tarheeltwinsfan

DE-FENSE, Sme-Fense... Hit the ball over De-Fence !

Ouch.

Mathew, Thanks for the great article about the Donaldson signing.

I'm in unchartered territory. I don't know how to act or what to write. Two Braves fans at the courthouse said they hated the Twins this morning. That was nice. Thank you FO and Thank you Pohlad family.

Magnifying Berrios' second half swoons is the fact that many second half games were against American League Central teams, including the Tigers, the Royals and the formerly weaker Pale Hose.

Find out what Berrios wants to extend and give it to him. I have a lot of confidence in his ability to keep improving and to stay healthy, even though he is a pitcher.

Let me beat you to the punch, Battle ur Tail Off, and say: "Don't call me Shirley."

I surely don't have all the right answers, but I do know that the 2019 Twins team won the second most games of any Twins/Washington Senators team in over 120 years plus hit more home runs than any major league team in the history of major league baseball. . To me that's progress.

Great discussion. Thanks to all who participated. It's 1 am EST here in North Carolina. Good night.

What do you mean Sano is missing?

But who's on first?

What?

Indiana Twin, You explained my point about "impact pitching" better than I did in my reply to Oxtung. . Thanks.

I may be the only one to think this way, but since after the 2019 season ended the Twins only had Berrios as an experienced major league starter, it was necessary to sign at least 3-4 more experienced major league starters, otherwise the Twins would be in deep trouble. Had the Twins only signed one impact pitcher, Cole for example, that would be great...(similiar to Spahn and Sain and pray for rain) but that great new pitcher would only give the Twins about 20 wins at most. That would be 10-12 more games won than an average major league starter, assuming 8-10 victories for an average starter on a team which should score lots of runs.. But what about the other 3 open starting pitcher spots which needed to be filled? Do the Twins use 3 AAAA pitchers here? I think that would have been a mistake. What the Twins did sign was 2 very good, familiar, experienced starters (admittedly not Cole), in Odo and Pineda (even though he will miss 39 games) plus an average ML pitcher in Bailey (who should eat innings and was throwing well for parts of 2019 and who has been a Yankee killer in the past, plus a very good pitcher with playoff experience, who had had surgery and who won't be ready until June (I think I read that), but who is not a flame thrower anyway...so maybe he can bounce back more quickly and successfully than a flame thrower who had had the same surgery. Finally do you think Wes Johnson would have much positive effect on Cole? Maybe, but how much better could Cole become? Do you think Wes Johnson can help Bailey improve what is already an average ML pitching career...I hope so. What about Rich Hill? Not sure, but if Hill is healthy, he can be really good, plus a lefty to boot. With Pineda and Hill starting their seasons late, they should be fresher for October. These are my reasons why I felt that the Twins had signed "impact pitching", which I believe can be interpreted as plural. We must remember, the FO has a budget. Remember that the FO had to sign impact pitching and also to try to extend the core players (as they did today with Sano and hopefully will do with Berrios), plus arbitration increases for many others. Well, I'm exhausted from trying to explain all oft his as best I could. Thanks for asking, Oxtung.

I understand that many of you may disagree with the following statement, however, I consider signing Odorizzi, Pineda, Bailey and Hill to be signing "impact pitching".

Come on FO. Give Berrios a fair long term contract. Show him the money.

If this extension will have the same effect on Sano, as the Kepler and Polanco extensions had on them, then I see an all-star, MVP year for Sano.

In a civil lawsuit, the party seeking relief is designated as "The Plaintiff" and the party being sued is designated as "The Defendant". However in a baseball arbitration,I have learned that the player is designated as "The Arbi" and the owner is designated as "The Trator"? Show me the money.

I wholeheartedly agree Mike. I know they have gently chided me on several occasions..

Thank you owners, moderators, writers, and contributors. This site is like a family of Twins fans. I hope to meet some of you at Fort Myers the week of Feb. 22nd through the 28 of Feb. I wish we had some Twins Daily hats or shirts to identify ourselves. Look for me. I'll be wearing an olive drab Second Infantry Division baseball style hat. Do the owners and writers get to sit in the press box at spring training? How about just plain ordinary posters like me?

I'm convinced Sano has the potential to have a monster year. Play ball !

What were the main reasons Kepler batted lead off so frequently last year? His aggressive, first pitch swing rate was evident. His .250 plus or minus BA was not impressive for a lead off hitter. His base stealing skills were nothing special. He does have a beautiful swing though. Arraez will be a much better lead off hitter in 2020 in my opinion.

I agree on Jeffers. He is my pick to click.

Really fun series Nick. Thanks for arranging the players according to the criteria stated. One take away is that MLB is geared more toward paying players based on past performances than on your well defined criteria of asset valuation. If teams attempted to pay the players according to your asset valuations, the Major League Players Association would have a fit. I wonder...what if we ranked the Twins payroll from the highest to the lowest and then assigned each payroll amount to the players according to asset valuation, using your criteria, we would expect to have a team with many over-paid young players and few older players on one year contracts. I tried to think of an analogy in the business world, but could not. It is rare to pay for future potential, plus there are so many variables that can alter a player's future production. Maybe the free market is the best determination of an asset's value. Fascinating series. Thank you Nick.

LOL