I hate being so negative. I REALLY DO!!!  hehe I know it sure may not seem that way to those of you who have read a number of my other posts. Butit is just so frustrating. WE say we are going to compete but it loosk we are making moves (or lack of moves) with no apparent overall plan.

If our plan is simply to go with the young pitchers we have and use as a developmental year, I am cool with that, but at least come out and SAY IT!!! Now they cant say "We see this as a developmental year"  but they can come out and say "We plan on contending this year, and we think our quality young pitchers are the ones that are going to help us contend this year!" We still have an overall junk rotation. at least from a "We plan on being competitive" standpoint.

Sonny Gray is a quality starter. he is the #1 on this staff, maybe a #2.5 on others, but still he is good. He gives me hope.

Joe Ryan. I really like this kid, I think he can be quite good. he is a plus. BUT if I have to be nitpick He still is unproven. was great over 5 starts and he has pitched well in teh minors so their is hope. Nothing you can rely on yet, but you can hope.

Bailey Ober.  SEE ABOVE.  except insert "kinda" for "really"  Hope but cautious. Again unproven

Dylan Bundy. Where is my puke emoji.  Watch him prove me wrong, but I just don't see it.  Wait... WHAT??? we can give him $4M but cant give Pineda $5.5M? SEE BELOW.

Jax/Strotman/Dobank/Thorpe/Smeltzer. Just no.

SO there you have it!!! Now we still could make one of those Oakland trades. and really it doesn't matter WHEN you make moves, as long as you make them, but LETS FRICKIN MAKE THEM ALREADY!!

Anyways... Here is teh Twins being Twins part.

As I mentioned in another piece the Twins always come out of the woodwork AFTER a player signs elsewhere to claim they had interest and tried. Well Michael Pineda just signed with Detroit for a $5.5M base. Pineda expressed a strong desire to return. Pineda, while not the most dominant and most reliable still posted a sub 4 ERA and was the only Twins pitcher you could consistently count on to go at least 6 full innings. yet we cant even spend $5.5M on him?  What will the Twins come up with as the reason for why they didn't sign him??? or why Pineda "chose to go elsewhere"?

With regards to Story, I hate to break it to the Storyobos out there but the recent comments mean he aint coming here.  #1 he said he is open to a short term position switch to sign. He does not have to switch positions for the Twins. so Cue #1 there.   Cue #2 is he said he wants to sign with a contender. NOPE. and the original indicator...he had turned down multiple offers of $100M. If you actually thought the Twins would spend $100M on him your nuts. SO now, this makes the Yankee deal even more questionable. You solve the SS spot only to make it a big question mark again and get back the same type of 3B, and a redundant catcher... who by the way cant catch. That was a beautiful trade!!! lets create a hole (ss) downgrade at 2 other positions in order to save some money that we are not going to spend elsewhere... but yeah "We plan on contending".  Now you will hear how we were "in on" Story and he just got "better offers" elsewhere, but the truth is we never had a chance.

There is one move, and one move only that could garner ANY amount of optimism from most Twins fans.  That is to dole out a record contract to sign Correa.  a Montas trade does nothing. We still have a hole at SS, we still have a platoon of 2 RH catchers, one of which cant catch. The Twins should shock the world and give Correa a "Seager" deal.  and then STILL trade for Montas. 

I know has gotten very long winded, but there makes a lot of sense for a Correa signing. Look at who would/could have on our roster over the next handful of years...

3B = Miranda Pre-arb deals. (Urshela gone) SS Correa Massive deal.  2B = Polanco,very team friendly deal.  1B = Kirilloff Pre-arb years. (Sano gone) RF = Larnach pre-arb years (Kepler gone)  LF = Martin/ Lewis  pre-arb years.  CF Buxton big contract but only other big one.

PITCHING>>>

Ryan = pre-arb years  Ober =Pre arb years. Balazovic pre-arb Strotman... Do I really have to list EVERY near MLB arm we have??? You get the gist

We can have a full rotation of young controllable arms, and young controllable high ceiling position players. paired around 2 mega superstars in Buxton and Correa.

But to close this rambling nonsense, I wouldnt even mind, and would kind alike to see us just go young,  give Lewis SS out of Spring, go with all fo our young arms... JUST FRICKIN SAY IT!!!