Loosey

Maybe the Twins should only have pitchers with the last name Santana? They seem to be the only ones who pan out. Off-season Blue Print Item #1: Convert Danny Santana to Pitcher Off-season Blue Print Item #2: Have Gibson, Berrios and May legally change Last names to Santana Off-season Blue Print Item #3: Print 2017 World Series tickets in advance

I just wrote the same thing, but i wrote mine in the form of a question.

In regards to Stewart and Twins pitching development in general: Obviously in the past the Twins had tried really hard at finding "safe" pitchers who threw strikes and kept the ball down in the zone and in the park (pitch to contact period). They did a fine job at developing those pitchers and got the most out of them they could and most had their greatest success with the Twins. Now that they are developing pitchers with a different pitching style than in the past, more power arms with arguably less control they aren't developing into major league quality yet. Do they still have the same pitching instructors, coaches and using the same teaching techniques with this new pitchers? Perhaps someone like Stewart needs a fresh outlook from a new pitching staff coach to teach him how to harness his mid 90's fastball. The same could be said across the board, I also could be wasting my time writing this if they have different instructors than they did 7-8 years ago. If not, Falvey seems to have had some success developing a nice staff, maybe he can help find the right coaches to get our 4 AA starters (Gonsalves, Jay, Stewart, Jorge) to develop into good Major Leaguers.

Reading the Twins one as well as the comments is both funny and agonizing at the same time.

What is the hierarchy now? Are St Peter and Falvey equals and both Report to Pohlad. Does one report to the other? I would hope that they are in two completely separate areas reporting through a different org.

Hope someone from TD will be able to get a nice one on one interview with Falvey. I think he would appreciate the knowledge of the main writers on this site as well as members (fans) compared to some of the local newspaper journalists who will ask dumb questions about pitcher wins and RBI.

Yes, Yes, Yes 100% agree.

Brunanski claims he doesn't like that Toronto strikes out in big spots, and the Twins are trained to put the ball in play doesn't sit well with me. First of all the Twins have 1120 Strikeouts so far this year, the Blue Jays have 1114. So the Twins strikeout more even though they are taught to just make contact. Second, and I can't quantify this, but the Twins strikeouts with in key spots happens ALL THE TIME. There have been so many times this year with one out and a runner on third when a fly ball would get them a run, but instead they went strikeout, out. No runs. So in theory what Brunanski says makes sense, but the team doesn't apply those things to their in game hitting.

I'm not an advanced defensive metric savant, so I will have to take your word and fangraphs and SABR's word that Dozier isn't very good at fielding baseballs. I also agree by using the eye test. That being said I hope someone on the Twins analytics staff can do an analysis that would show the difference in runs if Dozier was traded for a good starting pitcher and Polanco moved to second base. You will probably lose 20 HR's but what will the new pitcher bring in runs saved over the year, and how many runs better will Polanco be defensively? Additionally, even though Polanco will not be as powerful as Dozier I think he will hit for a higher average and OBP, so will his defense and ability to get on base make up for the lost runs in a Dozier trade?

Whenever you went to get food did you tell your wife you bought 989 pounds food, however you were only able to carry 10 lbs back to the car?

I agree signing Santana has ended up being a good thing. If he pitches like this next year the team stinks they could get a return for him. He was just an example of being sort of an out of place signing. If would have been signed prior to this season after 2015's near wild card miss, that would have been great, but it didn't fit the mold of a team rebuilding. Basically, they lucked into him it seems.

I think you might have touched on this in the article or maybe it was another commentor but one of the biggest planning fails this team has made in the last 5 years is not going into a full rebuild. I know you can't bring up a draft pick instantly, but the Twins tried to cling to mediocrity until the prospects got up here and the margin for error was razor thin. Mediocre players are usually neither great nor terrible, but often times they are good or bad. 2011 was the 1st 90 loss season the excuses came out fast and furious about it being due to injuries and bad luck. - Fine, move on and right the ship in 2012. 2012 was just as bad if not worse. The injuries excuse wasn't going to fly anymore. This team was toast and needed to start a complete rebuild - Career years were wasted and the team was unwilling to used them as assets (Willingham). 2013 the team did very little, brought up some players to fill out a roster, signed a few veterans to short term deals, traded Morneau with his value as low as possible. It LOOKED like the rebuild was on. 2014 - Signed Nolasco and Phil Hughes.... two medicore pitchers who cost a decent amount of money, for a long time. Rebuild over. This is when the planning went off track in my opinion. A rebuilding team (which they were) would just use AAAA pitchers or sign vets to 1 year deals to get through the rough years. I think there was likely business decisions a part of this as attendance was down and winning solves that. But Nolasco was no better than many cheaper guys, and Hughes has one nice season, which he was then extended for (also extended Suzuki). 2015 - Signed Santana (3 starting pitchers in 2 years), Extended Phil Hughes. Team exceeded expectations and had a winning season. Gave perception that the team had arrived and was ready to make the next step to compete for titles again. Had a new wave of prospects ready to come up and build toward the future. 2016 - Didn't fix their weakest spots (bullpen, catcher). Didn't move Plouffe. Signed a repetitive piece in Park, Moved players all over the place because they thought they had "too many good players". Prospects have not worked out yet and veterans have faltered. Basically they lucked into 2015, did nothing in prior years to improve the young talent outside of the draft and now are stuck in a weird place now. One year removed from being competitive, but in a season in which they could end up with the worst record in baseball. Here's to a new GM/President of Baseball Ops putting together a plan.

yeah but if you still had payments on that car you would most likely continue to drive it. Or you could trade it in or sell it, but there have to be people willing give you what you want for it, which isn't always the case. Also, if I had a car that lasted from 2001-2015 I would be very happy with that run. I would probably consider that car one of the best cars I had ever owned.

It is strange to me that so many people dislike Mauer to the degree they do. If someone put Mauer points down on paper without his name and said a large portion of fans dislike this player it would be confusing as to why: 1) #1 Overall Draft Pick 2) Grew up in city he plays in 3) Multiple Batting Titles 4) Multiple Batting All Star Games 5) 1 MVP award 6) Chose to stay "home" after going into Free Agency 7) Struggled through brain injuries forcing him to change positions 8) Has never been in trouble with the law or said/done anything offensive Yet a large majority of people dislike him.

First of all if Carew or Killebrew played in this era they would have been compensated equally or greater than Joe. Second, piggy backing off of the first part of my post, the game has changed drastically from an economic point of view. Yes, Joe makes a lot of money, and it would have been nice if he played like 2009 for every year since, but he didn't. If Twins front office decided to let Mauer walk in 2010 because his asking price was too high in the same year as they were moving into Target Field you would have been the loudest one on these message boards and on your blog calling for every member of the management to be fired and complaining about how cheap the Twins are.

When is the Gonsalves ETA in Minnesota if he keeps this sort of production up? July 2017?

Even back then his swing looks "choppy". It looks like he strides way too soon then swings with all arms instead of it being one fluid motion.

I think at some point Buxton will break out. Right now there is a hole in a swing that pitchers are taking advantage of. It seems to have followed him back to AAA which in a weird way is a relief to me. I think he had corrected some things his first time down in AAA and they were working back up here for a week or two when he got his batting average all the way up to .250. Then all of a sudden his swing seemed to get out of whack, he wasn't staying back on pitches, was guessing again and it all spiralled out of control. The fact he isn't hitting in AAA now tells me that he has the skill to be good it is just a kink in his swing that needs to get corrected.

Completely agree. The Twins appear to operate in a vacuum at times. As you mentioned, moving May to rotation would leave a hole in the bullpen, but again as you mentioned that can be addressed both externally and internally. Nolasco and Milone are not better starters than May in my opinion. The team should put players in positions to succeed, clearly the bullpen is causing issue for May from a health standpoint. Additionally, incrementally the improvement from Milone to May is likely to be greater than the regression from May to his replacement in the bullpen.

Or the splits got worse because the competition got better. . . .

I don't think he is a failed signing. However, as you mentioned, his 2 positions are DH and 1st Base. And I think currently and in the future the Twins have better options than him in Sano, Mauer and even Vargas. If another team would like to take a chance on him I would be ok with that simply because we have better players ahead of him, not because he failed.

If Milone is claimed I suspect the Twins will try to work out a trade but even if it doesn't happen, I think they will just let whomever claims him to take him since they DFA'd him two months ago. I would like to see Suzuki, Kintzler, Plouffe and Danny Santana get moved. If blown away on an offer for Ervin Santana that would be ok, but I am beginning to have faith in him for next year at least based on how well he has pitched as of late.

Something is strange with his hitting in the MLB. Even if he has a hole in his swing, the natural ability he has to hit a ball in AAA should not just disappear in the majors. Many of the pitchers he faces in AAA are just as good as some in the major leagues especially once they get into bullpens. Yes most starters up here are better, but not to the point of one league he can hit .350 and the next league up he cannot hit the ball period. If I am the Twins I leave him down in AAA the rest of the year. Even a September callup might be too early. Make him shorten his swing, practice bunting against live in-game pitching and fine tune everything. I don't' think he needs an overhaul, just shorten his swing up and hope he gets heavy doses of sliders and inside pitches in AAA that he learns to hit.

I think most would recognize Meyer has the physical capability to be a front end starter. However, (and I don't know this, just assuming) he seems to be mentally fragile. When things go wrong his whole demeanor would just change. Maybe that is due to the way the Twins treated him and caused him to think perfection or your pulled, or maybe his psyche was never that strong. Either way, I hope he does well in Anaheim, but I think this was a trade that recognizes sunk costs. The new GM can then make the decision to non-tender Santiago or keep him this off-season. Non-tendering is what I would do, and then use those funds to go out and get better players.

Watching 4/6th of the future all shine yesterday was nice to see. Kepler, Polanco, Rosario and Berrios all looked great. That alone would have most teams excited about their future, but the Twins have two more who a year ago were more highly regarded than any of the above 4. Think about that. Most teams would kill for those 4 pieces as part of their future and the Twins have them plus 2 more that are possibly even better. Add in additional guys waiting in the minors and the Twins could be good for while if the GM can make the right supplemental moves to add depth and fill in holes where they are needed. Once Sano gets back to being Sano and Buxton figures out how to be an MLB hitter this team will be exciting to watch (not that they aren't already).