Vikings Message Board.Com

Well, with the Vikings off season set to be a sleeper (mostly due to no FA cuz of cba), looking forward to saome Twins. Has anyone heard if Morneau is doing any better? Seems kinda hush hush to me. Mauer was on ESPN first take and Morneaus name wasnt even mentioned. I still think he might retire.......that would hurt, we needs all the bats we can get with the pitching we have!

i too am excited for some twins baseball. everything i have read so far has said morneau has been making good progress and working out. i'm expecting him to be full strength come opening day. haven't heard much else about him but here is a link from the other day.

http://minnesota.sbnation.com/minnesota ... ebruary-22

i'm really excited to see nishioka. i have read up on him a little this winter and it sounds like he has the making to be a very good player for us. now i just need to learn how to properly say his name....

Morneau has been taking batting practice: http://www.startribune.com/sports/twins ... 30729.html
Good sign. Thinking he's going to retire is a little overreaction...the team is just taking this whole thing VERY slowly and carefully. He'll be back.

So has anyone else heard the stuff in the past week about the team brass being "open" to the idea of trading Liriano? I'm kind of torn about that...on one hand the guy has emotional/personality issues as well as durability issues. That wicked slider is slowly destroying his arm, and I don't think he'll play deep into his 30s. On the other hand....the BIG GLARING NEON SIGN problem with the team is starting pitching, so WHY would we trade away our best pitcher?

I guess during contract negotiations he also asked for 3-4 years @ almost 40 million. Talk about absurd!

HornedMessiah wrote:Morneau has been taking batting practice: http://www.startribune.com/sports/twins ... 30729.html
Good sign. Thinking he's going to retire is a little overreaction...the team is just taking this whole thing VERY slowly and carefully. He'll be back.

So has anyone else heard the stuff in the past week about the team brass being "open" to the idea of trading Liriano? I'm kind of torn about that...on one hand the guy has emotional/personality issues as well as durability issues. That wicked slider is slowly destroying his arm, and I don't think he'll play deep into his 30s. On the other hand....the BIG GLARING NEON SIGN problem with the team is starting pitching, so WHY would we trade away our best pitcher?

I guess during contract negotiations he also asked for 3-4 years @ almost 40 million. Talk about absurd!

Yea, our rotation is terrible. Again, it looks like we'll have to out-hit teams if we want to win. The fact the Twins did absolutely nothing to improve their pitching is absurd IMO. We MIGHT be able to win this weak, crappy division again, but with this rotation, we will never get past the first round of the playoffs, just cant be done. I agree we need to keep Lariano. While I certainly wouldnt consider him an "ace", not even close, but he is as close as the Twins have. Trading him now, given the pitchers we have, would be foolish.

purple guy wrote:
Yea, our rotation is terrible. Again, it looks like we'll have to out-hit teams if we want to win. The fact the Twins did absolutely nothing to improve their pitching is absurd IMO. We MIGHT be able to win this weak, crappy division again, but with this rotation, we will never get past the first round of the playoffs, just cant be done. I agree we need to keep Lariano. While I certainly wouldnt consider him an "ace", not even close, but he is as close as the Twins have. Trading him now, given the pitchers we have, would be foolish.

Duensing, Pavano, and Liriano are decent, and actually could be a very good 2-3-4, but we still lack that true #1. Philadelphia's rotation scares the hell out of me though.

^Philly has very good rotation I agree, but the Twins CAN hit. BUT, as you mentioned with no real #1 in our rotation, we will be leaning heavily on excellent defense in the field and strong hitting all season when we face teams who can hit, cuz we wont out pitch many teams. And we probably wont out-pitch ANY playoff teams, we'll have to out-score and play flawless in the field to compete.

Well Morneau batted in a game today, a minor league game, but its a definate step in the right direction. Delmon Young played in same game as well for first time, turf toe. Now if we had an ace, things would be good!

BTW, has anyone seen their opening schedule? At TOR for three games, then at NYY for FOUR... I think we will start out 0-7. at best 1-6. Yikes...

PurpleMustReign wrote:BTW, has anyone seen their opening schedule? At TOR for three games, then at NYY for FOUR... I think we will start out 0-7. at best 1-6. Yikes...

Geez, have a little faith. The season hasn't even started yet and we have negativity already.



Dawn

DeeEss57 wrote:
Geez, have a little faith. The season hasn't even started yet and we have negativity already.



Dawn

Look at Gardy's records in NY and TOR and that's where I get my negativity. Until he proves he can win in the eastern half og the nation, I'll hold my optimism until a later date.

PurpleMustReign wrote:BTW, has anyone seen their opening schedule? At TOR for three games, then at NYY for FOUR... I think we will start out 0-7. at best 1-6. Yikes...

I saw that the other day. Yikes. Looks like we'll be starting out in a hole. What a crappy way to start. Hopefully they can find a way to steal a few, but Im not overly optomistic with our rotation.

purple guy wrote:

I saw that the other day. Yikes. Looks like we'll be starting out in a hole. What a crappy way to start. Hopefully they can find a way to steal a few, but Im not overly optomistic with our rotation.

They waived Neshek and he was claimed by the Padres. I don't like this move, I think he still had a lot to offer. He had th TJ surgery, and I think he (like many other pitchers) was pushing too hard (or maybe was pushed too hard) to come back.

PurpleMustReign wrote:
They waived Neshek and he was claimed by the Padres. I don't like this move, I think he still had a lot to offer. He had th TJ surgery, and I think he (like many other pitchers) was pushing too hard (or maybe was pushed too hard) to come back.

Actually just heard that on the radio he was picked up off waivers. I dont think the Twins can afford to lose any pitcher for any reason. They'll need contributions from everyone since we have no real ace. I think last seasons Twins will prove better than this seasons Im afraid.

while i will be shocked if the twins start off 0-7...i certainly see what you're saying. we went 5-13 against these two clubs last year. even worse than that, we finished our regular season with toronto before getting the yanks in the postseason. sx of these last 7 games we played were at home. our record during those last 6 games....1-5.

we need to figure out how to win big games against great teams....and for the love of god we need to figure out how to win in the postseason.

vikeinmontana wrote:while i will be shocked if the twins start off 0-7...i certainly see what you're saying. we went 5-13 against these two clubs last year. even worse than that, we finished our regular season with toronto before getting the yanks in the postseason. sx of these last 7 games we played were at home. our record during those last 6 games....1-5.

we need to figure out how to win big games against great teams....and for the love of god we need to figure out how to win in the postseason.

Well, a good start for the Twins, if they want to be able to compete with the good teams, is do something about the starting rotation, that will fix A LOT of the problems. We hit well enough. We play defense well enough. But we cant out hit good teams cuz we give up 5-10 runs/game. IF we beat a decent team, its rarely we win 2-1 or 3-2, its when we luck out and the opposing pitcher takes a #### and we score 5-7 runs ourself. Even then we usually need a miracle save or a great defensive play to end it. Bottom line, IMO, the Twins need to address their pitching, period.