Twodogs

Hard to tell, but he doesn't look over weight. His legs look skinny though?? But the picture could be deceptive?

Well Jackie Bradley had a pretty defined role on the World Champion Red Sox team and he is a career .230 hitter, if JD Martinez was a similar hitter to Jackie Bradley would he still be in the Majors??

IDK, they really aren't the same player. Jackie Bradley Jr is a career .230 hitter, in Boston, with a monster lineup around him, but he still struggles at the plate, but Boston keeps him in the lineup for obvious reasons. If JD Martinez hit like Jackie Bradley Jr he wouldnt stick around too long. Byron Buxton when healthy offers a few more things than Sano does. If Sano clicks and he clicks for a good 10 years or more, he will put up the prettier HOF type of numbers, but if he doesnt click, he's more expendable than Byron is. Normally speed and defense doesn't get you in the HOF, power and hitting does, but speed and defense plays a role that a guy like Sano doesnt have. For instance, the twins have never played around with moving Buxton to different positions just in order to get him in the lineup, but they have with Sano, and people still talk about it with the Cruz signing that Sano might have a tough time getting at bats.

Look at Nelson Cruz's production as a 25 and 26 year old. Everyone thinks he's the bomb and all but we constantly pick on guys like Kepler, Rosario, etc.... Sure some guys don't figure it out, but when you have the tool set these guys have you have to let them try and figure it out. Cruz didn't perform till he was 28. So let these guys like Kepler, Rosario, Buxton continue to develop as long as they are putting in the work, give them a chance, quit writing them off. Now it's different when you have a guy with all of the tools like Sano and it appears that he doesnt want to work hard. Then you have more reason for doubt. Plus those other guys are multi tool guys, speed, defense, etc... Also play into the equation. Aaron Hicks is another good example, hit 27 Hrs this year? Turned 28 this year. Some of these guys need to get that experience and delvelop.

So they dropped 8 mill to see if he can learn from his mistakes and hope his slider can come back? I'd say give it a shot and see what happens. Hopefully Pineda takes advantage of this opportunity?

You know, the Twins lost a lot, a lot of 1 and 2 run games last year, especially early in the season, and they lost a lot of them late in the game, seemed like every one of Seattle's games against the twins was won late, so in reality, if the Twins hit significantly better this year, that could add up to quite a few extra wins. In the First half of the season the Twins were 44 - 50, they lost 23 games by 1 or 2 runs. If better hitting could have turned around 10 of those games the Twins would have been 54 - 40??? That definitely would have changed the course of their direction at the trade deadline. http://www.espn.com/mlb/team/schedule/_/name/min/seasontype/2/half/1 There was even a other game in the first half that they lost 7 - 4 in extra innings to Toronto that I didn't count because it was 3 runs. I think once stuff goes bad and all the trades happen and the Twins really stunk to finish up the season that a lot of the positive stuff that happened early on gets forgotten. I mean early on last year the Twins were close to winning a lot of games, they just didn't. Much of it can be blamed on Buxton and Sano not fulfilling what everyone was hoping that they would do. So realistically they are in the same boat this year. If those guys are decent, they don't need to have career years, they just can't hit .180 for the year. So better hitting would have, in my opinion, made a big difference last year. It could this year too.

The Twins got some help last year with Lance Lynn, it just didn't work out as planned, they also got Anibal Sanchez who they let go at the end of S.T. and he did pretty good with Atlanta but no one would have guessed that. So they did, but Lynn and Sanchez didn't work out for the Twins.

I would think if his finger injury allows that he isn't that far removed from being pretty dominant? But there just hasn't been much talk about him that I have seen, so I'm assuming that he must be close to done?

What's the story on him? I know the Twins elected not to give him the option for 14 mill. But I was just curious as to whether or not he finally healed from that finger thing and or has there been any interest in him out there and if so how much? Would he be worth 3 - 5 mill if healthy?? And since the Twins rejected his option would they even be able to negotiate?? I'm sure the player after being rejected probably wouldn't want to come back, but I was just wondering. Mainly because I haven't heard anything about him.

Well the way for teams to handle that is by not offering those guys anything, that as a result will drop the value of their offers from those west coast teams because they won't have any competition for those players and soon they won't like the value of their offers anymore. Let them corner themselves out of the market. I mean if we all already know they won't sign, why bother?

I'm not a huge opener fan, I'm more along the lines that if after a month the dude isn't getting it done then use an opener for him the rest of the way. However, I don't get your argument. Odo would get the win if someone came in and started the game, went 2 innings, Odo comes in for the 3rd and pitches to the 6th, Odo would be the one who qualifies for the win?? The way you'd screw Odo out of wins would be by starting him and only letting him pitch 4 innings because he's thrown 100 pitches in those 4 innings. So using an opener really doesn't affect Odo's chances for wins, it only affects his numbers of games started.

I agree with the general gist of this post. I feel like the coaches and management needs to work with these guys to figure out how to get them to pitch 6 or more innings, I also think that the opener idea is a valid concept, but I feel as though it needs to be used as a reaction to when a pitcher is under performing. So in other words be ready to start using openers for a pitcher after he shows that he's struggling with his starting role over and over again. But I think at the beginning of each season the idea should be that your 5 starters are your 5 starters. Use them in a traditional manner until after a number of starts they show that they need an opener. If you go into the beginning of the season tabbing one or two of your starting pitchers saying they need an opener then you have failed to prepare for that season. If at the beginning of the season you say these 5 guys should get the job done, then at least you can say to your fans that you prepared for the upcoming season, if you have to change course part way through the season and you then need an opener or two then you also showed that you were also prepared for when things didn't go as planned. So in short, I think you need to plan in a way that you can adjust and go to an opener if need be, but don't start the season with that plan, start the season saying that these guys are good enough to produce for us this year.

My issue with Odorizzi has always been his waste of pitches. It seems as though many times, even when he puts up a 1,2,3 inning he throws like 25 pitches. The good pitchers seem to get those 1,2,3 innings in like 10 - 12 pitches, for whatever reason Odo seems to waste a lot of pitches to each hitter. Maybe he has to in order to fool them, or maybe he just doesn't have the type of control that the real good pitchers have. However, this seems to have two negative impacts. One, he damn near throws 100 pitches through 4 - 5 innings which limits how long he can go, also as hitters see more and more of his stuff, even those waste pitches they start to get less fooled by them. It has always seemed to me that those real good pitchers out there, if they were going to get hit, it was going to happen early, 1st inning, because it always seemed like they saved some of their better stuff for mid to late innings, whereas Odo seems to do just fine early and gets clobbered late because all his stuff has been seen. That is all just my opinion and observation, but it seems to make sense with him. He either needs to waste less pitches and see if he can get through those first couple of innings with minimal pitches or he needs to come in during the 2nd or 3rd and try to get to the 5th or 6th. Funny thing you guys were talking about little league, but I think that MLB if it continues down this same road may have to look at things a little closer. Your normal little league team or high school team etc... Most of the time the best players on the team are the pitchers, they also seem to play short, 3B, 1B, C etc... So if we look at a guy like Ohtani, he might set a new precedent?? I think there was also a couple of guys in the draft two years ago that were being drafted as both position players and pitchers. I believe one of them came out of college so he was obviously doing it at a high level. So maybe teams need to have a couple of position players that can also pitch, and no, not like Gimenez, I don't mean a dude who just comes in to waste the last inning or two of a blowout, but more like Ohtani, in fact that may be too far on the good side of things. Maybe more like a good bench player, you know a dude who can play multiple positions in the infield and can also pitch effectively out of the bullpen, or maybe some guy who can be a 4th OFer and maybe he can start 8 - 10 games a year. Obviously a lot would have to change in the college ranks and the minors to encourage this type of development, but if you had two dudes that could pitch and could also play some defense and could swing the stick a little you would solve a lot of problems with guys that can only pitch 3 - 4 innings in today's game.

I think the Twins have put themselves in a spot where they can go in either direction and be in ok shape. For instance if the core players like Buxton, Sano, et al. all figure it out and with the new additions the Twins have a great season then it would appear that they have a nice stockpile of players that they could trade to get a nice deadline deal that could put them over the top. Also if everything falls apart again like last year then again they have some good depth and talent that looks to be close to ready to start implementing a transition to a new wave of potential players ready to take the reigns. To me now it's just up to the players to determine which route that management will have to go.

It would be nice to still have Pressly because of this situation now. But I don't see a reason why both Romero and Mejia couldn't split the #5 spot in the rotation along with both spending time in the bullpen? Both could throw 100 to 125 innings and that would add up to one real good pitcher??

Interesting how Cincy traded their prospects for actual Major League Talent. Is Cincy going to be appreciably better next year? Their lineup could be good.

DH seems like his best fit.

Well the Twins probably bought an extra year of his services, which is fine because if he hits the jackpot and figures out how to become a superstar he most likely will not resign with the Twins anyway. Even before this crap he most likely wouldnt have come back anyway. It's just how things are in Twins land.

Bottom line is they need one good starter and one good reliever added to this roster to compete. The lineup; eh I could look at it as the glass is half full or the glass is half empty; but instead I choose to look at it as, "hey, the glass (is only) half empty." Which means there is still half to go. Anyway, imagine if the Young guns all step forward and have a consistent season, not great or spectacular, but consistent. Everyone of them have shown flashes of greatness, so we all know that good is possible. 1. CF Buxton .265 .320 25 2B's 18 Hrs 90 runs 35 SB 2. SS Polanco .275 .310 25 2Bs 15 Hrs 80 runs 65 RBIs 20 SB 3. 3B Sano .250 .330 25 2Bs 30 Hrs 80 runs 90 RBIs 4. LF Rosario .280 .320 30 2Bs 25 Hrs 85 runs 80 RBIs 5. 1B Cron .250 .315 30 2Bs 20 Hrs 75 runs 75 RBIs 6. 2B Schoop .270 .300 25 2Bs 25 Hrs 80 runs 70 RBIs 7. RF Kepler .260 .330 30 2Bs 20 Hrs 75 runs 65 RBIs 8. DH Austin .250 .300 20 2Bs 25 Hrs 60 runs 70 RBIs 9. Castro/Garver .240 .290 25 2Bs 20 Hrs 60 runs 60 RBIs Rest of bench combined 100 runs total. I think that would put the lineup at about 775 runs. Modestly better than last year at somewhere around 740 runs or so. It would probably be enough to win 10 - 12 more games with the right pitching. Early on it seemed like the Twins lost a lot of 1 run games. These are all potential seasons for these guys and hardly any of those seasons get them on the all star team.

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/25216412/comments-boston-red-sox-adviser-bill-james-draws-ire-mlbpa-players article from ESPN.

Id say the Yankees will get Paxton. They are seriously looking for SPitching

I assume that Romero is no longer considered a prospect? I know he got some starts last year but so did Gonsalves? Just curious, I am also assuming that Romero will most likely be a top candidate to grab one of the last spots in the rotation?

I saw on the mlb channel that the Whitesox may be going for Machado and or Harper? That would probably change the dynamics of the central a little bit?

For some reason I don't think players are going to get those giant contracts like everyone thought, similar to last year. Towards the end, right when spring training is about to start you are going to see a lot of players signing one year contracts again. I think the Twins need to take a few fliers in this category. They need to get a couple of bullpen arms early, and then wait for who didn't get what they thought they should. I know it didn't work out last year, but I feel that was an anomaly, I think they could find a couple of guys that perform well in this manner and save years of contracts so as to be able to resign important Free agents that they are going to be dealing with. I feel this is going to have to be the way the Twins do things because I just don't see big name guys wanting to come to Minnesota. Once they prove they can win for 2 - 3 years in a row then that may change, but I feel it is what it is right now.

I'd like to see more Hunter.