The Twins hitters need to be on their toes this game against Paxton. I was watching MLB Network Breakdown recently and the big change Paxton made in New York is working VERY quickly. Like Mark Buerhle did back in the day. Once he gets the ball back from the catcher he is ready to go in 5 seconds or less. I'm looking forward to watching him in action.
These kind of changes are being implemented league wide. The cutter is the new sinker/slider, and pitchers are throwing way more non-fastballs than ever before. I'm happy the Twins are keeping up with the latest trends. Fangraphs posted a really good article about how batters are fighting back to the trends... https://blogs.fangraphs.com/how-hitters-are-fighting-back-against-rising-strikeouts/
Quite the accomplishment for the team. I will continue to ask, no, BEG for Falvine to supplement this team this year. Minnesota sports fans are starving for a good team to care about...
This is why I trade prospects for good MLB players 10 times out of 10. I'm certain people here thought the Astros overpaid for Cole... They got the last laugh. If you want to have more fun with past trades, look at how awful the Christian Yelich trade is for Miami now... And people also thought at the time the Marlins got a haul. Trade your prospects when you can. Laugh all the way to the bank when the established MLB player you receive is way better than any top 100 prospect you sent to the other team.
It's hard to go from zero to WS contender in 1 year. You need to take steps in order to achieve the ultimate goal. A great first step is winning the division. Another step is winning a playoff series... Etc, etc. I don't think it's realistic at all to keep punting contention down the road and stumble your way to a WS title.
Nobody wants Reed if he's injured and broken. No, I wouldn't trade Castro or Pineda. It wasn't too long ago when the Twins had to start Drew Butera, Ryan Doumit, and Juan Centeno. I wouldn't trade any MLB quality catcher.
The Twins should be buying expiring contracts to push for a division title... Not sell them. 8 full seasons since the last division title. I've got to imagine the first step towards 'sustained contention' is, you know, contending.
Not Twins related, but a great read nonetheless. Compelling evidence to change my thoughts on how to increase balls in play. https://blogs.fangraphs.com/how-hitters-are-fighting-back-against-rising-strikeouts/
It's been 9 years since they won a division title... I think that's a respectable goal for the season. I'll be very disappointed if the FO punts on a division title run for more A ball lottery tickets.
A defining year for Sano's career, no doubt. He has to produce and be healthy the rest of the year upon his return. Otherwise why do the Twins continue to rely on him?
I concur... We're past the fine line now with the ball and something needs to be done about it. It's pretty silly when someone who's 5'9" 165 lbs soaking wet can mash 20 HRs a season. There's going to be a lot of unnecessary clamoring for career minor leaguers because they're hitting 30 HRs with a juiced baseball.
They'll probably get more walk up sales as it warms up, but the number of season ticket holders is what it is. I assume the 12k number that keeps popping up is the amount of season ticket holders. People who actually purchase the tickets would know more than me... Don't they have to commit to another season by December/January? The decrease in ST holders could be a result of this FO making their moves in March instead of December/January.
What exactly did they do to the ball this year in AAA? And how are teams supposed to determine who's ready for MLB action when the numbers are skewed this bad?