Twins

While a top Twins pitching prospect dominated multiple levels of the minors this summer, fans hoped that he might be able to join the big-league club late in the season to make an impact during a race for the playoffs.

That is exactly what has happened. It's just not the guy we thought it would be.

While we debate Eddie Rosario's trade value, he's far from the only asset the Twins might dangle in front of other teams. The Twins have a loaded farm system and also have several young players of interest to other teams.

Who else could the Twins trade in the weeks ahead?

WHIFF.

Ahh, that sweet onomatopoeia: the sound of a pitch whooshing past a bat untouched. Music to a hurler's ears.

It's a song Kyle Gibson hasn't heard as often as one would hope, or expect. Until lately.

Which top prospects will we see this year? With Jo Adell's MLB debut, the Angels are the lens into this broader question. The Angels are supposed to be competitive. They’ll need to pitch better this year, with or without Shohei Ohtani on the mound. And the preseason PECOTA projections considered the Angels just outside a top-two spot in the AL West, front runners for an A.L. Wild Card spot. Will more good teams do what the Angels did and call up their top prospects?

Which players and prospects are most essential to the front office's vision of building a World Series champion in Minnesota? As we move into the top 15, we find a trio of established mainstays along with two rising top arms.

Whew. What a Hot Stove home stretch. You can't rule anything out, but the Twins appear to have completed their offseason, with a late surge of activity crystallizing the front office's championship resolve.

Let's get up to speed with a final rundown as spring training officially gets underway.

Whether you're new here or not, a quick glance at a handful of the articles at Off The Baggy should give you a glimpse of what I'm about. Not a full-blown sabremetrician, I find myself using statistics to tell a big story more often than not. In this post however, there's very little reason for numbers to quantify anything. With what the Twins gave us in 2015, and where they appear headed, there're plenty of obvious reasons for thanks.

Whether you knew it or not, this is the moment you've long been waiting for: You can now get your hands on the 2017 Twins Prospect Handbook.

Just shy of 170 minor leagues are profiled in the now-available book. But that's not all! Prospect rankings, a wide-variety of articles and more are also included.

Whether you have been watching the postseason from inside a stadium or the friendly confines of your house, there’s been something fishy about the action. Did you notice that the Nationals and Dodgers game featured more than a few opportunities to rob a home run in game 5? How about that Miguel Sano and Nelson Cruz could barely squeak their blasts out of Yankee Stadium in game 1? Well, it appears there’s something to it, and that’s not a good discovery for Major League Baseball.

Whether signing baseball cards, inking checks, or simply checking in to a stadium, baseball players are constantly writing their name. Anyone even remotely connected to Twins Territory knows how important Harmon Killebrew thought legibility was, but who are some of the best to follow suit?

Whether it is on Twitter, Facebook, or just talking to people here in Ft. Myers or back home, there is one question that seems to come up most frequently at this time of year. At what point to results (statistics) start to matter in spring training?

It’s a good and fair question. So, I asked Twins GM Terry Ryan for his input. We often see a big leaguer hitting .170 and a minor league free agent signing hitting .350 in spring and inevitably, we’ll get the questions. And it is a good question, so it’s one I wanted to discuss a little bit.

Where is bottom? Just when things seem like they’re at their worst, here comes another kick to the gut. Max Kepler dropped a routine fly ball in the ninth inning of a tie game, putting a painful end on a day the Twins did nothing at the trade deadline.