Twodogs

After reading the lead in I would have been cool with them hiring Torii Hunter!

Well guys needed to be able to be sent down. They couldn't have sent Dozier, Mauer, or Morrison down even if they wanted to, I'm not sure about Kepler, I'm assuming that he had an option left. Plus Kepler was playing well in the field, plus other things he was doing pretty well this year, such as hitting Lefty's, which seemed to be his kryptonite in the past. He had a good contact rate and a good walk rate and he didn't strike out a bunch either. So when you take all of that into consideration as an organization you are thinking he is doing everything right, the numbers just haven't fallen into place yet. When you look at Sano or any of the other guys that got the bench or sat down they were flailing away up at the plate, plus they were at some point hurt and struggling to recover from injury, I don't really think any conclusions can be drawn between how Dozier, Mauer, Morrison were treated as compared to Latino people. I'd say with Romero when he started to struggle, because he was so young they probably wanted to protect him a little so that they can have him as a part of their organization for years to come. I mean if they had given up on him they would have done what they do to every pitcher they give up on and put him in the pen, a la Duffy. It's kind of a wild assumption that because they are Latino they have a shorter leash, I mean Rosario has been an enigma for years. A dude with a lot of talent but has poor plate discipline and makes some bonehead plays in the OF and on the basepaths but they haven't ever sent him down, but he really hasn't ever been injured until towards the end of this season, so why didn't they treat him poorly? The only people I've ever seen treat Rosario poorly has been the fans on TD, not the organization? At least not so far. After watching the way they treated Buxton this year, mostly just the end of the year, I wouldn't put anything past them, but I don't think it has anything to do with heritage. Obviously that is just my observation. But I mean they have guys like Tony Oliva who still help out the organization on occasion, and he is Latino, so I don't really see the connection? I mean if they were treated poorly why would he stick around or even come around on occasion? If I were treated poorly by a work place once done they would never see me again. Again just my observation.

Nunez hit a bomb to win game one of the WS

I feel like most free agents aren't going to sign with the Twins, I just think that many other teams are more desirable. The Twins will get those guys like Lynn that was having a hard time signing elsewhere. I think the Twins will have a difficult time resigning their own players. When the Twins were able to resign their own guys it was when the Teams themselves were actually good. Think back the late 80's, early 90's and early 2000's when they had good teams, guys more likely will want to stick around if the team is good. But even think back to those 80's and 90's teams some of the guys they brought in from the outside did not want to be with the Twins. I think of Tommy Herr and John Smiley as examples. Yeah they got guys like Jack Morris and Dave Winfield but they were from Minnesota. So there were some different circumstances with those guys. So for the Twins to build a sustainable winning franchise they will need to win and then hope they can keep most of the guys that helped them win. If you were Byron Buxton and you had 2 - 3 studly years from now until the end of his control, do you think he sticks around?? I would like to hear what guys like Torii Hunter thinks about this type of stuff and the Twins franchise?? He left but came back, but he left and it makes you wonder if they couldn't keep one of their super stars from their good teams what are the options for a bad one? Probably more one year contracts??

Well yeah Escobar is Latino but so was the guy who he was able to wrangle playing time from via the 80 game suspension, Polanco. I really don't get the Vargas thing, it's almost like they didn't want anyone else to have him. They kept giving Berrios chances even after a couple of bad seasons and now he's doing great. Buxton isn't Latino and he really got the shaft at the end of the year. Bottom line is that if the guys are producing they will be playing, a la Rosario. But yeah, Vargas is a head scratcher, why did they even bother to bring him back?

Well it happens a lot where a company settles for a hundred grand or so knowing that it will cost more to pay the lawyers to fight it. So they give them a payout to make it go away.

Maybe if he spends a month in jail he will lose some weight?

Idk, Pressly in 26 games for the Astros had a .77 era. He gave up 3 walks and had 32 strikeouts and a total of 2 earned runs. I'd say he's probably not hurting them too badly. Had the Twins kept him he'd probably have been their closer instead of Hildendinger.

I hope Joe thinks about it and decides to play next year, but for a contender with a strong lineup where he can just fit in and maybe they can make use of his on base skills. Hopefully he can go out there and try an earn a ring. But with a new baby thats probably not going to happen, but that's what I'm hoping for.

Yeah too bad they didn't draft him in like the 26th round insted of the 36th round, but then he probably wouldnt have ever made it out of the minors.

Lance Lynn makes it to 10 - 10 on the season, not too bad considering how poorly he started out.

Yeah the home runs have never really been there, but with the speed of the turf more doubles would have probably been in store, and yeah the concussions look to have hurt him overall.

I'm just making an assumption that the last few years in Target field has probably affected his power production somewhat? Also that he probably hit a little better in the dome and that Target field probably has appeared to have a negative effect on his numbers along with aging etc.... But that it's reasonable to conclude that had he kept playing in the dome that his numbers probably would have trended up a tick or two over the past few years and we probably wouldn't be all over him for his lack of production? Nonetheless he's had a great career, even though I hope he plays another year or so.

I agree that the dome was also a park that probably benefitted Joe and his hitting. Just curious, since I'm not willing to do it, was Joe typically a much better hitter at home as opposed to hitting on the road??

IDK, he won multiple batting titles, he is a professional, until the last few years he was pretty much always "money", you knew he was going to hit around .300. Also, I know for a fact that none of those teams nor their fans would have ever blamed him for their teams inability to sign other good players so as to blame him for their teams failures due to their inability to retain or gain talent, like the Twins media and fans have.

It was an example, his career has been a long one and during his career those teams have been traditionally very good and very good teams typically don't get beat up by opposing players that often. If they did, they probably wouldn't be dominate teams.

Hawk just retired in Chicago, he might be available.

He is paid by the Twins, pretty sure they don't want him shaking things up, that would probably be the quickest way to getting fired.

As opposed to have been playing for a different team. Not too many big named players stay with the Twins, a la Torri Hunter etc...

So are you trying to tell all of us that if he was drafted by the Red Sox that he would have been a career .255 hitter? Don't you think that if he was playing for that team and practicing there everyday that he would have hit better than at Target field? I mean so you take some averges that he had as a visitor against mind you two of the best teams in the AL during his career, so it's safe to say that a lot of people were shut down by those Yankees and Red Sox teams, also factor in who is hitting around him, are you saying that Mauer would have hit .255 in a lineup where David Ortiz is probably hitting behind him?? I mean you can't even come close to making any predictions like that.

Castro has had knee problems, don't think they are going to move him around the diamond. He would have played longer at Catcher, not his whole career, but prob another 2 - 3 seasons, also he could have played some games at Catcher and moved out from behind the plate 2 - 3 times a week. I think Fisk played some at Catcher and then some elsewhere also later in his career. It would have been different than having been forced out.

Well he was facing Chris Sale and Aroldis Chapman when he went to those stadiums, had he been playing for them he would have been facing Twins pitching??

It's a freak accident, you can't predict if he was here or there and you can't predict how one person will be affected by it as opposed to another. Gimenez got a concussion from a foul tip last week but he was back playing already, so his body just didn't react the same way Joe's did. Can't compare.

Whoa, before Mauer signed that contract, he was midway through a hall of fame career. Had he not gotten those concussions and played most of his whole career at Catcher he would be a hall of famer. What hall of famers out there didn't deserve their contracts?? It's ridiculous, had Mauer jumped ship and took the money from some other organization such as the Yankees he probably would have had to move his whole family from all of the threats all of the idiots around here would have said.

I wonder where the Twins thought Hicks was going to be in a couple of years? And what did people think of Kepler the first year he was up?