Johnny Ringo

As you look to 2022, Ober is no doubt a bright spot. Dobnak will be around next year only because of his inexplicable contract. Jax is a great story, I am sure he is a very nice kid and he has no place on a major league mound. Pineda will not or should be resigned. Maeda may have thrown his last pitch as a Twin. So contend in 2022? I wonder how Vegas will make the Ober/Uber line on that?

Is anyone in the Twins organization embarrassed to be viewed by the league as a clown show? The TV broadcast team chuckled their way through Astudilo's inning. Funny? I think it's a disgrace. The Red Sox are in a play-off chase. I am not a fan of theirs but I admire their franchise success. It is incumbent upon the Twins under every baseball code to fight to the final pitch. Instead we go for laughs apparently. Right now, I regret all the equity, both monetarily and emotionally, that I have invested in this club. The Twins owe the game, and equally importantly their fans, much better than this. I did not sign up for the Washington Generals. Pass the confetti bucket.

I went to the doctor with a similar injury and he said that I needed surgery. I told him I wanted a second opinion. He said "Ok, you're ugly too."

I think we have discovered Gleeman's karaoke name.

If anyone watched the Field of Dreams game last night, we are now starting to see the White Sox fully assembled with Jimenez and Robert returning to the lineup. They are a machine from top to bottom. This is what a team looks like in 2021. Doesn't it end all discussion if the Twins' FO has done a "good" job? The White Sox must look in our dugout and just shake their heads.

The Twins "success" over the past few years has been built upon the ruins of the worst division in baseball. The Tigers and Royals were in full rebuild modes, the White Sox were emerging from their own reboot and Cleveland has been hampered by ongoing and oppressive budgetary issues. When the Twins had to play with the big boys (the playoffs); they were exposed, being dispatched swiftly and with extreme prejudice. I am not sure what success we are talking about. Falvey and Levine haven't done admirable jobs nor probably fireable jobs. But now the Twins are in purgatory. The FO won't admit, to use a real estate term, the house is a "scraper" A property that should be leveled and rebuilt. They have no chance to compete next year but to say that would be the worst defeat of all. So they will try to patch the roof one more time and hope it doesn't rain next year. In Twins territory, it has rained for thirty years.

I say this without a trace of sarcasm, but this is the magic of baseball. People can find beauty and meaning in meaningless games. A season marred by bad play, bad luck, bad choices and bad management fades away. We embrace and cherish these grand moments.

"There is no winning! Only degrees of losing." Danny De Vito ~ The War of the Roses For the Twins, there was no winning at the trade deadline. Selling places you at the $5 table with the forsaken and the lost. The Twins don't have a team to compete in 2022 and you have to question if they have an ownership group that will allow them to compete ever. High quality starting pitchers cost at least $25 million a year and you need three of them at a minimum. Do the Twins want a seat at that table? History, recent and distant, says no. Berrios is just Johann Santana 2.0. Twins fans have been duped by a few meaningless divisional titles. Winning the worst division in baseball means nothing. Do you think otherwise? The playoff record dashes any dissenting view. Even that empty prize seems completely unachievable now. Stack our roster versus the White Sox'. Tears shall flow into your beer. The Twins will soon celebrate the thirtieth anniversaries of their last World Series victory and their last playoff relevance simultaneously. They will do so without irony. For the Twins, it's always about "Wait til next year." That sign should permanently hang, year after year, over Target Field.

If fairness to Jose, players are under tremendous pressure from their own union to maximize their contracts. A single negotiation can set a bar for what others get. Ballplayers develop a brotherhood and they think, rightfully, what they do directly impacts others. Sure they want the money. We all would. But there are other considerations too. Also, I find the "home-town discount" concept to be laughable. It's the Loch Ness monster of pro sports: often discussed and never seen. Jose has been the consummate pro. He works hard, takes the ball every fifth day and gives you what he has. However it turns out; wish him well. That's the one thing here that costs nuthin'.

I think everyone on the planet knows that Donaldson is available at a price and that he wants to play elsewhere. The Twins will likely hear an offer for $15-20 million in salary relief (the Twins eat the rest) and a middling prospect just to help them save face. I doubt it gets better than that. Forget your committed dollars to him. That is gone one way or the other. It really boils down to do you want him for $20 million? The answer is of course you do. People oddly hate on him but he is EXACTLY what the Twins thought he would be in 2021. Unless he hand picked the bullpen, the blame is elsewhere.

What Passan is referring to is that the most coveted trade piece in baseball right now is Jose Berrios. The second most sought-after is Kyle Gibson. (I'm sensing a pattern here.) If Jose is dealt that sets a fresh benchmark for trade value in our fan ambivalent, dollar challenged post-COVID market. Twins fans should realize that this year is a bad time to sell. There are contending clubs who are economically unable to spend money. This dampens any potential trade frenzy over a guy like Nellie Cruz. It also doesn't help that the Yankees will probably just be spectators at the deadline. If the Twins don't trade much, these will be the reasons.

Kaat was and is the best color commentator going. It continues to baffle me that he is not in the HOF as a player. Yes a modest WAR of 51, but 283 wins, 16 Gold Gloves, 25 years in the Show, an amazing ambassador for the game and a world class guy. His continued exclusion breaks my heart.

Folks, don't get too excited over moving Cruz, Simmons, Pineda and Robles. Remember all other 29 teams already had a shot at them. You will get VERY little in return. Any major leaguers offered in exchange will look like food at closing time at a mall buffet. Sano can't be traded because of his contract. Ditto on Donaldson. Kepler, Buck, and Berrios are what teams want, especially Jose but I suspect none will be traded. Berrios is a tough one for the FO. By all accounts, he has Cole and Bauer salary numbers on his mind. That sets up a game of chicken for the respective parties as the deadline looms.

The chances that we extend him are pretty close to zero. The Twins have very little to sell going into the deadline because of money (Donaldson, Sano) or ineffectiveness (practically everyone) so their tradable options are few. But Rogers will be a VERY hot commodity. The combination of what he would want (at least 3 years/$30 million, probably more) and the consideration the FO would get back makes this virtually a fait accompli. Its a pity, by all accounts he is a great guy and he is a complete bulldog on the hill. His mound presence is admirable. He works quickly, is calm and terrifically effective. But in a year like this and a team like this, guys like Rogers are often collateral damage. It makes me sad to say this but he will go. I hope he wins a ring somewhere.

This starts with a flawed premise. Berrios would blow his nose at a 5 year/$80 contract from the Twins. It seems odd even writing that but it's true. The Nola contract as discussed is true but contextually misleading . That covered 3 years of arbitration plus his first year of free agency. Berrios will not take a hometown discount. He will view Minnesota as most free agents do; you need to overpay me or I will go elsewhere. Ownership doesn't seem to understand the cost of 30 years of playoff irrelevancy. When you are rich regardless of the team; winning becomes a powerful currency. Berrios won't get Cole money but he will explore that possibility. He will dream. Berrios will gone after next year. Trade him now.

People, lets face it. The pitching staff Rocco has been handed will make anyone look "stupid". Give me the bullpen that Kansas City had in their World Series' years and you would think I am a genius; a pitching savant. I would agree that Rocco has not had a good season but he was smart last year and he will be again next year. I have always thought Tom Kelly was our best manager; hands down. I believe he was the MVP of the 1991 World Series. He was a chess master at the height of his game. But give TK this squad and maybe he wins 2 or 3 more games. You simply can't manage around a 5+ ERA.

If you trade Buxton and/or Berrios, you are entering 3-5 years of baseball nuclear winter for Minnesota. But it should be done, if the haul is big enough. Minnesota is a great place but it has major strikes (pun intended) against it in competing for free agents. Those negatives include; bad weather, high marginal state income taxes, and a long history of playoff exclusion or irrelevance. The only free agents that we get "lucky" with are veterans on the downside of their careers chasing the last dollar. Josh Donaldson raise your hand. You can not operate based upon what players want. Often, they don't even know what they want. The only way for Minnesota to compete is to develop and effectively use a strong farm system which includes restocking it through trading if the value is right (the Tampa Bay model). Everything else is folly.

People have compared this Twins season to the fatal trip of the Titanic. That is being way too kind to this season. One thing is for sure, if any Twins had been on the Titanic; Dick would have described it as the icebergs being out to get us. One of the few good things about this year has been the consistent and thoughtful content of the Gleeman & The Geek podcasts. Win (what?) or lose (yes please!!) they bring humor and honesty every time.

These are adult men, making millions. There is no need to throw them under the bus but enough with the endless, silly excuses from the broadcast teams and especially Rocco.. Of all the things that offend me about this season, that is probably #1. Enough.

The season is lost. Shoemaker has no future with the team. He should not be on the roster let alone the mound in a winnable game unless you argue that you just don't have another warm body. That is Rocco's only defense.

Kids, I hate to break it to you. Santa isn't coming this year. The Easter Bunny is on the IL. There will be no winning streak. There is nothing that suggests this team is capable of that. That is the fantasy of the Twins' broadcast teams. I have done some of my own modeling on their playoff probability. Yeah, I know; pray for me. I am not sure where 3% comes from but it must be generated by the Kool-Aid fountain. Its around 1% by my estimation. The Twins will be sellers soon. That is a given. But the season is not just bad luck, its another systemic failure. The team was poorly constructed, inexplicably managed and racked by palpable player apathy. This organization needs to sober up and look in the mirror. They are miles and miles away from relevancy.