dougkoebernick

Good story - though I would quibble about baseball at large not taking notice. I think players, managers and front offices notice.

I'm going to guess that May goes to the bullpen so they can keep a lefty in the rotation and because May is about halfway to the number of innings he has typically pitched each of the last four or five years. One would think that Pelfrey would be wanted by some National League teams but at this point I think most teams know the Twins would be trying to unload a guy and wouldn't give their best offer. With all that said - HOLY COW! WHAT A CHANGE FROM PAST YEARS WHEN TALKING ABOUT THE ROTATION. GO TWINS!!!!!!!!!

Since each team needs a representative then it would appear as though that would increase Dozier's chances. Who else should even be considered for the All Star Game from the Twins other than Perkins or Dozier?

Since each team needs a representative then it would appear as though that would increase Dozier's chances. Who else should even be considered for the All Star Game from the Twins other than Perkins?

Thanks for your initial post - good stuff. I think he makes a significant impact, both defensively and offensively, and maybe more so defensively to start. I can't wait!

Great points Seth - who would you like to see in the #3 hole? Dozier with a different lead off guy?

"What might be most impressive about this drastic improvement is that the Twins have done it without their big-money free agent signing (who will enter the fold next month), and without their top pitching prospect (who, by many accounts, is big-league ready)." Who do you consider their top pitching prospect?

At the end of April I posted a topic about the Twins winning 7 of 12 games and asking what people thought the future looked like for them. Here's what I wrote: "After starting the season 1-5, the Twins have now gone 7-5 in their last 12. Even though their run differential is -23 it is actually in the positive column for the last 12 games. Is the start of a .500 team or is it merely a coincidence? I think if they can improve the bullpen and get some improvement from the DH spot and CF they might be ok. It is good to see Mauer starting to heat up a bit. What do you all think?" I went back and read the many comments and they were all over the board but the consensus was that the Twins might sniff .500 if their offense started clicking better and if they could get better starting pitcher. However, it seemed that most people didn't think that would happen (though maybe on the offensive side provided that we brought up Pinto and dropped Schafer, Vargas and Santana - among other moves). I should add that there were a lot of thoughts on possible pitching changes such as putting Pelfrey in the pen and putting Nolasco out of his misery. The most significant thing I was able to get out of reading the posts is that none of us should go bet on the horses or be a General Manager for a MLB team. We are now past the quarter mark for the season and the Twins are 26-18 and have won 7 of their last 9 series and have the third best mark in the AL. Their run differential in the last 25 games or so is plus 40. Their starting pitching is so solid that we have a guy down in AAA who finally gave up a run after four games and we have nowhere to put him. Ervin Santana comes back in 35 games and I really don't know whose spot he takes in the starting rotation when he is ready - Pelfrey or May would be my guess but those guys are doing pretty well. I truly think that the Twins have shown that they are going to be above .500 the rest of the season. They have the starting pitching depth to stay in the race (and if Hughes keeps improving and becomes the Ace again that would be huge) and I think the offense is only going to get better as they figure out where to put players like Vargas, Arcia, Nunez, Escobar, and maybe even Pinto. I also think that we may see one of our AA hitters on the big league team sometime in July though I'm not sure if that will be Buxton or Polanco, or both (though Sana, Kepler, and others might want a piece of that action as well). My final prediction is that Nolasco gets traded to the National League and that opens up a spot for Santana. What say you??

Great comment Seth - as always. So far I think Molitor and Ryan are pushing the right buttons as they adjust to the events of the season. We may not always agree with them and not every button pushed is going to be the right one but I definitely think we need to give them a lot of leeway based on the results after 25% of the season.

While I hope Hicks hits like a corner outfielder I've been thinking the same as you and that he would be the 4th outfielder and Rosario would be in RF.

Thanks to everyone for posting on this - it's interesting to read everyone's comments. I think i'll wait to post another comment on their record until they hit game #40 as that will be about 25% of the season and I think that is a point in the year when you get start to see what a team is really like. With that said, I'll take the Twins having the ninth best record in baseball and seeing much better starting pitching.

After starting the season 1-5, the Twins have now gone 7-5 in their last 12. Even though their run differential is -23 it is actually in the positive column for the last 12 games. Is the start of a .500 team or is it merely a coincidence? I think if they can improve the bullpen and get some improvement from the DH spot and CF they might be ok. It is good to see Mauer starting to heat up a bit. What do you all think?

Good stuff! Back when I was a young kid in the 1970s I loved the Twins with Rod Carew and friends but if i had to think of players that I loved watching other than the Twins I would go with a few. I always enjoyed watching Joe Morgan and a lot of us kids liked to imitate the action he did with his arm while batting. In the late 70's I really looked up to Willie Stargell and enjoyed watching the "We Are Family" Pirates. And I would stop to watch Reggie Jackson. When he was with the A's I was at the old Met and a foul ball was hit to Reggie in RF and a friend of mine and I ran down to the first row and tried to get him to give us the ball that he caught for the third inning but no such luck.

Good thoughts - I would agree that I am more optimistic about Arcia but there were times when Gibson was really dialed in (and times he was not!). We will find out soon enough.

ESPN has a blog about breakout hitters for 2015 and Arcia is listed as #5 - Gibson is listed as #9 for breakout pitchers. I can't say that I disagree at all. Bill James is apparently liking Arcia quite a bit as well. 5. Oswaldo Arcia, Twins: .743 career OPS | 2015 James .844, Steamer .790 Did you know Arcia hit 20 homers in a partial season last year, as a 23-year-old? Or that Bill James also pegged him for 30 homers this season? Blame the flyover market, blame all the prospect maven attention getting lavished on names like Buxton or Sano (not that there’s anything wrong with that), or blame the Twins’ four-year run of losing seasons, but Arcia is going to be a big part of the reason why the Twins’ brief run of irrelevance ends soon. Add in an AL Central where nobody should be a slam-dunk pick to win 90 games, and Arcia will be the new star slugger on a surprise contender. 9. Kyle Gibson, Twins: 5.04 RA9 career | 2015 James 3.99 ERA, Steamer 4.55 This may not be as easy a case to make, but he is a prime example of what has become an organizational type for the Twins, a huge strike-thrower who pounds away low and outside and keeps his infield busy, sort of a bigger version of Scott Erickson with even better command. As ESPN Stats & Info’s Mark Simon tweeted earlier this month, Gibson kept some pretty extraordinary company last year, tying for second in the majors in starts with seven or more innings pitched and no runs allowed with six. If the Twins’ infield defense jells this year, he’ll stay on that list. http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/category/_/name/minnesota-twins

My prediction is that within the next 18 months Nolasco gets traded to a National League team. In fact if he pitches good this year and the Twins are out of it by the deadline I think he will be gone.

If you read what Berardino later wrote he asked it because he wanted to know if Torii thought those statements hurt his ability to get a longer or more lucrative contract. I think this is a valid question and it was the right setting. I also think it probably did impact his ability to get a contract with some teams.

As always, Seth makes the most sense in summarizing this move by the Twins. I couldn't agree more. The one thing I'll throw out is that my Vikings have a child abuser and now my Twins have a homophobe. This doesn't impact the way he plays but if by chance there are any gay players in the clubhouse it could make things a bit uncomfortable. I've always enjoyed watching Torii play and over the years we have had Torii posters in our house but I sure wish he would keep his mouth quiet once in awhile. Even though he has the right to say what he believes he does make me cringe.

#1 - I would think with his concussion issues that no team would want to go beyond two or three years, just in case. #2 - I think $12-15 million would be about right per year. #3 - I wonder how hesitant he would be to sign with the hometown team after the past few years and some of the ridiculous comments made about him. #4 - With all that said, if you think about what he does for the franchise -- face of the franchise, people buying his jersey, never getting into any trouble or controversy, getting people to the ballpark to see him, etc. then his contract is still about right.

Great analysis - the only thing I would quibble with is this line when discussing Molitor: "There’s media relations and public relations and front office communication and clubhouse relations… and… and…" I think that a guy who has been interviewed probably 20,000 times (just one guy's guess) is probably going to be okay on the media and public relations areas - and he has also been involved in numerous clubhouses over the years and I can't ever think of someone who didn't show respect for what he had to offer. My vote is to go with Molitor and make Mientkiewicz part of the staff. Thanks for the great article!

I think it will be incredibly interesting to watch the evolving of Joe in the next couple of years. Hopefully he will take a positive step forward as the concussion issue gets further in his rear view mirror, a la Justin Morneau. If not, the Twins will just have to ride out the contract and be willing to sit him should better players step forward at 1B.

It could be part of a strategy to not show their hand.

Hard to believe he is only 27 - seems like he has been around forever

Every year we see teams in the hunt as the buyers. I've always thought there were opportunities for teams that weren't in the hunt to make some deals for the next year. What would the Twins have to give up to get Yu Darvish (who allegedly cleared waivers and has a very favorable contract)?

If it wasn't for TwinsDaily informing me about what was going on with young guys coming up, I might have walked in front of traffic sometime in the last 3.5 years...