minn55441

Nice Post, I agree. The offense has been good and the runs will eventually come. I can see a scenario where our pitching remains this poor, but as you mentioned, we will have a clean slate at the end of the year with a lot of money to remedy the problem. I hope we can stay within 5-8 games of first through August, but if not, perhaps we trade some pieces for some pitching prospects.

Through 21 Games the Twins are 6-15. We knew this was going to be a rough start to the season because of the schedule. Take a closer look, we are 1-1 against central division opponents and we are only 5.5 back of first, more importantly we are only 4.5 behind the Tigers. Forget the record, if you were told on opening day, that we would only be trailing the Tiger's by 4.5 games after this opening stretch of games most of us would have been very encouraged. We have a shot of competing this year. What is more surprising that Baltimore leads the East? That Boston trails the East with a Losing record? How about the fact that the Angels are last in the West trailing both Oakland and Seattle by 3.5 games and a shocking 9.5 out of first before the first of May? Will these trends continue? My take is that, Texas is the one team that was projected to be strong and has looked every bit as good advertised. They win the west. The Angels will recovery and may land one of the two wild card spots. The Tigers will recover and still win the Central going away. The East is loaded as expected and I still think Tampa will rise to the top and leave the Yankees, Boston and the Angels to fight it out for the 2 Wild card spots. I still think the Twin's make it to .500

I really like Ben and think he has a shot to be an everyday big league outfielder. He is also still very young and needs be somewhere that will allow him to get at bats every day. Right now that means AAA. Willingham and span have two outfield spots locked up. That means one outfield spot is open at the major league level. Currently these games will be split between Ploufe, Parmele, Clete Thomas and Doumit. I agree that he brings energy to the club and he is fun to watch, however if he is going to fulfill his potential, he needs to get 400 to 500 at bats this summer. He won't get them in Minnesota. He has a real chance to develop into a .280+ hitter at the major league level and the only way to get there is by continuing to play everyday. I agree that this year may be a losing one for the Twins, so why ruin a young players development by giving him spot starts throughout the summer? Over the next 2 to 3 years, we will have Benson, Hicks and Revere among others fighting for a starting spot on the Twins. Let's make sure Ben has every opportunity to enter into that competition. By keeping him in the big leagues now, we are just limiting his development.

Mike, The differance was that after the 2011 season Ryan was named GM midstream. Billy was still running the show up until after the organizational meetings. Also we had all of these starting pitchers under contract. In my mind his hands were tied. He couldn't trade them. I don't think he was prepared to eat the salary when they had a chance to preform at a higher level. When this season ends, Ryan will have a clean slate, with only Blackburn under contract. How he fills out our starting rotation will determine our course over the next several seasons. If he tries to fill all of the starting pitcher spots through the draft we are in for 5 or 6 years of losing baseball. If he can sign one of two quality starters as FA's and then work out a trade or two to fill the remaining spots we could quickly return to a competitive team again. We need to take pitchers in the draft, I just feel the odds are pretty low that we can pick up a pitcher that will make an impact within a year or two.

Is this the era of the new and improved Terry Ryan? Now that he actually has some money to spend will it change his approach to creating a roster? 2013 we have 1 starting pitcher under contract. I don't see us filling out the rotation from within. How much money will be devoted to FA's? I don't think any pitcher taken in this years draft will be part of the 2013 rotation. It would be nice if we could count of Wimmers and Gibson, but they are both big question marks. I would like to see us take Zunino with the #2 overall pick and then start loading up on arms, both College or younger for the seasons 2015 on out. The starting pitchers we need from a competitive 2013 need to come from outside the organization. Whether we aquire them through trade or free agency, it's up to Ryan to find a balance between value and price we have to pay.

Sano will not be with the Twin's in 2014. He still needs a lot of work. He has hit a few home runs, but he is far from major league ready. Keep Danny at 3B until we have a better option. Right now we don't have a better option.

I think Gardy wants to find a right fielder and we don't have one on this roster. Plouffe is an athletic SS that was forced into the outfield. Doumit is a catcher that is still nimble enough to run around and catch the ball. Parmalee is 1B that is still young enough to run around and catch the ball. Revere is an outfielder but has no power and a below avg arm for right field. Did I miss anyone? Clete is an outfielder and is above average in the field, both in terms of his arm and his range. It is yet to be determined if he can cut it at the plate. He only has 13 At bats for us. I think Gardy wants to give him a real shot, just to see what he can do. If it clicks for him in Minnesota and he turns into a .280, 20 HR guy, great for him great for us. We just got the steal of the year. If it turns out that he is a career 4th outfielder or late inning defensive replacement, at least they gave him a shot. I really didn't follow his career with the Tiger's, but he got 116 AB's in 2008 with 1 HR .772 OPS and 275 Ab's in 2009 with 7 HR .709 OPS Nothing since 2009. I'm sure TR and Gardy had a talk before they ever picked him up and decided the kid needs a shot. Give him 100AB's maybe 200AB playing every day. If he makes it great, if not it was worth the risk. In my mind there is a big difference between getting 200 at bats spread out over an entire season, many of them as a pinch hitter, rather than the chance to play every day and get 25 to 30 at bats per week.

I am starting to think I would rather have him come up and replace Lexi. He can really make some bad plays. 1) Ugliest bunt of the season tonight. 2) Throw from doumit bounces off his glove into center field 3) error at second leads to run in the 6th, next play he doesn't get to first to cover on a bunt? Gardy used to play second, this has to drive him nuts.

Would you trade Sano for Matt Moore of the Rays? I would in a heartbeat. Would you give up Benson and Hicks for Strasburg? It's difficult to get good pitching. This past offseason Oakland was trading away many of their good young arms, in my mind we don't have many of these elite arms in our system, but we do have a lot of potential in our young bats. How many of these prospects will actually make to the all-star level in the majors? 20%? 40%? Some teams trade for potential, others trade for performance. In the past we haven't done much trading at all, I'm just wondering if Terry Ryan made a conscience decision to scale back our payroll prior to the year in order to give him some options during the season. Don't get me wrong, I would hate to lose Sano, but if we could come up with a young pitcher with the same talent level only in a pitcher, that is something we would have to look at . The examples above are absurd. I don't think there is anyway we could get either Moore or Strasburg, but do you get my point? trading potential for actual big league production is sometimes a good option. Remember the Delmon trade?

This team can score runs. Although not great in the field, there is a lot of flexibility in the lineup. Gardy should have a lot of options late in games to play pitching match-ups and still not leave a whole in the field for the later innings. Pitching is inconsistent at best. How many legitimate starters do we have that can be counted on, one, maybe two? Blackburn is the only starter that is under contract for next year and our current payroll sits below $95 million. What are the odds of Terry Ryan going shopping to try and find us some pitching during the season? As mentioned, we don't have to worry about having too many starters for 2013 and we don't have any great prospect knocking down the door just waiting for that first opportunity(I'm talking surefire, can't miss pitching help). Is this the new Twin's? Is it possible that we did not chase free agent pitching prospects in the off season with the idea that we would have the opportunity to add a couple during the season? Terry wants to win and win now, I'm convinced of that. I also think that in his prior stint as GM he was severely limited as to what he could do as far as picking up free agents. We have the money now, we have the revenue stream if the team can win. Now the question, who would you be willing to part with in an attempt to attract some quality arms. I’m talking prospects here. What kind of value do Sano, Hicks, Rosario and Parmelee have? I’m not talking about trading away the future, just trading away value at a position that could bring us back some quality arms. I don’t have a specific pitcher or group of pitchers in mind, but are we better off looking to swing a deal during the season, even if it means trading a great prospect or two? The other option I see is struggling through a 72-90 season where we score a lot of runs but can’t get anyone out and then look to sign a group of pitchers on the free agent market after the season ends. I don’t think it is an option to wait for our current group of minor league pitchers develop. We have a bunch of 4th and 5th starters that are still years away from being consistent. Are we a couple starters away from competing with the big boys or are we better off waiting another year or two?

Although we trail the Tiger's by 5 games already, we are only 2 out of the wild card race. I hope I can repeat that in July.

Liriano needs help with his confidence. Sending him to AAA isn't going to help that part of his game. The guy has talent, we have all seen that, he just needs help with the mental part of the game. At this point, I think we can all agree it is beyound what Gardy, Anderson or any of his other pitchers can help him with. There has to be some sports psychologist that can help him work through his issues. If Pavano can work his way through the Yankee lineup with an 85 mile an hour fastball, I fail to see why Frankie can't do it with his stuff. Personel catcher? Hypnosis? motivational lectures in between innings? I keep thinking each start, this will be the one where everything clicks into place, but each start I fear that he will never get to that place. Is it really time to give up on him?

We all knew this stretch of games was going to be tough. The expectations among even the most optimistic fans called for a losing record after 20 games, so why panic now? I thought we have played much better since we left Baltimore. We had a great chance of winning both Saturday and Sunday against Texas. The starting pitching was much better than I expected. We were in the game or leading in the 7th both games, who would have guessed. 2-7 isn't great, but would you feel that much better about this team if we were 4-5 and had played essentially the same? If we can keep our starting pitchers healthy, we should be able to hang around the .500 mark. Not great, but about where most of us expected this team to be.

It's just a matter of time before another roster spot opens up. We could probably have them start a game later this week.

We have eaten at the buffet once each year. We have made reservations for during the game seating each time and have had great seats out on the balcony. I really enjoyed the experience both times. Essentially you are at the Legends club level just down the first baseline a little farther. I have had my son wait in line prior to the game and then they start seating 10 to 15 minutes before the first pitch. The food is not your usual ballpark staples. No hot dogs, hamburgers and chips. One time I really liked the food choices, the other time I didn't find that much that I really liked. Both times, I was able to sell our normal seats and purchase cheap outfield seats (to get into the park) and then pay the $35 for the buffet. It seemed like we came out even on the transaction and had a nice dinner. Last year we did it on father's day and I sat next to Dave St. Peter. the staff there is really nice and I would rate it above Old country buffet in quality but less in terms of quantity. Draw back for my wife, deserts were an extra charge. Hope this helps. Either way, enjoy the game.

I like how he just sits right on top of the plate. He can take a walk, take a HBP or crush it if you leave it out over the plate. I don't mind the 5 strikeouts and his fielding has been about what I expected from him. Better than Delmon and roughly on par with Cuddy.

I heard him interviewed about his pose, it's the jump.

Every closer we have ever had, made me nervous. The thing I like about Capps? He throws hard and he throws strikes. Everyone eventually gets knocked around, but make them earn their way onto the bases. Did you see Broxton last night. Two HBP's in a row to lose the game for the Royals.

Thanks for the updates Seth. We really appreciate getting this information in a nice recap.

It will be a while. Although Carroll did not get a hit today, he walked twice. Although he booted one possible double play ball (it was ruled a hit), he is not the cause of the major league clubs losing streak. Dozier will not make this team a winner simply by his arrival. Dozier will stay in Rochester and learn his craft, he will only get promoted if Carroll is injured or his play begins to cost the Twins games. We are not even close to that point yet.

Chief you are correct, this could get ugly real quick with the schedule over the next two weeks. On the bright side, Blackburn pitched really well today. Take away the first inning and make a few plays behind him and he really controlled a very good lineup. If someone else could hit the ball besides "the Hammer", perhaps we can win 75 to 80 games this year. Not a sure thing by any means, but it is possible.

back to back, extra base hits, that's all it took. Calling the guys out!!!

Two extra base hits in 25 innings. So much for the much improved offense

why do we make every pitcher look like a cy young canidate?

I enjoy watching baseball. I have enjoyed watching baseball for over 40 years. My team doesn't have to win every game for me to experience that enjoyment, they don't have to make it to the playoffs or win a world series. They do have to play good baseball, win or lose. There is no enjoyment watching your team get crushed. We have not be competitive the first two games. The hardcore fans will continue to follow the Twin's, but if things don't change quickly, the park will be half full most of the games this year and a resulting cut in payroll will only follow. I don't want to turn into Pittsburgh or KC.