Twodogs

I really agree with this as far as the bullpen goes, use the young guys see what they have. a Neshek can always be picked up for cheap at the deadline if still in contention. The rotation is a different matter, there aren't any internal options that are really close to being ready, so might as well see what Gee and a few guys like that can do to hold crap together at the backend of the rotation when we need them at least for this year? Next year hopefully there will be a better plan in place for the rotation. But as far as the bullpen goes, keep rolling out some young guys and see what they got?

I think a team with very little pitching available would be very stupid to trade Santana. That would give the Twins even less pitching for the next couple of years.

Compare last year's starting OF of Arcia LF, Santana CF, and Sano in RF with Rosario LF, Buxton CF, and Kepler RF. It's no wonder Hughes did OK up to his DL listing. Gibson is like 4 - 4 right now, if he had pitched last year like he has this year he would have been 0 - 8.

Well there have been only 2 #1 picks not make it to the bigs. Brien Taylor '91 and Steve Chilcott '66 prior to 2013 draft.

He will need Tommy John surgery by the end of the year as many innings as they keep pitching him

Maybe they can get Rodriguez's dad to come in and be a special instructor to all of the Catchers? Ha ha. Rodriguez seems to be pretty old to be in A ball, they should try to move him along quickly see if he has what it takes. He is already like 25. Can't ignore complete games with 10 K's however get him into AA see what he has!

Well Rodon is on rehab for the White Sox now, so probably in about 3 weeks Pelfrey will be available.

What is the prognosis for Trevor May next year? Will he be recovered, is he being looked at to take over a rotation spot?? Just curious. Also, I don't see anything wrong with snatching up Dyson or Broxton just to see what they could do??

I mean, all in all, Mauer could have struggled as opposing pitchers put most of the focus on him and now that the Twins lineup is overall doing better with guys like Sano, Kepler, Polanco, etc.... not necessarily in that order maybe Joe is again a benefactor of being in a good lineup. I predict that if those guys continue to hit around Joe, that Joe will have a much better year than in the last 3 or so years. Think back to when Joe was a monster, he had the likes again not necessarily in this order, but Justin Morneau, Michael Cuddyer, Jim Thome, Torii Hunter, etc..... When those guys and many more were hitting around Joe, obviously he couldn't be the total focus of a pitching staff. Maybe it is just getting back to that once again??

Hey if the Twins have a couple of rain delays and restarts maybe the 13 pitcher staff will actually come in handy for once??

I learned how to hit when I played that video game of the Polar Bear hitting the fish that shoot up out of the hole in the ice. I always noticed that if I got too far on top of the fish, it hit the ground and only slid about 50 feet. When I got too far under the fish it would go really really high but only go about 100 feet. When I hit it just right, it would would go a long ways, and if I did that enough times I'd get a gold fish to hit!!!

After I graduated from college, I moved out to California and started teaching. After grading a few papers here and there I started to look on ESPN to see how the Twins were looking, etc.... That is when I ran into the ESPN boards, Elysian fields?? Anyway, I quickly got hooked on those boards and generally did not, too often, take the bait from guys like Dankind or Henry Blanco. But on occasion I did; I would remember making a post and then as soon as I got home I'd have to get back on to see what one of those dudes had to say then I'd once again have to run some more smack talk right back at them. I also fondly remember the Sl ts rule thread. That thread was used often times as a rally thread during the games. I remember the alleged knife wielding Luis Rivas and Christian Guzman threads. I just remember coming on the site and as a result I would leave laughing my ass off. Also, most of this was going on in and around when the Twins were being threatened with "Contraction" and all of that stuff. I still remember the day I got an email from Brock about BYTO, I was a little bit indifferent about it when I got that email, at that point I was now married, coaching my own high school team and just didn't have as much time to spend reading and typing in stuff. However, I did participate in BYTO, just not as much due to other life activities. I really enjoyed finding comments in the paper by Gardenhire about someone busting his butt or battling out there, he wouldn't use the battle his tail off comment anymore because even he knew we were watching Now with Twins Daily, ehh I don't know. I have a 1st grader and a 3 year old now so I'm just kind of indifferent about it. I come on here quite frequently, but I rarely post and anytime I try to be funny at all I get my post deleted, for some reason. Oh well, i guess I must offend people, so as a result, I come on and read stuff occasionally and rarely post, and it seems like 75% of the content is in someway negativity about the Twins. I know up and coming writers all feel like they need to break the next big story or they need to make everyone feel like they know best or that everything is the next big disaster like the sky is falling and such. That is just what I feel like I get, when I tune into Twins Daily now. Back in the day, it always seemed to be a lot lighter and more positive about the Twins even though most of us were extremely crude about the way we went about it. So I make the occasional post, but I am no longer itching to see what is being said anymore, it's kind of like I can take it or leave it, but that wasn't the case back in the day. The word filters were awesome!!! I do miss the comradery of BYTO

Instead of hoping for a miracle elixir, I would like Joe to take an off season strengthening program seriously. Just doesn't seem like he has gotten any stronger in all of his years, and I can understand being behind the plate and remaining agile and all of that, but he now stands over by 1B, I think maybe getting stronger would help him a lot.

Like some car dealer tells you that this offer will last only for a limited time, as soon as I hear that, I walk out the door. You don't trade him for garbage just because you think that is what you are supposed to do. Just like that car dealer, if I keep looking, there are always different cars for sale, I definitely don't need some specific model at some specific price that will only last until 3pm today, F that guy, I will find a better deal if I keep looking. If you are one of those guys that get suckered into one of those lines then you will find yourself driving around in undervalued cars most of your life. Also, the last few years it seems like the Twins have made lots of fairly big moves in the off-season, or at least medium sized moves and where has that gotten them?? Maybe see how these kids improve their game over the first half of the year? See where they can go if they just get to play. I know a big giant deficiency is at relief pitcher and the Twins don't have the best defense. But see where it goes, now if someone blows our socks off, because they need a 2nd baseman because maybe their guy gets injured in spring training then go for it. But don't sell low because someone tells you that you are running out of time.

Viola had a couple of poor years before he really got it going.

You need to be good at 2 of the 3 facets (pitching, hitting or defense) to have a decent season and a shot at winning something. Right now the Twins have a shot at being good at one of them, hitting. They will need to get lucky to be good at one of the other ones. there isnt any quick fix to it, except to go out and get a really good pitcher or two.

I have always been one that would like to see the Twins employ a speed and defense approach, but their current personnel doesn't really allow for that at any point in the near future. But I would like to see how their defensive numbers looked for the first few months as opposed to the middle of the summer?? Recently, there have been so many different guys plugged in all over the place that I don't think the last few weeks should really be included. But I would like to see what the numbers looked like when the Twins had the likes of Sano and Arcia running around out in the OF and Nunez as an everyday guy in the INF and compare that to June July and August's numbers defensively?? I would just like to see if there was any improvement with the younger guys running around out there??

This might be a good comparison!! I mean what did the Twins eventually do?? They brought in Bert Blyleven who won a World Series with Pittsburgh and had currently been in Cleveland. They paired him up with Frank Viola and wahla they were a contender. I've been really down on Berrios lately and when I went back and looked at Viola, he went 4 - 10 in 22 starts his rookie season and then turned around and went 7 - 15 in 34 starts in his second season. So I could be jumping the gun on Berrios not having Ace potential anymore. But it is frustrating!!

It appears that Berrios is not going to be what everyone thought he was going to be?? When you look at other talented young pitchers, Fernandez comes to mind, those guys seem to be able to get people out at a young age, because their stuff works both in the minors and in the majors. Berrios probably will be good, but probably has shown enough to see that he isn't going to be the ACE. Twins will need to trade for a legit frontline ACE to head their rotation for the next 4 - 5 years and have guys like Berrios, May, Duffy, Hughes, Santana, Santiago, etc.... fight it out for 2 through 5 in the rotation. They have a young nucleous of Sano, Kepler, Buxton, Polanco, Rosario, Vargas, Dozier to score enough runs, to be successful they just don't have that shut down pitcher that can stop losing streaks and be the guy who wins playoff games if they ever get there.

I wonder how many people think that maybe Polanco was being played at 2B this year because of the next future SS down in the minors?? Maybe they put him at 2B because they were assuming that there was another guy who is SS of the future. But now that they see that Polanco seems to be able to hit at the MLB level they might be reconsidering?? Because in the end, they really don't know if the other SS prospect will be able to hit at all.

How can a Major League baseball player have no idea how to bunt?? Rosario looked pathetic. That is something that needs to be fixed for next year with all of the players

I don't know what the Twins are thinking but I feel that if the Twins are going to be remotely successful next season Sano has to be the regular third baseman the majority of the time. I think Polanco needs to play SS and Vargas needs to be the normal DH. I just think that Vargas opens up so much more opportunity lineup wise with his switch hitting ability. He was sent down, maybe that was on purpose??? Maybe the Twins view him as their primary DH next year and don't want him sitting around for the next 2 weeks playing every 4th game. Maybe they sent him down to get regular at bats, maybe they saw enough to know that he is the direction they need to travel in, but right now there isnt room. That is what I am hoping for. I think if Buxton evolves and becomes even half the hitter he is as a fielder, and Kepler and Rosario flank him in the OF. with Vargas at DH and Sano at 3B and Polanco at SS that would be a pretty potent lineup. Maybe Park can come off the bench for the next 2 years until Mauer retires and then take over at 1B?? I don't have the answers but that is what I am hoping for.

I do think that when the Twins AAA was in the PCL, that maybe the pitchers were less likely to go after hitters?? Much of the Twins minor league affiliates have changed over the years, as a result, I think it would be hard to make a lot of comparisons. I mean it would be just as hard to make good comparisons of hitters and pitchers on the Rockies as compared to hitters and pitchers on the Mariners?? Just ballpark issues I think would affect a lot of what you would be looking for.

I will miss Nunez, but the Twins got a good return on him. Wish him well

Tommy Milone is lighting up AAA also, so when do they have to call him up?