Trov

I would less say Gordon was a development success story. To me the 5th overall pick should be expected to make majors and contribute and not need a ton of development to be a success. Yes, he was slower to develop and would have issues with health and learning at each level, but to me a development success story is taking a guy no one expects much from, and turning them into a major league level player.

The White Sox are not a team that I expect to have good year. They have some good hitters, but their defense is not good at all. Cease is one reason to feel good, he is legit Cy Young guy. Their offense should still scare people, if healthy, but that is big if with them. Roberts has the talent, but yet to grow from what he showed in 2020, and has really not been healthy much, I could be wrong but believe most have been muscle injuries which tend to linger. Using Vaughn at 1B may be a terrible idea, and should just keep him DH. He had OPS+ of 111 last year, but still a negative war because his defense was that bad. He had negative 2.6 bWAR. That is crazy for a first baseman. Baseball reference projects if he played a full 1200 innings at first he would have cost his team 19 runs. That is crazy for a first baseman. Outside of Cease I do not expect a ton from any of their staff. Giolito has been good but not great his career and is aging with a down year. Lynn is in his mid-30's and coming off of poor year, could he rebound, maybe but would not expect a ton from him. Unless the sox can score a ton of runs, they will not do well because their defense and pitching will not be holding teams down.

I know he could play it, but after listening to Lewis' comments about his injury I would not want to put him back in CF. He sounds like he will be very risk adverse defending CF in the future. He basically said, I should have just let the double drop and save the risk of injury. Although I would agree in many situations do not risk hurting yourself, in that play he was just running after the ball and jumped for it. If he will not be willing to go all out and jump for balls without hitting walls, he will not be a good defender in CF. Not saying he should not have such a mind set, but can you think if Hunter had that thought process?

There is still a lot of unknown for that. There are many options. One, Balley pays the teams but not their loans and keep showing games retaining rights. Two, bankruptcy court does not allow the teams to back out of contracts when they are not paid and games are still shown by Balley. Three, the Twins are able to back out of contract with Balley and sell their rights to highest bidder. Four, the Twins back out of contract and do not have anyone step up and MLB allows fans to stream on their app because there would be no blackout due to no local broadcast rights. Manfred said that is the last option at this point, but did say they would do that at minimum. I am sure it will require some level of subscription cost however.

Depending how this season goes, I would bet at least 2 get QO if not extensions. A one year deal is up the alley of what they would looking for Gray or Maeda if they have good years. I doubt many teams would be offering more than 3 years for either of them.

Frankie Montas and Carlos Rodon will be starting their season on IL. Both play for Yankees, and both were targets of fans on this page for Twins the last couple of years. Montas is expected to miss most of the season. Many fans wanted Twins to trade for him all last year. Twins have been attacked for trading for pitchers that have got hurt. Looks like we dodge at least one of them. Rodon, many fans wanted to sign both of last two years. Last year he did good and had his second year in a row of relative health which led to his 6 year 162mil contract. I was not one that wanted to sign Rodon to long term deal, mainly his long history of injuries. Reports of this injury is similar to what he dealt with last year in SF, where he really did not miss time, as he still pitched in 31 games. However, forearm strain is always a scarry thing to hear as tend to lead to UCL tears and Tommy John. If he ends up missing time for that, it will look like Twins will have dodged that one as well. I do not wish either ill will, but as it goes for Rodon, I was never high on him because of risk of injury over his career. Outside of 2 contract years, he has never been great due to combinations of injuries and not being effective. After 2 years of health and success, everyone was high on him. I said I would not give him more than a few years due to concerns. Will Yankees end up eating a lot of dead money? Did Twins dodge some bullets?

For Lee my question is where will he play if he makes his debut. I believe this will be dictated on health. I only believe he will get called up under one of two situations. First, injuries and that will most likely decide where he plays. With SS locked up, he will most likely play either 3rd or 2nd when there are injuries. I do not think he will get called up to be a bench player though. The other way he gets called up is he just tears up AA and AAA and forces his way. This will only be if regulars struggle though, again he will not ride bench and be part time guy. Lewis, I have similar question, where will he play defense. I think he will be given a chance quickly, unless rehab games do not go well. However same thing with Lee, who does he take over for? I think injuries and performance will decide this, but assuming everyone healthy and no major struggles who gets the move to bench roll? E-Rod, as I am sure he will start being called, just want to know how does he bounce back from the big injury and missing so much time. He was looking like a guy that was going to move quickly last year. If he can come out the gate and repeat, will he be second half call up after injuries or trades of OF depth? I do not think Twins will feel they need to push him, but if he similar to Lee tries to force moves, and Twins need more pen guys do we trade some of our many OF guys and bring him up? Raya just can he pitch a full year. Until he shows he can pitch a full year I will not be big on him. Julien, just when does he make his debut. He will at some point, and will he slot into 1b, even out of camp? With reports AK is behind rehab, do we break with Julien as main 1b? I doubt we do, but if he forces his way on I think that is main path for him.

Personally, I think both the areas he needs to improve on defense wise is because that is areas the Twins were willing to have less of to improve pitch framing. Much has been talked about the set up of having one knee on the ground. The idea of that set up is to allow for lower target to help with framing. The Twins have been teaching this set up for catchers for a few years now, even trying to get old school catchers to use it. The problem with that set up, is it will hurt both the blocking and throwing runner out. I mean if you are kneeling on the ground you will not be able to get to feet quickly to throw out a runner, so you throw from knees and use all arm to throw, normally getting less accurate and less power on throw. Back when no teams tried to steal, this was not an issue, but steals have been up, and with new rules expected to go even higher. Also, when blocking pitches it is hard to get out on edges of zone when you are on your knee already. The way the Twins want their catchers to set up, makes them less like to block pitches, and throw out runner. It was all done in hopes of increasing framing. I hope they start to change that up now that steals are up, and we will be moving to robo umps in next few years. Then framing will be pointless, and really the throwing out runner will be a key factor on defense. The issue is not specifically Jeffers, but Twins catchers generally.

For all the people attacking the lack of offense last year, I feel like they forget how our expect top offensive guys were hurt the second half of the season. Buck and Polanco were expected to be 2 of our best hitters, and both missed a lot of time. AK and Larnach who we had some counting on missed most of season. I think part of the hope is that just greater health should improve the offense.

I would not say it is now or never for him. As pointed out he is only 24. Everyone's favorite ace from Brewers Mr. Burnes, did not breakout at MLB level until 25. Many other top pitchers for a few years do not break out until 25 to 27. Some burn out by 29, but some go well into 30's. Of course if he does not make progress and falls further down depth chart his time with Twins will be near an end, but I am sure many teams will be willing to take a chance on him if we ever release him.

The whole article is much of what I have stated for years. You can deal with poor defense if your offense is good, and you can deal with poor offense if your defense is good enough. Rarely will you ever get elite at both, and the ones that are are very highly valued. I am more of a fan of better defense and pitching and would prefer average hitting, over elite hitting and below average defense. Mainly because great pitching and defense can stifle great hitting normally. However, I would agree if Julien can hit at high enough level we could live with him at 2nd, if he needed to. However, will we need him to? We have no set 1B in our system. AK will most likely fill that roll, as long as his wrist can hold up, but I am at the point, I am assuming he will never reach his potential because of the wrist, I hope I am wrong. If he cannot fill in 1B, then really that is wide open for whoever can hit at MLB level. I would also point, if you can upgrade the overall team by pushing Julien to 1B, because you can have similar hitter, but better defender at 2b you should do that.

Every time I read one of these it always seems to be on the side of the should the team do it. I rarely get much of the should the player do it? Normally these early extensions work out much better for the team, or at least we do not hear much about it working out great for the player. Dobnak so far is one that has worked out better for him than team. The only reason Duran should agree to anything is if he is worried about his own health. Provided he stays healthy, he should earn top dollar as a FA. I bet he will get some high level pay in arbitration even if he pitches as well as we expect.

The current FO has treated 1B as a not needed defender there. They will throw anyone over there. This has been a clear plan that outside of Sabato, who has not been good in minors overall, they have no one you would slot into 1B in minors. Over the last few years we have rotated several different people there. Personally, I do not like this plan, as a good defending 1B will save your team a ton of errors and extra bases. It is not so much about the stops they make, but the way they field bad throws from other guys. Sure, if a throw is good, just about any MLB talent should be able to play the position. However, when you have a bad defender there you notice it. However, clearly this FO feels you can live with a bad defender there in the long run as they have had no plan to address it. I would not be surprised at all if they give Julian some time there if he hits his way onto the roster and AK is not ready to play.

I personally have little interest in the WBC. I also wish it was not during spring training. I am not concerned about injuries, they are not any more likely to happen than any other games, other than maybe a pitcher trying to throw more than arm is ready for. I would hope the pitcher would identify that issue before it becomes one. Unless the manager for the team does not care about that. However, there is really no good time to fit this in. Before season, you run risk of too much too soon. During the season, players will opt out to get rest normally to be ready for team. Post-season, you run into players being banged up and just ready for a break, so they will either opt out or not be healthy. I am glad it is only every 4 years.

For me it is a combo of fans, players, and media for how I feel about a team. My dislike for teams change over years as well. I will always hate the Yankees, and it was a combo of things. One, their choice to go out and overpay for many FA just because they could annoyed me, but what annoyed me more is how national media overvalued some of their players. Mainly, Derek Jeter is one that national media raised his profile more simply because he played for Yankees. Do not get me wrong, he was a HOF player, but he made plays on defense that were raised in the eyes of the media simply because of playing for Yankees. He was graded out second half of his career as subpar defender but was still touted in national media as a top defender. His play in playoffs against Oakland national media talked about how no other player would have even thought of doing that, only Denny Hocking had a similar play prior to that in a normal game, not playoffs. Did anyone talk about how smart of a play Hocking did? No. How about the "play of the year" when the legend has it Jeter dove into stands to make a catch? Well, if you actually watch the play, he made a running catch, no different than any OF does. Then he chose to jump into the stands because he was on a full run, and not slide or something like that. He caught the ball on the run, then jumped into stands. It was not even a diving catch. Jeter is not the only player that gets put up higher because he plays well for the Yankees. That is one reason I hate them. The other reason, is Twins never beat them, even when Yankees are not a good team. I also do not like the entitled fans. I also hate Boston, because they did much of what Yankees did, but people loved them because they were the rivals of Yankees, I do not like either for much of same reasons.

Would you rank Steer and CES above Lee, Lewis, Miranda, and Julien? They all basically played the same roll in minors. Some area of infield. Unless you moved some to OF, you could not play all 6 at a time. Now that we have CC for 6 more years, that really only leaves 3 spots, if none move to OF. Of the 4 we kept, who would you swap? One way or the other at least 2 or 3 were not going to be playing with Twins in the future.

Not sure why you wish him ill will. It is not his fault he was left to the rule 5 a couple of years ago. Even if he does well, it has no effect on the Twins at this point. Now, if you are wishing this so you can defend the choice to leave him on rule 5, I personally do not think that choice needs defending at this point. Once in a great while a team will leave the wrong guy unprotected, but generally, they know what they are doing. In Baddoo's situation, he was young, not played above A ball, and had a lot of holes in game. In our organization he was ranked like 5th or 6th OF, and most likely would still be in minors for us, only making some games due to injuries from guys above. Unless you can go back and point to someone you would have left off the 40 man that year for Baddoo, there is no point in complaining he was left off it. It was him or someone else. I am sure every team wishes they could keep every player they wanted without worrying about 40 man rosters, years in organization, and service time. But those times are gone.

Very few teams want to slot a guy of his age into just DH roll. Twins even more since trading Cruz away have used DH as a way to give a normal starter a break in the field for the day while keeping bat in line up. I doubt Julien breaks camp to be a regular DH. Also, teams are unlikely to call up top prospects to ride bench. Unless they will be using Julien almost every day he will not break camp with Twins. As health continues to impact team he could break camp for that reason, but I find it very unlikely he breaks to DH. I know he is not a major defender, but I would bet if they wanted Julien to break camp, he would start at 2nd over Polanco and Polanco would DH more often.

The problem with this model is Buck generally does not get hurt from fielding, but from hitting and running bases. Yes, he has had a few injuries from fielding, but over the years most of his injuries come from hitting and running. Look at last year, the knee came from the slide at second, DH would not stop that, only sitting, but if he is sitting he is not helping. Then later in year he hurt his hip again. The year prior he missed most of his time with hip issue after running bases. He has missed time from being hit by pitches, foul balls of foot, slides, and just running bases. No amount of DH will help that.

CES was down the depth chart for Twins. He could very well turn into a star, but he has many flaws. He is mainly just a bat, as his defense is not good. He has struck out at a high level, not crazy, but it generally goes up as you face higher level pitching. If he stayed on the Twins, he would be like the 3 or 4th ranked 3rd baseman on our prospect list. I wish him all the best, but do not just compare how he does to Mahle for the Twins, but how does he do to other players we kept.

The overall success of this team will come mainly down to the pen. However, timely hitting will be important too. Last year we did not have great timely hitting most of the year. Rocco leans on his pen a ton, mainly not allowing any starters, unless there is a huge lead, to go a full third time through order. This means he is normally asking minimum 3 but normally 4 innings from his pen every game. He also normally is only asking they do 1 inning at a time. So really looking at about 4 to 5 pitchers each game. If anyone struggles in a game it can blow up the whole game. Personally, not a fan of this plan, but they work the plan. That is why I believe it will come down to pen. It seems even if a guy is doing well, the second they allow 1 runner the third trip through the line up, they get the hook, unless the lead is huge. I am sure there is a little more to it, but sure seems to be the deciding factor.

I do not like the comparing markets as a reason Twins should spend more. First, there is more than just the size of the media market, like is there other competing teams, not just baseball, but other sports in that area to draw money from. What is the TV deal like? What is the gate number like? Spending does not equal winning, it is the right spending. You point out Detroit, they have spent plenty over the last several years, how have they done? They spent on the wrong guys the last several years. Even the Padres, who the owner has basically said he does not care if he is losing money on the team, has spent poorly at times, example Hosmer. It is not like the Twins have acted like TB, Oakland, Baltimore, or Pittsburg and spend nothing, they are around league average each year. I also attack the premise that once a team makes the playoffs they cannot win. Very rarely does the clearly better team win every playoff series. It very often comes down to who is hot. Even the best made rosters do not win a WS. Both of the Twins WS wins they were underdogs at every round. Back to the Padres comparison. I hate how fans wanting the Twins owners to dip into their personal accounts to spend big because an owner has done so. Owning a team is a business, and it should not be expected by fans that the team operate at a loss. I do not know the exact numbers on how much the Twins make, but do not forget it is more than just MLB payroll that goes into the budget. Maybe they are making hundred million or more each year, or maybe they are making just a little. The Padres owner has basically said, he is losing money and does not care, he cannot take it with him and wants to win baseball games. Great for their fans, they have an owner that is find losing money in his business, do not expect any owner to lose money. Finally, I have said to fans all along, if you are upset at the spending, or lack their of, stop watching. Stop giving them your money in any way. Start watching teams like the Padres that spend money. Be fans of teams that will do that.

I say build a team that can hit line drives and hit them hard. The rest will take care of themselves. There will be power hitters always, but after 2019, everyone had power. Records were falling all over the place. Then yes, the ball became dead, and players were expecting same results. I remember a few balls early in year last year I thought were crushed, to be caught on the track. I agree MLB needs to stop changing it up and go with 1 type every game every year. It is hard to judge a player year to year when one year the ball is a super ball flying out, then next year it is like hitting a pillow. Guys like Mitch Garver get the years of but what if they hit like 2019. Outside of 2019, Mitch has done little at the plate power wise. He has had health issues, but even if you stretch out the games he has never been close to what he did in 2019. He was not alone, and it messed with many fans. We were thinking we had a huge HR hitting team, and doubled down on it, only to having wall scrapers. Players had to adjust.

I would disagree the games at AA mean nothing. When in the past have you seen the Twins move a guy so quickly? The hype was big on Lee before the draft. Many said he could go number 1, and could not believe he fell all the way to us. I do not think anyone is trying to say he will be best in the game or HOF bound even, but he has shown that he clearly can handle himself very early on. Yes, he may be more advanced and not a lot left to learn, which is even more of a reason to move him faster. I am not reading from people saying he will be MVP or anything. He very well may be or may get overpowered when he makes MLB debut. I believe the hype for him though.

Dodgers will not give up any major talent for Farmer. I mean look what we gave up for him, nothing earth shattering. Just because they may feel they have more of a need, does not mean they will give away talent. They have someone that can fill in just as good as Farmer most likely. Now, if he starts failing and if Farmer puts up strong numbers, then maybe they would be willing to give up more for a the rental.