinsdaily.com/blogs/entry/11281-%7B%3F%7D/

This is not rebuilding - it is prolonged agony. A rebuild from what - an accidental year that got us blown out of the play offs, Since 2010 we have lost 90 or more 5 times. We have been above 500 twice. We have averaged being 22 games behind for the last 8 years. We have seen attendance go down 7 out of 8 years. We have been 4 or 5th place 5 times and second 3 times - does second in the Central count? We have been in limbo or purgatory. Some teams get better when they get worse because of their draft place, but we always have to wait two years - now it is for Lewis and Kiriloff. We rank number 16 in OBP, 19th in Slugging, 18 in OPS - we are 94 in OPS+ and 23rd in HRs, but only 16 in Ks! If you have lots of Ks I thought that the theory was you would have lots of HRs. What did I miss? Of course if you do not hit the long ball - there is always speed - we ranked 28 in SB. So pitching! Here the BP gives us position number 23 in saves. But good news we are up to 16 in Ks! And we rank #20 in ERA+. But maybe we can just keep them off base with ground balls and great fielding - nope. We are #24 in WHIP. Our starters gave us a +2 WAR ranking us 15 - middle of the pack - at least it is better than the rank of #25 in RP WAR (-4.5) In wins above average by position we rank #20 overall at - 6.3 WAR. #18 in total pitching WAR (-2.8) which is brought down by our Bullpem ranking #25 at (-4.7). NOTE THAT ALL THESE RANKINGS ARE FOR MLB, NOT JUST THE AL. In non-pitching we rank number 19. So go around the diamond: Catcher 16 (-0.6) 1st Base 24 (-1.6) who wanted to bring Mauer back? 2nd Base 21 (-0.7) SS 24 (0.0) Despite the fact that Eduardo Escobar played there half the year and had 2.2 WAR while he did. What does that say about Polanco? 3B 23 (-0.7) LF 7 (1.3) There is no minus! Way to go Rosario. CF 17 (-0.3) RF 10 (0.3) Not great, but no minus. DH 27 (-0.8) My god, we can't even get a plus from DH? All of those from Baseball Reference - https://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/MLB/2018.shtml So what are we rebuilding? We have 40% of a rotation, one decent reliever, two OFs who hold their own and a catcher that is improving. Yes I am a skeptic. All our deals, our drafts, our promise has amounted to an 8 year purgatory. Tell the FO to call me when we have at least half of a really good team. In all of MLB we were in 19th place last year, 30 games behind the Red Sox, In AL only we were number 9 and five of the six teams behind us were tanking. Even in just our division we were 13 GB! And Cleveland ranked number 5 in the AL and you know how well they did in the playoffs.

We are not going to win next year so an extended contract is a must, otherwise I love the idea. Who do we give up? Kiriloff and Lewis would be a big price, but it might require one of them. Can Lewis play 3B - trade Sano and Rooker with Kepler a possible add on or replacement for one of them. Do not mortgage the future. In baseball one player does not make that much difference. All the money that Harper is going to get and he could not take the Nationals to the promised land anymore than the player of the century - Trout - can make winners out of the Angels. We need 1B, SS, 3B, starting pitching and bullpen. Goldschmidt can cure one need, but if it is only for one year, we lose.

I keep reading that the FO was handcuffed by keeping Molitor. My BS meter rings everytime I read it. No they were not. They hired all the coaches around him and now have left many of them go. They signed Belisle and Giminez and Wilson. They struck out on the free agents. They made some good minor league trades, but we lost Escobar. Nothing prevented them from making many moves and they made some, but not enough. Molitor was one piece. Tell me where the greatness was in the bullpen, tell me where the runs were when we needed them. A few bunts did not eliminate them, in fact with all the shifts I say bunt like crazy. Molitor tried the opener and other strategies, but when your best is Moya or Mejia that is not going to do it. When you have already burned out Hildenberger do you want him to do the same to Rogers? Who else do you trust. Molitor was not deserving of MOY nor is he deserving of the constant grumbles and blame.

This is depressing. I guess my Thanksgiving paper on what I am most thankful for will not be Pohlad, Levine, Falvey, the Twins...Way to be a Grinch. I want to hear that we are going to be smart and we are going to compete.. In fact, if we take the goofy money that Machado and Harper will get and invest it in a lot of secondary FAs we will compete and we will be better. The Yankees moved on Paxton - I would have offered Sano and hope that they read all his early press clippings. This is a terrible situation - not tanking, not winning, what are we doing? Oh ya - we are hiring new coaches. Big deal. Is there any evidence that coaches really make that difference in MLB? Thank you Judy, at least one person is refreshing and honest in this winter of our discontent.

Here is one stat that everyone in baseball needs to understand - Rosenthal writes in the Athletic - "coming off its lowest season attendance since 2003, the league cannot dismiss the need to improve the competition between clubs." And I would add that perhaps we had better go back to what did work. Tanking is not adding to the enjoyment, strike outs and home runs are not elevating the excitement. Time to see what works and emphasize the best of baseball.

Good questions and good observations. Maybe we can speed up the game with a headset on both catcher and pitcher and the pitching coach can call for the pitches and locations. Football figured out the microphone and speaker in their violent game. Imagine how fast the game would be if we did not have Kimbrel with his ostrich stance or any other pitcher standing there and staring at the catchers crotch.

I am not worried about any of those not added. I do not see that they team has much faith of expectations with them so for their sake it would be better if they could move on. Right now the minor leagues do not seem to be part of the FO picture for 2019.