sftwinsfan

Reading the list, was really ok with anybody but Muller, so yeah-will probably be Muller. What I'd like to see is the Twins draft the best player regardless of sign-ability at #15. Then pay the 75% overage on up to 5% overslot if that's what it takes. Also if true and next year is looking like a stronger draft class with more catching depth it would not be the end of the word to have a say #1 or #2 pick as well as the #16 pick. Overall I'd like to see the slot system stay with some tweaks-no more pooling the money. We're heading quickly back to the old days where agents and big money teams are manipulating the draft. What happened last year with Daz Cameron was a joke.

I like how almost everyone was convinced last year that Kyle Gibson was maybe better than they thought, had started racking up some K's. Now after 4 starts and an injury (that may have had something to do with those poor starts) almost everyone has written him off with the likes of Ricky Nolasco.

Poor management call there. You sacrifice Nunez who's hitting .338 to set up Dozier hitting about .200 and prone to strikeouts. Like you couldn't see that strikeout coming from a mile away. Pathetic.

Sad to see Kohl Stewart regressing as the season goes on. Those early season strikeouts seem to have disappeared.

I'm kind of in the middle on the whole Sano thing (not trading him-obviously that would be crazy). While I think this is a mess largely of the front office's doing, I'm also less than impressed with the way Sano has handled it. If he takes anything away from this season hopefully he learns that regardless of how much talent you have, you can't just show up and succeed in the majors. Clearly after being asked to drop some weight and being informed of playing in the OF by showing up pushing 280 lbs and not practicing playing the OF in the off-season its hard to argue that he's not giving that impression. Nobody on this team should be beyond criticism at this point. From everything written about Mauer, Plouffe, Hughes, Dozier, Suzuki, and Perkins around here I haven't noticed any targeting of the Latino players. If this team starts winning, attitudes (players and fans) will improve. Wasn't it back in 2003 or 2004 or so when it got to the point where Hunter actually took a swing at Morneau in the locker room? This team may be missing that kind of get in your face type veteran leadership. Can't image Dozier or Plouffe taking a swing at a teammate, just doesn't seem to be who they are.

Well, Rudy Hernandez and Eddie Guardado seem to be doing a real bang-up job so far. How about we just forget about all the racial stuff and just focus on finding the best people for the position.

I was thrilled to see Alex Meyer start the season well, but in reality wasn't it like 3 games only 2 of which were starts? Hardly enough to call him fixed. After watching that one start he did get with the Twins I'm not too convinced. His mechanics looked terrible. He recoiled with every pitch and his arm slot looked so low it just looked awkward. I'd park him in AAA for most of the year and try to work with him on mechanics and secondary pitches. Really other than the Midwest League Buxton has never really torn it up anyplace since. His numbers were decent, but he never dominated. People like to point out stretches, but they are usually no longer than a month. I'd like to see him in Rochester at least until the All-Star Break and make him dominate AAA. Kepler never was given a chance to see if he could play this season, but same thing for him. Give him a couple months and force their hand by dominating AAA. At some point this season try to fix this roster mess. As much as I like him, move Trevor Plouffe for whatever you can get so Sano can move to 3rd. Trade Nolasco for whatever amount of his contract another team is willing to take and eat the rest or move Hughes to the bullpen. Either way Duffy and Berrios need to start. Arcia needs to play everyday to see what they have with him. I'm impressed with how much he's improved at the plate. If Rosario isn't sent to AAA he should be starting in CF until Buxton is back. Santana should be back in the utility roll. Trade either Dozier or Polanco, they both can't start at 2B. What they've done with Polanco has been a waste so far.

I'm somewhere in the middle between people touting May as the possibly the best SP on the staff and those who think he was a failure. I would be all for giving him another shot at the rotation though. See what you've got with him. I believe Hughes is toast as a starter. For a guy that relied heavily on his fastball he's clearly lost some velocity. Maybe he can amp that back up a bit if only pitching an inning at a time.

Interesting, had never heard that before. Sadly, I don't know if this story will catch on as it doesn't reflect the views many have nowadays of U.S. history which apparently resembled a Quentin Tarantino movie.

So I'm guessing Tommy Milone is still with the team? I was kind of hoping someone would claim him. Although I'm guessing if he asked for a trade over being sent to the bullpen they can always point to the fact that no other team would take him, even for nothing in return.

I like Plouffe, but he needs to go so Sano can move to 3rd. The Twins need to stick to playing outfielders in the outfield. I think now would be the perfect time to ramp back up Trevor May to be a starter. Give him a chance to see what he can do. I think they may have to move Hughes to the bullpen. He was already pretty much a 1-trick pony with fastball/cutter. I'm thinking his velocity isn't coming back. At 90-91 he's just not that effective. Maybe he can gain a couple ticks back and be effective in the bullpen. Might as well call up the young relievers like Chargois. Better to have them take their lumps this season than wait until your team is competitive. Finally, begin the search for the next GM as Terry Ryan should be told they are moving on after this season.

I like it! Tommy Milone isn't bad, but I don't believe he's part of the future of this team. Alex Meyer may not be either, but there is a chance he could be. The Twins need to find out and right now they do not appear to be in a playoff race this year so why not.

I actually am somewhat fearful of what the trade would be if TR does have a move up his sleeve. I could see a bizarre Stephen Gonsalves for somebody's backup CF or C or something like that. Does anyone else miss Drew Butera? At least his defensive game was competent. Kepler should have been given a chance to play with Buxton going down, otherwise what was the point of even having him up? He at least looked like he had some kind of plan and a chance the few at bats he had. I hope this is either a 1-day thing for Alex Meyer or he will take over Milone's spot next time in the rotation. As good as he could be if he ever figures it out I don't like messing with him after he's just had a couple good outings to start the year. Even tonight when Tommy pitched alright he was pushing 100 pitches in the 5th inning. Give Meyer a crack then if he falters Berrios.

I remember that game, was awesome. Most memorable Twins comeback for me until last year's game that ended with Dozier's walk-off HR.

Obviously they will play better at some point this season, I just don't think they'll be very good. Even before this I was thinking and really couldn't come up with a single thing this team was good at. Starting Pitching-rotation has depth, but has a lot of No.3-No.4 starters. Bullpen-Yikes! Questions all over the place including the closer. Defense-well, some positions are pretty solid. Then there's C and RF. Speed-well, Buxton is fast, but he can't steal first unfortunately. A couple guys aren't really stolen base guys but can run, but then a lot of guys that kind of clog up the bases (Mauer, Plouffe, Sano, Park, Suzuki). Power-Sano has a lot of power, some others have some power-but are probably more 15-25 HR guys. OBP-outside of a couple guys these guys don't get on base all that often. Offense overall-just a lot of guys that hit about .240 and strike out a lot that have some power, but for the most part-not a lot of power. When they do hit those HR's, many will likely be solo.

This could get ugly. I think he's on a relatively short leash, but Jepson has struggled as well so far. May has been imploding also and can't seem to control his emotions out there. On the bright side, if they only score 1-2 runs per game there won't be enough save opportunities to matter.

Glad to hear the velocity was back up, last game I saw the tv guys even commented that he hadn't touched 90 mph on a pitch. Hopefully he has another good season still in the tank. Maybe by mid-2017 they'll have a couple young guys ready to step up into the closer role.

Not even 1/4th the season and shots were fired? Seems a bit low for how far he went.

I think it's too early to send Meyer to the bullpen. The guy had a bad year, it happens, it was a disaster. But he's still relatively young and is healthy. Start him in AAA as a starter and if he starts blowing hitters away and gets back some confidence go from there. Randy Johnson averaged over 6 BB/9 from age 27-28. I'd keep giving Meyer opportunities until you can no longer control his rights.

I think when Hunter decided to retire it sealed the deal on Plouffe staying. I know some people don't read too much into old-fashioned stats like HR and RBI anymore but I think the Twins do. I think they saw a team that struggled to score runs at times and saw losing 2 veteran bats near the top of the team in HR and RBI and decided that losing both in the same off-season didn't make a whole lot of sense to them.

List could be a little depressing next year, guessing #1 will be either Gordon or Jay. Hoping it won't be Polanco, he's a solid prospect but not anybody that looks like he's going to be a star by any means. Would be great to see some of the younger guys like Lewin Diaz take a big step forward or one of the injured guys like Lewis Thorpe.

While it would be nice to see Arcia take that step forward this spring, my guess is he's cut in spring training. I think his best shot at a starting spot next year was DH and the Park signing reduced the odds of that happening significantly. If Arcia decides he'd rather be a baseball player than a bodybuilder at some point he may be alright. He just needs to drop some bulk and get back to what got him to the big leagues.

I think this team is going to fall flat on its face early in the season. Then pick things up a bit in the 2nd half with better contributions from players such as Buxton, Park, Berrios, and possibly a young reliever or two. I think this team will struggle to score runs. The old Mauer just is not coming back, he looks like he's 33 going on 50. All his time catching has taken a toll on his body and he's just not aging gracefully. Park will likely struggle badly early on as he adjusts to the league. The bullpen isn't very good, especially with Perkins being a question mark. They either have no CF or will throw Buxton to the wolves as he was completely over-matched last season at the plate. Hughes is a question mark-will he have his fastball? They will probably try to trot out Ricky Nolasco in the rotation. Early season could see two DH's playing in the OF at the same time (Arcia, Sano). I hope I'm wrong, but that's what I'm expecting. I think they were a bit lucky last year and expectations have perhaps unfairly been raised too high for 2016. I see this team being competitive again for the postseason in 2017. I'm predicting 78-84 with everyone predicting the sky is falling in the first two months while quietly playing slightly above .500 baseball in the 2nd half as some of their young talent arrives and makes adjustments.

Rather than move everyone around I'd leave Rosario alone in left. With Buxton's speed you can maybe shade him a little more over toward covering right-center to account for Sano being out there. As long as Sano drops some weight and is willing to put in the work it really shouldn't be a big defensive downgrade over Hunter. Eventually Sano moves to 3rd or 1st but a couple years down the road the Twins will have time to know what they have or don't have with guys like Park,Kepler, Walker, etc and Mauer will be on his way out. Trading Plouffe now in my opinion is too much of a risk unless they acquired a proven bat as well. He's unspectacular but solid and in their lineup one of the only guys who isn't a major question mark. I hope Park turns out to be a steal but if there was a consensus among scouts that he could be a middle of the order hitter in MLB it would have taken more than $12.85M to win a bid for the guy. At this point he is nothing more than a lotto ticket.

This along with their interest in bring back Neil Cotts is just disappointing.