whydidnt

I think Seth points out the Twins have some players in the upper levels of the minors that are potential Major Leaguers, and I agree with that. However, I think it's also safe to say that it doesn't look like there are any true impact players in the bunch listed. Most, if not all of these guys appear to be role players, instead of first division starters. I think if you compare the Twins at this level, you will find they are in the lower half of the league. However, the good news is that the White Sox and Indians upper levels are even more barren, so at least as far as the Central goes the Twins are probably middle of the road. The years of high draft picks for the Royals is finally producing, and it looks like the Tigers may have a couple of pretty decent pitchers about ready. It was good to see the Twins breaking from the recent past in the 2011 draft, by taking some guys with different skills than they traditionally have early. Now it's all about whether those players reach potential and if the Twins staff can build on their strengths instead of trying to make every guy hit or pitch, exactly the same way.

Well, I think it's more about luck than anything else. When your entire strategy is to let the hitters hit the ball, then a large percentage of your success/failure is going to be based upon the luck of where the ball is hit. That's the problem with the Twins pitch to contact strategy, sometimes luck is on your side and all the balls are hit at fielders, and sometimes they find the hole.

I think at this point it's pretty easy to say the current skills are not the skills that we see turn in to star players in MLB. He does appear to be fairly smart, seems like he works hard, has a decent track record in the minors, and has amazing speed. He has a chance to be decent regular for a few years. The issue is can a MLB team afford to have 2 singles hitters starting in their OF, and will his arm play in CF? If/When Hicks or Benson is major league ready, it's pretty easy to see one of them as a starter and Revere moving into the 4th OF - late inning replacement role. Benson really doesn't seem that far off and offers a lot more offensive potential. Hicks is certainly a question mark at this point, but I'm hoping that last year opened his eyes, and he brings a more aggressive approach this year.

So, If Parmalee performs in spring training as he did last September does he take the DH job and push Doumit to the OF? I think there is a chance.

Ugh- I Appreciate the optimism at this time of year, but this means the Twins will need to score 5 runs each time Marquis pitches. Without Cuddyer, Kubel, Young or Thome I think that could be quite the challenge, meaning we are expecting a loss everytime Marquis pitches.

There is a difference between just bringing warm bodies, and bringing in guys with skills that could be useful. This year it looks like the Twins just brought In warm bodies. It's frustrating when you realize this was the same strategy employed last season, and it basically blew up in their faces last year. So far, while still early, it looks like we are in trouble again.

Ugh, Marquis not looking like a guy to count on as a starter. Why spend 3 million for him rather than going with someone like Hendricks, who at least has a chance to be a decent pitcher?

I've seen the Twins at all 3 Minnesota stadiums as well as at Fenway and Anaheim. Also, been to the Astrodome and Minute Maid in Houston, Coors and Miller Park. I enjoyed Fenway, but the seats are tiny. I think I like Target field the best of those I visited. I'd like to get to Safeco and Kauffman stadium in the next couple years.

I agree, don't see any reason why LF vs RF should make a huge difference. I know Target Field changes things, because of the size of LC field, but do know if you look at the rosters of NL clubs it seems they "hide" their worst fielding OF in Left, so I assume that for many teams they feel LF is easier to play than right. I thought Willingham was considered at least near average at fielding, so not sure what difference it makes, other than making sure he gets some time in RF to properly read the balls off bats and make the proper jump. Of all the things we should be concerned about with the Twins this year, where Willingham plays should be near the bottom IMO.

Further research, in Hunter's last 3 years here he played 405 games, to Mauer's 395 during that same time, an avg. of 3 games more per year despite playing a much physically less demanding position. Yet he's calling Mauer out about not playing hurt and everyone takes his word as gospel. Just sayin'.

I think fans/media are far too tough on Mauer in regards to his health. Over the last 5 years (including last years debacle) he has averaged 122/games per year. I don't know where to go to find the number for other catchers, but I'm willing to venture that this is on the high side of games played by catchers. Catcher is the most physically demanding position in baseball, and catchers are going to need games off. I can certainly see the argument that because of this the Twins shouldn't have agreed to pay Mauer like they did, but because of the new stadium they were in a bad place. Pay the hometown hero, or let him go, right at the time a new taxpayer subsidized stadium is opening. Mauer's biggest problem isn't the injuries, it's that he doesn't talk about what is wrong, and he fails to realize that because of his salary he's held to a different standard than a guy like Luke Hughes, who nobody cares about when they are hurt. He needs to be more open and upfront with the fans when there is something wrong. I think that if you look back of Hunter's last couple years here, he probably missed almost as much time as Mauer, yet because he's an open book with fans and the media, everybody believed he was really hurt and didn't have issue with it.

I think the whole idea of throwing strikes is certainly a good one. I'm not as big a fan of "pitch to contact" though. These two don't have to go hand in hand. You should be trying to throw strikes the batter can't hit. We can certainly see that the Twins philosophy has been somewhat successful. But, I also fear that it has become too much of a good thing. Seeing that the philosophy has had some success has only made the Twins over due the whole thing, causing far too much regression in pitchers underlying skills over the last couple of years. Pavano is an excellent example. While not a strike-out pitcher Pavano struck out 6.6/9 IP in 2009 the year the Twins acquired him. Yet by the end of last season he had regressed to a league worst 4.1/9 Ks. One could argue that all outs are valuable, but it's a proven fact that a strikeout is the most effective type of out. By essentially ignoring the value of strikeouts the Twins staff has slowly degraded into one of the most questionable in the league. This is a system wide issue as we are now seeing power pitchers brought into the system that seem to be imploding. It would seem to me the pressure the Twins put on these players to throw strikes, rather than to pitch, is probably contributing to this. I wonder how a young Randy Johnson or Nolan Ryan would have fared if they had come up with the current Twins, both had extreme control problems in their youth, but were allowed to pitch through it because of their skills. I have my doubts that the Twins organization would have let them blossom the way they did. We know walks are evil, but sometimes the value you get from the additional strikeouts is worth it. The Twins should not be applying a "one size fits all" approach to their pitchers. Like most things we see in this world that have some success though, we often see a philosophy that if a little is good than a lot is great, and that is what the Twins have been doing the last couple of years, to the overall detriment of their pitchers.

It's good to see the offense perform well, even if it's just the first game of ST. Hopefully, games like this will help build the confidence of the hitters and we'll see results more like pre-2011 from the offense this year.

Right now local TV revenue is soaring for a lot MLB teams, including the Twins. MLB does not want to stop that gravy train, so they will continue to impose the blackouts for the foreseeable future. The ridiculous part is the size of the media markets. People who aren't even able to receive FSN locally are blacked out from MLB.TV. Don't know what FSN charges the cable companies per subscriber each month, but I have a hard time believing it adds up to more than $100.00 per subscriber per year, (guessing it's closer to $50- $60) so it would seem MLB could make more selling directly to consumers, but what do I know? One thing that has become clear over the last few years is that the major media companies are going to fight the change to Internet based, ala carte, viewing of TV until they use every possible resource at their disposal.

I still think we will probably see a platoon with Revere/Plouffe. Probably won't be a straight platoon, as jorganswest mentions, we will probably see Plouffe as a fill-in for other guys when Gardner gives him a day off. Question remains whether he will be able to hit as a ML OF should. At least he showed signs of power last year. Where was it in previous years? I think Revere will be starting ML OF, but only for few years. He is going to have to hit well over .300 to contribute offensively. Pitchers are NOT going to be afraid to throw strikes, so even with a decent eye, he'll won't be walking much. We do know he can cover a LOT of ground in the OF, and with pitchers like Pavano and Baker anchoring the rotation, there is a lot value in having OFs that can track down balls hit in the air. March performance will probably be a bigger factor than normal when the Twins decide which way to go with this 3rd OF slot.

This is my thought as well. I am a big believer that you shouldn't invest big money in relief pitchers. But some of the guys that were available and signed for less than 3 mill are definite upgrades over the bunch we have fighting for the available spots. The Twins bullpen was the WORST in the AL last year, and the only real change was getting rid of Nathan, who was probably their best RP the last 2 months of the season. We did not bring in any proven replacements, how in the world can we, even if trying to be optimistic, think that there will be real improvement this year? Let's not forget that the Starting rotation is also in need of a bounce back year, and if the results are the same as last year, we are going to rely heavily on the BP this year.

Bah, I think the comments just prove what Hardy and Ortiz said. The Twins staff has a blind spot, rather than coaching to a guys strength, they try to make all hitters use the exact same approach. Thome is a horrible example. He came here with 500+ HRs and as an established star, of course they weren't going to mess with his swing. The proof is in the results and it has been a LONG time since the Twins developed a home grown power hitter. It will be interesting to see what happens with Delmon in Detroit for a full year. But, I'm having a hard time thinking of any young players the Twins have brought up, or acquired via trade that have seen any positive increases in power as Major Leaguers in the past few years.