Doomtints

The economy won't line up with their plan, if this is the plan.

For what it's worth, when I lived in Texas I thought this about nearly every Ranger move.

Yeah. That's not lackadaisical, but it's certainly not focusing on touching the base either. His strategy on the play seemed to be: let's just try to crash into Pierzynski's face. It's like he was trying to reenact the scene from A League of Their Own. I probably would not have run on such a shallowly hit ball, and if I had I would have attempted to slide and try to knock the ball out, but it is what it is. The White Sox were very good that year, btw. It was not a bad mark to lose to them.

Cuddyer's bad defense shifted the momentum in the 2002 ALCS. The Angels knew exactly where to hit the ball in that game. I don't think losing that game deflated the Twins so much as it empowered the Angels. The rest of the series wasn't close. Cuddyer did some great things in the final years of his Twins career. He is a guy the Twins should have kept around, but the modus operandi at that moment was to get rid of everybody, so....

It doesn't matter. I don't think Hicks would have turned the corner with the Twins coaches. Do you? Hicks was not good in NY right off the bat, someone worked with him to turn the corner. The Twins got Moya for Murphy, and Moya has at least been average, so it's not the end of the world. I'm still skeptical that Hicks's run will last. I expect he will be up and down like Carlos Gomez (who in all fairness has been mostly down in his career).

"I don't know how Terry Ryan got the impression he can't spend money. It's just not true. It's never been true." -- Pohlad at the firing news conference. Baseball is less fun when your favorite team's owner is dishonest.

They are "backsliding" but they have a long way to fall to be with the rest of the division. They'll have little trouble next year until the playoffs.

Pavano's 2010 was the least interesting 17-win season of all time. It was tthe relievers who got the Twins in the playoffs that year. The hitting and starters were all in fast decline. The relievers followed suit in 2011. It's surprising we didn't see this at the time as it's obvious when you look at the numbers now.

I will take the under until ownership does more than the barest minimum. If the clubhouse atmosphere still sucks, the team will still suck.

Ten years would line up with the time they will have no one under contract. Interesting. When was the last time a baseball team didn't have anyone under contract beyond the current year? This could be the first time in a hundred years. This team takes cheapness to an interesting level.

Twins season ticket packages are very inexpensive. I think the Twins could charge more for about half the seats in the stadium without affecting attendance that much. Target field tickets are close to what Metrodome tickets cost thirty years ago. Wages are 100% tax deductible, don't forget. I think it would be difficult to spend a franchise into bankruptcy in spite of this being a narrative that gets thrown around. Sure it's happened, but few of us would make the same mistakes if given the chance.

Yes, I am still bitter about Terry Ryan's second extended vacation tenure with the team. I realize my comment is out of place and will try to stay on topic.

It's OK if your #5 is an AAAA caliber player. It's not so good when that's the caliber of your entire starting staff and outfield defense, though Terry Ryan would seemingly disagree.

I think this is a given, unfortunately. There's no role for him on this team right now.

Buxton should be at the bottom of the order until he gets comfortable at the plate. Polanco should be the leadoff hitter. The middle of this lineup will be dangerous.

My first reaction to anything is to be skeptical. I want to know details. Some people view this as disparaging. It isn't. Do I think Falvey and Levine are doing good jobs? I think they are trying. I think they are working harder than the last guy did. As for Smith, I think he did mostly a good job. True leadership is how one reacts when things go bad, not when things are going well. The Twins never gave Smith the chance and Ryan's reaction was to roll the team back to 1996 and then disappear for 50 weeks out of the year. Smith certainly cared about the team more than that! People were generally very happy when Smith was canned. History should caution us to be careful what we wish for on that one. As for the idea of being too critical of leadership and ignoring the work put in by those under their supervision -- that's life, man. The guys at the top get paid a lot, they're the faces of the organization, and ultimately the buck stops with them. They are responsible. If someone beneath them screwed up, it's on the person at the top to address it. And, yes, the person at the top gets all the credit when things are going well. Until the people at the top of the Twins organization fix the very obvious communication with players problem it won't matter who they sign, the team will flounder in mediocrity. They keep trying to sign a new Torii Hunter every year instead of doing this organically by themselves.

Hey now, let's not split hairs.

Schoop = Vargas. Except Vargas might be better if given a real chance. The Twins are really weird sometimes.

The AL has this great thing called the DH. Some baseball writers, pundits, and other fun people don't seem to understand what this is all about even after all this time and say things like, "Gosh, signing a guy who can't play the field is a bad plan." The converse is true. Using the DH to give your mediocre batters a breather is the bad plan. Get the best boomstick you can find and have him be your full time DH. That's what it's for. And don't stick him in the field. Keep him healthy. The DH position is for hitting. If he twists his ankle going for a routine pop fly that any other yob could be out there fielding for you, you just broke the DH position.

Surprisingly, Duffey's fastball velocity has increased every year. He might have a breakout year in 2019 or 2020.

Mejia is MUCH further along than Romero. He should be the first #5. The fifth spot tends to change over the course of a season anyway as the pitcher either gets better or goes away. As far as Romero goes, pitchers who can throw 96-97+ are great to have in the pen and practically wasted as starters, where they have to pace themselves and can only toss that hard sporadically. If Romero can be this generation's JC Romero or Juan Rincon, the Twins will win a lot of games. If the Twins want to stay cheap, high performing 8th and 9th inning pitchers are essential. These are the innings where heat is most devastating.

Doesn't seem likely for a non-knuckleballer whose fastball sits around 90-91 MPH.

Someone will pick him up. He logged 14.5 innings a year which is hardly enough to close the book on him.

We all saw the looks on many players' faces last year -- the Twins clubhouse was a depressing place to be. Ervin had the same look. Some of you seem worried he would come back to play for the Twins. I would say don't worry. I'm guessing he's running away as fast as he can.

If I recall correctly, they dropped Sanchez when they picked up either Odorizzi or Lynn.