jmlease1

Yeah, Koskie (much like Plouffe) had some adventures early on at 3B. At least a few times where I joked to a friend, "Is he using a glove or a frying pan out there?" But Koskie really worked at it and could have won a Gold Glove if not for Eric Chavez. I think Miranda has the drive to be great that will improve his defense.

I think the biggest factor that brought down Park as a major league player was age. he was 29 when he first came to MLB, not 24. he'd been a star in his home country, but the pitching in the Korean league isn't up to MLB standard and he struggled with the sharper and faster breaking stuff. I think it's a lot harder to adjust when you're older, and when you're also trying to adjust to a foreign country in a place where there's not a huge Korean immigrant population, it's probably even harder. It's also important to remember that Park struck out a lot in Korea as well, it's not just that his K rate in MLB was was high: he rang up a lot of them in Korea against worse pitching. Throw in some injuries and just ok performance in AAA and he didn't make it back. i thought it was a good move at the time and I was excited to see the Twins taking some risks in the international market, but it didn't work out. I'm guessing the Twins have a lot better feel for evaluating Korean baseball now?

i think this is right. If you get a rash of OF injuries all at once and you need someone to fill in as a emergency, having a guy who is still right in his prime and has spent some time in the majors already sitting in AAA on a minor-league deal isn't a bad thing at all. he's not going to slot in ahead of Larnach or Wallner but gives you another option to keep the floor a little higher if disaster strikes. Hope for the best, plan for the worst. Cave didn't show up until we got to disaster levels last season and while he didn't do great, he was professional and not horrible, so having a player for that type of role stashed in AAA seems good. Cave didn't take ABs away from Nick Gordon or Trevor Larnach last season like some people (including me) feared: he was the break glass in case of emergency OF...and we had to break the glass. Stevenson feels like a similar version.

I think there's a mischaracterization of why we gave Urshela 131 starts at 3B over locking Miranda in there. I'd say it's not because they didn't like Miranda at 3B, it's more because they didn't like Urshela anywhere but 3B. And they needed him in the lineup as one of the only healthy & consistent guys last year. but his lack of positional flexibility in the the Twins eyes (at least that's how it looks from my chair) is a big reason why they moved on from him and got Farmer, who can play a lot of different places. I was pro keeping Urshela, but I can understand how if he's shifting to a bench role and can only play 3B (or maybe 1B?) that he's much less attractive as a bench player. For all the preemptive moaning about how "bad" Miranda's defense is...it actually was pretty solid in his limited time at 3B last season. He struggled at 1B, a position he'd basically never played before and clearly was uncertain of his play out there, which definitely led to some poor play. But I think he's showed enough that he can be right around average at 3B, and playing there consistently (especially next to someone like Correa, who will help him on positioning) will likely help him out. The depth looks pretty good as well: Farmer or Solano shouldn't have any trouble backing up Miranda, though there would definitely be a drop-off offensively. Lee looks like the best fit to move in there from the system, so you hope there won't be a lengthy injury since Martin is out for a while (and his arm might not be the best fit there), Royce won't be back until midseason at least, and Julien has been pretty bad there when he's tried it and didn't play there at all last season. but there are a lot of options going forward for 3B. I think Miranda holds down 3B this year. It'll be fun watching Brooks Lee try to push him off it.

Good scouting can find players at D-II that can become quality prospects and team assets. Louie Varland seems to have worked out pretty well coming from D-II. They spotted a player they saw real upside in that they could sign below slot, freeing up money to sign another player above slot that might have stayed in school. Sounds like good business to me. Should be fun to see what kind of pro Ben Ross is going to be, and it'll be a nice feather for the scouting department if he grows into a serious prospect. A good athlete who has shown promise of a quality hit tool might be a guy you can turn into something. decent enough power numbers for the FSL in his first taste, so I'm interested in seeing what kind of player he is. wonder if he'll stick at SS?

Disagree, Nick: I don't think the 2B situation is very comparable to 1B. We have so many guys who can play 2B now and prospects who are close/ pushing as well that there's a reason we have people already getting ahead of our skis and talking about trading Polanco. (I do not favor dealing Polanco this season unless things completely implode by the trade deadline AND at least one of our prospects is begging for time) 1B we're sliding in guys because we think they can hit enough. 2B has real depth and strength. Polanco is the best 2B on our roster right now, but Farmer, Solano, Miranda, Gordon, Julien, Martin, Lewis, and Lee can all play there (admittedly, Martin & Lewis are not likely to be available any time soon). The MLB depth is strong, the system depth is strong and clear, and even if the Twins decide to move on from Polanco they're going to be in good shape at 2B. Jorge Polanco is still one of the best players on the Twins, so losing him for an extended period of time would hurt a lot. But that's what happens any time you lose one of your best players even when you have good depth. but this isn't a position where we'd be stretching someone to play there, quickly reaching down to AA to find a body, or asking someone to really learn the position on the fly. Hopefully the knee will not be a problem this season, but the Twins have a lot of strength at 2B built up and organizationally it's a strength.

It's not just the walks, though. His H/9 is a little too high for someone with that level of K ability as well. he doesn't need to get his BB/9 down to the 1-1.5 per 9 range, but he also can't be giving up 8+ hits per 9 either. The K/9 numbers are impressive, but he's got to get the other tools together. (WHIP does a lot of work to show a level of dominance from a pitcher, IMHO)

The K rate is really impressive, and if his velocity is really regularly sitting at mid-90's on the fastball, that's pretty nice for a lefty. The BB/9 is a bit concerning and he's going to need to bring that down to more like 2-3 and I'd like to see him be a little less hittable. He did a solid job of keeping the ball in the park and that's good, but I do like to look at the WHIP at this point to see where a pitcher is at, and even though he hunts up Ks brilliantly...a WHIP around 1.3-1.4 is not good enough. (for comparison, Joe Ryan never had a WHIP over 1.1 in the minors and had multiple seasons under 1.0) Talented guy, and he'll be interesting to follow this season, but he's got some work to do.

CES was the player I was most bummed about losing in that deal, but him smashing the ball in spring training doesn't mean he's the next David Ortiz in Twins lore. It's 18 PAs from a guy who has never played above AA in early March. And if Mahle has a good, healthy season then it's probably all fine. I don't really understand all the sturm and drang over this: we knew we gave up some good prospects to get Mahle at the time. Steer hit his way into a bad Cincy team and promptly discovered that MLB pitching is a lot harder than AA or AAA dudes. Maybe he'll adjust...or maybe he's a utility guy who can't play SS but hits more like one. Hajjar still hasn't thrown a pitch above A-ball. CES is a terrific hitter who stinks at 3B, is probably passable at 1B, and no one knows for sure if he can actually hit enough to make it. Look, I really liked him and was bummed to lose him, but you have to give up talent to get talent...and so far he's still unproven. You know who else is having a fantastic spring so far? Brent Rooker. Does anyone here think Brent Rooker is a future all-star? Right now this is reminding me a little of when we lost Akil Baddoo in the Rule V and suddenly a bunch of people "knew" that we had made a colossal mistake and everyone should be fired. Where would Baddoo sit with the Twins roster today? Fighting with Celestino for a place on the 40-man, and very possibly losing. Maybe this 20-20 hindsight is just an opportunity for those who already want this front office gone to take a shot and see who they can get to go along for the ride.

I've been lucky: never had a game ruined for me by another fan...but it was close when I had Loud Yelly Guy Who Curses a Lot and Says Dumb Things behind me last season. that guy sucked, but my friend and I quietly made fun of him, he left early, and the game itself was great. I do hate the Yankees. Their fanbase is super entitled and they look down on other franchises, especially those in the midwest. they think they are entitled to your team's best player if they want them (they're a lot like Manchester City fans that way) and act like they're doing you a favor taking them for a pile of scraps. And once they get down on a player, they'll bury him, often in ****** ways. F those guys.

I'm guessing they see defensive value in Wallner's arm in the OF and are hoping that work on his fielding in the OF now will make him a more effective defender out there.

The good thing is there are options that are available either as short-term or longer if needed right now. ideally, we'd have Kirilloff installed from Day One, healthy and productive, smashing line drives all over the park and playing a quality 1B. But it might not get there on the perfect schedule. So far, I don't think the news on Kirilloff is bad: no, he's not playing in games yet, but he also hasn't been shut down to rest it up either. So the recovery seems to be going ok? It's a process. I get how after the last two injury-filled seasons for the Twins everyone is hyper-sensitive to every droplet of news about an injury or rehab note, and with injuries that were supposed to have taken only a few weeks to rehab turning into months-long epics that sometimes led to surgeries. but right now, even if Kirilloff isn't quite ready for Opening Day, he seems to be on the path to go in April, not May or June. Gallo as a backup seems ok if not ideal (losing his defensive value in the OF seems wasteful). i don't think they want to run Miranda out there unless they have to: they clearly want him at 3B and it feels like they believe (and I don't disagree) that it will be better for his development if he slots in at one position rather than flip back and forth. If his arm isn't quite ready, I think it's more likely we see him at DH than slotting in at 1B. Solano seems to be the first choice to roll in there in the short term, and I think that's ok. But he's probably not the best long term fit. The pipeline for 1B prospects doesn't have a lot of guys lined up there, but the Twins philosophy does seems to avoid drafting players that slot in at 1B early in their career. They'd rather draft a hitter at another spot and slide him down as they develop than limit themselves from a prospect lane, and i think that's the right choice. Julien looks like he might end up at 1B and be fine there, and there are options in the lower minors from some of the OF that could end up at 1B too. It's also a position where there's almost always a CJ Cron type available in the free agent market if you're willing to commit $8-10M+ to the spot, so it's not that hard to fill the gap if you have the payroll to do it. (I'm sure the twins would love Sabato to break out and push his way up, but that's sadly looking unlikely.) Someone like Emmanuel Rodriguez may end up being a better fit for corner OF/1B by the time he (hopefully) hits his way up to MLB too. So I'm not too worried about the pipeline right now.

Yeah, that was my point: catchers aren't going to play in 130-140 games a season and you can't treat the position like you're going to have one primary guy and a backup that won't play enough to hurt you if they slug their own weight. they might be able to patch this through free agency after Vazquez moves on, or Jeffers flames out, but it'd be nice to have some organizational prospects moving along in the system. (I'm definitely not on the "trade Polanco" this season train, though; while it might max his value, I think this team is good enough to compete right now and Polanco is going to be a big part of it. Dealing him for depth is assuming a lot of risk that someone like Lee or Julien is ready to step in when neither has played a game in AAA)

Detroit needs some of the exact same work that the Twins did with we made a regime change. they need better drafting, more prospects, and a serious reinvigoration of their talent pipeline. (they also need to get their investment in the international markets improved, which was much less of an issue for the Twins) Torkelson & Greene were almost certainly rushed to the bigs for...reasons? not sure they made a smart decision there, but maybe they ran out of bodies. but the offense was rotten for Detroit last season and there's not a lot of guys that you think are positioned to make significant leaps. they need Torkelson, Greene, and Carpenter to all take a real step forward with Haase not taking a step back, and Schoop & Baez rebounding to have a quality offense. While I think Schoop will likely be better how much is a really the question, Baez is likely to have a modest gain at best. Meadows? He's had one great season in his career. Maybe he's back to his 2021 form. Baddoo had a nice Rule 5 rookie campaign, and then got exposed. not impressed or excited about their pitching staff either. I like Skubal and not much else. they needed to sell off last season and restart, but they didn't have much to sell that wouldn't have been selling low. This feels like a bad team without much hope. I'd feel better as a Royals fan than a Tigers fan right now.

even if Jeffers improves (and I think he will, in fact) the Twins still need to be thinking and planning for the future. It'd be great if your #1 catcher could play 130-140 games a season every year and you could slot in a specialist as the backup, but that's a best case scenario that's unlikely to be true. Vazquez is signed for 3 seasons and at the end of it I'm not expecting him to be a quality option at 35 and 11 years deep into his career. Catcher is easily the biggest organizational depth weakness right now, unless a couple of the young guys down in A-ball make a sudden jump. everywhere else we have guys, or guys that can slide down the defensive scale into those spots. But at least at the MLB level I think we're about as well-positioned as we reasonably could be.