Dave The Dastardly

To answer your question; poorly. Slap me for being negative, but until Rocco learns how to use a pitching staff and bullpen wisely all our hurlers will be put at a disadvantage.

Ahh, the search for perfection! If only we could field eight perfect position players... You know, like all those other teams. I'll take Kepler's defense over 30 points on his batting average any day. Him and Buxton on the field together take 30 points off the opposing team's batting average. Personally, I won't worry about Max until he falls below the Mendoza Line. The problem is left field guys, not right field.

Location, movement, velocity. In that order.

Agree with the concept but I'd prefer peddling Sano and Urshela, give 1st Base to Kirilloff, 3rd base to Miranda and LF to Larnach so all three can settle in at their preferred positions instead of shuffling them around all season and keep Arraez as the utility guy. By the end of the season we'd know whether or not we've got our guys for contending in 2023 and beyond.

Personally, not excited about this move. Seen this "magical-fix-for-fading-veteran" schtick one too many times. Would rather put my money on one of our many supposed "prospects" who are clogging up the minors. Time to fish or cut bait.

As I've been preaching since last season ended, the Twins needed to move both Donaldson and Sano in order to open up playing time and ABs for the young guys that are the team's future. With Donaldson gone we're only half there and we still have a logjam. Sano has always been the biggest log. Trade him and most of the playing time problems go away, the young guys get a solid year of experience at the major league level and we're a contender in 2023. Dink around all season long with Sano blocking Kirilloff at first, Larnach in left and three or four others who could get AB's at DH and we can forget contending in 2023.

Love the TTTPitMtCBWSNBN!!

I'd submit that fading "experienced" pitchers fail just as often, if not more spectacularly, than rookies. We only have to look back at 2021 for multiple examples. The difference is the rookies can use the experience, win or lose, to learn where they need to improve in order to up their game because they have youth and time on their side. The old "pro" we fished out of the dumpster on the other hand is going nowhere but home. That's something to keep in mind if we're really trying to build for the future. If the kid's healthy give him the 5th spot. It's no harder to throw a pitch in MLB than it is to throw the same pitch in the minors.

If Sano starts at first and Kirilloff sits on the bench I'm going to need lots of tranquilizers. There's absolutely no rational argument for not playing Kirilloff, the team's future first baseman, who is way better defensively and can hit, in favor of one of the worst fielding first baseman in the league who occasionally hits a long homerun when he doesn't strike out. Sano's a DH on his best days and should be on his way to the National League.

I met Lisa once at a town ball game in Gaylord. She was sitting behind home plate throwing insults at the home plate umpire between wheezes. Turns out he was her husband. I was downwind of her and had to burn my clothes when I got home, what with the smoke smell and hot ash burns. If I'd known that I'd have borrowed a Yankees jersey before the game.

Weeping and gnashing of teeth does little more than further enriching your dentist. I instead have gazed into my crystal ball (actually an empty bottle of Jameson) and seen the future; Rortvedt will find his swing and replace the Twins "Big Pappi Nightmare", Sanchez will take one for the Gipper right in the groan, Godoy will get lost in Crosstown traffic, the Bat Signal will go out for the Turtle, the Front Office will say none of this could have been foreseen, or foresworn and TD fans will develop a sudden interest in ballet and say "tu-tu" and ta ta to Twins baseball. I, in the meantime, who actually has real Irish blood coursing through his veins, shall seek out my emergency bottle of Jameson and spend the evening watching the "Quiet Man" with my wee bit of a lovely lass. Maybe I'll get lucky and the Twins will sign a top-rated pitcher tonight. Take that as you might.

Sorry, I've lost track. What was the subject of this article?

The FO is thinking a year ahead. Their goal for again being competitive is 2023, not 2022. Dumping Donaldson and his contract had to happen in order to open up opportunities for younger players like Miranda and underused players like Gordon and Arraez; the guys they'll need to be competitive in 2023. We weren't going to be competitive in 2022 with or without Donaldson. Now if they can dump Sano, and with the DH coming to NL they should be able to find a taker, Kirilloff can settle in at first, and Larnach, Celestino and Rooker get more AB's and experience in the Bigs and we find out which players are going to help in 2023 and which ones aren't. Players and managers have to think in the "Now". Executives have to think in the "Future". So I'm cutting the FO some slack. One last time.

Baseball negotiations have fallen victim to the national malady; logic and rational thought have fallen by the wayside and taking one for the Gipper has been replaced with one-up-manship. There is no "I" in team and there currently is no "we" in baseball.

The biggest log in the jam is Sano. 2nd biggest is Donaldson. There's no place for either of them if the Twins are serious about becoming competitive in 2023. And if they hang on to both of them this season, if there's a season, that will push that hoped for competitiveness back to 2024 as Kirilloff, Garver, Miranda, Jeffers, Larnach, Arraez and Gordon will all lose AB's and playing time this season as a result. There ain't no future in the past.

Welcome to the club. Give me a few more years and I'll be sub-Forrest Gump. That's all I'm going to say about that.

Hope springs eternal. And this is spring, meteorologically speaking.

I don't understand your comment at all. People are not automatons. Baseball players are only human. They're affected by what goes on around them one way or another whether they want to be or not.

Sano is redundant. The Twins have better defensive options at first and any number of players they can rotate at DH. Those options may not hit 500' homeruns, which don't count anymore than a homerun that squeaks across the wall by 2", but they do strike out less, get on base more and hit for better average; less outs, more RBIs.

Okay, CBA negotiations are going nowhere fast, the start of spring training is only a wish, games are somewhere out there in the distant future, we're getting tired of reading about hypothetical trades, we're contemplating stepping in front of a pitching machine loaded with rocks... what can a fan do to get his baseball fix? Some time ago, probably 20 or so years back, during another long Minnesota winter, I began writing a baseball novel. I dicked around with it every winter since, adding a little, revising a little, revising earlier revisions a little, etc. etc. Well, defying my wife's skepticism, (though she's usually right) I finally finished it. That's right... It's done. Miracle of miracles! Anyway, being a Twins fan, I centered the story around a mythical Twins organization, so there's a contraction sub-plot cooked in there and you might recognize a fictional version of a well-known Minnesota character or two, but it mostly revolves a young pitching prospect that loses his way, overcomes some personal failures and eventually works his way back to what he was born to do; pitch in the major leagues. Appropriately enough, it's entitled "The Prospect" and is slowly becoming available through a number of e-book stores including Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Apple, Kobi, ya da ya da ya da. Cost you less than half the price of a stadium beer ($3.39) but it's a long read that should last you through the baseball drought till spring. Then if the lock-out isn't yet over, well, I'll have to start writing another baseball book. https://books2read.com/u/m2YaJ7

I'm confused. You say Gordon's arm strength is questionable at short, but he can play all three outfield positions? Don't outfielders still have to make accurate throws to the cut-off man? Aren't cut-off men farther away from an outfielder than the distance between shortstop and first base? Aren't good outfielders supposed to keep base runners at first with a strong and accurate throw to second? Has baseball changed that much since I last played? I need help understanding this.

To quote a good old boy southern legislator whose name currently escapes me, "It's hard to get pigs away from the trough without making them squeal." Right now neither side in these negotiations is squealing and they aren't going to start squealing until the trough runs dry. Then they'll start eating each other. And that's when it will take an arbitrator, not a mediator, to settle this. I think I'm going to take up fishing this summer. Seems like a good time to wet a line again.

Good move saving the nachos. They're about $20 for six of them, aren't they?

Somebody hide the dumpster. Or maybe take Falvey's deal-signing pen away. Free Nick Gordon!

I've been looking for that answer since they brought him up. It remains one of the many mysteries of Rocco player management. You'd think a guy who spent his entire minor league career being schooled by Twins coaches on how to play shortstop would at least be capable enough to fill in at that position, especially since he can play a decent centerfield. I don't know... does he have the yips at short? Forgets to tie his shoes? Passes gas? Doesn't have a high spin rate on his throws to first? Come on, somebody answer that so I can stop kicking the dog ( I don't have one - maybe that's the problem) and sleep nights again.