Wizard11

Anybody else feel like they are rewatching this scene?

I don’t understand the complaints about this front office. They have been very successful by any rational comparison. The team just won a 101 games last year. The critics asked for and got change and improvement in virtually every area of the organization from where it was 3 years ago. It is the burden of some Twins fans to believe that their is some nefarious lineage that flowed from Carl and TR and lives on today. Perhaps the critics should consider altering their perennial skeptical expectations. Things change sometimes for the better. We have our best shot since 1991 to win a WS. I am interested in that not in complaining about the offseason or PR battle for who can sign the most famous player for the most exorbitant amount of money. This is a strong organization that will be in the thick of the races for the next several years. They are doing well and the critics need to find some way to deal with that.

And the Corvette beats the Maserati on any track...every time

Mike Minor would be a quality addition and potentially affordable. Kirilloff not in tonight’s lineup...he is a Pittsburgh kid...Could it be? Reality is so un-fun.

I would welcome this move. I see his performance last year as pretty emblematic of a pitcher recovering from TJ surgery. We have seen a similar recovery path with many TJ pitchers including Joe Nathan and Michael Pineda. Control and command gradually improve. I think it would be a mistake to rule him out. If you remove the month of April last year his results with the Twins improve dramatically. Dude is 300#’s of stoic and less emotive than most Scandinavians. I don’t read an attitude so much as a personality. Other than commenters on TD I have not seen it reported anywhere that he was a malcontent. Just my .02$

It is kind of stunning to read so many withering criticisms of current ownership. Most of the “supporting” examples reference Carl Pohlad’s ownership. They do not appear relevant as the Twins have clearly been run differently since Jim took over. To me it seems as if virtually every unproductive philosophy the “old Twins regime” had has been thrown out. Hard to believe all of the negativity when we are watching one of the best Twins teams ever, brought to you by people hired by current ownership.

For my part I have been really pleased with Falvey and Lavine. I think they have done a great job hiring through out baseball operations. They gave us a very fun and competitive team this year. They have done a great job restocking our farm system and bringing in new systems and technologies. The picking of nits seems almost compulsive for some and it seems fair to give credit to the Twins leadership. I have not agreed with every decision from the front office but they have certainly got a lot right.

Shun the Unbeliever! The spawn of Shrek and a Leprechaun is just getting rolling.

Kimbrel

My request was primarily for actionable ideas. To paraphrase you, “this website is littered with complaining posts, but a bit short on actionable ideas”. I too am frustrated and not trying to defend the status quo as you have implied in a few posts. I get that you are wondering what the FO’s strategy is. My question was what specifically should it be?

As stated above, I would love to hear specific plans. Sign “who” for multi year deals? Addison Reed and Jason Castro were multi year commitments by this front office. They didn’t seem to fare any better than the one year players. I understand your frustration and share it. I would just really like to hear some actionable ideas if not a 3 year plan

Given the amount of discontent shared, I am curious what the critics would do differently? All paths that I can see are fraught with seemingly highly volatile potential outcomes. I get the frustration as the losing gets old. So does the endless griping. I would love it if those harboring the better solutions would generously share with the rest of us the “right” way to go about this offseason.

I like both the McCutchen and Markakis options. In addition to OBP contributions they would replace some of the veteran leadership lost with Mauer, Dozier, and Escobar leaving.

Tom, this column is fun and it’s style encourages interesting and civil discourse. Much appreciated.

It is probably worth noting that Trevor May requested to return to the bullpen. I am still laughing picturing Buxton portaging Astudillo.

I like the idea of an impact player to help get this team going. Paul Goldschmidt is likely available and checks a lot of boxes. D-Backs need to rebuild their farm. I think we should help them with that endeavor.

Nick, I have not previously heard Lance Lynn referred to as a malcontent. Could you shed a little light on this?

...Stepping out of the shadows of my lair. 1.) Where are you from? I grew up in Fergus Falls, MN. I now live in San Diego, although I do maintain a 2nd home in SLP. I work one week every month in the TC. 2.) Age Range? Sigh...59 3.) What brought you to Twins Daily? I followed Aaron Gleeman, Seth, and John Bonnes here 4.) Highest level of baseball/softball played? Amateur baseball until age 40. Played every position other than pitcher. Ended up as a catcher 5.) Favorite Twins Player Harmon Killebrew. He was my childhood hero. favorite underappreciated Twins player, David Ortiz. Gave up my season tickets when they didn’t bring him back. and if you want, favorite current Twins player? Well it was Escobar, briefly Brian Dozier, but now I would say Jorge Polanco. I apologize in advance if he suddenly gets traded 6.) Favorite non-Twins Daily site/authors? Joe Posnanski. The Baseball Bard above all others 7.) Favorite Twitter follows? Giant time suck 8.) Other interests outside of baseball. Racing Vintage Cars, Yoga, Hiking, and hanging with my grandchildren of which there are 7. 9.) Favorite part of Twins Daily... forums, blogs, articles, topics... wahtever you like. I love the game recaps Tom does. I love The crisp and well written articles Nick does, Parker’s side by side batter GIFs, and pretty much anything riverbrian says will crack me up. I love the numerous and often divergent perspectives many people contribute. Thought provoking! TD has a strong population of knowledgeable baseball fans that regularly contribute via the comments section 10.) Tell us what we can do better. What features or other topics would you like to see in-season or out of season? Consider a Troll removal service. Darn things are worse than raccoons. I find the repetitive rants and tantrums directed against the FO and Manager to be a big turnoff as well as the constant crying for half baked prospects to be called up now. Very tedious and not well thought out. Nick Gordon, really? Several serial offenders seem to regularly show up just to suck the happy out of the room. I feel much better now. 11.) Have you been to any of the Twins Daily "events? No, but I guess my lurking days are now over so I may as well join in.

A short but true story about Kyle Gibson (&Dozier). In 2016 my son who has some special needs and I were at the Big A to watch the Twins and Angels. We were near the field on the first base side and my son was hoping to get a ball or autograph. He and I were kitted out in Twins gear. He was not able to get near the field due to 3 rows of eager Angels fans and given his challenges is not very assertive. Kyle Gibson is the starting pitcher that night and he is walking with Kurt Suzuki in from the bullpen. He hears all of the kids yelling and looks over in that direction. He then turns from his path with Suzuki and approaches the seats. He has one ball and 50 kids are yelling for it. He gets them to quiet down and waves his arms like Moses parting the sea and the kids split apart. He points up to my son and tells him the ball is for him and tosses it over. Dozier then strolls by and calls my son over to sign the ball. This happens right before the National Anthem and the start of the game. I have watched hundreds of baseball games and have never seen MLB players interact with a fan near game time. My son still refers to that day as the best day of his life. Those guys will always be our heroes.

I have to admit to being a bit shocked that some are making an issue of a headline. Stunning really. But then I considered that TD has indicated a need for more writers. For the headline critics perhaps this was just their awkward way of volunteering to create content and demonstrate how it should be done.

Nick, It seems that you are either experiencing an ephinal satori or H2N3 delirium. Here’s hoping for satori

Sano only needs to play 3rd one more year. 1B will be all his in 2019 assuming he is healthy.

I don’t think the ideas that this was a shrewd signing as well as mildly disappointing are mutually exclusive. My response was that it was a solid move but not the impact move so many of us have been waiting for and thus a little underwhelming. The small moves of this offseason will be viewed vastly differently depending on the rest of the offseason. For my part I am nervous that so much of our offseason speculation has revolved around signing YD. Realistically this is a low probability scenario given the multiple suitors with cash and a WS opportunity. It is probably good to remember that not long ago we thought we had a real shot at Ohtani.

Hmmm, one year ago we were all looking back at a 59 win disaster of a season. Now after bringing in a new front office and an on field improvement of 26 wins there seems to be a great deal of discontent from many “serious” fans. There seems to be an emerging view that unless this front office somehow brings in a superstar starting pitcher such as Darvish, many will be disappointed by the “failure”. With a bit of circuitous logic, I guess it is a healthy sign that fans have moved on so quickly to greatly elevated expectations. I do hope we get some high impact pitching help, but regardless I am thrilled with the new FO’s fresh approach.

Count me in the "irrationally" optimistic set. I feel comparisons between the Ryan administration history and Falvine are not valid (at least yet). Hard to see the past GM caring about pitch framing and spending $24MM to address it. The new management pivoted fairly quickly on mistakes such as Byung Ho Park and were summarily unconcerned with losing him to waivers. Moreover, I feel conflating Jim Pohlad with Carl Pohlad is not valid. Carl would (IMO) never have fired Terry Ryan mid season, or taken accountability for "total system failure, or gone outside the organization to look for not just a new GM, but in fact an entire new front office structure. I like their interest in young, talented controllable players such as the recent interest in Raisel Iglesias. If our only metric for the change in the FO is huge payroll size or big FA signings then by that standard most FO's are flops as that is the peruse of a handful of teams. That said, I do feel there is going to be way too much money chasing way too little starting pitching talent and I think the Twins would be wise to stay out of that game and stick to building a sustainable winner. My only incongruent caveat would be if they have a real chance to sign Shoei Otani. Then by gum lavishly promise and spend like Congress and reel him in.