Minnesota Twins Talk

In this episode, Talking Twins covers the CBA and the impacts it could have on the minor leagues for the 2022 season. Join Darrell and Bradley as they provide their insights as to what Twins fans should keep an eye on as we approach the 2022 season. https://www.buzzsprout.com/1914654/10009965

Eric Samulski was looking for late-round fantasy draft pitchers, and found Dylan Bundy. As he looked, he kept looking deeper and found several reasons that maybe Twins fans can hope on in 2022... https://www.rotoballer.com/dylan-bundy-undervalued-2022-draft-target/989295

Man. Baseball keeps getting less fun around here so I turned to following the Caribbean. This would have made me so happy at Target Field next season…

In the beginning of this off season, I thought I'd start a debate between "Stats" and "Baseball Savvy", but I've been too busy. Now I'm going to give it a shot. I remember when 2 baseball movies that came out about the same time, "Moneyball" and "Trouble with the Curve". Both were great movies but they had contrary themes. "Moneyball" portrayed analytics as everything and scouting evaluations and baseball savvy as worthless, and contrary "Trouble with the Curve" portrayed scouting evaluations and baseball savvy as everything and analytics as worthless. In real life both are important. Analytics has revolutionized Baseball, any team that ignore analytics will be…

How do you feel about the proposed increase in the competitive balance tax? The current demand is to raise the CBT by $35M. This would not impact many teams as only a handful have been willing to spend to that level currently. However, it does increase the already high level or competitive disparity between top and bottom revenue teams. As a fan of a mid-market team, how much should we be willing to increase the Yankees / Red Sox competitive advantage? This increase basically allows them to sign another elite free agent or extend another elite player or sign a couple Michael Taylors without consequence. I don’t know about you but I think parity needs to increased no…

https://www.mlbtradetrees.com/ A fun website to find out the trade trees that started and concluded. Post some of your searches!

Jake Mailhot from FanGraphs wrote today about Twins pitching prospect Joe Ryan: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/joe-ryan-has-plenty-of-margin-for-error/ There are some fascinating charts on his fastball's pitch characteristics and shape, but also on its approach angle... and why he can and should be successful for the long-term. Check it out and discuss.

Hello all, Well I finally got around to reading Reusse's column on the Viking's new GM. In it he mentions the nickname Falvine. It is hilarious how widespread this has become. It is and has remained quite the creation. In my recollection this name originated right here on Twins Daily! I just can't remember when I first saw it. It is high time this wordsmith stands up and is recognized for this grand achievement. Hark, who art thou?

Too long to post here. Go read the article. https://www.mlb.com/amp/news/mlb-mlbpa-cba-talks-progressing.html

Jake Mailhot from FanGraphs looks at Bailey Ober's pitch mix and thinks he has potential to continue to improve. Specifically, he shared some charts on Ober's slider before and after he made some changes to it in mid-August. He's always had good extension, but he also has a low release point. https://blogs.fangraphs.com/bailey-obers-deep-arsenal-is-filled-with-potential/

The MLBPA and MLB appear so far apart in negotiations on new CBA and Spring Training appears in serious jeopardy. If no agreement is made are the minor leagues going to go on with playing the current ST schedule? Is the full Twins coaching staff going to show up and coach and work with the minor leaguers?

Torii Hunter barely made it over the 5% threshold to stay on the Hall of Fame ballot next year. Joe Nathan was just below the required 5%. The steroid issue is less of an issue since Clemons, Bonds and Sosa didn’t make it in their last year for the writers to vote any of them in. Curt Schilling only got a little more than half of the votes, and claims it was due to his conservative political views. If that is true, then it’s a shame.

There's been a lot of discussion lately regarding the prospects in the Twins organization. With the lockout, that's given a lot of attention to the minor league system that it might not otherwise get. With that in mind, is there group of prospects that you find more exciting or intriguing than the other? The next wave of prospects seems to be largely pitching. But there's also some highly regarded position players lurking as well.

Let’s hear your thoughts. I’ll go first: Torii Hunter

This is a discussion that I've seen come up in a few places, particularly in this thread. An argument that I've seen a lot is that the reason this FO has the winning percentage they have is entirely due of the core they inherited which was constructed by Terry Ryan, rather than anything they did. I thought this would be something we should dig a little deeper on, because Falvey/Levine did inherit a solid young core that was constructed by Terry Ryan, no doubt. However, there are a ton of other things to consider, such as the philosophies and analytical differences between the two regimes. What do y'all think?

We all got excited that even though TwinsFest was not going to happen again, the Winter Caravan was back on, where Twins prospects, broadcasters and a couple of diehard old-timers journey out into the rural snow-covered freezing areas of the five state area. https://www.mlb.com/news/twins-winter-caravan-returning-in-2022 But, alas, because of the latest virius news - and also something called "a lockout" I imagine - players and the only guy who does manage to stay warm doing this event (TC Bear) will not be visiting the frozen northlands. https://fergusnow.com/2022/01/17/minnesota-twins-officially-cancel-2022-winter-caravan-due-to-covid…

I find myself following the Vikings' search for a new coach and GM in an oddly similar way to how I followed the hot stove in November. I'm checking Twitter and other various news and blog sites daily to see who they're interviewing and when they expect to make a hire. Only difference is, the Vikings will probably fill their empty spots before the cupboard goes bare. Anyone else channeling their wasted free agent excitement in similar ways?

I made a mistake on the original and reposted. My apologies! Just to clarify, there is no time frame. How many players currently on team control will eventually become ML playerslong enough to achieve these milestones?

The Twins announced today that Ron Gardenhire, Dan Gladden, and Cesar Tovar have been elected to the Minnesota Twins Hall of Fame and will be inducted during Hall of Fame weekend, which will take place August 20-21, 2022. https://www.mlb.com/twins/news/twins-class-of-2022-hall-of-fame

The proposal was originally posted here at: https://sodomojo.com/2022/01/13/mariners-trade-proposal-luis-arraez/ The trade is below what do you all think? MARINERS GET INF LUIS ARRAEZ TWINS GET RHP JUSTIN DUNN RHP LEVI STOUDT RHP ISAIAH CAMPBELL

I am always looking for outside opinions to challenge our home team bias so I was interested in Buster Olney's take on the best players on the field. His ranking of outfielders has only Byron Buxton on his top ten for each OF position and only Byron Buxton at 8 in CF is on the list which also includes honorable mention. His ranking of IF position players has only Polanco and Donaldson. Polanco is honorable mention at 2B and SS. Donaldson is number 9 at 3B. While we might see lots of potential, this is a sobering listing for a team that thinks last year was a one off. And we know about pitching. Ranking the top ten teams the White Sox are number 3,…

I am pondering several questions about the new CBA. What should we (Twins Fans) want to see in the new CBA. What is good for the game? Should we want the new terms to promote parity? How about the specifics of what the players are asking for as they have settled into a theme of anti-tanking and competitive integrity. They have 3 major asks. Spending floor. Sounds good in concept. I think it would have to be a percentage of revenue. A team with $50M less revenue should not have the same floor. They could use a 3 year running average. The problem I see is that rebuilding teams would take on the badly failing contracts. Contenders would dump them and…

Thirty-three year old short stop, Elvis Andrus, is nearing the end of a 8 year, 120,000,000 dollar extension that he signed in 2016 with the Texas Rangers. Andrus has been a constant and solid defender with complimentary bat to ball skills. Should the Twins make a move to acquire his services until the likes of Royce Lewis and Austin Martin are ready to take the reigns?

I was fascinated by the Athletic article where Jim Bowden looked at the top 25 remaining free agents and who might sign them. There were a lot of teams listed for the top 18 - none were the Twins. Finally at number 19 the Twins were listed for Michael Pineda, but we were also the sixth team. Then at 25 Donovan Solano who could be a SS - we were listed ninth. So what do you think. Will we surprise anyone? Will we jump in to get one or more of these players? Bowden's top twenty five remaining free agents.

6 players were outrighted off the Twins roster today after clearing waivers. P Kyle Barraclough P Nick Vincent P Ian Gibault P Luke Farrell P Andrew Albers IF Drew Maggi

Talking Twins, hosted by Bradley Swanson and Darrell Yates, covers the Minnesota Twins entire minor league organization. Bradley and Darrell will provide listeners with all of the news, notes, and numbers throughout the Minnesota Twins minor league landscape. From Saint Paul to Fort Myers and all stops in between, you will have some of the best Minnesota Twins minor league coverage when listening to Talking Twins! In this episode, Talking Twins covers some of the most interesting Minnesota Twins minor league prospects for the 2022 season. Join Darrell and Bradley as they provide their insights as to who Twins fans should keep an eye on in the 2022 season. https…

There is nothing better than trying to recover from an injury and laying in bed with an oxycodone inside and too much pain to sleep on the outside and the brain runs wild! Last night my brain said – bring on the robots! Get rid of the umpire called strike zone that dips, slides from side to side, and sometimes just can’t be found. No more scouting the umpire tendencies, we would actually have the designated strike zone. It would be fair, it would be everywhere in the big leads – no differences because one league uses huge chest protectors and the other has a simple bullet proof vest. No more looking at the umpire because he called a strike and you didn’t like it. No…

I was thinking about writing in length about this. I might do it eventually, but I decided to make this more of an open discussion. Here are some questions to consider: (no poll this time) 1. Which playoff failure of 2003-present was the most bitter of them all? (in your eyes, of course) 2. What are the recurring themes in these failures? 3. Is the current FO/leadership capable of getting the team over the hump one day?

20-20 Hindsight: My 2020 Offseason Blueprint Each winter, folks offer a great deal of entertainment on Twins Daily by offering their perspective on what the team should do for the following season. While that’s a fun exercise, I find that I can make a much better team if I wait until AFTER the season is over to make my preseason blueprint! So with the benefit of 20-20 hindsight, what could/should the Twins have done differently to prevent the debacle of the 2021 season? The easy answer, of course, is to say that in signing a SS, a DH, two starters and two relievers, they should have spent what it would have taken to sign Marcus Semien ($18M), Nelson C…

What the Rays have done is nothing short of extraordinary. They're consistently competitive in one of the toughest divisions with a shoestring budget and a golf dome for a ballpark. There are certainly things the Twins could learn, but the Rays have been successful in spite of these things, not because of them. A subset of Twins fans seems to think the Rays blueprint is a road map for success. But the Rays are playing with one hand tied behind their back. If you gave the Rays 50-60M more to spend, they might actually spend it. My question is, how closely should the Twins follow the Rays example?