Thrylos

He should not be in the top 10 (or even 20) unless he can hit his weight in Rookie league, first round pick or not. I hope that he has a hard time adjusting to the wooden bat and not to professional pitches... Even BJ Garbe (another former High Schooler first rounder) hit .316/.391/.415 in his first pro-season and in advanced Rookie (Etown). Unless I see more, Garbe is his ceiling...

Let's see: Chacin: 32 y.o, career 4.03 ERA, 4.22 FIP, 1.331 WHIP, 7.3 K/9; minor league contract with up to $3M in incentives Kyle Gibson: 32 y.o, career 4.52 ERA, 4.29 FIP, 1.411 WHIP, 7.0 K/9; 3 years $27M + $4.5M in incentives And Chacin played his first 6 seasons in Colorado. Methinks that the Twins did better...

That's what happens when scout types make up their minds based on what they see without looking at subjective measures. 2019 Twins' ranking in hitting categories: 2nd in wOBA, 3rd in wRC+, 2nd in BA, tie 5th in OBP, 2nd in SLG%, tie 4th in K%, 20th in BB%, 1st in IsoP, 3rd in % Hard hit balls, 21st in out of zone swinging %, 10th in Contact %. 30th in fangraphs spd. Plus the addition of Donaldson, and a full season of Arraez and hopefully Buxton should help a bit. Not sure what that "balance" thing is. As far as speed goes, the ranking is fair, if not generous. Patience are overrated at 9th, since they were 20th in BB% and 21st in OOZSW%. Contact they should be 10th, power should have been 1st or 2nd. I guess that they ignore defense in the lineup for some reason. The other thing is that not all of those things should weigh equally. The bottom line is that the better the lineup, the more runs it will score, and the Twins were second in runs scored and third in wRC+ in the majors, so their lineup should be ranked about second or third in the majors...

Pretty sure that they will try to see if he can start again. Has been mostly a starter. 3 seasons away from TJ, will be interesting to see what happens. Also played shortstop in High School so he is not a bad athlete. Got to like that they got him for Harper.

I agree with most of this, but a team with championship aspirations would have its eyes set higher than hoping that a guy who has last pitched (mostly) a full season in 2017, has a career 4.21 FIP (That's Kyle Gibson territory) and never pitched 170 innings in a season (Dobnak pitched 163-1/3 last season), will be what will make them reach their aspirations when their best pitcher is a three at best in any other contender's rotation. That's the reason that Walker really does not make sense for the Twins.

Berrios, Dobnak, and Odorizzi were 0-3 in the last postseason against the Yankees. They still need one or two better pitchers than Berrios/Odorizzi to be relevant next postseason. Can Graterol be one of them? Maybe, unless they keep him in the pen. Regardless, they will need to make a trade at the deadline to acquire an ace. They are fine in the division, but that's not the goal here...

Time for Bremer to go away too... Morneau is great. Maybe they can move Cory Provus from the radio booth over.

WAR for relievers is not a good metric. Just not enough innings to be significant. WPA is a much better indicator of reliever effectiveness, and his was -1.30, which was the worst in the pen in 2019.

I agree that it is Eddie's number to keep, but he has been in the organization since 2010. Not 2015. That's almost 10 years, plus it would send the wrong message...

+1 or presser I thought that there was a Political Correct issue or something

Depends at the level. At the lower levels the biggest depth is at shortstop because teams draft a lot of shortstops who may move to other positions and have reasonable defense at the new positions (Plouffe and Cuddyer are a couple names here.) At the higher levels, due to that move, plus the attrition of light hitters, and of catchers moving to corners, corner positions are more frequent.

What "we have", resulted (again) in belly up in the postseason. Cannot do the same thing and expect different results... To be relevant in the postseason the Twins need a number 1 and even maybe a number 2.

More likely, if Lewis's bat arrives at MLB-levels, he replaces Buxton at CF when he becomes a free agent or gets traded. Kirilloff is way redundant in this organization and the best path forward is to be included in a trade for a front line pitcher some time before the deadline this season. Left hand throwing first basemen/outfielders with a 780 OPS in AA are not needed in this organization. Kepler is the one who blocks him as such, and he can actually play CF okay, unlike Kirilloff

Tangential, but I would have loved it, if the STaints got the same treatment back then when they stole a Superbowl from the Vikings.

And not to mention that he led the Twins' position players in WAR last season...

The facts indicate the the Twins' pitching is much more likely to give up runs at critical junctures of the game than the middle infield, so the pitching is a bigger problem, which is the opposite of the title of this article. Makes no sense to save pennies, if you are losing dollars.

So Berrios, Dobnak, and Odorizzi went belly up last postseason. Are you sure that Hill, and Pineda would have won the games that Dobnak and Odorizzi lost? I am not. Actually I am not sure that Hill will even be healthy enough to be in the Twins' postseason roster.

Math: The infield defense was -14 runs from the average MLB team in 2019. The Twins rotation gave up 455 runs and the pitching overall 754 runs. Astros were at 640 btw. 14 runs is exactly 1.85% of the total runs the Twins gave up. Not that big of a deal.

Why not do both, but with prospects, instead of getting rid of the guy who let them in WAR in 2019, and can be a positive contributor for 2020. Why open a hole to close another? The other thing I would do, is looking for 2021 and try to convert Hader back to a starter after this season, as he was in the minors,

The Twins went belly up every single game against the Yankees with the same starters they have (unless someone believes that anyone of the other existing starters would have won the game that Dobnak lost.) Going at it the same way and expecting different results, is the definition of insanity, so unless someone is okay with mediocrity and one and outs, yes the Twins need a starter on the top of their rotation. They are fine within the division and they might be okay if they have to add that starter at the deadline, just for the post season, but they do have to do it.

Here are some 2019 numbers: DRS Sano -5 Bryant -7 +/- Sano -5 Bryant -5 RZR Sano .717 Bryant .686 UZR Sano -6.7 Bryant -1.4 I don't see how it makes sense to get Bryant to "improve" the defense. Other than UZR he is close or worse than Sano with the glove.

The issue with that statement is the assumption that by moving a guy who is -5 DRS at third base (which is better than Devers, Moncada, Bryant, and Turner, btw) to a position where is not used to playing and will touch the ball 3-4 times more frequently, will improve the defense... We saw how well defense improved when he was moved to right field

The third baseman whom they signed to an extension seems to be missing for some reason.... Oh well...

It is the principle...

Unless he blows his elbow or shoulder before that....