Wilbur

This guy didn't read his roster close enough....man..... Need a cheat sheet with all these new numbers.

Being able to use Strinden and Albrecht for the PK is huge. Top three lines look good. Blake dominates every shift. See if he does it against Bucky.

Whit Merrifield will likely be a free agent soon. Wonder if the Twins will have interest.

And so it begins. Should be a team that we can run out of the rink tonight. Tomorrow, I dunno..... Goal Scorers: Blake, Perron, Gaber, Ness, McLaughlin. 5-1 Book it.

Post 2023 season thoughts: I'll give credit again to @SiouxBoys for putting me in my place on Correa way back when. The guy is a winner, and a leader. I wish we saw it more throughout the season, but the guy is our shortstop for the next five years thankfully (please get healthy). I think there is some promise there with the young kids. Our young bullpen arms give me a lot of hope. Duran should be here forever, Varland, Jax, Stewart, tons to be excited about. I could see them holding on to Pagan as a low leverage guy, but his numbers will get him some bigger money elsewhere. I don't know what you do with a Thielbar because the new face three batters rule just doesn't set up nicely for him, but you have Funderburk, who just doesn't have the velocity at this point. We've got Pablo, Ryan, Ober, Paddack as starters coming back, maybe Sonny sticks around, but thats going to cost them some money. Lineup wise we need to add a right handed hitter with some pop to play left field or first base. Or maybe you trade for one, we have a million outfielders at the moment. Got to get guys healthy now and 100% going into spring. Buxton has had two at bats since August. There are no excuses for him not to be 100% next April. If he was needing surgery they should have done it in August. Lastly, we need to take advantage of playing in the AL Central. There is no reason that this team coming back can't win 95 games next year and get a bye and host an ALDS series. You've can't lose 3 of 4 at home to Detroit, can't get swept by the Royals, can't let a Cleveland team stay with you down the stretch. I know its an unbelievably long season and you are going to lose a lot of games along the way, but win those series that you are supposed to win. The longest winning streak they had this year was 5 games. No reason they can't get on an 8-10 game streak with the division opponents that they have, albeit they don't play them as much anymore, but they do have stretches where they play them a lot. Fun run at the end, nice to see them get the monster losing streak off their back.

I told you all we missed out on Fighting Sun Dogs.....I fricken told you.....

Way too early look at next year's lineup. 1. Julien-2B 2. Lewis-3B 3. Correa-SS 4. Buxton-DH 5. Wallner-RF 6. Kiriloff-1B (Or a free agent) 7. Jeffers/Vasquez-C 8. Larnach/Castro-LF 9. CF-TBD....Can Brooks Lee play here? Imagine Farmer back, maybe Nick Gordon. Solano a free agent. Going to have a lot of cash after they buy out Kepler and Polanco. I'd only bring Polanco back on a restructured deal. Pitching wise they are in the best spot they've been in for many years. If Sonny doesn't come back they've still got four guys that can go 150 plus innings. February a long ways away.

A change is needed in the philosophy at the plate. Wow did they strike out....a lot. Got the monkey off their back, but lost to a more complete team. Interesting off season ahead.

Probably not.

Polanco. Royce, Kepler..... Down to this.

Hey, he at least put it in play.

He's for sure in for 6 outs.

8th inning. Looks like Duran. That leaves only Pagan after him.

All the right moves except Thielbar IMHO. Paddack, and Jax lights out.

Really a step in a great direction for Paddack. Could be excellent next season.

I think they should've pitched around Abreu. That's a terrible match up....then he gets the lefty and have Paddack come in. Instead it's 3-1.

Thielbar in now? Thought you'd use him later.

Got to battle here guys. Not even fouling off pitches.

I'd say let Stewart go another inning.

3. Stewart 4. Stewart 5. Paddack 6. Varland 7. Varland 8. Jax 9. Duran

Lavelle just tweeted he's out next inning.

Our offense proved they can move the ball against some athletes when they played Boise State. And that was with a pretty hectic crowd to deal with. Bubba not putting the foot on the gas in this game and trying to score the football based on that NDSU isn't as good defensively as they've been in the past would be a mistake. Great time to get over the hump and beat them as FCS opponents. It may take living outside his comfort level a bit with taking some chances, but if we don't we are talking about "maybe in Fargo" next season.

Kepler and Polanco both on club options after this year. 10 million and 10.5 million. The buy outs on those two deals are a million each. I'd assume that the Twins go with Wallner next year, and Julien at 2nd with Royce at 3rd. You've got control years on Willie Castro and he can slide into the outfield in left if Wallner plays right. I think Brooks Lee is a winner, and wouldn't be surprised if he has a great spring training and starts pushing the envelope for time. I would guess they try and pay Sonny Gray with letting Polanco and Kepler go. Sets up next year's rotation of: Pablo, Sonny, Paddack, Ryan, Ober. Then your bullpen is Varland, Jax, Stewart, Thielbar, Duran, Moran, Funderburk, with options of Woods-Richardson and Ortega in St. Paul.

Thoughts on starting Vasquez tomorrow behind the dish instead of Jeffers? Today not on Jeffers obviously, but he's doing nothing at the plate for them. I'd stick with him but many fans I know want Vasquez tomorrow.

That error in the first will be what I'll always remember. Just a god awful time to do that. Completely different ball game if he picks that up steps on first and they tag out Altuve on second. Kind of what we've seen all year long with putting the ball in play with sloppy at bats. I don't care how you do it, but put the ball in past the pitcher and a run scores on the ground.....it just amazes me that professionals can't do this any more. Still have hope though. Its a 2 game season. One of those games will be pitched by Pablo, just have to get there.