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If they pick up Marquez, the Twins will probably be the only MLB team that will ever have two GERMANS on a team.

Having 2 Germans on our team will help our Octoberfest standings. Will it be enough to help our Novemberfest as well?

I can really get behind that White Sox part. I've found them more and more difficult to root against over the past few years, but I'm ready to hate again, lol

Amen, my brother. These two really struck a chord with me: I resolve to never take for granted enjoying a beer (Mt. Dew, I don't drink alcohol) and a bratwurst at a baseball stadium again. I resolve to find my bone-deep hatred for the Chicago White Sox again... It's been a long time since I "hated" one of the Twins opponents in a baseball game. This might be fun to really fire up the rivalry for the White Sox games in 2021. I wish the Sox nothing but losses and regression during the 2021 season in regard their on field results. LaRussa is the least likable figure in baseball since the time of Barry Bonds.

Nowhere near bold enough. How about this: Tony LaRussa coaches Chisox hitters to hit the other way, shredding defenses employing the shift. Chisox starters are given the green light to go longer than 5 innings. This and a slew of other "old school" approaches see the White Sox go 35-5 out of the gate. Stunned sabermetricians are left reeling. Michael Lewis announces he will follow up on his book Moneyball with a book on the enduring wisdoms of Casey Stengel, Leo Durocher, and Tom Kelly, while advocating the brilliance of slide rules in making in-game calculations. Slide rule sales explode, and they become the hip new app on campuses across the country. The Twins FO opts for boldness in response, and hires Bruce Bochy out of retirement, giving him free rein to run the team. Bochy leads the Twins to 105 wins, tying the White Sox for the best record in MLB. Sportswriters across the nation proclaim the Twins/Chisox rivalry the greatest the game has seen. Network ratings for their games exceed anything elitists in the northeast have seen for franchises playing in the Bronx and Boston. The networks bid high to nationally televise games in the AL Central, and fans across the country return to baseball, glad to no longer have NYY/Bosox games telecast constantly. And then, for real boldness, in the playoffs, the Twins ... Oh, perhaps best not to get carried away.

I get the feeling that you wrote this after a really good New Years eve party. Keep celebrating.

Agreed. It's been fun disliking Cleveland the past few years, but there's nothing like that special hatred for the Sox. I didn't realize how much I missed it until last year.

According to baseballtradevalues.com, your own trade value is such that Bonnes would have to include both Seth Stohs and himself in the deal, just to receive a 7-year old still learning his ABCs as a prospect / lottery ticket from the Rockies in return. Oh and yes, violence begets violence, but also vice versa. That's the paradox people tend to overlook.

You may have seen bold predictions, even some bolder ones, but here are the boldest Twins predictions for 2021.Make sure to bookmark this article for future reference. Before we start, allow me to apologize, the site could not support the level of bold I wanted this headline to be in. The best I could do was to illustrate just how bold these are in the text of the article image. Nelson Cruz will not return to the Twins Instead, the Twins decide to go with a youth movement and sign José Bautista, who is about 100 days younger than Cruz. MLB finally announces there will be the universal DH on April 5, Cruz signs with an NL team and goes on to hit 40 home runs. Bautista, meanwhile, hits exactly one home run prior to being released by the Twins, but along with it comes the most epic bat flip in franchise history. Fernando Romero becomes a superstar in Japan Romero becomes the ace of the Yokohama DeNA BayStars and wins the Sawamura Award, the NPB equivalent to the Cy Young Award. He fails to clear customs returning to the Dominican Republic after the season ends when it’s discovered he attempted to smuggle a rare Ussuri brown bear from Japan into his home country. Alex Kirilloff will not make his official MLB debut in 2021 Kirilloff was good enough to start a playoff elimination game, but the Twins front office decides more “seasoning” is needed for him in 2021. Kirilloff is once again added to the active roster at the onset of the postseason and is immediately inserted into the No. 3 spot in the lineup. Josh Donaldson sets Statcast record The Bringer of Rain fails to make amends with umpires. As a result, he has the highest percentage of pitches out of the zone called strikes in the Statcast era by a landslide. I have a confession to make. These are not predictions, this is the actual future. I’m not at liberty to say where I’ve obtained this information, but here is Donaldson’s pitch breakdown chart for 2021: Download attachment: JD.jpg The Twins will win a playoff game (technically) MLB expands the postseason to 32 teams. The field will be comprised of all 30 MLB teams and the top two Triple-A clubs. The Twins beat the St. Paul Saints via forfeit in the Wacky Wild Wowza Card Round, then lose to the Detroit Tigers in the Crazy Eights Card Round, which is determined by a single eight-inning contest. Kirilloff hits three home runs in the loss. Happy New Year! SEE ALSO A Twins-Based Manifesto for Self-Improvement in 2021 | RandBalls Stu 21 New Year's Resolutions for the 2021 Twins | renabanena Twins Offseason Status Update: Slow Going | Nick Nelson Click here to view the article

No, I think Kirilloff's ahead. Also, Larnach doesn't need to be added to the 40-man roster until after next season. Not that that will be an issue if and when he's ready, just that being on the 40-man gives Kirilloff the advantage at the beginning of the season. I do think Larnach and Kirilloff are close to the same player and both are nearly ready.

One of these gentlemen is on the 40-man roster at present, and one is not. If bets were to be placed right now, for which one sees regular-season action first, I don't know what odds to offer but it would have to be considerably different than even money.

While I don't disagree that Kirilloff may start the season in St. Paul, I would be surprised if his time there was any more than 3-4 weeks.

I know of which unnamed team you speaketh. May a thousand curses be laid upon them. Despise not a team for the hue of their hosiery, but instead for their hubris.

Well said! Man I hate the White Sox

Dadgummit, I wish I could cuss!

I resolve to continue to be amused by people having the emotion of hatred for somebody because they play a game

Concur regarding beer and bratwurst. The Kramarczuk stand at Target Field has been a must-visit for me for a long time. I confess to being in the minority here in that I don't hate the White Sox. I don't want them to do well, especially against us, but having made many visits to Chicago they are the clear choice for me over the Cubs. I reserve my hatred for the team from the Bronx, whose name must not be spoken.

Being in Chicago, I loathe the White Sox. We need to bring back Hawk Harrelson. YYYessssss! Hell Yessss!

"I resolve to not get my hopes up that this will be the season that the Twins will win a playoff game, and instead be pleasantly dumbstruck if and/or when it happens." Ditto for Vikings, Wolves, Wild, and Loons too.

Love it! Can we throw in extensions for Berrios and Buxton before they breakout into Cy Young and MVP contenders?

Great write up. Nodded my head with everyone of them. Well articulated

Let's hope this guy and whoever else they sign is durable given what looks to be the Twins strategy to limit starting pitching to about 5 innings. They need guys with rubber arms like Clippard and back in the day everyday Eddie.

So many articles about Hansel Robles God this offseason is slow

We’re about to close the book on one of the craziest years in my lifetime. At 30 years old, I’ve hardly seen as much as the next person, but to say this calendar was filled with unprecedented events would be putting it lightly. Through it all though, we had baseball, and that was a distraction I know that I needed. I remember many months ago now, waking up from a nap and looking at my phone. There was an alert from ESPN noting that Kobe Bryant had died in a helicopter accident. As I processed that, it didn’t hit me as to what the magnitude I’d feel from that event would be. Kobe was a cultural icon, more than just a basketball player, and despite being a Jordan guy he was an athlete I respected. From there, things got worse. I’ll never forget sitting in Pott’s Sports Café in Fort Myers, Florida on March 13. The night before Rudy Gobert had tested positive for Coronavirus and the NBA effectively closed its doors. Covering the Twins Spring Training, things seemed ominous that morning as teams had already gone to distancing fans from players with roped off areas. By noon, Major League Baseball had put a halt on all operations. I hopped a flight and headed home. Since that day, I have not returned to the office for my day job. We’ve dealt with closings of restaurants, public spaces, wearing masks, and plenty of other new versions of normal. Minneapolis experienced extreme racial unrest as the city turned into a warzone. There’s been political and social unrest, and countless other prominent figures that have now left us. For a brief four-month period though, there was baseball. Leading up to the regular season we watched as the commissioner and ownership groups publicly tore down their players in an effort to squeeze profits through what would be a different year. There was uncertainty as to whether a season would be played at all and writing about the sport took a different turn. There was no minor league action to cover, and in months there typically would have been action, an ability to get creative was necessary. As the dust settled though, we had the resumption of a game. Teams were diligent in their efforts to avoid Covid-19 outbreaks, the play on the field checked in at a high level, and the Los Angeles Dodgers won a World Series. Back in early summer, none of that seemed remotely possible. More than any other year, I needed this out. I lost my grandpa to cancer in August, and the day following his funeral my 59-year-old father died in a car accident. I’ve spent more time in a cemetery over the past three months than I have during the entire duration of my life. I know that my challenges in 2020 are not alone, and that this year has been trying on so many. Financial distress, learning to cope with new working situations, understanding how to handle a certain level of social isolation, the totality of it all is not lost on anyone. At the end of the day though, it was this, a child’s game, that provided a reprieve. We’ll have baseball again, the world will heal, and we can all be better and stronger people for what we have overcome. It will forever be a passion to break down the effectiveness of Jorge Polanco at shortstop, or whether Jose Berrios will round into a bonafide ace. Even if you take away that type of consumption though, the purity of a game, the crack of the bat, and the smell of fresh cut grass will always be an inviting escape. Thank you for venturing on this journey with me, and I look forward to a more consistent level of normalcy in the months ahead. Below you’ll also find some of my favorite pieces from this season. Women in Baseball Series Kobe Was So Much More than Basketball Byron Buxton's Next Great Act Art Proving Unexpected Outlet to Fill the Baseball Void What's Happening at the Alternate Site? For more from Off The Baggy, click here. Follow @tlschwerz