rationalfan

My mind weighs 2 things. One is how much do I care about the rotation order to theoretically get an extra start for my best pitcher(s) and/or match up with other teams' best starters? I don't know that this matters a lot now. Managers, especially Rocco, like to stick with a schedule and actually look to minimize usage rather than maximize it and since there are so many off days in April, teams have their rotations lose alignment pretty quickly so by mid-May, the matchups are off anyway. So that leaves the second thing which is what it symbolizes. When healthy, Gray is the better pitcher so Rocco could send the message that the best player plays. However, due to his age and very good start to his young career, Ryan is the most likely to be part of this rotation down the road so the message could be "you're our guy". I'm old school enough that I would choose the best pitcher and would go with Sonny which promotes the message of "we aim to win this year and we're starting the season with our best".

To me, it means the Twins are ideally not in the "what do we have to lose" situation of calling up a young player early on a bad and/or injury-ladled team. Correa is ideally playing 90% of the games at SS. Hopefully, Miranda and Kiriloff and Larnach are staying healthy and playing well enough to earn more time out there. We all want Polanco to have another really good odd-numbered year. As summer wears on, hopefully Royce is ready. If someone told me that Lee would be having a great year, but still in the minors in August, it would be good news because it should mean there's no room on the winning major league roster.

I have this "debate" all the time with a friend. His perspective is a principled point of view/how things should be - the Twins ownership is worth billions and we as fans should put pressure on them to spend it, the most visible way of doing that is spending the money needed to land and keep stars. My perspective is pragmatic/how things are - the Twins are owned by a family that has owned for 40 years now and looks like many years into the future. They have not and almost certainly will not intentionally run the team at a loss with the comfort of knowing it is worth more when/if they ever sell and it is doubtful they would all agree to run the team as a fan would without regard for the financial aspects. With that in mind, I focus on how the ~50% of revenue dedicated to player payroll should be spent...depth or stars? SP or hitting? lock up home-grown future stars or bring in free agents? try to create a team consistently in the mix or go all-in when things peak and then start all over when the opportunity has passed? In this case, is spending 15-20% of the player payroll on one player with a 10 year guarantee the best way to construct the team? I think without the MRI thing, its' a definite maybe. His knee seems fine the last couple of years, he fits a position the team has not been able to fill internally, he's consistent, his game is not built on speed (which is the first skill to decline) and the roster has a lot of youth such that signing him doesn't create painful decisions in the near future (those decisions down the road would be a good "problem" to have). I personally would prefer an ace starting pitcher - this rotation is filled with low-2, 3 and 4 starters. The MRI thing suggests it may be a good thing he didn't take their offer - perhaps his knee is showing worrisome wear. What I need to say from Falvine is the development of pitching seen in Cleveland, keep trying to extend players as they've done with Polanco, Kepler, Dobnak, Buxton in trying to mimic Atlanta, and then supplement with the right trades and free agents. That and I want that ~50% payroll thing to be an average, not a cap, meaning if they are below that during rebuilding then they are above it to keep a good team together.

I think there's a time and place for manufacturing runs and forcing the action. For example, facing great pitching where hits are hard to come by. We'll get our hits off of Baltimore pitching so why give them the potential free outs? Yes, Kepler had not been caught stealing since 2019 and both runners looked like good slides would have led to runs, but why take the risks? I wonder if it was an emotional response to hitting into 5 double plays the night before. Couple of questions for the elite baseball minds out there. 1) Why didn't the Twins challenge the knuckle shot by Correa? Had they used their challenge? Did they think the replay crew would have ruled it a strikeout (his hands being in the zone) and they preferred the result of the play with a runner on second instead of first? 2) It appeared Kepler cringed when seeing he was going to slide into the catcher head first. Should the catcher have been in that position per the new rules?

Of course I want the Twins to obtain more talent, but I'm not convinced they will be particularly competitive this year. If I had a choice to spend money this year or next year, I'd choose next year after evaluating the younger players in 2022 to determine greatest needs and have a good fresh free agent SP pool to choose from. Using the Red Sox as the example is laughable to me. 1) In 2021 they had a payroll of $180M which was down 10% from the previous year (prorated) which means they didn't do much in the off-season actually. 2)Those big moves are exactly what the Twins get ripped for: Kike and Renfroe were value additions for a whopping $9M in 2021 and commitment for only 2 years. Ottavino was a 1 year commitment. No big names. No significant commitments. 3)Boston always has potential due to the market. That was their lowest payroll in several years and even without those additions would have been a top 10 payroll. Boston should always be in contention at the start of each season.

I wish it wasn't necessary, but players are unwilling to go with a "spirit of the game" mentality. It used to be that we could enjoy the quirky pitchers or hitters that took extra time but now it's the norm and it's just too much. The most common comment of surprise I heard from the experiment in AAA was a sense of rhythm in the game. I look forward to it.

Great question, not just for Twins fans, but for what the HOF should be. I think the greatest players at the various positions/roles in each time frame should be represented. There of course is no magic formula for how long or how great you have to be, but Santana was belatedly promoted to the rotation in summer of '03 (classic Twins move) and pitched so well he finished 7th in Cy Young, then was top 5 the following 6 years with 2 crowns and could easily have had 3 or 4 (look at how comparable his 2008 season with the Mets was to Lincecum). On top of that, he was excellent as a post-season starter with one bad inning (game 4 in 2004) out of 5 starts -unfortunately the rest of the team didn't hold their weight. He and Halladay were the best pitchers of that time with Halladay a first ballot and Santana doesn't get past the first year. So he's the bigger snub to me. That being said, Nathan was one of the very best at his role - relief pitching/closing out games under pressure. Mariano was his own level, but after that Hoffman, Wagner and Nathan were all excellent. Hoffman did it for longer, so he's in. The difference between Wagner and Nathan is so close so why will one get in within the next two years and the other is dropped off the ballot after one year? Also a snub. Right or wrong there are levels of induction: near unanimous, first ballot, inducted years 2-5 gaining momentum each year, made it but was forced to sweat it out, veterans committee, waited until he died. Eventually Johan and Nathan could get in.

Certainly part of the issue is usage rate of the slider. The other part at least as important (and perhaps more important) is location. Notice his change/split had more accuracy and purpose previously with two hot locations at the knees and lower/left quadrant whereas now his location is middle thigh-high...that's a problem. His sinker used to be outer half and now it middle and all over the place...also a problem. It's possible that the slider usage took him out of his comfort zone, hurt his confidence and impacted location of other pitches. We can hope that's the case so that now he'll not only reduce usage of the slider, but pitch more effectively overall. A topic I look forward to post-Berrios trade is the building of a playoff-caliber rotation. I think it's smart to sign for 1 year veterans with rebound potential or injury prone to compete for starts with young guys for the #4/#5 spots in the rotation. However we gotta have 3 spots locked in like we did to start this season. If the FO thinks we're at least a couple of years out then do they let Pineda walk and just promote all the top prospects next year? If things are looking good for a couple of them the Twins then get active after the 2023 season? If that's the case why even keep Maeda - except to prevent STH'ers like me from bailing? Perhaps they think this is a "correction" rather than a recession for the team and instead got very good return on a pitcher they weren't going to be able to sign and will be aggressive in the FA market after the 2022 season to contend in 2023.

Eddie's aggressiveness has its pros (able to get a big hit even off a pitcher's pitch and able to get the extra base even inducing some errors by the opponent) and its cons (popping up on one pitch after a pitcher has thrown 6 straight balls and getting thrown out at third with two outs). These are reminiscent of Torii when he was that age and he improved as he matured. The reason I wouldn't wear Eddie's number nor use him as an example to follow is his lack of professionalism. Since the All-Star Break alone we've seen him lolly-gag into the LF corner allowing a double to become a triple, miss a lazy fly, and this weekend admire his well struck ball that was an easy double that he turned into an out by getting stuck in a run down between first and second. The catch to trading him of course is that he's the flashy player that fans have attached to "Eddie!, Eddie!, Eddie!"

Hard to tell if this is meant what the Twins should have done in 2001, what they should have done regardless of contract and money rumors, or what they should have done in hindsight. Seems to dance around everywhere. 1)With no knowledge of hindsight, I think the Twins were wise. The team was rebuilding. So the Twins would get Prior 2.5 years earlier, but the team may not turn the corner for a couple more years. Maybe it was media hype, but there was a question as to whether Prior would willingly come to Minnesota and if he did the bonus could be as much as $18M. It turned out to be $10M for the Cubs but there was the risk that wouldn't be the case. The extra $5M is a lot for a draftee and the Twins have always adhered to sticking to their budget. A hitting catcher within state and being a HS'er they knew he would be signable. 2)Excluding money and signability, I think it would have been almost unanimous to go with Prior. More can happen in a bad way with a high schooler in the path to the Majors. Though the danger is Prior's clock would start right away. If it took untll 2004 for the Twins team to be a contender then he would be one year away from arbitration. The Twins have been very careful about timing of salaries and not paying a lot when the team isn't in contention. 3)Hindsight. Considering the injuries that happen to pitchers including the Twins, I can't say Prior would have been healthy here. I can say the 2002-2004 team would have been better since Prior was very good and Mauer didn't play until 2004 and then hooked his cleat in the carpet and immediately got injured. So the Twins could very well have won it all one of those years with Prior. The Twins would likely not have made the big comeback in 2006 (that was a really good team that I still can't figure out how they got swept by the A's), would not have played in game 163 in 2008 or 2009 and not have made the playoffs in 2009 or 2010. Would I give up first round playoff losses for one championship? Yes. Would I willingly miss the playoffs for the rest of the decade for the chance to advance farther in 2002-04 hopefully including a championship? This is the question that splits Twins fans into different camps every year. After these last 4 years, the answer is probably no because it sucks having a bad team. After 2010, the answer was certainly yes. In the end, this article is interesting, but no I don't regret the Mauer signing.