jimbo92107

Who needs defense with the lumber company the Twins will have? Famous last words...

Duffey will be fine because he's got one of the most mind-bending curveballs in the league. He will continue to use that pitch to get hitters out, and to set up his decent heater and change-up. He does need to get a little better at mixing up the change and his heater, but he spots that curve so well, he can always fall back on it.

Eddie Rosario is one smart ballplayer, and he loves beating his opponents. If that takes more plate discipline, I expect Eddie will add that to his bag of tricks. If Bruno and Molitor put it in terms of upping the pressure on the pitcher, Eddie will be right there with 'em. Get the count in your favor, Eddie!

So many uncertainties, it's impossible to say how it will shake out in spring. It seems silly to continue down the road with fading starters like Nolasco and Hughes, while Tommy Milone seems better suited to long relief and spot starts. I'd put them all in the pen to see if their numbers improve with fewer times through opponents' batting orders. Hughes especially could shine in late inning roles, possibly as a closer. That would leave the starting ro open for Santana, May, Gibson, Duffey and Berrios, any of whom could break out for 180 to 200 innings. Meanwhile, you put three good vets in the pen, you can forget about iffy middle relievers for a year or three. Add Burdy, Meyer to Perk and Jepsen, maybe Rogers for loogy, that's looking not bad. Position players is such a mess right now, not even worth guessing. Dozier at second.

Bravo and thank you to Michael Cuddyer. He was an excellent player, a real team leader, and could become an excellent coach or manager. What an arm!

Especially number 4. Aaron Hicks was improving from the left side of the plate, but his lefty stroke is VERY unlikely ever to be as good as Max Kepler's, and Max may turn out to be just as good as Hicks in the corner OF.

Nolasco and Hughes to the bull pen, May to the starting rotation. Hughes could dominate for several years as a closer, while Nolasco would be a good middle inning guy.

What I get from those clips is not just a failure to load up, but a failure to follow through with the rear hip. Compare any of those swings to Adrian Gonzalez, and you'll quickly see the most important difference - hip follow through. That's what allows the bat to square up and travel farther with power and reach through the hitting zone. It's what allows Gonzalez to drive the ball to the gaps and over the fence to all fields. Now look how all these examples feature either no hip follow through, or a slight hip follow through. This is a terrible way to hit. Not only do you get less bat travel through the zone, you also increase your chances of injuring your torso muscles as you put on the brakes early. The most natural reaction to that style would be to protect yourself by not swinging as hard as you should. Thus, the punchless Minnesota Twins, with both feet rooted in the batter's box.

Not that I'd know, but that's about $10 million bucks less than I thought he'd get.

Bingisimo. When it comes to Glen Perkins regaining his dominance, nature says no. There is no fundamental flaw in his throwing mechanics; he's just getting too old to throw baseballs that hard that often. Same is true for Phil Hughes. Both guys are past their fire-baller prime. Hughes, Perkins and Jepsen are in a good position to form a musical chairs rotation for closer and setup. Meanwhile, Trevor May has improved in every role the Twins have put him into, so he should go right back into a rotation of Santana, Berrios, Duffey, Gibson and May. Each of those five guys is young enough, talented enough and healthy enough to approach 200 innings at an ERA around 4. I'm assuming JR Graham will start the season in AAA as a starter. Got my doubts about Ryan O'Rourke making the squad with Taylor Rogers pushing for some kind of spot, maybe as LOOGY middle reliever with spot starts. Spring training will be huge this coming year. Nothing ever turns out perfect. Guys falter or get hurt, while a few guys flash apparent talent that later reveals to be an illusion. Mainly tho, this team looks to be seriously on the rise. Not yet ready to take on the Royals, but they could be a disruptive influence.

Levi Michael wouldn't be able to crack the Twins lineup, but he might get some interest as a utility guy, then eventually work his way into a starter's job at 2nd base. Too many injuries, other guys passed him up.

Sounds like about what the Twins must be thinking. Trading Hicks for Murphy eases a positional logjam at both ends of the deal, and opens up career opportunities for both players. I hate to see Hicks go because I like watching a guy figure things out, and it looked like he was getting there. Same thing may have been happening to Murphy in NY. Wedged between McCann and Sanchez, Murphy wasn't likely to emerge as the steady starter. Good luck to both guys. Not a steal on either side, but a good team move.

Good topic to chew on, the Twins outfield in April 2016 may not include Buxton or Kepler, so who will be running around out there? My first guess is that Rosario is a given in LF, Danny Santana could be CF, with possibly Arcia in RF, platooning with somebody. Plouffe? Sano? Everybody?? This also brings up the lesser-known side of Miguel Sano, which is that the big kid is actually pretty fast, and his arm may well be as strong in the outfield as Hicks's. We see Sano's size and assume he's a lumbering giant like Kennys Vargas, but he's not. He's big, strong and athletic, a lot like a good NFL tight end. A guy like that can be a very good outfielder, and with that gun for an arm, some folks might regret going for second on him. If Sano conditions himself like a pro athlete, he should have less trouble with his Achilles. I'll admit I may never enjoy watching him dive for a fly ball, but Sano could be just fine in right field.

When Hicks came up after his AAA demotion, he had changed two very important things. First, he had developed a better butt-turn and kick to load up his lower half. Second, he had developed a higher, more extreme bat twirl that I compared to the Cuban style. Those two changes allowed Hicks to unload with much more force through the hitting zone, plus they allowed him to check his swing better. Suddenly, he looked great. Unfortunately, Hicks started drifting away from those changes later in the season, so his bat cooled off. My fear is that he will quickly re-learn that kick and that bat twirl with the Yankees, then start hitting like freakin' Dave Winfield for the next ten years...for the freakin' Yankees. On the other hand, it looks like we got a decent backup catcher.

The Yankees think they can develop Aaron Hicks into another Bernie Williams, and I'm not at all sure it won't happen. I'm sad to see Hick go, but he is more likely to blossom as a hitter in New York than here, much as David Ortiz needed to go to Boston to become Big Papi.

No big deal for an ace in 2016. The first big "all in" year could be 2017. If Berrios and Duffey pan out, then Ryan might go for a Cueto-type deal.

Loved the improvements in the 2015 Twins, but they're a long way from the overall quality of both teams I saw in the World Series. Still, a couple of years could make a huge difference, with power arms like Burdi and Reed coming up, more good starters on the way, and with Stewart and Garver as possible good catchers. Somewhere between 2017 and 2020, the Twins might be ready to make a serious run. They might even make the playoffs in 2016, but they can't take the Royals without a much better pitching staff.

Actually, there is a very important difference in the two swings. In Santana's 2014 swing, his hip pop comes just before the bat snaps through the zone, propelling the bat. In the 2015 version, his hip pop is simultaneous to the bat coming through the zone. If that swing is representative, then Santana's kinetic chain has been broken, removing power from the swing, which must surf a wave of force created from low to high. No rhythm in the 2015 swing. Also, his belt buckle (hip) isn't turned far enough, so his torso isn't transferring power to his swing. Belt buckle must turn all the way towards the pitcher, or slightly past that, to generate whip.

In the last 35 games of the season I noticed that Hicks was drifting away from the mechanics that gave him such a hot May. He started losing some of the jolt in his kick, and his bat cock started going away. I recommend getting back that jolty kick, cock that bat tighter, then in the batting cage play Rage Against the Machine's "Bulls on Parade" at max volume. If that doesn't make you want to smash some balls, nothing will! Rally round the family... with a pocket full of shells!

Address pitching first if you want to win more games next season. Without looking for more rentals, the Twins right now have five guys that could close in on 200 innings apiece next year: Santana, Gibson, Duffey, May, and Berrios. Yeah, Berrios, not Hughes. It's sad, but Phil Hughes lost the zip on his heater, and he's just not starter material without it. The good news is, if they limit his innings as a middle reliever/spot starter, Hughes may be able to dominate again, for short stretches. In a unique coincidence, the same appears to be true for Ricky Nolasco and Mike Pelfrey. None of them can be relied upon to go 200 innings anymore, but all of them could provide excellent service as middle relievers and spot starters. That includes Tommy Milone, too. A short walk through would look like this. Santana goes 7, leaves a runner on in the 8th. Hughes steps in, stops the bleeding. Jepsen closes. Gibson goes 6, gives up 2. Nolasco does 2 innings, Jepsen closes. Duffey goes 7 shutout, Pelfrey pitches one, Jepsen. May goes 8 giving up 2. Jepsen. Berrios falters after 3, Milone takes over. Pelfrey for one. Jepsen. The team could do that all season long, with spot starts for Hughes, and maybe one or two for Milone. Even Nolasco could get a spot start if he's feeling really good. Hughes's fastball might uptick a couple mph, making him dominant again. Might even try Hughes at closer; he's got a closer's mentality already. Nolasco can hurt his ankle again, or not. On top of that bunch, you have Perkins and Jepsen platooning as closer/setup, and bring up a couple fire ballers like Burdi and Meyer to try their hand. The Twins won more games this year, but their starting rotation was a mess of injuries and inconsistency, other than Gibson. If Tyler Duffey hadn't shocked us with his cosmic curve ball experience, the old W/L record would not have been relatively impressive. I know how things stand with this organization, so no need to tell me I'm being "unrealistic." The starting ro will be Hughes, Santana, Gibson, maybe Duffey, maybe May, and then MAYBE they bring up Berrios after he starts off AAA with seven shutouts. Milone, I have no idea. All I'm saying is that they're already paying these guys whether they start, relieve, or sweep up the stadium after the game. The money is already spent, so now you piece together a way to get more wins, not stroke expensive egos.

Congratulations to Kyle Gibson on a good season. Should be interesting where he winds up among Twins pitchers in 2016. It's quite possible he will have the 3rd or 4th best record next season, with Santana coming back for a full year, Duffey looking much better than expected, Berrios coming up, and Trevor May back in the starting rotation. Will there be room for Phil Hughes? I still think the best option for the Twins would be to put all the young studs in the rotation, all the expensive vets in the pen, then swap them around as needed. A bullpen with Hughes, Nolasco, Milone and Pelfrey could provide 3 to 4 innings a game for a whole season, and with such strong backup, the young arms could afford to attack with little fear. Instead of worrying about a threadbare pitching staff, they'd be brimming with talent and endurance. I'd like that a lot better than what I saw this season.

Hicks, May, Escobar. All three improved their value greatly. Hicks was the happiest surprise. Next he needs to put more jolt in his kick, get that bat waggle whippier, and let the rear knee brush past the front knee on weight shift. Bang.

I agree with Loosey, Twins Daily does strike a good balance of regular stories and free-wheeling participation of anybody that wants to have a say. Many thanks to glunn, h2Oface and all the other moderators for running a fun and informative site. It really did make this Twins season more enjoyable!

Hey, maybe we'll see Max Kepler tomorrow!

Meanwhile, congratulations to the Minnesota Twins on a season of surprises. This could be a very good team next year.