gman

Pretty obviously Celestino lost development time in the minors. If he had played regularly in the minors for 2 years with time to work on his weaknesses he would probably be ready for his role as starting center fielder. Buxton will get the nod as starter, but at most he is just a part time player with no ability to plan when he can play. Unfortunately that means keeping a center fielder on the bench ready to play most of the time but no specific games.

Possibly, but it didn't work out too well for Lewis.

I wonder if the people who continue to knock Martin realize that 2022 was only his second in professional baseball? His first minor league season was at double A and the Twins had him repeat, which I think was appropriate. I also wonder if people who knock Jeffers realize he has a total of 534 at bats in the majors, with 24 homers and 68 rbi's, with only 205 minor league at bats beyond single A ball. Part of his defense problem is that the team wants more pitch framing than concern on throwing out base runners. That may change next year with the rule changes. He is a big guy at 6'4" and 230 and coming off one grounded knee it is not that easy to move around and throw your best or block bad pitch's either. Personally, I think he starts getting allstar votes in 2024. I hope for a full year from Larnach in the majors and at least 15 starts from SWR with the Twins this year. I'd like to see a good healthy year from Prielipp and fast rising in the system, if for no other reasons than the Twins are due for some success in the healthy pitching department and this will help me learn to spell his name better.

I think that everyone can see that Buxton's remaining time in center field is going to be short in order to try to keep him playing in the batters box more. ERod may be the one that helps move Buxton over to right. ERod has quickly become part of that dream lineup with Miranda, Lewis, Lee, Kirilloff, Larnach, Buxton, Martin & Julian. I think that moving Duran to starter will cost the Twins both a starter and a very good reliever.

I would like ERod to play for the Twins next year, what a fast rise that would be, But I gotta think that knee injury slows him down for most of 2023.

With the kind of player Polanco has been, I think any team would be more than happy to move that contract forward for 24 & 25. He has been the best overall player of the group that came up in 2014-16. I think he could be moved to first base in the future, but his bat can play in the middle of the lineup. I wouldn't even consider trading him for only a lottery player.

At the start of last year we had Pagan and Duffy finishing out games. We turned quite a few wins into losses. Next year we will have Duran and Lopez to finish off games. That could be a 5-6 game turn around right there. ++++++ Vazquez instead of Sanchez. + A return of a healthy Polanco, + More from Kirilloff, Larnach, Buxton, Jeffers, Gray, Ober. ++++ Maeda & Mahli instead of Bundy & Archer. ++ Miranda all year. + Gallo over Sano. + More known commodities in Jax, Moran & Alcala. +++ Hopefully the same from Ryan, Arraez & Gordon. Should be +++ Lots of +'s. Add Lewis and maybe Lee , Martin, Wallner, Julian,, ++++ Continued improvement from Varland, SWR, Winder, Henriquez. ++++ Improved health, improved upper level minors depth. Better 26 man roster overall. Should be a much better season.

I don't want anyone to be hurt, but we need to get 2 of the guys likely to start at St Paul into the mix. I'm leaning towards SWR and Varland. Somehow I hope they each get more than 10 starts with the Twins this year.

I don't foresee any cap on spending. Fans at a game make little difference to the owners. They gave up caring about who could afford to go to a game more than 20 years ago. Baseball will go the way of other made in America corporations have. Instead of 30 teams on U.S. shores they will be bought and moved offshore. Japan instead selling players to the U.S. teams may buy the Seattle Mariners and move them to Tokyo. Whats to stop it from happening? Several Chinese billionaires will buy out the Reds, Guardians and maybe Twins. Move the teams over seas. After 20 years there will only be teams in NY, LA, and maybe SF & Chicago. We will get to watch a real World Series on TV for $100 dollar per broadcast team. The billionaires will compete against each other. The End

Whoever trades for Kepler is going to need to clear a 40 man roster spot or have a spot open. I think very few teams have a spot open. Like the Twins, everyone lost a year of minor league development because of Covid in 2020. I'd try to match with a team with obviously a need for an outfielder, that also has talented players in high A that won't get to the majors until 2024-25. Of course that same player will be taking a roster spot on the Twins and will need to be carried. But that's probably a combination that offers the best return. The Twins still have players that can be cut, or they can just wait until the 60 day disabled list goes into effect and opens a roster spot and then trade Kepler.

I want all the names listed so far to take several steps forward in 2023. Many have been injured and all lost the covid year of development in 2020. Again Prielipp (another name I hope I need to learn to spell) has pitched in professional ball, so any step he takes is a step forward. Though mostly I'm hoping for big years from Balazovic, Enlow and Martin.

I think at this point the insurance risk would be much higher. If they took the risk, knowing that he failed physical twice before I don't think the insurance would cover it for them at the same levels. Although, if the insurance company was awake, they may simply charge high enough premiums that by year 5 you're paying the salary amount again in premiums. I don't know I'm not an insurance agent. But if you buy a maintenance policy on an appliance for three years, its the same as paying twice for the appliance.

I think part of the of the question should be "is Cleveland that good.". Yes they ran away the last month, but the Twins had nothing left to put on the field at that point. The rest of the year no matter how depleted the Twins were, I am not giving Cleveland the title in advance, especially against a expectedly (or hoped for) healthier Twins team. Not many are counting the White Sox as a runaway team next year either. Obviously the Twins need better health and full seasons from the majority of their expected roster to start the year. Not a World Series winner, but challenge for the division lead all year should be doable. No Correa, but Gallo is probably better than Contreras and Celestino production wise. Maeda & Mahle should be better than Archer & Bundy and hopefully Ober will be healthy all year. A full year production from Buxton(maybe not), Kirilloff & Larnach along with Vasquez, Miranda and a second half boost from Lewis. The Team should be much better off than last year's. Have Duran, Lopez and Alcala at the back of the bullpen along with Jax in the 7th and they should save some of those games that Pagan and Duffy gave away early last year. We finished with 78 wins last year some how and being 10 games better at least seems pretty doable.

Dead horse rest in peace!

Arraez and Gordon have both played some third. I think Miranda will be better. But even so, I expect one of Lee, Lewis, Julian or Martin to wind up at third. Most probably Lee. I wouldn't trade away whats left in the farm system for anyone at this point. Especially not after letting Urshela go.

I hope so. I'm going out tomorrow and start throwing snowballs against the shed door?

Bauer shouldn't even be a consideration.

The future Twins lineups look to be filled more with high on base percentage type hitters and less high strikeout, occasional homer, low average types. With that in mind, why trade your number 1 hitter who currently fills that requirement on your roster. He may only play 125-130 games a year for you, but how is that much different than most players in baseball? If a trade, I would let someone initiate the trade proposal and then expect them to over whelm me.

Looks a lot like what a healthy 2021 would have looked like. If Vazguez works well with young pitchers, I would not trade him. Jeffers may get closer to an even split this year, with an eye towards building Jeffers playing time in future years to 100-110 games per year. Miranda may be more the fulltime DH by season ends or whenever Lee arrives. Although Miranda could backup Third/First base combined with DH duties. On a rebuild they could jump the gun on Lee a bit also I think Polanco could wind up in Miami for a starting pitcher plus. Gray & Maeda could get some pretty decent prospects, although Maeda may have to start the year in the rotation to maximize his value.. I'd plan to trade Gallo in July unless he palys so bad he is untradeable. In which case if Wallner is ready i"d cut Gallo. I think Wallner and Celestino start next year in St Paul. Somebody will get hurt probably. AsS ar as the rotation goes, I'd expect at least 1 if not more top pitching prospect in the upper minors or maybe in Minnesota getting their feet wet. Since we are playing for 24 and later, I don't care what next years wins are.

Me too. Actually last year.

Lucky this is late December. Maybe they'll compete in 8 weeks.?

There is an article in "The Sporting News" from May(?) 1999, that says the Twins have not developed any good pitching in 20 years. So I think going back to at least the late '70's , the team has been pitching starved. Yes there was Viola in the 80'. Then um, er,um in the 2000's along came Santana and the rest of your crew. So this is a chronic, historical problem. I hope it gets solved someday. Hoops I forgot Radke in the 90"s. I wonder who will be our pitcher this decade?

I think by looking at stats with the Twins vs stats with Balt and I think the stats lie. The first 3 months of the year(with Balt) he gave up 2 earned runs and 16 hits in 36 innings. Then in July, he gave up 14vhits and 6 earned runs in 11 innings while still with Balt. BUT, 6 hits and 4 earned runs were against the Twins in 1/3 of an inning over 2 games. The rest of the month he gave up 8 hits and 2 earned runs against everyone else. While with the twins in August, he gave up 10 hits and 3 earned runs in 11 innings, about how he pitched the rest of the year against everyone. In Sept her gave up 13 hits and 8 earned runs in 9.2 innings. Again it was one team the Guardians who knocked him around for 7 hits and 6 earned runs in 1.2 innings.. His other innings he gave up 2 earned runs and 6 hits in 8 innings. He was only hit by Cleveland, unfortunately they were critical series. So for the whole year he did poorly in 3 series against 2 teams the Twins and Guardians. If he changed his pitch selection against the Guardians in the second series it may have been more an instance of pitch selection to specific batters, then some amazing mid year transition. Finally his last 5 games of the year, he gave up 1 hit and 0 runs. I know some people on this site try to hammer Twins front office and coaches every chance they get, but at least study the info instead of just looking for reason to cast aspersions.

Can't miss if yo don't swing.

I agree, but I'm not sure why you quoted me?