birddog

So happy the trade went through even with the alterations. Both sides are probably feeling like they gave up too much which means it's a fair trade. Twins starting pitching is still not at level of Yankees, Red Sox or Astros but we are closing the gap.

I like the trade a lot. Maeda is not an ace, but he can be very good and that is what we need right now and his contract is so very cheap for a pitcher of his talent. Graterol might be very good in the future but the future is now for the Twins. We gave up a good prospect to get a good starting pitcher, exactly what the front office needed to do. Many wanted Chris Archer, but Maeda has a higher K rate, wins more games and has a lower ERA (yes it is easier to win pitching for Dodgers than Pirates). Kudos to the front office.

I, too, think it's up to Cruz to tell the Twins how long he wants to play and we will get him signed. Hopefully we get Berrios signed to at least a four-year deal. I don't understand many readers' affection for Archer. He has not had a good year since 2015. Sure he gets K's but he doesn't get wins and his ERA and WHIP show why. If we make a trade--and I'm praying we do--it has to make us better. We need much better than Archer. Maybe by waiting until May we find out what teams know they are not going to win this year and are willing to trade.

Great article and fun reading. So we don't all agree with the order you proposed? Imagine how difficult it has to be to swing a trade with another team who may or may not agree on the value of your players or theirs. Needs tend to swing values in a big way. The good news is the present looks good for the Twins and the future appears to be highly rated as well. You can see why teams don't like to go to arbitration with players as they need to accentuate the negative for those players, just like most of us are doing with our top 20. With the good comes the bad. I pray Buxton is #1 next year on this list, for if he is I am looking forward to the healthy season he will have.

Can't miss prospects like Gordon who appear to have missed are part of the reason I want to see a major trade to get the impact SP we need. Our window for winning the division seems to close a bit with every move the White Sox make. I don't see them challenging us this year yet, but in 2021 they could be the team to beat especially, if they stay aggressive and we stand pat. Some of our young prospects may be able to step up--but maybe they won't. The asking price will be more than we want to pay, but get the impact starter(s) we need to complement the bomba squad and the now apparently strong relief corps. I am still fairly confident it will get done. Barring major injuries, it looks apparent we win the division again; however, barring major trade(s) for impact starting pitching it also looks apparent we are once again swept by the Yankees or Astros.

All Twins fans are frustrated that we haven't signed a new impact pitcher, but like every year patience is stressed. We got a taste of success and want to take the next step of advancing in the playoffs and Falvine said they would get us a difference maker and I think our only avenue is through a trade. I gotta believe they are doing their homework and will get it done. Just like the season is long, the off season is too. I like having Odorizzi and Pineda back and the talent of those contending for #4 and #5 is decent enough that I'm not panicking yet. But the clock is ticking. If free agents don't want to come to Minny, get 'em while they have no choice. Cleveland appears to be selling out, but the White Sox are making a move and their young pitching could make them dominant like the Indians were for a decade. We have the prospect assets to acquire that impact SP. Get it done.

Totally agree with the posts about Arraez including the possibility that he may hit 10+ HRs some day. We have a real gem on our hands here and let's not get caught up on what he isn't and just be thankful for what he is. He is young, works hard, and his teammates love him so he will work on the skills that the Twins ask him to, offensively and defensively. Anywhere in the lineup, I just love watching him hit.

I would like to hope that any true Twins fan would rather we keep Rosario while we get two top SPs. How can anyone be disappointed in his numbers? He is what he is, a free swinger. And sometimes that works, but seven times out of 10--as with every hitter--he will fail. We are a better team with him than without him, but without good starting pitching good hitting alone will not bring us the trophy we are seeking. We have no idea if Kiriloff or Lewis will become the stars we hope, just as we are still not sure if we had been better off trading Buxton and Sano for good established pitchers years ago. I would prefer we trade prospects for pitching, but we have to get pitching.

Great article, Nick. I love the concept here. It could make the Twins competitive in signing high end free agents. At the trade deadline I would have loved Bumgarner, but now in the off season my sights are set higher for top-of-the-line pitching. I love every move the front office has made so far and hope they continue the aggressive approach.

I definitely see Carew, Wade Boggs, and Gwynn in Arraez. I expect him to get better every year until he becomes a perrenial league batting title contender. I don't see competition from Gordon any longer and expect him to be traded. I hope he develops more power as he may be our best option at 3B, though I like him anywhere. Nice to see how a prospect who was not a top ten has become a major contributor

Love these articles of our top prospects for the future. Even more fun to read about the future with the present looking good for the Twins--other than all the injuries and starting pitching conundrum. It's a little tough to see that two of our top minor league hitters have been traded until you see the results we got from the two relievers we received in exchange. I know we had 40-man issues with Davis and Diaz and this makes it easier to protect the guys we need to, but more importantly we found that using our prospects to improve the MLB team is a great way to go.

We definitely needed Berrios' last outing in which he finally showed ace stuff and velocity that had been missing for too long. Hard to believe with his workout regime that he could wear out in the season, but that is what has happened. Is it mental or physical? Pretty tough to see us matching up well against the Astros with Verlander and Cole, but we have to remember how bad we were a year ago and how much better we are now. I do think we have a shot against the Yankees this year though. Kudos to the front office for the changes they made to create one of the most memorable seasons ever. Really wish they had made a major move to upgrade our starting pitching at the deadline, but hopefully that is done in the off-season. Let's get healthy for the playoffs when anything can happen in a short series.

Rosario is a proven commodity. I would still prefer sending prospects for pitching, even if it includes Lewis and one of our top young pitchers. Yes, we desperately need pitching and we have to pray that Graterol, Balazovich, Romero, etc. will live up to expectations, but we don't have much track record on our pitching prospects doing that. Way too many "can't miss" prospects that missed. Not holding my breath any more on Gonsalves, Romero, etc. We need pitching for this year and next and can't afford to think our hitting will be this good by the time these prospects are ready. With Berrios' fastball down to the low 90's, even he has become very hittable. We have to ask the question, "Are we just trying to make the playoffs, or win the playoffs?" If we are trying to win, we have to be able to match up against Verlander, Cole, Kershaw, not to mention the great arms Cleveland throws at us. If it takes sending Rosario to get great pitching, so be it; however, no prospect should be untradeable to get the starting pitching we need.

Baseball is such a long season and other than the Verlanders and Scherzers, it is normally a roller coaster of ups and downs. It has already been that way for Odorizzi and Perez. I was skeptical but hopeful when they dominated, but in baseball stats tend to revert to career averages and that is what is happening with these two "serviceable but mostly mediocre" pitchers. Their ERA's are approaching their career averages--3.88 for Odorizzi and 4.58 for Perez--and likely will end the season around those figures. Kyle Gibson has not been hot and cold like those two but is in the same boat with a career ERA of 4.44. Pineda gets a longer look before passing judgment as to what we have with his TJ surgery, but let's face it we have Berrios and then no clue as to what to expect with our other starters. With the success of the Twins this year I don't follow the daily minor league box scores as I did in past years, but I don't see any starters there to step up with eye popping stats or stuff so I am hoping for a trade from our surplus of young talent to land a #2 or #3 starter. I have total confidence in our front office that they will make smart moves to improve the team for today without mortgaging our future. I'm afraid Cleveland is pushing them to make those moves sooner than they would like to.

Great research on this article. No way Miggy should be hitting at the Mendoza line, but his uppercut is an all or nothing swing and when he tries to hit every ball 600 feet it is usually nothing. I was really expecting a phenomenal season from him as he was no longer expected to carry the team--just one of nine power hitters on the lineup card. He is still trying to do too much and not going with that outside pitch, especially with RISP. Nine HR's with only 15 RBI's is not the production we need. In past years we had no better alternative so he had to play. Lately the other 12 bats is a better option, but Rocco knows much better than I what to do. We all would love to see him reach his tremendous potential. Can we afford to wait much longer in the midst of a pennant race?

On paper he may not seem like an upgrade over Gibson and Pineda, but the games aren't played on paper. He has the post-season experience and obviously still the drive and fire; however, playing on a mediocre team has hurt his value. Getting a pitcher of his stature would enable Perez to give us another lefty in the bullpen. I wouldn't overspend on him and would like an extension of a couple years, but he would be a good start (good RPs would be an even better start) to improve our pitching. We have the prospects. Don't panic and make bad trades, but we do have to improve our pen.

Why not? Next man up. Romero and McGill didn't do the job yesterday, so we still can't trust them and until Twins starters can go 7+ innings we have to use 3 relievers most games so we need to keep going back to AAA for fresh (not necessarily effective) arms. Would have to drop a player to add him to the 40-man roster but I don't think that's a problem. We are not in panic mode with our RP, but I'm beginning to worry. Trevor Hildenberger get better soon.

I love reading the minor league report. That lineup at Rochester is going to have trouble scoring runs and other than Romero I don't see much more than a few cups of coffee from their pitchers. It appears our future is in Pensacola, at least for pitching help.

Twins fans are always hoping for the future and wincing at the present. Gibson once again collapsed last night in his last inning after dominating in his first innings. Twins starters not named Berrios can't seem to go more than 5 or 6 innings, meaning our only 3 trusted relievers get over used leading to late inning losses. Many of you may think this blasphemous, but maybe at some point we trade a top pick like Lewis when he has his highest value for a proven player or two to help us today. Polanco is looking like he could remain at SS for another ten years. It would have been crazy to even think of trading Buxton or Sano five years ago at the height of their value. What is their value today? I don't see Cron as a long term fixture at 1B so we need to keep Kiriloff. I love Lewis' potential but with a good SS already here and our OF looking very solid is he more valuable to bring in good established players to help now and in the future?

You have to make room at 3B for Sano as our full time starter. What I am hoping for is a trade of Castro. With his pathetic bat, I don't see much of a demand for him--defensive catchers who can't hit are in huge supply. Maybe Astudillo needs to go to the minors for a bit, but even though he's not getting hits lately he is still making his usual good contact. I think he proved he is at least adequate as a catcher, which makes him more of an asset than Castro. I would love to see a trade with Castro packaged with a decent prospect to get at least a semi-dependable reliever.

I don't know what to believe, but happy he finally is just going to be himself and not adjust his approach for the 20+ "coaches" telling him what he needs to change. He has the talent, but even adding 10 pounds of muscle won't allow him to make contact more often unless he believes in himself and the player he is. Stop the over-coaching and let him be the player he is. If that doesn't work (please, please, please let it work!) we have to move on.

I really liked the Schoop signing and believe he will rebound in a big way. I am very skeptical about Gordon's chances of becoming anything more than just a utility infielder. Even if he starts out hot, odds are he will collapse as he has done way too often. Very tough call on draft day but Aaron Nola and Kyle Freeland--drafted two and three picks after Gordon--would leave Twins fans with no doubts like Gordon has. We all hope and pray he proves us wrong, but that doesn't make all of us believers in him.

Falvine obviously thinks Duda and Cron will allow us to survive with mediocrity in the pen?

I am not a believer in the 100-pitch limit except at the beginning of the season. So many times a Twins SP goes 5 innings with 90-100 pitches and is pulled. Starters have to start going at least 6 innings in low scoring games. If not, coaches have to get them to stop nibbling after getting ahead of the count. I detest getting ahead 0-2 only to end up with a walk because of nibbling. And too often the pitch after 0-2 is not even in the same zip code so it's just a wasted pitch. Our starters without the dominant stuff have high pitch counts because they can't trust their stuff without a perfect pitch. Hopefully our new staff will demand 6+ innings as we have lots of starters to choose from. One novel way to speed up the game--throw strikes. Hopefully our offense can score enough runs to give our pitchers the confidence to do just that.

A year ago at this time I was the most optimistic I've been regarding the Twins in a decade, and my kids always tell me I expect way too much of the Twins. I really believed we would challenge the Indians with the additions we had made. Needless to say, the optimism changed very quickly into major disappointment and frustration. Sano and Buxton were culprits #1 and 1A though as John points out in the article, it was a much larger letdown than 2/25ths of the roster. Rosario and Escobar were the only players coming close to their potential. Berrios had his exciting days, but I hope for much better consistency this year. Odorizzi and Pineda having great seasons would be huge going forward, but if John touches on all who let us down last season, this article could take a while.