wabene

Part of what makes it fun following this team now is the decisive maneuvering. Cutting bait with guys and not hanging on. I look at the 40 man and I don't see more than a couple of guys that have had their chances and they might not make the opener either. I also expect a variety of acquisitions during an off season worth watching.

Rosario was looking great in the first half last year. Did he get dinged up? Nobody seems to have the answer. He had an 841 ops with 20 dingers in the first half then 750/12 in the second. Big drop off. In 2018 it was 890/19 first half and 622/5. Cripes that's worse. I'm sensing a trend. So let's look at 2017 his first full season in the bigs. 784/10 in the first half and 889/17 in the second. Well there you have it, Eddie just had to be different, eh? Rosie is most likely on the team next year unless somebody were to pry him away. I find that unlikely. Next year could be pivotal for his future Twins career. He's maturing, will he see the writing on the wall? Try to be more disciplined overall? He has to know there are some talented youngsters gunning for his job. I'm interested in watching it play out. Hopefully Baldelli will be more fluid with his lineup placement if we see more of the same.

Absolutely having a positive, upbeat work environment is a boon to productivity especially over the long haul. The baseball season is a huge grind making this dynamic more important. Talent wins no doubt, but I would say no to a player like Puig every time. Winning is the goal and along the way you need to represent yourself properly.

This about sums it up for me. How's about we go back to that Yankee well and get the guy who has their batters spitting on what would otherwise be called fine off-speed offerings.

Take a look at some video of Tony Gwynn hitting. That's my comp. They way he uses all fields, slapping line drives.

Another thing not mentioned here but I read in a TD interview with Duffey how he came to accept the concept of tunneling. By throwing a four seamer up instead of the two seamer down his fastball would initially track along the same path as his slider creating deception. You could see he had guys guessing out there and when they did guess right he still had the stuff to make them miss.

I think it would be ironic if a team with a purported glut of SS prospects would have to go outside the organization for a SS. The problem is a lack of 3rd base talent. Without that hole maybe Sano would already be a first baseman. Does Arraez's bat or arm play at 3rd? I don't think that's the best fit. I previously suggested the possibility of Schoop at 3rd. Would it be frightening to have Schoop learning 3rd while Sano learns 1st? I don't want to find out. There is no question they have the money to sign a third baseman, so pick up one of the top three mentioned above and move Sano to 1st. Gives you a year with Cruz at DH to see if Sano has a future at 1st. If they can't get that deal done they might have to settle for bringing Cron back who I thought had a nice glove there, except of course on Arraez's crappy throw.

I could see the QO as a first move toward signing him to a deal. Considering his situation he may take a two year deal? If so, perfect, then get him on the same conditioning plan that Sano was on. In fact make that plan a part of the deal. Get him in better shape and he won't need to cheat. If this huge guy dropped forty or fifty he could go on quite the run. Remember this is a bird in hand, we can only count on so many from the bush.

Good article! I've enjoyed watching Eddie at times* more than any player. But that's just it there is always an asterisk with him because of his inconsistency, lack of focus, whatever. If we could get a top picker in a deal for him count me in. This FO has no problem checking out their young talent so we can be assured if Eddie is gone we will get to look at some intriguing young players instead of just Cave and Wade replacing him. wabene©

It is critical that we sign Odo and Pineda. With that done we can focus on grabbing a Gibson upgrade like jham mentioned. Pineda would allow us to use Graterol as a starter early on moving his development forward while also enabling his move to the pen to save innings when Pineda is back from suspension. Best case and an improved rotation.

I don't see them wasting his bullets in AAA. He's already pitched in the playoffs. If we sign Pineda I see the best course is to use Graterol as a starter to cover for Pineda, then he goes to the pen for the remainder of the season. His role as a starter could be a sort of hybrid/ 5th starter/opener. Let's fire those nasty bullets in the bigs!

This sums it up exactly. Very realistic. Cole is bonding big time right now on another post season run. What makes people think we can actually get him? Because we want him? I think we should try and exhaust all avenues but it would be wise to have contingency plans.

I like Lewis at third as well. He's not ready though. This may be way off base but what about Schoop? He's a good defender with quite the arm. Seems to me he's a better fit there than Arraez, who's bat plays better at second. I like Arraez as a starter but he needs to work hard on his defense. In fact defense needs to be a focus this off-season for the whole team. Plays like Cave's dive (which he had done before in the regular season) are inexcusable for a pro ballplayer.

Castro yes if he will accept a #2 role and short deal. Astudillo should not be our #2 catcher. Odorizzi is priority number one. He says he wants to come back. He arguably should have started game 1 but when he was held back to game 3 he was a damn good soldier. QO while being open to a 3 year deal. Cron is yes. I see Sano at third one more year so it would be hard to replace his healthy production. The Twins need to get a third baseman moving forward. Blankenthorn is not ready for his shot and is no sure thing, plus they list him at second. Who do we have? Miranda? If they could snag a good FA 3rd baseman Sano could try first. The problem is who is available? Rendon? Hahaha. Schoop and his arm at 3rd? Is that out of the box or what? Pineda yes. If the guy worked on his conditioning like Sano did he wouldn't need a masking agent and could lead this rotation. He wants to be here and has much to prove. I give him a chance. Schoop no. Good guy, good soldier somebody will grab him. Gordon may be ready to challenge for some innings at second behind Arraez. Perez no. Gibson no. I have argued in his favor the last 2 years and I am done. A minor league deal? Maybe, we don't know what his market will be. I like Gibby but I really like when guys work fast and just fire away. The game the way it's supposed to be played. Romo yes. What is not to like here? The price is right too.

I think people are remembering Cron's miss in the playoffs and forgetting all the great defense he played this year. When healthy he was a contributor but I would consider an upgrade if possible.

Kiss Odorizzi's butt edit: please and sign him, he's a leader on this team

Sounds like a plan to me. Odorizzi is a guy you can count on. I want him back. Berrios is a little high strung but I would sign him. Not so sure I would have had him for game one. He is not our ace but maybe he could be just not yet. After what has transpired he may be more open to a deal. Rosario is an odd case. His bat is the only one that showed up last night but he is inconsistent.

What a bummer but hey we don't have to wait too long for the next tilt. If Dobnak accomplishes the unaccomplishable how sweet would that be? A couple of points. One why is Schoop on the playoff roster if your not starting him against a lefty? Injury insurance for Arraez? We could all see that Luis is not 100% so even more reason to start Schoop and give him one more day to heal. Schoop would have made those plays. There are many other second guesses but what's the point? Moving forward here is a quote from Littel; “I didn’t trust my stuff,” Littell said. “It’s a good lineup, and they took good pitches. It made me think I had to make perfect pitches.” we all knew this going in. The perfect pitch mindset does not work. Fire away, you either love by the sword or die by it. Was going to edit this but yo I'm just going to trust my stuff.

Nice, now the cat is out of the bag, or the Squirrel as it were.

I say no to Perez. After a terrible start recently he was asked about his struggles and he acted like he did just fine. Probably a good guy but I don't think he has the right mentality. Smeltz or Thorpe take your pick otherwise you got it right. I've been on board with a Berrios, Dobnak/bullpen, Odo, bullpen, Berrios playoff rotation but I'm starting to think Odo and Berrios should be flipped. Odo while he's not going eight he just seems more reliable.

Helps the blood pressure to be in the know on Dick's fly ball calls. Oops thought I was in the game thread

With my Android tablet emoji buttons won't show up I have to create them the old-fashioned way with punctuation marks. Oh the drudgery :-)!

I got a bad case of the Twins Pitch Jones. I will be patient.

I think there may be some usefulness to asking these guys to dial it back a little say 97 in Brusdar's case as Dante suggested but I'm not sure it will happen. Look at Dyson. He pressed through pain for two years in apparent silence. There i$ much on the line and the lure of 100 mph and the riches that come with it will be too much to resist. As this era plays out we will aquire the data and learn the answers to these questions.

With the velocity these guys now achieve we are going to have to handle them differently than in the past. I do believe it would be unwise to expect 150 plus innings from the Bruiser next year. It is also going to be an important strategy going forward to not waste these young arm's bullets in the minors. I don't think we know how long health can be maintained when human boundaries are pushed like this. Therefore I'm on board with the above mentioned strategy of starting him in the MLB pen next year while letting him work with the staff on another pitch and then transition him mid season to more of a starter role. That is the beauty of the new flexibility with which pitchers are now handled. Go from reliever to primary to starter.