Doomtints

Making the postseason and being offensive are not the same thing. Plenty of CEOs have scorched earth policies and the companies are profitable. However, the Twins are in this for the long term. Reputation matters. The Twins won't have the luxury of taking the money and running when things start to catch up with them.

I disagree. They can see he is still a free agent after the preseason is in full swing. They tried to sucker him, hoping he is feeling desperate.

Last summer, Kraft/Heinz made an offer to buy Unilever. The offer was so pathetically low that not only did Unilever reject the offer, they told Kraft to never call them ever again. No negotiations, no conversations. The offer was offensive to them and the response came from their legal department. (If it matters, the offer was for $143B). This new front office still needs to learn a few things about business. Cracking open the business section of a newspaper once in a while might be a good start.

Lynn rejected this offer.

Can we start using the term "Fake News" around the Twins, or no?

Q: When do the Twins cut bait with Phil Hughes? A: November 2nd, 2020 unless he chooses to retire. Next time ask a harder question.

Right now he isn't facing significant competition. Lots of players dominate the front end of spring training and fail miserably in the last part. What we are seeing now is encouraging but it's just that -- encouraging.

1) Santana is proof you should never go with the herd when evaluating anything. Make your own decisions and judgments. 2) You say reputation matters ... but then you say people have Santana wrong. Santana has never thrown a tantrum, he has always helped out his team, and he has always performed well. If anyone has an issue with his "reputation" the problem is THEM. Historically, Santana is an ace, it's only in people's minds where he is a #3. Forget that. I was always high on Santana and I'm not at all surprised by his tenure as a Twin. I'm disappointed others chose to see something other than Ervin when judging him -- and still do. Forget the herd. Do you want to surround yourself with the best, or do you want to be the most popular? This is the question around Santana. The Twins, for once, gave the right answer (albeit for probably the wrong reason -- $$).

"You don't need an ace to win a WS/win in the playoffs/make the postseason" is sour grapes. Maybe 5% of champions didn't have an ace, so this doesn't mean a team without an ace is "built to win." It means the opposite -- it means the odds are against them. Most of the successful managers -- if not all of them -- in the history of baseball who have written or been quoted about their experiences have all said the same thing: it's all about the pitching. The Twins spent a nice chunk of cash on pitching this offseason, but they didn't pick up anyone elite. We'll soon find out if they got their money's worth. (It looks to me more like they grabbed 2 more pitchers than they need, and 2 won't make it through spring training...so they're doing a little bit of 'throwing it against the wall to see what sticks.' I'm not sure this is the best plan, but hey it might work out.)

When healthy, Buxton is one of the most valuable players in baseball. I question that he can stay healthy long term, but giving him a fair salary through the arbitration years would benefit the club.

I would counter that starters need more than just speed in their repertoire. He has already reached the age where velocity alone won't get the job done unless he's in the bullpen, even without his surgeries.

It's worth pointing out that Duffey was equally terrible in this game. It seems clear that the strategy was to try to get the two of them stretched out and have them pitch 3 innings. Neither of them made it.

He gives up way too many home runs. His BA against for fly balls is under .200, but the OPS against for fly balls over .850 because of the "home run problem." There isn't much room there for Buxton to help him, the Rays defense was already doing a superb job behind him. It's interesting that FIP aficionados are willing to give Odorizzi a free pass.

People with career .727 OPSes probably shouldn't say this. But then someone with a career .880 OPS would never say it, so.......

So ... he's already a Viking in his heart. There has never been a season where this team did not choke.

http://i.giphy.com/media/l3q2K5jinAlChoCLS/200w.gif

One cool thing to do is announce your change so the opposition can find weaknesses in your approach.

If he has a weakness, it's low stuff ... and even that's pretty nitpicky.

Celebrate.

The Twins biggest flaw is the same as it was before, but on paper the Twins definitely look better than they did a year ago.

I only need 9 at bats.

Darn tootin.

Most of the left handed hitters in the division play for Cleveland and Minnesota. This can be a smart move for the Twins considering the pitching makeup of Chicago, Detroit, and Kansas City. I would personally prefer a righty as the 1B backup since the current 1B is a lefty, but whatever. I can't fault their logic, but the Twins have to be careful about becoming one dimensional.

At the old Met they used to drive a car around the warning track at the middle of the 7th. It was something promotional from some local car dealer. I missed this when the Dome was built. :/