birddog

Great article, Nick. I agreed with everything including Dozier and Buxton in top 5 of MVP vote. And I agree with almost every opinion, and that's what makes this year's Twins so frustrating is that there are so many things that need to be fixed. Morrison getting picked off 2nd summarizes so much. A rookie mistake made by a veteran shows they are all trying to do too much which is the problem. Hard to believe we can't beat the shifts teams are putting on us when we have half the field open but yet we hit right at them. Do we not work on going the other way? Like it or not, this is the team that Sano and Buxton built and when at least one of them is not producing we are not nearly as good. They have so much talent that everyone looks to them to be leaders, but it is tough to show leadership when you are playing poorly. Not sure why Buxton doesn't bunt at least once a game when he is struggling so bad which will force him to see the ball much better. Sano will be mediocre to decent until he learns to use the whole field, but that lack of discipline is what is also making him injury prone and overweight. I'm afraid that he will not get it until he is traded or released. Yes, it is a long season and we will get better soon after Buxton is over his first half funk or Sano heats up, but if this team can't play good baseball for 162 games we will only be wild card contenders. Dropping Hughes and demoting Lynn to the bullpen is the first option I would try to spark this team. As mentioned we have way too many bats that need replacing before we can truly be considered division contenders or even dream about the World Series. Most of us were in awe of the moves the front office made before the season. Yes, some of those moves have failed, but I have confidence that Falvine will make the right moves to improve this roster.

Buxton is a notoriously slow starter, but it is becoming apparent that he has to go down to the minors to get his confidence back. I love the guy but it's painful to watch him hit--or at least attempt to hit. Down to .156, I think it's time to let him have some success in the minors and bring back LaMarre or go with Wade. Enough of Grossman. I would even start to play Gordon in the OF to get him some experience there as I don't see any other OF prospects at AAA or AA who appear ready to help the Twins any time soon if Buxton doesn't come around. Twins still talking like Lynn is going to come around, but so will Halley's comet which will probably come sooner. Time to release Hughes, put Lynn in his spot in the bullpen, and bring up Gonsalves. Twins need a spark like what Romero provided and I think Gonsalves will also.

I still love watching him hit and believe the Twins are better with him than without him so I pray he has a nice long career with the Twins. I can't help but see David Ortiz in him and hope we never give away a great player like that again.

Not that long ago this proposition was laughable, but until Sano gets his act together (meaning playing at 265 and not 295) he is looking more and more like a "can't miss who missed." He will not be able to be a position player at his current weight without missing many games, and he is too young to be a full time DH. I hope his current injury wakes him up to the fact of how many millions of dollars he is going to lose due to weight issues. And maybe even moreso, how much he misses being with his teammates and hitting clutch HRs and showing off his cannon of an arm. Sano's career is totally in his hands--or maybe his appetite?!

If we are indeed trying to win the division, Romero has to stay in the rotation. As we speak, Lance Lynn is making it easy for Twins to take him out of the rotation. He can't use the "signed late so I'm still in spring training" as an excuse. His WHIP today after two innings is 2.5 which is even scarier than his season ERA of 7.68. He is not a part of our future. He has little to no value right now so he goes to the bullpen and takes over Hughes' role of "pray you don't need to use him" or "not even he can embarrass us any worse". With Lynn hitting 95-96 and getting Ks, maybe he can develop some trade value, which Hughes will never have again. We finally have a rotation of which to be proud, and we can't afford to coddle players who aren't performing since we have better solutions.

I don't think we can be surprised that the Twins struggle against good veteran teams. We are young, inexperienced, and overly aggressive which will lead to ugly at bats and some ugly games. We have to hope that as we get more experience we can acquire the patience we need to succeed. I agree that Berrios was squeezed last night in the strike zone, but ump was consistently tight for both squads. If they are serious about wanting to speed up the game, what better way than to tell umps to call everything in the black.

Great problem to have. We will have 40 man roster issues this offseason so making some 2 for 1 or 3 for 1 trades might be in our best interest. Of course we wait on trades until the AS break when we find out if this situation is too good to be true, but normally injuries take care of a surplus. Just ask the Mets.

I am looking for any reason for optimism. Just not finding evidence of any.

And for teams who have a bullpen that works well.

Twins starters are exhausted after 5 or 6 innings of 90 pitches. If Moli doesn't want to throw them out there for more, send them to the bullpen to get some more throwing in to condition their arm (and head) that they can go longer. Other than Mauer, Twins are undisciplined free swingers and it is killing us now as pitchers know they don't have to throw strikes to get us out. We'll get ourselves out--especially with runners on base. Twins only have to straighten out their pitching, hitting, defense, fundamentals, and most importantly their heads. Dr. Phil are you busy?

I'm excited to see him throw. We definitely need a spark and It can't get worse. Please tell me it can't get worse.

Went to today's game. Wind was cold and Twins were even colder. Twins showed no desire to compete in this game, much less win. At least 3 fairly easy DP opportunities and not a one completed. Berrios made hitters feel right at home throwing what appeared to be batting practice. If Buxton and Sano are the heart and soul of this team, we could be in for a tough time since we can't keep them healthy and on the field.

I've said all along about Sano that he will be the next Big Papi, but for the first time I am starting to have my doubts or at least doubting he will be that hitter while he is still with the Twins. He is just way too undisciplined and unable to read the spin on the ball on the outside corner to determine if it's destined to sail out of the zone. I know the game has changed, but in my mind I just can't condone so many wasted at-bat K's for the 30 HRs he will produce. HIs at bats are exciting, but at some point he has to accept just making solid contact and not trying to hit the ball 500 feet.

I thought this was the team to end our misery of pathetic baseball at NY. Yankees are a young team all of a sudden, yet are still much more professional hitters than the Twins, who are often times very undisciplined and appear to have the "I'm swinging at this pitch no matter what" approach. Even with Berrios having good stuff and getting K's it seemed like every at bat took 5 or more pitches to record an out. I agree the ump gave CC some favorable calls and robbed Berrios on a few, but we lost this as a team. Offense, pitching and defense was terrible. Garver's passed ball on the K (no way was it a wild pitch) and error on the next batter's swinging bunt really hurt Berrios' psyche. If we show any kind of offense, Berrios doesn't have to throw a shutout to win. He's trying to do too much. We always seem to go into a team wide slump, with no one other than Dozier wanting to take a leadership role. Still very early in the season. Let's get out of NY, out of the cold weather, and see if we are able to replicate the end of '17. On paper we are a much better team than last year--which of course means absolutely nothing if we don't play like it.

Mauer has become a very good #2 hitter. OBP is amazing, as is his defense. He has already saved about 7-8 throwing errors with nice scoops at first. Hopefully his good start will continue into a good season. Unfortunately with Joe there will always be the "what if" and that is his lack of HR power and RBIs which you must have from a 1B. If the run production is picked up by the rest of the lineup, Joe will continue to be valuable. If, however, on days like last night against Verlander when no one is delivering the clutch hits, we need one of our veterans to produce. We love Joe's OBP, but cringe when he takes pitches the team needs him to be turning on.

And I thought I was excited for the season to begin. I predict a 92-win season, but not sure we can overtake the Indians or Astros yet with their pitching staffs. I do think Gibson will be throwing enough strikes to win 15 games, and Romero called up for an injury replacement in May and winning 12 games.

I think we all know the elephant in the roster is Phil Hughes. If he is not throwing 92 he can't help us either as a starter or reliever and Twins need to eat his contract and keep a better pitcher. The Twins lost some impressive prospects to get Kinley, who is intriguing if he can limit the walks and develop off speed pitches. I really like Moya and hope he stays up, but I think pitchers with options will be optioned and the Twins will give Hughes a shot in the pen hoping they can work a trade with a team who would take on at least ten percent of his salary.

Loved watching Puckett hit and play CF, but Buxton is just so unbelievable with his explosive talents. Every gapper he hits you think "triple" and every gapper hit at him you think he has a chance to get it. You don't appreciate how much ground he covers in CF until you are there in person. He seems to start out slowly every year of professional ball, so maybe we can't expect .300 in April but if he gets out to a fast start it could certainly be an MVP season. Definitely lock him up for the next 8+ years.

So very excited to see how he develops this year. His pitch count always seems to be higher than what you'd like, but with his workout regiment I'd like to see them put his pitch count at at least 110 to 115. If not, I hope he uses it as motivation to challenge hitters and throw strikes.

Love watching Sano hit and until he matures and can recognize pitches better the K's will come. Maybe with 2 strikes he can swing for the 420 foot HR and not the 480 footer?!

No one complained much about Polanco's glove in August when he hit a ton. If he comes out hitting well, we can put up with an error or two except in crucial situations. Hopefully he continues to progress and makes it tough to decide whom to keep at SS come 2020. Really looking forward to seeing Javier and Lewis develop. Speculation has them both at Cedar Rapids so I had better go early this year before they are called up, although I would guess Lewis starts at Fort Myers.

Any talk about trading him doesn't bother me at all because I know that Falvine is way too smart to even think about trading him. He is already Big Papi-like in size, stats, and charisma. He is at least adequate at 3B and his bat offsets any deficiencies he may have defensively. If he is hitting in the 9th inning in a noncompetitive game, I'm sticking around to watch him hit. I would Buxton also, but who else generates that much excitement for Twins fans? We'd all feel much better if he took better care of himself, but we felt the same way about Hrbek and Puckett and they turned out okay. Let's give him the benefit of the doubt that the metal in his leg prevented him from working out like he wanted to and when healthy he will tip the scales at a number we all can live with. Many of us still have nightmares that we gave up on Papi. IMO Sano is much too valuable and exciting to trade him for anything short of one of the top 15-20 SP in baseball. I hope and expect he's at 3B for at least another 3-5 years.

I have to admit that I was hoping we'd take Hunter Greene and disappointed with our choice of Lewis. We'll know in 5 years if we made the right choice, but I really like everything I've read about the charisma of this kid. I'm sure Falvine spent countless hours researching the pick. If he proves to be the best player in that draft and also allowed Twins to sign the HS pitcher out of Louisiana by signing for under slot money, Falvine will indeed look like geniuses.

Twins may want to start him at AA so he pitches early on in warmer weather at Chattanooga rather than in Rochester. Especially for some of the Dominican players, early April in Rochester (not to mention Minnesota) will be very cold and tougher on their arms.

Being in the same conversations as Cleveland, Houston, Yankees, and now Red Sox with JD Martinez provide lots of incentive for Odorizzi which the Rays at Tropicana Field never could. He probably felt like he had to shut out teams in Tampa Bay to win, whereas he knows if he holds teams to 3-4 runs with the Twins he has a very good chance of winning. 16 wins and a sub 3.50 ERA if he stays healthy smells good to me.