Twodogs

Other than minor in season tweaks when a person is in a funk, I wouldn't change a thing.

Yes but there will be a two hour delay.

I think McCullers will be limited as far as innings go this year, but don't kid yourself, when that guy pitches he is every bit as nasty as Berrios. So if he throws 130 - 140 innings and they are end of the year loaded the Stros will have a number 3 that is as good or better than our #1. The Twins have more depth probably, but to try and compare, Berrios, Odorizzi, Maeda, and Pineda to Verlander, Grienke, and McCullers is apples to oranges.

I wonder if his spin rate has anything to do with pine tar like Bauer was saying?? Hope not, because I'm sure everyone will be under a ton of scrutiny this year.

Or somehow he has to figure out how to take glancing blows off the walls instead of direct hits? I mean Jackie Bradley and Kevin Kiermeier seem to run into the walls a lot but they seem to stay healthy?? So maybe they hit the walls differently than Byron?? IDK, I guess I'm grasping for something because the high flying defense is definitely a part of his game, so how to accomplish that and still stay healthy is the objective I would think?

He was producing at a pretty high level last year before injuries de-railed him. So yeah, I think health is the main issue. Stay healthy he gives himself a chance to be really productive.

Let's go Twins!

True, however, for Boston to basically agree in principle to the deal and then all of the sudden realize, "oh dang, he has had some arm issues?" Then all of the sudden say oh he is damaged goods and then want more pieces on top of Brusdar, (so they still wanted him), just shows how incompetent their new front office is. You and I both already knew about Brusdar's injury history and we aren't making a living doing this. How the hell did they not know?? I call BS

I don't know about changing the playoffs, but I do like adding two more teams to make it 32. I mean when you look back in time, not that far ago and teams didnt have Hal of their rosters from foreign countries. Now I have no problem with this, but I do think that because of it there is a glut of talent out there. I mean imagine how many good football players would be sitting around not able to play if 30 to 40 percent of the football players out there were from foreign countries?? I think Montreal really really wants a team back and I think Vegas would be another great fit?? I mean they have the NFL and the NHL now why not take advantage and move in while it's hot??

Well he wont be throwing them next year for the Twins because the Twins have Hill only signed through this year. So I am guessing that the Twins are banking on Hill throwing some innings for them this year?

I was hoping that Minnesota would be forced to keep Grateral, I had imagined him as a bullpen piece this year that they could have used as an opener for about 5 times maybe in July when guys like Hill were getting close to coming off the disabled list, maybe he could throw 2 or 3 innings just to get used to going out and starting all while building up those innings with the big club. Then by next year he could have maybe started and went 5 innings about 10 times while the rest of the time he was in the bullpen and by 2022 he'd probably have been our #2 working on his way to becoming our #1. By then probably throwing 97 - 99 instead of 101, but probably much more consistent by then. However, now the Twins have a guy who will probably start 25 games this year and finish up in September and October and a very decent Bullpen option during the playoffs. And more than likely Maeda won't break down as he has shown the ability to pitch all season for awhile now. So Maeda will have immediate benefits, whereas I was hoping Grateral would be a future stud.

So who's going to end up in the bullpen when both Pineda and Hill are back? I realize that won't probably be until late July or early August with Hill, but I mean it's probably going to happen at some point in time this year?

Has the trade been finalized yet?

Grateral helps the Twins future and Maeda helps the Twins now. So I see why the move has been made. I'm not happy, but I think it will work out for the Twins.

Bartolo Colon CC Sabathia

I have a theory about some of the old guys and how they pitched. Even remember Brad Radke, remember if a team was going to get to him they'd usually have to do it early in the game because once he settled in he became very tough. My thought process on this is that many of those top pitcher of all time were often tougher late in the game as opposed to early. I think many of them pitched straight forward for the first couple of innings, meaning they wouldn't show all of their stuff. Once they got into the 6 - 7 inning then their nasty off speed and sliders etc... Would show up. So I think many of them would just bring it for the first inning or two and then they would bring on their junk later. Now it seems like these guys are Max effort from the get go and they use all of their pitches so the 2nd time through the hitter have seen everything they have?? JMO

I think Odo gets pulled most of the time because he has thrown like a 100 pitches already before he gets out of the 5th inning. I don't think he'd get pulled as my if it took him 7 innings to get to 100 pitches?

But the Mets did use Ryan in the bullpen. He pitched 130, 90, 130, and 150 innings with the Mets. He didn't exclusively become a starter until he ended up in California with the Angels his first year he threw like 280 innings. So yeah the Mets long term plan for Ryan was probably as a starter, but they broke him in slow.

I agree, many have written Romero off, but there are an awful lot of pitchers out there that have had struggles and then all of the sudden figure it out. It would be nice to have a dude who throws 97 figure it out. I don't like the idea of automatically putting Grateral in the bullpen, my hope is that the long term plan is to have him remain a starter. But it could be the long term plan, I know they started with Johan in the bullpen and worked him into the rotation eventually. Here's to hoping Grateral becomes the next Johan Santana.

Without Astrudillo, Everytime Avila catches Garver will have to ride the pine. Can't really DH your only backup catcher. I'm pretty sure Cave is the best option for the 25th man and Astrudillo should be the 26th man by about May. I'd say early in the year to go with the 26th man in the BP. Then as the starting pitching gets more reps, to drop the extra bullpen arm and bring in Astrudillo.

I didnt want to read through all 6 pages of this so some of this may be redundant, if so I am sorry. But here goes my rant. I feel that this is probably actually worse than PED use. Just because of the simple fact that a whole team has to participate in this as opposed to onr player. So some dude on your team could be juicing and everyone else could be clean and doing things the right way. Do you get mad at the whole group because of one guy? With what the Astros have been accused of everyone knows what they are doing and obviously approved of it, so in retrospect it would be likened to gang mentality. So what's worse in a court of law? One guy commits a crime, or a gang committed a crime?? Think about that for a second. Also, what about You Darvish? What would have his stock looked like in his free agent year had the Astros not been sign stealing during the world series?? I mean had he not gotten blown up in the world series by the Astros don't you think he would have maybe even made more money in the off season? I mean guys like Kershaw and a plethora of other players could make the same claim? Don't you think some of these guys could sue the Astros for lost wages??? Maybe Scott Boras should get on this band wagon?? Last, and in my opinion will be the least popular, but at one point in time the players took care of this stuff all by themselves. I mean if you were stealing signs off of Rob Dibble what would have happened? Nolan Ryan? What would have happened if you were stealing Nolan's signs? Tom Seaver? Bob Gibson? Dave Stewart? I mean we could sit here all day with this one. They say let the kids play, which is fine, I like a few bat flips here and there, but then they should also let the kids police themselves a little bit too. You let the players take care of this stuff and I guarantee less of it happened.

Let's hope they don't reduce the juice in the baseball.

Yeah it was just an idea, but now that they signed Donaldson it's a moot point. Yayyyy

Kepler has some experience playing first? That would allow Castellanos to move into Right Field?? 58 doubles and 27 bombas are hard to ignore??

Well the one thing about Donaldson in 22 and 23 is that Cruz will be gone and at that point Donaldson can DH a lot of the season, pretty sure that would save on his body a little bit when he is 36 and 37, plus he can focused more on his hitting then also. So he'd still have a spot in the lineup even when he's a little older. So in my mind it's not the best excuse to not go after him.