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I think they will have to be more aggressive after the CBA, but I do not mind waiting until after the CBA to make FA signing moves. We do not know what the CBA will look like and how that may affect contracts going forward. The owners and players were so far apart on ideas it would be hard to think the status quo is going to happen. We will see how they act coming out after the lock out ends, when it ends.

Jason Tyner, the 1 HR wonder. A first round pick from Mets that ended up with Twins getting his 1 career HR in over 1300 career at-bats. I remember it was in Cleveland and barely made it out. How about Dave Hollins, who we traded for future HOF David Ortiz, lets not mention it was not because of Ortiz time with Twins though. I fondly remember Midre Cummings too, because he hit a walk off extra inning hit against Cleveland at the dome, when I was there with good seats as a teenager on dollar dog night, the first year they had it and there was no limit. We were terrible team, and Cleveland was winning divisions over and over, so the walk off win was sweet end to like 4 hot dog night.

First ballot for Ortiz shows the voters no longer care about the DH thing at all. For a long time, DH guys were never in because voters felt they were not real players as all they did was hit. If they were a DH most of their career they would be dogged for it. I felt Ortiz would get in, but was not thinking first ballot. I agree with the article that Ortiz may not have had same HOF path if Twins kept him. Not only did he hit well during season, but he was a post season monster that may not have happened in the Twins line up, but maybe would have. I wanted Twins to keep Ortiz and felt he was going to be great when he could stay healthy, he kept having hand and wrist issues with Twins, holding him back. When he was released it was not like every team jumped on him. From what I recall he was a later signing with Boston, and was not brought in as a starter. He actually did not get much time at first. He only played in 128 games, still finished top 5 MVP votes. He was not a starter to being season, but eventually took over as full time guy. He split a lot of time between 1b and Dh at that time too. Should Twins have kept him, for sure, and I said that at the time. However, it is not like at the time every team was jumping to bring in Ortiz. Maybe it was his health, as he never broke the 130 games with Twins, or maybe it was the park, or coaching staff, but he clearly was a different player with Sox.

Personally I do not think shifting guys to pen for health reasons is the way to go. Unless you plan to give them always 1 day off or more between outings. I do not believe the way an arm works is it has only so many throws before it breaks down, maybe it does work that way, not a doctor. However, the modern pen guy is expected to pitch around 1/3 to 1/2 the amount of innings a starter throws. However, they also are expected to throw in higher leverage situations, less warming up, and they have many times they will warm up and not come into a game as well. I believe for some the wear and tear on arm can be similar. Now I am not saying there is not possible evidence that having a guy come out of pen will help get more overall innings over a career, and possibly more important ones as well. However, I think most that transition well, like Perkins, it is because the limit their pitch mix and give more to each pitch. He once said he felt he could go all out each batter because did not have to save himself for later in the game.

You can blame the owners for waiting the 43 days to send proposal as an issues, however, I blame both sides for how we got here, and how it will go. Unlike in NBA or NFL where owners and players understand that when they work together to make a better product it will bring more money into the league and more money to share. Those leagues know if you make a larger pie each will get more pie no matter how you cut. MLB and players do not care how big the pie is, they want to larger slice and do not care that their slice is smaller because they made the pie smaller due to their own issues. The players have proposed things, that they claim is for helping make the overall product better, but it really is just to put more money into top players pockets, and allowing the top market teams to load up on more talent. The owners continue to want to pay the least amount they can. If the players and owners really care about having competitive games, balance of teams, and keeping players in home grown teams to help build fans support of players, they would work on a hybrid agreement between NBA and NFL. The problem is, the players will never agree to a cap, but they are demanding a floor. How can you expect there to be a floor without a cap. In other leagues they have them, and they are based on league revenue, where the players will get a percent of the money teams make. If I was an owner of say Tampa Bay, I would be 100 percent against a floor, without a cap. This is because the high market teams could outbid for the top talents as they do already, forcing the lower teams to pay more for lessor talent, because you have to spend it. This is does not help balance. Also, what if the floor is above what a small market team makes because the players want to get rid of the revenue sharing that goes on as well. I have long said this will be a long stoppage that will go into the season. This is because both sides want to win against the other, and not come up with something that is best for both. Fans want to see the best talent at the MLB level, and want to see their teams compete late into seasons. This is best done when talent is spread across teams, not all in one team. This is also best done when there is little incentive of teams to keep talent in the minors until they have built up enough to make a push. Tanking is not an issue in baseball, as the number 1 picks are never for sure MLB players. However, teams will not try to win and keep top players in minors, not using up years of control, if they know they have little chance of making playoffs. The problem is neither side can see how bad this will be for both until it is too late.

It is hard to compare 2 guys from 2 different eras and one that played a much shorter career and played very different positions. If you look at just offense Carew was better overall. However, Puckett played CF. The metrics may not like him all that much, gold gloves back then went so often to high offense guys that would make a high light play now and again without any major errors. However, he still played it at least to a point that people felt was above average defender. Carew played two of the lower defense positions. 1b was the place you stuck a guy because you wanted his offense but defense was lacking so just asking him to mostly catch it. That to me is where Puckett starts to catch back up. Where I decide Puckett would get the edge just barely is what he did in the playoffs. Even taking away his Game 6 stuff, he was awlays willing to take the big moment and do what he could to carry the team. He did not buckle under the pressure of post season. Not saying Carew did, but his numbers were much worse. You could not go wrong with either on a team in their prime, if I had to pick one though, Puckett would get the nod just barely for me.

His overall offense was not the problem. It is 1, his drop in defense, which was a main reason we targeted him because he was going to be good defense at 3rd. Now, he is below average at 3rd and most likely will be playing a lot of time at DH. His slugging is lower than expected in part because he cannot run. I know he is choosing to not run to stay on the field because his calfs could act up anytime he runs faster than mock turtle. You can live with no speed if he starts hitting more HR, not that 26 is terrible, but he hits at top of line up and will fully clog the bases. I will never want him on base in front of Buxton because that will take away Buxton's speed if Donaldson is on base. I would like to see Josh hitting after Buxton though. I think people were just down on Donaldson because he was a big contract, but not thinking about he is pretty much what we were hoping for on offense, just taking a step back on defense is a big issue and his complete lack of running to keep him healthy.

Is there a consensus that playing SS is what caused Polonco's injury issues and that playing 2nd base will make it that much less likely he will have them? I am not saying we need to move Polonco back, but when healthy his bat plays well anywhere, and despite being below average defense, his bat is above average to level it out. Now, if there is a strong belief by the medical staff that SS is what led to the ankle issues then I would agree to keep him off of SS.

To go along with the fact Greene could have been SS as mentioned, he also pitched in LA for high school. Scouts will always look at areas kids play as well. Petty pitched out east where the best player in the world once played but dropped late in the first round as well, because scouts worry about the big fish little pond thing. This would be even more of an issue with a guy like petty who throws so hard. Very few people can hit that speed, so put him in an area where talent is considered lower, there is concern he is just looking good against less talent.

Without knowing the definition of "current prospect" I cannot answer. If it means any player that could qualify still for a ROY award. I would say 10 or more. It may take a long time, but I would say at least 10 pitchers in the system will either get 750 innings or 200 appearances over their careers. It may not be with the Twins that whole time though. That is because, someone needs to pitch those innings. If it is required with the Twins, or need to be on some prospect list right now, then much harder to predict.

That might depend on what the lawyers for the MLB think if their will be possible legal issues. I doubt for spring training games there will be, but no one on the MLB 40 man rosters can be there, and only minor league contract guys can be. Where the real question comes in is if the lockout continues to end of spring, will the teams look to use minor league replacement players, which would under cut the minor leagues and what if any legal implications that might have.

I read an interesting article after the minor league season was over on how the rule changes they tried worked out. The article had in depth discussion about the robo umps in the minors. I have long been a supporter of the robo umps, but that article did raise a lot of things I had not thought. It even showed some pitches no one would think was a strike called a strike, and other pitches many would think is a strike a ball. The main issue was how the tech works is they need to develop the zone and decide where a ball entering it will be decided a strike. It was adjusted for the second half the season. I still in full support of the robo zone, to have consistency, if nothing else. However, I do think it may take a few years to fine tune in the minors and ST games to get the zone they want to move forward with.

The pitchers scare me the most that neither had surgery. I see all the time players trying to rehab for several months, only to need the TJ surgery and be out another year. I am no doctor, and I am sure the research is there to support the rehab rout, but it just does not seem to work out all that often.

There is a lot of things that go into those rankings. Also, they mean nothing as to how the player will actually be when they arrive. One of the main reason for the drop is not that he is not expected to still be good at the MLB level, but that he is now older and younger guys have come in to move ahead of him. Anyone ahead of him does not mean they will now be better than him at the top level. I am not concerned about his drop in rankings, I am only concerned if he can stay healthy and get to the MLB level and produce.

Also when a team wants to induct people each year for the promotional weekend, eventually, you get very slim pickings. I am not saying it needs to be as hard to get in as baseball HOF, but there is not a need to induct at least 1 each year.

For the right price I would look to bring him back for a 2 year extension, maybe third with team option. However, I would not price him out as a "closer" but as a high leverage lefty. I do not see him as a closer in the future. Many supporters of him say he had "bad luck" but if it happens over and over is it bad luck? Having a couple blown saves on a weak contact hits you can say is bad luck, but he has had several over the last couple years. Also, he has not been great on back to back games, something you need from a closer. He can be a late inning lefty guy that can get some righties out, but I think his days as the "closer" is over and you should not pay him like a closer.

Other than control, specifically on slider, and developing his change up, he does not seem to have much to work on. That slider moves like crazy. I hope that if he can have good control, he should only be in minors for a couple of years to build up arm strength for building up innings. However, really it is keeping those legs strong to keep that velo up. When you can have that velo if you can spot and get that kind of movement on slider he can be really nasty. I see no real point to have someone "develop" in minors if have the stuff to get MLB hitters out.

The only way you sign him is to just wrap up the arbitration years, but do not buy out any FA years. I would not even buy out the arbitration years though. He is on the wrong side of 30 and will drop off production really fast, like most players but catchers generally drop off faster.

There is a new football league starting up again in April. I am sure they would love no baseball going on so they only have to compete with Hockey and Basketball at the time. Overall, I fully expected missed games. I think both sides still believe they can win the fan base on their side, not understanding the fans do not care. In the end both sides will lose out on money because fan will stop watching out of principle or just found other things to watch. Both sides are set for mutual destruction.

I object to Gardenhire, other than his long time in the organization I have long not liked Gardenhire when he managed. I cannot deny the team did overall well while he was manager, but he was about as plug and play manager there was. He did have a short time where he thought outside the box when he had Jones be lead-off but other than that he hated trying new things that could have helped team actually win the playoffs. I always felt he was very overrated as a manager. I would totally watch the induction if Joe West could show up just to eject him though. I do not think a single series that Joe West did with Gardy did Gardy not get ejected at least one of the games.

This is a good way to look at it. Although the current FO did not bring in some of the talent, they decide what to do with what is there. Do they change it up via trade, or releasing players? Who do they bring in to manage and coach them, or do they keep who was there. Once the past FO is gone they make no more decisions. Just because Ryan left some talent in the system does not mean the current FO had to keep them around.

I would say they similar to others is it hard to put a number on it. You could even include Bill Smith in there as he signed Polonco, Sano, and Kepler, and was part of draft that took Eddie, and I am sure a few other pieces could be tracked back to him. However, the current FO changed up the coaching staff and the development levels. Of course the development changes will not have much impact for those 2 seasons, but the change in coaching most likely had some level of impact. Also, Buxton had more sustained offense under those coaches, so there is a good chance that had an impact. Did Ryan leave the team with some good talent, yes he did, and he was always an overall good judge of talent, of course plenty of misses in his history, but who does not have that in baseball. My biggest issue for years was how behind the times they were on technology and analytics. I am not a 100% analytics guy, but using more data to make more informed decisions, like where to set up a defense or pitch someone is never a bad thing. Those are the changes the current FO made that have impacted the team. The few trades they made for pitching helped as well, but of course they had some misses with signings, trades, as all FO do.

As I say with all trades if price is right I am in. I would never invest much in a pen pitcher though. You never know how they will be from year to year. Only the top top guys have long sustained great pitching out of the pen.

No player is off-limits for the right price. If there is a great deal to be had then pull the trigger, but do not just move him for a meh player because you believe you have depth. I know fans wish he had more power, but his ability to put ball in play all over the field and work counts does not come around often. He is not the same type of hitter, but his path reminds me so much of Jose Altuve. Both were overlooked because of stature and lack of power. Altuve had very little pop early in his career but just kept on getting hits and made his way into lineup. He eventually learned how to hit with some power and got some MVP votes. First double digit HR season was his age 25 season with 15. Will Arraez develop power? I do not know, but he is entering his age 25 season now. His swing does not suggest he will ever be a 20 plus HR guy, but if he can learn some power to keep defenses honest so his line drives land in there and OF does not cheat in a ton. I personally think it is easier to teach a contact guy how to have more power, than a power guy how to get more contact. Maybe he stays as just a .350 plus OBP with ..400 slugging about. I would be willing to send that out in the line up regularly.

International signings are even more of a crap shoot than most drafts. They are so young and you have no real clue how they will grow and develop. It used to be you also had no clue how old they really were too, but that seems to be less of issues these days. Here is to hoping one of them work out well, or like the Sano, Polonco, Kepler trio all make the majors. Some years you hit jackpots, and some years you swing and miss.