farmerguychris

Great opportunity to see what these coaches can do with young talent - I'm sure he wants to excel and be a great, long term solution at the hot corner. Lets mold him into someone who can consistently make plays like the one in the highlight reel shown in the article. Not all stars start out that way, some are made.

Would love to see Dobnak in this role - no matter who it is, we can't have a pen full of 1 inning relievers again this year to prevent someone like Pagan being in a high leverage spot because everyone else is used up.

In order to trade him at the end of this season - I believe that means we would have to first pick up his option. If we wanted to ensure ourselves something for him, we would have to trade him by the deadline this year, or be open to keeping him on the team next year if we did pick up that option.

Sounds like it might be time to invest some higher draft capital in the backstop position - won't help now, but maybe a stud could be nearly ready by time Vasquez contract ends if we're super lucky. Still hope Jeffers turns it around, but can't bank on it.

Found it - Thanks so much, I"ll take this with me!

Looking forward to it! On that note - do you know a place (here or there or on-line) where we can get a list of who wears what numbers? I really miss not having names on back of practice jerseys when I'm on the quad set of fields.

Don't like the rule, but it doesn't hurt us more than any other team since we're all playing by the same rules - we just need to do a better job of scoring runs in these games as we'll certainly have a bunch of them again.

Let him try to continue to be a starter in St. Paul. He can always go to the pen, but he can't always go back to being a starter.

I think its pretty simple to me - whoever are the most healthy for us this year will be considered the 'primary' starters when the season is over. Baily will get his chance, if he does well and stays healthy - he will be one of them. If not, then he won't. Last year Bundy was a primary starter for us by logging the most innings - is that something any of us are proud of?

I can't see any way Polanco is still a Twin this time next year. He likely won't get that many at bats to vest his option. His $10M salary isn't worth it when we have so many younger, cheaper guys waiting in the wings. I would expect that IF he starts off well, and IF the prospects also do well in the minors, we could have a mid season trade of Polanco to someone who needs a 2nd or SS to bring one of the younger guys up and hopefully get a return for Polanco. If the younger guys are doing well - I would support this kind of move. Can't keep everyone and need a place for the younger guys to play.

Gee..... thats too bad that Stanton can't get on base and still owed that kind of money.... Shucks! 😄

Are they using robot umps this year to help with this type of face off?

yup

I wouldn't sweat the comment about trading for 2 more players who would reduce his role - that is exactly what they should have done! When you carry 13 pitchers you MUST have as many bench players who can play as many roles as possible! I think with our current expected bench we have backups who will all likely get 400 plate appearances without much drop off in the field. I like the direction they went - can't Farmer even play catcher if needed! Thats perfect.

I'll believe progress is being made when I see some. As far as we know this group may meet to say nothing needs to change despite evidence to the contrary in many fans view. I think something has to change - you cant have one team fielding a team with 5X the payroll of another - the long term potential of this league will suffer if that is considered acceptable. I hope they look to the NFL as a league with the parity they should strive for - I know there are a ton of differences, but hopefully they work towards that over time. Would love to see a season start and any team in the league actually has a shot to win it all.

Excited to see what Martin can do this spring. Reminds me of what happened with Buxton early in his career when they kept tinkering with his swing - last year it was all about getting more power out of Martin, which didn't happen. In that process however, I'm sure they were messing (and experimenting) with a variety of subtle changes to how he hit all trying to get more power. Hopefully this year - less tinkering, and maybe we'll get more consistent results that lead him to be a top prospect in the first place. Hard to judge someone while they are trying to learn something new.

I hope you're right - thats the only spot I see for Pagan on this team who wants to contend. He can be the pitcher when you wish you could send Austidillo in there again. Unfortunately, when you don't let starters go thru the line-up more than 3 times, and you have a pen full of 1-inning guys, there comes a time when a Pagan needs to be in high leverage situations - That is why I don't want him on this roster. I believe it is a mistake to bring him back.

IF AK can't go full speed, full time at 1st - could one of the other left handed outfielders waiting in the wings play the 3 spot? Larnach? Walner? Not saying its just a spot you can throw anybody into, but I might consider something like that if any experience there instead of blowing up the existing plan by putting Farmer at 3rd and Miranda at 1st. Just another option - or do we have any 1st at AAA ready to step in?

Thanks so much! I'll be heading down to my second spring training next month, but I'm afraid I missed so much my first time down because I didn't know where I should go! I look forward to it!

Can we get one of these for the spring training complex?

I really don't know if Polanco has the ability to have a good enough year to keep him around beyond 2023. This is not a knock on him, just a reflection of how much potential talent we have waiting to replace him in the near future that will be cheaper when we have needs other places (pitching?) that we might be able to trade him for.

Pretty sure the plan without injuries is to put Ober in St. Paul. They know its only a matter of time until we need him due to injuries. He has options so we should use them. They say the pen is not a priority, so I don't expect either of them to go there.

Yes, trading him was a mistake. He was a solid major league player and we got potentially nothing in return. Simple as that for me. Our team is better with him on it. Yet we kept Pagan - I actually might prefer Gio pitching over Pagan, let him give it a shot.

We have a below average pen. I would vote for any pitcher who may be there this year because they will certainly be given an opportunity to make an impact with as many innings as they likely will need to pitch.

I will hope both of them find success again. It won't be easy for either of them. Big bodies playing sports aren't really known for their longevity. Both fit into my 'what could have been' category.