nicksaviking

This is tiring. NOBODY but the posters said anything about Falvey and a pitching pipeline. That's not how Cleveland built their rotation and nobody who was paying attention should have assumed that's how it would be built in Minnesota. Cleveland didn't develop any of their pitchers except Danny Salazar. They traded for them when they were either already at the MLB level or about to be. Just like the Twins did. And who are these Falvey faithful? It was a near consensus here that he needed to be replaced. This all just sounds like being angry at the situation and wanting to lay blame at the feet of the person you most dislike and then calling out imaginary posters for an imaginary defense of this guy you don't like.

I was going to be a bit dismissive when I saw he was the 10th highest paid coach in the conference since there are only 11 teams in the Big 10. Then I remembered time is slipping away from me and there are nowhere close to only 11 teams in the Big 10 any longer.

Seems to me last time they did something similar, the $2 beers were only available at like three concessions. So if you wanted a second one, you needed to spend all pregame standing in line.

At this point, I'm firmly on the side of any party that's opposing NCAA rulings. They've stolen so much money from athletes and tax payers, that the profits they've made through the decades are an absolute crime against humanity.

Ok, now I’m sold on Shelton. Looks like he’s filling in for Carson on The Tonight Show circa 1975. Could fluff up the chest hair a tad more though.

Derek Carr says he's healthy and would come out of retirement, but only to a team that could win the Super Bowl. But if Derek Carr is your QB, doesn't that mean you have little hope of winning the Super Bowl? That's quite the Catch-22.

I mean, this is a reunion for us fans, but no players, coaches or top level front office personnel where here when Hendriks was here, so this seems a bit different than the Taylor Rogers move. And I hope that unfamiliarity means the table won't be slanted in his favor in terms of making the team. I wish him well and hope his continued MLB career is productive and fulfilling, but here in 2026 with the bullpen starting from scratch, the Twins need to use this year to identify who their top relievers will be in 2027 and 2028 and 2029 and 2030. That's obviously not Hendriks. He should only be a break glass in case of emergency pitcher.

He's going to be 32 when he's a free agent. Ryan might be my favorite current player, but that seems about the right age to part ways with a starting pitcher. Especially if you can get a compensatory draft pick for him.

Probably hard to make meaningful changes unless/until the league adopts a salary cap and floor like the other pro sports. I know many don't think that's possible, but I think it's quietly being set up, and it's why a team like the Dodgers is so blatantly flouting the system right now, trying to win all the championships before the CBA expires.

Right, after a decade. I've been saying this whole time that I didn't think Falvey and Levine then Falvey and Zoll actually did the same thing. Fans weren't privy to the delegation of tasks, but Favley was clearly hired to be the architect so it would then stand to reason that the GMs were hired to acquire the pieces to build his mansion ice house.

Very nice John!

The Pohlads don't strike me as people who would pay two guys to do the same job.

Zoll was the GM last year, I think he was probably entertaining and executing the trades while Falvey was the guy approving them.

Except that debt wasn't from their baseball operations, it was from their other businesses that were impacted by COVID then the poor economy, the Twins just got saddled with the debt because the Pohlad's thought they could pawn it off on to new owners. And they did.

Tampa, who was NOT in contention, straight up traded four more seasons of a 24-year-old Bradley for two seasons of 30-year-old Griffin Jax. Tampa doesn't do that if they think Bradley's future is to remain in the rotation. I'd move him to the pen now and hope he's a lights out closer come 2027. Making that move mid-season never ends with good results.

Why are they showing interest in expensive starting pitching anyway? Finding legit middle of the order bats has been this team's biggest problem since the Bomba Squad days, why aren't they looking for that?

When you give them a full year to transition to a reliever, very few actually. Count Duran, Jax, Varland, Sands, Rogers, Pressly, May, Duffey, Duensing and Perkins in the positive column of converted starters for the Twins. Should have stuck with Ronnie Hernandez and Liam Hendricks too. In the same time period, so since Perkins' successful conversion, on the negative side we have Josh Winder, Fernando Romero, Anthony Swarzak and Jeff Manship. Jordan Balazovic never got a full year trial in the bullpen, but even with him, this transition pays off much more frequently than free agents do. And it costs the team nothing.

History says the Twins future back-end bullpen arms are already on the roster, we just don't know which ones. Top priority and expectation is to have a good idea about at least two of them come September. The Twins made their choices regarding the bullpen last August. Neither they nor the fans should have any expectation of smooth sailing this year. I don't care how talented or untalented they are, you're not getting consistency from a brand new group of relievers without an extended amount of patience.

Well they're probably all being written and pitched by AI now. And anyone who's seen Terminator 2 knows that Skynet creations are only funny in the sense that they are hilariously bad at being funny.

They have enough options. When it comes to finding good long term bullpen assets, the Twins history clearly shows they have far and away the most success finding them from their internal starters. But not when they are yo-yo’d for a season between starting and relieving, only after they’ve been committed to the pen. They need to start on those guys now because there are so many of them to try. Wasting time on other teams’ castoffs is just going to delay a meaningful rebuild.

I don't think I'm interested; looks like there's significant control issues. The Twins need to restock the back end of the bullpen, that's going to take time and effort once again converting internal starters into relievers. It's not going to happen with a bunch of flavor of the month cast offs from other teams.

I guess as long as he isn't taking a St. Paul roster spot or at bats away from Culpepper, Mendez or Schobel, fine, whatever. I suppose Fedko too, not sure if he's still in the infield picture with Mendez getting a tryout at 1B though. Are there any other infielders hovering around that level we are still crossing our fingers about? Is Ben Ross still someone we like? Not sure about that.

Yeah, you're right. I don't like this at all. If I were the Vikings, I'd legit give the Colts or another AFC team a 4th, maybe even a 3rd round pick for free if they'd outbid the NFC North teams for Crosby.

It also sounds like Maxx Crosby has indeed said he will no longer play for the Raiders. So obviously initial reactions would be that every team will want him, but Crosby really is a hand-in-the-ground traditional 4-3 DE. I don't think he'd work as a more modern edge rusher and I he's not really big enough to be an DE in a 3-4. I'm pretty sure former Raiders DC Patrick Graham even confirmed as much when he was hired by Pittsburgh. Folks were asking if Pittsburgh would go to Graham's 4-3 defense he ran in Vegas, and Graham said that wasn't his defensive style, but he stuck with that system solely to benefit Crosby. With that said, I think this might be bad for the Vikings, because looking at team defenses, I *think* with the 49er's switching to a 3-4 next year, only three NFC teams that still run a traditional 4-3/4-2 defense two of which are the Lions and Packers. Usually when legacy players get traded, the trading team tries to get the player out of the conference. The Cowboys are the other NFC team, but they JUST traded Parsons, so trading FOR Crosby would all but force Jerry Jones to admit he made a mistake, and Jerry Jones will never admit that. Even if they are willing to trade in the AFC, there aren't a ton of other options to make Crosby fit. Buffalo is switching to a 3-4 from the sounds of it. Miami is likely switching TO a 4-3, but they look to be a big time tank job this year. Tennessee should be switching with Robert Salah there, but they don't seem to be in a competitive position to make this kind of move. Same with the Jets. Houston already has a pair of awesome DEs, as does Jacksonville but to a lesser degree. Cincinnati probably wouldn't willingly pay his contract. Zero chance the Raiders would EVER trade him to Kansas City. Maybe a trade to Indianapolis wouldn't be all that offensive to the Raiders? They could for sure use Crosby and he'd fit. If not, it would be awful if he ended up paired with Hutchinson in Detroit or Parsons in GB.

The Eagles hired former Vikings OL coach Chris Kuper for the same job?!?!? Wow, please let us be right that Kuper was in over his head and was huge reason for the disappointing line play the last four years. The Eagles having a terrible O Line would be beautiful to behold. Seriously, every time I think of the Vikings trying a tush push, I still picture Garrett Bradbury getting zero leverage and tossed backwards into the QBs lap. Every time I picture the Vikings running a screen, I picture three blockers standing around looking clueless and unsure who to block. It really feels like the worst person for the job, got the job. Of course if he keeps the Eagles line performing well, there's going to be a big glaring question for the current offensive mastermind of the Vikings. Who obviously doubles as the head coach.