I am always looking for outsider opinions on the Twins since it is too easy to have hometown bias. All of us who root for the Twins follow them with much more emotion and fan hopefulness that allows them to rise higher in our opinions than an outsider might see them. So, I was interested in the Athletic’s fantasy baseball rankings. I know fantasy and reality are not the same, but it is one way of comparing players. Derek Van Riper just posted his fantasy ratings of players https://theathletic.com/2199503/2020/11/16/2021-fantasy-baseball-rankings-2/?source=dailyemail and here is where the Twins rank.

Starting pitchers (160 ranked)

13 Kenta Maeda (between Kershaw and Nola)

27 Jose Berrios (Between Burnes and Paddock)

45 Michael Pineda (Between May and Corbin)

54 Rich Hill (Between McKenzie and Musgrove)

63 Jake Odorizzi (Between Ohtani and Bassett)

We have a starting rotation here!

Relief Pitchers (38 ranked)

11 Taylor Rogers (Between Hand and Yates)

17 Trevor May (Between Smith and Pomeranz)

37 Tyler Duffey (Between Adams and Garrett)

Rogers rating surprised me - too high, Duffey too low.

Catchers (29 rated)

11 Mitch Garver (Between Nola and McCann)

24 Ryan Jeffers (Between Murphy and Suzuki)

1B (44 ranked)

14 Miguel Sano (Between Smith and Vaughn)

Fantasy loves bombs

2B (47 ranked)

25 Luis Arraez (Between Madrigal and Alberto)

Singles don't rank as high in fantasy

SS (47 ranked)

18 Jorge Polanco (Between Villar and Rosario)

3B (53 rated)

10 Josh Donaldson (Between Moncado and Chapman)

44 Marwin Gonzales (Between Frazier and Lamb)

48 Ehire Adrianza (Between Bote and Drury)

OF (118 ranked)

23 Byron Buxton (Between Blackmon and Soler)

26 Eddie Rosario (Between Lewis and Pham)

38 Max Kepler (Between Hernandez and Myers)

96 Alex Kiriloff (Between Polanco and Larnach)

97 Trevor Larnach (Between Kiriloff and Oliva)

Where is Cave? They like our rookies, but where is Rooker? Once again Max ranks below Eddie.

DH (8 rated)

1 Nelson Cruz (ahead of J. D . Martinez)

Cruz is the highest rated at his position, Donaldson is second at number 10 among 3B, but how in the world does Garver get rated #11. I know catchers are hard to find, but still!

It is fun to see this ranking and I will look for other outsider views this off season. But my take away from this is that we have a good team with a lot of players ranked in the middle at their position, but other than Cruz and potential Donaldson we do not have the superstars that the great teams have. We have no one on a HOF track.