bighat

Yeah I know what you mean. Remember San Diego and Philly last year - two huge signings of Machado and Harper, plenty of hype surrounding both teams (especially Philly). Let's not forget how the Indians were also an across-the-board AL Central winner in just about every prediction model out there before 2019. I've ran through the scenario in my mind. The Twins stumble, start 3-8 or something, and it turns out Cruz needs surgery and Donaldson's in an 0-24 slump. Guys start pushing. Sano and Buxton go into one of their infamous black holes at the plate. The league figures out how to pitch to Arraez, and Kepler's regressing. All of a sudden Astudillo and Adrianza are starting every game and LaMont Wade's playing in the OF every day for some reason. The White Sox are hot, a year ahead of schedule. The Indians are back. Here come the headlines: "Donaldson Unhappy in Minnesota", "Pineda needs surgery", "Twins baseball player arrested for playing Scrabble in a Cub Foods Parking Lot" and the house of cards just falls into shambles.... Then I wake up and realize it was all a bad dream....at least for now. I think this team will be good, but I also think it's very important to get off to a very good start and not play catch-up for too long in April.

I think Kiermeir and Bradley often get to the wall more quickly, so they can time their jump and/or prepare for impact. Or, it's possible that Kiermeir and Bradley aren't as fast as Buxton, and thus aren't in a position to even make an attempt on those balls. Who knows! I think we're all scratching our heads!

"He's still young" - well, by baseball standards I don't think that's true any longer. I think Twins fans are the only people that still think of Bux this way, and frankly it seems a bit naive, kinda like how little kids notice a limp on the aging family dog and say "Buster's still young, he's got plenty of good years in him, right Dad?" Francisco Lindor. Correa. Bellinger, Acuna, Bregman, Soto, Shane Beiber, Jack Flaherty, Gleybar Torres, Shohei Ohtani....Jose Berrios....these are just a handful of players younger than Buxton, but one could keep going all day. You get the idea. Can Buxton still become a force in MLB? Absolutely. Can he finally have that breakout season we've been waiting for since 2012? Definitely. Do I want him to succeed more than anything? YES! Will I be drafting him as a "sleeper pick" way too early in my fantasy baseball draft? Obviously! Let's agree to stop pretending he's just a kid. He's got a decent amount of MLB experience under his belt, and believe it or not I think he's going to end up providing good veteran leadership for guys like Lewis before it's all said and done.

Berrios: 14-8 with a 3.60 ERA and 200 strikeouts. All-Star. Odorizzi: 15-7 with a 3.51 ERA and 180 strikeouts. All-Star. Both of those lines would be clear frontline ace numbers for at least 70% of the teams in the league. Remember Zack Wheeler, that pitcher we talked about all winter? The "ace" we needed to add? His stats: 11-8, 3.96 ERA, 200 strikeouts. Berrios won more games, pitched more innings, and had a better ERA than him. Remember when the Twins used to go into the year with guys like Kevin Correia as their #1 starter? Gee whiz. I know it doesn't hurt to hope for improvement, but let's give Berrios and Odo a little credit here.

I went to the game. It was cold, and while some were under-dressed, many people were well aware of the "chilly weather" and wore appropriate attire. The gophers were extremely overmatched. What I thought was most interesting was that many Twins players were the same age as the Gopher players....the gap between AA baseball and college baseball is very, very large. I think all the fans in attendance loved it. Goldie Gopher was there, tons of maroon and gold, and it must have been really fun for the Gopher players to get that kind of experience. Can you imagine telling your grandkids that you pitched to Hall of Famer Royce Lewis? The only real problem with this game was that it was a night game. Without question it should have been planned for the daytime, just in case of cold weather.

Weil looked good in the game vs. U of M that I saw him play, and he hit a HR today against the Jays. Nice start for Zander!

No.

Love these little tidbits, thanks for the article!

I can't imagine batting our All-Star shortstop 8th? And our 32 HR, 108 RBI guy 7th? Then again....looking at the alternatives, it might just happen. Rocco's going to have a tough decision here, but it should be fun for him.

Buenas! Soy gringo originalmente de Minnesota pero estoy viviendo en Guatemala - por casi 6 anyos, fijate! Bienvenido a la familia Twins.

Ballplayers that play full speed 100% of the time are often called "gritty", and they "hustle" and the "play the game the right way". Buxton plays full speed 100% of the time and he's seen in a much different light - by some Twins fans, no less. Troubling. I think we all know what we have in Buxton at this point. An elite defender in the outfield and a streaky hitter who might hit .258, 20 HR, and steal 30-40 bases if he played a full season. I'd argue that as Buxton gets older and slower, he might become a more effective player. Once his speed starts to dip he'll start playing those balls off the wall, thus saving himself injuries he's have suffered in the past. We can't change Byron Buxton. He's "Johnny Hustle" out there and he's always going to be that way. Sit back and just enjoy watching the guy do what he does while he's in a Twins uniform.

I lived in Minneapolis my first 18 years of life. Many more years have passed living outside of MSP since then. Never once questioned handing in my Twins Fan card. Living in Guatemala, we're on Mountain Time during baseball season. Love the early starts, it's perfect to watch a game between 6-9pm! Keep doing your thing, thanks for sharing!

I dunno. Cruz and his reckless afternoon naps could bring on a mutiny in the locker room!

The Twins are stretching out their 21 year-old Canadian right hander in AA this season....bold move indeed. Meanwhile, the Braves were letting their 21 year-old Canadian right hander pitch in the majors for the 2nd straight year in 2019. He went 13-4 with a 2.68 ERA and made the All-Star team. I love the team the Twins have on the field in 2020. But someone needs to tell this team that nobody cares about Pensacola winning a league title. When you find an elite player like Balazovic, have the cajones to get the guy up to the bigs and stop wasting his arm down on the farm.

Trevor May has honestly had ONE nice season in Minnesota. Just one! And I, along with every other Twins fan, is thrilled at his new found success. That said, before last year his career ERA was over 5.00. I know he's good now, I like him in our bullpen, and he's also a cool guy who plays video games....still, I've never understood why he's been treated like the next coming of Roger Clemens with Twins fans. Again, I like the kid too and I hope the Twins can keep him, but I think there will be other middle relievers to sign if the Twins lose him. I'd be much more concerned about losing Cruz and the 35+ HR he'll be good for in 2021. Homers like that don't grow on trees. Would like to see the Twins extend the guy in Spring Training for an extra year.

Smart move by Marwin to just get out there and apologize and now he can move on and focus on 2020. Which is what we all want him to do....right? I for one am all for punishing the Astros organization and stripping their World Series banner from the rafters. But, as others have said, there's no way you can just suspend 20+ major leaguers without hurting their CURRENT teams (aka the Twins) who had nothing to do with these shenanigans.

I'm willing to take his first year's stats with a grain of salt. The numbers were ugly, but if MLB teams gave up on every 18 year-old who hit below .200 in the rookie league we'd have missed out on some good players in this league. This year I think fans (and more importantly the Twins brass) will be keeping a keen eye on this kid. I am guessing the Twins were just letting him do whatever came natural the first year, so they could see what they needed to change/re-work. No need to panic, not just yet.

Interesting to see this subject float back up to the top after a few comments. My two cents: Homer Baily is definitely an upgrade over Perez. Martin has not enjoyed a successful career in the big leagues, he came to the Twins in 2019 after posting an ERA north of 6 (SIX!) with the Rangers in 2018. In my opinion, he made some adjustments that fooled some teams early in 2019, but the league caught on and by June he was a Mike Pelfrey clone. Bailey, on the other hand, has a proven track record of at least being an average pitcher in the bigs. And that's just what the Twins need right now as the season starts off. We can grab that ace in July.

Happy for Brusdar, the guy's gone from thinking he was going to be playing at Target Field, Fenway, Target Field again, and now he'll be wearing Dodger blue. He's gotta be pumped. Maeda is a good get for sure, very excited for this 2020 team. Interested to see who else the Twins have thrown into the deal.

MLB reporter Mark Feinsand says: "Latest on the Betts trade: per source, the Red Sox are focused on getting a deal done with the Dodgers above all else. The Twins appear to be out of the three-way deal, though a separate trade for Maeda remains in play."

Unfortunate for Brusdar, regardless of how this works out. He's been unfairly portrayed as "damaged goods", which not only hurts his potential earnings but also hurts the Twins as his trade value has plummeted if this deal doesn't go through. I do know one thing: Brusdar will be VERY motivated, regardless of where he plays. Kid's gotta be ticked off and I don't blame him.

If we add a low-level lottery ticket, I'd be okay with it - albeit grudgingly - but I don't think the Twins should have to pony up anything. It's amazing the backtracking the Sox GM has done, and how the media's run with the story about Brusdar being "damaged goods". As others have said here, not only do we lose Maeda but Brusdar's value is taking a huge hit and the Twins won't be able to get anything for him if he stays here.

NBC Sports is now calling Brusdar "Damaged Goods" - there's no way Boston completes this trade as is with the rumors and PR swirling out there. The media influence has done too much damage at this point. @NBCSBoston Kenta, we hardly knew ye. My guess is that it's back to the drawing board for the Twins unfortunately. https://www.nbcsports.com/boston/red-sox/everyone-knew-brusdar-graterol-was-damaged-goods-everyone-except-red-sox-apparently

It sounds like the Red Sox seem to just have a case of buyer's remorse. They had all of this information on Brusdar before the trade - they're just saying "on second thought, after reading all the blog posts for the past 24 hours, maybe we should get someone else too".

Seems like you are just picking out the advanced stats and traditional stats you don't like, and ignoring the positives? I think this trade makes the Twins better in 2020. World Series here we come! The days of cultivating the farm for 10 years to build an 82-win team are over. The Twins are GOOD now. We've got prospects everywhere and we don't hesitate to deal them for high-end talent to fill holes. We win100 games per year. The money's oozing out of the Pohlads' pockets, we buy top free agents, and we steamroll small-market wannabes. Enjoy it, man!