twinsin17

I’d like to know goals for each player this coming year and what they did in the offseason to improve their games. Nice job lining these guys up Seth!

Luis Arraez killed A level pitching in the Midwest League in 2016 and continued the slaughter during winter ball in Venezuala before tearing his ACL at the start of last year. Hope he bounces back and murders Florida State League pitching in 2018!

Interesting article, thank you for the post. Quantifying ground ball rates kind of blows my mind. Do double plays count as two ground outs? Are line drives counted in air outs? Does GB% include all batted balls (hits and outs)? I wonder what the league average for these metrics is for comparison sake.

I'd swap Vargas or Burdi for Thorpe. Pretty impressive top 10!

Yes, there were some negatives about the game. Mainly pitching and a misplaced infielder doing what he is asked to help the team. But as rough a game as Nolasco had pitching, Masterson was worse. Give our bats some due credit! Colabello, Plouffe, Kubel and both catchers are smacking the ball and Mauer is coming around. So far we are hitting much better than I anticipated coming out of spring training.

Well done, Thrylos. You make a good case for this being a smart contract for the Twins. It doesn't feel right saying it (at least not this close to our disastrous 2013 year) but these free agent signings have me feeling cautiously optimistic for 2014. If - BIG if - everything falls in to place we should have our best SP depth since the 2004 season. That won't make up for an anemic offense but it is realistic to expect an improvement of 5-10 wins next year.

If the Cubbies trade Samardzija it would surely require top end pitching prospects in return, effectively ruling the Twins out of the mix. Their issues are similar to our own. I do like the idea of TR doing some wheeling and dealing this winter, though. Personally I feel our best bet to add pitching is signing unremarkable veteran free agent inning eaters to hold us over while drafting high end pitching prospects and developing our solid core of pitchers currently in rookie/low A ball. When TR said "there are no shortcuts" I think this is what he meant.

Good article. Dozier's D at 2nd (ex: his diving catch in short right tonight) and improved bat with surprise pop has been one of a few bright spots on the team this year. If his recent hitting translates long term I have no issue with Dozier as our future 2nd baseman given the gold glove caliber D he has shown. At any rate his performance creates a good problem for the Twins considering our uncertainty at other positions. Dare we say gone are the days of a psuedo prospect (Rivas, Tolbert, Hughes, Nishi, Casilla) or veteran fill in (Boone, Castillo, Hudson)?