Well T-giving has passed and Xmas has come early.. Today, I just received a copy of Derek Falvey's business planner from a disgruntled FO employee wishing to make public DF's plans starting in August 2021 thru opening day 2022. For brevity sake I have removed all the confusing algorithms, statistics, and doodlings that comprise most of these pages, but the words are his! Hope you enjoy this rare insight into the brain of Derek Falvey!!
Aug. 2021
1. Make up list of all preseason pi
Woke up in a sweat last nite. Dreamt that Jim Pohlad called and offered me the Twins GM job the day after the 2021 season ended. While I was overcome with excitement, before accepting the position, I had 3 demands:
1. I would be able to fire Rocco and his staff. Would look for a veteran, old school manager like Buck Showalter or Bruce Boche. Maybe even James Rowson or (gasp!!) Ozzie Guillen??
2. JP had to agree to resign BB to the 7 year/$80MM contract agreed on plus whatever game-
Before we look into our crystal balls post-deadline, a quick review of what's just transpired might be in order. First, we lost our best hitter and best pitcher. For this very reason, chances are this season is going to get even worse. Three of our new starters will likely be Ober, Jax and Barnes, none of whom figures to be better than a #5 starter. The bullpen has arguably gotten worse without Rogers and Robles. And the offense will likely continue to be erratic - some big run production
Now that the first shoe has dropped in the Twin's trade season, what should the Twins do next? The Cruz trade impact clearly affects both the pitching and offense of this team, both now and next year. The additions of Ryan and to a lesser extent, Strotman, can be expected to bolster the Twin's staff, even as soon as next year. Their addition improves the odds that ("trumpets blaring"), this team might have doubled their chances to internally develop an ace(prior to this trade, Balozavic seeme
Now that it is clear Twins must be sellers, the most pressing issue to the FO must be: Retool or Rebuild? With the trade deadline in just 4 weeks, many big decisions must be made this month. Just to restate the obvious: retooling can be defined as fielding a 2022 squad that can be a legitimate contender at least for a playoff spot. A rebuild means tearing down the core and hoping to contend by 2024/5 at the earliest.
For starters, let's list the key factors that would allow for a retool:
Arizona, here we come for Div 1 baseball/softball for 8 wks.
5 games at the World Baseball Classic. Include tix to Mex-USA, sold-out. Chase Field will rock!
Best of high school baseball throughout the state.
You guys need to do what the Marlins guys do. Once a week they have a visual podcast discussing the weekly happenings of the team. A podcast with all of the contributors on screen at the same time.
MLB is announcing the top rated prospects. I am pleased to see that the Twins have the 10th rated SS with Brooks Lee, who was rated as the top hitting SS prospect. Royce Lewis was not in the top 10, but was mentioned in the article as being on the fringe of the top 10 at SS. Julian is #7 at 2B and is rated as the 2B prospect who has made the most improvements in the shortest amount of time and who has risen the farthest. MLB mentioned that Jose Miranda had graduated off of last year's top 10 rankings at 3B. When we add Carlos Correa and all his superlatives to the equation at SS and a former all star SS, Polanco, currently at 2B...that is impressive. 1B will hopefully be manned by Kirilloff, who is still very young (remember he was drafted out of HS) and very promising as a fielder at a relatively new position, where his play looks smooth, and if his wrist is fixed, he can be a very promising hitter, with some power. The Twins' OF is current loaded with award winning defensive outfielders, but probably not any highly ranked OF prospects. I feel Larnach is the most likely to become an impressive young OF'er or possibly Wallner or Martin , who has underperformed in pro ball so far, based on his draft position. Catching is by far the Twins weakest group of prospects. The Twins should attempt to trade for Henry Davis of the Pirates, who have 2 catchers ranked in the top 10 prospects. Davis is rated as having the best catching arm among the prospects. The Mets also have 2 catchers in the top ten list of prospects and both will probably be good hitters in the majors. In fact the Mets' prospect catcher, Alvarez, is rated as being the best hitting prospect of all prospects, and ranked #1 among all prospects. So I expect he will be the first choice to catch for the Mets. Possibly that will free up the other top prospect catcher on the Mets, Parada, to be traded to the Twins. Now about those pitching prospects....