2019 Minnesota Twins In-Season Thread

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Breakin' The Plane said:
It's the playoffs. You can't pitch two days in a row? Good news for the Twins, I guess, Chapman, Britton and Happ all must be unavailable for NY today.
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They'll all be available, to be sure. Boone minimized each of their pitches. They expended more arm warming up than actually pitching.
 


Bad Gopher said:
They'll all be available, to be sure. Boone minimized each of their pitches. They expended more arm warming up than actually pitching.
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Exactly. If we'd tried to use Rogers/Romo/May in the 6th/7th while limiting their pitches, we'd still have ended up handing the ball to Stashak or Grateral in the 8th/9th. And if we tried to get through the rest of the game with them, they'd probably each have had to throw 30 + pitches.
 






I didn't expect to win the series. I figured we would at least lose heart-wrenching games and win at least 1. This is embarrassing.
 

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Win Twins!!
 



The Twins are a flawed team. Shaky starting pitching and below-average defense.

That flawed team still managed to win 101 games in the regular season, and break the MLB home run record.

This is still a work in progress. It will be interesting to see what moves Falvine make in the off-season. They need a #1 starter. (because I do not believe Berrios is a #1 starter on a championship team.)
 

short ornery norwegian said:
The Twins are a flawed team. Shaky starting pitching and below-average defense.

That flawed team still managed to win 101 games in the regular season, and break the MLB home run record.

This is still a work in progress. It will be interesting to see what moves Falvine make in the off-season. They need a #1 starter. (because I do not believe Berrios is a #1 starter on a championship team.)
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I can easily replace the word "Twins" in your first sentence with "Yankees" and it's still accurate. Pineda and the front office left the starting staff in deep doo-doo. I begged and pleaded for the team to sign Patrick Corbin last year, but that was never going to happen. The only chance they have to get a true #1 to develop through their organization or find someone who used to be good that's making a comeback (Johnny Cueto, Carlos Carasco, etc.).
 

short ornery norwegian said:
The Twins are a flawed team. Shaky starting pitching and below-average defense.

That flawed team still managed to win 101 games in the regular season, and break the MLB home run record.

This is still a work in progress. It will be interesting to see what moves Falvine make in the off-season. They need a #1 starter. (because I do not believe Berrios is a #1 starter on a championship team.)
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Absolutely right. Gerrit Cole needs to be a priority. The defense in the infield won't improve as long as Polanco plays shortstop. Buxton fixes the outfiled, but he cannot be relied on.
 

Gopherguy0723 said:
Absolutely right. Gerrit Cole needs to be a priority. The defense in the infield won't improve as long as Polanco plays shortstop. Buxton fixes the outfiled, but he cannot be relied on.
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I just don’t see Cole happening unless they offer significantly more than everyone else.
 




Twins lose 8-2 to the Yankees. Minnesota Twins season on life support. down 2-0 in the series. 12 straight playoffs losses to the New York Yankees. This is not funny anymore.
 

GophersInIowa said:
I just don’t see Cole happening unless they offer significantly more than everyone else.
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Everybody is going to be in on Cole. And Strasburg, if he opts out.
When Houston traded for Cole, he was a .500 pitcher with a 4.26 ERA. They bought at the right time, thinking he could regain his previous command. The Twins need to find a guy like that who develops into an ace because they are never going to pay premium free agent money to get one.
 

What a complete ____-show for the Twins. I thought they had a 50/50 shot at winning this series, as the Yankees have similar pitching issues, but that optimism dissipated quickly.
 

Breakin' The Plane said:
Everybody is going to be in on Cole. And Strasburg, if he opts out.
When Houston traded for Cole, he was a .500 pitcher with a 4.26 ERA. They bought at the right time, thinking he could regain his previous command. The Twins need to find a guy like that who develops into an ace because they are never going to pay premium free agent money to get one.
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Then trade for one. The Mets are willing to move Syndergaard. There are probably other trades to be had. And they can afford a top FA starter if they want one. Maybe not Cole, but the next level down.
 

Gopherguy0723 said:
Absolutely right. Gerrit Cole needs to be a priority. The defense in the infield won't improve as long as Polanco plays shortstop. Buxton fixes the outfiled, but he cannot be relied on.
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I would let Cron walk and move Sano to 1st. Go with Polanco at 2B, Nick Gordon at SS and Arreaz at 3B. That would improve the defense at all 3 spots. If Gordon flops, Gonzalez plays 3B and Polanco and Arreaz go back to SS and 2B.
 

howeda7 said:
Then trade for one. The Mets are willing to move Syndergaard. There are probably other trades to be had. And they can afford a top FA starter if they want one. Maybe not Cole, but the next level down.
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They can afford to sign both Cole and Strasburg. They won't though, and that's the problem. I have no issue with Syndergaard, but I think that window might have closed. I like Zack Wheeler a lot and think he'd fit great. Sign him, Odo and try and get Pineda to atone for his sins and then start sniffing around rebuilding teams and trade for potential.
 

Breakin' The Plane said:
They can afford to sign both Cole and Strasburg. They won't though, and that's the problem. I have no issue with Syndergaard, but I think that window might have closed. I like Zack Wheeler a lot and think he'd fit great. Sign him, Odo and try and get Pineda to atone for his sins and then start sniffing around rebuilding teams and trade for potential.
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Both? No. One of them. Yes. Cole will cost $30 million/year or so.
 


bottlebass said:
I mean technically they can afford both of them.
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Right. There's no cap. Ownership is worth billions. They have the money, but won't spend it.
It's nice to dream what a top flight ace would do for the club, but the reality is those guys are going elsewhere. Oh sure, the Twins will claim to be in one those guys, but ultimately they will settle for someone like Tanner Roark or Wade Miley.
 

This has been the Twins since Pohlads bought in the 80's.

Only decent veteran pitchers they brought in were Blyleven and Morris because they were tail-end of career and Minnesota guys.

The Twins said they'd compete if they got a new stadium and lied.
Prior to that, they were trying to contract the team because of $$$.

They are cheap and Dave St. Peter is silent this weekend. Last week he was hosting radio shows on WCCO and playing Radio Guy. This week, silence.
It shows was timid little snake he is.
 

Breakin' The Plane said:
Right. There's no cap. Ownership is worth billions. They have the money, but won't spend it.
It's nice to dream what a top flight ace would do for the club, but the reality is those guys are going elsewhere. Oh sure, the Twins will claim to be in one those guys, but ultimately they will settle for someone like Tanner Roark or Wade Miley.
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For guys like that they would have to offer significantly more than the Yankees, Astros, Dodgers, Red Sox, etc. Most of those guys aren't going to MN over those teams for an extra million a year. It's not as simple as just offering a little bit more than everyone else. MN isn't a top destination for star free agents, especially for pitchers.
 

Face The Facts said:
This has been the Twins since Pohlads bought in the 80's.

Only decent veteran pitchers they brought in were Blyleven and Morris because they were tail-end of career and Minnesota guys.

The Twins said they'd compete if they got a new stadium and lied.
Prior to that, they were trying to contract the team because of $$$.

They are cheap and Dave St. Peter is silent this weekend. Last week he was hosting radio shows on WCCO and playing Radio Guy. This week, silence.
It shows was timid little snake he is.
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People keep saying this but no one can ever produce a quote or an article that the Twins said this specifically.

This offseason is a rare one where there could be multiple stud pitchers free agents. That rarely happens. When they signed Lynn a few years ago, he was a Top 10 free agent. Like I just said in the previous post, MN will never be a top destination for top pitchers. They have to develop them.
 


Face The Facts said:
This has been the Twins since Pohlads bought in the 80's.

Only decent veteran pitchers they brought in were Blyleven and Morris because they were tail-end of career and Minnesota guys.

The Twins said they'd compete if they got a new stadium and lied.
Prior to that, they were trying to contract the team because of $$$.

They are cheap and Dave St. Peter is silent this weekend. Last week he was hosting radio shows on WCCO and playing Radio Guy. This week, silence.
It shows was timid little snake he is.
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They said they would spend more and they have. TThey have a payroll between 15th and 20th in MLB instead of bottom 2. It's also the highest in their division. There's no way they would still exist if they hadn't built Target Field.

The currency they had to give up to improve the pitching wasn't big $$ it was prospects. Falvey and Lavine chose to cling to their prospects and play for "next year."
 
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howeda7 said:
They said they would spend more and they have. TThey have a payroll between 15th and 20th in MLB instead of bottom 2.
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Defining "spend more" as "spend more relative to their peers" (which is what you are doing here by mentioning payroll rank), they absolutely have not.

Twins rank among MLB payrolls
2019 - 18th
2018 - 18th
2017 - 22nd
2016 - 18th
2015 - 18th
2014 - 24th
2013 - 22nd
2012 - 13th
2011 - 9th
2010 - 11th

----- (Target Field opens)

2009 - 24th
2008 - 25th
2007 - 18th
2006 - 19th
2005 - 20th
2004 - 19th
2003 - 18th

If you take out the massive outlier years of 2010-12 when they were in and near the top 10 (the first 3 years that Target Field was open, and when they had to try to pretend that they would continue to spend more), they are right back where they were before Target Field opened. If you take the seven years since (2013-19), the average payroll rank is 20th. In the seven years prior to Target Field opening (2003-09), the average payroll rank is 20th (20.4, to be precise). They did bump up their spending so they weren't bottom 2 in the league (as they were in 1999, 2000, and 2001), but that happened years before anyone had even heard of Target Field.

In other words, with a brand-new stadium less than a decade old, and the massive influx of revenue it has presented, the Twins' spending is exactly where it was 16 years ago relative to peers.
 


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