gunnarthor

I think the big thing about Maeda is how affordable he'll be the next few years. We have a lot of payroll issues so finding a solid big league pitcher at his price is probably a significant factor for the Twins FO.

Man, I'm not sure I like this trade for the Twins. I know I hate it for LA and love it for the Red Sox.

Thanks Mike. I got the WFC research on ISRG from my broker this morning - I'd attach it for you but have no idea how to do that. They have it overweight (which is a buy and an expectation of 10% or better growth over the next 12 months) and the research was written up on 1/27/20 so it's fresh. Not completely on board yet since there is no dividend and I love dividend stocks for my IRA but leaning towards making the purchase this week. Looking at a few pharmaceuticals as well.

I just moved 6k into my IRA for 2020 and am kicking around selling ROKU. I'm not sure how strong it will remain over the next year. Has anyone heard of Intuitive Surgical, Inc.? I think that's my next purchase. Lastly, this is a nice article on why DRIP investing makes sense long-term.

Agreed. And they are still impacting us. Half of the Twins current top 100 prospects, per BA, came from the previous regimes as well.

We might add a few vets on non-guaranteed contracts but the roster is pretty much set at this point. It's a good roster. Pitching could be better and we're a little light on depth but overall, this roster should win the AL Central again and have a puncher's chance against anyone (except the Yankees). Right now, the Twins shouldn't do anything. Ideally, they'll have some trade chips if needed at the deadline but for now, they should see what this lineup can do. I don't think we'll break the HR record again but we should lead the league in HRs as a team. A healthy Sano might lead the league in HRs this year. That would be awesome.

Well, I was very negative on the FO early but this really changes things. They've made some solid signings and this one is a big time get. Very impressed. Great work to the FO.

Top 10 finish. Ahead of Wisconsin and Iowa. :-)

Here's the mlbtraderumors write up on him - https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2020/01/oscar-colas-to-seek-mlb-deal.html Seems to be less agreement that he can be a two way player than Ohtani. Also, we've seen a number of high profile Cuban contracts utterly blow up on the teams that signed them. Rusney Castillo was given 72m by the Red Sox in 2014. Yasmany Tomas was given 68m+ by the Dbacks in 2014 as well. Hector Olivera got 62m in 2015 from the Dodgers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_baseball_players_who_defected_from_Cuba That's not to say I don't want us to sign him, I want our scouts to do their due diligence and, if they think he'll help, sign him. The Twins get a little more than most teams (but not all teams) in their international pool although what they don't spend they can't carryover. This year they had nearly 6m to spend and looks like they've spend about 3.5 (Emmanuel Rodriguez being the big fish this year). It doesn't seem like an international draft will happen by July 2020 so the Twins are likely to have a big chunk of cash available again.

I can't find any NFL draft info on him. Anyone know what round he is supposed to go in?

My guess is that last year was Kepler's career year but he probably has a few more 3-4 WAR type seasons. But I don't think he gets much better but he probably plateaus. A corner OF with a Cuddyer type profile but better defense is a darn good player.

Another PR piece from TD? How many do you have? I really hope you're getting some kick back from the Twins. Maybe that's where the payroll is going. Anyhow, the linked article about the trade "wins" is ridiculous and the new FO has made one good trade in three + years (Odorizzi) and one good FA signing (Cruz) if you define "good" as averaging at least 2 WAR/season. If you just want one simple 2 WAR season, you could add Castro to the list. The Twins had a massive build up of talent before this new FO got here and so far they have failed to augment that talent.

I'm really not surprised at all by this offseason. The Pohlads are the problem. We've had some pretty smart GMs over the years. It's not them. Ownership puts severe limits on this team yearly. Dumpster diving, one year contracts, relying on prospects is going to continue. We need better prospects - Randy Dobnak should not be starting a playoff game.

He's the only young arm that I think fans should realistically be excited about. He can be a legit ML starter. Probably not an all-star but he should have a solid career.

That was a really fun game to watch. I thought Auburn was going to bury us and I didn't think we'd have any chance of scoring 30+ points. Really good win for the program. I'm not sure how the rest of the top 20 played out but it seems like the Gophers should finish the season in the top 15 and should push Wisconsin next year.

The most confident I've ever been going into a season was 2011. We had just come off a 94 win season and we had knocked the White Sox out (they were 12 games back with 10 to play) and we'd have a healthy Morneau and Mauer coming back. Delmon Young, at 24, finally put it all together and we could reasonably expect him to take another step forward. Liriano had finally gotten over his surgery and became the ace we expected. Valencia stepped up and was manning third base efficiently and a solid bat in the bottom half of the order. None of our core players had a "career season" (or so we thought). We might have won 101 games last year but I don't think last year's Twins were as good as the 2006 or 2010 Twins. There is a lot of regression on this team and currently our pitching staff is pretty wobbly. It's too early to panic but I think the idea that the Sox, Twins and Cleveland are all pretty close and anyone could win the central is probably accurate. Now we can change that between now and opening day. And certain things could break right and make the season a laugher (mainly a fully healthy and productive season from Buxton) but right now, it's closer than some of us want to admit.

I said at the outset that I thought the Twins would follow the Rays bullpen rotation path and that looks like what they are doing. They've made some good additions to the pen in Romo and Clippard. I think they might make one or two more additions like them. They won't sign Donaldson but they might sign either a defensive first MIer to move our infield around a bit (Sano at first, Polanco to second, FA at short and Arreaz at third) or sign a stop gap first baseman until one of our young prospects is ready to come up. We're obviously not at the level of the Yankees or Astros and a few bad breaks could have the Sox catch up with us but we should still be favored to win 90 games and get into the playoffs without jeopardizing the future with bad contracts or trading away impact prospects. Essentially, this FO is following the Ryan model. We'll see if they can do it as well.

Solid move and I expect a few more like this. I think we're going to load up on solid bullpen arms that can throw 65-70 innings and sort of give a bullpen day to the rotation. If the Twins can't compete and get the top starters, maybe they follow the Rays method and acquire a quantity of rubber arms.

I think that stride is far too long. I'm sure the Twins instructors and Lewis know that this and they are working on it. My guess is that the talent is too good to hold back and he becomes an all-star third baseman for us.

I think one of the problems we've had so far in the Falvine era is that, outside of the Odorizzi trade, it's hard to name the next best trade. Maybe this is it? Dunno. I don't like this trade. Ynoa looks like a potential strong bullpen arm that would be better than Littell, who has about 50 innings on him in the majors. I always forget that Littell is so young (24 next year) and that's good for him but I don't like his stuff. He wasn't used in many high leverage spots (except the playoffs) and he wasn't used that much overall last year. I'd rather have Ynoa. But hopefully, Littell proves me wrong.

Interesting article from Barrons. Should be free to view. https://www.barrons.com/articles/the-10-best-stocks-for-2020-51576285200 I have a small bit of pfizer in my IRA but none of the rest. The u-haul stock is an interesting idea.

I think Donaldson would be a good addition. If we can't get one of the big time pitchers - and we can't - I think he'd be my first position player I'd want. But he's also probably out of our price range. I think the idea of trading or finding a few diamonds in the rough is the more likely scenario.

I'm worried that Auburn crushes us but if the Gophers could pull this off, I think it would do wonders for recruiting and really help the program develop.

I read an ESPN article that predicted the Gophers would play Alabama on Jan 1 in the Outback bowl. Wouldn't that be something? I think they'd crush us but still, playing Alabama on Jan 1? Yes, please.

I'm convinced that this is what the Twins are going to do.