FargoFanMan

The real questions is why did it come down to this? We’ve shelled out 20M to a star before. Why are we at this point of even discussing this when we could have made over and above competitive offers to the top 2 guys????? Am I out of line or do I just care too much?

You’re absolutely right. The only problem is when you are resigning guys that we’re on your team last year and claiming that as impactful additions well that is assuming your fan base to be idiots. So we’re at square one. Great! But what are the chances that Odorizzi has another breakout year? That a 40yo Nelson Cruz has another mvp worthy year? That Garver comes out of nowhere to become a silver slugger? Oh, and the fact that with this pitching staff we’ll need to hit 300+ homers again. The point is the Twins have 30M in the bank and we have nothing to show for it that would put the team in elite status. Instead we tried to penny pinch and got nothing. The Twins aren’t surprising anyone this year like last and if they do then kudos. But when you got the firepower use it to become a World Series contender. Not a division contender. This is just classic 2000’s era Twins.

You are right on this. I guess my main point is whether we want playoff wins or regular season wins. Building a team up through the farm to capture regular season wins is the model. That’s fine and gets you to the playoffs. The part that bothers me is the Twins never make the all in moves like the James shields and Wade Davis for high level prospects moves to acquire impact players for a run moves. We always stand pat and hold those top level prospects. That’s good for sustaining long runs but wouldn’t it have been nice to pick up Thor for Buxton and a few high level prospects? I like Buxton and Lewis and Kirilloff but I like an ace more. Maybe it would’ve amounted to the same Yankees pummeling that we got but man would it feel pretty good going into this season having a solid rotation. I’m not saying sell the farm but just making a big impact trade or a big impact signing would make me feel as if the front office is doing something. Cole was had for almost nothing a few years ago. We need to find that trade if we’re not going to spend big for pitching.

It’s only been said a million times on here. Most by me haha. What does everyone prefer? A.) A team that continually wins its division and plays the course every year using the farm system to supplement FA losses. Never making any big moves and always getting to the playoffs but never having enough firepower to make an October run to the World Series(2000’s Twins). B.) A team that builds from Within. Stacking up high draft picks in order to build a team. Continually at the bottom of the league. Finally getting a core, makes very aggressive moves and trading away top prospects to supplement your core. Making the World Series 2 years in a row and winning it once. After that returning to the bottom to hopefully do it again in 5-10 years.(2013-2016 Royals). There’s no such thing as dynasties anymore in MLB. You get to chose one of these. Which do you pick?

That whole side of the house is missing!!! Seems to be working the opposite way haha

If we’re not spending cash then why are we not making deals? Adding prospects? Anything? We’re caught in the middle right now which is almost worse than rebuilding. Would the braves want Kepler? They have pitching prospects galore. Kepler and someone for a prospect or two. Maybe Teheran and Wright? Or someone else.

Oooops! Oh look. Mike Trout!

These games are fun and all but it truly shows the sad state of the franchise. I remember when we were looking ahead to 2018 with Buxton and Sano putting up MVP numbers. Remember when? 2018 future lineup C Turner/Garver 1B Kepler 2B Dozier SS Gordon 3B Sano LF Rosario CF Buxton RF AB Walker DH Mauer/Palka SP Santana SP Berrios SP Meyer SP May SP Stewart/Jay RP Rogers RP Chargois RP Reed RP Romero RP Burdi RP Melotakis Let’s hope 2022 brings us closer than 2018

The Cano that was 30+ years old and still delivered 3 above solid years in Seattle? Are talking about the 29 year old Grienke that rivaled only his own teammate in LA at a modest 20M+. Or is it the 32 year old Grienke that has fared pretty damn well for his age it’s just the albatross annual salary that may be a bit much for anyone not named Kershaw? These two guys are I believe the exception and not the rule when it comes to FA’s. I’m talking about a guy who is 26. Plays 160+ games a year. Without injury is gonna put up at least 280/330/450. Embraces being the face of a franchise. Plays stellar 3rd base and very solid SS. Of course that is gonna cost you money. After 4 years and it’s not a fit then you trade him. He’s only 30 then if there’s not already an opt out somewhere in there. This guy has at least 4 more prime years barring major injury which is covered by an insurance I’m sure. If not this guy though then who? That’s my question. The answer? Nobody. Harpers close but injury prone and doesn’t provide the glove. I’d pay Manny a front loaded contract maybe in the 35-40M range over the first 5 of 10 years with a few opt outs. Then you have something to build around and he’s instantly the most recognized face of Minnesota sports and more. Who’s next? A retired Mauer? Parise? Guys who are either retired or washed up?

Perfect way to spend it would be the superstar FA not named Harper. Beyond the same old Minnesota adage of not “wanting” to spend money on FA’s why wouldn’t you on this guy? Yeah it would take an exorbitant amount of money. Yeah you would be signing a guy to a supposedly lifetime contract. Or close to it. Yeah he has so called issues. But nothing even close to the former Manny. This guy just turned 26. Plays everyday. Entering his prime just now. Expects superstar from himself. The risk reward is a lot different in this case than signing a 30 year old player that’s seen his best years in the rear view. Barring a significant injury you make that bet. Who’s the face of this franchise right now? Anybody? Who? Oh that’s right. A guy who played platinum level CF and put up MVP numbers for half a season and just as well didn’t play at all in 2018 and consistently hits .200 when playing. Or maybe it was the guy who was an all star slugger in 2017 for half a season. The same guy who was demoted to A ball in 2018. A ball. Or the 38 year old slugger we just signed. He is surely the face of the franchise. Really?!?!? Well, there is this Berrios guy. He is pretty solid. Maybe a future star soon. Not an ace by any means yet but solid. Or maybe one of these prospects that did well in A ball last summer. A ball. Maybe want to look at the CFer and slugger I spoke of before. Oh wait. Maybe we should sign both of those guys that have proven nothing in the majors to long term contracts. I mean they are a year or two younger, have proven nothing and would come at a great price to continue faltering year after year. That will surely cost 30 million. Ahhh. Let’s just stand with our hands in our pockets and not do anything for a few more years. I mean it only took the royals 30 years to return to relevance. We’re a third of the way there. Maybe we get lucky and it only takes 10 years. Heck, I’ll only be 40 something by then. I’m not advocating going all in. But why not? Maybe it doesn’t work out. Give it a few years. If it doesn’t work out you could still get something for him. If not. What’s 350 million for a pro sports team that’s worth a billion? I just think we need to do something. If not. Fine. But if there was a time to spend why not on this guy? Let the firestorm begin. Aaaaaaand go.

Very good points from both parts 1 and 2. Maybe in 3 you could go in depth of the horrible deadline deals that did and didn’t happen. One of my major points I always take is the trades that never happened at the deadline to bolster those solid teams going into the playoffs. Other than the Shannon Stewart trade Ryan never made the big trade to push the team into the final months and into October. Sure hindsight is always 20/20 but never once were we even in the running for a big upgrade. Obviously those prospects we were unwilling to trade flopped but I would have been more ok in that we tried. Ryan always sat on his hands and never pushed all the chips to the middle and went for it and that was one of the biggest things that frustrated me.

This is true. Yet where were we on trades? Gerrit Cole could have and was had for very little. Nothing resembling a haul by any means. Carlos Santana was just had for very little and possess a good skill of getting on base. There’s lots of trades that could be made that get a few solid veterans and high upside guys on this team. Add that to a young core. Then add a Schoop signing. I would have preferred LeMahieu but if you add little signings like that with a big move or 2 all of a sudden you have something. All the while you still have Lewis and Kirilloff. Guys like Gonsalves and Thorpe may get traded. But these guys that people around here covet are not guys that move the needle that much compared to a major league asset. Even Graterol and Romero. I’d rather have Cole or any other Major league upgrade than a slim chance of a star in say 4 years. That’s where this franchise got handcuffed in the 2000’s. When we could have traded guys like Gibson or Hicks for legitimate upgrades to push those teams over that threshold to win a championship we played it safe. I would have rather seen a World Series in 2009 or any year they made it than to win a division title 2 years in a row. Like the royals did. They sacrificed the future for a World Series. Yet isn’t that the goal of baseball? To win championships? We keep waiting for the next great wave of prospects. At what point does that become futile

I’m not convinced Terry Ryan isn’t serving as the great Oz behind some curtain in the front office. Magically giving advice to Falvine as they scratch their heads on how to run a Major League Baseball team.

Morneau had potential. He showed flashes and took the next step. We also had a Hunter in his prime. The next coming of Ted Williams in Mauer. Many other players who had already established consistency beyond Morneau. Nobody on this team is showing anything of flashes besides Berrios. We’re on the edge of having to go into total rebuild if we see nothing this year. We have no veteran presence on this team at the moment. Nobody we can count on as being consistent. Unless we make some deals and have a few surprise performances this team is looking more like 100 losses than even 80 wins. How long do we have to wait? 5? 10? 15 years? Our farm system is deep but does not have the star power to put together a contender if this season goes awry. There’s a lot riding here and where do we go if this season falls off a cliff?

Agreed. I’m so sick of these deals. Looks like we’re riding on Buxton and Sano to have mvp years. Even if they did we don’t have enough to compete. Maybe more will happen but I’m not counting on it. We’ll just wait until Lewis and Kirilloff come up as they will be the saviors. Then we’ll wait 5 years for them to develop only to be busts. In that time we’ll have had a few more top 5 picks. Wait for them to come up only to be busts. Maybe one or two of these guys pan out but nothing that would constitute a solid core and before we know it we’re the Royals or Pirates from the 90’s to the 2000’s. Call me in 30 years when this team is good again. Jeez. When are we gonna try to go for something. I’d rather have a good year or two and then a few bad instead of waiting for these prospects. All I hear about is prospects. When are we gonna have real Mlb ball players? That’s what I want. I want to have a reason to watch a twins game. We waited for how long for the current group? How’s that going? I hope they prove me wrong. I’m taking the opinion the rest of the country has always had. That being the Twins are and always will be a joke and will not accomplish anything until they start putting Mlb players on the field instead of prospects.