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Sports Info Solutions has two new articles about the Twins minor league defense:
A short article with an extended podcast interview with Noah Miller, the minor league leader in SS defense.   
An extended interview with Tucker Frawley, Minnesota Twins Infield and Catching Coordinator. Some nice comments about Edouard Julien.
 

Love to hear this about Julien. Certainly have noticed him improving his defense on the Twins. This may hint that he can stick at 2B if he is working this hard at it. Just has to conquer those LH pitchers (though I understand now is not the time to fight that battle).

I'm amazed that the best defensive SS in the minors, BY FAR, can't make the TD top 20 minor league players list. And his 16 defensive runs saved is rated on an MLB scale. Even if they can't hit much, great fielding shortstops almost always make it to MLB in some fashion. What's better is that he is hitting decent these past two months.

Sports Info Solutions has two new articles about the Twins minor league defense:
A short article with an extended podcast interview with Noah Miller, the minor league leader in SS defense.   
An extended interview with Tucker Frawley, Minnesota Twins Infield and Catching Coordinator. Some nice comments about Edouard Julien.
 

Sports Info Solutions has two new articles about the Twins minor league defense:
A short article with an extended podcast interview with Noah Miller, the minor league leader in SS defense.   
An extended interview with Tucker Frawley, Minnesota Twins Infield and Catching Coordinator. Some nice comments about Edouard Julien.
 

You won't have remorse that Buxton couldn't live out that contract or be what we hoped he could be?  That sounds implausible.  We could look back in 5 years, not with remorse that we did it, but with remorse that it didn't work.  
I would hope any Twins fan would be upset that we never get another PA out of Buxton.  That's demonstrably bad for us as fans, for the team, and for Buxton himself.
You can acknowledge downside or failure in a move without regretting the decision.  Those are not mutually exclusive.

You maybe, but not "we."
 
There is no chance I look back on this with remorse. None. There is absolutely NOTHING the Twins could have done with $100m this offseason that would have been money better spent. 
If Buxton never gets another PA, I won't complain. 

Congratulations to Buck & FO! We are fortunate that Buck is a forgiving man and that he indeed wanted to stay in MN. God bless him. May he be able to max out his contract.
Now get the trading machine warmed up for starting pitching.

Buxton, and it’s not close. 

I'm surprised about so many of the aspects of this contract. First, that the Twins were able to convince him to accept big MVP bonuses and not plate appearance bonuses, ensuring that performance, not health, will escalate the contract. Second, no opt out or anything, full no-trade clause (good for Buck!).
Remember, Buxton *should* be a free agent *right now* but the front office hosed him very intentionally. Byron appears to be a very forgiving man and we should all be thankful for it. This is a very team-friendly contract.

Seems like a fair deal for all involved.  The avg salary shouldn't keep the FO from pursuing FAs.  Now let's hope he  reaches some of those bonuses.

This is an incredible bargain for the Twins, and it's amazing that they were able to lock him down for so many years. Wow!

Nothing makes a manager look better than a great bullpen. Regardless of how one feels about Rocco, he didn't have the arms this season. A moribund bullpen. ?

Nothing makes a manager look better than a great bullpen. Regardless of how one feels about Rocco, he didn't have the arms this season. A moribund bullpen. ?

You win the Most Concise and Biting Comment Award! Hard to argue too...

Buxton, Rosario, Sano, Polanco and Kepler were all under 25 and on the Twins in 2016. Berrios, Pressley, Duffey and May were all on the big league team. They had won 83 games in 2015. Ryan et al had drafted Kirilloff, Baddoo, Rortvedt, Balazovic and Miranda in 2016. 
Yes, the draft sucked for three years. The only player to develop, Garver, is thanks to the current front office. But I just named 14 players that have had a positive impact from the Ryan years. That is not a roster moribund and in despair. 

Keeping Pineda on the roster and pitching is totally defensible. The Twins already have 3 rookies in the rotation and 2 of the 3 are long shots to stick. They honestly don't have any MLB caliber starting pitcher candidates who aren't in the rotation right now. When Ryan is ready after his return from Tokyo, I expect he'll get a look. Thorpe will probably get a look if his velocity is there, Dobnak will probably be available at the end of the month. There aren't any legit options waiting for their shot right now.

You win the Most Concise and Biting Comment Award! Hard to argue too...

As someone said above, it didn't matter who he brought in earlier this year, they'd fail. 

Nothing makes a manager look better than a great bullpen. Regardless of how one feels about Rocco, he didn't have the arms this season. A moribund bullpen. ?

Oh yeah, the way they had Garver play 1/2 to 1/3 of his games in the minors at utility positions and didn't give him a legitimate shot until they failed to protect Stuart Turner from the rule 5 draft, Jason Castro got injured, and their ill-advised free agent signing, Bobby Wilson, played like crap. The front office didn't defend Garver, instead allowing Molitor and Glen Perkins, among other pitchers, to take a nasty public swipes at the future starting catcher in 2017-2018.
By the way, Garver made the call to a catcher framing coach, Tanner Swanson, not the Twins front office, and Garver spent the time working to improve himself. So Falvey does get credit for hiring the coach Garver reached out to for training, but it was Garver who was trying to seek an avenue of improvement.
If it weren't for Garver's initiative and hard work while being publicly humiliated and largely ignored by this front office, he certainly wouldn't be starting for the Twins. This front office did just about everything they could to miss Garver's talent.

How much do you think a manager matters? I mean, a FA player gets about $7-8MM per win......and only a handful of managers make even $5MM.....I can't see that they matter that much. Probably 2-3 wins, making them underpaid relative to players. I could be wrong, maybe they are worth a lot more, but then I'd think they'd be paid a lot more.

Pretty bad is better than "near death" and "in despair". 
The change needed to be made. Falvey and Levine should get credit for convincing the Pohlad's to provide needed investments in the farm system and analytics. But they had six top-100 prospects on the roster, all under 25. They had a great draft class entering their first year. It's not like the rebuilds of the Astros of the past or the Tigers of the present. 
Like I continue to say, Falvey and Levine have done okay - great in some spots, questionable in others. I agree that 2022 is a pivotal year for their regime. I just get tired of the hyperbole.

I generally agree with your comment, I have not called for Falvey or Levine's head.  I disagree that the system was moribund, which was Nick's summation:
"This reassembled baseball ops department has been working ahead of schedule basically since they took over a moribund franchise in despair."
That's a bit much. The org was behind in the times but the system's roster was not "near death".
And... they inherited a 23 year old Berrios who had pitched well at both AA and AAA but only had 14 MLB starts to his name. 

Buxton, Rosario, Sano, Polanco and Kepler were all under 25 and on the Twins in 2016. Berrios, Pressley, Duffey and May were all on the big league team. They had won 83 games in 2015. Ryan et al had drafted Kirilloff, Baddoo, Rortvedt, Balazovic and Miranda in 2016. 
Yes, the draft sucked for three years. The only player to develop, Garver, is thanks to the current front office. But I just named 14 players that have had a positive impact from the Ryan years. That is not a roster moribund and in despair.