2018 Minnesota Twins In-Season Thread

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gophersfan said:
Bert Blyleven was mis inform on this then. the Circle Me Bert is not going away.

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It seems more likely a furious back-peddle by FSN. Personally, I couldn't care less, but every news outlet I looked at had a story about it ending and lots of unhappy comments/tweets. It's a 3 hour game, they hardly have to worry about too much content during innings.
 

Sid: Big decisions face Twins in year ahead

Big decisions loom

Twins Chief Baseball Officer Derek Falvey and General Manager Thad Levine have done a fantastic job signing free agents this offseason and getting the 25-man roster together. The two have proved they can do this job and that whatever challenges they face, they can be patient in who they sign and at what price.

Their patience in landing free agents Lance Lynn and Logan Morrison could pay huge dividends and if they don’t, they didn’t hamstring the franchise with big contracts moving forward.

But there will be challenges coming.

The Twins roster features five key players who will be free agents after this season in Joe Mauer, Brian Dozier, Eduardo Escobar, Zach Duke and Lynn.

It has four players who are entering their first year of arbitration in Miguel Sano, Byron Buxton, Max Kepler and Eddie Rosario — those four just so happen to be the future of the offense.

Ehire Adrianza and Robbie Grossman will enter their second round of arbitration next year. Newly acquired Jake Odorizzi, fellow starter Kyle Gibson and reliever Ryan Pressly will enter their third year of arbitration before becoming unrestricted free agents heading into the 2020 season.

So while the Twins still have team control over a number of players, the only players under contract for the 2019 season at this point are catcher Jason Castro ($8 million) and pitchers Phil Hughes ($13.2 million), Addison Reed ($8.5 million) and Michael Pineda ($8 million). In addition, three players have options: designated hitter Morrison ($8 million, but potentially worth up to $9.5 million based on plate appearances this year) and pitchers Ervin Santana ($14 million) and Fernando Rodney ($4.3 million).

Hughes, Santana and Pineda will all start 2018 on the disabled list, with Pineda unlikely to pitch this season.

The Twins will have a lot of moves to make next offseason, but they will also have huge decisions on how much to offer their young stars, whether to extend them to long-term deals, and whether to bring back players such as Mauer, Dozier, Escobar and Lynn — if they have the opportunity to do so. Dozier said this spring that he intends to test the free-agent market.

Team President Dave St. Peter said Wednesday that balancing the roster and the payroll is one of the biggest challenges the team faces during this season and in forecasting the long-term future.

“I just think it is the reality of operating a baseball team in 2018,” St. Peter said. “We feel as though we’re in a great position, largely because we have flexibility. There is no question that over the course of this year we think there will be an ability to extend some of those players that are currently on one-year contracts.

“But moreover I think the key to our success is going to be the continued investment in our player development system. We’re really excited at the high number of prospects particularly at the upper levels, guys we think can graduate and ultimately help our ballclub in 2018, 2019 and 2020. I think that will be the key to our long-term success.”

http://www.startribune.com/big-decisions-face-twins-in-year-ahead/478237973/

Win Twins!!
 

ESPN: Sources: Extension talks between Twins, Brian Dozier break down

Any chances of the Minnesota Twins signing second baseman Brian Dozier to a multiyear contract extension before he reaches free agency are dead, sources said Wednesday.

Dozier does not plan to hold any in-season discussions with the team and will hit the open market as part of a stacked free-agent class in November.

Dozier, 30, is likely to be a prime target for multiple clubs next offseason. He is tied with Anthony Rizzo of the Chicago Cubs for 11th place in Major League Baseball with 127 HRs since 2014, and he earned his first career Gold Glove last year. He also has appeared in 620 of a possible 648 games over the past four seasons and posted a career-high .359 on-base percentage out of the leadoff spot in 2017.

The Twins, a surprise American League playoff team last season, made multiple upgrades to the roster over the winter. They acquired Jake Odorizzi, their Opening Day starter, in a trade with Tampa Bay, and they signed starter Lance Lynn, relievers Addison Reed and Zach Duke, and first baseman/DH Logan Morrison as free agents.

But if they want to retain Dozier, it will either have to come during a brief window after the World Series or after Dozier files for free agency and is available to all 30 clubs. Dozier is part of a monumental free-agent class that also includes Bryce Harper, Manny Machado, Josh Donaldson, Dallas Keuchel, Craig Kimbrel, Charlie Blackmon, Andrew Miller, Daniel Murphy, Cody Allen, Adam Jones and Andrew McCutchen, among numerous others. Starters Clayton Kershaw and David Price can join the class if they exercise opt-out clauses in their contracts.

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/22948699/extension-talks-minnesota-twins-brian-dozier-break-down

Win Twins!!
 

Game just got interesting! Kepler with a monster at bat for a walk to extend the 9th inning and pinch hitter grossman gets the 2 RBIs for the tie!
 



LOVE the new rule about non-pitching change trips to the mound. Limited to 6 per game. And they saved them until the end of the game. I think we are done with trips to the mound early in games.
 

Stinkin' Jones! The dude is a thorn in the Twins side. Also Valencia still causing us problems.
Good to see the 9th inning comeback, however.
 

howeda7 said:
It seems more likely a furious back-peddle by FSN.
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Nah...nobody had any idea why he tweeted that. They were all caught off guard the next morning. Then they had to work to cover Bert's gaffe (who, unsurprisingly is rather high-maintenance).
 

So Gardy got ejected in his first game with Detroit.

 



Unregistered User said:
Nah...nobody had any idea why he tweeted that. They were all caught off guard the next morning. Then they had to work to cover Bert's gaffe (who, unsurprisingly is rather high-maintenance).
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Why the "Bert broke the news" tweet by FSN then? They vastly under-estimated the blow-back and back-peddled.
 



howeda7 said:
Why the "Bert broke the news" tweet by FSN then? They vastly under-estimated the blow-back and back-peddled.
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Huh?

The first tweet was from Bert, not FSN reading: "Just informed by FSN that there will be no more “Circle Me Bert” and Minnesota Lottery winners for this coming season."

More than likely, Bert heard from someone that they are de-linking his vanity project from the MN Lottery. He (again, likely) believed that meant that his vanity project was being shelved, and took matters into his own hands.

There was no back-peddle. I know several people at FSN, and there has never been any plans to not allow Bert to circle people. It is possible that they did not receive additional revenue from the lottery to link it with Bert, but I have not asked them that yet. If reminded, I might ask around next week.
 



Dozier with 2 HRs, Sano hits his second HR, Berrios with a complete game shutout, etc.

Our starting pitching has been incredible the first series of the season - no runs!

Solid start.

Win Twins!!
 



If we get half as good pitching as we did this weekend this will be a really fun season.
 

As someone noted - the Twins got three good pitching performances in the opening series of the year - despite the fact that last year's best pitcher (Santana) and the top free-agent acquisition (Lynn) haven't pitched yet.

Too early to draw any real conclusions. But - if nothing else - better starting pitching will keep a team out of long losing streaks. And, it does give the potential to run off a winning streak if there is no dead weight in the starting rotation.

Still - a lotta season left. Anything can happen. and probably will.
 


And Lynn gives up a first inning grand slam. Now down 5-0......
 



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OK, we're now officially playing Fizzbin.
 

So stupid. It's ok for you to employ a shift, but not ok for them to bunt? Huh? Last I checked, the bunt is a legal play in baseball. If you don't want them to bunt, don't put on a shift. "How dare you take advantage of the inherent weaknesses of this strategy!"
 

dpodoll68 said:
So stupid. It's ok for you to employ a shift, but not ok for them to bunt? Huh? Last I checked, the bunt is a legal play in baseball. If you don't want them to bunt, don't put on a shift. "How dare you take advantage of the inherent weaknesses of this strategy!"
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It’s like if in football a team is up 21 with 6 minutes left and they’re mad because the losing team took advantage of a LB covering a WR.
 


The only unwritten rule I know about bunting is that you're not supposed to bunt to try and break up a no-hitter. The first hit is supposed to be a "clean" hit. This was not a no-hit situation.

with the shift on, the bunt is a completely legitimate option.

but, I'm sure the analytics said they need to have the shift on. I can't help wondering if this is coming from Molitor or Falvine.

with that kind of a lead, sh*t-can the shift and play it straight up.
 

dpodoll68 said:
So stupid. It's ok for you to employ a shift, but not ok for them to bunt? Huh? Last I checked, the bunt is a legal play in baseball. If you don't want them to bunt, don't put on a shift. "How dare you take advantage of the inherent weaknesses of this strategy!"
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Dozier is being a complete moron with this. His reasoning is so far from reality on this.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
The only unwritten rule I know about bunting is that you're not supposed to bunt to try and break up a no-hitter. The first hit is supposed to be a "clean" hit.
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I don't remember the teams, or if it was 1 year ago or 5 years ago, but this did happen somewhat recently during a no-hitter attempt in the 9th. The big difference in that game was that it was a 1-0 game at the time. I had no problem with the bunt attempt in that scenario.

I also don't recall if the bunt was successful or not.
 

Are they going to get the field cleared in time for the home opener tomorrow? Doesn't look like the temps are going to help much.
 

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