Former Twins prospect Christion Encarnacion-Strand is destroying spring training for the Reds. Hitting over .500 with 4 dingers and I think 14 RBIs. He was traded with Spencer Steer for Tyler Mahle. Still ok with the trade, but the kid is putting himself in the mix to make their opening day roster.
Holy crap. Buxton is playing in a real game! Started it off with an oppo double and then Correa hit a 2 run bomb. Would be nice to see that for more than 75 games this season.
Well, Kiriloff and Polanco starting off the season on the IL with injuries that aren’t healed from last year, that’s never a good sign. At least no pitchers yet.
Yeah I understand the Kirilloff injury, I don’t understand how Polanco could not be better after seven freaking months for tendonitis.
Well opening day is coming up soon, let’s get some predictions on the board! Twins making the playoffs? And if not, when do you think they will be out of it?
I think they win the Central honestly. The usual suspect will be the thing that keeps them from winning it. Injuries. If they can keep their rotation mostly intact, and the majority of their starters, they should be a 85-90 win team and that should take the worst division in baseball pretty easily.
Pablo Lopez starting opening day on Thursday for the Twins against the Royals. He’s been filthy this spring. Hopefully this team can stay mostly healthy this year because they could win some games.
I think they also win the central and also win a playoff game this year. It worries me that 2 starters are still o nthe injured list starting out but they are probably being cautious, I see Buxton will DH to start the season also. I think our pitching will be pretty good unless we get a bunch of injuries.
Have they cleaned off Target field or are they starting off on the road? I havent paid attention to their schedule at all, but Im optimistic about this team. Pitching seems to be improved.
they are starting on the road and I dont believe the home opener is till April 6th against Houston.
This Sonny Gray quote from the other day gives me some hope for this teams pitching.
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They actually have a fairly tough starting schedule so we’ll see quick what this team is made of.
I just worry where the run production will come from. Hoping for a big year from Miranda and Larnach I guess? Can’t say I have faith in Kepler doing much, or Polanco now with the injury. Obviously who knows with Buxton. Correa is nice but basically a 20 HR/70 RBI guy, not exactly going to carry you offensively. We’ll see!
I just worry where the run production will come from. Hoping for a big year from Miranda and Larnach I guess? Can’t say I have faith in Kepler doing much, or Polanco now with the injury. Obviously who knows with Buxton. Correa is nice but basically a 20 HR/70 RBI guy, not exactly going to carry you offensively. We’ll see!
I agree, there will be games where they struggle to score, but I don’t think it will be on the same level as the past few seasons. I think you’re going to see a better season from Correa. I posted earlier that changed his swing before last season and it didn’t work for him and ended up completely changing it again midway through the season and then he crushed for the last half of the season. He’ll bat 2nd so I don’t see him driving in 100 unless the bottom of the order gets on a lot. I think Miranda can get around 100, he has crushed the ball this spring, as has Larnach. The difference with this years team is 1-9 they are a better team. AND the backups are not AAA players. They are experience and even good MLB players.
I’ll be willing to bet they won’t need to score as much this season either with the way the rotation and bullpen are looking. I think Griffin Jax is going to be a shut down reliever this season. No runs and 2 hits in 7 IP this spring and was great down the stretch last season as well.
Gallo needs to produce. Jax needs to flatten out the first half of his slider. Looks more like a hard, tight curve. Sliders aren’t supposed to go up, then down but flat, then down.
Gallo needs to produce. Jax needs to flatten out the first half of his slider. Looks more like a hard, tight curve. Sliders aren’t supposed to go up, then down but flat, then down.
Well nobody has hit it yet this spring. He also tweaked it this offseason from what I’ve read. And he’s throwing mid to upper 90s all of a sudden.
I’m not expecting much from Gallo. I think Larnach will have a better year.
Maybe Jax has flattened out his slider. I haven’t seen him throw this spring. I didn’t believe it when the Twins signed Gallo. Terrible last year. Maybe need some outfield depth with Buxton probably DHing the majority of the time.
Maybe Jax has flattened out his slider. I haven’t seen him throw this spring. I didn’t believe it when the Twins signed Gallo. Terrible last year. Maybe need some outfield depth with Buxton probably DHing the majority of the time.
Gallo has been terrible most of his career not just last year. Doubt it means anything but he’s actually hit pretty well this spring. Last I checked he was around the .275 mark. They signed Michael Taylor to start in CF until Buxton can play CF more than once a month. Buxton will start as the DH the majority of the games to start the season. As for Jax I don’t know what he did to the slider, just read he tweaked it, and that no one has hit him this spring. The more we can keep Pagan away from the 7th, 8th, and 9th innings, the happier I am.
Tie Pagan to the bullpen bench. 
Gallo has been terrible most of his career not just last year. Doubt it means anything but he’s actually hit pretty well this spring. Last I checked he was around the .275 mark. They signed Michael Taylor to start in CF until Buxton can play CF more than once a month. Buxton will start as the DH the majority of the games to start the season. As for Jax I don’t know what he did to the slider, just read he tweaked it, and that no one has hit him this spring. The more we can keep Pagan away from the 7th, 8th, and 9th innings, the happier I am.
Honestly Gallo isn’t as awful as everyone makes him out to be, his walk rate is what usually gets left off of the table. If you look at his career OBP he lines up similar to guys like Polanco and not far behind Correa and ahead of others like Kepler and Buxton. Yea his average sucks but we really struggled even getting baserunners last year so I’m hopefully he’ll be worth it. (Come find me in 6 months when the Twins let me down again and I’ll eat my words..)
Sorry Matt, I know BA is not something people care about anymore, but I just hate that move. Sure, walks get you on base, but they aren’t productive unless the bases are loaded. They just don’t mean as much as actual hits do. That’s why I think he’s terrible. When you hear people saying if he just hits over .200 it’ll be a good season for him is pretty telling. All these analytics can be used to make any player look good or bad. Baseball is a simple game and all these clipboard managers are making it convoluted to the point where the game is almost unwatchable.
On a brighter note, it’s opening day and one of my favorite days of the year! Hopefully we’ll end the day 1-0.
I agree that analytics can be manipulated and prefer the old ways of baseball, but I also truly believe walks are important and OBP is important. All the other crap is meaningless. Baserunners = runs and walks = baserunners.
Yay for real baseball today! 
Let’s hope Sonny’s comments about starters going deeper has an effect on Rocco’s management, I won’t hold my breath though
Let’s hope Sonny’s comments about starters going deeper has an effect on Rocco’s management, I won’t hold my breath though
I think they will to a certain extent. Not so much because Rocco wants to, but because our rotation is so much better (on paper) than last years. That’s my hope anyway. I’m more worried about run production than anything else.
Whats gonna happen first? Correas foot falls off, Kiriloffs hand, Meadas elbow, or all of Buxtons extremities?
Whats gonna happen first? Correas foot falls off, Kiriloffs hand, Meadas elbow, or all of Buxtons extremities?
Polanco’s knee… Oh wait….
Missed that one.
Guess we should throw Tommy Watkins in the mix in case he windmills his arm off.
Guess we should throw Tommy Watkins in the mix in case he windmills his arm off.
David St. Peter was just on KFAN a bit ago. He said there’s really only 10, maybe 15 Ace’s in the league and while the Twins don’t have one, they also don’t have any 4’s or 5’s in the rotation, and had to send some really great arms down to the minors…………..
ON a related note, Townball should be starting around the 4th of July this year unfortunately.
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