bighat

I feel uneasy discussing "what 2020 baseball will look like" because I'm still not certain we're going to see any baseball. Counting my chickens before they are hatched makes me nervous!

Duffy is vastly overrated by way too many people on this forum, at least in my opinion. Sure, he was solid last year. Solid. Not amazing. He was 5-1 with a 2.50 ERA. That's pretty much what you want from a middle reliever. So whoop-dee-do, he didn't suck - that doesn't mean he's Ryan Pressley all of a sudden. And let's not forget, the Twins were putting him in very low-leverage situations quite often last season because of his terrible past. Remember that? It was only in 2018 when he pitched to the tune of a 7.20 ERA. And before 2018 he was also, frankly, terrible. Duffey has shown he can be awful and has a few seasons to prove it. He's shown he can be solid, but he's only done that once. Nothing tells me he's elite or even in the conversation of elite relievers. Rogers is far and away the best bullpen arm we have and should get the ball in the 9th when the pressure's on. Not even a question.

So when I was fresh out of college, I got my first sports writing gig as the Sports Editor at a small, local weekly paper in the horsey suburbs of Orlando, Florida. It was 1999, I was 24 years old and I thought I'd hit the big time. It just so happened that my first week on the job, there was a big MLB dust-up regarding the umpire strike. I was young, watched ESPN all the time, and I figured it would be great for me to write a full-page opinion piece for the paper about this topic. After all, I was a big time sports writer now! I wanted my voice to be heard alongside the big name reporters and networks. As you can probably guess, absolutely nobody who read the local newspaper gave a rat's behind about my opinion. And my publisher chewed me out. Why? Because that was a national story and I was supposed to be reporting on hyper-local topics, like the local swim meets and park board meetings. If our readers wanted to read national news stories, they'd buy the USA Today and turn on the network news. I think you get where I'm going here, Nick: there are a million places we can go online to fight/squabble/preach/complain about the situation going on in Minneapolis and around the country. I'm not saying you don't have a right to voice your opinions here - it's your site, your choice, and in some ways the whole point of this topic is to make yourself heard. That said, we can find other places to go down this wormhole. Most of us come here to talk Twins, to talk baseball. And we are very loyal to this site because we LOVE the Twins discussion topics here. We have a very diverse set of political opinions here, but the cool thing is that we don't get into that on TD. We can all be on the same team - when we fight, it's about Eddie Rosario and where he should hit in the batting order, rather than about political stuff, which can run deep and hit some toxic levels on all sides. Just some food for thought.

I know we need to be safe. Players need to be safe. The public needs to be safe. I get it....but jeez. Players sitting 6 feet away from each other, in the stands, with no high-fives, no touching....that's unrealistic and frankly just plain stupid. Sounds good on paper, but just picture it in your head for a minute. How are the players going to get up to the stands? Gonna build steps above the dugout? Or are they all going to sit behind the plate? How long will it take for a guy to get back up to the stands after a ground out? And with all those measures in place, they completely go out the window the second the pitcher touches the baseball. Because the catcher will also touch the baseball, the shortstop will touch the baseball, the first baseman will touch the baseball, and the ump will touch the baseball. They're going to be touching the same surfaces. So why do all that BS above? Just to somehow signal to the public that you're "doing the right thing?" I'm 100% for having baseball this year, if it can resemble the game we know. I was feeling hopeful a few weeks ago, but with the owner/player clash and these awful new rules...ugh. I never thought I'd say this, but I'm beginning to side with the folks who say they'd prefer to have no season.

My main issue is that NL pitchers' stats get inflated. They're guaranteed easy outs and more strikeouts. When you replace a guy like Nelson Cruz at the plate with a weak-hitting guy who bats .046 at the plate 3 times per game, just think about the advantages. Let's say a pitcher gets 20 starts and gets to face, on average, weak-hitting pitchers 2.5 times per game. That's a total of 50 easy outs that his AL counterpart isn't getting. That's 17 innings worth! Meanwhile, it's not like his AL counterpart is getting to face average hitters - instead, he's facing THE BEST hitter on the opposing team. So he's getting 17 innings against very, very difficult hitters like Nelson Cruz or JD Martinez. I'd just prefer if both leagues did the same thing, for continuity purposes. Then again, at this point I'd just be happy with regular old baseball without any changes! Here's hoping they play ball this summer.

That would be interesting. If there's a runner on 2nd with less than 2 outs, they could play multi-screen broadcasts like they do on RedZone. MLB TV used to have that option (and I think they still might) where you can stream 4 games at a time, quad-view, but you have to pick and choose the games yourself and kinda weed through it. I really like that feature, especially if you play fantasy. It would be even better if you could enter your fantasy lineup and whenever your player was pitching or batting, that game would automatically pop-up in your viewer.

His arm is fine IMO: That entire video shows some great defensive plays. Is he Ozzie Smith? No....but shouldn't we be okay with that? We should keep our expectations reasonable. As others have commented, with his age and talent and contract he's going to be the team's shortstop for a while. There are plenty of things to worry about, Polanco's defense isn't one of them.

As long as he hits .300 and continues to spark this team with the bat, the Twins only offensive All-Star in 2019 can play anywhere he wants. Polanco's a special player. I've always felt that people who pick on his defense haven't watched him play shortstop. It's the most difficult defensive position in baseball and errors are gonna happen. He gets to a lot of baseballs and is very athletic. He's made some huge defensive gems late in ballgames that have saved games for this team.

Luke Hughes, the Aussie.

Paul Sorrento, anyone?

I'm going to start running a simulated pottery season. Attempt 1: Began with a pile of clay, ended up with something resembling an oblong ashtray. Poor start to the season. Attempt 2: Got overconfident, spun the wheel too quickly while attempting to craft an orangina-bottle style vase, resulting in catastrophic failure. Stay tuned for more!

Dude this is exactly what I was thinking and came to the comment section to say this! Dear author, don't you dare equate Sam Deduno with Cole DeVries, they're not even on the same planet.

I'm over all the distraction-based stuff. The video games, the "All Time Teams", etc. I know the league (and pages like TD) have to do something to keep the conversation going. But frankly I just can't get into it. The only type of discussion right now that I'm interested in are the possible start dates and possible scenarios (ie: Grapefruit/Cactus leagues, etc). Another issue we should start talking about is what's going to happen with all of these player contracts. For example: the Twins are possibly going to only get 3 years out of Josh Donaldson instead of 4. And we were thinking his first year would likely be his best. Just a brutal scenario there. Also, what about Jake Odorizzi and his 1-year deal with the Twins? Instead the Twins get zip and have to go out and find another guy. Mookie Betts to Los Angeles? Maybe the Dodgers get nothing out of that deal. Ouch.

Yeah, I mean I do understand why the players wouldn't like it. And one thing that worries me: what if they start the season, and then Nelson Cruz, for example, tests positive. What happens then? Do the Twins end up "quarantined" and can't play ball for 2 weeks? Now what? Maybe make it voluntary? You want to play, let's go. You want to sit home? No prob, go ahead. Frankly I think most players are OK with it, but their wives/families are not. Eric Sogard's wife tweeted she was 100% against the idea of the AZ/FL season because the kids wouldn't get to see their dad for a few months. That kind of backlash is going to make it hard for some guys to choose to be out there. On the other hand, I am guessing fans are 100% in favor of getting something going ASAP.

At this point I'm assuming that if we get baseball, empty stands will be a given.

Shortened seasons, Grapefruit leagues, Cactus leagues, games in front of no fans.....I say bring it on. If MLB can play ball this year, I'll take it. If it's done responsibly and it makes sense from a health perspective, I would 100% be ready to sit down and watch and discuss. I get online every morning before work. I see articles featuring death tolls, political squabbles, and places like facebook and twitter are just a nightmare of negativity. Everyone's just gnashing their teeth and growling about damn near everything, it's just so depressing. Instead, if I could get wake up and chat about Miguel Sano striking out 3 times, or Eddie Rosario misplaying a fly ball, or Buxton running into a wall or Maeda getting blown up I would take that in a heartbeat. This ain't about a World Series, this is just about having a positive distraction that would be much welcome in many Americans' lives ASAP.

Best Twins team since 1991 will never see the field. Pretty depressing. I know it's for the good of mankind and all, but a gut punch nonetheless. Damn.

Very good point. I initially thought they'd just re-do it, but considering the flight changes, date changes, etc it could be a mess. Season ticket holders: ouch. FWIW I agree this is the right move. Slowing down the spread of Covid-19 is what's best for our citizens right now. Hang tight everyone, stay calm. I know it's hard with the news, especially with all the yelling voices out there. Deep breaths.

Above someone mentioned the main problem right now: what if someone on a team catches the virus. If, say, Albert Pujols catches the virus, then the entire Angels team will be in quarantine. Do you also quarantine the umps from their last series? And the team they played against during their last series? If that all happens, how can the league operate? You saw what happened in the NBA when a player got the virus. MLB will probably have to postpone the start to their season until testing kits and a plan is in place. Right now there are so many unknowns that it seems almost impossible to start league play in the near future.

Nope, it's WAR, OPS+, wOBA, wRC+, and BABIP. You can hit .276 with 32 HR and 109 RBI while batting cleanup on a 100+ win team - doesn't matter. You'll be considered a by many on this thread to be a below-average player who needs to be replaced by a guy who's never taken a MLB at bat. As for your thoughts on Arraez, I couldn't agree more. Let's be happy with what we have. He's got plenty of room to grow, and having a high-average slap-hitting singles/doubles guy at the top of this lineup isn't a bad thing.

If you want to compare Arraez to a former Twin, how about Chuck Knoblauch - a fellow second-baseman? In Knobby's seven years with the Twins, he won Rookie of the Year, led the league in doubles and triples once each, went to the All-Star game 4 times and scored over 100 runs 4 times as well. He finished his great 1996 season by batting .341. He also never hit more than 13 HR as a Twin. Everyone was fine with that.

I'd try and extend Buxton to a similar deal, the Twins have continued to gamble on this guy for his entire career and you'd think at this point they might as well see if they can buy low on his potential. I know all about the "sunk cost" fallacy and the Twins might find themselves in that area with Bux - but at this point he's shown he does have the skills, if he can stay on the field.

Offense-wise, Cruz and Gonzalez might be gone next year. Twins could also move/trade/demote guys like Wade, Astudillo, and Cave by the time the season's over. Injuries are an unknown, but Bux has a history. God forbid Donaldson, Sano, Polanco, Rosario, or Kepler go down for a significant period of time but it's always a possibility. I'd also be hesitant to assume any or all of these top prospects are going to play at an All-Star level as soon as they get a chance in the bigs. Be careful what you wish for.

Dobnak is really dueling for that final spot - he knows it, he's not afraid to talk about it, and he's pitching like he wants that job. I saw him a couple weeks ago in ST, after he walked off the mound a few fans said "Good job Randy!" and he just looked back and said "thanks" in this refreshingly humble way. Rooting for the guy, I like this kid!

I totally understand the hype - on paper, this does look like the best Twins team....ever? And I cringe when I say that, because I do feel like that only adds more coal to the Jinx Train engine room. But hey, you gotta call it like you see it.