Minnesota Twins Talk

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2022/03/twins-interested-in-johnny-cueto.html My take in image form:

2 years, $44M with the Giants. I am not sure he would have taken anything similar with the Twins, not a powerhouse contender. Good deal for the GMen. At least he is gone from our half of the league....

Reporting today indicates compromises on the International Draft/QO dispute, and pretty darn tiny gaps on the economic issues. If they can simply split the difference on those, a deal could get done today or tomorrow. I am really looking forward to some baseball this spring. so put this deal to bed folks.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2022/03/twins-re-sign-juan-minaya-to-minor-league-deal.html

MLB Trade Rumors lists our Twins as one of the teams interested in the Mets' J.D. Davis. My simple question is: why? He's a corner bat with less than stellar defensive skills at any particular position. If there's one thing our Twins always seem to have plenty of, it's that.

The 2021 Twins were definitely disappointing to many of us, for many reason. The Starting Rotation imploding, Colome blowing game after game, literally constant injuries, you name it. The question of the day is “How surprising was this to you?”

As the NFL marked the end of its season with the presentation of the Super Bowl Trophy, I thought it might be a fun distraction from the gloom and doom of the current state of MLB to determine which pro sports league has the best championship trophy. For my part, I watched the presentation of the Super Bowl trophy, and have to say it seemed quite underwhelming to me. With all the build-up and over the top spectacle that only the NFL can provide, I look for something more substantial, not anticlimactic . This does not rise to the occasion imho. NFL, you can do better! Your trophy reminds me of Spinal Tap's Stonehenge monument in concert: Spinal Tap.mp4 …

To start with you must know I am old. The 45 on my name does not refer to my age - only where I start counting. So take my speculation as an old man who just cannot buy into the three true outcomes (nonsense) and I know I am treading on sacred ground here, but this is where my speculation is today. Sano is my poster boy for this posting and he is just one example. I remember my playing days when some guys were so enamored with the distance that they hit that they could hardly run the bases, but distance does not get you more runs. It is not like we have a basketball three point line. Sano has 1017 strikeouts in 2788 ABS. His K rate is .365. His BA for that s…

Hello, all - I'm a frequent TwinsDaily reader but I don't believe I've posted in the forums before. A question has occurred to me, and I can't seem to find the answer anywhere in the forums or elsewhere online. If the answer exists, I suspect the readers here can point me in the right direction. Kirby Puckett is known leaping above the outfield fence to steal homeruns. Is there a tally of the homeruns he stole - either by year, or over the course of his career? Is there a tally of other players (I'm mostly concerned with Twins, but I'm curious about other teams as well). My assumption is that Puckett is the Twins all time leader in homeruns stolen, but maybe T…

I thought I'd post this so fans can decide for themselves on what happened. I've never been a Scott Boras fan, he never has cared about the sport or the fans. I believe there is some owner bias but there is probable truth to it.

Planning a trip, anyone out there know where the Twins stay when they're in Boston?

I think it’s important to note that some people in our community is still living out their dream to be a baseball player, since most of us are no longer in the best shape of their lives. Kudos to @Andrew Mahlkeand good luck this season! Let’s all rally behind our guy, who came onto the scene at Twins Daily and earned his way to being a Front Page writer. We’re rooting for you kid!

This won't launch officially until Monday but I wanted to give you forum users a sneak peak ahead of time. This is really cool and I've been working on it all winter. Every month, we're going to update the stats splits, scouting reports, and rankings to reflect movement within the system. It's also a really handy one-stop-shop for everything happening with the Twins top prospects with related articles and videos for each prospect automatically populating as we add more content about the prospect. Also, there's a handy desktop widget located in the right sidebar that will feature a single prospect who had a note-worthy moment, a great week, or maybe an injury. Ch…

The Major League Baseball Players Alumni Association announced yesterday that Jim Thome has been hired as their next president. He takes over for fellow Hall of Famer Brooks Robinson, who had worked in that role since 1989. The MLBPAA, a nonprofit organization of over 8,600 current and former big leaguers, has a stated goal of “(promoting) the game of baseball, (raising) money for charity, (inspiring) and (educating) youth through positive sport images and (protecting) the dignity of the game.” “With what Brooks has done with his honesty, integrity, and leadership skills for the MLBPAA, I am very fortunate that I will be able to lean on him as well and ask him questions,”…

It's that time of year again, time for the KFAN Preposterous Statement Tournament! I just wanted to congratulate a couple of Twins Daily writers who made the list! First, John Bonnes is going against Vikings QB Kellen Mond: While Bonnes is not new to the Preposterous tournament, congratulations to Matthew Taylor for also being recognized: The voting will start on Monday... you can watch the "Selection Show" on YouTube:

We talk about Miranda and Martin and Lewis as possible promotions. Celestino is a possible fourth OF and we have Larnach ready to rise again, I hope. But that means others must go. I know there have been discussions about trading Arraez, Garver, Kepler and Sano, but if they do not go, who does? It would seem that Rooker lacks the skills, other than power bat, so is he first cut? Does he have some value for NL - DH or does every team have a Rooker? Gordon has no position and might be redundant although he is the one player who could fill in at SS to give whoever our SS is a rest. But is that enough value? What is the pecking order? Ranking the Twins…

In 2021, the Twins bullpen struggled mightily early on. It didn’t struggle as much later in the year, however. The bullpen was much better than the starting rotation in that it was simply bad. The Twins had the 10th most bullpen losses and 11th highest bullpen ERA. Most of the other (meaningful) stats (WPA, WHIP, etc) were around 15th. Much of the bullpen’s struggles were attributed to offseason acquisition Alex Colome, who was pitching out of the closer role early. Watching him pitch in 2021 was insufferable. Just take a look: Yeah…lets not bring him back please. As of right now, the 2022 bullpen looks like this: - Taylor Rogers - Tyler Duffey …

Baldelli has been heavily praised and heavily criticized by Twins fans all over the internet. In 2019, he won MOTY, yet two years later people were calling for his job. This brings up the question: What do Twins fans think of Baldelli as a whole? Where do you think Baldelli ranks all of the other among MLB managers and why?

So, as you've seen on social media and from Rena's How We Built It story, Twins Daily is celebrating our 10th Anniversary this weekend. Let us know what brought you to Twins Daily. Some came at the beginning after reading one of our original blogs. Some have joined since then. Just curious what brought you to Twins Daily, and maybe more important, what keeps you coming back to Twins Daily. We certainly want to provide content that readers will want to consume. 1.) What brought you to Twins Daily? 2.) What keeps you at Twins Daily? 3.) And, if you like, what would you like to see more of at Twins Daily?

Rules: 1. Memes only. No words. 2. Everything must be safe for work 3. Snark and sarcasm are welcome; disrespectfulness is not

Someone just sent this my way and I thought I'd share it, there's some pretty cool stuff in there. Each Team's HR Leader Most HRs in a Season by Team Ten Longest HR of 2021 MLB Home Run Derby Winners

I know that fantasy rankings are not an accurate judgment of a pitching staff, but they are interesting speculation that does give some insights that are useful as we think about the Twins seasons so the fantasy pitching rankings by Sarris on the Athletic gives me some thoughts about the Twins staff and it is not good. Berrios is number 23 on the list. Montas the pitcher we want to give away the gains from the trade of Berrios to get is 28. Our top rank is Ober at 73 with Ryan right behind at 74. Griffin Jax is ranked 144 which is interesting because it is higher than Michael Pineda at 146 and Dylan Bundy at 158. Jake Odorizzi is 170 and ranks behind Devin Smeltz…

I contend the Twins should trade Sano or Donaldson to an NL team as soon as the current lockout rules allow. Frees up Arraez to be the Twins DH more, Miranda to be 3B (Donaldson is not as good as he used to be fielding due to age and injuries) and Kirilloff to be 1B (Sano is not a good fielding 1B).There are reasonable options for substitutes at each of these positions (Arraez, Garver and Rooker at DH, Arraez and Gordon at 3B, Rooker and Garver at 1B). Plus Lewis, Martin, Rortvedt and Larnach are in the wings.

I’ll probably write a series of these, each edition addressing a different part of the 2022 team (Rotation, Bullpen, Infield, Outfield) Let’s start with the rotation. The Twins came into this offseason with a major need of starting rotation help. Let’s just say that they haven’t addressed it (yet). Their only signing so far has been Dylan Bundy, who as of right now would only replace Micheal Pineda in the rotation. If they’re going to have a competitive rotation next year, they need one or two more SPs. At this point in time, this is the 2022 rotation (in no particular order): • Joe Ryan • Bailey Ober • Dylan Bundy • (open slot) • (open slot) The …

I enjoy Keith Laws prospect reports. I know some of you do not like him or Jim Bowden or Buster Olney - I like them all and I enjoy their takes. I do not read them to agree, I read them to be challenged and get different viewpoints. So with that in mind I wondered how the Twins prospects would rank.   I have some selected comments - you have to go to the pafe for full evaluatisons. Austin Martin is the top Twin at 25: "In the field, he’s athletic enough to play almost anywhere, certainly to be a plus defender at third base, but he’s had throwing issues since the start of his junior year and at this point is probably going to end up in centerfield o…

This is a topic that we’ve visited before in this thread. I thought it would be a good idea to revisit it. It’s no secret that the Twins have struggled to haul in “big fish” from FA for many years. This has been causing many fans frustration over the years. One wonders if MN is an unattractive destination for FAs. Many have, and many have speculated reasons why. Is it because of the state of Minnesota itself? Is there something particularly rotten about the culture of the Twins organization? What could it possibly be?

Falvey has stated the Twins are not rebuidling in 2022. But many of our recent moves seem to point towards a slight rebuild. We trade Berrios and Cruz for prospects. We haven't used any of the dollars we saved to invest in any of the quality pitching that was on the market. There is not much chance to compete with the starting rotation we have in place. I seem to remember Falvey stating that the speed of offseason signings took them by surprise. You are the leaders of a multi-million dollar operation, shouldn't you be in tune with what is going to happen before and after a lockout? I know they can't predict the future, but it seems that a majority of F.O.'s …

This is a topic that has come up a few times since June of last year, and especially in this thread. The majority opinion seems to be (Disclaimer: This is my interpretation, so if it’s inaccurate, then my apologies) that Falvey’s offseason strategy is “insanity” or “unsustainable” or, in simple terms, “bad.” This is the most common depiction of Falvey’s supposed offseason strategy that I see particularly on TD: “Sign leftovers and pray for a bounceback year.” This seems like a pretty accurate depiction (I would word it a bit differently) but what I have trouble understanding is why this strategy is necessarily a bad one. As I said, I would word the depiction a bit differe…

Another posting to pass the CBA lockout time - ESPN tried to rank the top 100 players all-time. This is a fruitless but fun exercise. I read all the notes and certainly think that they got a lot wrong - of course that is why these are good lists. Controversy and debate help make the list into a conversation starter. Now I do agree that Babe Ruth belongs at number one for hitting, pitching, and changing the game. I also think that Bonds and Clemens are too high. Yes they were good before the PEDS stepped in, but they were good at levels below the ranking in this list. So the question here is who was on the list from the Twins, if any? Jim Thome is 98. He wa…