FargoFanMan

I was referring to average compared to all other 29 teams. Twins were about middle of the pack in days lost to injury.

Paddack isn’t a $7M reliever and he isn’t a starter the twins can afford when they have SWR and Festa who cost league minimum. $5M for a superior defensive catcher with good character that pitchers love throwing to is something a lot of teams want with the need for catching across the league. Vazquez will have interest if the twins are looking to simply unload his contract. If we got Seattle to cover most of desclafani’s contract and get a decent prospect and 2 other pitchers you’re telling me they’ll get almost nothing for Castro???? I think they’ll get something decent for him as well as salary relief which is worth a lot when you’re the Twins.

If you have an open mind and do the math this makes sense. You trade Vazquez for whatever and eat $5M of his contract. You trade Paddack for whatever and eat $3M. You trade Castro at his peak since this isn’t a video game and you get a decent prospect and maybe a BP arm. That saves you roughly $6M. All of a sudden you’ve got about $15M to work with. You need an anchor at 1B and let’s be honest, You don’t want Miranda as your everyday 1B. Can you get Goldy for 2 years and 12-14M with an option in year 2? He’s the perfect fit. No he’s not an MVP candidate anymore but he provides leadership and stability like Santana did. They’ve got other guys to be backups. Castro was great but he’s starting to cost some money and let’s flip him while he’s worth something. Goldy is what this team needs in more ways than one.

Our “superstars” kinda have injury issues compared to the rest of the league. Most of our superstars are either in their prime or at the edge of their prime( Correa 3.7 WAR in 86 games, Buxton 3.6 WAR in 102 games, Pablo 2.5 WAR in 185IP, Lewis 0.7 WAR in 82 games). Not a complete flop and respectable by most measures. The can’t miss prospects are always that, prospects. If you hit an average player on 3 out of 10 that’s pretty good. Most are serviceable and just had a bad couple months. Other than Lewis all the guys had average seasons as far as games played. Not injury prone. MLB having a “reckoning” seems a bit of a stretch. MLB is maybe behind the curve but their not on the edge of failing. It’s not the NFL but baseball is a global game and still grows every year. They’ll be fine. There will almost certainly never be a Cap/Floor system in MLB. The league is well established(100+years as opposed to the NBA or NFL) to the point where the compensation system would drastically hamstring the big markets to have a cap system. Baseball is fine. That’s why you see the Diamondbacks, Rays, Cleveland, Brewers, Orioles competing. You can do it without being NY, LA or Chicago. Also, the superstars love getting those huge contracts that they wouldn’t get with a Cap. The fact that people keep saying that baseball isn’t competitive is insane to me. Have you watched anyone other than the Twins in the last 20 years? Or a playoff game in the last 20 years? This is an old sad dead argument. Stop it. Please. It makes you sound stupid. The Pohlads aren’t selling because MLB is failing. The Pohlads aren’t selling because any of this has gone wrong. They’ve made roughly a billion dollars plus in 40 years! I think they’re selling because the Twins are their most attractive asset. Not their worst. Which means your entire argument is completely base.

Not “chance” at all. Talent and momentum. The team playing the best usually wins. The team with the most talent on the field and not on paper usually gets there. A simple equation known to sports especially baseball since forever. I believe the twins are a great investment. If an owner was willing to invest $50M more in payroll and invest a little bit in the future of the teams streaming platform they could probably 1.5X to 2X this franchise. Thus making it a good investment and maybe bringing home a title of 2.

No thanks, Mauer and Jeter would be great as part of an ownership group as well as KG but forget those other clowns. I’d rather have hands off owners and Cuban and Shaq are big egos focused on themselves. I want owners willing to invest and stay in the shadows.

They’re not gonna do any of those things. Pablo, Ober, Ryan, SWR, Festa. Then Matthews, Rya, Lewis and culpepper are the next in line.

Exactly, if Jenkins or Emma are setting the minors on fire Larnach and Wallner better be holding their own. This season is a big one for Falvey and baldelli so hopefully there’s no Joey Gallo’s come June and July.

I’m hoping Jenkins forces his way and he’s not needed as a replacement. I believe Emma is gonna be up the first or second injury if he isn’t injured himself. I don’t think Jenkins comes up until at least August unless he’s absolutely tearing up the minors. If those 2 are doing what they do well Wallner and Larnach better hit all season or they’ll get passed up next.

Well, that’s a very fair point. I’d be on board for taking a crack at polanco for sure. What do you do with Lee at that point? I want Lee playing 2B over Polanco. Cheaper, more upside and better defensively I believe. I don’t think they trade him. Polanco on a cheap deal makes sense. I just don’t know where to put him. One year deal maybe? That’s if we can shed Vazquez and one of Paddack or Castro maybe we go for a guy like Goldy on a semi cheaper deal and try to catch lightning like they did with Santana. Maybe Castro is the starting 2B and Lee starts the year in AAA. If that’s the case why not just go with Castro. So many questions that could be made simpler if ownership just expanded payroll by 10-15 million.

If you’re talking about Buxton as a very large contract then we’re not on the same page. The only player with a very large contract is Correa. Buxton and Pablo are signed to very team friendly contracts and Correa played like a top 5 MVP for 4 months. Those 3 guys aren’t the problem. You say you’re not blaming them but you are. The blame goes to pretty much everyone else but these guys. Stop beating that horse. He’s dead.

I think Castro has got to be traded. Maybe you get a similar deal as the polanco deal. Maybe a fringe prospect and 2 serviceable or close role guys. Package Vazquez with a couple of prospects and get rid of that 10 million. Idk what it takes but to get that off the books I’m willing to package anyone but the top 5. Maybe you get a good role backup catcher in FA or go with Camargo. I’m not sure what it takes but I think you’ve gotta go get Goldschmidt with that savings. If there’s anyone similar I’m all ears. A veteran guy you can maybe catch a solid year from with the savings. Start identifying BP arms in the minors. Not everyone will be able to start. Varland full time in the BP will help as well as another live arm. Paddack has to go. Any salary relief is a plus at this point. Whatever it takes on that. There’s ways and if the FO goes about this right the Twins will still be strong. Just more competition now but that’s the fun of baseball.

Because they offer different skill sets. Larnach was one of the only guys still putting together professional plate appearances at the end. They’ll never trade Wallner but if I had to pick one to trade and one to keep I’d keep Larnach 10 times out of 10.

Maybe that’s all true but that’s the beauty of baseball. No body knows. All it takes is an injury to Jose Ramirez or Bobby Witt and the star power in the division changes massively. Does Seth Lugo have the same type of season? Maybe Cleveland’s bullpen isn’t as lights out. Then where are they at? What if Detroit doesn’t have the same magic? What if the Twins young pitching takes another big step? The fact is everything looks great on paper but you still have to play 6 months of baseball. If anyone should know this it’s twins fans. As bad as this year went, with a couple of positive turns instead of bad ones this team could be a 100 win team. Look at the giants from a few years ago. To say they need to rebuild is absolutely, mind blowing to me. You don’t burn down the house cause the windows broke.

100% not gonna happen. This is why newspapers and mainstream media is dying. Completely out of touch and nonsensical. If only I had a well known name so I could make a living writing fantastical columns about things that everyone knows won’t happen just to get people in an uproar. It’s all hot garbage.

I’m hoping for more experience and a PROVEN track record at the major league level. Any coach can tell you how to break a slump. Just hit the ball where it’s pitched. If it’s outside hit it the other way. If it’s inside you can try to crush that. Too many times you had guys on base and everyone is trying to hit a 5 run dinger when just a bloop hit would’ve done to keep the line moving.

To watch a guy like Royce Lewis continually chase and either roll over or miss an outside sweeper while being out on his front foot and then completely miss inside fastballs for 2 months tells me these coaches were completely inept. I’m not a hitting guru by any chance of the imagination and I can see what he’s doing wrong. 85% of his swings were in this fashion. You’ve got 3 hitting coaches that can’t figure that out? Not to mention the rest of the lineup was essentially doing the same thing other than Correa and maybe Santana. I watched almost every game and I can’t think of one example where the Twins hit a opposite field HR in the last 2 months. The approach the last 2 seasons has been awful. I wanted the hitting coach staff gone last year but everyone was still too high riding the playoff victories. How does a guy like Julien go from a wizard of the strike zone to just completely lost all season? He was pitched the same all year. Outside, outside, inside. Every at bat. All season!

As an outsider I can relate. Living in Tennessee I get to watch every game on mlbtv. Even when we lived in minnesota to attend a game was a huge deal. Just for a trip to “the cities” was at least a $300 to $500 expense to make a weekend out of it. As a young family that was a maybe once a summer trip. That was in the 2015-2019 time era. Can’t imagine what it is now. We were able to watch the team on Bally but it cost a cable subscription which was like $120. I can’t imagine the headache that it is now. We will probably never attend another game at Target field and while being in Tennessee that makes sense that is a problem for the Twins. I get all the advantages not being in Minnesota, Iowa, or the Dakotas. Also, when the front office sets the off-season in motion with not capitalizing on the run they made in 2024 what was to be expected? Attending live events in general has become and is more becoming a rich man’s game and in the economical climate we’re in what does anyone expect?

If anything is ran back from this year I really hope it’s the 2024 Buxton or better. It was a treat to watch him this year. Despite the injuries if he can be penciled in for 100 games in 2025 that’s a huge plus! Along with the stats he put up this year. I’m perfectly fine with the contract if this is the Buxton we get! Hats off Buck!

This was known. Those 2 were not 100% or even 85%. They played like the stars they are but when nobody else can do anything 2 guys are not going to carry an offense.

I’m not necessarily in on firing baldelli or the front office. Their problems were largely the lack of options by Twins brass to give them the options in the off-season. Ownership not allowing any spending whatsoever hamstrung this team last November. As far as hitting, base running and defense. The coaching staff needs to be overhauled. The fact that this was a problem last year mid season amazes me. Todays game is definitely based on HR’s but when everyone is struggling and pulling off the ball trying to hit a 5 run dinger every plate appearance is sickening. These hitting coaches need to be gone. In fact it should have been last season. The base running was also atrocious. Isn’t Paul Molitor supposed to be a base running guru? Where is he at? Who is their base running coach? You don’t need to lead the league in steals you just need to be smart and not make outs. I think on the defense front you need to have guy’s comfortable in their positions. I’m all for flexibility but shuffling guys around and sacrificing defense really showed this year. Willi Castro can do it but at some point it becomes a detriment. If you have too many guys at one position then you do what every team has done for decades. You trade from depth. Have Royce focus on 3rd. Have Lee focus at 2nd. Let them become prominent and don’t mess with it. Miranda should not be a 3rd baseman. Royce will get better there. And injuries. Again! Who is the strength and conditioning coach? The job should be more conditioning. The amount of muscle and soft tissue injuries is insane. The owners will never fire themselves which was the real problem but the coaching and approach could have been better. Non of this rant brings into question the handling of the TV situation and that was the real problem glaring since last year

Maybe it’s an injury but it looks to me he’s pressing. Balls he should be hitting to right field hard he’s rolling over or when he does get around on it he’s hitting it weakly to left field. The hit he had in Boston off the monster was exactly what I’m talking about. It was up and away and he managed to get around on it. Anywhere else it’s just another weak flyball to left. Everyone wants to talk about all his power he had last year but does anyone remember what his approach was when he first came back last year? When the Twins were on their way to leading the league in strikeouts he was the one player hitting the ball where it was pitched. He had a complete approach that allowed him to get those middle in pitches. He was a complete hitter in June and part of July. Hitting the ball where it was pitched. Liners to right field when the ball was away. Liners back up the middle. Then when pitchers would come inside then he would show the power putting the ball in the stands. Then against the Astros in the playoffs they started pitching him away away away. Yeah he hit a few but there was quite a few K’s in there. He needs to simplify his approach. He’s either out front in a bad swing position or he’s behind the balls he should be punishing. He’s got all the power still. Just the wrong approach. This was bound to happen and he just needs to work out of it like any young hitter. Just happens to be at the wrong time.

Spending money in free agency equal to 60, 80, 100 million over 5, 6, 7 years is way different than being able to take on 5-10 million to add a rental to help your team in season. Or even trading away prospects like Gabby Gonzalez or Emmanuel Rodriguez. Does anyone remember the late 2000’s Twins? Not willing to trade “top” prospects to push those teams to contenders. Those prospects such as Kyle Gibson, Ben Revere, Oswaldo Arcia, Joe Benson, Alex Wimmers, Aaron Hicks. Decent players but didn’t turn into stars by any stretch of the imagination. My point is that prospects are not a proven commodity and need to be treated as such. Other than Jenkins and maybe Lee I’d be willing to part with anyone. You should be if your window is open.

Really??? When they’ve made moves at every deadline except the last two? The last two deadlines when the TV deal loomed overhead? Maybe they haven’t always made the right moves but they made moves. They tried to improve the team. Connect the dots. This is ownership not willing to take on any money no matter what. You think Falvey and Levine are stupid? Really? Come on.

The signs all point to money. The TV fiasco aspect has hamstrung this franchise. When your bullpen is showing signs of failing, one of your top pitchers goes down and you turn to rookie pitchers who are approaching they’re most innings ever it points to money. The fact that their were guys on the waiver wire who could have helped in august and you’re not willing to take on 5 million points to money. And that message comes from accounting which points to ownership. The Joe Pohlad “right size” interview points to money. When the front office makes moves every deadline (good or bad) except the last 2 points to the tv situation which points to money.