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The issue was we were dealing with a juiced ball that made some guys look better than what they really were. Some of the younger guys that we were counting on to carry into future years just never carried over. Specifically, Garver, Sano and Kepler were the main two we kept saying if they just can do what they did in 2019. I feel Garver was the biggest issue of the juiced ball. He blew up out of no where with the 31 HR. He never came close to that before, and since was not on similar pace over similar PA. He is the perfect example of needing to have career years to help teams win it all. We were excited because we still had some young guys, Buck, Polonco, Arraez, Garver, Kepler, Sano, all still getting into primes, with Lewis and our OF group waiting in wings. Well, huge regression and injuries halted the growth we were hoping for. Also, going away from the super ball that was the baseball that year brought guys back to earth in the power numbers, but some had similar approaches that just did not get the same results.

He strikes out guys around 9 to 10 or more per 9 innings across the minors. He may not have a go to out pitch, but clearly knows how to get outs. He keeps the ball in the park, and really outside of walks, does not have much issues. Not sure why that profiles as relief guy. Sure, he is not a fireballer, but he has gotten the job done overall in his minor league career. You address the lack of fastball and strong out pitch. You know who else profiled that way early in career? Johan Santana. If TD was around back in 2000 when we took Santana in Rule 5 everyone would have talked about how he will not stay, is at best a lefty out of the pen, because his fastball is not elite, and lacked an out pitch. Then he was taught the change up that he took to being one of the best we have ever had. Will SWR be that, doubtful, but my point is, to say what a kid at 22 will profile to be because of what he lacks is crazy. He still has plenty of time to grow, and he has done well along the way. If you looked at Santan's minor league numbers you would have not even had him in top 30 when he came to Twins. Will SWR become the number 1, I doubt it, but I expect he will fall solidly 2 or 3 guy and not a pen guy.

Guys like SWR will always get knocked on where they have issues, and the people that are low on them will continue to say, just wait, just wait. Now a days teams and fans are so obsessed with velo and strike outs. It is like people forget if you rarely give up hard contact even if you do not strike out many, that will still be good. I am not saying he will be nearly as good, but I can think of 2 guys that never had high velo, or k's per 9, but still did a good job and got it done. Our own Radke, was always below league average in velo on fastball, and even gave up way too many HR some years, but still was a very good pitcher over his career. Was he a true ace, no, but I would sure as hell take someone of his level again. Next Greg Maddux, one of the best pitchers of all time got it done with below league average velo. He had elite command and amazing movement, but he also had lower k's per 9, highest in single season was 7.8, but mostly sat around 6 to 7. He would just not walk a lot and keep the ball in the park getting weaker contacts. There are many more I could point to over the years that get it done with lower than league average velo, but actually pitch well, not just try to overpower them with velo. The fact is, if a guy knows how to pitch, they can do it without the velo. Will SWR become an ace, it is less likely, but if he can get his walks down a little more and keep the ball in the park like he has, he should be a very decent pitcher for many years.

What I like best about this article is the looking deeper into who he faced in those home starts versus road starts. When I look at the specific games, his worst games home and away were against the Mets. Next worst game was home against the Padres, but one of best road games was against Padres. When you look at each team he pitched both home and road Atlanta was basically the same. Cubs, he did much better at home than in Chicago, could be the park playing in. Rockies was about equal, no runs allowed either place. Brewers about equal as well, 0 runs home 1 run road. Mets he had 5 games only 1 he gave up 1 run in 5 and 3 in 6, other than that he was just bad against them. Giants he split, doing better on road. St. Louis he did much better at home. Nationals he did much better on road in his 2 games, than his 1 home game. Really, when you look at teams he played both home and away, it is pretty evan. I think for most part there is not much to look at for the splits.

First, I want to point Ober, when healthy put up some good numbers, but it was only 11 starts last year. In those 11 starts he averaged just over 5 innings, not great, but there was only 2 starts he did not go at least 5, a 3.2 where he left due to injury, and a 3.0. So even when he was not giving long starts he was pitching 5 plus. Over those 11 starts, he had 3.21 ERA with a 2.92 FIP. His K-rate was down from a year before, but he allowed much less hits too. If he could carry that through a full season, no way should he not be in the rotation. However, Maeda is the vet, has shown he can go deep into games, which has huge value if you can count on it. I actually would not be surprised if we break camp with a 6 man rotation like last year.

For a college arm he is about as much of a wild card you can get. We have little to nothing to judge him on other than SSS and high school. I am not hyped on him until I see something. Many top college arms full fizzle out quickly in pro ball, but then there are the diamond in the roughs that come up. He is neither so lets just wait and see, hopefully he can become a valued starter, or at worst a lefty out of the pen.

No team is ever out of it in April, nor can they win the division in April. I will agree starting off slow can be an issue, and it is likely they will not do well against the Astros or Yankees, as they never do, but even if they do, they will have plenty of time to right the ship.

I have many issues with this article. First, you label him a 5 tool hitting prospect, but he is not. He could be an elite hitter, but the 5 tools includes speed and defense. Miranda, as you point out, lacks those 2. Also, dropping weight is not due to him losing muscle, but losing body fat, which will increase his possible power and ability. Just because he is slimmer does not mean he will have less power. I mean look what being overweight did for Sano, it was not a good outcome.

I agree we should not be freaking out when facing lefties. I also agree, there are not a ton of LH starters to even worry about either. I just hope we do not see a pinch hit for a guy in the 5th with no one on against a LH pen guy by one of our better hitters against them, only to have to deal with a worse player later in the game. I am all for it in big spot, or late in game, but we would see Garlick subbed in early in games, then had to deal with his defense and at-bat later against RH guy in big spot later in game.

Teams will still shift, just not as extreme as they did before. You will see SS with like one inch to the left of 2nd. The 3rd baseman will still stand where they always did. The 2nd baseman will be the interesting one, but most likely it will depend on if someone is on base or not. If no one is on 1st they will be closer up the middle with the 1st baseman playing deep off the line, against slower guys. If someone is on, then the 2nd baseman will play deeper in the hole most likely. Everyone is thinking teams will go back to the "traditional" placement but that just will not happen.

My hope is Varland becomes the kind of guy that people just keep saying, how does he keep doing well, despite not having the normal velo, or movements we think. Maybe, just maybe, he will be a real pitcher that knows how to get guys out with location, change in speeds. I can say he will have more success then several of the top pitchers taken in his draft, which that right there is something to be happy about.

Many are saying he will be like Arraez, but he is not that much like Arraez, other than both had high OBP. with little Slugging. The big difference is Martin can steal bases. If he can get on base near a .400 clip or more, which he has done everywhere he has played but at AA last year, after Twins tried to get more power, he will have huge value near top of line up. If he can steal at high percentage he can get on base and steal second, basically same as double if no one was on base. Sure, adding some pop can be helpful, but not getting out and being able to steal bases is very helpful. Do not forget Marin had an injury last year that made him miss some time. When you look at what he did in September and Fall league, he is riding high, could it be SSS? Sure, but hopefully it is something to build off and carry into this year.

I remember when we drafted Canterino the big question for him was if his arm would hold up. He was coming from Rice, who seems to burn out their pitchers. Hopefully he can come back and be a top guy, but he may be destined for pen spot because of arm holding up.

I disagree. Could it end up being a mistake, maybe, but the reason stated because we kept Kepler and have too many left handed hitters is not a good reason. Not saying Kepler will become anything amazing, but years ago we let a left handed hitting guy go because we had too many lefties and kept Matthew LeCroy to be our DH/catcher to be the right handed hitter we needed. Well that never turned out well for us. I would never make a decision on a player simply because of if they hit right or left and the rest of the team hits a certain way.

I would say we can have the best defensive outfield, but that is only based on all three playing the OF. Based on lack of offense, Taylor is not likely to play every day, but more spell Buck or be late inning replacement. Gallo may not get as much time in the OF as we want, if we need him to fill in 1B. Overall, we should hopefully, (fingers crossed) have at least 2 top defenders in OF every day, if not 3.

It is that many runs saved since 2020 season, so it covers, 2020, 2021, and 2022. The fact that Buck played only half those games over that time shows how great he is on defense, if he can only stay on the field.

I wonder if Jose makes a similar climb that Emmanuel did last year. Not predicating that, but Emmanuel had worse rookie ball numbers at his age 17 year, but mainly by average only. Not comparing the two, but in MLB Emmanuel was ranked 21, had a huge season before injury, and now ranked 3. If Jose can step up and show similar power and contact, he will fly up the lists. I do not take much from how they are ranked at 16 years old. Many of the top international guys were not the top guy of their class, and guys like Soto were not big names but took off once came state side.

The way I see it is no deal was out there that the Twins found to be of good value for them. Also, without knowing health of all players we could be selling on a guy that may be needed. He could increase his value by having a good year under new anti-shift rules(I have long argued he will not increase offense that much if at all). I am fine keeping him, just glad we did not sell low on him just to get something.

I wonder if Marlins even fought it at that point, to make some good will for extension? You would think they could have came to agreement prior to hearing after the trade was made, not sure the rules on that though.

To address Ryan, you do not point out that he still had good games against non KC or Det, but his numbers were really blown up against non KC or Det by a few games. SD 10 runs in 4.2 innings will really affect that ERA. Then he had like 3 other games were he did not pitch well, giving up a run per inning over 4 or 5 innings. However, he still had quailty starts against Cleveland, Boston, Texas(one of the games he lost because Twins got shut out) Baltimore and Giants as well. The 6 worst starts was SD, Yankees, Dodgers, Houston, Boston, Seattle. All close to 9.00 ERA or higher with 5 or less innings pitched. The Yankees and Dodgers beat up everyone, scoring each scoring over 800 runs. Houston scored 737, 3rd in AL, Boston was 4th scoring 735(you did not mention he 6 innings giving up 1 run in one of the Boston starts), SD and Seattle were middle of road offenses. Outside of those, he gave up 3 or less runs. Yes, sometimes in only 4 innings, but he cannot control if Rocco pulls him after 70 plus pitches over 4 innings. If he goes out has 1 or 2 scoreless innings the numbers look a whole lot better. Rocco did not trust he would, but not like he got blown up. Yes, he beat up on worst offense in league, as he should. I would be more concerned if he got beat up by them. You claim he needs to show he can stop better offenses, but he did well against Boston in one game, and Cleveland, SF, Brewers, Texas, who all scored either close to 700 or more than 700 runs last year in the top half of the league. You suggest he never pitched well against a non bottom feeding offense, but KC even was not bottom, they were bottom half, but he had good games against top half offenses too. Every pitcher has some bad games, and if you take away all the good to great games, of course the pitcher will look bad. If he only won against Det or KC and was blown up by every other team, like you suggest, I would agree, but that simply is not true he had really 6 bad games out of 27, I would say 12 good to great games(compared to his others based on ER and innings pitched, he did not allow more than 1 ER in 12 games, not all were against KC and Det. That leaves 9 okay games giving up 2 to 3 runnings over 4 to 6 innings. He was slotted to be our 1 number guy out the gate, but he was still a rookie and did just fine against non bottom feeders. Was he an Ace no, but even Aces have bad games sometimes, and will feast on bad teams.

Comp round picks can be traded, regular round picks cannot, but the comp rounds can, and increasingly have been.

The main reason I have high hopes for Mirana, is he has shown growth, and willingness to work his ass off, and take coaching. Unlike some players that reject some coaching, he took huge strides over last few years when he took some coaching. He went from a fringe prospect to top guy simply by changing up a small approach at the plate. Now, he is getting in better shape and I expect him to continue to improve.

When you look at Gallo and his defense, looking just at defensive WAR is a poor way to judge his overall defense. First, the name itself is above replacement, meaning you are judging him to the average defender. So by definition, having a positive WAR makes him above average. Where he was been above average on defense is right field mainly. When you look at his seasons playing RF, he is actually the majority of his dWAR. The early part of his career he was playing 3rd, where he had negative defense, hence the move to OF. When you compare him to other well known or regarded defending right fielders, he is on par with them. For the most part even the best defensive right fielders are still only a plus 1 to 2 dWAR in any given season. Left field is similar. It is the CF that makes a huge difference in dWAR. However, I think dWAR for an outfielder is hard to really quantify. Think about it, how do you really measure it? When a guy guns someone out do we give them a plus .1? What happens if no one runs on them because their arm is too good? Does that get you any plus or since no one tried we really cannot quatify? How about throwing to wrong base allowing a guy to advance do we give a negative .1 for that? I think most of what BR for dWAR looks into for it is range and the like, if you look at how they measure it that seems to be the way they go, as it is based on defensive runs saved, and zone rating, two different metrics. I believe they do not look a ton at the little things a guy can do for defense. No one is saying Gallo is a super high all time defender, but when you compare him to many others, he is better than most. His strike outs are an issue, but he still walks a ton, it is not like he is just up there 3 pitches sit back on the bench.

I think they have done a pretty good job of addressing many of the issues. The biggest thing for Twins will be health though. We have depth at SP, and at positions. The Taylor deal is much bigger than some will think. His ability to play CF when Buck is hurt or needs a day off to keep him healthy means we are not marching out sub par defense. If our new trainer can keep the guys on the field more at high level, I think we will be a decent team.

I think fans need to remember that very few FA actually live up to their multi year deals. First, most do not become FA until the tail end of their careers, and some big name players never make it to FA because their team retains them, or they are traded to a team that extends them. Yes, there is normally 1 bigger name each year that does reach FA, and some more than that. However, it is not common place. There are about 6 teams that can take on bad long term contracts and write it off, outside of them, just about every team needs to be very risk adverse as to who they spend on. Every team needs young guys to come up to make their team work. I cannot think of 1 team that is mainly built from big FA signings. Even guys that have big long term deals, quite a few were traded first. The main teams I can think that has built a large amount of team from FA signings are Mets and Padres, but even them it is not as much as you may think. Angels would continue to try, but have failed, and really they should be the model to not follow. They routinely make the wrong long term signings of big name FA. It started with Albert, and went on from there. Not that he was bad the whole time, but he never moved the needle enough. They have brought in big name after big name for a long stretch, only to now waste the best player of our generation in non-playoff games. Any time I read comments, or articles about needing to make bigger long term deals, I point out how bad the Angels have done it. People forget that baseball cannot be changed by 1 single player. It is not like football where a top QB can make huge difference, or even more so in NBA where 1 guy can fully change a bad team to a good team. No one signing will ever swing a team from bad to good, it takes several players and depth.