Dr. Evil

To me it seems like bullpens have become more important than ever the way the game has changed. Getting one guy with a solid MLB track record would have been a reasonable risk to take IMHO. Right now we don't have anyone, not even one guy, who strikes me as a blow the opponent away reliever. We are counting on guys in the pen that I personally feel are over rated and have marginal talent. I hope I end up being wrong. Good luck with Fien in the setup role and Duensing as primary non-closer lefty. At least there are proven guys behind them...........ahem........who are they again?

Having said that, I do think and agree that better starting pitching does help the pen.

Yes, I agree that Ryan has done that in the past. My point is that I think his luck runs out this year. Hopefully I am proven wrong. I hope they do really well. Having said that, I just wish they had mixed in at least one stud free agent along with the "on the cheap" options. Staufer and a rule 5 guy, although one or both could work out ok, do not represent a real serious effort to improve an area of your team. You have an area that I feel needs help and you roll a hand full of dice at it and hope it works out. That doesn't cut it in the world of business imho. That is a little more explanation of why I feel the way I do on the matter I guess.

Our bullpen, imho, will piss away a lot of quality starts. I'm bummed that so little was thrown at the pen in the offseason. I see quality starts followed by circuis music on our horizon. Our relief corps would be on the Royals AAA team. Sorry to be negative but more and more I'm getting fed up with the Terry Ryan way.

Of the ones you mention I am the most skeptical of Fien. I see him as maybe a 7th guy in the pen and it seems like they are counting on him as a setup guy. To me, that's way too optimistic and I feel it's not going to play out well. It sort of annoys me that they threw so little at the pen in the offseason. Duensing and Theilbar are mediocre at best.

I'm sorta pulling for Rosario in center field with him moving to a corner outfield spot down the road. I wouldn't mind if they took a little pressure off Hicks and made him the 4th outfielder for the time being. Let him settle in there for a bit. Long term I think he will be the 4th OF anyway.

I bet that before too long, if they don't trade him, he will wind up at AAA as a starter. My guess is that he wishes to remain a starter until such time that in his own mind there is no chance of that. If he has vanilla results in AAA he will be released. I would contend that he should already be in AAA trying to prove he is worthy of a chance at the majors. Not the other way around. There are others with a more realistic chance of helping the team out of the gate.

I think they are being coy. Build a little value in the vets early and bring some value in trade. Then move a few of em and bring in the prospects. Good business and good for the long term. The roster will look different and the farm more stocked by mid season. Then the second half will be really fun to watch.

It's interesting that you feel this way about Hicks. Normally, you lean more towards "push candidates" and challenging players rather than letting them stagnate or languish. I would offer that the Twins did challenge him at an appropriate point in time. But, as often happens, the player didn't respond to the challenge. So, maybe it takes him a few tries to make the leap for good. I don't see this as necessarily an error by the Twins. Just food for thought.

I would let him play AAA until he starts hitting some line drives on a more consistent basis. I like the tweek from a toe tap to a leg kick. In the video it looks like he is ooordinating all of his body movements better instead of his hips flying open early snd flipping the barrel of the bat at the ball. I think he should stand taller I the box too. Kind of like Griffey and Justice and Strawberry.

For me I look at who your top 9 players were last year and put them all in the starting lineup. Pretty simple IMHO. Let them settle in for the first 4 weeks and go from there. Santana CF Escobar SS Dozier 2B Mauer 1B Plouffe 3B Suzuki C Arcia LF Hunter RF Vargas DH Bench - Schafer Pinto Nunez Herman

I can definitely see your point. It will be interesting to see what Molitor ends up doing with the lineup. It might be one of the most compelling things to keep an eye on as spring training unfolds.

I can't get all that excited about the idea of Mauer batting leadoff. I have no gawdy stats to back it up or anything. I do like the idea of taking new and unique approaches to setting up a lineup though. If they tried it, it might be kind of interesting. I just prefer a base stealing threat on first base in the first inning. I'm kind of a get the lead the first time through the order guy. Maybe I have Rickey Henderson with the A's in years past stuck in my head or something. If we bunt Mauer over to second can he score on a medium depth base hit with one out? I suppose maybe but do you want him in that role when Santana could steal second and Dozier hits with no outs and a guy in scoring position with Dozier, Mauer and Hunter all three getting a hack at scoring him? Also, can Mauer score from first on a gapper?

I like the philosophy of getting that first run and putting the pressure on the opposing team through small ball and putting pressure on the opposing team to execute. I think that getting the first run of the game is very important and it does not seem to get talked about that much any more. For me, I lead off with Santana because he is fast and is in a favorable righty/lefty matchup no matter who the opposing pitcher is. Second is Dozier. He can handle the bat, lay a bunt down, go to the right side and has a good chance to avoid hitting in to a double play because he is quick. Once in a while he can go yard and get you off to an early lead as well. I like Mauer 3rd putting the ball in play and getting the speed guys running around the bases forcing the other team to make plays. He sees a lot of pitches too and runs the pitch count up while allowing the opportunity to advance runners via pass ball or wild pitch. If batters 1-2 3 do well, your cleanup guy is seeing a pitcher who is already 20-25 pitches in to the inning and beginning to tire. I like the savvy of a veteran guy like Hunter here to make the most of the opportunity. Vargas is an emerging masher and a switch hitter. I like him here in the on deck circle cleaning up Hunter's leftovers while observing Hunter's approach from the on deck circle. Plouffe is my guy at the 6 spot. Lots of doubles and has developed in to more of a hit to all fields guy with power to boot. Arcia is my 7. He keeps the righty/lefty thing alternating through the lineup with power to boot. Suzuki, a rightey hits 8th. Hicks a switch hitter with speed turns the lineup over to the top of the order with speed on the base paths. (If he wins the spot in center that is). Summary- Santana Dozier Mauer Hunter Vargas Plouffe Arcia Suzuki Hicks

I'm going to enjoy comparing how Buxton does in spring training to how Hicks does. I sort of lean towards Buxton doing better this spring even though Hicks is much older than him. We'll see though. Same story line applies to Sano/Plouffe.

This reminds me of the contest the Des Moines Bucaneers junior A hockey team did when I lived down there for a few years. In the summer when they were having their tryouts, the doors were open for practices and they even played a few inner-squad scrimmages, open to the public. At the gate they gave out a form for fans to fill in with their predictions for the final roster. The fan that got the most correct won some type of prize(I don't remember what it was though). It would be fun to do something like that in this forum with the winner getting some sort of Kings Crown or Trophy next to his name that stays there all year until next year's winner is crowned. Having said that, I sure wish I could be at spring training to see things play out first hand.

I think Santana stabilizes the staff big time.

I struggle with this too.

When I look at Alex Meyer I see a guy who is much taller than the guys that are shorter than him. I also see a guy that throws faster than the guys who don't throw as fast as him. When he reaches the majors, and I hope it's sooner than later, I hope he wins more games than the guys that don't win as much as him. I predict there will be a lot of them.

I get what you're trying to say here. Walks are just one factor. If he gets through the first 5 innings of the game and each inning strikes out 2, walks 1 and gets a guy to ground out, he would have a good performance in spite of a high walk rate per 9 innings. Randy Johnson I believe had a fairly high walk rate at times but few would argue that he was an effective pitcher. At the end of the day it comes down to how well he manages those base runners and if they score or get stranded or get erased in a double play. At any rate, I'm of the opinion that calling him up sooner than later is better. It sounds like that is your opinion as well. I have said in the past that I wish the Twins were maybe 10-15% more aggressive in bumping players up a level and challenging them rather than requiring a perfect storm of statistics to do so. Not saying they don't factor other things in. It's just the general impression I have gotten over the years. Having said that, there are people who are a lot smarter than me making these decisions and they see these guys on a daily basis.

I think Burdi will breeze through AA and a month in to the season get called up. By midseason fans will be wanting him to close and Perkins to set up. It wouldn't be the first time I have been wrong though.

I would like to see Meyer work those control issues out as the Twins 5th starter. In the beginning I'm sure he will struggle to keep his pitch count down. If he gets us through 5 innings or so and walks a few along the way, I still think he can keep the runs allowed number low. Getting 5-6 innings from a 5th starter while limiting runs against would put him miles ahead of Nolasco. Also, I would start Nolasco in AAA and make May the 3rd starter and put Gibson 4th so that the first time through the rotation May gets the 3rd game of the first series and Gibson gets the first game of the second series. I'm not a believer in the Nolaco/Milone resurrection and I don't feel like waiting for the perfect storm to get May and Meyer in there.

A lot of this stuff seems to work itself out in spring training. Somebody is going to tweak a hammy and go on the DL for a week or two. Somebody is going to be just horrible. Somebody will be the real deal etc....etc.... Personally, I think they will go with Milone as the 5th starter in the beginning. Pelfrey has too much to prove to start off at anything other than AAA IMO. I would like to see him convert to reliever in AAA considering his durability issues. Perhaps he could emerge as a decent reliever in time. I suspect either Milone or Nolasco will flop and May will replace one of them 1 month in to the season. May and Meyer will likely begin at AAA and remain in a starting role as opposed to moving to the pen in the majors. Not saying this is what I want to happen. Just sayin I think it's a reasonable prediction of what might happen.

That was my understanding too.

Maybe part of the issue could be that pitchers have been able to nibble away at the strike zone a little more because he hasn't had a big bopper behind him that they don't want to pitch to. aka: a guy to protect him in the order. The concussion's effect to his central nervous system is likely an issue too. The one thing I notice - he always seems to contribute even when he is not hitting well because he seems to make the other team's pitcher throw a lot of pitches to get through his at bat. Perhaps this is one factor as to why they do better with him in the lineup. Even if he isn't driving in runs himself, he is driving the pitch count up. I look for him to add 10-15 points to his batting average this year due to being another year removed from concussion. Add more points to his batting average as those surrounding him in the batting order become more menacing to opposing pitchers and maybe he gets back to the .300 - .315 range. Same goes for the "team effect." The team has been pretty down these past few years and that no doubt has pulled him down a bit too. If the team does a little better then I think that also helps his average.