Twodogs

Boy i sure hope the twins brought their bats today.

I mean, all in all, Mauer could have struggled as opposing pitchers put most of the focus on him and now that the Twins lineup is overall doing better with guys like Sano, Kepler, Polanco, etc.... not necessarily in that order maybe Joe is again a benefactor of being in a good lineup. I predict that if those guys continue to hit around Joe, that Joe will have a much better year than in the last 3 or so years. Think back to when Joe was a monster, he had the likes again not necessarily in this order, but Justin Morneau, Michael Cuddyer, Jim Thome, Torii Hunter, etc..... When those guys and many more were hitting around Joe, obviously he couldn't be the total focus of a pitching staff. Maybe it is just getting back to that once again??

The Twins could use some bullpen guys?

Maybe Boston just has better hitting coaches than the Twins?? Seems like they have had a lot of great hitters, both at home and on the road.

Thats assuming that those guys will be lights out in the Majors. If they are then the Twins will be in pretty good shape.

Torii could become quite an announcer if he keeps interjecting little things like that into his game. I mean everyone remembers Chris Berman and he would always do things like that during his ESPN Gametime routines. I think it's cool

That is true, he wont put any pressure on a defense with his speed, and it is probably because of all of the rainouts that I havent seen as much of him lately, but I have seen him have some really good games and at bats over the last month and I was just worried that relegating him to the bench would be wasting a chance to see if he can become a .250 hitter .300 OBP with 30 HR per year and a .750 to .800 OPS type of guy who switch hits. That type of hitter behind Sano might give Sano a few more hitable pitches in big time situations? If he can't, he can't. Honestly, I could kind of see that Arcia wasn't going to workout as an everyday hitter, he was way way too undisciplined, but Vargas doesn't quite seem that way, he seems to have a little more plate discipline and hopefully can do some things for the Twins that Arcia would never let himself do because he swung for the fences soo soo bad. Just my opinion.

I like Duffy too, but I think that the twins would probably leave Duffy in the pen for this year and maybe give him a shot at Spring Training to win a spot next year? If there are 5 better choices than Duffy at that point then they put him back in the pen. He is pretty versitile nonetheless. Another question that I have is what is the future for Trevor May? Will he be given a shot to start again after he recovers from his injury? He has some pretty good potential, match that with Berrios and maybe the Twins have a decent 1, 2, 3 punch at some point in time?

Seems like he has been out of the lineup for awhile?? Switch hitting big guy would look nice right behind Sano on a more regular basis?

Berrios is 22 and will have some bad outings, the big thing with his little bit of extra maturity is that hopefully he doesn't let that occasional bad start affect his confidence. I think last year when things went bad he lost confidence and it got worse. He will need to be consistent as we see with Santiago's start today.

The real guy is Tommy Milone

Oh got it, I did not read it that way. I read it as they've developed nothing except Radke and Baker and that they were #5's. Sorry that's just the way I saw it.

Yeah I get it, and I agree that the Twins have done a terrible job developing pitchers. Yeah that's about it for decent starting pitchers that the Twins have developed in recent years. I just didn't agree with bashing Radke as he was decent for a prolonged period of time, Moonshot Baker however, bash away

Radke was no #5, he was, in his heyday, probably better than Ervin Santana. He was no Ace, but he was a Legit #3 on any staff back then, probably a #2 on the mediocre ones and an Ace for the 3 or 4 really bad teams like the Twins. I mean go through all 30 teams #1 pitchers right now and I'd bet you that you'd rather have Radke in his prime that probably at least 10 - 12 of the so called Aces right now.

Yeah, if they can get him to pitch with his left hand like Cliff Lee he might be worth something??

Well there has been a lot of talk that he ignores the coaches and does things his way??

I agree, the Twins currently have no arms that are ready for anything outside of Berrios and Mejia. Have Gibson start in AAA or even AA who cares. To me he is just simply injury insurance for the rest of the year. He will most likely be back because you know some pitcher is going to go down with some sort of injury this year. But he will be back for mop up and the Twins will need to make a move or two at the deadline or do a very good job in the draft in June.

I personally think that the mental toughness is a lot harder to fix than the pitches.

Maybe he can learn how to throw a knuckleball?

You know Kepler had me a little worried the first week of the year, he kind of started off slow. But I noticed that most of the time he was hitting into outs unlike Buxton and Rosario who have been whiffing constantly. So I figured that Kepler would eventually get hot as long as he kept on making contact.

As far as bright spots for the last couple of days, Buxton and Rosario look to be coming out of their slumps?? Not to mention Vargas looks good over the last two games also. But what does that do with Grossman??

I am pretty sure Scott Baker would love to get rid of that Moonshot nickname, he probably even show up so as to hand that nickname over to someone else. Also, you might want to consult with Christian Guzman and Luis Rivas if there is going to be any knife wielding going on around here again. Ha ha The nickname day was a really great idea!

Ryan "Elvis Pressley"

"Fast Eddie" Rosario