gunnarthor

He's the only young arm that I think fans should realistically be excited about. He can be a legit ML starter. Probably not an all-star but he should have a solid career.

That was a really fun game to watch. I thought Auburn was going to bury us and I didn't think we'd have any chance of scoring 30+ points. Really good win for the program. I'm not sure how the rest of the top 20 played out but it seems like the Gophers should finish the season in the top 15 and should push Wisconsin next year.

The most confident I've ever been going into a season was 2011. We had just come off a 94 win season and we had knocked the White Sox out (they were 12 games back with 10 to play) and we'd have a healthy Morneau and Mauer coming back. Delmon Young, at 24, finally put it all together and we could reasonably expect him to take another step forward. Liriano had finally gotten over his surgery and became the ace we expected. Valencia stepped up and was manning third base efficiently and a solid bat in the bottom half of the order. None of our core players had a "career season" (or so we thought). We might have won 101 games last year but I don't think last year's Twins were as good as the 2006 or 2010 Twins. There is a lot of regression on this team and currently our pitching staff is pretty wobbly. It's too early to panic but I think the idea that the Sox, Twins and Cleveland are all pretty close and anyone could win the central is probably accurate. Now we can change that between now and opening day. And certain things could break right and make the season a laugher (mainly a fully healthy and productive season from Buxton) but right now, it's closer than some of us want to admit.

I said at the outset that I thought the Twins would follow the Rays bullpen rotation path and that looks like what they are doing. They've made some good additions to the pen in Romo and Clippard. I think they might make one or two more additions like them. They won't sign Donaldson but they might sign either a defensive first MIer to move our infield around a bit (Sano at first, Polanco to second, FA at short and Arreaz at third) or sign a stop gap first baseman until one of our young prospects is ready to come up. We're obviously not at the level of the Yankees or Astros and a few bad breaks could have the Sox catch up with us but we should still be favored to win 90 games and get into the playoffs without jeopardizing the future with bad contracts or trading away impact prospects. Essentially, this FO is following the Ryan model. We'll see if they can do it as well.

Solid move and I expect a few more like this. I think we're going to load up on solid bullpen arms that can throw 65-70 innings and sort of give a bullpen day to the rotation. If the Twins can't compete and get the top starters, maybe they follow the Rays method and acquire a quantity of rubber arms.

I think that stride is far too long. I'm sure the Twins instructors and Lewis know that this and they are working on it. My guess is that the talent is too good to hold back and he becomes an all-star third baseman for us.

I think one of the problems we've had so far in the Falvine era is that, outside of the Odorizzi trade, it's hard to name the next best trade. Maybe this is it? Dunno. I don't like this trade. Ynoa looks like a potential strong bullpen arm that would be better than Littell, who has about 50 innings on him in the majors. I always forget that Littell is so young (24 next year) and that's good for him but I don't like his stuff. He wasn't used in many high leverage spots (except the playoffs) and he wasn't used that much overall last year. I'd rather have Ynoa. But hopefully, Littell proves me wrong.

Interesting article from Barrons. Should be free to view. https://www.barrons.com/articles/the-10-best-stocks-for-2020-51576285200 I have a small bit of pfizer in my IRA but none of the rest. The u-haul stock is an interesting idea.

I think Donaldson would be a good addition. If we can't get one of the big time pitchers - and we can't - I think he'd be my first position player I'd want. But he's also probably out of our price range. I think the idea of trading or finding a few diamonds in the rough is the more likely scenario.

I'm worried that Auburn crushes us but if the Gophers could pull this off, I think it would do wonders for recruiting and really help the program develop.

I read an ESPN article that predicted the Gophers would play Alabama on Jan 1 in the Outback bowl. Wouldn't that be something? I think they'd crush us but still, playing Alabama on Jan 1? Yes, please.

I'm convinced that this is what the Twins are going to do.

It's a solid move for a bench player. Good for us.

This is a really good run down. Well done. Agree nearly 100%.

I won't complain if the Twins nab him. (He was my #2 choice after Buxton in 2012). I'm not sure why he was so bad last year but if the Twins think they can fix him, go for it.

White Sox aren't there yet - their a bit older than i thought, actually. I think they can be .500 and if they can be .500, they can overachieve and push for 90 wins if everything breaks right. But unless the Twins really stumble, or the Sox make another major addition or two, Twins should be expected to win 90.

Here's Clemson's schedule - https://www.espn.com/college-football/team/schedule/_/id/228 Texas A&M was ranked (12) at the time but fell out of the top 25. I don't see any other ranked teams. Maybe I'm missing something or the teams became ranked afterwards? I think the Gophers fit well in the top 15ish tier and have a puncher's chance against a handful of teams in the tier above them but would get blown away by the truly great teams that will be in the playoffs. I imagine Ohio State will put up 50+ against Wisconsin again in the Big 10 championship game.

Didn't they have a New Year's bowl a few years ago under Kill when they weren't even ranked? I agree with your general premise about the strength of schedule but I would argue that Georgia Southern was a bit better than awful. They did knock of a top 20 team and finished with a winning record.

Not a great game but i think this board might be a bit harsh. I don't think any of us thought this was a top 10 team coming into the season but we will finish 10-2 with a bowl game yet. Our two losses were a blowout today and a very winnable game against a ranked Iowa team that we looked like the better team for most of that game. I think the Gopher's future looks better than anytime since at least the Mason era but probably since Lou. Agree that the team wasn't able to make adjustments and really surprised they didn't target Batman more but Wisconsin was the better team, period. I'm unimpressed with our big OL.

Jeter, Walker, Kent, Rolen, Jones, Schilling. Scott Rolen missed a lot of games with injuries over the years but he should be in the Hall.

I don't think the Twins will pay Donaldson and they little FA money they spend will probably go to bullpen arms. I think the infield will be pretty similar to last years infield.

I don't believe I've ever written a positive statement about the Pohlad family. I'm not as negative on Falvey and Levine although I'm not quite ready to say that they are good at their jobs either. I think, as others noted, Falvey has done a nice job changing coaching philosophies etc but I'm not sure Levine has done a good job at roster management, FA signings, etc. But I'm certainly not ready to call for either of them to be fired.

This seems like another pro-FO piece without a lot to back it up. The FO didn't trade Dozier when his value was at it's peak and threw in the towel at the trade deadline that year as well. Smeltzer is a bullpen and Raley might be a 4th OFer. Escobar is probably the best trade here in that Duran has some real potential as a #3 type (which is a good thing). I don't know how anyone can say the Pressly trade was good. Alaca is 25 years old now and put up nearly a 6.00 era in AA. Pressly is one of the best relievers in the game. Chalmers isn't anything to get excited about. He's 23 and thrown 20 innings above low A ball and has serious control problems. Not a lot of upside there. Last year the Twins had 10 players amass at least 2 WAR. This FO acquired only 3 of them (Cruz, Odorizzi and Pineda). I liked the Schoop and Gonzalez signings last year, Cron was a good pickup and I like that the FO hired Rocco and decided to go with Garver instead of signing someone else to play with Castro. Those were all good moves. But this FO also traded away Huascar Ynoa (who made the majors at 21 for Atlanta) and while they've made a number of trades, they have yet to trade for a top 100 prospect and Jake Cave is the only guy that's managed more than even a 1 WAR season in the majors. I'm not saying our FO is a failure but so far most of their moves haven't done much, although they've made a lot more moves than normal. They didn't understand when they had an opportunity in 2017, didn't do anything to reinforce this team at the deadline this year. There is value in letting guys like Polanco and Kepler play instead of replacing them and those moves look great now. But most of the success is because of the players, not the FO or ownership.

Wheeler's in a great place and he'll get paid. Too many teams need pitching but can't afford Cole or Strasburg so they'll go hard on Wheeler. One team will pay him more than what anyone expects. I'm not sure he gets that sixth year but I'd be very surprised if his AAV is less than 23.5m.

I'm rooting for him but I think in the end he's a solid bench player. My guess is that Nick Gordon plays most games at second base for the Twins after July next year.