Minnesota Twins Talk

Have to think he would be on the table given the giants record and their farm system. Could the Twins be a player even though he's owed $18M per season over next 4 years? could a Lamonte wade, jermaine palacios, randy Rosario and maybe Palka package be enough?

His career trajectory is similar to that of Nick Blackburn. Can we do the same thing we did with Blackburn if Gibson's next outing resembles this last one? Honestly, why even have him?

With Levine coming over from Texas and having a history with them does that make a Cole Hamels trade more likely? I just read here https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2017/07/trade-rumblings-darvish-marlins-starters-tigers-astros-iglesias-hand.html that Texas may make Hamels available and he has a contract through next year with an option year tacked on so he can be here through 2019. What pieces would we need to give up for him? I think something along the line of one of our top pitching prospects Romero or Gonsalves, Granite, Palacious and maybe Curtis or Reed or Bard. Maybe Garver could be included over another prospect as they may want a catcher if they trade their…

Mike Kennedy from the Twins PR staff tweeted that Joe Mauer has been activated and will be in the Twins lineup tonight. Byron Buxton was placed on the Disabled List with the groin injury last night. https://twitter.com/ParkerHageman/status/886319953695080448

Bartolo Colon will be making his Twins debut on Tuesday. No clue who will be getting sent down or DFA for a roster spot. By the way, feel free to move my post into a new location...

While awaiting late starting games, I revisited the "idea" of trading Brian Dozier. I began by asking which teams were not out of contention and had a 2B "significantly" poorer than Dozier. That led me to three teams: Bosox, Indians and Rangers. I found no NL teams that met both criteria. I immediately excluded in-division Cleveland. I then looked at the Bosox's cupboard of potential prospects and found it pretty much bare. That left the Rangers. And, lo and behold, they have three top-tier left-handed starting pitching prospects: Y. Mendez (#2) B. Martin (#5), and C. Ragans (#8) Surely, they could part with one of three. Just sayin'

Doing some thinking, reflecting and debating. These are three key points for the second half of the season, IMHO. 1] Don't get wrapped up in "must make moves". I am absolutely not saying to throw in the towel or dismiss this season thus far, or put a kabosh on what remains of it. And I fully understand the idea of supporting your team and supporting a team and season that has post season possibilities. But this team was not supposed to contend. A few months ago, there was great debate whether or not this team could even finish .500. (I predicted .500 and possibly a couple games above). There is so very much to like about this team, mostly young in regard to position pla…

This team has many similarities to the 1984 Twins. The age of the key players on the roster was centered 23-25. They had an unexpected all star break record of 43-41. Likely very frustrating to fans, they did not make any significant trades to improve the roster. They acquired aging SS Chris Speier for a 27 year old AAA pitcher Jay Pettibone to try to fix SS. They acquired struggling DH Pat Putnam for marginal A-Ball prospect Carson Carroll to try to get some pop at a DH. Neither fix helped. They team completed well into September but did not make playoffs. It had to be tempting that year to trade off two young players in Puckett and Gaetti that flashed some offense b…

For FSN, LaTroy Hawkins shared a story of meeting and chatting with Michael Jordan in AA ball in 1994. Hawkins was playing for Nashville while Jordan was playing for Birmingham. Hawkins pitched to him five times, but they also chatted before then. 14 years later in New York, the two met again for another chat. To me, this is just fun to listen to for 2 1/2 minutes... https://twitter.com/fsnorth/status/885143093779070976

On his way....you heard it here first Congrats...well deserved !!

With Oakland looking like sellers, what do you think they would ask for in return for Sonny Gray? Gray isn't exactly your prototypical frontline Ace, but is a "high-end" #2 starter on almost any team and can pitch as a #1 for extended periods of time. On the surface he doesn't look spectacular this year, but his peripherals look awfully close to his 2015 All-Star season. Mix in the Twins outfield and you might have something here that could be a nice looking piece of the rotation for a few years. Gray isn't a Free Agent until after the 2020 season and the Twins looking like they may be ready to be real life contenders in a year if things fall into place would make so…

There are two ways of examining and critiquing things in life. You can look at problems and talk about what should not be done or you can look at things and examine how you can make things better. One way of looking at things finds lots of problems that need fixing. The other way looks at how to improve things whether there are problems or not. When I was young, I was told to focus not on the problems but to focus on the solutions. Problems can wear you down and make you feel bad about things. Solutions give you hope and help you make the world a better place. I was told "Don't focus on the negative, focus on the positives and how to make it better." This mindset has he…

When we have a chance to hit the reset button at the All Star break, what pitching order do you think we should have? Let's assume current starting 5. I think we need to break up Santana and Berrios. It hurts the bullpen too much to have the other 3 back to back. I think I'd keep the lefties together. Santana Gibby Berrios Santiago Mejia

I'm over this guy. Blaming his loss on "being old school and not liking shifts" just cut him now and get a "new school" thinker up here. 5.00 ERA wouldn't cut it in the "old school" either. http://m.startribune.com/hector-santiago-s-struggles-continue-as-twins-fall-at-kc-in-road-trip-finale/432151833/#1

Hopefully just for interleague play so he can still hit.

What's your guess? I'm thinking it will be Sano and Santana. Dozier's got a shot, especially if the 2nd half of last season is taken into account. Perhaps Berrios if he has another 3 really strong starts? Does Kepler have a shot?

http://m.mlb.com/news/article/240988074/mlb-announces-all-star-game-replacements/?topicId=27118122 Nice to see. As much as I like to bash him, he's been pretty damn good this year and has raised his trade value along the way if they choose to go that route.

I have seen this topic come up numerous times over the last few weeks. I was giving it some thought as there are some people on the board that suggest that since the Twins are in playoff contention you have to think about being buyers instead of sellers. Then there are others that say even if the Twins are in contention for playoffs, they should still be sellers because even with a wild card or a division title in a weak division that the Twins have no legit shot at the World Series because of some of this teams limitations. So I just took a look around, and these are all just based off of my opinions, to see what teams out there, on paper have a legit shot at going…

It's a compliment. http://www.startribune.com/similarities-between-these-twins-and-those-of-2015-are-striking/432796993/ He still doesn't think the Twins are good because they've been blown out too many times but admits that they seem hard to kill.

Fix the bullpen!!!!!!!

This guy is our one chance to get a starter represented in the All-Star game, and Ramirez is rapidly closing the gap. Just hours to go and he has a 60,000 vote lead which used to be a 300K lead. Let's send him to Miami! Link: https://www.mlb.com/all-star/ballot

Fun Fact #1: There was a single month record set in the Majors when 1,101 home runs were hit. Fun Fact #2: All but three of these were hit off of Twins pitching. I expect Twins pitchers will top the record in July!

Just a random thought I had that I just tweeted: I know everyone has visions of sugar plums -- Quintana, Gray, Archer -- dancing in their heads, but let's be realistic: buying low on a potential change of scenery candidate makes a lot of sense. Liriano is still striking batters out, would cost almost nothing and is a free agent at season's end. If he stinks, you DFA him and move on. I think I'd take a stab here. Thoughts?

Which one do you trust more? Which one would you consider the team's ace? Which one starts a game 1 right now? All different ways of saying, which of these two guys do you think is the team's best starting pitcher right now?

I was a bit surprised by this move. Twins designate both Wimmers and Melotakis. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2017/06/twins-designate-alex-wimmers-mason-melotakis.html Melo had some pretty good minor league numbers. I wonder if he'll be taken by another team.

While watching star after star coming to bat against the Twins, I checked the opening day salaries for the 30 MLB teams. The Bosox were essentially $200 million ($199.8), while the Twins were at $108 million. This could lead to at least five threads, but for purposes of this conversation, I'd like to DEFER the following: Yes, but, the Twins will have a number of large contracts upcoming (as will every other team, including the Bosox, like Benentendi) Will ownership ever spend enough? And, to continue a rant, 20% of the $108 is tied up in two pitchers who will never contribute One always overpays for free agents.Deferring those conversations (but others are welcome to…

Rochester and Chattanooga have had 6 games in the previous two days leaving 6 pitchers that line up well for Saturday. Hurlbutt, Slegers, Melville, Romero, Rodriguez and LeBlanc. Romero is on the 40. Turley pitched the 22nd and Gee last pitched on the 14th. Could it be Romero?

In an interview with Mark Feinsand with MLB.com, Thad Levine had some interesting comments. http://m.twins.mlb.com/news/article/239262334/twins-surprising-but-keeping-eye-on-long-term/ From the article: ________________________ "I don't think we view it as we're just one piece away and we're not looking to finish off this club; we're looking to continue to build this club. We have a lot of core pieces that have a chance to be part of something special in the future, but we're cognizant that we're going to need to add to that core." "Some teams know where they are because they walked into the season with a clearer sense of where they were going to be. Where we are to…

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/chris-gimenez-on-being-a-non-pitcher-who-pitches/

Who"s the fifth starter now that Turley is in AAA? Anyone know the plan for Hughes and Santiago?