Twodogs

Eddie Rosario was pretty entertaining too.

Interestingly enough, the so called productive out, which would be the anti strikeout guys might make a resurgence with the new baseball coming into play. I just looked up the teams with the highest OPP which takes into consideration sac flys and sac hits and sac bunts and San Diego has the highest OPP. The five teams with the worst OPP were Detroit, Kansas City, Washington, Texas and the Chicago White Sox which may explain why the White Sox's lineup looked so good last year, but they didn't come through when they needed to. Also, the pitching staffs that gave up the highest OPP were Colorado, Pittsburgh, Baltimore and the Mets. The Mets are one of those teams that's supposed to be good but for some reason hasn't been. The Twins were the 2nd best pitching staff at keeping opposing teams OPP low which may explain why the Twins did well last year while not hitting anything like they did in 2019. Now if you look at the Dodgers they are in the middle of the pack in both aspects of OPP hitting and pitching. But you can look at the Dodgers as just one of those teams that are better than everyone else, by a longshot. I think when two teams are close to equal in talent that the teams with the best OPP come out on top. So taking productive outs into consideration will help a team and having a bunch of guys that strikeout all of the time like a Miguel Sano doesn't really help a team very much. https://www.espn.com/mlb/stats/productive?sort=productiveOutChances&tp=team I like Miguel Sano, he's been a Twin all his life, but for him to really take the next step in becoming a really good player he needs to cut down on his strikeouts, plain and simple, they do nothing to help the club, especially in a season where there may be a few less solo shots out there with the new baseball coming into play.

Buxton needs to start more than 127 games, he needs to be up at 140 or so for the twins sake. Pineda needs to start 30+ games, hopefully.

All of the Twins pitchers pretty much are 5 and fly. Berrios a couple years ago hit the 200 inning mark but he is pretty much the only one.

https://theathletic.com/2375121/2021/02/08/mlb-changes-baseball-deadening/?amp How does this affect the Twins lineup?? Maybe Arraz should be starting?

That's too bad. He lived a long life, and did what he loved to do.

With the amount of FA's still available, Walker, Paxton, etc.... I don't really see any point in trading away prospects to help the Dodgers keep their young guys like May and Gonsolin from getting buried and lost in their system. That's really not our problem. Price is no better than some of the guys still available on the market.

Taijuan Walker would be a great add, but the Twins will probably get a guy on a minor league deal or something like that. I was looking forward to Wade getting a shot this year as he has flashed some potential recently.

What could they get Taijuan Walker for? How much will he demand at this point in time?

Interestingly enough, over the last two seasons with the Twins he has his highest batting average and hight OBP% ever in his career for a full season.

I don't see the benefit for Berrios to sign an extension right now to Jose. I mean I see the benefit for the Twins but looking at it from Berrios's standpoint he might as well stretch it out for the big payday. Also, I'm not sure if Berrios is super enamored with the Twins? He has made some comments in the past being angry with how the Twins have treated his teammates and such. Not that those comments were warranted or not, just that they were made, so I have a feeling that Jose will be gone when his free agency hits unless the Twins make a huge overpay which we know they don't normally do.

I sort of agree, I mean I like the guys who can strike everyone out, al la Roger Clemens, etc.... But I'm thinking for me it kind of depends on what they are able to do with that sinker and what else they bring to the table. I mean Kyle Hendricks is a sinker ball pitcher and I'd love to see him in a Twins uniform. Not saying Dobnak will ever be Kyle Hendricks, but if he were able to do some of the things Hendricks does on a consistent basis then I'd be good with Dobnak. But that is a big "If"

Seems to me that Tanaka would have been worth 4 mill per year for two years which is what he got by going back to Japan?? 3.74 career era and an 8.5 K9 and was pitching in Yankee stadium. It seems strange that no one would give him 4 mill?

Yes what has happened to Gordon, I mean he was a good prospect at one point in time and now it seems he has just been rotting away. 2nd utility spot seems like a low pressure spot to put him in to see if he can hang.

I feel that Simmons is the exact guy they need, +++ defense and realistically + hitting. His last full season where he had 600 PA's he only struck out 44 times. He's the type of hitter that compliments the Twins power filled lineup.

It will be interesting to see how he does over a full season, I live in Dodger territory and I know dodger fans had little confidence in Maeda over the long haul. He was good in spots here and there and that's pretty much how they used him. God I hope he can repeat his performance this year over 32 starts and become an annual Cy Young candidate, but my Midwest cynicism leads me to look at what he was before the Twins got him. Which by the way isn't bad, but again he doesn't match up well with Cole, Bieber, Scherzer, etc.... Also, by the way who would you take out of the Dodgers rotation so as to insert Maeda? Gonsolin 8 starts 2.31 era? May 10 starts 2.51 era? Or Urias, Buehler, Kershaw? Just curious.

Yeah, for whatever reason Cleveland keeps bringing up dudes that have no experience and they seem to do well. On the other hand Cleveland has always had about 3 dudes in their rotation that you knew were going to win every 5th day, such as Bieber etc.... So I think it wasn't so worry some to bring in new blood for the 5th spot every year. But they seem to be able to do it. I kind of agree that we need to give one of the kids a shot to succeed. If you never give them a chance they seem to rot away. It doesn't seem like we ever bring up 24 and 25 year olds that are polished with 5 years of minor league ball. Just never seems to work that way. Maybe in the Twins case it would be better to bring one of the youngsters up and let Wes be their coach. Once he gets his hands on them if they struggle send them back down, but at least now they know what they have to work on and bring up another dude and let Wes work with them. Seems to me that it would be better for the organization to be working with a 21 year old (Duran, Balazovic) with their best pitching coach than with some 40 year olds (Hill, Bailey) etc.... Now you don't want to rely on like 3 young dudes but saving a spot in the rotation for one seems legit. But it would be nice to have a super stud like Shane Bieber leading your staff as you are doing these things which the Twins don't seem to have.

I think there should be a sports writers hall of fame and former players get to vote on who gets in and who doesn't. That would be interesting.

Look at the Twins best pitchers. I mean where in the Dodgers rotation does Maeda fit in? He is probably the Twins best pitcher at least last year he was. Think about that for a second, the guy who is the Twins best probably doesn't even fit into the Dodgers rotation at all. In fact, Maeda didn't like pitching for the dodgers because he spent so much time in the bullpen. Now the Twins try to solve their rotation issues with a dude who likely slots in 4th behind Maeda? So either the Twins need to figure out a way to get a stud in a trade such as Castillo, etc.... Or they need to focus on getting their hitting and defense better. You can't really compete against the Dodgers and the Yankees by taking their pitchers that they don't really want and then using them against their Aces?? I think the Twins would be better off looking for more hitting or more defense or something else that you can out do those teams with? Or go big and get a real Ace to try and match up with their Aces. I like Happ, but he won't be the guy that helps the Twins win playoff games, they better hope Duran or Balazovic develop and can come up at the end of the year and surprise teams which would have a lack of information on some new guys.

Only thing with Smiley is that I don't really think he wanted to be in Minnesota. When you read about the trade back then it seemed like he really didn't want to come to Minnesota in the first place. Morris and Hunter probably wanted to stay and I'm sure Ortiz would have wanted to stay also.

The Twins will always have to overpay for a big free agent. I mean let's be serious. Forget about baseball for a second, would you rather hang out in Minneapolis or San Diego for a two week vacation? The Twins are unwilling to overpay it seems like. So they end up with the run of the mill free agents, the ones that if the Twins didn't call them they probably didn't get any calls. To get the big guys like the Gerrit Coles of the world they will have to significantly out bid other teams.

The one thing I don't like about Odo is the fact that he can't pitch beyond 5 innings, ever. However, the thing I really like about him is that he is pretty effective in those 5 innings and he has been fine playing for Minnesota. Whether people want to admit it or not there are some players that just don't like playing in Minnesota. Lance Lynn and Tommy Herr come to mind amongst others. So when you look at the pluses and minuses of the two pitchers, if they are not that far apart, I'd take the guy who likes playing in Minnesota because you know he's going to give it everything he's got. Now if we were talking about players that are on different planets like Gerrit Cole and Odo then that's different. But in my opinion Paxton and Odo aren't that much different. So I'd take Odo back.

Yeah, the Twins probably did almost everything they could to keep Hunter. But that definitely is not the case with Ortiz. So maybe there is a little give and take with some of them, but sometimes it was just a really bad decision.

Prob goes Ortiz Morris Hunter Nathan Hisle Cuddyer Of the guys that have been listed on this thread. Shane Mack could make the list too. Did Chili Davis walk or was he traded?

Yep, I didn't think about Big Papi. I just saw Morris won 21 and a world series the very next year.