nicksaviking

I like the improvements from the starting pitchers, specifically the strikeout numbers. Anyone involved with that accomplishment gets kudos from me. I'm not much impressed with anything else. What puzzles me is why they've clearly tried to increase the velocity and strikeouts with the starters but continue to go out of their way to avoid that with the bullpen additions. Also, I really don't like this Falvine stuff, these are two different people and I don't think they really had more than a casual relationship prior to their hirings. I don't know, and I'm not sure if anyone as a fan knows, what responsibilities each have, but we should. If Levine isn't getting the job done, he should go. In my opinion he should be on a short leash if he's doing most of the traditional GM duties. These aren't the Wonder Twins, one isn't required for the other to be effective.

How can the Royals possibly be 11 games worse than the Twins?

I'd change my mind and think 2019 is a possible contention year if the team gets a new manager. My disillusionment with Molitor and his utter lack of personality has me biased against believing this team has any shot at winning it all with him in charge.

I was never a Gibson believer until two off seasons ago when I thought the new front office would fix his poor sinker/high contact approach. It took longer than it should have to fix but it looks like he's finally there. But he's waaaaay too old to extend and this team's a complete mess. If you can trade one and a half years of control of Gibson for top end prospects I do it. I don't think this team goes anywhere under Molitor and I doubt he gets canned after this year with two more years in his contract.

It only looks that way because Buxton, Sano, Kepler and Garver have all taken gigantic steps back in their development. I think that falls under the perview of the manager.

A ) I want a manger who can lead young players, not a manager who can lead veteran players who are then expected to lead the young players. B ) I want a manager who will minimize the players' brain farts on defense, on the base-paths and in the batter's box. Some are always to be expected, but holy cow, the degree in which we see miscues can only be due to a team-wide lack of focus. C ) I want an innovative manager. I don't want someone who has to be taught ideas that were new a decade ago and who will maybe take them under consideration. I want someone who may have a brand new idea or two of his own that the baseball world has never seen. D ) I want a manager with energy that I, yes me specifically, can feed off of as well as the players. Perhaps some managers put on an emotionless face and monotone speech ONLY when doing interviews but it seems unlikely that a completely opposite demeanor is presented when working with the players. E ) Sorry, the unfair one: I want a manager with NO pre-existing ties to the team. If he's not getting the job done, I want a quick decision to replace him. If he maybe-kind of-possibly isn't getting the job done, I want there to be the possibility of hiring the newly available hot-shot manager who's getting everyone excited. I don't want there to be fence-straddling due to a prior history of loyalty which had absolutely nothing to do with managing a baseball team.

I agree that the front office did way more this off season than anyone's done for this club before. However, Lynn, Reed, Morrison and even the trade of Odorizzi were all considered bargains. They waited things out which is OK, but got these guys only after other teams took a look and passed. Likely due to Lynn's over-reliance on fastballs, Reed's diminishing velocity and Morrison's anomaly of a season in 2017. All were great pick ups considering the contracts and the past results, but it's not like they went out and got any true difference makers, and that was clear even before anyone faltered.

If they dump more salary by giving away draft picks there's going to be riots here. Probably led by me actually.

Add North Dakota to the list. And they don't even have to be good. But I'm sure they are.

Damn that Thorpedo is definitely Tom Petty's best album.

Is that an option? I vote for that as well. Four of Thorpe's last six starts he hasn't allowed an earned run. I think I'm already at the point of bumping both Thorpe and Graterol ahead of Gonsalves on my happy thoughts prospect list.

Yeah, but Liriano only had .2 WAR for that half season with the Sox, which was his walk year.

Would it kill Molitor to show some emotion? He displays the same stereotypical Minnesota stoic and emotionless demeanor that Joe Mauer gets ragged about. If you're going to coach or manage, give me some outward emotion, give me some passion. You're working with a bunch of young non-Minnesotans many of whom speak English as a second language; wearing your emotions on your sleeve should be a requirement in this case. Nobody outside of the upper midwest understands that when he stands on the top step of the dugout with a blank look on is face after the ump made a terrible call, that maybe he actually is upset.

Great, stuff. Yeah, Molitor needs to stop abusing Pressly and Reed. Magill seems like a fine candidate to ease their burden.

I didn't think much of Lynn due to his lack of offspeed and breaking stuff. So his last five starts or so have been a nice surprise.

Had the Twins hired Lovullo and had he put up the same kind of sketchy track record there'd be much less resistance to replace him. It looks like the team is starting to do it now, but this is the biggest reason why they should usually be looking to hire people from outside; people without built up organizational equity and emotional attachment. These guys should be earning that equity with their current role, not with what they did for the organization in past roles.

I know most of us aren't accustomed to it after seeing three decades of Kelly/Gardenhire, but a four year stint as manager is a pretty common run as far as most of the league is concerned. I'll bet there's much less consternation with these kinds of discussions regarding Jeff Bannister and the Rangers.

I don't think he was a projected top ten round talent was he? I don't think he got screwed over or anything, he was probably looking at that figure regardless who drafted him or when but at least now gets to wear getting picked in the 8th round as a badge of honor.

I think that diminishing velocity likely had a lot to do with why Reed looked like a steal despite his past results. If he was throwing 95-97 even with slightly inferior stats, he likely would have had other teams lining up to pay him more. The Twins rightfully were applauded for making a ton of offseason moves, but nearly all were considered bargains. Now with all the data readily available to all teams it's not like the Twins can see something that other teams don't. I think the Twins are going to have to realize that waiting for bargains isn't the way to go, they're going to have to start overpaying for the guys who are truly difference makers.

Geez fine, I can read between the lines. Pressly can pitch every day if that's what you really want.

Yeah, too much group think in rankings. Each independent evaluator that makes a public list can say they made a list based strictly on their own opinion, but I wouldn't believe them. If one of them says a guy can't stick at SS or hit an inside fastball or has an arm too weak for RF, it spreads like wildfire. Not that these guys are totally at fault, there's no way everyone can see enough of each and every one of these guys to make an informed opinion. They have to rely on others. Each MLB team has dozens of scouts each watching a small region of players, the publications don't have nearly those resources.

I think you just shut him down once he starts getting fatigued early and it alters his mechanics. That is assuming plenty of people inside and outside of the dugout are keeping a close eye on his mechanics.

They haven't been given the chance to take the heat. If Belisle was brought in because they needed his "leadership" that doesn't speak too well of Rodney, Reed and Duke.

By heading south, I think he meant Ft. Myers.

Romero got called up much sooner than we expected while the supposedly more polished Gonsalves still hasn't had his look. I think this new front office is very open to rapid advancements for guys with great stuff.