saviking

Miranda's bat will keep him in the lineup. He can DH and back up 3rd and 1st ..

On a more philosophical note: I cut my teeth on watching the Twins through out the sixties. Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't remember players getting hurt much or players coming up and down from the minor league like we have now. If they needed Tommy John surgery there wasn't any and it would have ended their career. Same with torn ligament of the knee. We didn't baby pitchers. Through them out there every four days with no pitch count. So what's changed?

I hated to lose him. He's a hitting machine and would make a good full time DH for someone but I don't think the Twins would have ever made him that.

Thanks for that explanation Chris. Guess the only real option to trading Polanco is not appealing as it would mean we were out of the race and we trade him at the trade deadline.

Polanco puts tremendous stress on his ankle when he takes violent swings. I'm not sure if his ankle gives out because it's already hurt or the violent swings are what injures his ankle. Either way, if he keeps it up his career will be greatly shortened. Because of this I would prefer to trade him at the end of this season ..

Well, looks like we are already in mid season form.

That's what I don't like about the Solano signing. He deprives Larnach, Julian, Wallner to compete for the main DH hitter. They all have way more power than Solano and I'm a big believer in having a power bat in the DH slot.

Thanks, that was a good exercise to go through. I would have had Larnach higher up the pecking order however. I haven't given up hope he will make the opening day roster especially if Gordon's high ankle sprain keeps him out .. Those can take up to 4 weeks to completely heal if bad enough ..

Nothing new about Pagan giving up a grand slam in his first grapefruit league inning. His ball must have looked like a grapefruit to the hitters. What's the definition of insanity. Doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result ..

Yes, 3ed base but don't forget he can back up correa at short. But what do we do with Miranda? Slide between third, first and DH?

The starting rotation is going to be pretty full in AAA. Maybe start him at AA to give him more innings in the big's and then move him up to AAA as a reliever. Whether that be long reliever or short .. As of now, I just view him as a wild card ..

I'm glad we are having fun with it because of all the spring training questions, at this point, who opens as the starter is the last thing on my mind. And I share your horror of the word Pagan. Maybe was the Pagan god of stress ..

Totally with you and Balazovic is on his last gasp. With the quality of starting pitching in front of him I'd due the kid a favor and switch him to the bullpen.

I never would have guessed he could have gotten his era down to a respectable level after the horrendous start he had .. He's a mentally tough dude ..

If I had to guess I would guess you are probably right. I see a lot of people rooting for him but I root for every Twins player. I don't want him to fail but he's way down the list of players I'm counting on. Actually he's not even on the list right now to be honest.

Agree with the last point. I like playing about 8 different DH hitters as much as I liked seeing what seemed like 8 different lead off hitter. To me, this is where you go for raw power. Someone like Wallner who can play against righties and selected lefties. It's the only spot you can play a big hitter that is an average fielder. Wallner has a gun for an arm but I wouldn't call him a great outfielder compared to our others.

I like the way you are thinking. I never thought of that.

I don't get this move .. Guess I'm just not that smart

That's 3.5 million buckaroos we could have used towards a free agent reliever ... 😒

If you believe regression to the mean (I'm not talking about Buxton's mean but the leagues mean) and that Buxton's injury's were bad luck instead of a frail body then it's quite possible he has very few injuries over the coming years, I mean, bad luck only goes so far ,,, Here's to a 130 game season ..

Nick, you indicated you don't like to write these types of articles but this is just the type of article I've been waiting for. And I think it is a very optimistic article ... Thanks

I have no expectations for Dobnak. That said, he's a great kid and a great story. I kind of like that he parlayed part of one good season into lifechanging money .. LOL

Caught between our five starters and Ober, Varland, and Paddock's return later this year I think we should be looking at Winder or possibly Balazovic as relievers mid way through the season.

He could come in Handy ..

I was thinking the same