Twodogs

I liked JJ Hardy also.

Well actually carlos Gomez did ok as a professional, he just didn't do well for the Twins.

Nettles immediately hit 26 and 28 home runs for Cleveland in the following two seasons. He was still playing when the Twins won the world series in 87. He would have solidified 3B for years. Not to mention after Tiant was released he went on to have 3 20 win seasons plus many double digit win seasons.

I think that this team in this window of opportunity needs Cruz. He is also a clubhouse guy and I know those things can't be measured but they are important in any team sport. Now if the twins were going to shut this window and prepare to start opening a new one then I'd say let him go. But if they think that they can hold off the White Sox one more year then they probably need Cruz as he is the glue that holds a lot of this team together.

John Ryan Murphy

I remember being quite irritated as a young kid that they broke up the bruise brothers. I always wondered; (not so much at the time but later, like in the late 90's early 2000's with the way Tom Kelly treated guys like David Ortiz). I wondered how much input TK had in this trade? They just played the Cardinals in the WS, Tommy Herr was a classic slick fielding slap hitter which seemed to fit the TK mold to a T. Bruno was more of a, well David Ortiz type, but obviously he could field a little bit as he ran around in the OF tracking down fly balls and such. I could be way off, but after I learned more about TK and the way he was I just couldn't help myself to instinctively push some of that blame for that trade onto TK.

I really wonder how many hitters the twins faced this year after pitch #100. I'd bet not many. I know Maeda had a few when he was going for his no hitter, but I can't think of too many.

I wonder if there were even 113 plate appearances after pitch 100 for the whole twins team this year? If you never get there then you won't know what those numbers could be? If Morris was pitching today for the twins he wouldn't have ever had the opportunity to pitch past 5 or 6 innings.

At first I thought they brought back Bartolo Colon.

I think quite a few dudes might be had for fairly cheap based on covid 19 fallout?

https://www.thescore.com/mlb/news/2045846

The bats are definitely different from yesteryear.

For me it depends, if he is one of those guys that you want to keep in your organization after his playing days are over; you know to be a coach or PR, or in the front office somewhere then I'd give him the 2 year deal. If your not interested in keeping him around after he's done playing then no.

I'm going to miss reading his articles. Every summer since I moved away I go back to Minnesota for a couple of weeks. I always buy the trib to read the sports pages about the Minnesota teams. I obviously don't get articles in Cali about the Twins unless something crazy happens. I always would read Sid's piece first just because it would kinda cover "everything" Minnesota sports. Then I'd read all of the other stuff.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2020/10/twins-rumors-nelson-cruz-two-year-deal.html

I think you might get more for Kiriloff in a trade than Sano. I also think that the Twins need 2 more bats like Arraez in the lineup. 2 and 3 run shots would look a lot nicer than all of the solo shots. I think the Twins can win with this lineup, but they have to at some point change their approach especially with 2 strikes. Houston busted the shift against us numerous times to win that series because they were willing to change their approach when it warrented it. Not sure what they could get for Sano? But Sano would probably be better with a couple more hitters like Arraez running around on the basepaths.

Yeah, after the Twins limit him to 75 pitches and 4 - 5 innings per start, he then wouldn't be that expensive to re-sign again as his value will diminish.

I kind of agree that if the Twins keep Rosario it'll be just his last year of arb and then he is gone next year. Cruz is not a guarantee to be back, it would be nice, but no guarantee. Now if the Twins were to use their young guys like Rooker, Kirlloff as bench guys with no Cruz then the twins would be able to rotate Rosario and the young guys through the DH slot. Rosario was used as a DH a few times this year also, so maybe that is what they are planning. Then the young kids get eased into some playing time and used extensively when the injuries hit and then rolled back to eased into the lineup when healthy again. Rather than banking the season on likely not 1 but using 2 or maybe 3 young guys in the lineup. That would be a little scary. I think May is gone. He is a power reliever and if he drops a couple MPH on his Fastball he will be toast. Probably better off trying to develop one of the younger guys like Colina etc.... May had his bad moments already, good overall, but his secondary pitches haven't seemed to be all that great. So he is fastball dependant which scares me over 162 games.

But what does 162 games have anything to do with laying an egg in the post season? I mean the same thing happened last year too?

I'm mad at Rocco when the decisions are made also, but could it be possible that Rocco is doing what he is told by the geeks behind the computers?? Just a thought, before I and everyone else jumps all over Rocco. He was a ballplayer, I assume he has these hunches once in awhile, but maybe he is afraid to go against what the computer guys say?

You know, every team's guys are dinged up and have injuries going into the post season, always. The teams that win play through those dings and win. The Twins guys appear soft from the outside looking in. Pulling Maeda and Berrios after 5 innings to me was assinine. I mean you have to send those guys back out. I mean you should send those guys back out until things get shaky. I mean someone hits a line shot at Kepler and then it's probably time to go and get him. You can usually tell when a guy has lost it. You have to have confidence in your stud pitchers to get you 6 hopefully 7 innings out there. The team needs that, to feed off of it. Let the pitchers get in a rhythm. Within reason of course. You don't want them pitching 120 - 130 pitches or anything like that, but let them go 100 or 110 if they are shutting the door on the other team. Dusty Baker I think used a total of 5 pitchers for the series? I mean his starters didn't go too far, he could see them start to get shaky. But when his relief pitchers were on he left them in until someone ran them out and nobody did. The Twins need a couple of hitters to cut down their swings with 2 strikes. I get it, home runs play, but swing away on strike one and two. After that choke up and get a single, maybe the next guy will hit a bomba on strike one or strike two and now you have a two run bomba instead of a solo shot. It seems to me that the good teams get some hits besides home runs all of the time. It's like for the Twins it's a home run or a K-out. Those K's cost a lot of runs. Sometimes a ground ball can advance a runner and a fly ball can sacrifice someone home. But none of that stuff can happen when you strike out all of the time. Shifts. Shifts and bunting and base stealing and all of that stuff works when the other team can't predict it. Shift too often and you become predictable. Bunt too often and you become predictable. Never bunt and you also become predictable. Never steal bases and you become predictable. When you become predictable you set yourself up to be beaten by that dribbler through the area where the shift vacated. If a hitter knows you are shifting him all of the time, just once does he have to go up there looking for that changeup away and walla he hits a sqibbler through the shift. These things need to be used on occasion and in a more unpredictable fashion. I think that is where Rocco is wrong, is everything he does is now predictable, whether that's his fault or upper management's fault I don't know. But that is what I see.

So the post season failures is also a culmination of the front office?

So with our starters that can only pitch 5 innings and all of our hitters leading the league in strikeouts we can look forward to another first round exit next year too? I mean the sky isn't falling, but like a bad earthquake I think the ground may be crumbling underneath.

Baseball IQ would stem from the top.

I actually know a couple of guys who have pitched in the majors. One of them had that exact argument with his manager after a game because yes these guys throw stuff like changeups that dive away from left handed hitters as out pitches and they get weak contact and the shifts do not play well in those situations. Guys like Rogers throw sliders that move a lot and hit off of the ends of bats etc..... And then these guys hit 0 - 2 pitches that would normally be outs and they get weak hits. Twins guys strike out, the shift works great on strike outs but the guys who put the ball in play beat the shifts a lot.