ewen21

He's got "speed and defense" so let's take him? Doesn't matter that he is 20 and has not played an inning past high A ball. You have seen this guy play? Honestly man. Might be 2 or 3 more years before he is ready, by the looks. I will take Cave as our 4th outfielder. He is a better offensive player than Buxton even with considerable drop off in the field. I want a lineup with no black holes in it as opposed to the mythical "speed and defense" in CF which apparently cures cancer and saves lives. This old elitist BS about defense is bunk. It is important, but it gets far too much weight around here from what I am reading. I will take a team that is simply average on defense and outstanding on offense. You can have the all hands HOF defense team with the average bat team and I will kick your teeth in 7 times out of ten (given we have the same kind of pitching).

Agree with you 100% Given a choice between two players with the following skill sets: One of the very best hitters in the game in all areas, but OK defense vs. One of the best defenders in the game, but OK bat I take the bat every day and twice on Sunday. A great glove is great to have, but I would rather have a spectacular hitter over a spectacular fielder. There is no way the glove can have the same impact. A centerfielder makes about 2.5 plays a game on average. Buxton doesn't make much more than that. Not his fault. He just doesn't get the opportunity to make a lot of plays only he can make. Maybe just a few a year, to be honest. A great hitter gets up four times a game and can wreck games, screw up the other team's pitching and manager, etc,.,, since his time up is 100% guaranteed. Buxton could wait weeks before he makes a great play. It is beyond his control. It really is that simple

Buxton reportedly got his surgery on September 11 of last year and recovery time is supposed to 5-6 months. In less than two weeks it will be six months so what gives? He is getting his work in right now according to all I have read, but isn't ready for live action. We went through a laundry list of ailments in 2018 and we really never knew when he would be ready. The fact that articles like this have to written tells me all I need to know. I literally have zero expectations for Buxton this year. This "if healthy" tag is something he needs to lose real soon or else he isn't going to last very long in this league

Not trying to knock Stashak, but......he's pitched 25 innings. If we know anything about relief pitching we don't know what 90% of the relief pitchers are one year to the next. It is the most unstable position there is. Sure, it was nice to have him come up and be useful and it would be nice to see more of these kinds of guys.

Thanks for the enthusiasm and for hearing me and some of the other fans out on the title. I happen to think our pitching is not that bad. The bullpen seems to have some pros and our starting staff is much better than what we have had over the last 10 seasons

I sometimes don't see the point in what people refer to as "optimism" when it comes to talking about our favorite sports team because honesty and reality ultimately wins out. How can we really feel this way in our heart of hearts if we are going to be completely honest about it? I suppose it is nice to have an optimsitc view and hope for things that are very unlikely and I suppose it is also nice to line up all the positves in something and cast aside the negatives. That being said, I think once again the front office has done a great job giving this team a chance to win. It wouldn't be their fault if we don't get very far. I think we can say that we are the favorite in the Central without being arrogant or overly optimistic. Beyond that anything more is a bit much. For me it all boils down to..."what is this group going to do when/if they get there?" A playoff berth is honestly nothing more than a shot at what should be the goal. With this franchise it seems to me the goal is reached once the division is won. I remember a thread late last summer that basically said..."Bring on the Yankees" Well....we got 'em and look at what happened again. We can talk the talk in February about how we have a "nightmare" of a pitching staff for the rest of the league. What matters to me is where the hell is this team's soul, brains and guts in October. I am so sick and tired of all the overly bold optimism. After what transpired a few months ago it isn't warranted. It is one thing to feel some optimism, but it quite another when optimism overrules honesty. We had a decent pitching staff last year (contrary to popular belief). It was not the pitching that disappointed me so much against the Yankees even though they weren't competitive. It was the offense. We were so bombastic and yet when everything on the line the offense went radio silent. I really don't care who we have on the mound if we are going to fall flat like that again. Couldn't we score more than seven runs in three games against a pretty average major league pitching staff? What about that? If we are going to honest about things we had a slightly better than average staff last year. It was every bit as good as the Yankees staff. A lot of people here were ready to compare our offense to the Yankees offense last year (and that was fair). So why the deep gap between us in the post season? It isn't because they are they THAT much better and if we lose to them in three straight again it won't be because we didn't sign Ryu or some other "stud" pitcher. It runs way deeper than that. It is about a mindset. It is the mindset that dictates no matter what we are still good. Eh. I have had enough of that. I had enough of it as soon as Michael Cuddyer pronounced 2010 a "successful season because we won the Central" This mindset still exists in the person of Rocco Baldelli I like Nash and have given him props for his articles, but after years and years of watching this team, I find it hard to be bombastic about what we have. I would rather be conservative and temper my enthusiasm. I give this team a chance to go all the way. It's just the mindset of Baldelli really gives me doubts. It is the same junk we heard in the past. Proclaiming the season "successful" after being washed out in the first round. Had it been the very first time we got there in 25 years then I can accept that. I cannot accept it as a fan who has seen virtually every single pitch and at bat in the 2003, 2004, 2006, 2009, 2010 and 2019 playoffs. Six times in a row we are out in the first round and we are now talking about 15 playoff losses in a row. If we are going to run articles that proclaim our pitching to be a "nightmare" for the rest of the league we should at least give space for a post like this when you consider the history. I am not quite over the latest October nightmare so please forgive my tone. Sorry Nash. I appreciate the enthusiasm, but it is hard for me to get behind that notion. Not now (although I would love to be proven wrong)

I know I have put Eddie out there as trade bait to bring in a pitcher, but can we please acknowledge that he is a better player than Cave by virtue of the fact that he has over 2,000 plate appearances and has proven that he can hit and play day-in-day out. I am taking nothing away from Cave by saying this. You are overthinking this one. Ask 10 people on the Twins who is better Cave or Rosario and 10 out of 10 will tell you it's Eddie. No deep analysis is required

This team has been absolutely horrendous at raising its own starting pitching. I challenge anyone to make a list of the three best starting pitchers we drafted and developed over the last 20 years. We are among the worst teams at doing this, possibly the worst.

100% agree.

What do you mean?

I would say "kind of" The biggest disappointment by far was this vaunted offense just not showing up. That to me is the thing that has been a theme in every single postseason matchup we've had since game two 2004. That is more a mindset that anything, in my opinion.

This notion that better defense would have given us an edge is ridiculous. Our game one and game two starters gave us no chance to win and our offense was completely dormant. That series was not a couple of defensive plays away from us being in it. Almost the entire team wasn’t even there mentally. It was like they wanted to win the game and didn’t even want to play the game.

I think being able to score only 7 runs in 3 games was a back breaker. Our strength let us down. That and the first two starts we’re absolutely horrendous.

I have argued against getting Donaldson, but I like Donaldson. I was skeptical about the process because I thought he was using us to push up Atlanta's offer. In the long run he needed an American League option because a National League team cannot offer a DH spot. . I think the Twins had the best offer on the table for quite some time and he took it. I really feel good about it even if I talked about the risks quite a bit lately. I believe this is a good move in that Donaldson and Crus are the right kind of veteran for young players to be around. From this perspective the move is excellent I don't think anyone has the right to complain about the rosters we've put out the last couple of years. It isn't perfect, but it is a heck of a lot better than the Terry Ryan years!

THE Yennier Cano?

Ra cha cha

I was trying to tell you that you should have inferred where he stood rather than suggest or note that he didn't. He didn't need to infer anything. He knew the article was about finding other third base options and he isn't interested. It wasn't that he didn't understand the author's objective. He didn't agree with it. Simple as that. I don't think we need to waste energy looking for a third baseman if we just extended Sano. It make no sense We have moved him around enough already. Let him settle into third base this year and let's see what happens. I would rather we just pick up Mitch Moreland to share first base duties and figure out once and for all if Sano moves to full-time DH after Cruz is gone.

Cole and Strasburg just weren't realistic. If you think we had a snowballs chance in hell landing either then please give me a paragraph on how USAFChief would have handled it. Bumgarner was very clear about leaving money on the table to play in Arizona. It was his preference. Not sure how you would have swung that. Please be specific and explain how you would have worked that one. I am curious. As far as Wheeler is concerned, he has an extensive injury history. Over the course of three seasons 2015 to 2017 he pitched a total of 86 innings. Are you saying we needed to hit a number higher than Philadelphia? What do you prescribe? I think it is an insane contract that Philly will most likely regret. I have been through Ryu with you. If you want to make signings that don't make no sense then OK whatever. Giving Wheeler and Ryu more than what they got is terminally stupid. The only one I think signed what could be termed as a reasonable contract was Bumgarner. You seem to forget what free agent means, specifically with higher level free agents. It means they are free to go where they want to go and if they have a short list of places they want to play then that is where they are going to go. When we get into guys earning 9 figures then money stops mattering. Another 20 million means nothing to a guy who knows he's going to earn 9 figures and go where he wants to go. You believe the Twins can coax guys with money and you really need to give up the ghost with that. It just ain't happening in 2020.

I think what we should infer from his post is that he doesn't believe we should be looking for a third baseman because we already have one.

Let's say we signed Ryu and appeased a very vocal segment of the fanbase. Is this guy going help get us over when we've played like we are lobotomized in the playoffs in each of last four appearances? Doesn't that need to end? We had more than enough offense and yet again we went into a coma. Is this about getting a shiny new present or is about reality? Ryu pitched one game in the postseason and he went 5 and gave up two runs. Is this guy a needle moving talent? Maybe he has electric stuff, but he has all kinds of durability problems. I already highlighted my concerns about him and I thought we were right to pass on him. No one should be surprised if he doesn't make it through season given his track record, age and physical stature. So when I see all sorts of anger about not signing him I don't get it, Big picture, last season was disastrous to me. It felt great all summer and then we proved that we are still stuck with the inferiority complex, indifference, false sense of accomplishment or whatever it is. We had as good a chance at breaking this embarrassing streak. All we had to do was win a game and we could not. It was like no one wanted to acknowledge the gorilla in the room going into it and some people were even thinking it was the right time to play the Yankees. When I questioned it, the mindset was that this team had nothing to do with all the other teams and that is a mistake because now they are no different. I don't want to hear about this significant gap. Not last year. The Yankees pitching was not any better than ours and they were missing Domingo German (their best performer last year). We had the "Bomba Squad" against their middle of the pack staff and we didn't show up. Terrible at bats, dismissive mindset about the history and then they were quick to write it off as "short series" and "anything could happen" and "successful season" As a fan, I am more ticked off about the result at the end of last year than I am this off season. I did not see us as realistic suiters for Cole. Wheeler and Bumgarner had their preferences and Ryu is just too risky. To quote Rocco, "I am not frustrated at all" Let us just go with Graterol and see what he can do. It is time for Byron Buxton to stop being half a player. He needs to be more durable and he has to be more consistent with the bat. Let's not start comparing Kepler to Yelitch and believing that he has the same potential. Kepler really disappointed at the end of the season. The FO constructed a very good team last winter with some smart mid-level under the radar moves. FOr whatever reason, there exists a toxic mindset in this organization where players are confused about what success is. Last year was no success

Fine, then they were right not to invest the dollars in him. I would not go over two yeas with Ryu I will concede my earlier point about the large Korean community having an influence on him. Scrap that if you want.

I couldn't disagree with you more. I have been through this enough times: He's pitched more than 90 innings just twice in the last five seasonsHe is overweight AND has a long history of time on the DLHe will be 33 and it is very likely he could have a sharp declineI don't know how a guy like this warrants a 4 year deal. We will see how this plays out, but I think it is an insane signing by Toronto. Very VERY risky given his injury history, lack of durability and age.

I don't see it to be like that at all. First of all, none of the young players we have are comparable to Mauer, Morneau and Santana. Not even close. Also, the level of ":dumpster diving" was far more egregious during the Ryan years. Signing Boone, Cirillo, Nevin when they were DONE. Signing horrendous free agent starting pitchers. At no point did he sign guys as talented as Odorizzi or Pineda. They are not great, but they aren't the cow flop that Ryan troweled out Cron, Gonzalez, Schoop, Cruz contributed 104 home runs and cost us about 39 million dollars. When did anything resembling that happen during the 2000s? In the 2000s the best players were the young guys and they had no help. Last year we a very deep team. And this myth about the pitching being not good as the reason why we couldn't get out of the first round is trash. We ranked 9th in ERA last year and the Yankees were 14th. It is not the fault of the GMs we got nowhere in the playoffs. The Yankees were missing perhaps their best pitcher in Domingo German and we could manage only 7 runs in 3 games. That isn't going to get fixed overpaying a couple of free agents. There is a culture problem and I think it starts with Baldelli. He is the same as a guy like Michael Cuddyer who would sing "Doo Dah Doo DAH" about how the Twins had successful seasons after getting embarrassed in the playoffs. How is it that gets ignored and we have scores of folks going bonkers about us not signing guys we had virtually no chance of landing (and are grossly overpriced) Makes no sense to me. None

That would be what Terry Ryan did. Ramon Ortiz, Sydney Ponson, Jason Marquis..... Granted, Bailey and Hill are not great, but they are a step above what used the be the GARBAGE Ryan would sign. Last winter these GMs did a brilliant job assembling a team that went on to win 101 games without breaking the bank. The players were the ones that screwed it up in the end. I think the anger directed at the GMs is a little misplaced. I think guys like Buxton and Kepler should be scrutinized as well for being AWOL the last two months. Lots of praise gets showered on both and yet they were nowhere to be found September and October

Lot's of people are calling this offsesason a failure without any trouble. I find it somewhat troubling that as many people havent labeled last season a failure after that 3-and-out. Seems rather inconsistent from the fans. I am not saying you or anyone in particular are a person who called last season a "success" and this offseason a "failure" .. I have a problem with those who are doing that.