2019 Minnesota Twins In-Season Thread

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Gopherlife said:
That wouldn't surprise me. I see at least two things working against the Twins when it comes to what they are going to offer:

1. Berrios is still pretty unproven, as he has some elite stuff when he is pitching at his best, but has not yet proven that he can sustain that over a longer period of time.

2. Aside from maybe Mauer, the Twins have not been willing to throw large amounts of money at anyone, let alone someone that plays at the most valuable position on the field and, thus, would likely demand top dollar.
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For sure. I don't blame Berrios for wanting to wait another year. He has a big year in 2019 and he should demand more money.
 



STrib: Early-season off days present a challenge to Twins

Target Field sat silent on Friday, waiting for the second game of the Twins’ three-game series against Cleveland to be played ... on Saturday.

It was an off day designed by Major League Baseball to provide an option if weather forces a postponement on Opening Day, typically one of the largest-drawing games of the season. It was the Twins’ only Friday off day of the season — but far from the only off day the team has during the first two weeks of the season.

The Twins have a whopping five days off before April 12. It’s the Final Four effect, as the Twins have to hit the road while the NCAA crowns a men’s basketball champion at U.S. Bank Stadium.

Next week, the Twins head to Kansas City for a two-game series, then face the Phillies and Mets in road interleague series — all cushioned by off days.

“The early portion of the Twins’ schedule was impacted by the presence of the Final Four in Minneapolis, which contributed to their consecutive interleague series,” MLB spokesman Mike Teevan said. “There was also a desire to build in an off day around Opening Day for weather protection.”

This impacted the Twins’ decision to open the season with an 11-man pitching staff; with so much down time, they do not figure to need any more arms. It led to fifth starter Martin Perez opening the season in the bullpen instead of the rotation. An 11-man staff allows for a five-man bench of position players, buying the Twins time while they evaluate first baseman Tyler Austin and infielder Ehire Adrianza, both of whom are out of options.

http://www.startribune.com/early-season-off-days-present-a-challenge-to-twins/507863382/

Win Twins!!
 

GophersInIowa said:
Someone in the media recently said the two sides were way off when it came to $$$ and years in their negotiations. It might have been Doogie that said it though so take it with a grain of salt.
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Well if he keeps pitching like that they will never "afford" him. After last year they should have just locked him down. Every game like that he pitches he gets even more too expensive for the twins
 


bottlebass said:
Well if he keeps pitching like that they will never "afford" him. After last year they should have just locked him down. Every game like that he pitches he gets even more too expensive for the twins
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Sounds like they tried. For all we know, it was a good offer. But I wouldn't blame Berrios for wanting to let things play out for another year or two.
 

GophersInIowa said:
Sounds like they tried. For all we know, it was a good offer. But I wouldn't blame Berrios for wanting to let things play out for another year or two.
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No I don't blame him either. It's his gamble that could pay off big. I won't say the other part of the gamble because I don't want to jinx him/us/twins....
 

GophersInIowa said:
Sounds like they tried. For all we know, it was a good offer. But I wouldn't blame Berrios for wanting to let things play out for another year or two.
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I have the ultimate respect for the man that bets on himself. I hope he delivers for the Twins, and gets paid accordingly. Good for him!
 

Charley Walters: Twins’ Derek Falvey says Year 3 all about ‘young core’

The Minnesota Twins have begun their third season under the direction of Derek Falvey and Thad Levine.

At this juncture, is this where they expected to be, or hoped to be?

“Little bit of both,” Falvey, the club’s chief baseball executive, said last Wednesday before the impressive 2-0 season-opening victory over Cleveland at sold-out Target Field.

“Some things (the first two seasons) went as I would have hoped or expected, and some things probably didn’t go quite as expected in terms of overall development of our players or performance. There were some things that probably exceeded expectations and some that fell short from a team standpoint.

“The hope and expectation is that we continue to grow. From Day One, I said we would continue to grow our young core of players. We’ve seen spurts of that core do really well and then spurts
where it hasn’t quite performed up to expectations.”

Going into Year 3, Falvey said, “I don’t feel any differently about that (young) group; we need that group to continue to take us forward. Because I know to be a good team, a young core of players has to take you there.”

Is there a five-year plan for the Twins to become a championship team?

“I think you have to be careful about just putting specific timelines on a plan, especially when we came into this situation,” Falvey said. “Every situation’s different. Every situation’s unique.

“In some teams’ cases, the goal from the get-go was to maybe build from the ground up only and not focus at all on the development at the major league level. I’ve seen that in other places, and that was not us. We felt there was a core of talent here — we had a nice run of that talent in 2017. We had some setbacks in 2018.


“I think that core is still here and in existence in many ways, and I think that while there are some new faces surrounding it, I think that group needs to continue to take us forward. That’s always been the plan, and we’ll re-evaluate that again at the end of this year.”

What will make this a successful year?

“Good question — I would say if we have that group collectively that we’ve seen spurts from, takes steps forward to be key members of a core of a championship caliber team, that will feel great,” Falvey said.

That core includes Byron Buxton, Miguel Sano, Max Kepler, Jorge Polanco, Eddie Rosario and Jose Berrios.

“I don’t know what the number of wins is at the end, but I want to win more than the other teams,” Falvey said. “That’s the goal.”

https://www.twincities.com/2019/03/...erek-falvey-says-year-3-all-about-young-core/

Win Twins!!
 



This "never bunt" cult cost the Twins that game. I'm not a bunting fool like Molitor was, but there's a place in the toolbox for it. The comes a point late in a game where a base is more valuable than an out.
 

Nice win today by the Twins. Pineda looked decent - fast ball was topping out at 91, so it will be interesting to see how he progresses. Perez threw well except for one bad inning.
The bats came alive. La Tortuga just freakin' hits the ball. They need to find ways to keep that bat in the lineup somehow. Buxton is off to a good start. Rosario usually doesn't start hitting until the weather warms up, so I'm not worried about him. And Cruz did what he does.

Very early in the year, but some positive signs. Now they need to go to town against the rest of the division.

on the bunting - it's really a catch-22. a lot of today's players can't execute a bunt, so it doesn't make sense to ask them to do something they're not good at. If they put in a pinch-hitter to bunt, the Baseball Prospectus crowd would go insane.

Unfortunately, that is one of the consequences of the analytics era - where the home run is prized over batting average and making contact.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
Nice win today by the Twins. Pineda looked decent - fast ball was topping out at 91, so it will be interesting to see how he progresses. Perez threw well except for one bad inning.
The bats came alive. La Tortuga just freakin' hits the ball. They need to find ways to keep that bat in the lineup somehow. Buxton is off to a good start. Rosario usually doesn't start hitting until the weather warms up, so I'm not worried about him. And Cruz did what he does.

Very early in the year, but some positive signs. Now they need to go to town against the rest of the division.

on the bunting - it's really a catch-22. a lot of today's players can't execute a bunt, so it doesn't make sense to ask them to do something they're not good at. If they put in a pinch-hitter to bunt, the Baseball Prospectus crowd would go insane.

Unfortunately, that is one of the consequences of the analytics era - where the home run is prized over batting average and making contact.
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I think that if you did a deep statistical dive you'd find out that situational bunting does make sense. But it's the catch 22 you cite: if it makes sense only a little of the time, does it make sense to use practice time to hone the skill? I'd still say yes.

Worth noting that Pineda was touching 95 in spring games, so it might have been a matter of not going too hard in cold weather and risking injury. The guy is kind of a china doll right now.
 

Astudillo should be given some run as the every day catcher. He's a so much better at the plate, that he'd have to have 2 passed balls/game to make Castro's defense worth the drop off.
 



Hunter Greene, who many thought the Twins should have drafted instead of Royce Lewis, will have Tommy John surgery. Lewis is starting the year in Ft Myers but should get promoted to Pensacola fairly early. Kiriloff and Graterol are starting the season at Pensacola. Graterol is probably a year away at least but Kiriloff has a shot to get called up this year.
 


Twins give up 5 runs with two outs in the 5th :mad: but scrap back to tie in the 8th. :D

edit: and now take the lead in the 9th!
 



Great B squad game. And the Buxton sub made the difference. Still first place. So far, loving the new manager.
 

saintpaulguy said:
Great B squad game. And the Buxton sub made the difference. Still first place. So far, loving the new manager.
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The "closer is whoever the computer says" strategy somehow gives me less anxiety. I don't know why.
 

howeda7 said:
The "closer is whoever the computer says" strategy somehow gives me less anxiety. I don't know why.
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At first I thought it sounded kind of stupid, but now I'm kindof getting behind it.
 

saintpaulguy said:
Great B squad game. And the Buxton sub made the difference. Still first place. So far, loving the new manager.
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The question with any new manager and his staff is how well they do with fundamentals and whether their team exhibits tenacity and grit. So far, the outfield defense has been shaky in stretches, but the infield D has been solid to spectacular.
 

Bad Gopher said:
The question with any new manager and his staff is how well they do with fundamentals and whether their team exhibits tenacity and grit. So far, the outfield defense has been shaky in stretches, but the infield D has been solid to spectacular.
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Our first basemen looks like a gold glove.
 

Bad Gopher said:
The question with any new manager and his staff is how well they do with fundamentals and whether their team exhibits tenacity and grit. So far, the outfield defense has been shaky in stretches, but the infield D has been solid to spectacular.
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'cept for the ball in the fifth Polanco threw to fan in the stands...
 

Bad Gopher said:
The question with any new manager and his staff is how well they do with fundamentals and whether their team exhibits tenacity and grit. So far, the outfield defense has been shaky in stretches, but the infield D has been solid to spectacular.
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The infield was not spectacular yesterday. Adrianza makes that play to get the 3rd out and KC only scores 1 run instead of 5.
 

Every time Gibson pitches I think glad we got him instead of Trout.
 

monk10 said:
Every time Gibson pitches I think glad we got him instead of Trout.
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24 teams passed on Trout. At least we're getting something out of Gibson. The guy taken in front of Gibson never made it the big leagues. The guy before him hasn't played since 2015.
 

Yes we continue to spend money and effort on Gibson instead of moving on. Please don't make it sound worse :(.
 

monk10 said:
Yes we continue to spend money and effort on Gibson instead of moving on. Please don't make it sound worse :(.
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Gibson's gonna Gibson. The guy deserves a little break this time, though: he's recovering from e coli.
 

monk10 said:
Yes we continue to spend money and effort on Gibson instead of moving on. Please don't make it sound worse :(.
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Why would they move on right after he had his best season? He was a top 15 AL starting pitcher last season.
 

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