killertwinfan

Unfortunately Austin Doesn't fit with our current state. An option could be to send down Austidillo and hold on to Austin until you can recover some value but there is NO WAY I would want to do that. Unfortunately, the value of last season's selling spree to our future is diminishing. I know there is more to see, but so far I am unimpressed with what we got in return for Escobar, Pressly, Dozier, Lynn and Duke.

Righty for Righty? Well I think he was trying to limit May's pitch count around 25, which seems to be common and all we had available was another righty. Add to that he is grooming Harper for the closers role and it's easy to understand. Also, if you look at Baldelli's usage of the bullpen it seems to me that the rule changes for next year would have very little effect on us next year.

Yeah, I get it. Those had to be painful losses which make the vitriol flow like wine.

What is baseball coming to? Catchers getting credit for catching strikes? I understand framing and its merits. It's a technical aspect of the catching position. It should be judged as such. Sonja Henie got a few 10's in her day on the ice recognizing her perfect performance. Garver was 5?; Now a 7?

I am trying to understand how you do not play this guy. He is not great at any field position or on the base paths but man, can he hit! Unless he starts booting balls he needs to play every day.

Ken Griffey Jr. went through the same thing although he was a better hitter than defender and was thoroughly missed when he was out of the lineup. Not so much for Buck. His replacement has brought better AB's so the +'s and -'s of his absence don't impact the team or fanbase as much. If he doesn't make great plays he really shouldn't even be here so I would call him aggressive instead of reckless.

Say what you want, but I don't believe the #of K's is remotely sustainable. Cleveland came out of spring training with a team slash of .265/.336/.453 which was middle of the pack. However, a number of their active roster batted below that slash (5) and 8 of them K'd at a high rate. I don't make the point to contradict the writer as much as to point out that Cleveland is very thin and will need a healthy line up and have a very strong pitching staff to to take the Central. I live in Ohio and Indians fans are far more nervous about the Indians today than they were last week!

I agree that it was a mistake but I thought the third base coach was late on his signal which had tortuga slowing down on his way to third. He is not the type of player who will run freely. And Buxton was going all the way, he never would have made it anyway. Not sure what was going on there.

I Can't disagree. But we do have to remember that Baldelli is not a by the book guy and we'll have to give him room to operate and lose his way as long as he is able to win his way 54-55% of the time. IF he doesn't, I predict he won't be around long and people will miss Mollie.

I agree. We can't give up on him, but it's not like we don't have the money to go out and sign another $8 bust either.

Actually thanks for this comment. I was going to pass by this story without comment but you have given me cover. Let's call a spade a spade. The front office gambled on some players and a few have paid off. Harper is a great story, good for him and I hope he does well. But, way to early to think he will be effective in the bigs. Reed, a waiver claim was parlayed into a prospect (maybe). Cron looks great so far and hoping he can bring in some pop to offset Mauers OBP. As for the rest, we'll see. Schoop looks OK but I think by May we'll be missing Doziers range and glove, if you can imagine that. Gonzalez is in a slump. Sano is hurt. Buxton is pissed. And we have no idea how our rotation will be. Thanks for being positive but, lets also be real. As a realistic fan, my scale has tipped. I am more concerned than optimistic and we left money on the table.

Or maybe it's just a new gun.

Projecting development is always tough but I have to say that this is the most disappointing offseason I could imagine. It would be nice to give Cleveland a run for their money and the appeared to be daring Falvine to make an effort. I can hear the echo's of "stay the course" on their long term plan but some help for the bullpen could have easily been achieved without "leaving the course."

There a lot of puts and takes on performances this year which makes it difficult to accurately predict. Our record against the West and on the road in general was abysmal. To say that would happen again along with league leading 15 walk off losses seem improbable. Yet, with all the question marks in our bullpen and with our newly acquired players it seems a stretch to win 85 games. I hope am wrong, but I take the under on the win total.

If we are considering a closer for the long term, then why didn't we get one? I am very unhappy with entering the season as closer by committee. More than anything a closer has a mindset for the role. I don't see how you achieve that with a committee.

OK, so we are trying something new. We'll see how it goes. Data is important, but if the entire league does not embrace the best available arms in high leverage situations then is there really enough data to determine that this is a better route. And, does the data also suggest that there is no drop off in pitcher performance in less defined roles? I am excited for this season, but am really worried that pitching let-downs in hight leverage situations will cost us a bunch of wins.

I am kind of puzzled. The hapless Padres did it so the Twins can too? The only interesting thing about the Twins bullpen right now is that there are a bunch of no namers looking good. Unfortunately spring performances tend not to carry into the the regular season and I suspect our roster will look as it is projected. Scary, not for opponents but for the fan base.

I am probably too focused on the closer role. The idea of 3or 4 successful closers is a good one. My fear is that those same guys will also have too many blown saves.

I like Kepler and the contract, especially where the Twins are on the salary cap. A very prudent move, with low risk for the franchise. I don't know much about Fangraph's valuations, but it seems highly unlikely that anyone would pay him $20m as a free agent at this level of performance. If they would, Kepler's agent has done him a disservice. (Unless he is already dealing with a serious injury).

Well, yeah those were rounded numbers and these are entirely different players and coaches. Pecota's projection is 189 which I think is low. But the message I was trying to convey is that Falvine has assembled this line up which appears to be OBP low but has power and is constructed to hit over 200 HR. That alone could be fun. If you take the high season for 12 of the projected starters, that is 254 HR. Take 80% of that and you are over 200. I think that is fairly attainable when you have a number of players who are young and improving. Also, can you imagine if you have Cruz batting behind Sano who finally realizes a walk could be as good as a run and he stops swinging at wide breaking balls. He could hit well over 30 HRs.

On the OBP side of things, I think we are in trouble. This line up could struggle with clutch hitting which will make HR's all the more important. We'll need at least ~ 60 hr's from the corners. 60 hr's from the 3 positions in the middle and another 60+ from the outfield and 30 from our DH to be competitive for the post season. IF these guys don't knock the ball out of the park we are in for a long season.

Very nice article. I am stunned the difference in rhb/lhp and rhb/rhb is 5 points. That's 2 or three hits per year on average. Doesn't seem to make sense especially when we have had a bunch of lefty relievers that couldn't get a righty out. I would like to see the player data on that one.

Yeah, I didn't spend enough time thinking through what really wanted to say. I think the Pecota number of 81 is close. But, I also think that if a couple of things go against us, injuries, a little less run production and a shakier bullpen we could see a steep drop in wins and then the low 70's become more probable. I think we did a poor job of replacing Dozier, Mauer, Rodney and Escobar.

I have consistently use a few curse words but these guys were too much. They belong on comedy stage where that stuff is more common. I didn't make it 5 min in before I heard enough f'nheimers...

I agree that our starters appear competitive and could even be in the top quartile with all of them at top form. However I am concerned with the relief pitching. I think the Twins had 30 blown saves last year, among the worst in the AL. The record is 39 by the Marlins. Consider the fact that our run production could be lower and therefore the games are tighter it will put a lot of pressure on the closer(s). I doubt we set the new record for blown saves, but if we struggle more than last year it seems the 70 win mark could be a good over/under mark.