mikelink45

Give me the young guy and let him grow with experience. I will be very disappointed if France takes playing time away from Miranda.

This is not the floor - this is the basement. Can't wait for the garage sale to clear the excess.

And now we have Ty France who is no where near Miranda's ability and just clogs the bench - I hate having dustbin players pushing out prospects.

If I have to look back to 2020 I think we are stretching reality. Sorry but a deep breathe will not cure the Twins bargain basement left overs.

The Yankees and Luis Gil thought this was a wonderful signing and hope we choose some more bargain basement hairballs and release some more pitchers. And by the way Miranda BR = 1.7 WAR 284/322/441 in 2024. Ty France -0.6 234/305/365. Why is this a good signing?

give them a chance and they will

I join the no choir - Let's look at the OF players with Jenkins and Emma coming up, Keaschall close we can move those five around and we will be fine.

I too would like to see Jenkins and Eeles on the ST roster. I know they like many arms and many catchers to keep all the diamonds occupied so that is not a surprise. But Keaschall before Jenkins does not make sense. C/1B/OF Alex Isola - need catchers C Patrick Winkel - an obvious companion for catch with the pitchers 2B/3B/LF Armando Alvarez -4 WAR with Oakland, they did not want him 1B Mike Ford - could be the big surprise although he is a career -7 WAR 2B/CF Luke Keaschall - it would be amazing to see him make it 1B/RF Yunior Severino we dfa'd him before - little chance LF/2B/C Jeferson Morales more catching depth RHP Scott Blewett - look see for later call up if needed RHP Randy Dobnak no chance Randy RHPRyan Jensen who? RHP Cory Lewis where is he on pecking order behind Festa, Matthews, Morris RHP Darren McCaughan another who RHP Andrew Morris I suspect that he is the number two call up from St Paul RHP Alex Speas another who? RHP Huascar Ynoa LHP Anthony Misiewicz

This is one of those areas where there are a lot of opinions but what is the team going to do to maximize his value either to the team on the field or as trade bait? I have no idea, but I seem his as potentially wasted talent at this point. Was Fall League real or was it a marketing ploy to get trade value?

I keep asking what the Bench coach and assistant bench coach are doing? Are they just there to nod in agreement with Rocco? Why are they there? Did Casey Stengel or Walt Alston have bench coaches?

Santana is not the only great player to have his career cut short and if we are going to look at that we need another wing and another special committee for short career stars. Thurman Munson Don Mattingly Dave Stieb Orel Hershisher Brandon Webb J R Richardson Stephen Strasburg Dustin Pedroia Rich Harden Marty Cordova Rocco Baldelli Bo Jackson Dean Chance Mark Prior Joe Charbonneau Mark Fidrych And then there are the players like Will Clark and Andrew Jones who start great and then stop producing - another special category. David Wright Nomar Garcia Troy Tulowitzki Albert Belle Roger Maris Fred Lynn Dale Murphy Fernando Valenzuela And all those lists are without looking back into the earlier history of baseball. Unfortunately injuries and aging are part of the baseball story.

The Twins have limited us to talking about Bader much more than he deserves. He is 4th OF maybe - will he go to the corner spots or only to CF? Commentors are right - we stopped hitting the end of last year and he cannot fix that. But what is left - Coloume has certainly got enough attention for a middle reliever who might see one inning at a time until he is hurt. Then we have to drop down to Gaspar the hidden gem or Ford or??? Tell the FO we need something done soon to refresh the TD pages.

As a small hall guy I am not concerned about these three. I am very happy they played for us and they were great, but I would not put in Andruw Jones and I certainly would not elect Torii. It is okay to be a great player and not be in the Hall. Personally I would remove 25% of those who are already in and they should not be the standard for putting someone else in. Frankie Frisch when he was on the committee I want great - all time great in the Hall. Mays, Clemente, Aaron are the types that make the hall fascinating to me. Rollie Fingers, Andruw Jones, and a number of questionable additions are not getting me to Cooperstown. Yes I have been there. I personally would like an annual list with a simple yes no by each, not a 10 player limit, just a simple this player is in or not. At most three years for any player. Heck if Bert, Tony, and Jim don't make it I could live with it (although I think they belong).

On a team where Castro, Lewis, Miranda and Correa have a history of injury and missing games, with a new fourth OF who can't hit, with Lee not up to league average yet, Julien a mystery, No 1B and no DH - with a utility player (Helman) traded off and Austin Martin not a quality bat or fielder why would you say Castro's value is diminished? This team needs his speed and versatility.

Urias reminds me of Baez - ask Detroit how happy they are with him.

I love this - he was my favorite minor leaguer this year. He reminds me of Altuve - give him a shot!

So much about nothing - rumors keep the hot stove warm, but if this one is real I am sickened by it. Reducing payroll in one thing, reducing the roster quality is even worse.

This just seems ridiculous. They way the Twins improve is not Gaspar, Bader, and Coloume or the rule V pickup or the catcher the Dodgers no longer want in their system. Our path to improvement is Buxton, Correa, Lewis staying healthy, Lewis regaining his earlier form, Lee and Julien improving their performance, Miranda discovering a full year of batting ability, DH and 1B becoming positives, Jeffers making a full season of production. Lopez discovering that he is an Ace and pitching like that. Our BP living up to their rating for the full year. mlb.com projects these prospects for 2025 37. Emmanuel Rodriguez, OF (ETA: 2025) 61. Luke Keaschall, 2B/OF/1B (ETA: 2025). I hope we don't trade them or block them. As to the others - Detroit now has a three man top of the rotation in Jackson, Skubal, Flaherty. They added Kahnle to the BP, Torres improves a team that had to rely on Baez too much. They have a good manager who knows how to use his players 1. Riley Greene, OF 2. Parker Meadows, CF 3. Kerry Carpenter, OF/DH 4. Colt Keith, 2B/1B 5. Matt Vierling, 3B/OF 6. Jake Rogers, C 7. Spencer Torkelson, 1B/DH 8. Trey Sweeney, IF 9. Gleyber Torres, IF We always underestimate the Guardians - they are not splashy, they traded away Naylor which I do not understand. They did keep Ramirez who is spectacular but they also lost Giminez who was a great fielder. Kwan is another star with Ramirez. They are our divisions Tampa Bay Rays - always seeming to have a better record than their roster projects and I would not discount them. The other Naylor (that they kept) with Lane Thomas, Manzardo, and Fry have potential to be good. MLB.com projects these prospects to be good offensively and will arrive in 2025 for the Guardians: 10. Travis Bazzana, 2B (ETA: 2025) 36. Chase DeLauter, OF (ETA: 2025) Bibee, Bieber and Clase give them three pitching studs. Projections are all over the board - competing with Twins, competing with the White Sox - who knows. But like the Twins their acquisitions and trades have not looked that good so far and based on their recent year activities I do not expect much more to happen. The Royals are interesting - they surprised the league last year and Bobby Witt, Jr is really amazing and so is Salvador Perez. There starting rotation begins with Ragans and Lugo, but Wacha, Bubic, and Lorenzen fill out the full list giving them a chance to match the Twins depending on both teams health. Pasquatino and India are good players and give the lineup some opportunities. I look at Isabel, Melendez, Garcia and Renfroe and I have no idea what to expect, but I think KC fans are looking at Julien, Lee, Miranda Jeffers with the same puzzled feeling. MLB.com has a roster of the best rookie prospect at each position and KC has First base: Jac Caglianone. It would require some reshuffling, but he is the only central division player on they list so he could be a big help (ps - the Twins could use a good 1B). The White Sox are not in the conversation for best in the division but they do have two impact rookies for 2025 - 16. Noah Schultz, LHP (ETA: 2025) 32. Kyle Teel, C (ETA: 2025) My prediction based on what we have now is: Detroit Twins Guardians KC Chicago But this is such a random division that the top four could finish in any order and health will be the big determiner.

They are also adding a third pitcher Jackson Jobe who is one of the top MLB prospects which gives them potentially three pitchers in the 1 - 2 range. That is a part of their rise in expectations.

I think the talk about trades is fodder for hot stove, but I am not excited by the options. I like Keirsey and would have him 4th OF instead of Bader - I know that everyone writes his flaws would be exposed, but what are those flaws? But with Bader he is not needed so he should be moved, I would not have Martin or Gaspar on the opening roster. Cease sounds great especially if we trade Paddock for him. Not sure if Vasquez goes too. Gaspar, Camargo are not exciting catcher prospects for me and the Dodgers prospect has to reestablish his value after a down year. For me the projection is too soon, it is the time of year the Twins make moves and then there is ST where we start to see how things really come together.

The question is how is he as a PH. We need someone to keep Margot's streak going - we know Rocco has to have his PH option ready at all times and in all innings.

I still see Larnach and Wallner in the OF. I am not sure I know our DH - I would say Miranda, but at this point he is 1B.

At least we are talking about actual players and actual events. I enjoy that and all the angst over a 4th OF with some defensive and little offensive value. Plus we keep talking about Martin and I do not think he will amount to anything. Lefthanded middle relief and 4th OF. That is the big moves so far - get Cease and give us something to really talk about.

Good reflection - I agree with all you write. I keep thinking about the challenge all of you have to keep TD current and interesting. Without actual movement by the team we are stuck with speculation. But who would have thought that signing Coulombe would be the big talking point of the off season with four essays about him already on TD. So let's hope that something more happens. I was sad to see Grichuk gone - he seemed to answer a lot of our needs.

We have an actual player that TD can write about and put speculation to rest for a day. No this is not that exciting, but it is real.