tarheeltwinsfan

I too am cautiously optimistic about this player. I wish him much success this year with the Twins.

Would you bet the farm that Donaldson will remain healthy? Not me. Trade Donaldson while we can. His legs are going to only get worse based mainly on his multiple years as a catcher.

Good assessment Nashville. Thanks.

I have to pick Carew on the basis of those 178 triples in 1977.

My favorite Twin is Mark Davidson, since he was from my hometown in Statesville, NC and we worked out at a gym at the same time early in the mornings during the winter of 1986-87. I was thrilled when Mark made the team that spring as the 4th outfielder. In July or August I flew to Minneapolis to visit Mark and to watch the Twins. I sat with beautiful Linda Davidson, who was then Mark's fiancé. One night I ate the best steak I had ever eaten, but I don't remember where we were. Things had gotten a little fuzzy for me due to my new best friend, Wally the Beer Man, who kept coming to my seat at the Metrodome to visit with me and give me another cold frosty beer. After one of the games Mark introduced me to Harmon, who later that night autographed my baseball glove in a hotel hall way as he and I and some other Twins fans were sitting on the hallway floor eating pizza. If I'm lying, I'm dying. Mark also introduced me to Tony O, who Mark called "Chico". It was the weekend of the Equitable Old Timers Game. I got to see a lot of my favorite retired Twins players in the game. Later Mark introduced me to some of his Twins friends. If all of this that I had told you weres not enough, the mighty Oakland A's came to town that weekend, tied with the Twins for first place. The Metrodome was jam packed for all 4 games with the A's and the Dome was rocking. The noise was deafening and my ears were ringing. I Seem to remember a "noise meter" which the crowd loved to see the noise level rise on the noise meter. Every time Jose Canseco would swing and miss or take a strike, I would yell at the top of my voice: "Jose can you see?" I thought it was funny, but my buddy who had flown from North Carolina with me. told me to stop yelling that because I was embarrassing him. Mrs. Greg Gagne sat beside us and Mrs. Kirby Puckett was in the row in front of us. The mighty Oakland A's left Minneapolis 4 days later, 4 games behind the first place Minnesota Twins. The Twins had won every game. This probably will qualify as the best weekend of my life. Thank you, Mark Davidson.

Lewis. To whom much is given, much is expected. I have a feeling that nobody expects more of Lewis, than Lewis expects of himself.

Is it possible that Pressly and Berrios wanted out of Minnesota? Naw. Couldn't be that. Could it? I don't believe it.

If the lockout remains in place, will I be able to see some games at Spring Training between teams using players who are not on the 40 man rosters? I have reserved an AirBNB Mach 5-March 12 in Ft. Myers and I can only spend so much time at Ding Darling wildlife refuge and searching for sea shells and eating BBQ at Mission BBQ.. I need some BASEBALL !

Based on Joe Ryan's success, I'd suggest young HS and college pitchers take up hiking and water polo.

After reading FanGraphs article which was placed in this good article, I have decided to become a huge Cotton fan If he can keep his walks down, he should be a good addition to the Twins starting staff. His spin rates on his FB and changeup are terrific and his slider looker nasty. I wish him lots of success next year. He is my pick to click on the mound for the Twins in 2022.

I confess I was against this trade at the time. Now after reading this interesting article and the fine comments to the article, I believe Falvine may know more about running a baseball team then I did at the time. It looks like it may turn out to be a good trade for the Twins. I'm not worthy.

Good analysis of some of the unknowns and variables in this trade. Thanks Dman.

I agree with you about Donaldson. Thanks for saying what I am thinking.

I hope we do play. I've got to decide shortly whether to cancel my reservations and save almost a thousand bucks at an AirBNB for Fort Myers the first week of 2022 ST games. The last 2 springs it was Covid, now it is disagreements between rich owners and rich players, which are ruining my spring training vacations.

I agree with Mike. If predicting which prospects will succeed is as difficult as ranking the order of the Twins top 10 pitching prospects (which Seth discussed at length in some of his replies to our comments to his recent excellent Twins pitching prospect ranking), meaning any of them could succeed beyond our wildest dreams, why not forget the older slightly below mediocre, pitchers and just see which of the existing "quantity " of prospects will be the next "Ace" for the Twins. Will it be Ryan, Canterino, Duran, Balazovic, Winder, Petty, etc.? Thanks to the FO intentionally signing and trading for, young flame throwers, the Twins do have the best "quantity" of "quality" prospect pitchers that I can ever remember.

Ouch.

Good point Doc.

You've got to accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative, latch on to the affirmative,, don't mess with Mister. in between. Thank you Johnny Mercer..

Interesting. I understand. Thanks.

Great tip. I did not know that. Thanks.

Excellent articles Nick. Your assessments seem to be spot on, given the criteria listed. When I combine your series with Seth's series on top prospects, it appears to me that the hitters are on the Twins or very close and the pitchers are a year behind. the hitters. Of course, your criteria were just for 2022, so Maeda was not eligible for inclusion. The Twins will need to make some of the 1-15 prospects into relievers. It will be interesting to see how that plays out. Thank you for your outstanding writing.

Excellent series Seth. I liked seeing the interviews with your articles. Well done, Seth. Well done.

Seth, The 6-10 hitters are not nearly as exciting as the 6-10 flame throwing pitchers you named. I'm still in awe of those 6-10 pitching prospects. If your top 1-5 pitchers turn out to be better than those 6-10 pitching prospects are going to be, then no wonder Falvine has not signed FA pitching. I wonder how several of the better prospect rating systems are rating the Twins pitching prospects.

Put Arraez at DH. Problem of defensive deficiencies is solved. He is an "on base machine". Then when he hits .350, and scores 100 runs, trade him for a good return to a team that values a very good hitter at DH (which will probably include the AL and the NL teams next year). I close by asking this question: With Buck standing on first base and two outs and the game on the line, would you rather have Arraez at bat or any of the other choices the Twins currently have for DH (Sano being the current most popular choice) ?

I hope the Twins "glut" of young pitchers does not take the same route that last years Twins "glut" of young outfielders took.