bighat

Brutal for TX. Yeowch.

Thanks for the great writeup. I'd love to see him stick, I think it's pretty clear the Twins need offense and I hope they turn him loose and let him play. Starting around 2015, the Twins saw Byron Buxton, Sano, Kepler, Polanco and Arraez all come up from the farm to solidify a core of a rather successful squad for years. Alas, we haven't seen the same stability with our more recent prospects. With Wallner, Kirilloff and Larnach, I think we can all admit that things haven't gone as we'd hoped. It's still unclear to see whether or not they will be core members of successful Twins teams in the future. Injuries are certainly a big factor. Even our prized gem, Royce Lewis - who looks every bit as good as advertised - has been bitten by the injury bug. The Twins are due for some lightning in a bottle. Let's hope Julien starts a prospect resurrection at Target Field, starting today!

Great effort by Lopez, too bad he didn't get the win. Speaking of winning - it's great to see the Twins finishing with a "W",,,but so far, it doesn't seem like much has changed from last year. The Twins scored a couple early runs, but the bats went cold and they were held scoreless for 7 straight innings.. They win on a defensive miscue. This was the formula for April & May of '22. Don't get me wrong, being 7-4 is nothing to sneeze at. But I'm feeling pretty queasy when it comes to this team's offensive abilities. We need more. On the bright side, maybe the news that Edouard Julien getting called up will help put a spark in the offense!

For Twins fans who wonder when the new, action-packed rules going to start taking effect - they're definitely having an impact: Texas scored 16 runs yesterday, the Baltimore-Boston game was 8-7 and included a 6-run comeback and a walk-off homer. San Diego and Colorado combined for 12 runs, and so did NYY-SF. Alas, us long-suffering Twins fans have been subjected to some textbook vanilla baseball in our 2 games thus far. The offense looked bad on Thursday and looked bad today. Yes, the Twins are winning. But they are still stuck with a sputtering, low-energy offense that slowly sunk this team last year. We'll likely see Jeffers, Farmer, Solano, and Willi Castro in the lineup today. It's also likely that Buxton could be rested. Get your blanket and pillows out folks, it's going to be a snooze-fest today (unless, of course, Pagan gets into the game).

Yeah, it was very frustrating to see the Twins leave the bases loaded early in the game. Zack Grienke is a great pitcher, but he's probably in his last year and is as hittable as anyone in the game right now. Outside of Buxton and Correa the lineup looks pretty feeble. Had the Twins lost this game 3-2, the LOB Boogeyman is all we'd be talking about. Thank goodness for Lopez, fingers crossed he stays healthy!

That's why they call it gambling! There's a huge thrill associated with betting on sports, First off, the possibility of winning is much higher than buying a powerball ticket or even a scratch off. Secondly, you get to feel really, really smart when you win a sports bet. Lottery tickets and scratch-offs are pure luck, but picking a sports winner makes the gambler feel like they've got some special skills. And some gamblers do! The rest of us are just shark bait. And we know it. But it's fun to swim with the sharks from time to time.

I don't see it happening unless there's a major injury at 1B. Which is totally possible - Miranda's already got a bum arm and if Kirilloff goes down, someone needs to keep it warm. White's last MLB season was in 2019 when he hit .208 and had an OPS of .612 in 240 ABs. The last few years he's been strictly an AAA guy, looks like at 32 years old he's just playing things out as organizational filler. I don't think he'll make the team, he might not even make the St. Paul roster. It goes without saying of course that most of us would trade places with him in a second. The guy's living the dream, and will gladly show up to the ballpark and suit up if there's a team that wants him.

Speaking of Bundy, I can't believe the guy's still unsigned. He went 8-8 with a 4.89 ERA last year, pitched 140 innings and was about as injury-free as pitchers come these days. Sure, he's not a strikeout pitcher but he improved between 2021 and 2022, and you'd think the guy should be someone's 5th starter going into '23.

Agreed, man. My problem with the ghost runner and all the other 'new rules' is that they're doing this to try and attract people who are NOT baseball fans. Adjusting and building the sport for humans who are NOT interested in the game....it just seems counter-intuitive. It would be like Cosmopolitan magazine changing their editorial content to attract 47-55 year-old male demographic: after six months of reading articles like "How to fix a screen door" and "What to expect at your colonoscopy appointment", the core audience would be leaving in droves! I'd rather baseball lean in to some of its traditions, including the stadium experience. Get an organist and throw out the noise-o-meters. Make going to a game affordable, the NBA and NFL can charge a boatload because there aren't that many games, you've gotta come in way, way, way lower. Make it so fans can go on a whim. At the same time, embrace technology that will streamline the game, like robot strike zones. For those watching at home, improve the viewing experience - maybe get a "skycam" type thing that they have in the NFL that hovers over the infield and another one for the outfield. Sure once a year a ball will hit one of 'em, but it would be extremely rare and the pros would outweigh the cons. Finally, start marketing your stars. For whatever reason, baseball hasn't been able to do this properly since the '80s. I see Mike Trout on a Subway advertisement and I'm betting most viewers have no clue who he is. Any advertisement featuring a major leaguer, the scenes come across as stiff and unlikeable. Good lord hire a marketing firm who can figure it out. Soccer has figured it out - a "boring", low-scoring sport that only features a couple big action moments per contest draws a full house at every professional game in most countries. We all know who Mbappe, Messi, Ronaldo, Maradona, and Pele are. It's just head-shaking to watch baseball - of all American sports - just completely fumble every opportunity to promote the game in a positive way. They announce changes and everyone's on the edge of their seat, but they just keep changing the wrong things and have really blown this whole "rebrand" in almost every possible way.

Frankly I think Gordon and Buxton have earned starting spots and the rest of the guys should compete for the 3rd OF spot in Spring Training.

Agreed. Kepler's value is about as low as its ever been, so trading him now just doesn't make any sense.

I know what you mean, and that's not being negative...'dems just the facts. His inability to hit the ball hard or pull the ball were very evident last year. By late summer, it was almost guaranteed that if Celestino made contact, it was going to be a little flare the other way. He definitely has some skills, but I'd say he a significant amount of time re-learning how to turn on a ball and make hard contact. He's still a valuable piece for this team, but there are adjustments that need to be made. "As-is", he's not really MLB caliber.

My first thought upon seeing the Smeltzer news was that he's a perfect example of an AAAA guy. Nice guy to have on a shuttle, especially in July if you're looking to get your aces a day off here and there. Smeltzer was the last surviving piece of the Brian Dozier trade (with Luke Raley and Kevin Forsyth both being long gone). The guy's carved out a nice career for himself. Well done indeed.

Be honest: who had Nick Gordon and Jose Miranda on their bingo cards as the meat & potatoes of the Twins lineup for the 2nd half of the '22 season? Give them credit, when everyone else went down and the team was spiraling, they went out there every day and gave it their all. Both have spent their entire careers within the organization and both are great examples of the talent the Twins can produce from the farm system. Seem like great people as well. Looking forward to seeing a lot of both of them in '23. Bold prediction: Gordon is going to grab that starting RF job in Spring Training.

We may be seeing a lot more of Taylor this year than anyone here is predicting. This is far more than an "emergency outfielder", he's immediately going to be a big part of the OF rotation. Think about it: Larnach gets off to a slow start or aggravates an injury in training camp and begins the year in AAA. Gallo goes into a deep slump. Buxton is relegated to DH 3 games per week, so we're seeing Taylor basically in a timeshare with Buxton out there, and he's giving Gordon a rest in left field once or twice a week as well. Bold prediction: Taylor gets 400 AB this year in a Twins uniform.

Yeah I hear you, it's just that he wasn't lighting the world on fire before COVID either. Compare him to Noah Miller - both high school infielders, but coming out of the gate they've performed much differently. That said, maybe you're right. With the promotion to Cedar Rapids this year and a chance to make AA, 2023 is probably going to be a major lynchpin in Cavaco's career.

What are the odds Cavaco ever puts on an MLB jersey? He was one of those really young guys we were told to "be patient" on, but he's been in the system for 5 years now and has been pretty much below average the whole time. Kind of a sad story, really. Will be very interesting to see how Petty turns out. Hard to tell at this point, I don't really have a guess either way. Lee is the most exciting 1st round pick since Royce Lewis. Speaking of Lewis, if I had to bet on any of them having a great career, he's the one I'd take. Can't wait to see him at Target Field in June. Fingers crossed.

I know WHY they do it, but it produces horrible results for the real fans of the game. It's an embarrassment at best and a dumpster fire at worst. I'm telling you, there will come a day when MLB will be letting fans choose "fastball" or "curveball" for each pitch, via TikTok LIVE voting during playoff games.

Thanks for this article. Like many of a certain age, I was initially against allowing robot umps into the game. But over the past few years I've done a 180 and can't wait to see this technology in action. Personally I can't WAIT to see what guys do when they get called out on a 3rd strike and instinctively turn back to complain to the ump. What are they going to do now? I'd actually like to see more technology in sports. For example, football could get sensors in the ball that would give refs a more accurate idea where the ball should be marked. Refs and umps everywhere should be embracing this technology as opposed to pushing back! I'd also like to see All-Star teams picked by an agreed-upon computer algorithm. The fan voting for the MLB ASG is perhaps the biggest joke in all of professional sports and I hope to be alive when it's banned!

Technically, another way to compete would be to spend like the Mets, Yankees, and Dodgers. While the Twins will always have a disadvantage being located in an undesirable market, they can spend as much $$$ as any other team if they league, if they wanted. So could the Pirates and Royals for that matter.

Anyone know a good recipe for crow? I'll be eating some shortly and I'm looking for some zesty ideas.

Ain't gonna happen folks. Minnesota is flyover country, the team's going nowhere, and players have no desire to play here. The Twins are the proverbial unpopular kid hoping to get asked to the school prom by the star quarterback. Is it theoretically possible? I guess so. But getting your hopes up for something like this will only lead to crushing disappointment. Best to face reality and resign yourself to the fact that Brandon Belt and Michael Wacha are the best we're gonna get.

Wow, what a whirlwind of a night for Mr. Correa! Glad the Twins didn't get back in on that. There was just no way this deal would ever be reasonable. Question: where does Lindor play now? 2B?

Jeffers will be 26 next season. There's no more room for development with this guy, same goes for Larnach and Kirilloff. There are a lot of polished major leaguers at their ages. The pitchers are much better at the game than previous generations, and there are a lot of hitters that are better as well. But insinuating that Ryan Michael Jeffers is light years better than an everyday catcher from the 70s, 80s, or 90s is borderline slander.

You're not wrong. I'm a generation younger than you are and I agree with all of this. The problem is that the fascination with advanced metrics has gone too far. We've got guys who are getting millions based on things like "barrel % rate" or "OPS +" or "WOBA" - meanwhile they are hitting .180 and striking out half the time. The way people talk about Ryan Jeffers on this site, you'd think he was Johnny Bench. Take a look at the guy's stats. If he came along between 1946-2006 he'd have been out of a job by now. He can't even throw out runners! Don't get me wrong: I totally see the value in the advanced metrics and think they are fascinating. It's a great way to find some hidden gems or some players who might be on their way to having breakout seasons. But that doesn't mean we should throw stats like batting average and RBI out the window. Alas, all too often criticism like this is considered "old men yelling at clouds" and dismissed. Oh well. Such is life. As we get older, things change, and we just so happen to be alive to watch baseball go through some bumps in the road as the sport makes a significant strategic adjustment here in the 2020s.