Loosey

The fact that Terry Ryan thought this team he brought north to start the season gave them the best chance to win scares me. It tells me he has no idea what he is doing, he does not know what the fans want, he is not a good evaluator of talent and he doesn't trust the young players. 95% of the people on this site saw the team he put together, especially the bullpen, and could tell they were going to be bad. And not just bad, but boring and frustrating to watch. I think the only thing the 95% got wrong was we didn't know they were going to be THIS bad. By Thursday afternoon they will most likely be 8 games back 9 games into the season. It is clear the roster as it currently sits will not be able to make up those games. I think it is time TR does what everyone thinks he should have done 2 weeks ago and start bringing up the youngsters. At a minimum, I would expect Hicks, Meyer, Pressley and Thielbar up in place of Robinson, Pelfrey, Stauffer and Boyer. Then as we get into May start fast tracking the guys people really want to see. If that doesn't happen Target Field is going to be empty in a hurry. At least with the prospects fans can see something exciting. Signed - Frustrated 7 games in

Man imagine how fun it would be if instead of the AA affiliate being in Chattanooga they were in St. Paul playing as the Saints! For the brief time the Lookouts are together with this roster they are going to be hard to beat. Too bad it sounds as if the Saints being an affiliate in the near future isn't going to happen.

In regards to Granite are we talking Ben Revere from a hitting the ball aspect? Or will he most likely top out somewhere in the Minors? I've been hearing about him these first few games and he sounds exciting.

Maybe it's just me but it seems to me that the Twins are afraid of failure (Even though they have been failing for 4 years now). But in terms of letting inexperienced players fail. No matter how much success or how many innings a player plays in the minors they will not know what the big stage is like until they get there. It's almost as if the Twins want our minor leaguers to be major leaguers playing in the minors before they finally bring them up. Now I'm not for bringing up someone who will completely and utterly be in over his head on the big team, but if someone like Meyer or May comes up and fails this year, what does that hurt? If they ruin their confidence then clearly they aren't ever going to be ready for the Major Leagues. If I were GM/Manager this is the year I say, "you know what, eff it. Lets have fun and see what these kids can do". Because in reality what is the difference if they finish the 65-97 or 75-87 beside one place in the division?

in limited playing time (350 PA): .237/.270/.326 2 HR, 13 Doubles

Must be thinking the plate discipline is really coming around and will walk 125 times.

.264/.310/.489 27 HR, 32 Doubles

.266/.308/.397 9 HR, 28 Doubles. If he plays most an entire year in the bigs I think he gets to this. Speed will get him a respectable Batting Average. Without his speed I think he is a .240-.250 hitter. But he has speed and infield singles count the same as lasers to the outfield.

.274/.313/.406 (.719 OPS) 15 HRs, 25 doubles. Big drop off at the plate last year, and I can't imagine him improving that trend when he is going to be turnng 40 during the season. If he hits this slash line, I will call that a successful season for him. However, I will call it a disappointing season as well because that means the Twins will be giving a 40 year old 550 plate appearances in a season they should be rolling out their future.

I know it's impossible to do but I would really like to know what the general consensus would be on Joe Mauer if he never had his outlier 2009 season. That season drove up the per year value of his contract and gave people an unreasonable expectation of what he is capable of and since he contract was largely based on that season, the majority of fans expect him to live up to those numbers. When in actuality he is the guy weve seen the other 10 seasons. Put his 2008 season into 2009 and it changes the way we think about Joe. 2008 he his .328/.413/.451 (.864) with 9 HR's and 43 doubles. Given that he was still a catcher that would have been enough to get him a very large contract. Instead of $23M per year maybe he would have been given $17-$19M per year. Would everyone still expect .365/.444/.587 28 HR's and 30 doubles. Basically what I am saying his, I personally think Joe has lived up to expectations. Just not the new expecations he received once he had the 2009 season.

.257/.311/.431 30 doubles, 18 HR's. This is based on a decline in Plate Appearances and At Bats because I am assuming Sano will debut during the Summer and take away some time from Plouffe at 3rd base.

Based on the fact he has not hit .250 for an entire season yet, I am not on board with him hitting almost .280 like Seth. However, I would like to see (and think it can be attained) a slash line of .263/.350/.445 with 38 doubles and 22 HRs. Getting that out of a 2nd baseman will be phenomenal especially if he continues to steal bases and play good defense. I think these are fair expectations if you if you take into consideration the his career trajectory so far in his 1st three seasons coupled with his new contract. Marginal improvements year to year will be fantasic.

My guess is he becomes 2012 Joe Mauer again. Maybe even have more power given he's healthy and not catching. So here is my VERY optimistic guess: .308/.401/.480 - 40 doubles 19 HR's.

I'm not sure what the Twins are trying to prove/do here. First off all do they really think this roster gives them the best chance to win? Second, even if this roster does give them a better chance to win more games than other options, what good does winning 75 games do over winning 70 games with young guys? I do not agree with TR/PM on most of these moves. May has nothing left to prove in AAA. Will he get hit hard in the majors? Probably, but so will Milone and Stauffer and Pelfrey. Why not groom the guys who will be on the roster when they are ready to compete. It's almost as if TR is in denial about them not being a playoff team and thinks experience = better.

The Twins rebuilding plan makes no sense to be. Why not get some young guys out there to get them seasoned? Milone gets 5th starter spot because he only sorta sucked, instead of really sucking. That's setting the bar high. Light hitting CF'ers that most likely are not in long term plans. Every young arm goes to AAA. At this point I would much rather watch our farm teams play. Actually that's been the case the last few years. I really thought with Molitor managing we would see the team do things differently, go young, take our lumps but be exciting. Not sure what percent is Terry Ryan making the call and Molly going along with it, but this team is going to be very bad and not even be a useful bad. At least be bad and get the young guys up.

I always loved how he used the hard Metrodome turf to skip balls all the way home from right field. It was ugly but surprisingly effective, however, I believe he tried it in Chicago a few times and was ridiculed by fans pretty badly.

I like the long-term view the Twins are taking on this move. It tells me the Twins are being honest with themselves and know that they aren't going to contend this year and most likely won't be next year. However, 2017 could be a different story if the young guys develop like we all want them to. With this move they have a very good veteran presence to anchor a young rotation in a year when they may contend. 2017 could see a rotation of Hughes, Berrios, Meyer, May, Santana/Gibson. Good move in my opinion. Plus they got what could be a very big discount.

Bad hitter he may be, but he is a better hitter than Casilla, Nishioka, etc.

C-Dog - I am also an analytical type and don't like to use "seems" and "feels" but like you said this post was meant to talk about a "feeling" I haven't had in a while. And it is a good feeling isn't it. J-Dog - As good as Parmalee has been as of late, I don't think the Twins should trade Morneau unless it is for a premium starting pitcher. I think Morneau is turning a corner and could be regaining his 06-09 form. I wouldn't want to give that up for anything less than a #1 starter.

Do you ever get a strange feeling, and you can't put your finger on what it is? Well lately I've had a strange feeling every time on I turn on the Twins game. It's a feeling I haven't had in a while, what is that feeling you ask? Well, it started on Friday night. I turned on the game and I thought to myself, I think the Twins are going to win. Then it happened again on Saturday, then Sunday and then once again tonight. I don't know why, and it is an unfamiliar feeling. Maybe it has to do with the fact that during the summer months the Twins have a winning record. Maybe it's because I think the Twins actually believe they are going to win everytime they step onto the field. Whatever it is I like it. It's a feeling I haven't felt in two years. I actually think the Twins are going to win. After tonight's game I have a renewed faith in this team. No, I don't think they are going to go on to some magical run and make the playoffs, but I think the future is beginning to look a little bit brighter for this team. The offense which was touted as being able to score runs going into the season is coming around and actually starting to look stronger heading into the last third of the season. The entire lineup is under the team's control going into next season and some salaries are coming off the books next season. I hope the Front Office is starting to feel this same feeling I am having and are beginning to butter up the Pohlad's for some extra cash to spend this offseason. Assuming no major trades are made involving the lineup this offseason, I believe this lineup along with some quality starting pitching can contend in the Central. One top of the rotation starter and middle of the rotation guy instantly brings respectability back to this club. Two new arms, Diamond, Gibson, and rounding out the 5th starter spot with Blackburn or Deduno doesn't looks that bad. Yeah, something definately feels different.

Do you ever get a strange feeling, and you can't put your finger on what it is? Well lately I've had a strange feeling every time on I turn on the Twins game. It's a feeling I haven't had in a while, what is that feeling you ask? Well, it started on Friday night. I turned on the game and I thought to myself, I think the Twins are going to win. Then it happened again on Saturday, then Sunday and then once again tonight. I don't know why, and it is an unfamiliar feeling. Maybe it has to do with the fact that during the summer months the Twins have a winning record. Maybe it's because I think the Twins actually believe they are going to win everytime they step onto the field. Whatever it is I like it. It's a feeling I haven't felt in two years. I actually think the Twins are going to win. After tonight's game I have a renewed faith in this team. No, I don't think they are going to go on to some magical run and make the playoffs, but I think the future is beginning to look a little bit brighter for this team. The offense which was touted as being able to score runs going into the season is coming around and actually starting to look stronger heading into the last third of the season. The entire lineup is under the team's control going into next season and some salaries are coming off the books next season. I hope the Front Office is starting to feel this same feeling I am having and are beginning to butter up the Pohlad's for some extra cash to spend this offseason. Assuming no major trades are made involving the lineup this offseason, I believe this lineup along with some quality starting pitching can contend in the Central. One top of the rotation starter and middle of the rotation guy instantly brings respectability back to this club. Two new arms, Diamond, Gibson, and rounding out the 5th starter spot with Blackburn or Deduno doesn't looks that bad. Yeah, something definately feels different.

My concern is: Has he changed his release point on purpose or is he so inconsistent that this happens to be where his release point is right now and it could be somewhere completely different by his next start?

With the Twins pitching staff seemingly dwindling by the day I started to think about what the Twins could do to bolster it or what could they have done to prevent this. Then I remembered reading a rumor about a trade the Twins were looking at after the 2007 season. If you recall this is the off-season Johan Santana was traded for Carlos Gomez, Philip Humber, Kevin Mulvey and Deolis Guerra. The rumored trade that Bill Smith supposedly turned down because there weren't enough pieces was Johan Santana to the Dodgers for rookie Matt Kemp and 19 year old phenom Clayton Kershaw. Here are some of the articles I looked up confirming I wasn't imagining I read these things 5 years ago. http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/clayton_kershaw/page/5/ and http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/newsstand/discussion/rumor_twins_ace_johan_santana_to_dodgers/ . Now these were only rumors but if you remember the steam Johan had back then it isn't unreasonable to think this was true. Additionally, there were also the Clay Bucholz and Jacoby Ellsbury rumors and the Melky Cabrera Phil Hughes rumors. Either way all of them would have been better than the actual trade that happened. This was all 5 years ago and no one can see into the future and we can't go back and change things now, but just this one trade would have this team in a completely different situation today. My timeline shows the Twins turned Johan Santana into the following: Johan Santana >Carlos Gomez, Philip Humber, Kevin Mulvey and Deolis Guerra | Carlos Gomez > JJ Hardy | > JJ Hardy for Jim Hoey | >Mulvey, Humber and Hoey all left the Twins for nothing in return. So using the baseball version of the discounted cash flow method 1 Johan Santana in 2007 = 1 Deolis Guerra in 2012 if you use Bill Smith's trade investment logic. Oy!

With the Twins pitching staff seemingly dwindling by the day I started to think about what the Twins could do to bolster it or what could they have done to prevent this. Then I remembered reading a rumor about a trade the Twins were looking at after the 2007 season. If you recall this is the off-season Johan Santana was traded for Carlos Gomez, Philip Humber, Kevin Mulvey and Deolis Guerra. The rumored trade that Bill Smith supposedly turned down because there weren't enough pieces was Johan Santana to the Dodgers for rookie Matt Kemp and 19 year old phenom Clayton Kershaw. Here are some of the articles I looked up confirming I wasn't imagining I read these things 5 years ago. http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/clayton_kershaw/page/5/ and http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/newsstand/discussion/rumor_twins_ace_johan_santana_to_dodgers/ . Now these were only rumors but if you remember the steam Johan had back then it isn't unreasonable to think this was true. Additionally, there were also the Clay Bucholz and Jacoby Ellsbury rumors and the Melky Cabrera Phil Hughes rumors. Either way all of them would have been better than the actual trade that happened. This was all 5 years ago and no one can see into the future and we can't go back and change things now, but just this one trade would have this team in a completely different situation today. My timeline shows the Twins turned Johan Santana into the following: Johan Santana >Carlos Gomez, Philip Humber, Kevin Mulvey and Deolis Guerra | Carlos Gomez > JJ Hardy | > JJ Hardy for Jim Hoey | >Mulvey, Humber and Hoey all left the Twins for nothing in return. So using the baseball version of the discounted cash flow method 1 Johan Santana in 2007 = 1 Deolis Guerra in 2012 if you use Bill Smith's trade investment logic. Oy!

The Twins training staff is a joke. They should have a way to determine if there is something not structurally sound in his elbow. Instead they will say he just needs to take it easy for while then ramp it up, which will happen, until something goes terribly wrong catching the training staff off guard leaving them looking like idiots.