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With Justin Morneau returning to Minnesota it just seems to fulfill destiny. The Canadians have only two teams – Toronto (officially) and that offshoot of Ontario called Minnesota with the Twins (Jumeaux). Canada should celebrate both and we should take pride in straddling the border with both temperature and hockey to welcome our northern kin. Morneau was a natural and Colorado was just a blip on his resume. Now he is coming back home. Welcome Justin – you can let your o’s get longer and slip in an Eh! Or two. While baseball in Canada does not get the same respect as Venezuela or the Dominican Republic or a few other slightly warmer places, it is still a viable location for our favorite sport. In fact, they have a Baseball Hall of Fame - http://baseballhalloffame.ca/ Since we have had such a great success with Justin I thought I should give it some additional perspective – who else has come from Canada to be Twins? We might have made MLB history when we replaced one Canadian pitcher – Scott Diamond with another Canadian call up – Andrew Albers. Add in Jesse Crain and we had a plethora of Canadian arms. On February 4, 2015 Cordel Leonard (Corey) Koskie was named to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame! I suspect that Morneau will join him soon. Most surprising to me was Corey’s real name. For some reason I do not think I ever heard it. Koskie had 936 hits 124 Hrs, and a career 825 OPS. http://m.mlb.com/player/136731/corey-koskie He was a good player! Justin Morneau 1603 hits, 281 BA, 247 hrs, and 828 OPS. Damn good player. Imagine Justin and Joe without concussions! Not all our Canadians were stars – remember Rene Tosoni? I was rooting for him. And, of course, we crossed the border the other way too – Paul Molitor was a star for Toronto in the World Series. We were not the only destination for Canadians, but we came out near the top. George Selkirk, a Yankee who played with Gehrig, DiMaggio, and Dickey is considered the greatest of Canadian Players, but maybe they will reconsider. I would put Ferguson Jenkins up for that honor and Joey Votto is moving up the list and Larry Walker is the most under rated. And should you still need some Canadian love – look up Tip, The Woodstock Wonder, O’Neill, the Canadian Babe Ruth! All I can say is Bienvenue (welcome back). By the way is a translation needed: jumeaux = twins.

I am willing to go with most of this, but 3B needs a serious adjustment - Dozier in three more years is not going to have 3B reflexes. More likely Polanco.

I can see Mauer hanging on as a Twin. Would he be worse than having Grossman as our bench guy? If the salary drops to a reasonable amount we could continue to talk about Mauer for a long time. Mauer going somewhere else does not make sense - his personality is basic Minnesotan. Nothing exciting, not rah rah, not a leader, just a guy who goes out every day and plays for the Lake Wobegon local team because that is what he was born to do.

No one should be exempt from trades, but there needs to be some really strong due diligence when the trade is made. I remember the Rocky Colavito for Harvey Kuehn trade back in my ancient history. The HR champ for the batting champ. Talk about news! http://articles.latimes.com/1988-03-20/sports/sp-2150_1_rocky-colavito The baseball world was in shock. "Colavito was 26. He had hit 41 and 42 homers the previous two seasons, more than anyone else in the American League. General Manager Frank Lane complained about Colavito's strikeouts -- he had 89 and 86 in those two seasons." Doesn't that sound familiar -http://www.cleveland.com/pluto/blog/index.ssf/2010/04/50_years_later_colavito_trade.html In the next game between the two teams - "Kuenn had two hits in that game, but severely pulled a hamstring. He played but limped through the next few months of the season. Colavito had a three-run homer in the second game of that series, and the Tigers won it on a homer by Norm Cash (another player Lane traded). This was the start of dark decades of Cleveland baseball." I mention this because we still live with the memory of letting Ortiz go to the Red Sox. I would hate to see Sano go on to find his potential with another team. It is possible that it is a good trade, but BEWARE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I enjoyed this, but it is also a reflection of the lack of action in baseball when the site that analyzes baseball has two articles analyzing itself. Interesting, but if we were doing something, would these be written?

I love this addition to the most valuable assets. I have no real basis for making a choice here. I look at the picture of Graterol (I assume that is him) and he looks a lot older than the years listed. Is that accurate? I think Lewis and Rooker caught my attention the most this last year and I am like others in wanting to see some pitchers come out of our minor league system. I still hope Gonsalves is in the rotation this year.

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.