mikelink45

In an era when bullpen has higher profile that starters it is surprising to see a team that prides itself on analytic decisions trade away the pitcher with the most potential and raw stuff to the American League's best team. Yes we got two prospects, but they are still raw and a gamble while Pressly is 29 and in his prime. Of course all our pitching gurus must answer for the disparity between his 3.40 Twins ERA (not bad) and his 0.77 Astro ERA (amazing). Or his whip - 1.364 Twins and 0.60 Astros. To quote the NYT - "Pressly rarely betrays any signs of emotional turmoil, whether it emanates from a poignant moment or from the stakes of a game heating up. He is a major component in a revamped Astros bullpen for the defending world champions, who had so many fraught moments last October that they had to turn to starting pitchers to close games." https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/15/sports/baseball/astros-red-sox-alcs-ryan-pressly.html?emc=edit_th_181016&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=275511921016 He generated twice as much WAR in 1/2 as many games with the Astros. "Only three pitchers who threw at least 60 innings this season have had a swing-and-miss rate higher than Pressly: Craig Kimbrel of the Red Sox, Edwin Diaz of Seattle and Josh Hader of Milwaukee, three of baseball’s elite relievers." "Pressly is the latest pitcher to experience a renaissance in Houston, which has been at the forefront of baseball’s analytics revolution. Charlie Morton has posted the two best years of his career, Gerrit Cole allowed fewer hits and struck out more than he ever has — leading baseball with 12.4 strikeouts per nine innings — and Justin Verlander has rediscovered his Cy Young form at 35. All three were All-Stars this season." Yes our FO is gaining an unearned reputation as analytics leaders, but the proof is in the way the roster is constructed and the players develop. So far not so good Now we will seek to build a weak bullpen by hitting the FA market and hoping we find a guy who can make the pen better - a guy like Ryan Pressly.

Since Romero is not up yet I want to include him but have a hard time. I meant to say six, but my internal hesitation must have auto-corrected.

It is no longer a core seven - just an interesting, intriguing, puzzling seven. Rosario and Berrios are the only ones who deserve to be core players, others need to earn it. Polanco needs to field as well as hit, we have big ?s at the other three infield positions. Rosario anchors the outfield with Jake Cave the only other player who looks good right now. Kepler has settled in at a below par level and can only rejoin the core two if he makes some strides with his bat. How does he do that? Add to the core two Mitch Garver who showed enough this past year to make him a dependable defender and a good bat. Moving to the mound, only Romero, at this point has demonstrated that he has the arm to be core in the rotation. In the BP we have May and Rogers who seem to have figured it out with Hildenberger fried by the end of the season again and the others just mediocre fillers. My core six - Rosario, Berrios, Garver, May, Rogers, Romero. The others have potential, but have not shown enough.

I am rooting for the Brewers, but I have some reservations about the success formula as I see the last relievers blowing up the first two games. A few more innings by the starters is a better formula and if you think Molitor overused his pen - think about how many innings the Brewers relievers have pitched this year. Or more important how many games each of them has pitched in. Jeffress 73 games, Jennings 72, Knebel 57, Williams 56, Hader 55, Barnes 49. I am still in favor of starting pitchers. Imagine how good they would be if their opening game starter had gone 5 -6 -7 innings instead of 2. The Dodgers top six relievers pitched in Alexander 73. Jansen 69, Baez 55, Fields 45, Hudson 40, Chargois 39.

Nice list of contributors. Twins Daily has been a wonderful addition to my baseball enjoyment. Thank you. As a non contributor I will add my look at next year - In 2018 the Twins stunk. They need relief pitchers (big surprise) They need to have their minor league arms fill out the rotation. But more important they need to have hitters - they need to have a shortstop that is dependent. So the FO will overpay for some relief pitchers who had career years and some roster cuts by some good teams, but the fact is, we will eventually succumb to the talent of Lewis and Kiriloff and we will start to improve. By the end of the year Gratol can no longer be ignored. And in the end of the next year the promise for the future will come from within. And the boy geniuses from Cleveland will be lucky that there are so many good players already in the Twins System and we will realize that pursuing the Indians is pursuing the next level of frustration - the ability to win the Central, but not the post season.

I love it! Yes he did. When I do the voice post - just returned from a trip - there are these ridiculous errors, but your response makes it worth it.

So many relievers have a big ear followed by a bad that I am always fearful of the signing the big believer. Watching the playoffs I keep hearing how a picture turn there career around by changing their pitch mix or emphasize in a different pitch which means that it isn't so much the pitcher as the coaching they can take a good arm (and they are all good arms) and make them better in their performance. I like the idea of getting young live arms and not the established and already old relievers that have amassed a long resume.

Defense. Even at this elevated and ridiculous rate of strikeouts we still have 70% of the balls put in play and defense makes a tremendous difference for pitching and team confidence. When you watch Chapman at third base for Oakland you can already begin to see how the other players look to him and loved his plays in the field.and one of the playoff games there was actually a discussion about how the team came together as the defense improved. I do not want to see 8 Sluggers standing around in the Outfield and infield watching pop-ups hit the ground. And I want to see a better defensive shortstop. I still believe that the shortstop is the captain of the infield and sets the tone for all the others.

I really don't know if any of them are any good I do know they don't excite me.

Those are good additions to our memory bank. Now of course we should consider trading Gibson and figure out how to make those high-ranked prospects turn out to be high-ranked professionals in the major leagues.

Those are good additions to our memory bank. Now of course we should consider trading Gibson and figure out how to make those high-ranked prospects turn out to be high-ranked professionals in the major leagues.

Nope. What did any of them contribute this year. Did they help or inform Molitor? Did they impact any players?

Watching the Indians annual success does not build my confidence in the FO. I am also a FA sceptic how often do they really produce

Note that the Cleveland Indians are the team that gave our front office their reputation. Take away Andrew Miller in the Indians have one of the worst bullpens in the playoffs. I'm not sure why we expect this leadership to do any better with ours. In a recent article in the athletic they showed a number of charts related to bullpens and you can guess where we are.

I hope we have more to talk about then these isolated games and a terrible season. I wish I could celebrate him, but it really does not help to put this season behind us where it belongs.

So sad. I really hope Miguel gets his life straightened out.

I also enjoy the fact that in the Kepler/Buxton/Sano/Polanco era - it is Eddie that rose to the top while absorbing all kinds of criticism in his first years for lack of plate discipline. Way to go Eddie, now just keep it going through a full season.

The toe injury for Buxton seems to get less attention than it should. Check out how a toe injury ended the career of HOF Dizzy Dean - https://www.fangraphs.com/tht/tht-live/the-dizzy-dean-injury-cascade/https://www.fangraphs.com/tht/tht-live/the-dizzy-dean-injury-cascade/ I can only hope healthy bodies allow the team to coach the basics and concentrate on BB.

Seldom do teams have two players so highly regarded rise to MLB at the same time like Buxton and Sano, then struggle and fail at the rate that they did. You are right about the need to keep working with them, to let them rise - we know that 27 is usually the time of maximum production - but there really needs to be a plan for how to help them succeed. So far the hit and miss and miss system that we have employed with their development and major league career has been a disaster.

Wanted: Manager Preferably someone so analytical that you can create a bullpen and rotation out of thin air, make our key players produce despite injuries and suspensions. You should be a manager who knows how to use great stats to replace great players and is especially good at dealing with misfits that the FO picks off the waiver wire or old players who are past a prime that were never that great. You must know how to play defense with a SS that has off and on days, find a 2B - somewhere, juggle 1B between players that are not known for their glove and will replace someone who was. Need to have a speed dial for weight watchers to keep 3B viable and be a psychologist for a potentially great and never really produced keystone CF. If you feel qualified and have some connection to the Indians who always seem really good but can't win the big one - send your Stats to the Twins FO. Job to begin in 2019.

I guess you need less proof than I do. The roster construction still leaves me cold. The players Molitor has to work with was a mess. Molitor takes the blame and all the other coaches and experts that were brought on and surrounded him skate home free? Nope. I am not behind this FO. I am not buying in to the thought we are better off than we were two years ago when we also thought we were better off than we were two years before that. Lets see some results before we crown them as saviors of Twins baseball. Put me down on as not one of the informed that you included in your statement - "Maybe it's because of my follower base being of the more informed variety" - not do I twitter or follow any on twitter - I just watch baseball. Personally I really enjoyed this article from MinnPost https://www.minnpost.com/sports/2018/10/by-firing-paul-molitor-the-twins-got-rid-of-a-problem-they-didnt-have/?utm_source=MinnPost+e-mail+newsletters&utm_campaign=df21657975-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_10_03_04_39&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_3631302e9c-df21657975-124131045 It captures a lot of my perspective.

I was surprised to read 20 rookies and then tried to figure out who they were - I remember the great promise and performance of Romero and only wish we had seen more of him before the end of the season. Garver is a great choice because I almost forgot he still had rookie status. Cave would also have been a really solid choice, but the catcher position is so demanding that it would be hard to give it to an OF when Garver handled so many different pressures. I hope we have a most exciting award because that would be owned by Astudillo. Now as to those other 16 rookies? I know we had a boat load of pitchers in September - is my count right that we had 10 rookie pitchers? A September call up should not be rookie of the year, but Call up of the year should be Stewart who I have to admit I had written off. I did not see him turning it around like he did. Good for him. The relief pitchers that we called up distinguished themselves by mostly being not ready for MLB and at their ages they should be. So who are the remaining 6? Did the come and go that quickly? I just do not remember other rookies at bat. Are Austin and Field rookies? Help me out.

As a person who spoke against the FO and not against Molitor I am not surprised, not does it please me. What I want is a true evaluation of all the coaches that were brought in - for example, what exactly did Pickler contribute? I also want an examination of the Front office moves - Molitor did not bring in Bobby Wilson or trade him for Giminez, Molitor did not sign Belisle, Molitor did not sign Morrison or Lynn or Reed or Duke...but he had to use them. Was it Molitor of the FO that brought back an injured Buxton and then refused Buxton a September show case? Who made the decision for putting Sano in RF? Who signed LaMarre and Field? Who constructed the 40 man roster? Who coached the pitchers? Who was hired to coach pitchers, bullpen, sat as bench coach and yet said nothing if Molitor over used a BP pitcher? Managers get fired, that is part of their job description, but I want the Twins to succeed and I want them to do so with leadership from FO/Coaches/manager and I would like a well constructed roster. I am not interested in simply moving people out so that we can get former Indian coaches. Good luck Molitor I know this really won't hurt you and I am not saying these things to defend the managing performance, but because I see an awful lot wrong and I have watched managers as scapegoats for too many decades.

Joe Mauer the catcher was HOF, Joe Mauer the 1B was not. It is unfortunate that an injury derailed his career, but that is the story of baseball. It is littered with those kinds of tragic stories. Joe was lucky to be able to change positions and continue and he fulfilled a good role with the team. I appreciate him, but I cannot go overboard in praise.

I really enjoyed Escobar, but this career year, could also be a bubble that bursts next year. His production went down after the trade and I fear our memory of his half season with us may taint our judgment. I do see him as an excellent utility player and that might be important since Polanco's glove goes missing at times, 2B Forsyth had a great start and immediately dropped to his normal level, 1B is our easiest fix, and 3B has to be held open for Sano at this point, but will need a strong back up. Right now Adrianza is the utility player on the roster and he really did an excellent job in 2018.