Major League Ready

Minaya is a solidifying his place on the 2022 roster.

Not even remotely my point. There is no suggestion here that fans "do the work for them". The point is certainly not that fans have information and make the same mistakes. The point is that better selections did not exist and many here are more than adequately informed to know the options, including the options they endorsed that did not work out To call for better decisions when you should know they did not exist is absurd. Those who are calling for terminations are essentially saying .... I know there were no realistic options that would have been better but you should have found something that did not exist. If your employer had the same expectations, I am betting your would have some choice words to describe said employer.

This is very reasonable unless you are insisting the FO is incompetent and/or suggesting they should be terminated. Someone with the skillset to render an opinion about executive competence would never go down this path without having an understanding of the options that were present. Therefore, a much more reasonable position is to discuss the options that were present instead of calling for terminations. I would add that many of the people here spend a great deal of time following baseball and know exactly what the options were or could look them up in a couple minutes. I have no problem if someone has no desire to take the time to be informed. Just don't go calling for terminations if you are not willing to put forth a modest effort to be informed.

Polanco needs to stay at 2B IMO. I would trade either Donaldson or Arraez during the off-season. I would prefer it be Donaldson. Arraez would provide a transition and back-up plan for Miranda. By 2023 the Infield is 1B Kirilloff / 2B Polanco / 3B Miranda and SS is Martin or Lewis.

Me too. Does he have some incriminating photos? ?

Once again, I am going to ask what decisions they could have made that would have been better. Which FAs or players that were traded would have put this team anywhere near contention? It's really easy to point to a theoretical solution. You can get away with that on the internet. Just avoid the questions that disprove the theory. Pounding this type of poorly conceived drum in the real world does not go over well.

I have made the same point over the last few weeks. However, this team is quickly starting to look different. I would not make any predictions until the end of the season. It's way to soon to believe with any certainty that Ober and Jax are part of the solution but with what we are witnessing you have to start believing a little. Ryan, Balazovic and Winder are also all on the cusp. Then, how about Minaya and Gant. Same story as Ober and Jax but man they look pretty darn good. We have a few other guys to audition too. Now, if Buxton and Kirilloff can stay healthy with Polanco, Donaldson and Garver, that's a good core offensive group. Pretty good odds Larnach comes around too. Sure, lots unanswered right now but let's wait and see what happens the rest of the way this year before we get too down on 2022.

I think think what nullifies this as something to be expected by the Twins or any other team is that your list is 10 guys from roughly the last 10 years and there are 30 teams. It kind of goes without saying that some of the generational players ascend through the minor leagues quickly. If your point is that they are not generational players, I think we already aware. Generational players are not the only players that can impact a roster.

You simply elect to ignore hard fact. The Twins FA signings are on par with all of the other teams. It's much more telling of how ineffective free agency is on average. Did they rely on free agency or did they hope like every other team to get better than average productivity from free agents. What we should be asking is why so many people here go off the deep about spending when free agency is so ineffective, especially for teams outside the top revenue teams. Would they have been in better shape if drafting was better 5-10 years ago. Of course! This front office did not make those selections. We should also ask why so many people want to trade away prospects if developing talent is so important to below average revenue teams.

The turn around actual began at the end of 2016 season when they traded Chris Sale and Adam Eton. Of course, Sale was a considerably better player than Berrios. They did exactly what so many people here absolutely deplore and insist would be the ruination of the team. They had seven years straight of being well below 500. They did a good job with draft picks and Keuchel has worked out well. He is not exactly the level if elite FA that many here presume is an absolute must for this team to contend. Let's just not pretend the Whitesox did not go through a rebuild. What the Whitesox rebuild illustrates is that trading away "Berrios / Sale / Eaton type" players greatly accelerates the process.

There are many teams sustaining a model that rarely involves signing 4+ year free agents. Those same teams trade for guys with multiple years of control but they are never the type of established front of the rotation guys called for here. There should be several examples from Tampa Bay / Oakland / Milwaukee / Cleveland if your premise is valid. How many can you name?

And not one single team thought the Twins were wrong! It just shows how difficult it is to forecast the development of these players. Johan Santana was a rule 5 and Tatis Jr. was traded for James Shields and Shields was quite bad.

The more interesting question is who should get the next shot. I could go either way on Moran or Hamilton.

The Royals won the WS without an ace.

We should have expected this once Alcala started pitching better. That's they way it has gone this year. Rodgers / Garver / Buxton / Kirilloff / Refsnyder got hot and got hurt.

Actually, there is no denying it went very poorly but blowing it suggests there were much better options. I have asked twice now for those who are calling out the pitching acquisitions to articulate a plan (in hindsight) that would have put this team in contention. Pitchers that were actually traded and free agents we could have signed. Were we going to get Wainwright away from STL? James Paxton pitched 1 inning Garret Richards’s has a 5.22 REA and a WHIP of 1.65 Drew Smyly has been decent with a 4.5 ERA / 1.45 WHIP / .6 WAR Corey Kluber pitched 50 innings and is now on the 60 day IL Charlie Morton has been good but his geographic preference is well known so that was not going to happen. Mike Minor has an ERA of 5.39 and .3 WAR Jake Odorizzi was a popular choice here. His 4.95 ERA and 0 WAR would not have helped. The guy I wanted (Taijuan Walker) has been good but he got no support here when I floated him as an option. We could have traded for Blake Snell like so many here insisted was a no brainer. We could have given up a bunch of prospects for a replacement level player. The same is true for a lot of the BP options. Rosenthal / Clippard / Romo / Etc There was nothing wrong with the Simmons signing. He has had a bad year or is in decline. We should not sign most free agents if the possibility of decline makes it a bad decision. Sometimes reasonable decisions don't pan out in baseball. There is a credible argument that the choices that were popular here would have left the team in worse shape going forward.

How about 10 days of Miranda while Donaldson is on the IL?

Should we put much weight on him being a first round pick given he was drafted out of High School? I look at his AA and AAA performance and don't see much. My take on what we have seen with the Twins is a mediocre FB and mediocre at best secondary pitches. If he had plus control that might play but his command is suspect too. I have no problem with them giving him a spin but I don't see anything that suggests he needs to be kept for the remainder of the season if they have other options like Moran for that roster spot.

What about Donaldson? Arraez getting reps probably has little value. If that position is vacated by a Donaldson trade, Miranda is getting a shot at 3B. I hope they get an offer for Arraez in the off-season that they just can’t refuse. I like Arraez a lot but he does not fit well on this roster and we have depth at 2B in the minors. Better roster construction would be another reason for optimism.

Bullpens get blown up or at least reshaped on most teams on a regular basis. It's a product of the inconsistency so common at that position. This year the Twins are doing it in the last half of the season and thank god. Minaya and Gant are providing some hope for the rest of the season and more importantly they might be part of the solution. Did we really want them to do nothing until next year?

Sure would be nice to see Canterino come back strong and get a look in September.

It's only one week but the new rotation and BP members gave us reason to believe in a much better brand of baseball for the remainder of the season and a much better product next year. Sure would be nice to see similar pitching this week. More help is on the way too. I would not be surprised if Joe Ryan is moved straight to the big club. If not, we should get a look at him and a couple other pitchers soon.

That series was a lot of fun and gives us reason to be optimistic. Lots of contribution from relatively new members of the pitching staff. No doubt they are out of it but I am hoping to watch a couple months of this type of baseball.

Yes. However, the FO is accountable for the other units of the organization. If the proper development does not take place, it is up to them to institute new practices or replace the personnel who are failing. The staff was pilfered by other teams which speaks well of the people they put in place. Did the departures hurt. Probably at least in the short-term. We are going to be in a much better position to evaluate the organization by the end of next year.

Good point. Odorizzi and and Maeda were both trades. Pineda has been a good FA signing and the odds are decent he is back next year. They just acquired 3 good SP prospects. Two are on the cusp and the other is a year or year and a half away. They also just got Gant at the deadline. IDK if one or all four of them are going to be MLB players but its not going to take five years or even 3 years to determine if the are MLB players. Romo and Clippard were also FA signings. I would guess we are going to see a couple RPs added via free agency next year. They got Wisler off Waivers and now Hamilton / Garcia / Garza. Will any of them contribute. IDK but as much as people complain about waiver additions, lots a productive RPs are acquired off waivers and contribute within a short time frame. Minaya was a free agent. He looks like he could be part of the solution in 2022 as well.