Steven Buhr

Not sure I'd agree that they are "done," but I do think he's teetering on the edge. Whether it's in the outfield or at 1B, his peers are beginning to outdistance him, in terms of performance, and some of the players coming up behind him are looking like they may have as much, or more, potential. It has reached the point where, when you forecast a Twins lineup over the next few years, it's tough to see where he would be likely to fit.

Yeah, Tommy had enough sense to avoid hanging out with us.

I'd agree that the bullpen options from within the organization probably have at least as good a chance of being effective as anything you might get on the open market. The point was just that there are a number of spots that are, or should be, open in the pen. It was not a solid MLB-level bullpen at the end. Which is interesting, I guess, because my recollection is that a year ago, the bullpen was seen as one of the few relatively positive roster components. Just goes to show how quickly that can change. Personally, I think it's going to be a pretty quiet offseason for the Twins. I'm not expecting much, if anything, in significant trades or free agent signings.

Reports have estimated that as many as 100 members of the Twins staff may participate in the meetings this week. That's a lot of people, but then it's a big job. In Part 1, we covered the manager and coaching staffing issues. In Part 2, we look at roster matters at the major league and minor league levels.As indicated in Part 1, over the coming days, weeks and months, the Twins need to: Hire a new manager for the first time in over a decade.Work with said new manager to assemble a seven-person big league level coaching staff.Assign manager and coaching duties to every level of minor league affiliate.Determine which, if any, of their minor league free agents to attempt to retain.Determine at which minor league level to place a significant number of their top young prospects to start 2015.Determine whether to offer arbitration to a few members of their current big league roster.Identify potential MLB level free agents and/or trade targets to pursue once the World Series is completed.http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ToDo-List.jpg Some of the items on that to-do list are not common tasks for this organization, but even for some of those that are on the list every postseason, the stakes this year have risen significantly. Concurrently with their efforts to identify and put in place big league and farm system managers and coaches, the Twins also have some work to do on the player front. Filling out the roster(s) When the subject of filling out the 2015 roster comes up among most Twins fans, the discussion generally focuses on which of the current Twins will/should be back with the club and which potential acquisitions Terry Ryan should seek in the free agent and/or trade market. Granted, these are both important considerations. But, given that 2015 is looking more like a bridge to the next era of competitive baseball at Target Field than it is a destination itself, the make-up of the organization’s minor league rosters may be as important as that of the big league roster, if not more so. For the past couple of years, as the farm system has been being restocked, even the most optimistic fans of the organization have conceded that many of the Twins’ most promising prospects have been in the low minors, multiple years away from being of any help to the parent club. Sure, it was fun to watch Byron Buxton put on a show for the Fox Sports North audience in 2013 when the cable network televised one of Buxton’s Cedar Rapids Kernels games. But while the distance between Cedar Rapids and Target Field can be traversed in less than five hours, the time it takes for a prospect to progress from the Class A Kernels to the Twins is much longer – frustratingly so, in some cases. The 2012 Elizabethton Twins won the Appalachian League championship. In 2013, many of those same players made up a Cedar Rapids Kernels playoff team that went 88-50. This past season, largely the same crop of prospects contributed to Fort Myers Florida State League championship team. In 2015, that group should largely fill out the roster for the first season of the Twins new AA affiliation with the Chattanooga Lookouts. No problem, right? Move them up there. Challenge them. A player who masters Class AA is generally considered a candidate to skip AAA and move up to the Big Club if a need for someone at his position presents itself and that player is deemed to be a more promising option than whoever fills that position in Rochester. The thing is, you don’t have to stretch your imagination far to find 30 or more players who, arguably, should be starting their season at AA. That’s a problem when you’re allowed only 25 players on the Lookouts roster. Jeremy Nygaard maintains an excellent database at Twins Daily that includes a variety of important information concerning every player in the Twins organization. For example, did you know that the Twins also have 23 minor leaguers in their system eligible for free agency this offseason - or that 21 of them are already at Class AA or higher? They also have a similar number of players eligible to be selected by another organization in the Rule 5 draft if they aren’t added to the Twins’ 40-man roster by December. Granted, few of those potential free agents would be viewed as potential linchpins on future Twins teams and even fewer of the Rule 5 eligibles are likely to be lost in that draft. But with the promising class set to move up to Chattanooga, the front office does have its work cut out for it this week when they sit down to fill out preliminary rosters for their AAA and AA clubs. Finally, there’s the minor little project of assembling a major league roster. And, by “major league roster,” I mean a roster of players who have either demonstrated that they possess a talent level worthy of being on a major league roster or, at the least, have shown potential to be elite big leaguers in the not-so-distant future. Of course, this topic can (and certainly will) warrant entire articles devoted to it all on its own. For purposes of brevity here, suffice to say that the Twins need to identify big league talent to fill the following positions: A starting pitcher worthy of being a #1 or #2 starter for a competitive big league team.Multiple bullpen spots.A major league center fielder.A major league left fielder.Any other positions that may open up due to trades.That’s a pretty substantial shopping list. Some of these needs may be filled from within the organization, some via trade and some via free agency. What they all have in common is that, at the end of 2014, they did not have an incumbent that you would definitively declare to be a legitimate everyday major league talent. When you consider all the work to be accomplished this week – paring down the manager options, looking at coaching candidates for both big league and minor league positions and assembling rosters at multiple organizational levels, not the least of which is for the Twins team itself, I’m not sure 100 people in Fort Myers is going to be enough. Of course, I have some vacation time coming if Terry Ryan would like me to come down and offer some ideas. I’m just a phone call, email or tweet away. Click here to view the article

By the way... given Jeremy's condition that night after the game in CR, I'm surprised he even remembered talking to Kanzler at Bushwood afterward, much less what kind of car I drive!

Guess we have one answer. Mike Berardino reporting Virgil Vasquez will be the Twins' GCL level pitching coach in 2015.

The bottom line is that you have to figure almost the entire hi-A Miracle roster will be set to move up to AA either to start the 2015 season or not too deep in to it. That would include a few guys, like Polanco, who spent most of their season at FtM, but moved up to AA near the end of 2014. That means you have essentially two full rosters of 2014 players, from New Britain and Rochester, that will only have one affiliate roster's worth of spots to fill, at AAA. I suspect we'll see a lot of the guys on Seth's list in this article not brought back and maybe a few guys still not eligible for MiLB free agency who get released, as well.

Yeah, I guess I kind of penciled in Rosario at Rochester, but he certainly could start at AA. The thing is that all of those guys need regular playing time. You can rotate 4 of these guys though the OF and DH, and maybe 5 guys if you add 1B to the mix, but more than that would mean you have genuine prospects sitting too much. In any event, Chattanooga should be loaded, at least until/unless the Twins decide they need to push some of these players to AAA.

Finally found time to listen to this week's podcast and really enjoyed the chat with Kanzler. Disappointed that he didn't have anything to say about the excellent media coverage he got in CR, but otherwise a great interview. I'm assuming he'll start 2015 back in Fort Myers while Buxton/Kepler/Walker/Harrison fill the outfield in Chattanooga, but you can't help but wonder just a bit at how great it would be to be a pitcher in the Twins organization with both Buxton and Kanzler in the same outfield behind you.

Something to bear in mind as you look at those draft picks - those high first round draft picks of the Royals and those critical international signings took place something between six and nine years ago. If you apply the same timeline to the Twins' situation, you'd be looking at about another five years before the Twins' group of Sano, Polanco, Buxton, Berrios, et al, would be "scheduled" to have the kind of success that the Royals are having this year. Everyone talks as if this next group of Twins prospects are arriving and it means they will be competitive by 2016, but that would assume that all of these new arrivals become productive MLB ballplayers almost immediately upon setting foot on Target Field's grass. But it's far more likely to take a few years more and I'm not sure the fan base, in general, will have that kind of patience at this point.

This is Part 2 of 2, concerning the work to be done this week by the Minnesota Twins staff at their "organizational meetings" in Fort Myers this week. Reports have estimated that as many as 100 members of the Twins staff may participate in the meetings this week. That's a lot of people, but then it's a big job. In Part 1, we covered the manager and coaching staffing issues. In Part 2, we look at roster matters at the Major League and minor league levels. As indicated in Part 1, over the coming days, weeks and months, the Twins need to Hire a new manager for the first time in over a decade. Work with said new manager to assemble a seven-person big league level coaching staff. Assign manager and coaching duties to every level of minor league affiliate. Determine which, if any, of their minor league free agents to attempt to retain. Determine at which minor league level to place a significant number of their top young prospects to start 2015. Determine whether to offer arbitration to a few members of their current big league roster. Identify potential MLB level free agents and/or trade targets to pursue once the World Series is completed. http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ToDo-List.jpg Some of the items on that to-do list are not common tasks for this organization, but even for some of those that are on the list every postseason, the stakes this year have risen significantly. Concurrently with their efforts to identify and put in place big league and farm system managers and coaches, the Twins also have some work to do on the player front. Filling out the roster(s) When the subject of filling out the 2015 roster comes up among most Twins fans, the discussion generally focuses on which of the current Twins will/should be back with the club and who potential acquisitions might be that Terry Ryan should seek in the free agent and/or trade market. Granted, those are important considerations. But, given that 2015 is looking more like a bridge to the next era of competitive baseball at Target Field than it is a destination itself, the make-up of the organization’s minor league rosters may be equally important to that of the big league roster, if not more so. For the past couple of years, as the farm system has been being restocked, even the most optimistic fans of the organization have conceded that most of the Twins’ most promising prospects have been in the low minors, multiple years away from being of any help to the parent club. Sure, it was fun to watch Byron Buxton put on a show for the Fox Sports North audience in 2013 when the cable network televised one of Buxton’s Cedar Rapids Kernels games. But while the distance between Cedar Rapids and Target Field can be traversed in less than five hours, the time it takes for a prospect to progress from the Class A Kernels to the Twins is much longer – frustratingly so, in some cases. The 2012 Elizabethton Twins won the Appalachian League championship. In 2013, many of those same players made up a Cedar Rapids Kernels playoff team that went 88-50. This past season, largely the same crop of prospects contributed to Fort Myers’ Florida State League championship team. In 2015, that group should largely fill out the roster for the first season of the Twins’ new AA affiliation with the Chattanooga Lookouts. No problem, right? Move them up there. Challenge them. A player who masters Class AA is generally considered a candidate to skip AAA and move up to the Big Club if a need for someone at his position presents itself and that player is deemed to be a more promising solution than whoever fills that position in Rochester. The thing is, you don’t have to stretch your imagination far to find 30 or more players who, arguably, should be starting their season at AA. That’s a problem when you’re only allowed 25 players on the Lookouts’ roster. Jeremy Nygaard maintains an excellent database at Twins Daily that includes a variety of important information concerning every player in the Twins organization. For example, did you know that the Twins also have 23 minor leaguers in their system eligible for free agency this offseason - or that 21 of them are already at Class AA or higher? They also have a similar number of players eligible to be selected by another organization in the Rule 5 draft if they aren’t added to the Twins’ 40-man MLB roster by December. Granted, few of those potential free agents would be viewed as potential lynchpins on future Twins teams and even fewer of the Rule 5 eligibles are likely to be lost in that draft, but with the promising class set to move up to Chattanooga, the front office does have its work cut out for it this week when they sit down to fill out preliminary rosters for their AAA and AA clubs. Finally, there’s the minor little project to assemble a Major League roster. And, by “Major League roster,” I mean a roster of players who have either demonstrated that they possess a talent level worthy of being on a Major League roster or, at least, have shown potential to be elite big leaguers in the not-so-distant future. Of course, this topic can (and certainly will) warrant entire articles devoted to it all on its own. For purposes of brevity here, suffice to say that the Twins need to identify big league talent to fill the following positions: A starting pitcher worthy of being a #1 or #2 starter for a competitive big league team. Multiple bullpen spots. A Major League center fielder. A Major League left fielder. Any other position that may open up due to trades. That’s a pretty substantial shopping list. Some of these needs may be filled from within the organization, some via trade and some via free agency. What they all have in common is that, at the end of 2014, they did not have an incumbent that you would definitively declare to be a legitimate everyday Major League talent. When you consider all the work to be accomplished this week – paring down the manager options, looking at coaching candidates for both big league and minor league positions, and assembling rosters at multiple organizational levels, not the least of which is for the Twins team itself, I’m not sure 100 people in Fort Myers is going to be enough. Of course, I have some vacation time coming if Terry Ryan would like me to come down and offer some ideas. I’m just a phone call, email or Tweet away.

The Minnesota Twins are holding their annual “organizational meetings” in Fort Myers this week. As newsworthy baseball stories go, that bit of information ranks quite a bit below the MLB postseason games and their seemingly nightly extra-inning games and walk-off finishes. What exactly are the organizational meetings?Well, in Hollywood’s version of Moneyball, you may remember seeing Brad Pitt as Oakland General Manager Billy Beane gathering a few guys around a table in a room and tossing out names of players they might want to pursue acquiring for the following season. That may have fit screenwriter Aaron Sorkin’s needs, but it doesn’t come close to meeting the needs of a real life professional baseball organization. Reports have estimated that as many as 100 members of the Twins staff may participate in the meetings this week. That may seem like a lot of people, but the Twins have a lot of work to do. The Twins hold these meetings every October, but this year’s gathering could be the most critical such gathering in years. Over the coming days, weeks and months, the Twins need to Hire a new manager for the first time in over a decade.Work with said new manager to assemble a seven-person big league level coaching staff.Assign manager and coaching duties to every level of minor league affiliates.Determine which, if any, of their minor league free agents to attempt to retain.Determine at which minor league level to place a significant number of their top young prospects to start 2015.Determine whether to offer arbitration to a few members of their current big league roster.Identify potential MLB level free agents and/or trade targets to pursue once the World Series is completed.Some of the items on that to-do list are not common tasks for this organization, but even for some of those that are on the list every postseason, the stakes this year have risen significantly. First order of business: Identify and hire a new manager When it comes to deciding who should manage the Twins in 2015 and beyond, a seeming significant majority of fans agreed on one thing – it shouldn’t be Ron Gardenhire. OK, that group (which included me) got their wish. Gardenhire will not manage the Twins going forward. There is far less of a consensus concerning who SHOULD manage the Twins and, obviously, that’s a far more important question than simply coming to an agreement on who should not. A fair number of fans seem to feel that anyone the Twins could pick would be better than Gardy. I beg to differ. Say what you will about the man who managed the Twins for the past 13 years, but every year there were MLB managers who were worse at their job than was Ron Gardenhire. Some of those managers were newly hired by their organization. Some were getting their first opportunity to manage at the big league level. Of all of the confirmed candidates, both internal and external to the Twins organization that have been identified by the media, exactly one of them would not be making his MLB managing debut on Opening Day 2015 if he is hired by the Twins. The Twins have had just two managers since Ronald Reagan's second term as the US President wrapped up. That can lead fans to feel a certain level of complacency, as if it’s unlikely or even impossible for the Twins to make a bad hire. But they can and they have. Ray Miller, who preceded Tom Kelly in the job, managed just 239 games for the Twins before being axed. As was the case when Miller was hired back in 1985, the Twins are widely viewed as being on the cusp of a new era of competitiveness, with a number of highly touted young prospects nearing completion of their minor league apprenticeships. Making a bad hire could dangerously impede the club’s re-emergence to relevance in the American League Central Division. I agree with Terry Ryan. It’s not important if the new manager comes from within the organization or from the outside; whether he has prior experience or not; whether he is multi-lingual or struggles just to speak coherent English. What matters is that the choice is the right choice. Unfortunately, there’s no way to know with certainty whether that’s the case immediately, though I think we can pretty much be certain that a significant – and vocal - segment of the fan base will think it is not the right choice, regardless of the final decision. Assembling a big league coaching staff While not as highly visible as their selection of a manager, the final make-up of the Twins MLB coaching staff is arguably as important. The manager has to run the clubhouse and make out the lineup card and deal with the media and be the public face of the team. But it’s his coaching staff that will spend far more time working directly with the next generation of Twins players. When you look at the names of the players likely to wear Twins uniforms for the next several years, it’s not hard to project that as many as one-third of them in any given year will be Latin American. Some of them speak passable English. Many do not. It’s easy to say, “they should be learning English,” and – over time – they will. But even above the obvious need for coaches who can communicate with these players in their own language, it’s as important to have coaches familiar with the culture from which those players have come. I hope the next Twins manager is more open to using advanced metrics in his game-day decisions, or at the very least is far less openly dismissive of the idea than the recent field leader. But let’s be honest, no manager has the time to pour over all the information that’s going to be available to him and determine which is helpful and how to apply it every day. That makes it just as critical to have coaches who have experience doing exactly that and, where they don’t have such experience, they have minds open to learning and applying new things. Finally, Tom Brunansky certainly appears to have done a good job as hitting coach and if the Twins don’t move quickly to retain him, I think they risk losing him to another organization. I would hate to see that happen. Minor league assignments For the past few years, the Twins have pretty much nibbled at the edges when it comes to making adjustments to their staff of minor league managers and coaches. They’ve moved a couple guys around every year, but largely there has been a fair amount of consistency at every level, from non-Fort Meyers complex rookie ball at Elizabethton through AAA in Rochester. That’s normal when you have stability among the big league staff and, given the highly acclaimed status of the Twins minor league organization, you would perhaps like to see such stability continue. But since there are eight spots at the big league level open, it’s hard to imagine we won’t see some of those openings filled from within the current minor league managing/coaching ranks. Ray Smith has been managing at rookie level Elizabethton for 13 consecutive years (21 years overall) and is likely to continue there, but it would not be hard to imagine Gene Glynn (AAA), Jeff Smith (AA), Doug Mientkiewicz (High-A) or Jake Mauer (A) in the Twins dugout next season. Two of them, Glynn and Mientkiewicz, have interviewed for the manager vacancy, an indication of how highly the Twins think of both men, while Smith and Mauer have each been managing in the Twins organization for longer than Glynn and Mientkiewicz, respectively. If the Twins hire a manager from outside the organization, that manager is likely to bring in a few additional outsiders with him. If the Twins hire from within, one might hope that they similarly insist that the new manager include some outside blood among his staff. But in any event, given the Twins’ history of rewarding loyalty, it is almost impossible to imagine a Twins big league coaching staff without the presence of some number of coaches from within. That may well include one or more current minor league manager or coach, especially considering that they all will be familiar faces and voices to most of the Twins prospects due to arrive in the big leagues over the next couple years. By and large, most of the field managers and coaches in the minor league organization look to advance up the organizational ladder, just like the players do. When there are wholesale coaching changes at the big league level, it would be at least mildly surprising if there were not similar adjustments to the minor league assignments. Just as is the case with players, some of the staff may move up, some may look at the new landscape and decide their paths to the big leagues might be more open in another organization and, unfortunately, some will not be retained by the Twins, as minor league hitting coordinator Bill Springman and Fort Myers pitching coach Gary Lucas have already found out. Some fans have become so disgruntled with the Twins' lack of success at the big league level that they will be satisfied with nothing less than a clean sweep of every manager and coach in the Twins' system. That's not going to happen, nor should it. The Twins may indeed have become too insular and every organization benefits from adding quality people from the outside. Organizations also benefit from identifying and promoting quality people from within. The Twins are in a unique situation this offseason in that they have room in the organization to do both. Click here to view the article

The Minnesota Twins are holding their annual “organizational meetings” in Fort Myers this week. As newsworthy baseball stories go, that bit of information ranks quite a bit below the MLB postseason games and their seemingly nightly extra-inning games and walk-off finishes. What exactly are the organizational meetings? Well, in Hollywood’s version of Moneyball, you may remember seeing Brad Pitt as Oakland General Manager Billy Beane gathering a few guys around a table in a room and tossing out names of players they might want to pursue acquiring for the following season. That may have fit screenwriter Aaron Sorkin’s needs, but it doesn’t come close to meeting the needs of a real life professional baseball organization. http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ToDoList.jpg Reports have estimated that as many as 100 members of the Twins staff may participate in the meetings this week. That may seem like a lot of people, but the Twins have a lot of work to do. The Twins hold these meetings every October, but this year’s gathering could be the most critical such gathering in years. Over the coming days, weeks and months, the Twins need to Hire a new manager for the first time in over a decade. Work with said new manager to assemble a seven-person big league level coaching staff. Assign manager and coaching duties to every level of minor league affiliate. Determine which, if any, of their minor league free agents to attempt to retain. Determine at which minor league level to place a significant number of their top young prospects to start 2015. Determine whether to offer arbitration to a few members of their current big league roster. Identify potential MLB level free agents and/or trade targets to pursue once the World Series is completed. Some of the items on that to-do list are not common tasks for this organization, but even for some of those that are on the list every postseason, the stakes this year have risen significantly. First order of business: Identify and hire a new manager When it comes to deciding who should manage the Twins in 2015 and beyond, a seeming significant majority of fans agreed on one thing – it shouldn’t be Ron Gardenhire. OK, that group (which included me) got their wish. Gardenhire will not manage the Twins going forward. There is far less of a consensus concerning who SHOULD manage the Twins and, obviously, that’s a far more important question than simply coming to an agreement on who should not. A fair number of fans seem to feel that anyone the Twins could pick would be better than Gardy. I beg to differ. Say what you will about the man who managed the Twins for the past 13 years, every year there were MLB managers who were worse at their job than was Ron Gardenhire. Some of those managers were newly hired by their organization. Some were getting their first opportunity to manage at the big league level. Of all of the confirmed candidates, both internal and external to the Twins organization, that have been identified by the media, exactly one of them would not be making his MLB managing debut on Opening Day 2015 if he is hired by the Twins. The Twins have had just two managers since Ronald Reagan second term as the US President wrapped up. That can lead fans to feel a certain level of complacency, as if it’s unlikely or even impossible for the Twins to make a bad hire. But they can and they have. Ray Miller, who preceded Tom Kelly in the job, managed just 239 games for the Twins before being axed. As was the case when Miller was hired back in 1985, the Twins are widely viewed as being on the cusp of a new era of competitiveness, with a number of highly touted young prospects nearing completion of their minor league apprenticeships. Making a bad hire could dangerously impede the club’s reemergence in to relevancy in the American League Central Division. I agree with Terry Ryan. It’s not important if the new manager comes from within the organization or from the outside; whether he has prior experience or not; whether he is multi-lingual or struggles just to speak coherent English. What matters is that the choice is the right choice. Unfortunately, there’s no way to know with certainty whether that’s the case immediately (though I think we can pretty much be certain that a significant – and vocal - segment of the fan base will think it is not the right choice, regardless of the final decision). Assembling a big league coaching staff While not as highly visible as their selection of a manager, the final make-up of the Twins’ MLB coaching staff is arguably as important. The manager has to run the clubhouse and make out the line-up card and deal with the media and be the public face of the team. But it’s his coaching staff that will spend far more time working with directly with the next generation of Twins players. When you look at the names of the players likely to wear Twins uniforms for the next several years, it’s not hard to project that as many as one-third of them in any given year will be Latin American natives. Some of them speak passable English. Many do not. It’s easy to say, “they should be learning English,” and – over time – they will. But even above the obvious need for coaches who can communicate with these players in their own language, it’s equally important to have coaches familiar with the culture from which those players have come. I hope the next Twins manager is more open to using advanced metrics in his game-day decisions (or at the very least, is far less openly dismissive of the idea). But let’s be honest, no manager has the time to pour over all of the information that’s going to be available to him and determine which is helpful how to apply it every day. That makes it just as critical to have coaches who have experience doing exactly that and, where they don’t have such experience, they have minds open to learning and applying new things. Finally, Tom Brunansky certainly appears to have done a good job as hitting coach and if the Twins don’t move quickly to retain him, I think they risk losing him to another organization. I would hate to see that happen. Minor league assignments For the past few years, the Twins have pretty much nibbled at the edges when it comes to making adjustments to their staff of minor league managers and coaches. They’ve moved a couple guys around every year, but largely there has been a fair amount of consistency at every level, from non-complex rookie ball at Elizabethton through AAA in Rochester. That’s normal when you have stability among the big league staff and, given the highly acclaimed status of the Twins minor league organization, you would perhaps like to see such stability continue. But when there are eight spots at the big league level open, it’s hard to imagine we won’t see some of those openings filled from within the current minor league managing/coaching ranks. Ray Smith has been managing at rookie level Elizabethton for 13 consecutive years (21 years overall) and is likely to continue there, but it would not be hard to imagine Gene Glynn (AAA), Jeff Smith (AA), Doug Mientkiewicz (hi-A) or Jake Mauer (A) in the Twins dugout next season. Two of them, Glynn and Mientkiewicz, have interviewed for the manager vacancy, an indication of how highly the Twins think of both men, while Smith and Mauer have each been managing in the Twins organization for longer than Glynn and Mientkiewicz, combined. If the Twins hire a manager from outside the organization, that manager is likely to bring in a few additional outsiders with him. If the Twins hire from inside the organization, one might hope that they similarly insist that the new manager include some outside blood among his staff. But in any event, given the Twins’ history of rewarding loyalty, it is almost impossible to imagine a Twins big league coaching staff without the presence of some number of coaches from within. That may well include one or more current minor league manager or coach, especially considering that they all will be familiar faces and voices to most of the Twins prospects due to arrive in the big leagues over the next couple of years. By and large, most of the field managers and coaches in the minor league organization look to advance up the organizational ladder, just like the players do. When there are wholesale coaching changes made at the big league level, it would be at least mildly surprising if there were not similar adjustments to the minor league assignments. Just as is the case with players, some of the staff may move up, some may look at the new landscape and decide their paths to the big leagues might be more open in another organization and, unfortunately, some will not be retained by the Twins, as minor league hitting coordinator Bill Springman and Fort Myers pitching coach Gary Lucas have already found out. Some fans have become so disgruntled with the Twins' lack of success at the big league level that they will be satisfied with nothing less than a clean sweep of every manager and coach in the Twins' system. That's not going to happen, nor should it. The Twins may indeed have become too insular and every organization benefits from adding quality people from the outside. Organizations also benefit from identifying and promoting quality people from within. The Twins are in a unique situation this offseason in that they have room in the organization to do both.

Parker, my recollection is that Pitchf/x is installed in relatively few minor league ballparks. Sometime when you are talking to Jack, I'd be interested in knowing whether the Twins have an interest in seeing all of their affiliates install the system. I would imagine in smaller parks, the camera angle situation may not be ideal, but one would think that, if the information is valuable to collect on MLB players, it would be perhaps even more valuable to have on your minor leaguers.

The players' situations haven't changed, but the team's has. The Twins no longer have a manager & staff coaching for their jobs. A year ago, the Twins were still selling the idea, unlikely as it may have been, that the 2014 team was going to significantly improve because they had gone out and spent heavily on the FA pitching market. They could not have argued that AND plugged a couple of young prospects, no matter how highly thought of, in to the opening day line up. Those factors no longer exist. New staff can promote a new beginning with a new attitude and that is, "the future is now." No saying it will happen and I absolutely understand the arguments against rushing them. But to say that argument has not changed because the players didn't play a year ago misses the point. The team's situation has changed.

Wait a minute... According to Mike, Paul Molitor was offered the opportunity to replace Ron Gardenhire in July of 2013 and turned the Twins down because the offer was merely an "interim" gig with no assurance of becoming the manager for 2014 and beyond. I can understand that decision by Molitor. But, the decision that baffles me, given this information, is the one that led the Twins to renew Gardenhire for an additional two years after the season. If they were ready to pull the trigger in July, just what was it about the Twins' August and September performance that made the FO change their minds about retaining him? That's a head scratcher.

Just checked and found I could fly down there for about $200 round trip. I can't think of any good reason why I haven't made that trip yet.

What a bunch of nervous nellies! Of course, we see how these two do in fall/winter ball. But really... "wait 2 months"? Why? I mean, if you want to claim neither guy is ready and might need the better part of the year in the minors to be better seasoned, OK, I can at least understand that, even if I don't necessarily agree right now. And don't even go down the "service time" path, please. Not with potential superstars. You worry about service time for guys you think might play out the string through the arbitration process. If these two aren't locked up long-term well before anyone worries about service time, something has gone terribly wrong. You're going to have a new manager and new coaches, but if you want to regain your fan base and prove you are immediately setting out to get the "next wave" of players in place to start being competitive, you don't fool around with your next two superstars by having them cool their heels for 2 months. Especially when one of them plays a position that, should he not open with the Twins, is a potentially fatal gaping defensive hole.

It's the offseason, so that means we are already deep in thought and discussion concerning 2015 roster construction for the Minnesota Twins.I reserve the right to change my mind, of course, but my preliminary thought on the subject has resulted in a conclusion I wasn't expecting: Byron Buxton and Miguel Sano should both be Minnesota Twins on Opening Day 2015.True, General Manager Terry Ryan has some time before he has to give much thought to such an un-Twins-like idea. (This article was originally posted at Knuckleballsblog.com) Ryan can spend October finding a manager, gathering with his staff for organizational meetings in Florida and putting together a minor league field management organization. But when the final out is made in this year's World Series, it's time to get serious about this roster. When he does, maybe Buxton and Sano should part of his plan. My thoughts aren't firmly in place yet, but it occurs to me that, if we're all so certain that the Twins' GM needs to think a bit differently than he has in the past when it comes to hiring a manager and coaching staff, maybe it's time to think a bit differently about how he treats his future superstars, too. So, even if you think I've lost my mind (and I may ultimately conclude the same thing), hear me out for a moment. I think most Twins fans would like to see improvement in two specific areas next season. First, as seems to always be the case, we want another top-tier starting pitcher. Maybe Ricky Nolasco will bounce back or maybe he won't. If he doesn't, Phil Hughes is going to need help at the top of the rotation. Even if Nolasco does rebound, I'd love to have him as my #3 starter rather than my #2, if I could land a bigger fish in the offseason. The second area of relative consensus is that the outfield must improve. The Twins scored enough runs in 2014 to be a competitive baseball team. They simply didn't keep opponents from crossing the plate nearly enough. If the starting pitching was problem number 1A, the outfield defense was certainly 1B. Fixing the starting pitching is easy enough. You shell out the money to lure one of the top free agent starters. If you're not willing to do that, you might reach for another Phil Hughes-type, but I'm not enthused about that approach. I think you go for the top guys or you just load up Trevor May and Alex Meyer to go with Hughes, Nolasco and Kyle Gibson and get Jose Berrios ready for an early call-up when it becomes necessary. As tired as we all are of losing 90 games, making a managerial changes takes a little bit of pressure off in terms of the 2015 season. For the first time in about three years, you don't enter the season with the staff coaching for their professional lives. So, if you can't (or won't) add a true difference-maker to your rotation, you can simply accelerate the advancement of those minor leaguers that you feel are closest to being ready. Which brings us to the outfield dilemma. The outfield situation is only a dilemma because of Byron Buxton. Without his presence looming, you could address the outfield just like you do the starting pitching - go out and get the best guy you can buy or trade for on the market. But Buxton's presence means (1) the Twins won't add someone on a high-dollar long-term deal that would "block" Buxton, and (2) no centerfielder on the free agent market with designs on a long-term deal is going to want to come to Minnesota, anyway. That appears to leave the Twins with two options. Either they identify a short-term solution they can sign/trade for or they keep the status quo, using Jordan Schafer or Danny Santana until Buxton is deemed ready for prime time. With expectations dampened and a new manager in the dugout, however, maybe it's time to just say, "screw development," and throw Byron Buxton out there right from the start. And while you're at it, do the same thing with Miguel Sano. http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/SanoST11-742x1024.jpg Miguel Sano These two guys are going to be the cornerstones of the Twins for years to come, so why not just get them in the game right now? Sure, they'll struggle. But if they don't arrive until 2016, you have to assume they'll struggle some, then, too. Okay, I know, we can think of a number of reasons NOT to do this. They both essentially lost their entire 2014 seasons to injury and there is no assurance either player is really ready to face Major League pitching. The specter of Aaron Hicks' two years of near-abject failure, after being pushed up to the big leagues prematurely, looms over the organization. And he came up after spending almost twice as much time as Sano at AA, a level Buxton hasn't technically completed a full game at, much less a season. You certainly wouldn't want to damage the psyches of Buxton or Sano by having them fail miserably. But you know what? From what I've seen of these two guys, I don't think we have to worry about their psyches. Both players know what their destinies are and they aren't going to let a little bit of a learning curve keep them from getting where they know they belong in this game. We have seen how they address new challenges. They see. They learn. They adjust. Then they dominate. So, maybe the Twins should just skip the whole, "what do we do to improve the outfield until Buxton gets here," era and put the guy in centerfield. Maybe you take them aside and say, "Guys, if you're healthy in April, you're going to be Minnesota Twins. You may perform like Kennys Vargas or you may look more like Aaron Hicks, but you're going to stay in Minnesota. You will not be sent back to the minors. From this point forward, you are Major League baseball players. Now get to work and act like it." The thing is, you can't wait until spring training to make this decision. It wouldn't be fair to Trevor Plouffe. If Sano is going to step in as your primary third baseman, Plouffe needs to spend some time this winter learning to play left field. Maybe he and Joe Mauer could learn together. For that matter, I'd tell Sano to go out there and shag some fly balls, too, because I'm not convinced the Twins won't discover they're better off defensively with Sano in the outfield and Plouffe at the hot corner. But one way or another, maybe Buxton and Sano should be in the Opening Day line up. Imagine for a moment: Buxton CF Dozier 2B Mauer 1B Vargas DH Sano LF/3B Arcia RF Plouffe 3B/LF Escobar/Santana SS Suzuki C I'd buy tickets to see that line up, no matter who the starting pitcher is. I bet a few other people would, too. Click here to view the article

If the Twins haven't locked up both Buxton and Sano long term well before they reach anything close to free agency, there's something very wrong going on.

It's the offseason, so that means we are already deep in thought and discussion concerning 2015 roster construction for the Minnesota Twins. I reserve the right to change my mind, of course, but my preliminary thought on the subject has resulted in a conclusion I wasn't expecting. Byron Buxton and Miguel Sano should both be Minnesota Twins on Opening Day 2015. True, General Manager Terry Ryan has some time before he has to give much thought to such an un-Twins-like idea. (This article was originally posted at Knuckleballsblog.com) Ryan can spend October finding a manager, gathering with his staff for organizational meetings in Florida and putting together a minor league field management organization. But when the final out is made in this year's World Series, it's time to get serious about this roster. When he does, maybe Buxton and Sano should part of his plan. http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Buxton31.jpg Byron Buxton My thoughts aren't firmly in place yet, but it occurs to me that, if we're all so certain that the Twins' GM needs to think a bit differently than he has in the past when it comes to hiring a manager and coaching staff, maybe it's time to think a bit differently about how he treats his future superstars, too. So, even if you think I've lost my mind (and I may ultimately conclude the same thing), hear me out for a moment. I think most Twins fans would like to see improvement in two specific areas next season. First, as seems to always be the case, we want another top-tier starting pitcher. Maybe Ricky Nolasco will bounce back or maybe he won't. If he doesn't, Phil Hughes is going to need help at the top of the rotation. Even if Nolasco does rebound, I'd love to have him as my #3 starter rather than my #2, if I could land a bigger fish in the offseason. The second area of relative consensus is that the outfield must improve. The Twins scored enough runs in 2014 to be a competitive baseball team. They simply didn't keep opponents from crossing the plate nearly enough. If the starting pitching was problem number 1A, the outfield defense was certainly 1B. Fixing the starting pitching is easy enough. You shell out the money to lure one of the top free agent starters. If you're not willing to do that, you might reach for another Phil Hughes-type, but I'm not enthused about that approach. I think you go for the top guys or you just load up Trevor May and Alex Meyer to go with Hughes, Nolasco and Kyle Gibson and get Jose Berrios ready for an early call-up when it becomes necessary. As tired as we all are of losing 90 games, making a managerial changes takes a little bit of pressure off in terms of the 2015 season. For the first time in about three years, you don't enter the season with the staff coaching for their professional lives. So, if you can't (or won't) add a true difference-maker to your rotation, you can simply accelerate the advancement of those minor leaguers that you feel are closest to being ready. Which brings us to the outfield dilemma. The outfield situation is only a dilemma because of Byron Buxton. Without his presence looming, you could address the outfield just like you do the starting pitching - go out and get the best guy you can buy or trade for on the market. But Buxton's presence means (1) the Twins won't add someone on a high-dollar long-term deal that would "block" Buxton, and (2) no centerfielder on the free agent market with designs on a long-term deal is going to want to come to Minnesota, anyway. That appears to leave the Twins with two options. Either they identify a short-term solution they can sign/trade for or they keep the status quo, using Jordan Schafer or Danny Santana until Buxton is deemed ready for prime time. With expectations dampened and a new manager in the dugout, however, maybe it's time to just say, "screw development," and throw Byron Buxton out there right from the start. And while you're at it, do the same thing with Miguel Sano. http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/SanoST11-742x1024.jpg Miguel Sano These two guys are going to be the cornerstones of the Twins for years to come, so why not just get them in the game right now? Sure, they'll struggle. But if they don't arrive until 2016, you have to assume they'll struggle some, then, too. Okay, I know, we can think of a number of reasons NOT to do this. They both essentially lost their entire 2014 seasons to injury and there is no assurance either player is really ready to face Major League pitching. The specter of Aaron Hicks' two years of near-abject failure, after being pushed up to the big leagues prematurely, looms over the organization. And he came up after spending almost twice as much time as Sano at AA, a level Buxton hasn't technically completed a full game at, much less a season. You certainly wouldn't want to damage the psyches of Buxton or Sano by having them fail miserably. But you know what? From what I've seen of these two guys, I don't think we have to worry about their psyches. Both players know what their destinies are and they aren't going to let a little bit of a learning curve keep them from getting where they know they belong in this game. We have seen how they address new challenges. They see. They learn. They adjust. Then they dominate. So, maybe the Twins should just skip the whole, "what do we do to improve the outfield until Buxton gets here," era and put the guy in centerfield. Maybe you take them aside and say, "Guys, if you're healthy in April, you're going to be Minnesota Twins. You may perform like Kennys Vargas or you may look more like Aaron Hicks, but you're going to stay in Minnesota. You will not be sent back to the minors. From this point forward, you are Major League baseball players. Now get to work and act like it." The thing is, you can't wait until spring training to make this decision. It wouldn't be fair to Trevor Plouffe. If Sano is going to step in as your primary third baseman, Plouffe needs to spend some time this winter learning to play left field. Maybe he and Joe Mauer could learn together. For that matter, I'd tell Sano to go out there and shag some fly balls, too, because I'm not convinced the Twins won't discover they're better off defensively with Sano in the outfield and Plouffe at the hot corner. But one way or another, maybe Buxton and Sano should be in the Opening Day line up. Imagine for a moment: Buxton CF Dozier 2B Mauer 1B Vargas DH Sano LF/3B Arcia RF Plouffe 3B/LF Escobar/Santana SS Suzuki C I'd buy tickets to see that line up, no matter who the starting pitcher is. I bet a few other people would, too.

Winning will put butts in the seats. The first, last and only consideration should be who, in the GM's opinion, will be most successful at turning this team in to a winner.