mikelink45

I made the edit as you suggested, but I also enjoyed the fact that I blew this obvious point in my tongue in cheek report. Thanks for pointing it out.

I miss the strong arm and the way he impacted the game with those throws as a rookie. Now I have more of a fear than anticipation, wondering if he will throw to the right base. He has more talent on defense than he was showing last year.

He also has a chance to flop - this is a really important year and if he makes the transitions that are required he can be an above average OF and that would be great.

The defensive regression is the part that worries me the most. In his first full year his throws and speed were really assets and he looked to be an above average OF. What happened? Can he only concentrate on one aspect of the game at a time?

A very nice top five. Who are our least important assets on the 40 man? I have lots of questions as we move towards Spring Training. Who are the minor leaguers who really have a chance to make the team this spring? Will the FO make another move? Is Grossman the number 4 outfielder again? Will they really give Gonsalves a chance? Is it possible that Lewis can force his way on to the major league team by September? Very fun year ahead.

How right you are. Those damned Astros ruined my story. Oh well, I will get over it since I rooted for them all the way and loved the series!

A question at the end of this exercise will be what is Mauer's value? At this point it seems obvious he will be the big name left off the list. With Buxton, Rosario, Lewis, Berrios, and Sano the list seems complete, but what about Rooker?

Front Office - do something we can be excited about.

Ah, New Years, time for resolutions that will last a week or two. Let’s lose all our extra pounds, work out more, be smarter, be more beautiful… Well it is a time of reflection which is good and it is a time for hope. And no sport is better situated to take advantage of hope than baseball. Hockey and basketball are in the middle of their never-ending seasons and football just eliminated hope for over half their teams with the playoffs about to begin. But baseball is in the smoky haze of the hot stove. It is a time to reflect, speculate, lie, and hope. We are all equal, we can all sign the big star, we know the next great player is about to be called up from the minors, and we are all undefeated. So, until Spring training ends, I nominate the Twins as the 2018 World Series champions. I can revisit that prediction many times in the next few months and like most New Years resolutions and predictions it will be hard to remember anyway. But there are some interesting stories in MLB that revolve around that eternal hope. In 90 years baseball had no team go from worst to first! Not one. Then over the next two dozen years we had 11 teams do it. That doesn’t happen in football – sorry Cleveland – but baseball is a resilient sport. Remember 1991? The Twins and the Braves both went worst to first and the greatest world series of all times took place that year. I am still excited remembering those games and walking down the street after each victory. Then we cheat – instead of 2 leagues there are three divisions in each of the leagues giving six chances for worst to first. But if you won, who cares! Imagine the year 2000 and how impossible it would have seemed to have both the Red Sox and the Cubs win the World Series – both with the same GM! That is really worst to first. Even the seven teams that have never won a World Series: the Seattle Mariners, the Texas Rangers, the Tampa Bay Rays, the Milwaukee Brewers, the Washington Nationals, the Colorado Rockies and the San Diego Padres can look ahead and hope. Seattle and Washington can hope to get to their first world series ever. It is all possible – probably not likely – but possible. For teams that have been to the World Series, but have not won for a long, long time we always have hope – for the last two years Cleveland hoped to join the Red Sox/Cubs bandwagon, but now have a drought of 69 years since they won a championship. The Pirates are the National League team with the longest drought since winning. I remember the WE ARE FAMILY teams of Clemente and Stargell; well it has been 38 years since they won. Perhaps the most difficult drought for me to accept is in Baltimore where we had all those great Earl Weaver teams with perennial 20 game winners throughout the rotation and the Robinsons at bat and in the field. But they have 34 years since their last greatness. And the list goes on with the Tigers, Mets, Dodgers, etc. But all have hope today. Today everyone is a winner. In 2003 the Florida Marlins won a world series with Dontrelle Willis and Josh Beckett! I think that is the same team that just got rid of their MVP, all world slugger and anyone else that can lift a baseball bat, but maybe they can find the magic anyway (I doubt it). In 2003 they had Ivan Rodriguez, Derek Lee and Mike Lowell – not all studs, but they won! One of the worst world series champions, but who cares – there are no asterisks in the champion list and of course they then got rid of their best players – sounds familiar? Or the unlikely 1987 Minnesota Twins. I remember watching the Hrbek wrestling match on first base while sitting in a bar in Arizona. The bar went crazy and I had one of the best laughs ever. Do you remember who pitched besides Viola and Blyleven? Good luck. And if we are remembering worst to first we should also look back on the Florida Marlins again for some perspective. In 1997 the won the World Series and in 1998 their record was 54 – 108. What kind of ownership does this? Jeter was not around in those years. The same potential lies in every player. Mickey Vernon hit 275 before going in to the service. Then he came out to win the batting title beating teammate Ted Williams. Going back to a more natural average he hit 251 until he was 35 and suddenly won his second title – yes, every year is a clean slate. I remember the shock of Detroit Slugger Norm Cash winning the batting title win a 361 average. For 17 years he was known for home runs and not average (he was also known for corking his bat), but that year he set the league on fire. Who will be our surprise of the new year? Who will come out of no where to be the next Mark (Big Bird) Fidrych? The bird was as famous for his mound presence as he was for pitching, but a 19 – 4 record with a 2.34 era and a 1.08 Whip is hard to ignore. I remember well the 1957 seasons when the Milwaukee braves called up Bob Hazle who went crazy and was the star of the team – that included Hank Aaron, Eddie Mathews, Red Schoendienst, Warren Spahn. He hit 403 in 41 games and was probably the world series winners MVP. We all know Bill James for his Sabremetrics (Aside – I am not big on Marvin Miller, GMs, owners, umps, etc in HOF but I would put in Bill) however this is about the big surprises that carry the year and the Bill James that makes that list was a pitcher who was known as Seattle Bill. He completed 30 of 37 starts with a 1.90 era! He was outstanding in the WS as well with 11 scoreless innings for the 1914 Braves and then he faded – fast! Joe Charboneau was a Cleveland star who was going to bring back the team glory. A slugger with charisma – he even got his own song - https://www.bing.com/videos/search? q=joe+charboneau+song&view=detail&mid=C0A94198CFAADC3B4FF9C0A94198CFAADC3B4FF9&FORM=VIRE he was famous for opening beer bottles with his eyelids - Great story – short career! But how fun for Cleveland that one year. There was Brady Anderson who hit 12 – 15 homeruns a year for the Baltimore Orioles, but in 1996 he hit 50! Some stars like Bob Grim who won 20 games as a Yankee Rookie, but was devastated by a line drive are a much sadder remembrances of how things can change. Baseball is filled with stories and promise. So Happy New Year and congratulations to the 2018 World Series Champion Minnesota Twins (so far).

I really appreciate your essay. It is a difficult topic - all aspects of it - and it gets people upset for a variety of reasons that are personal to the individual reader. We have become a society of hyperbole and thus we being a star is not good enough - we need superstars. All our current stars are better than all other eras. Even our movie heroes now have to be superheroes with supervillains. It is good to gain perspective on this. Being a hero means reacting to a situation and taking action that is appropriate, sometimes even putting yourself at risk. Not every firefighter is a hero, but they are all admirable for what they do. Not every talent is matched with a personality and morality. Too often bad guys get the money, the woman, the prize. That is not what life is about. Our ball players are admirable for their talent and commitment and many of us are envious of that talent. We all wish we could step up to say - we might have been, we were close...But most of us were not. So they represent something to all of us, but hero worship is dangerous. Thanks for a thoughtful presentation.

No long term contract. 2 year extension, over pay if needed, but lets not get trapped by the system that has so many teams paying big money after the player stops producing. We cannot afford that kind of mistake and some where along the way MLB teams as a whole will figure that out. Only a few are rich enough to keep that system going.

This really emphasized how erratic our call ups were. No Gonsalves who was our best, Rosario from AA and then released. The process shows no clear organizational philosophy.

I almost need to see the final 10 to understand the way that this ranking is done. If it is all the assets from mlb down it seems like the rest of the list should be mostly in the majors right now. How does Mauer rate - that will be a fun read. It appears to me that Gonsalves is going to be the only minor league pitcher in the top ten and I hope he is part of the rotation. I am not big on Mejia, but I am comfortable with him as a #4/5. With his size and strength he should be an inning eater and that is not what he has shown so far. Does out new 41 year old erratic closer make the top ten? Not in my book. I am also not sure about Gordon. I only base my opinion on the various TD columns, but his rankings range from sure fire MLB shortstop to future okay 2B. Maybe I am reading this wrong, but it seems like his best value to the team is as trade bait. My last hope since I lack the ability for detailed analysis, is that Romero comes to camp and blows everyone away. I want Santana, Berrios, Gonsalves, Romero, and Mejia/Gibson (but much less Gibson).

I felt that the big Darvish conversations were a mistake. It has focused us on a big name instead of big picture and makes all the moves that have been accomplished seem trivial. Without Darvish the off season will feel like a bust and that is a poor leadership move. Overall the Hot Stove has been very strange for all of baseball, but watching the big teams make moves while we boast of a 41 year old reliever has been frustrating. I have also been concerned that the FO has overlooked the strengths in our own system in their efforts to put their own brand on the team.

I have always been a fan of Thorpe too. The recent book - Undefeated - was a great read and I highly recommend it. It is so frustrating to see what he had to put up with. An amazing story. In a recent blog I wrote about "where are the real Indians" and talked more about Thorpe and the others who played in MLB. With some effort MLB could have maintained a relationship with Indigenous people - more than just names. https://twinsdaily.com/blogs/entry/9178-%7B%3F%7D/

I took the injury from a Sabr report. Here is another report - that does not mention the popping sound, but talks about rotator cuff. It is an excellent article with a lot more information. http://sportspressnw.com/2174406/2014/wayback-machine-two-sport-ace-gene-conley

Not sure that this is a very exciting start to the top 20 if this includes both major and minor league players. Duffey has not met the promise of his rookie season, Kiriloff and May need to be on a wait and see list - how do we know if they are the same guys. I feel like May has been an old fashioned record with a scratch on it and we keep coming back to the same place each year. Since there are only 20 players on this list and there are currently 25 on the roster I will be anxious to see which roster players are not on this list - therefore waiting to be replaced and how you handle the excess at SS. I try to read into the reports that are on this site and the Gordon, Polanco, Javier, Lewis SS list is interesting and I have no sense of what the pecking order is for the long run.

Yawn. Another exciting off season move. Every team brings in a variety of arms and bats to spring training and hopes that somebody works out. This is an uninspiring move, but typical of every team. The problem in this not very hot stove league is that we do not have anything to really latch on to so mediocre signings like this rise to higher levels of interest.

It appears to me that our FO moves cannot be reported without referring to how smart we are. Boy we are just outsmarting everyone else. Just think Rodney, Kinley, and Duke plus a pitcher who might be ready in 2018. We have rumors about Mike Napoli coming and now one about Sano possibly going. But don't worry we no longer have empty seats in the smart guys office or the league of too many coaches. We are just out maneuvering the entire league! Are you buying? You might guess - I am not. I would like to see one of those old fashioned moves - the kind where you have a hole and you fill it. That might be smart.

I have begun to write blogs this fall, just for fun because I have some off beat ideas I like to share with other baseball people. I did not even know there was a financial reward - it was not my incentive. I have published a lot in other areas - books, articles, etc, but sports is an interest and not my professional expertise. It took me a while to recognize how easy your blog space is to use and I have enjoyed putting up some essays. Then I post those essay links on Facebook to entice friends to check them out. When it comes to forums I enjoy the give and take and discussions, but I do not see a lot of exchanges taking place in the blog sections. The exchange of ideas is what makes the forum fun. Maybe an article highlighting some blogs that people should check out would be good to direct people to the right hand side of the page. The other fact is that most of us do not have the video access or the ability to check out all the minor leagues and we feel limited on what we have to contribute on a regular basis. For me, the blogs (after a long delay) have been fun to post and I love checking out TD each morning. I have no big ideas, but I do appreciate having your site here.

Maybe it was seeing Bo Jackson on a commercial, looking like a younger version of George Foreman that got me thinking about two sport athletes, maybe it is the big deal that is being made over Ohtani being a two way pitcher/hitter in the major leagues, or perhaps it was looking at the baseball cards from my old favorite Milwaukee Braves, but suddenly I was thinking about athletes, baseball players, who actually excelled in two sports at the major league level. Not the Michael Jordan type of athlete who day dreamed about being a superstar in another professional league, but those who actually made it to the professional ranks in two separate sports. Bo Jackson achieved great legendary status as both a professional Football Player and a professional Baseball player. He not only played the two sports until injury ruined his career, but he made the all-star team in both Baseball and Football. His accumulated statistics for an eight year baseball career were: 598 H, 141 HR, 200 BB, 841K 415 RBI, .250AV, OPS 784 8.3 WAR Another Football baseball player who really excelled and is in the hall of fame for one sport and made the all-star team in the other was Deion Sanders who made it as a two sport star two years after Bo Jackson and played major league baseball from 1989 to 2001 and football from 1989 – 2005.. Speed played well in both sports and in baseball he had an accumulated 5.5 WAR, 558 hits and a .263 batting average with 39 homeruns, and 186 stolen bases. His OPS was 711. One year he led the league in triples, twice he was second in stolen bases and he played in the 1992 world series for the braves. Gene Conley had been a Boston Celtic and a Milwaukee Brave. He was tall, but especially for that time. This was before we got used to Randy Johnson and seeing a tall man make the mound seem to grow to a mountain. But Gene was not a HOF player in either basketball or baseball, just a good player and, somehow, I doubt if he had any coaching that new how to take advantage of his natural talent and his length. Today, we know that the angle of a tall pitcher is significant and so is the extra reach that gains them some inches if not feet to shrink the distance from mound to bat. http://sabr.org/bioproj/person/b5fecb6f He played in the major leagues for 11 years, with the Braves in both Boston and Milwaukee for six years and then with the Phillies and the Red Sox. His record was 91- 96 with a 3.82 era, 10 saves, 888K in 1588.2 innings, and a career whip of 1.33. He was on the World Series winning Milwaukee Braves team. During that same period he played four years with the Celtics, during which they won 3 world championships and he averaged six points and six rebounds per game. He came back to the NBA after a period where he was only in one sport and played two more years. He was born in 1930 in Oklahoma and in his high school years he was a three-sport star in Richland Washington, adding track to his repertoire. At 18, the six-foot eight-inch freshman chose Washington State where he was the star and leadING scorer for the Cougars. In 1949 he was a Northwest league all-star as a pitcher and played in New York in the Hearst all-star game beating Frank Torre (Joe’s brother who would be his teammate on the braves). In 1950 his college team was runner up for the national champion. He then turned pro. In his first minor league year he won 20 games and had a 3 – 1 K/BB rate. He used a fastball and a curve and never added a third pitch to his arsenal, something that might have lifted him even higher in this career accomplishments. By 1952 he was the fourth starter in the braves rotation that was anchored by Warren Spahn and Lew Burdette. That year he played for the Celtics (with permission) but was late for spring training and sent to the minors where he won 23 games and was the American Association player of the year. In 1954 he was in a car accident which would give him back problems that would plague his career. Still he won 14 games and pitched in the All-star game and finished third for Rookie of the year behind Wally Moon and Ernie Banks. In 1955 he blew out his rotator cuff and I mean blew it out. The popping sound that came at the moment of injury was heard by his catcher – Del Crandall. No Tommy John surgery then, he pitched with it and had over 100 cortisone shots during the remainder of his career. Returning to the Celtics for another championship run he angered the Braves GM and was traded to the Phillies where he won 12 games for the last place team. Retiring to Foxboro, Massachusetts where he and his wife ran a paper company. His final victory was a personal one, when a fan told him he was too good to be seen drunk and he gave up liquor from that moment on. His sports from then on were golf and skiing. The final question that I had was how many had this two-sport career? In the early years of baseball and the NFL there were many who crossed over with nearly 70 having a career in both football and baseball beginning with such career stars as Jim Thorpe, Ernie Nevers, and George Halas. Seven football hall of famers played major league baseball. One of the later day stars that preceded Bo Jackson was Vic Janowicz, the 1954 Heisman trophy winner from Ohio State played baseball for the Pirates for two years and then football for the Redskins for two years. Brian Jordan is not a household name (neither is Gene Conley) but he had a 15 year career with the St Louis Cardinals during which he accumulated a 32.8 WAR, had 1454 hits, batted 282 with 184 Homeruns and 821 Rbis. His OBP was 333 and slugging – 455. Nice career. He played three years with the Falcons had 5 interceptions and four sacks. Drew Henson was the last of the two-way football/ baseball players, but he only makes this as a footnote and not because he excelled in either. Basketball had a much lower number of two-way players, with 12. From that list the most impressive baseball talent was Dick Groat of the Pirates and Dave DeBusschere and Danny Ainge starred in basketball more than baseball. The National Hockey League has not had crossover stars, but this article gives you six prominent baseball players (including Justin Morneau and Tom Glavine) who were good at Hockey - http://mlbfancave.mlb.com/fancave/blog/article.jsp?content=article&content_id=44302058 Times have changed in many ways and one in particular – the length of seasons. Basketball playoffs are now finished in June – eliminating half the baseball season and baseball goes into November eliminating the beginning of basketball and football camp is in July and the Superbowl is half way through the basketball season. Too be honest, I preferred the more seasonal schedules. Basketball and Hockey cannot sustain my interest when it warms up and I am not ready for football until September. There may not be duel sport heroes like these any more, but they deserve a special place in our sports history.

This has become a joke off season. Players who cannot play next season, players with no resume at all in Rule V, and now players who are more than past their prime. I am so excited to see these new analytic geniuses really making exciting changes. If they are desperate to make a new signing how about adding another name to the bloated coaching fraternity and letting our young players carry the load.

If this is what the new FO achieves I am really frustrated. We have bats for DH and 1B. I would rather have Grossman than Napoli. I remember how TR loved to have reunions with his old players and we kept being the last stop on a career that was already over. I do not want this to be the home for old Indians. I wish I could think of something more effective than NO, but No is accurate. No to his bat, no to his speed, no to his fielding, no to taking a spot on the 25 man roster. All the players we have read about this year and now this is the big rumor. Unless Darvish insists on having him as a roommate we do not need him. I believe that we have enough coaches on the team now.

Nice essay. It keeps a spark in the old hot stove. Your premise is probably right on both - too long, too short, but Johann's case is also one of doing his best outside the lime light. For the Mets he was a constant tease and frustration and as a disappointment he will not get NY voters so going off the list in the first year would be no surprise. ​Mauer is one of the most interesting of all the choices because one factor he has going for himself is a greater awareness and acceptance of concussion issues. His case is not a too long or too short case as much as a medical card that says he and we are lucky that his career has come back at all. I wonder how much that will factor in. As we saw with Blyleven, if the right group backs him, there are many ways a HOF career can be justified and lead to induction.

Wait and see. Is this what we had in mind as we anticipated the FO changes and actions? Are we just waiting to see if we get Darvish or are we waiting for something else? We can have all the statistics possible and even make up some, but if the live arm is not good enough, if the control is lacking, if the assortment of pitches is not adequate the stats are not going to get anyone out.