gunnarthor

Yeah, 24-25 in three years with that group? The owner hinted that there was some "key dynamics" weren't working. Could be that he wants a high profile coach (Harbaugh) or that Flores and the owner didn't see eye-to-eye on their QB? Looking at the Dolphins SN site, fans seem pretty angry over the move while mentioning that Flores had trouble putting a staff together. Even though he's a defensive minded coach, I think I have him #1, too.

Three 4th and 1 and they throw on all three. Wow.

Wow, a really bad coach

Nagy is a bad, bad coach.

I think tanking is not trying to win the game. Can be done a lot of ways - play players out of position, don't play your best players or put in players who aren't ready, use only a small part of your game plan, etc. Vikings weren't tanking when they inserted Darrisaw into the starting lineup but probably would be if they inserted Mond. But to each his own, perhaps.

Daboll? Interesting, why?

This is probably better for the 2022 thread - list of potential head coaches from dailynorseman. Off their list, Mayo seems intriguing.

The biggest concern to me is how the owners have manipulated service time. So I think it should be a year shorter now.

Of the three, I think Sevirino is the most likely to have a Miranda like break out but that's partly because Martin is already so highly regarded. But Sevirino has always been a hit first prospect and I think the game is changing back to that. (I honestly think some team will roll the dice on him in the rule v). He finished the year pretty well at Cedar Rapids.

It's an interesting question and brings up what it means to "be in the HOF." Bonds, Clemens, ARod are all in the HOF in that all of them have had exhibits about them and or their accomplishments and or their teams. You can go to the HOF and watch video of Jack Morris long before he was "in the HOF." So, does "in the HOF" only mean he needs a plaque gallery? If so, I'd say he probably shouldn't be in the HOF. But I would certainly enjoy an exhibit that touches on him and other players who had physical disabilities and the challenges they faced.

It's amazing how much the tanking philosophy has ingrained itself into fan bases. I'm not saying you're wrong but the idea of hoping the Chicago Bears (!!) beat the Vikings for draft position, or to start someone who isn't ready, would have blown 16 year old me away.

If you look at the match-ups from 02-10, the Twins averaged something like 92-93 wins each year and their opponents averaged about 100 (A's 103 and 93, Angels 99, Yankees 101, 101, 103 and 95), The 2010 team went into the playoffs with 25% of their payroll on the DL against the 95 win Yankees. We just didn't have the depth to play with them. The only series they should have won in that period was 06 against the A's. Statistically, the Twins outhit the A's in the three game series but even that year, injuries affected the team. Liriano was out and Radke was pitching with a torn labrum. Boof Bosner and Jose Mijares stood up huge for us down the stretch. 06 is the one that we should have won. The '17 wildcard game was too freakish. Buxton got hurt in the 1st inning, we knocked out their ace before they knocked out our ace. If the ump hadn't given Didi four strikes, who knows what happens in that game. Anything can happen in a one game playoff but their pen out-played ours. 19 and 20 are different. We weren't completely outclassed in either. In 20, Houston actually had a losing record, which will be a strange * in Twins history. But our bats just didn't show up in that series. Houston was better than their record but we were better than them. But it was a strange season so maybe we weren't as good as our record either. The Yankee series in 2019 was just ugly. Their hitters made Berrios throw 88 pitches in just four innings, a big error on Cron, and our pen couldn't hold anything. Game 2 we started Dobnak and no playoff team should do that. Game 3 we were already defeated and the pen gave up a lot more runs. I think the main two problems we have always had are 1) depth and 2) bullpen. Depth is more an ownership issue rather than a FO issue. The Twins have had to start guys like Duensing, Dobnak, Blackburn and Bosner in important playoff games. The Yankees, Dodgers, Red Sox don't do that. They pay for depth. Our irstwhile ace coming into this year was a bullpen arm for the Dodgers. The bullpen is a similar issue, if you can't pay for pitching, you have to rely on guys on journeymen contracts or rookie contracts. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't. But the Twins have so little room for error that it makes competing in the post-season harder. An injury to one bullpen arm moves everyone up a slot and into higher leverage situations then they are used to. Remember, the Astros had pitching issues, they went out and traded for Verlander. We will never do that.* The Tigers looked at their rebuild, liked what they saw, and have added significantly this offseason with more likely to come. We won't do that. I don't think this FO can get us over the hump but others will differ. This FO has already failed to keep the window of opportunity open for the core they inherited. I don't see them getting the Twins to the playoffs next year and suspect they'll be fired after the season. * In fact, ownerships decades long BS about payroll and cost has made it harder for the FO to make 'win-now' type trades as the fanbase went crazy over the Ramos and Jepsen trades.

I have to say, one of the things I had liked about baseball was that the journalists were often able to be free. It isn't like the NFL where you don't get access if you're critical. Rosenthal, Heyman, Verducci, etc are fantastic, knowledgeable, league-wide journalists who have done excellent reporting over the years. I really hope that doesn't go away.

I'm not a fan of this FO but I can't believe they are done addressing pitching yet. They must have a trade in store. We have 30+ years of Pohlad ownership so I'll never blame the FO on payroll issues, which is what I think is stopping them from going after many of these arms. Falvey was hired to build a pitching pipeline, not rely on free agents. That's exactly why the Pohlad's hired him. We'll see if he can create one.

Good grief. Hopefully, they can get through protocols in time. Slotting in three new O-Line starters against the Bears would be really, really bad.

Having seen Bradbury's play, I'm not sure letting him play TE, blocking FB, etc isn't a bad idea every now and then. Faster than i would have thought.

As I said, I'm sure Zimmer is gone. I'm ok with that but I won't trash him. I liked him a lot better than Childress and Frazier. Let him coach one more week. Cousins. I'm done with him but I don't think he has much trade value and his cap number in a trade is huge. I think they have to keep him around another year, unfortunately. If they could move him, do it. On Spielman, I'm torn. He's certainly had some good drafts and he usually has been able to work wonders with the cap, so I'm not sure if should stay or go. Basically, I'll be ok either way. I do hope the Vikings have an internal answer to this question: "Why can't we have a good o-line? Is it failure at developing players or a scheme issue with the players we have?"

Defense played a solid first quarter

I think you're pretty much right. I hope whoever is in charge next rebuilds both lines. On the plus side, I think both Bynum and Wonnan could be solid starters relatively soon and Irv Smith could be a real asset in the right offense.

I, sadly, pretty much agree with all of this article by Souhan. https://www.startribune.com/vikings-should-dump-kirk-cousins-covid-vaccine-positive-trouble-jim-souhan/600131692/

I've enjoyed the Zimmer era and will remember it quite fondly after the Frazier and Childress years but it's time to move on. I don't blame him for not starting a rookie QB on the road on a nationally televised game against the best team in the NFC. Mond would be destroyed. We'll get plenty of Zimmer-ball, rush upon rush, hoping our defense can somehow limit the Packers offense. Gads, this game will suck where we probably lose 20-3 and everyone thinks "had Cousins played ...".

What a cruddy decision by Cousins. Completely preventable. Now, with our luck, Cook gets injured because he'll get tackled every play.

It's moves like this that make me think the Twins FO simply can't accurately measure their own prospects' talent. Every team makes bad trades now and then but this FO keeps getting burned. Anyhow, good for Wade.

Your grades are fine. Of this group, I'm most confident in Kiriloff. He'll be a solid bat, occasional all-star, for us. Just a solid hitter. I think Rortvedt ends up with a very long MLB career, like most glove-first catchers. But, man, his bat was so bad. He has to get better. I suspect he will. (Seriously, Kiriloff, Rortvedt, Baddoo, Miranda, Jax, Balazovic all in the first 5 rounds of the 2016 draft. Nice draft). I'm not usually the type to worry about Larnich. Rookies struggle, he's a slugger, he'll be ok. But he's a bit older than I'd want (COVID probably affected his and Gordon's career the most). Ideally, he's a middle of the order bat and, at times, looked it. But I'd also consider trading him before all the shine wears off his prospect status for some pitching. I was impressed with Gordon's defense, speed, and versatility. But his bat was poor. He has to improve to be Nick Punto. Good bench player, perhaps, but certainly not a future all-star at short that we had envisioned. I think Ryan is a legit starting pitcher. I'm not sure how the Twins will use him - 5 inning games, 130 inning season? Or will they let him develop into a more traditional pitcher? But he had a great rookie season for us and no reason to kill any optimism toward him. Ober is probably more a bullpen-game type pitcher where he doesn't get exposed. Solid rookie season but I don't think we should expect much more from him.