Doomtints

Yes. Regardless of the readiness of Garver and Murphy, bringing in a veteran would be money well spent. Young Mauer had the benefit of several veteran catchers to back him up and provide guidance, and that seemed to work out OK. No? And if Murphy isn't ready (likely) and Garver isn't ready (the Twins might not be ready to promote him just yet, regardless of whether or not he can do it), the Twins would have something other than an open tire fire behind the plate.

Nice looking ring.

They want him to succeed, not fail. The goal isn't to get rid of him, even if that's a likely result.

Whaaaat?? So spending countless draft picks on relief pitchers hasn't worked out? I am shocked!

It wasn't "lipservice" -- Molitor is the manager and they need to have a positive relationship with him. They're building that. He is still likely gone in one year barring a legendary turn of events. They are giving Molitor a chance to prove himself, good for them.

I don't understand your logic. The time for the Twins to trade him would have been when there was an expectation of some potential, not after he becomes great. If he ever became a great player the Twins would have been stupid to trade him. With his flashes of power and respectable OPS, the Twins could have always found a trading partner for him had they bothered to try. The "potential" was there year after year but Ryan never made the move. Now that he's 30 and his durability is a concern it's probably a safe bet he remains a Twin until his contract expires, especially with his severe regression on defense.

Except May is a bullpen arm, Duffey should be a bullpen arm, Berrios is still at least half a year from being productively ready, Gibson and Hughes are coming off major injuries, and Santana might be traded. This leaves Santiago, someone who we are all still skeptical about. This isn't a pitching staff, it's a laundry list of problems that need to be solved. The most any reasonable person would hope for is that half of them work out (after subtracting the two likely bullpen arms from your list). That leaves two serviceable starting pitchers to carry a team to a .500 record with a bullpen behind them that suffers from the same problems. Still seem likely?

Jorge is 22 years old and had his first taste of professional ball (A+ or higher) last year. Why toss him aside so quickly? He looks like decent reliever material to me. I would bet money he makes the majors. This report pegs him as a #4 guy, which might be optimistic considering he has two good pitches. If one of his other pitches improves, why not be a starter? Nevertheless, Jorge's floor is a reliever and he could probably do that right now in the majors. http://www.baseballprospectus.com/prospects/eyewitness_pit.php?reportid=408

Yeah. The pitching staff needs a hell of a lot of work. 81-81 is definitely not possible with what they have now. If no moves are made they could actually trend worse next year. It will be a lot easier to make predictions like this in February than it is today.

The rest of the Twins not being ready for the blooming phase of their foundation is a sign of a "total system failure" as someone has said so succinctly in the past. So do you squander these guys being about to turn the corner, or do you start over again and wait for the next batch to be ready in another 5 years? The Twins should be prepared to have a complete turnover of the pitching staff in two years. Half of the pitching staff goes now. The half that stays gets a year to prove themselves. Contend by 2019, 2018 with some luck. No aces available? So what. There never are. Shoot for the median rather than staying with the worst staff in the league, just keep the contracts short. These hitters can do some damage provided they're not faced with being behind every single day. Once a medium-level pitching staff is in place, shooting for the ace is that much easier (and would actually make a difference. One ace on a pitching staff of nincompoops won't solve a single problem).

I like your plan. The bullpen still does not look good enough (and heck those starters might not pan out either), but nevertheless this is one of the better plans I have seen and should result in a team that is not an embarrassment. Make it happen!

He'll have an injury by the end of the first month and you'll lose his bat for half the year unless he slides back in at DH and hasn't blown out his arm again. If Sano ever plays a full year at 3B (140+ games) I'll give you fifty bucks.

No debate there, obviously. But the point is, the foundation is going on its 5th year now. It's time to build on top of the foundation.

Assuming the foundation is Buxton and Sano, the Twins had their foundation of the future in place by 2012. No? It's time to get some pitchers, fill in some holes, and roll.

Scrap: The thing is, Ryan never really left. He participated in meetings and hung around after he "resigned." Basically he did the things someone leaving a position is not supposed to do. It was like Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien all over again. After he got his fancy title back, the decisions that look like Ryan's decisions were pretty much all bad moves. The lone success was bringing back Hunter, which only worked out by the grace of luck. I'm not sure how dedicated he was after his return, or if he was just exercising final decision/veto power after the first round of (terrible) moves he made upon his return. It also feels like he checked out completely about halfway through last season. He tried to address C in the offseason, but his move was yet another bust (or at least it has been a bust so far).

"There already has been discussion about where to put the extra cubicles." I don't know, man. This still smells like they are thinking small. Where to have the people sit isn't something Pohlad should be thinking about at all. Maybe Pohlad feels like a kid in a candy store but, come on, start thinking about the people and roles and not about the cubicles. Some things matter, some things don't. Let the underlings think about the darned office floor.

Hopefully that will be the last hurrah of the "wtf were they thinking?" actions we see from Twins management for a long time.

Journalists were painting that series as fate that the Yankees would win it. But for all but one of the Yankees losses in that series, the games were not close. And for two of the Yankees wins, they needed extra innings to get them.

Most of the 2016 series games were long, boring affairs where the games were decided early on. I switched off game 7 when the Cubs went comfortably ahead. I was woken up by fireworks so I knew they'd won ... by looking at the clock I knew it got exciting at the end. But really ... this series was painfully dull to watch. Not as bad as the "Subway series" was, but for a series that went to 7 games there sure was a lot of nothing going on.

The ratings of the series say otherwise.

The Twins had a guy who really only fits at DH (Sano), had another guy who there is only room for at DH (Vargas), but then went and signed a full time DH (Park). And yet some of us here feel that the Twins use the DH position to provide semi-days-off for hitters. Very confusing, no?

Only with such a team of capable hitters do you play Chapman in so many consecutive games. Chapman has the 15 fastest pitches ever thrown already in his young career, and he threw most of the fastest pitches of the year ... something ridiculous like top 30 or top 40 fastest pitches. That's not a guy you keep in very long. He's a free agent now and probably going back to the Yankees, so maybe Maddon isn't worried about his future....

The Twins could have had Fowler twice in recent years. It was no secret that the Rockies were shopping him around. To me, Fowler was clearly underrated, young, cheap, and the Twins were starving for outfielders. For a team like the Twins to pass up on Fowler twice made no sense. If they didn't want to trade for him, fine, but he was a free agent later on. Likely the Cubs will pick up his option and he'll stay in Chicago, unless he decides to go for the big payday that he deserves. We'll see.

You MIGHT do that. The Yankees moved A-Rod to 3rd from the middle infield when they signed him, but only because they had someone elite in the middle already. But we're not talking about A-Rod or Jeter here. Dozier isn't in those categories either as a hitter or as a defender. Though do you give up on Dozier in the middle infield now? If you have someone in the middle signed for a very long time and he is tops hat his position, yeah maybe you do that. I might add that Dozier to me looks like he'd be very good at 1B. I'm just not sure it's a move a GM would make seeing that middle infielders are traditionally defensive specialists. (Though right now is an exception). If you have a guy who can play there and hit for power, I'd lean toward keeping him there. Now, moving Dozier to 3B for a guy like Polanco to play in the middle, that could make sense as it's making room for a younger guy.

Some of the names on that list are OK. But the ages associated with those names ... ugh. FA isn't the only way to get veterans, though ... trades are possible.