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Great quote by Plouffe- nice to hear. I hope he can play as relaxed as he sounds and get on a roll.

Thanks for putting this together. Definitely adds some depth and context to what happened last year and how these guys operate.

ALEX MEYER on last season’s shoulder injury:

 

“It wasn’t anything more than, I woke up one morning just sore. It wasn’t sore when I went to bed so I didn’t know what was going on. We went in and got checked out. It was funny, the MRI I got this time was more clean than the one when I got drafted. My shoulder looked better now than it did then. I knew nothing was wrong. I just didn’t know why I was hurting. I never had anything like that. Just a bump in the road now. It’s time to move past it and get back on the mound.”

 

This quote greatly concerns me. An injury the Twins can't identify and can't figure out how it happened laid up our top pitching prospect for months. And to judge a multi month injury as a "bump in the road" is a little cavalier. Lifting luggage, tweaking your back, and missing a couple of starts is a bump in the road. Missing half the season is not.

Good stuff as always Seth. I like Gilmartin's simple metric; it's pretty true.

Was their any sense of more moves coming while you where their? I sure hope some more moves are coming. I have no faith in the lineup coming out of spring training. All the starting pitching in the world isn't going to save this lineup. Need some hitters. Alot of people say wait for Buxton and Sano, but they are atleast a year and 2 years away and it will take time for them to adjust to the majors. They are not going to come up and be Miguel and Trout right off the bat or ever will. I say stack the deck and get some more offense in here. The payroll is still lower then last season with the new tv revenue and they could go up atleast another 20 million. Not to mention that the twins where one of the most profitable clubs in baseball according to Forbes. Spend the money on the product go get some hitters

Great quote by Plouffe- nice to hear. I hope he can play as relaxed as he sounds and get on a roll.

 

Plouffe is very charismatic, and always engaging. When he saws that if Sano's ready, great... you want to believe it. He's a pretty cool personality.

Good stuff as always Seth. I like Gilmartin's simple metric; it's pretty true.

 

I completely agree... The more you're able to get out, the more innings you pitch, the more you kept your team in games... Sometimes we over-think it a bit much.

This quote greatly concerns me. An injury the Twins can't identify and can't figure out how it happened laid up our top pitching prospect for months. And to judge a multi month injury as a "bump in the road" is a little cavalier. Lifting luggage, tweaking your back, and missing a couple of starts is a bump in the road. Missing half the season is not.

 

 

Certainly a fair point, but how he performed and felt in the AFL alleviates some of that concern. He seems to be fine. Hopefully that's the case!

Re: Mike Pelfrey:

"In hindsight, I probably should have waited, maybe come back at 13 months which is June, when I started to get a little more of that feeling back.”

 

Wasn't that what about 99% of us were saying about his situation just one year ago on February 1? And again, reiterated more strongly on May 1, after an April that yielded a 7.66 ERA. And again, reiterated on June 1, after a May ERA of 5.90?

 

One could argue that the Twins could have had better "consistency" from Kyle Gibson during those first 2 months.

No, Pelfrey was very consistent in April and May. I can't blame Pelfrey... I would want to pitch too, and work through all those things.

No, Pelfrey was very consistent in April and May. I can't blame Pelfrey... I would want to pitch too, and work through all those things.

 

I'm not blaming him, but there's no denying he was pretty "consistently" awful in the first 2 months. It was incumbent upon the Twins management to have prevailed it upon him....clearly.... he should have been working through those things elsewhere.

"Spend the money on the product go get some hitters " No problem but the only guys out there really were Cano and Shoo and I had no problem passing on them at those prices and the best one remaining is Drew. There just weren't many hitters out there in our positions of need. Who are the couple 10 mil a year rentals that we can get? I am all for spending someone else's money but would like have posters identify who they think it should be. "Find a couple hitters" isn't so bad as "Go out and get an ace or two" but it is still pretty vague.

"Wasn't that what about 99% of us were saying about his situation just one year ago on February 1? And again, reiterated more strongly on May 1, after an April that yielded a 7.66 ERA. And again, reiterated on June 1, after a May ERA of 5.90?" Yes, and that is also why some of us were saying option years would have been preferable. Twins rectified that by signing him to two years now. I am still betting that he will be one of the top three pitchers this year so I think this will end up a better signing than people think.

"Wasn't that what about 99% of us were saying about his situation just one year ago on February 1? And again, reiterated more strongly on May 1, after an April that yielded a 7.66 ERA. And again, reiterated on June 1, after a May ERA of 5.90?" Yes, and that is also why some of us were saying option years would have been preferable. Twins rectified that by signing him to two years now. I am still betting that he will be one of the top three pitchers this year so I think this will end up a better signing than people think.

 

I was one of them wondering why the Twins would let a guy go out there and get shelled game after game coming back less than a year after TJ, without a team option as part of the contract package. Agreed though, he should be better this year.

AARON HICKS on his decision not to play winter ball:

 

“I thought a little about it, but I felt like it would be better for me to relax and think about stuff I need to do and get ready for another season rather than go right into another season. Just rest the body up. I’ve never had an actual offseason before. I’ve always played somewhere. It felt good to just relax.”

 

I often wondered prior to reading this - if many of our young prospects should take time off after MiLB season. Hicks played last year and improved his skill set playing winter ball. He improved again in Spring Training, but hit a wall at beginnng of MLB season. Oswaldo played winterall as well if I'm not mistaken. As we try to train our young prospects for longer MLB seasons with winterball, do we do them a disservice by not providing rest for the upcoming season? Arcia and Vargas are still playing. I wonder if extended seasons (winterball) have an affect on their 2014 season (positive or negative)? What has past history shown?

Gilmartin's simple metric may be the most compelling reason Morris belongs in HOF.

“Oh, here I thought we were going to do an interview about Saskatchewan.”

 

Excellent!