laloesch

I kinda disagree here. They had some good hitters and power hitters too. Their starting rotation was not exceptional but certainly wasn't mediocre in my opinion.

I agree. I want to see more of Arraez.

Well they better start making plans to trade him to the Yankees or Red Sox. In a year or two he won't be affordable to Pohlad and co.

I think your right on. It appears that they are still heavily betting on Sano and Buxton rebounding and becoming the core of this team that we all dreamed they could be minus the inconsistencies. That's a BIG gamble and a leap of faith if you ask me. It looks to me that Falvey and Levine are just content adding a few cheap pieces (albeit good bargains), thereby saving the owner a few bucks in the interim and just seeing how things go. I'm not impressed with this strategy at all, especially now that Mauer is officially off the books. Don't get me wrong I'm encouraged that both Sano and Buxton appear to be heading in the right direction this off-season with their conditioning, but will that help them overcome their deficiencies at the plate? Only time will tell. Now that Mauer is gone the Twins have a MASSIVE hole in the lineup regardless of whether people liked him and his plate approach or not. These three additions are at best stop gap measures, nothing more.

Hope your right I am encouraged by his progress.

I'm not giving up on Gonsalves yet and I think he'll improve in 2019, but the question is how much? He just doesn't seem to have the stuff. The Twins have other options so if he's valued as a throw in for a trade no big loss. I agree Thorpe is probably a much better lefty option who is getting close. Certainly has much better stuff.

Thorpe is intriguing talent to say the least. I hope he debuts this season but that might be a bit agressive.

I like the deal. I like that there is no pressure on either side to commit long term. Maybe at the end of 2019 the FO could change it's mind and meet with Schoop who will have had a full season to play his butt off in Minnesota and earn a big paycheck. Well see were we end up. On your final point i agree but we also had a bunch of players drop the ball last season. Sano, Buxton, Kepler, Dozier, Morrison all played like absolute horse **** most of the season and polanco getting suspended 80 games didn't help matters either. The young talent blew it last season along with a bad bullpen.

EXACTLY. We saw Morneau's power potential Yeah BARELY. I never felt that way about Morneau (yes i know your generalizing). I was always a big fan and he's one of my favorite Twins of all time. My mlb.com forum avatar was a pic. of Morneau in all the years i was a part of those forums before it was shut down. That said, we saw glimpses of future Morneau much earlier than Buxton and he became consistently good earlier in his career than Buxton who still hasn't crossed that threshold 300 games in (although injuries haven't helped matters). But to be honest I don't really see the comparison between these two players anyways. Ones a sleek slender outfielder the other a stocky 1st baseman/DH, kinda apples to oranges IMO.

It's also worth noting the fact that a baseball has a much broader surface to create an impact whereas a hockey puck (unless it's tumbling) is much narrower.

I'm tired of the excuses being made for Buxton and Kepler. Yeah he broke his toe, yeah he's a great defender, but the guy can't hit above .200 consistently and Kepler wasn't much better. I'd like to see how far Kirilloff progresses this year. Could answer a lot of questions and whether or not the Twins need to go out and grab an outfielder or two. You have to start thinking potential plan B the way Buxton and Kepler have played the last three seasons (they both have over 300 games at the major league level).

Perhaps Falvey and levine realize that the team is not really as close to being competitive as they thought heading into 2018. If Polanco had not been suspended and Sano, Buxton, Dozier & Morrison not totally stunk last season they might have though differently. But on offense this team took a huge step backwards last season and mostly on Offense.

i CRINGE at the thought of dealing Thorpe. He's probably the next best pitcher down on the farm besides Graterol and he's a season at most away from the majors. He will be much better than Kohl Stewart IMO.

It's hard not to be bummed with this lineup but these war rankings were absolutely damning evidence of what needs to be done to get moving in the right direction and the list seems long. Key observations based on your war ratings. 1. Our bullpen is bad. Tyler Duffey, Alan Busenitz, Matt Magill and John Curtiss left a lot to be desired. How Jake Reed was once again not called up last season with as bad as the BP was is anyone's guess. I find it puzzling that the FO did so little to try and stabilize the BP situation when it became apparent how bad they really were. I also think that Molitor made a bad situation worse with his mishandling of the pen. That said, it's hard to work with junk and some of the failure falls on the pitching coaches, BUT Paul's usage of BP guys was head scratching at best. The Twins HAVE to upgrade the pen in order to have a shot at competing in 2019 if you ask me. 2. No doubt the Catcher position was a weakness on this team but it was probably the least of our problems. Jason Castro being down for almost the entire season certainly hurt, but let's not get carried away. I've never been overly impressed with Castro. I did like what Garver was able to do in limited at-bats down the stretch and the games he caught. Astudillo also provided some interesting moments as well but the Twins could and probably should be looking to upgrade at catcher if possible in my humble opinion. That said, I would still like to see what Garver can do with more playing time and experience. 3. DH. This one really hurts. Logan Morrison was an absolute disaster last season and no-one stepped up and picked up the slack. This guy finished his Twins career with a .186 BA! It doesn't get much worse then that. I had hoped at some point that Vargas would figure things out and develop offensive consistency at the MLB level but we've been wishing that for several seasons and it never happened. An upgrade is definitely needed at DH although it's possible Tyler Austin sees time there. There's also a good chance that Sano ends up at DH in a few years but probably not next season. 4. 3rd base and CF. Look i know everyone wants to keep the faith with Sano and Buxton but the fact is these two were perhaps the biggest disappointments in all of baseball last season. Sano once again showed up at spring training out of shape but even more disappointing & disturbing was his complete lack of plate discipline a regression from his previous season. Likewise Buxton was wildly inconsistent at the plate and despite all his defensive heroics was not able to overcome a disastrous start to the season and finished -0.6 war. Fortunately Jake Cave stabilized CF after Buxton went down to Rochester but that's not a permanent solution. These two (Sano & Buxton) HAVE to come back with a vengeance next season or the Twins will be forced into Plan B at some point which likely leads to MORE years of mediocrity and misery for the fan base. 5. 2nd base. Brian Dozier utterly failed last season. While i admire what he was able to do in 2016 and 2017 he reverted back to his old offensive Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde ways in 2018 and was non existent prior to the all-star break. Unfortunately for the team he never showed up at all last season and was traded. Heading into 2019 the Twins need to figure out 2nd base and where Gordon fits. Perhaps Polanco moves to 2nd and Gordon stays at short until Lewis arrives. All of this was complicated by Gordon's horrendous season in AAA, Escobar being traded and Polanco's 80 game PED suspension that torpedoed his season for all intensive purposes. Disappointing to say the least. 6. 1st base. I was never a Joe Mauer Homer but a team -1.6 war stat for 1st base? That can't be right? This is a position that Falvey and Levin will no doubt be looking to upgrade and we already have evidence of that in their discussions with the Diamondbacks over Paul Goldschmidt. That said, i think his price will be unbelievably high in prospects and the Twins might settle on Tyler Austin as a stop gap measure until Brent Rooker arrives. This will undoubtedly cost them games next season depending on how quickly Rooker progresses through AAA (assuming he starts there in 2019) and Austin handles a full time job in the meantime. There's also the the outside chance that Sano ends up at first again depending on how desperate they get, but i think Miguel has a greater chance of ending up at DH the way he's going. 7. Starters. Probably the least of their concerns heading into the off-season which seems hard to believe. Now that Santana is gone, it's Berrios, Gibson, Odorizzi, Romero and Stewart? Pineda is still an option in 2019 along with Gonsalves whom i was not impressed with. There's also an outside chance that Thorpe could be a late season callup if need be. I don't see a reason to spend big here unless it's for someone like Patrick Corbin. For the first time in MANY seasons the Twins have plenty of internal candidates with significant talent to pick from. At times Romero has looked amazing at the major league level and should build on this. Further down, Thorpe is in AAA and should reach 150 innings this coming season. He's getting close. There's also the phenomenon Brusdar Graterol but he's a ways away. The outlook on starters is so much better than a few years ago.

I find most of his statements to be cryptic. He's not dumb that's for sure.

Also would add that Rob Manfred has specifically mentioned several cities for expansion back in July. “that I think are not only interested in having baseball, but are viable in terms of baseball” “Portland, Las Vegas, Charlotte, Nashville in the United States, certainly Montreal, maybe Vancouver, in Canada. We think there’s places in Mexico we could go over the long haul.” https://deadspin.com/rob-manfred-says-he-wants-mlb-expansion-lists-six-pote-1827712616

I hope they (Twins) have a plan B in the works. This team can't afford to hedge all it's hopes on two guys (Sano and Buxton) who have been wildly inconsistent.

I disagree. I've lived in the Charlotte Metropolitan Area for over five years and this is not Braves Territory by any stretch of the imagination, even less so in Raleigh which is a couple hours north and east of here. In fact they don't even show Braves games here on Cable TV. Most Charlotte-tans are in fact transplants from NY City, New Jersey and the rest of New England so it's a very Yankee-esq City and could care less about Brave's baseball. The City has grown leaps and bounds over the last 30 years due to the influx of financial firms and banks from the Big Apple. If estimates are correct in 20 years we'll be as big as Atlanta is now. We are one of the fastest growing cities in the country outside of Texas and the city is itching for professional baseball.

Agreed. Can't believe they aren't considering Nashville and Charlotte, two of the fastest growing cities in America.

TOTAL REBUILD. Trade EVERYBODY and i mean EVERYBODY! Gut the farm, gut the major league team, fire every coach and scout and start fresh.

ROCKOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That would be impressive. Nihon-go (Japanese language) is EXTREMELY DIFFICULT to learn for a non native speaker and even harder to learn how to write. Source (married to a teacher who taught in Fukoka, Nippon for almost 7 years)

Agreed. Can't believe this is being debated already. With all the problems Buxton and Sano have are people really thinking about throwing Kepler out while at the same time yelling at those that criticize Buxton and Sano? Seems like a bit of a double standard. Just glad they aren't managing this team. At least Kepler has a pulse hitting wise. Give Buxton, Sano and Kepler another season to turn it around.

I'd like to see the Twins really push Lewis, Kiriloff and Thorpe next season. And see how Gordon does with a fresh start.

How bout chauf·feur