KirbyDome89

I disagree they're definitely capable of having a winning season and building on last year. The expectation is to continue moving forward and improving. Being awful and thinking everything will suddenly click and they'll be contenders for 5+ years isn't realistic. Buxton isn't McCutchen, or any other player. There is no set amount of time any player has to spend in the minors. Some never see AAA and have successful MLB careers. McCutchen may have needed all those games or none of them, there isn't an answer for that, and that is exactly my point. If Buxton needs more time in the minors then let him prove it, but 9 games isn't enough to say one way or the other.

Whats naive is thinking that supplementing the roster with below replacement level AAAA or AAA players is going to bring about winning baseball. Have you already forgotten 2012-2014? The roster was full of those players and everybody (but you apparently) knows how those seasons turned out. If the struggles continue then he'll have to eventually go down but they've played 8 games! Its going to take much more time than that to truly tell if he needs to be back in the minors. Hopefully this hand injury isn't serious....

I'm pretty sure he means one guy is a 30 year old journyman 4th OFer who owns a career slash below replacement level, while the other is considered the #1-2 prospect in baseball and has all of 8 games played so far this season. If we're choosing which below replacement player to take, my vote is for the high upside prospect....

You're right winning in clusters isn't uncommon. But going 20-7 in May for a team coming off 4 straight 90+ loss seasons and a losing April IS uncommon. An elite team can put together a month like that without much surprise but the Twins weren't an elite team and they still aren't. They showed that by playing under .500 baseball every month last season except May (the outlier) and September when they went 15-13. Win/loss clusters are exactly what has them in a bad spot. A win cluster is exactly what had them in a good spot last year. You make the playoffs based on your record. Player development and regression can play a part in winning or losing streaks but ultimately its your overall record in 162 games that determines playoff eligibility. Starting 0-7 is a serious hit to the Twins chance of finishing over .500 and making the playoffs, it puts them in bad spot.

That '06 team was also coming off 5 straight winning seasons....I agree it definitely isn't panic time but apart from their crazy May last season the Twins were a .500ish club. They aren't going 20-7 again this May. So while it is only 7 games, the 0-7 hole they're in isn't totally insignificant for a team that played .500 baseball for the majority of last season.

He'll pitch well today to spite us all....#anotherstartforRicky

Overall I pretty much agree. I don't mind the decision to hold off on bringing in a ton of bullpen help if the prospects are on their way soon. However, I do think TR put himself in a tough spot by not bringing in one maybe two guys as FAs. There definitely was room for a solid arm to be added via free agency without blocking arms coming up through the minors. Most of the guys listed should be fine. Jepsen isn't a real concern. He hasn't looked great but a couple appearances isn't exactly a large sample size. What I'm worried about is everybody counting on him repeating last years performance. 2015 was by far his best year as a pro. Even if he regresses back to the Jepsen of old, much like phil hughes last season, he's still a good bullpen arm. The question is whether he's the guy you want pitching late in the ballgame. I wasn't crazy about Fien being tendered his contract this offseason. He has been sliding downhill the over the last few seasons and last year was more of a free fall than a slide. Like I said 4 games isn't anything to go crazy about but Fien has been trending the wrong way for a while now. I would say he's the one guy we should be concerned about right now. That last point basically sums it up. If the Twins score a couple more runs and are 2-2 right now I think the panic level about the bullpen is pretty mild. The bullpen hasn't been great so far, and probably won't be moving forward (did we really expect it to be?) but they haven't exactly imploded either.

So the Twins have 3 pitchers on the 40 man who are a better fit for the final rotation spot. Two of those pitchers are at AAA (Berrios and Duffy), and one of them is in the bullpen (May) But hey the Twins expect to win the division and build on last year....Smh....

Spring training stats have to be put into context. Aaron Hicks is a prime example. Pitching 13 mediocre innings against mostly minor league hitters doesn't erase 2 years of being terrible. We've watched Tyler Duffy have success with the Twins and we've watched Nolasco struggle for 2 years now. A handful of meaningless innings in March shouldn't weigh heavily on the decision made. I'll say it again, if Nolasco "wins," the job its because the Twins went to FL with the intention of handing it to him. There is no other way a guy who has been that bad for 2 years earns a rotation spot. Its inexcusable.

I can't understand how anybody can be happy that Nolasco is potentially (probably) set to claim the last rotation spot. The school of thought seems to be Duffy hasn't pitched well this spring (he hasn't) and that he needs "seasoning," in AAA to develop another pitch and Nolasco needs to "reclaim," some value by getting a final shot in the rotation. If thats your argument did you watch the Twins at all in August and September? Duffy was their most effective starting pitch for essentially that entire period. Why does he now need to develop more in AAA? He may very well need to develop another pitch as some are suggesting and he easily could regress but he's earned the chance to prove that at the major league level. There is nothing for Duffy at AAA other than meaningless innings. Everybody can stop drinking the Nolasco trade kool aid as well. He has NO value, NONE. Nobody is taking on that contract. If the Twins somehow did manage to ship him off they would have to eat a massive portion of the contract at which point they might as well keep him as a bullpen arm to salvage some value.He has been nothing short of awful for 2 years now so why are people even remotely optimistic that this year he somehow breaks through? He's a 33 year old innings eater who is now 3 years removed from his last decent year. We've seen Tyler Duffy have success with Twins and we've seen Nolasco look like a train wreck for 2 years now. Nolasco has done absolutely nothing to instill even the slightest amount of hope that he'll be serviceable this year, so again, I can't understand the support I've seen for him claiming the spot. If your argument is that Duffy didn't pitch well and lost his spot you're kidding yourself. Spring training statistics don't matter, and if they did; Ricky hasn't exactly torn it up this spring either. If Nolasco is given the rotation spot it means the Twins always intended to give it to him. Duffy didn't lose it, and Ricky didn't earn it. The whole "competition," was just more lip service from TR and the gang.