Minnesota Twins Talk

Twins assistant GM Jeremy Zoll is a finalist for the Cubs' GM job. He came to the Twins as the minor league director just a few years ago, and was promoted before the 2020 season to assistant GM with most of his focus remaining on the minor leagues. That leadership of the Twins approach to team-building and better player development may be exactly what the Cubs are looking for. Other finalists include Carlos Rodriguez (Rays), Carter Hawkins and James Harris (Cleveland). Cubs president Jed Hoyer narrows search for next GM as finalists emerge – The Athletic

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2021/10/twins-outright-kyle-barraclough-nick-vincent.html Players included Nick Vincent, Ian Gibault, Kyle Barraclough, Drew Maggi, Andrew Alber, and Luke Farrell.

It turned out to be an eventful lunch break today:

What are everyone's feelings going into the offseason about our position guys who are middling between St Paul and Minnesota? In this category I'd put Rooker, Larnach, Kirilloff, Lewis, Celestino, Gordon, Rortvedt? How is Royce Lewis going to look after essentially not having seen a game for two straight years? Are Rooker and Larnach going to be guys who show a lot of promise but in the end get leapfrogged by guys like Martin, Miranda etc? How's Kirilloff going to adjust post-surgery? Has Gordon possibly played himself into contention for a utility spot if he has a good Spring in 22? On another note - what's the plan for pitchers like Smeltzer & Thorpe? DFA? …

Over the summer we analyzed the Twins' 40 man roster and what moves would have to be made to protect the right prospects and which fringe players to keep. Now that the season is nearly over, let's have a look at the updated 40 man roster (which is now at 49 with all the guys on the 60 day IL!), sorted by category. Some topics worth discussing: Where does Arraez end up? Playing LF and 3B seems to be harming his value, and Polanco should have 2B locked down. Would it make sense to trade him? John Gant, from what I've seen, will be maximized as a reliever rather than a starter. After a disastrous start, the Twins' bullpen has covered the middle innin…

John Blake, from the Rangers Communications staff, tweeted moments ago that Texas had claimed RHP Edwar Colina. Not sure I understand this. Obviously he's coming off of surgery for bone spurs. We haven't seen him throw or how his recovery is. But dude throws 100 and has a terrific slider... He's been on the 60-Day IL all year. As you can see from my tweet... I don't get it.

The trade was quite controversial - and for good reason - as the Twins could have certainly used Pressly in 2019 (and possibly beyond had they extended him). For those with foggy memories of 2018, the Twins traded Pressly and 1.5 years of control to the Astros for Jorge Alcala and Gilberto Celestino. It didn't help that over the first couple of years, Celestino had upside but looked more "fourth outfielder" than "starting MLB centerfielder". Even if Celestino came through as a starter, it appeared as if he'd be somewhat light on offense and have to bring most of his value defensively (and he's no Byron Buxton). As for Alcala, I think we all remember the tearing …

73-89. Seventy-three and eighty-nine. Last place. How many wins did we expect? ~90 is the answer to that question. Ninety. I think that says it all about this season. The year where nothing went right. The year the pitching staff fell apart.

I recall last year we had a thread that tracked roster moves the Twins made throughout the 2020 season, and I'm like to have another thread to track that, to be a handy place to come back to for those who may have missed a move or two. I'll start off by covering the moves that have happened so far this season: Apr 3, 2021 Brent Rooker LF Called Up from Minors Apr 3, 2021 Josh Donaldson 3B Placed on 10-Day IL (Mild right hamstring strain) Apr 7, 2021 Brandon Waddell RP Purchased From Minors Apr 7, 2021 Edwar Colina RP Transferred to 60-Day IL (Right elbow inflammation) Apr 7, 2021 Brent Rooker LF Placed on 10-Day IL (Cervical sprain) Apr 14, 2021 JT Riddle 3B Purchas…

In last night's game thread, @sampleSizeOfOne asked us to share what our most memorable moments were as Twins fans. This was mine ... and I've had many ... three years ago tonight (Sept. 30, 2018), this was the only baseball moment that moved me to tears. Joe Mauer was a special player, and I say that as one who wasn't pie-eyed over him, but nor was I a detractor.

Let me preface this with a disclaimer: I'm Australian. I tell you this because - firstly, that means there might be some colloquialisms in here that you scratch your head about. Secondly, it explains why the man I have named this award after is considered such a folk hero. In 2002, Australian speed skater Steven Bradbury competed at the Winter Olympics. He won his heat of the 1000m short track event, scraped through the quarter finals after someone else was disqualified, won his semi final after trailing all the other competitors and watching them crash out and advanced to the final. In the final, he was well off the pace by a good 15 metres. The four medal contende…

Nelson Cruz is on pace to hit over 150 home runs if he gets 500 at bats. Josh Donaldson slash line: 1.000/1.000/2.000/3.000

Weak, man. Get that man a B-Ref page, let him play one game!

The Twins have many decisions to make as to how they will fill the 40 man roster in 2022. Assuming they plan on fielding a competitive team in 2022, they will need to balance the number of core pieces, prospects to protect, and new free agent additions. I've parsed out the Twins' current 40 man roster into categories below: First we have the "locks" - 15 players who will likely be back barring a trade, and another 5 prospects who are unlikely to lose their spot. You could consider Dobnak and Colina are on the fringe, but Randy's contract and Edwar's potential to help our bad bullpen should keep them on the team. I've then sorted the rest into a few other c…

About 8 Months Ago on this day, the Twins FO finally started signing a bunch of pitchers to cheap, one-year deals: Hansel Robles: $2M J.A. Happ: $8M Alex Colóme: $6M Matt Shoemaker: $2M Combine that with many waiver wire claims such as Derek Law, Ian Hamilton, Luke Farrell, and *barf* Brandon Waddell. Almost every single one of these acquisitions have blown up in the faces of Derek Falvey and Thad Levine. The question is, “Why?” I’m not going to evaluate every single pitcher they signed like I did Colóme. I can do that on my own time. Mostly, I want to hear what you think.

So, 2021. A an unexpectedly bad season where many are calling for heads. If any of you watch SKOR North, you’ll be familiar with the concept of a pie chart of blame. That’s what I’m going to do. So, basically, here’s mine: Falvey and Levine: 35% Pretty much every FA Pitching Addition from this past offseason has went Now, I made a thread a while back asking whether or not it was a misevaluation by the FO or they couldn’t have helped them all blowing up. Maybe it was all bad luck, but I believe it was a misevaluation on their part. The staff as a whole has been terrible. And when that’s the case, you look to the guys who put it together…

Well, a small bummer but at this point “whatever”. It’s not as if we shouldn’t have expected this given the rest of 2021. But hey, at least it’s not an arm or shoulder issue! https://www.mlb.com/news/bailey-ober-to-miss-remainder-of-2021-twins-season

Admittedly, I haven't had a chance to look into the upcoming free agent class much, so my lack of time has turned into curiosity. The pitching on this squad gets most of the attention, and rightfully so. But, what position player(s) are you most interested in the Twins bringing in?

There was a lot of controversy surrounding Ober, particularly in June and July, about whether to let it rip and potentially shutting him down in September or whether to keep his pitch count low - around 80 pitches per outing - in hopes that would allow him to reach the finish line in 2021. I was as skeptical as anyone but also wasn't willing to dismiss the idea out of hand, as it was an interesting mid-term strategy that I can't recall seeing used so strictly to manage innings for an entire season. Well, it appears it worked. Ober has hit some speed bumps in September but is still pitching adequately and has blown past his previous innings pitched numbers. …

State your assumptions about who is on the team and who isn't after the offseason. I'll go first: Assumptions: they bring in a shortstop. The don't bring back Cruz. C - Garver 1B - Kirilloff 2B - Polanco SS - TBD 3B - Donaldson LF - Arraez CF - Buxton RF - Kepler DH - Sano

From MLBTR: https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2021/09/carlos-gomez-officially-announces-retirement.html Gardy called him a loose cannon. Ozzie Guillen called him a piranha. I will forever remember him from "Game 163", the final act of the Minnesota Baseball Confederacy (Kinsella fans, you get it).

This has been one of the most fun things to follow that doesn't involve Joe Ryan's hair. Nick Gordon has suddenly become... a good baseball player? I mean, we all knew it wasn't technically impossible for this to happen given how much time he missed over the past couple of years but it's still unexpected. His OPS+ now sits at 97, which I definitely didn't see coming. He's still a flawed player; he's not great up the middle, his plate discipline isn't great, and he misses the ball too much for a player with his profile... but if he can hit somewhere close to league average while playing (sometimes kinda badly) around the entire diamond, I think he's basically a lock f…

Inspired by the recent article mlb.com Do Hyoung Park published about jerseys, what is your favorite Jersey the twins currently wear? https://www.mlb.com/twins/news/twins-starting-pitchers-choose-uniforms-home-road

Well I guess this FO aren't complete morons after all. Gleeman tweeted that the Twins called up Moran (pronounced moron)!

Freddy Galvis can man the fort at SS adequately for 2 mil year to year. He’s not flashy with the glove, hits OK, and is cheap. buy pitching in the offseason. A whole lot of pitching

This is absurd going in to next season with Dobnak, Gant, Albers, Ober, and Barnes as part of your 2022 starting staff. No thank you. I appreciate your effort, but I would like to win. Our offense is going to be depleted next year. Our pitching needs to step it up. That list of dudes is not inspiring.. FO do something.

I'm continually confused by statements that the FO has "no idea what it is doing" "they never make good decisions" etc............... They literally won the division the last two years. You can be disappointed in this year, I think everyone is. But .... I think saying they are clueless idiots and we are only ever sold hope for the future....seems to completely ignore the last two years. PS. Before you point out "last year doesn't count".....every team played under the same conditions, and the Twins won. It isn't their fault Covid happened....

Recently, I found myself watching an old Abbott and Costello movie and I was quickly reminded about how funny they were. If you’re an old time comedy fan, you’ve most likely heard the Abbott and Costello “Who’s on first?” comedy routine. If you haven’t heard it or haven’t seen it, find it on line and laugh out loud. Abbott and Costello were comedic geniuses but who knew they could predict the future when they gave their first national radio performance of “Who’s on first?” in 1938. The current Twins roster can be assembled into a potent line up every game of the year but under a microscope, it appears Abbott and Costello could see the upcoming 2022 Twins roster back w…

Warning: Most of this is opinionated I don’t think anyone within the organization has taken more heat than Derek Falvey and Thad Levine. We’ve seen the, “These guys have no clue what they’re doing,” for the past couple of months. And I understand that frustration to some degree. I find it frustrating that the pitching pipeline hasn’t produced yet. I find it frustrating that they went from one of the best (no, not better, best) pitching teams in the league to the worst in the span of one year. But you know what I find frustrating most of all? All of those regular season results and no playoff wins. Yet, I still cannot get on the same page with all…

At least one Twin will win an award this year. Joking aside, this is pretty cool he got to be the first Twin to win this. Thank you for your service, Griff! Jax Wins Award