****OFFICIAL 2020 MINNESOTA TWINS THREAD****

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SCyclone

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Pitchers and catchers are reporting, it's almost time for us to deflect our attention from our underachieving men's basketball team and think about baseball.

Twins add Josh Donaldson and Kenta Maeda, and (hopefully) get Byron Buxton back full-time. The outfield looks awesome, and the infield ain't shabby neither.

The rotation isn't dominant, but with this line-up they may not have to be.

What's your take on the coming season?
 

Blackhawk6515

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Bullpen looks pretty good. Starters will need to keep improving to make a difference.

Their offense and defense should be solid again.
 

JM4CY

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Thanks for starting this thread!!! I’m way more optimistic than I should be. I know how these things go: Berrios will blow his shoulder, Father Time will catch up to Cruz, Sano will remember how to not to hit a baseball and won’t be able to hit his way out of wet paper sack and Donaldson will be a bust.

But hell with it, this could be the year baby!!!!
 

mj4cy

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My fear is we're going to flirt with 100 games again but then come up short in the playoffs when you have to have 2 B+ level pitchers or better.

Hope I'm wrong. I know we're going to hit and when games with scores like 11-7 but I don't know how pitching will be.
 
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JM4CY

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My fear is we're going to flirt with 100 games again but then come up short in the playoffs when you have to have 2 B+ level pitchers or better.

Hope I'm wrong. I know we're going to hit and when games with scores like 11-7 but I don't know how pitching will be.
Berríos seems to get better every year. If he can stay healthy and take a jump to being that unhittable guy and true ace among aces, I think that’s one of main keys to making an October run or bending over and taking it dry from the Yanks again.
 

mj4cy

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Berríos seems to get better every year. If he can stay healthy and take a jump to being that unhittable guy and true ace among aces, I think that’s one of main keys to making an October run or bending over and taking it dry from the Yanks again.

I drove up to watch in person the Yankees take it to us. Seemed like every time we hit the ball hard it was right to the and every time they hit it hard it was open space. We also had an inning with bases loaded no outs and nothing.....

Long story short, the Yankees were simply the better team due to better pitching.
 

JM4CY

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I drove up to watch in person the Yankees take it to us. Seemed like every time we hit the ball hard it was right to the and every time they hit it hard it was open space. We also had an inning with bases loaded no outs and nothing.....

Long story short, the Yankees were simply the better team due to better pitching.
And they just got Gerrit ******* Cole
 

CTTB78

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Even with the addition of Donaldson, it's hard to believe the Twins will match last year's homer mark. The defense and pitching should be slightly better in 2020 so the Bomba Squad won't have to do it all.
It's fun going into the season knowing the Twins will be one the AL's top teams. I have them winning 99 games.
 

CTTB78

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After following all of the spring training reports I'm hoping that the patch work starting pitching plans pan out. Hill and Pineda will come on late, but Homer may be the key for Twins success out of the gates.
 

Cyinthenorth

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Thanks for starting this thread!!! I’m way more optimistic than I should be. I know how these things go: Berrios will blow his shoulder, Father Time will catch up to Cruz, Sano will remember how to not to hit a baseball and won’t be able to hit his way out of wet paper sack and Donaldson will be a bust.

But hell with it, this could be the year baby!!!!
I'm 29, 30 in a few days, so technically the Twins have won a WS in my lifetime. But I'd still like to actually bear witness to it and not just a drooling toddler completely unaware of it taking place
 
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AuH2O

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Berríos seems to get better every year. If he can stay healthy and take a jump to being that unhittable guy and true ace among aces, I think that’s one of main keys to making an October run or bending over and taking it dry from the Yanks again.
The problem with Berrios is that he seems to run out of gas late in the season. Not sure if they need to keep his innings lower throughout the season, but they need him to be an ace late in the year, and he wasn't last year. Hopefully they can lean on the pen a lot more during the early part of the season. The addition of Donaldson should help balance out the likelihood that Cruz starts showing his age and maybe guys like Garver come back to earth a bit. But that lineup could be something. A healthy Buxton that continues to progress will be a great luxury, but Gonzalez is a nice insurance policy. For the most part you're taking a ridiculous lineup from last year and swapping out Cron for Donaldson. It would've been easy to be complacent with the offense, so it's pretty exciting to see the front office be aggressive.
 

SWCy13

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The problem with Berrios is that he seems to run out of gas late in the season. Not sure if they need to keep his innings lower throughout the season, but they need him to be an ace late in the year, and he wasn't last year. Hopefully they can lean on the pen a lot more during the early part of the season. The addition of Donaldson should help balance out the likelihood that Cruz starts showing his age and maybe guys like Garver come back to earth a bit. But that lineup could be something. A healthy Buxton that continues to progress will be a great luxury, but Gonzalez is a nice insurance policy. For the most part you're taking a ridiculous lineup from last year and swapping out Cron for Donaldson. It would've been easy to be complacent with the offense, so it's pretty exciting to see the front office be aggressive.

Hopefully they got through to Berrios regarding his training regimen. He was a well known workout freak that would start training for the season, throwing bullpens, etc. in November, which could have been contributing to his late season breakdowns. Judging from reports from spring training this year, it sounds like they got him to dial it back quite a bit and chill out on that stuff, so hopefully come August he won't lose 3-4 MPH on his fastball again.

I think the pitching is going to be good enough to win a lot of regular season games, but the playoffs are a whole different animal. I wouldn't be surprised to see them make a big trade at the deadline to add an elite arm (maybe a DeGrom or Syndergaard type of guy if the Mets suck again). They have a ton of high level prospects that are going to be in AA or AAA this year that don't seem to have a very quick path to playing time at the major league level - I'd be fine with them trading any of them (with maybe the exception of Kiriloff) if it meant landing a true dominant ace.
 

AuH2O

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Hopefully they got through to Berrios regarding his training regimen. He was a well known workout freak that would start training for the season, throwing bullpens, etc. in November, which could have been contributing to his late season breakdowns. Judging from reports from spring training this year, it sounds like they got him to dial it back quite a bit and chill out on that stuff, so hopefully come August he won't lose 3-4 MPH on his fastball again.

I think the pitching is going to be good enough to win a lot of regular season games, but the playoffs are a whole different animal. I wouldn't be surprised to see them make a big trade at the deadline to add an elite arm (maybe a DeGrom or Syndergaard type of guy if the Mets suck again). They have a ton of high level prospects that are going to be in AA or AAA this year that don't seem to have a very quick path to playing time at the major league level - I'd be fine with them trading any of them (with maybe the exception of Kiriloff) if it meant landing a true dominant ace.
Makes sense about Berrios, and seems correctable. You never know, you throw some of these guys off in terms of preparation and it gets in theirs heads.

I do think in general they are built to be a great regular season team and not exactly made for the postseason. Then again, you have to get there first. Having early/mid-season Berrios in the playoffs is the most important thing they can do. Not sure what DeGrom or Syndegaard's contracts are like, but I'd be OK with trading prospects for one if they have them for 2021 as well.
 

mj4cy

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Makes sense about Berrios, and seems correctable. You never know, you throw some of these guys off in terms of preparation and it gets in theirs heads.

I do think in general they are built to be a great regular season team and not exactly made for the postseason. Then again, you have to get there first. Having early/mid-season Berrios in the playoffs is the most important thing they can do. Not sure what DeGrom or Syndegaard's contracts are like, but I'd be OK with trading prospects for one if they have them for 2021 as well.

I'm all about short term success even if that means losing prospects. Who cares....we've had "prospects" since 1991. The window of opportunity is small if you're not the Yankees. Look at the Royals, they struck while the iron was hot and are back to nothing again. But at least they got a ring.
 
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CTTB78

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I'm surprised they cut the first two so early.

Thorpe is a surprise but he hasn't pitched at all in spring training due to addressing 'personal issues'. He'll be in the Bigs in a couple of months.
Gordon being sent down didn't surprise me. With Arraez now solidly on the 40 man roster Gordon is the odd man out. Thought he might be traded in the off season.
 

jcyclonee

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Thorpe is a surprise but he hasn't pitched at all in spring training due to addressing 'personal issues'. He'll be in the Bigs in a couple of months.
Gordon being sent down didn't surprise me. With Arraez now solidly on the 40 man roster Gordon is the odd man out. Thought he might be traded in the off season.
I guess Thorpe will need the innings and they are getting tougher to come by as the starters stretch out.

I'm still just a little perplexed by Gordon this early. If Polanco or possibly even Arreaz gets hurt, he'll probably be the first one called up. I guess it's just a small risk to the big club and gets him more playing time.
 

CTTB78

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......I'm still just a little perplexed by Gordon this early. If Polanco or possibly even Arreaz gets hurt, he'll probably be the first one called up. I guess it's just a small risk to the big club and gets him more playing time.

The Twins also have Adrianza as their utility guy. Just too many guys for Gordon to beat out for a roster spot.