S.

It must be nice being a fan of a team that has more than 1 pitcher on the entire staff who is above average.

I think this is just the new Twins way of referring to dumpster dive signings. But don't worry, guys, we only sign the finest garbage from the heap!

Oops, missed this post

Don't forget about Shohei Otani, who may be coming to the MLB in 2018. Granted, I don't really expect us to be in play on him, but if we're going to discuss the possibility of really opening up that checkbook, he's definitely worth including in the conversation.

These days, I'll take any slight "victory" I can get in regards to the Twins.

Well, to be fair, I think Sam Deduno might be an upgrade over some of our current pitching staff.

I uhhh...think you must be thinking of another player than Deduno. Unless you're excited to predict that Rosario will be a flop moving forward and have no significant success in the majors again. Or unless you just mean in regards to the WBC. But lets all hope that Rosario's future in the MLB does not mirror Deduno in any way.

Yeah, I agree, though I really would like to see some velocity, even if he is getting mashed around. Thats definitely my biggest concern with Hughes is that he's going to be getting a bunch of starts tossing 90mph BP.

5IP, 6 hits, 4 ER, 1 BB, 4 SO, 3 HR I wasn't paying a ton of attention, but I don't recall seeing any pitches above 91mph, and unless I'm mistaken, the Hammond field gun has been high by a MPH or two the last few years. So, he looked about how everyone besides the FO expected, I'd say. And Baltimore didn't exactly have their A squad out there by any means.

The "bro crush" is because we have people like Hughes/Santiago/Gibson who are likely to be 3/5 of our starting rotation and its certainly not unreasonable to assume he could've had a more positive impact on this Twins team than any of them. Or any of the number of AAAA players I'm sure we're going to have to watch get starts this season.

The problem with this is how many times have we had these, "well, if he's not doing well, they aren't going to keep playing him, right? RIGHT?" moments. But then they do keep playing them. IE: Danny Santana, Robbie Grossman, 90% of our pitchers over the last 5 years, etc.

If Hughes is in the rotation to start the season and his fastball velocity isn't AVERAGING 92-93, Molitor should be fired on the spot. Giving Hughes a guaranteed rotation spot is some grade A bull****.

Fixed.

Berrios needs to be in the majors. May needs to be in the rotation. Counting on Hughes to be a starting pitcher (or an MLB pitcher at all) is idiotic and irresponsible. A starting rotation where your "top 3" includes pitchers like Santiago/injured Hughes is why we have sucked for so long. This offseason just seems like Terry Ryan version 2.0. If we're just going to keep trotting out mediocre veterans and not going to let our young(er) pitchers get their lumps now, in what is almost assuredly another losing season, how exactly are we planning to improve this embarrassment of a pitching staff? We sure as hell didn't do anything to help it in FA or trades. And if they let Molitor continue to manage as poorly as he did last year, he's going to continue to nuke the confidence of our young pitchers too. If they spend this season jerking around Berrios and sending him back and forth to AAA every time he has a bad start and gets pulled after 3 innings, I'm going to blow a gasket. If our best coaches are with the Twins (which they should be), and our best pitching prospect has already dominated AAA, shouldn't we have him up here learning from the best and facing the best opponents? Let him get mashed a bit if you have to, he's going to have to learn to pitch in the majors eventually, and a bad season is the best time to do so. Show some confidence in him and between innings tell him to get back out there next inning and pitch his ass off and show off the dominance he displayed at other levels. Don't pull him after 3 innings and send him back to AAA the next day just so you can have some garbage, no-future pitcher waste a bunch of innings for a few weeks or months instead.

Agreed. I'll take "never pitches again" over "never pitches well again" any day.

When i think of mashing at the plate and fun to watch, Billy Butler and Ryan Howard don't exactly come to mind. Not in 2017 at least.

Perhaps they were making the assumption we would improve our atrocious starting rotation. Unfortunately, that was a poor assumption.

Hell, I'd buy everyone on this board a beer if Mauer hits 30 bombs. Just not from Target Field, cuz I'm not that rich.

The only way they deserve the praise is if they use those cash considerations to lower the beer price at Target Field.

Thats part of the Twins' new marketing slogan for 2017, and the main factor in why they didn't trade Dozier. "Not a good look, guys, but we got some good looking guys. Come on down to Target Field!"

Honest question: why do so many people seem to think Hughes is going to be able to pitch successfully in the majors at all, let alone be a starter? It's going to take a miracle and a 3mph uptick on his fastball from last year for him to ever be an effective major leaguer again. Counting on guys like that for a rotation spot is why our pitching has sucked for so long.

We have too many DH/1B players already. This would be a stupid move. I wish Morneau all the best, but not as a player for the Twins.

If Phil Hughes pitches more than 50 innings this year with an ERA under 5, I will eat my own hat. I'd say there is a much better chance he never starts another game again in his career, orif he does, he's going to be throwing 88 and getting mashed. Counting on Hughes to produce at all is foolish. Sure, you let him try out in spring training, and we all hope his velocity is back and he's feeling good, but if the Twins are going into the season planning for him to be a part of this years rotation, thats a huge mistake.

If we're making this prediction as of today, this is effectively the same team and same pitching staff as last season. Until/unless they make some moves, this is absolutely not an 80 win pitching staff, barring some serious break out seasons by Berrios and multiple other rookie pitchers. I mean, as it stands, our "ace" is Santana and our "2" is...Kyle Gibson? Don't get me wrong, I'd love to be a .500 team this season but I'm sure as hell not going to set my expectations that high for the same players and manager that brought us the nightmare that was the 2016 season.