nicksaviking

All the good stuff is out of stock, there are no free agents left for the pen that look like much help at all. Give Burdi, Meyer, Chargois, Rogers, Melotakis, Reed and Peterson priority seating in spring training. Go with the upside over experience; make Fein and company have to out pitch THEM, not the other way around. If the Twins can get Storen on a below-market deal that would be OK by me too. I'd prefer it best if the Twins gave him the closer gig though as then their lefty "problem" could be solved by Perkins filling that role. Plus Storen in a full season as a closer could possibly be worth a QO at the end of the year. Long shots I acknowledge, both paragraphs would likely take a philosophical change to occur.

I'm not sure if #3 and #5 are wholly compatible. Even with Nolasco's injury in 2015, the rotation stayed healthy enough to not have enough spots for the young pitchers. I don't think the team should count on injuries or performances to open up spots for Berrios, May or whomever. I'm concerned that the veteran starters will Pelfrey themselves into a season-long spot. They won't be good enough to dominate games, but they'll be acceptable enough that their veteran status will dissuade the team from giving the younger guys with upside their job.

I'm going with Lewis Thorpe. No clue at what point he'll be throwing in games again, but I hope when he does, we're all going to be saying, "Man, I forgot how damn high I was on this guy until the TJ issue!" My bet is that he's going to be a top 2 team prospect this time next year.

I hadn't heard of that transition from softball to baseball before. I want to ask if that's been done before by an Australian prospect but considering the Twins basically have had 90% of all Australian players in their system at one time or another, I'd think we would have heard of that by now if it was common.

"Dozier makes some tremendously athletic plays but some of this results from him not being able to get to balls that are near the edge of his range." This makes total sense to me just using the eyeball test last year. However I think Dozier actually got to most of these balls near the edge of his range, but one recurring image of Dozier for me last year is him getting to a ball but not making a throw. Either he couldn't make a clean transfer or most often, he had no chance of beating the base runner so he held onto the ball. I've always been a bit of a skeptic on some of the defensive metrics as I just find it hard to believe that they can account for the numerous un-thought of variables. They're definitely useful and I don't discount them, but can anyone tell me if any of them can differentiate between Dozier making a play at the edge of his range against Ryan Howard instead of Billy Hamilton?

I'd much rather go back to only having access to the Twins (and Cubs and Braves) if it means my team can afford top contracts, they can't now, they once did. It might have been due to some collusion but whether it's the advent of mega contracts, free agency or a players strike, it's always the fans who get the shaft when players get their way, at least small market fans. And again, in an objective setting I'd side with players over owners.

If you're asking if I think it's a coincidence that baseball became more "business" at the same time Scott Boras became a household name and mega contracts became common, no I don't, not one bit. If players weren't regularly getting $100M contracts, teams wouldn't be getting $500M tax payer funded stadiums or getting hundreds of millions from TV revenue. It was only the early 1990's when the Twins and Royals were handing out the biggest contracts in baseball.

All things being equal, we'd all probably cheer for the millionaires over the billionaires, but that fight isn't the end of the story. The billionaires are business men, it's not like they are going to lose money to to the millionaires and simply shrug their shoulders, they're going to make the fans and tax payers cover their losses. It's not a coincidence that new stadiums, ticket prices and TV demands skyrocketed corresponding to Scott Boras and the mega contracts for players in the mid to late 90's. The MLB players can complain all they want that the owners need to share revenues better, but they're lying if they don't acknowledge who is really footing the bill.

Some of us have jobs to get to in the morning and some of us would like our kids to be able to enjoy a game. Games ending at 11 PM can hamper both of those fronts.

The ill-fats Twins TV really has hurt this team. The Twins thinking they could demand ESPN prices form the cable and satellite providers when 21 hours of their broadcasting per day would have been watched by no one (24 hours during non-baseball months) was pretty foolish. When that failed and 90% of Twins fans were unable to watch the games, the team had to come crawling back to FSN and accept their substandard deal. Considering how much more money TV generates than the stadium does, the team probably should have put at least as much effort into getting a realistic lucrative TV deal as they did trying to get a new stadium.

I'd also guess that catcher is a unique position in that every level wants experienced catchers handling the developmental pitchers. He could be down there not because he needs to be held back but simply because he's good at calling games and a 19-year-old catcher may not be.

I really feel that watching the documentary Bull Durham may be beneficial here, at least this part: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeVca9MwDX8 His favorite players are Ken Griffey Jr and Mike Cameron? It seems a little funny as they were traded for each other. I like the BB/K numbers. The real test for those figures will be full season ball, though probably at least a level higher than the Midwest League. Promising start though and if he can limit the strikeouts while finding ways to get on base, he'd certainly be a revelation for the Twins. Edit: I removed the video and only copied the link as I can't recall if there are any naughty words uttered in that scene, I'd listen myself but I don't have my headphones at work.

I think the Twins thought last year too, every year probably, however they didn't pay attention to the national trend, including what was happening on their own roster. The performances of the players corresponded nearly identical to their age. The younger players are just better these days, what they lack in seasoning, they more than make up for in speed, strength, reflex and velocity. There are plenty of bullpen options not named May that should be given spots on the 25-man, and May should bump one of the vets from the rotation. I don't think there is one thing more over-valued by this organization than experience at this time.

I agree that May could easily pitch well enough to prove he should be in the rotation, perhaps even lead it, but a problem as I see it is how pitchers are used in spring training. Often starters pitch in later innings and relievers start games, if May is pitching well and Molitor is set on putting him in the pen, Molitor is just going to say, "see how well he's pitching in relief? We can't take him out now."

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In the two recent articles detailing the Twins and their swing mechanics I think Denard Span too could be listed as influenced greatly by the old philosophy. He's got as quiet of a swing as anyone and while it certainly has worked for him considering his career success, he has next to no power despite having a 6' 00" 210 lb frame. I always wondered if he could have been a 5 tool guy had he ever used his lower half to swing. Of course it's possible he could have been a complete flop as well.

I went on vacation after Thanksgiving and missed this masterpiece. Another gem Parker, thanks for the read and insight.

There have been many of us who have said they should be using as many young guys in the pen and in the rotation as possible. It's been almost four years since I've been posting on this site, but I finally added a sig.

I don't understand the question.

It reminds me of someone having to decide if they should pay a big repair bill or just buy a new car because they never bothered to get an oil change.

I believe May is a big upgrade over the current options in the pen, however that's only because the Twins at this time haven't taken one of the two most reasonable approaches: A ) give the job to the young hard throwers, and I don't mean mop-up/long man roles, I mean the late inning spots that generally require strikeouts. Burdi, Meyer, Reed, Chargois, Peterson, the odds are against all of those guys flaming out. Throw them in the water and see who floats. If the batters don't need to be finished products to be called up into prominent roles, neither should the pitchers, particularly seeing as they generally have shorter periods of effectiveness. B ) sign the requisite free agents that can do what May is able to do. I'm concerned about strikeouts all around, but it's not going to significantly improve if May is replacing a guy like Pressley or Tonkin, he has to be replacing a guy like Fien. Same with the rotation, if the young guys are the ones striking guys out, it shouldn't be the young guys replacing other young guys, it needs to be the vets to get the boot. Also, regarding the sunk cost discussion. I'm very concerned about Hughes. I think there's a good chance there was something affecting him last year, but if not and his FB velocity is going to be 90 MPH going forward, he's in a boatload of trouble, he already scrapped his slider and his curve isn't all that good. If his velocity doesn't come back I think he's going to get rocked again.

I'm not usually against minor league signings but Sweeny, Benson and Mastroianni? That speaks pretty loudly that they aren't going to go get an actual MLB outfielder even though they really, really need one who can hit lefties since Rosario, Arcia and Kepler are in the mix. I just don't get it. Chris Young and Ryan Rayburn will be very affordable (though I guess not minor league contract cheap) and Raji Davis wasn't expensive. I've said several times recently that I thought the Twins didn't have money issues, but just didn't want more long term commitments at the moment. I'm wondering now though if Park's $12.5M negotiation fee did actually eat up every dime available this year.

Offseason DFAs probably aren't such a big deal, however those in season DFAs we've seen recently, mostly involving Toronto it seems, leave the player in limbo for a week. When it happens to the guy repeatedly, the guy can lose a month of playing time simply because some clubs are jerking him around.

Only four out of five games though, he'll be the starting pitcher every fifth day.

I didn't like Nolasco signing as I didn't think much of him as a pitcher, but I applauded the effort and risk Ryan made in getting him as it had been so uncharacteristic and I said at the time that no matter how it turned out, I'd never hold the signing against him as I wanted to see him continue taking risks. However continuing to run him out there because they want to see if they can get their money's worth out of him is really only hedging that risk. If the absolute, number one goal is to win in 2016, then Nolasco's contract should have zero impact on his role (if any) with the team. It should be based on who is most likely to help the team, and clearly, recent track records would show that Duffey is more likely to help than Nolasco. Now, winning in 2016 and winning in the future may not consist of the same elements. If Ryan thinks that running Nolasco out there may increase his trade value and bring back pieces for the future (which I absolutely do not think is possible seeing as Mike Pelfrey and his wholly affordable contract still couldn't be moved last year), that's fine, but I'd really protest if the team then says that their number one goal is to win in 2016.