Is this the 85-86 Twins?

[jimbo92107]

The 1985-86 Twins lost a ton of games, but clearly they had a ton of talent. Are we seeing a massive reload of young talent by the Minnesota Twins? We thought this might be a good year for this wave of players (Sano, Buxton et al), but it has fizzled early from injuries and underperforming pitching. However, now we are getting extended looks at what appears to be a future lumber company, starting with Kirilloff, Larnach, and I think Jeffers. By next season we should see our next wunderkind, Royce Lewis. How will these guys be playing in 2023? 

Add to that a fleet of new pitchers, starting with Dobnak, then Duran and Balasovic, Jax, Thorpe, and Ober, Some of these guys might become good MLB pitchers. The front office no doubt will note that they work cheap, too. 

What we may be seeing now is the gradual emergence of a new wave. If the Twins can hang onto the best of this current crop, they might wind up with a pretty talent-loaded team. Of course, that's what we were supposed to be seeing this season, but... you never know.

[Taildragger8791]

There's MLB talent on the hitting side for sure. Things will shake out nicely there over the next few years once the current contracts clear and you get a couple free agents to fill in. Spending all the high draft picks on hitting is turning out well for that side of the ball.

I'm less confident on the pitching side. Pitchers are so volatile in translating from AA/AAA to MLB and most of our top guys are rocking mid-3's ERAs in the minors. Then they still have to stay healthy. Just based on average success rates you'd be fortunate to get 2 starters out of that group which leaves a lot of holes to fill via trade/FA. Especially if Berrios walks. I have concerns...

[ashbury]

This is the 59-103 Twins.

[Dodecahedron]

I don't know.  My gut tells me those teams were a lot younger.  They had some impressive names on the roster who later became very good or great.  They also played really hard.  Even going back to 1982, that 102-loss team won 40 games after July 1, after winning just 20 in the three months before.  Do you see that kind of fight with this team?  I don't.  Say what you want about the records of those early 80's teams, they were fun to watch and often did amazing things.

This team seems to be full of middle-career guys, not young guys.  We are in "the window" but somehow we still flew right into the glass.  Sure, this team has players who do amazing things, but there never seems to be the game where everything comes together.

[Musk21]

Maybe more the 1993 Twins?  2 years removed from their '91 WS championship and 1 year after winning 90 games in '92 (2nd place finish). I don't recall what the expectations were for that team, but they still had Puckett, Knoblauch, Hrbek, Tapani, Erickson, Aguilera, and 41 year old Dave Winfield.

Hope we're not entering a 1993-2000 like rut...