Trov

This will be big year for this kid. He will need to make strides to be considered still a good prospect. Not that he will be given up on, but if he does not show some strides others will start to pass him by on the pecking order.

I disagree that almost all are boom or bust. There are many that may not become the offensive player expected or wished, like Buxton overall, but end up still being a good player because of defense. Pitchers that settle into decent bull pen pitchers are not busts, but never become great starters. With guys like Sabato, if he never hits well, he well never find a place on a major league roster, where guys that can defend well will find places, unless they are so bad hitting that you would rather have a pitcher hit than them. Even then, some teams will still be willing to have them play once in awhile if they provide great defense.

I have always been and advocate for pitching and defense first to win championships. Yes, offense is important but giving up good defense for offense normally does not pay off. One case in point the White Sox in 2005, they won the ship and had great defense. Then they traded Rowand to Phillies. He was average hitter, but good defender. Sox started to fall and Phillies rose up. Now of course other players were involved in all this, but point is, a good defender saves runs, and pitches thrown. It does not always show up in boxscores but makes big differences.

I am not expecting big things from him, but I do love guys like him in the organization. They worked their butts off to get to the show. They learned how to get it done when scouts were not drooling over them. He just kept working and putting up numbers that team could not ignore. They are the types of guys that will do what it takes to stick around and help the team.

I am never a fan of these type of prospects. They offer no defense and all offense. If they never develop the offense that you expect then they have no value. He may be a great hitter in the league and help the team in the future, but he is full boom or bust type.

I personally think Target field is pitcher friendly, but at very least more neutral. The dimensions are deep enough and walls high enough to not be a HR hitter dream, but there is not a ton of foul territory. I have always felt to played pretty fair across the board.

I think this will help our pitchers more than hurt our hitters. The 2019 "Bomba Squad" was not the plan going in. It was the result of the team and we expected similar results 2020, which did not happen. Now, if all the teams come back to some normal HR rates, that will help our pitchers with what should be a decent defense, depending on health. I do not expect a whole lot to change with the teams offensive thoughts. Mainly I expect they will still look at attack fastballs in the zone and try to hit ball hard. For most part, if you hit the ball hard good things happen more often. Looking forward tot he season.

I would be okay with Dobnak and still love his story getting him to majors. He needs to learn how to get guys out faster though. He does not have miss stuff too much and so many foul balls are hit off of him. I think Simmons will be a huge difference maker for Dobnak and hope he gets another chance. I would not mind Odo coming back with the expected dead ball, or deader than last couple years, would help him a ton too. Similar issue with him is too high pitch count in a few innings. I know Twins hate sending starter out for third time through rotation anyways so high pitch count for 5 innings does not affect too much how they manage going forward. The prospects will not break with the team unless they are unhittable in spring or injuries to guys ahead of them.

If he shows good enough command and not just rely on the high velo I bet he moves quickly this year and if needed may get a call. This FO is not afraid of moving guys quickly if they feel they have the stuff. He will be one I will be checking in on in minor league reports.

I am looking forward to this minor league season, normally try to follow each level and last year was sad. This year will be very interesting because with the lost year we will need push guys up and not take the slower steps. I mean every player is in same boat, but will be interesting to see who performs and who does not.

I think Ober was hurt a lot by lack of minor league year. He is a fringe guy because his velo is not there, but velo does not equal success always. He seems to miss bats and that is key. Now, the question for him is did he just out pitch young guys, and when he faces more seasoned hitter his lack of velo will be an issue. Personally, I am not a guy that looks at velo anymore. Years ago when a guy threw 95 plus it was a big deal and sometimes that could get job done. Guys that get by with 90's and movement to me is something to look at. They will know how pitch to a guy use movement and hit all the zone to get outs. I do not care how fast you through if you get the outs.

Early results you can say Twins win, but Dodgers gave up an extra starter they were barely using for a piece they needed. If you look just at numbers Twins win, but do not feel Dodgers really lost either. Time will tell in long run, but think it will be a win win for both clubs.

I can get why PECOTA ranked sox where they are. They did not perform well against good teams last year. They crushed Det and KC and PIT, but beyond that they were at or below .500 against everyone else. Yes some were only 3 games played and went 1-2. However, the point is, when they have less percent of games against DET and KC counting for overall standing they will not look as good. Sure, they may beat up on other lower teams, but DET and KC really swung the standings for Sox. PECOTA could be way off and Sox do well, but I can see where the rankings came from.

I sure hope the Twins do not try to manipulate service time of Kiriloff. One, after next CBA I expect a very different service time clock as that is a huge issue with players right now. It was less of issue when 29 or 30 first time FA were still getting big contracts but now that they are not seeking earlier FA is a huge thing for players. Two, if I was a player I would never sign back with a team that did this, nor would I sign any team friendly deals during arbitration times, similar to what Kepler did. I know nothing about Kiriloff personality or what drives him for making decisions, but for me, any time a team manipulates service time I would never want to deal with that team again. I get the benefit to a team like the Twins, but gaining 1 year of control or one extra half year of cheap control should have consequences. Also, you should want to put out the best team all season long, the games in April count just as much as the ones in September.

As much as I want to root for Astudillo, mainly because he has the look of the average weekend warrior softball player and root for him. He loves to play and no one expects much from him. However, if he takes up a roster spot all year I feel we are not putting out our best lineup. Yes, he can provide a third catcher, but subpar defense. He seems to be a nice guy, and would be a huge fan fav when we are putting up 100 loss seasons, but when looking to make playoffs his value is just too low across the board. I would like to see him playing in St. Paul ready to hit the I94 drive should we need him to be back up catcher for a short period. Other than that I would not like to see him on the 26 man roster.

Notice how all five are HOF players? It shows only a few can put up big numbers late in career, and that makes them HOF. Very few players can produce in late 30's and beyond. Cruz will not put up the overall WAR due to being just a DH. I think he will put up fine enough numbers for the year to justify being the DH. If he is our best offensive player that maybe good because I expect decent offense, but I do not think he will be best offensive guy. I think he will be lower in lineup, but maybe not. He may keep raking, and I hope he does. The question is what will be considered good season for him? I sure hope he plays the full year and drives in another 100 with 30 plus HR. I also feel he brings good things to clubhouse too that you do not see on the field each day, but pays off in long run.

Do you really think Bauer opts out after first season? You think he will leave 45 mil, expecting more? I mean maybe he could get more but that may be a hell of a gamble. I think he only opts out after year 2 of the deal, when he would be set to make only 17 mil.

Bauer has very interesting contract. He gets huge money for two years, but can opt out after any season as well. So with 102 over three years and 40 plus 45 for first two he will be down to only 17 for last year. Unless he is injured no way will he be there for year three at 17 mil. So really he signed a two year 85 mil deal, because I doubt any team next year will give him 45. He gets paid huge for two years and protects himself incase of injury for a third year, or get paid 17 mil in a potential bounce back if his injury is prior to that. Good for him. He will also be getting paid more than the entire Pirates team.

I would like to point out, that 28 games was half the season. I am not saying Donaldson would have played a full half, he may have played more, may have played less. But to just say he played 28 games, in a 60 game super short season, is a little misleading. I could use same data and say he only missed 32 games last year. Which is also true, but leaves out the fact it was half the season.

It is hard to say because his last 18 games were not like his first 36 does not mean he dropped off. He was best bat in playoffs. Every hitter has bad stretches. He was not going to crush like he did. If the season was full season there is no reason to think he was not going to bounce back after the 18 bad games. The rest of the team stopped hitting too, which makes me think he was getting less to swing at, and he was pressing to make things happen more because the guys behind him were not getting it done on offense either.

Personally, I do not feel any are on their list of wish they had back. Maybe Hicks, because of giving him up for nothing basically and he has some value. However, some you got decent players in return of trades, and others failed with Twins, no reason to know they would do well with them had they stayed.

Adding personal chef to staff will go down as one of those odd contract requirements. We see things all the time, but that being the deciding factor will be odd one. I get it, for someone at his age to have the right food to stay in playing shape is needed. Not every person is the same, and the sports have learned that over the years.

Mutual option deals are always interesting. I mean the only way both agree are if both sides believe the value is what they would get on open market, and both like the situation. My guess it will not be picked up, because either Twins will not want to pay it, or Colome feels he can get more.

I am guessing there will be more signings but nothing major. With spring training just around the corner both sides are feeling the pressure to get ready. There will be one or two more vet arms signed with invite to camp but no MLB spot yet.

The definition makes sense, but my follow then, how is it compared to late and close then? I mean, there must be overlap right? So he performed better on late and close, but worse on high leverage? So the conclusion to me that is drawn is when he was facing high leverage earlier in games say, 6th or 7th inning he would fail, which was very common based on eye test. But, when he got chances late in games he did better. Personally, I do not think WPA should be used for hitters as a measuring stick. I think it is good for relief pitchers, but when an average hitter fails 75% of the time give or take a few percent, if they get a hit in those high leverage spots 1 out of 4 they should be average, in my mind. I find it difficult to measure how much a hitter adds compared to others. Also, I find WPA for early parts of games very misleading because it uses a metric of games played out under normal circumstances. However, you new know how a game will play out should the outcome of the previous situation change. For example, 1st inning 2 out bases load. Guy hits a grand slam that most likely increases WPA a decent amount. Where if they get a single and score 1 run it only less, both did a good job of getting a hit, but one gets better reward. What if the guy that got the single fouled off 5 3-2 pitches that were nasty, where the grand slam guy got a meatball down the middle, and the single never had a good pitch to really hit? Which one performed better really? Also, it is just the first inning, we have no clue how the game will be played differently the rest of the way based on the outcome. Teams will hit differently, be managed differently, so on and so forth. Later games when outs are limited I think it is easier to measure, but to reward 1 guy for hitting a meatball well more than a guy who had a great at bat but limited what he could do because the pitcher did better job is kind of counter productive to me. Just like any other stat WPA only is a small story to everything. That all being said, I agree with the point that Eddie was overrated by Twins fans generally.