Squirrel

Ah! That’s what happened … without an announcer to say what was happening, it was a bit confusing

Lol … the first was a solid line drive to right field. The second was a high pop to LF that was misplayed

Lol. I think they just put a bunch of guys at the top of the order to get them at bats

I think it’s a good plan given the roster so far as it looks this year. Maybe they are onto something when they don’t have that specific of a role player like Cruz. I think it’s a good way to utilize the bench so no one gets too cold. Not sure how far into the season we go to see if it’s working or not. Thanks for the SSS research. Interesting.

Well, definitely a minor league game now with errors in the outfield

Well … do I say they scored zero after loading the bases and no outs? A K (Lee) followed by a dp (White)

Let’s see how they handle bases loaded no outs …

Nice dp to get out of the inning

Moran having some difficulties but eh, ST, blah blah blah

Up to 6 runs now

And the Twins just scored 2!

Let’s stay on topic here … Building the Pitching Staff

My guess is because it’s a split squad game so will have lots of minor leaguers in the game. And at this stage of the game even if we had regular starters they’d only be in for an inning or two. Probably makes for better television when people see who they expect to see? But totally a guess. And players and pitchers a like will only be in for a short time. Pitchers only 1 or 2 innings, players will get a couple at bats then substituted

Is this one televised? Anyone watching? Beautiful day here. Lineups don’t matter as they’ll be changing every few innings so won’t post them. Maeda starts for probably one inning.

I spent the last three days over at Lee County Sport Complex wandering, watching, taking in my fill. While I don’t have many specifics to add, I thought I’d just do one big photo and video dump. I tried to get variety and as many different players that I could. These were all taken on my phone, and yeah, I’m not a photographer or videographer, which will become obvious. And I don’t apologize for it one iota. I tried to label what I could and what I remembered. 🙂 Field adjacent to the stadium, waiting for players to start their day. Autograph hounds waiting to get players to sign all the stuff they brought with them. Set up ready for warm ups. The infield only field, named for TK. The stadium, looking toward the infield. The main stadium, looking towards the outfield. Joey Gallo taking some practice at 1st base IMG_3131.MOV IMG_3132.MOV Kepler in the cages Can’t remember who all this is. Tony O is the one on the left Pitchers getting ready for warm ups IMG_3139.MOV Chris Paddack throwing Position players warming up IMG_3144.MOV I think this is Eduard Julien? Austin Martin @chpettit19 IMG_3153.MOV Can you spot Randy Dobnak? I think this is Jorge López IMG_3160.MOV Randy Dobnak I think that’s Nick Gordon tagging the base, with Correa looking on Jovani Moran A bunch of guys coming off the field IMG_3165.MOV IMG_3166.MOV IMG_3167.MOV IMG_3168.MOV IMG_3176.MOV IMG_3177.MOV IMG_3178.MOV IMG_3181.MOV Miranda taking swings, with Gordon looking on Don’t remember who this is and I can’t tell from this photo

I like the rotating DH … it will allow for greater flexibility for match ups and rest days. I’ve always thought having a DH is a wasted clog on the 26-man … one player who does nothing else but hit in the 3 or 4 spot but never plays in the field.

I found it interesting what Farmer said about how the Twins had tech stuff to help evaluate that the Reds didn’t have. And Gray makes me excited … let’s win! I also found it interesting who has corner lockers. I guess that’s a big deal.

Then we disagree. Because no matter how we acquire prospects, if they aren’t major league ready, and still require development, they go into our pipeline.

I think these pitchers are absolutely part of the pipeline. There are times teams need to and will trade vets even if they are winning. To expect a pipeline to consist only of one’s own draftees I think is incredibly limiting. You fill the pipeline any way you can. Already people are talking about trading Polanco because we have prospects waiting in the wings. Getting back prospects for him would be good. It’s not just about trading off vets in a down year it’s also about trading them for more prospect talent when you need the space for someone else. And maybe Ryan is a windfall acquisition, I could see your argument there, but both Alcala and Duran spent significant time being developed within our own system. They are definitely OUR pipeline. If a prospect isn’t ML ready and still needs development that is pipeline work.

You know … you can always create your own polls, too … in fact, this is me encouraging you! I’m sure we’d all like a VanPoll!

You said this way better than me and you remembered way more pitchers than I did off the top of my head. I think when people think of ‘the pipeline’, I wonder if they think we should be producing aces all from our drafts? And, considering the depth you listed, I’d say our pipeline is pretty healthy … but let’s hope for no leaky or broken pipes, too!

Any pipeline isn’t completely homegrown from draft classes, for any team, that would also be unsustainable and require one to never miss on a draftee which is impossible. Building a pipeline also happens by trading vets for prospects in down years or rebuild years. I agree that we can’t sustain this by trading prospects for major league ready pitching, but that list shows that we haven’t done that. Ryan was acquired by trading Nelson Cruz, when we were no longer in contention, Duran by trading Escobar when we were no longer in contention, and Alcala by trading Pressly. And in some of those cases we trade major leaguer for major leaguer as was the case for Pablo López PLUS acquired a nice addition to our position player pipeline. And, it could be argued that we traded for Maeda, a major league starter by using a major league ready reliever. Same with Paddock and Pagan … major league for major league. Now, you can argue that you didn’t like some of those trades, but the bottom line is we didn’t use just prospects to acquire those pitchers. That would truly be unsustainable, but that’s not what we did. IMO, I consider Ryan, Duran, Jax, Moran, Alcala all from our pipeline. Even maybe Thielbar. Because you also fill out the pipeline with minor league signings that turn out. And then there are several on the cusp or coming … Ober, Winder, Balazovic, maybe Sands will go the Jax route, etc.

Let me qualify my response further. While on paper, I would not say this is a WS team, but, who knows. The rotation is hugely improved and they’ve brought in some players who should add to the offense. Wish they had done a bit more with the BP, yet again, but I’m okay ‘waiting and seeing’ there, for now. They brought in a very good, starting catcher. The FO is hardly ‘hoping to just tread water’ here. While results mean something and will finish the story, I am optimistic that this year will be an improvement over last. I guess if your definition of treading water isn’t to be a definitive WS team, okay, but it’s not mine. And without a single game having yet to be played, I think this take of ‘just treading water’ is way off base.

Wtf, man. You obviously pay little attention and read nothing. Go tread elsewhere.