No game Monday Random thoughts...

[Bomba2026]

I'm sad there is no game tonight. I will be forced to watch the Bachelorette...If the Twins flew to the #1 Latin party city in the US Sunday night, what could they possibly find to do for 2 days?? And we can't forget about Max Kepler's favorite pitcher, the "Wild Thang" Hey Ricky Bauer, if you can sail a football 400 feet, please report to Vikings training camp...I could say so much more but..."a little high and just off the plate" will have to do. What are your Random thoughts?

[stringer bell]

 

What are your Random thoughts?

Make a trade to help the bullpen. Infield defense needs to be better. Jonathan Schoop is inconsequential. According to BB Ref, the Twins have a 98.3% chance of making post-season and a better than 80% chance of winning the division. All kinds of home run records.

[mlhouse]

I think the time has come for the Twins to move Luis Arraez to the lead off spot.    He has a .442 OBP and knows how to work pitchers.  He even has a bit of pop if you want to go after him and throw strikes.  The event that increases scoring a run the greatest in an inning is getting your leadoff hitter on base.  Arraez is a table setter and could become on of MLB's elite lead off hitters.

[cmoss84]

Didn't Syndergaard get traded from blue jays to mets? Did mets get Stroman for cheap? What do the mets have on the blue jays?

May we please have Thor, mets, while you keep ripping off the jays?

[dex8425]

My thoughts: So many teams have not done anything yet. There are a lot of buyers who haven't "bought" yet and a lot of sellers who are holding onto rentals for no reason. 

 

Seems like the Twins, as sellers last year, sold every half season rental player they could get anything for, plus Pressly. Why haven't the Mets, Royals, Tigers, Marlins, Reds, Pirates, Diamondbacks, White Sox, Rangers etc. sold their rental players yet? 

[Brock Beauchamp]

So it’s 8:30 eastern time. It’s likely that front offices are shut down or shutting down for the evening.

When we wake up tomorrow, we’ll be about 35 hours from the deadline, have seen one (!!!!!!) significant trade in all of MLB, and that trade has half of all analysts scratching their heads in confusion.

What a bizarre deadline and if things don’t start moving early tomorrow, I think it could turn into a buyer’s market as lesser talent has to be sold off quickly for fear of missing out entirely.

[Reider]

This is the most dominant hitting Twins team that I've ever seen, especially power-wise. The Twins can hit with the Yankee's, they've proven that. This is the first year that I've seen a Twins team not be mentally beaten before the game even begins vs. the Yankee's. But the Twins need high end pitching (1 starter, two bullpen arms, minimum, Sergio Romo doesn't count). One could argue that it might be unforgivable if Derek Falvey and Thad Levine do not significantly upgrade the Twins' pitching staff before the trade deadline. Not only would it arguably be unforgivable, but it would be further proof that this organization is not serious about winning Championships.

[Brock Beauchamp]

This is the most dominant hitting Twins team that I've ever seen, especially power-wise. The Twins can hit with the Yankee's, they've proven that. This is the first year that I've seen a Twins team not be mentally beaten before the game even begins vs. the Yankee's. But the Twins need high end pitching (1 starter, two bullpen arms, minimum, Sergio Romo doesn't count). One could argue that it might be unforgivable if Derek Falvey and Thad Levine do not significantly upgrade the Twins' pitching staff before the trade deadline. Not only would it arguably be unforgivable, but it would be further proof that this organization is not serious about winning Championships.

Expecting a team to go get three arms better than Romo in a single deadline is wildly unrealistic.

 

Two arms better? Maybe, and that should probably be the goal. One arm better? Certainly realistic and probably the most likely outcome.

[Reider]

 

Expecting a team to go get three arms better than Romo in a single deadline is wildly unrealistic.

Two arms better? Maybe, and that should probably be the goal. One arm better? Certainly realistic and probably the most likely outcome.

If they want to compete down the stretch and in the playoffs, they're going to need the fire power and quality depth. Two high end pitchers would certainly help. If one or more of Smeltzer, Thorpe, Stashak etc.. could be solid down the stretch, that would help too. It doesn't matter where the Twins get quality pitching from, they just need to get it. The Twins still have three 13 game stretches left in the schedule (plus all of their other games). They play 26 games in 27 days from Aug 27th to Sept 22nd. They're going to need high end pitching and they're going to need quality depth.

[Brock Beauchamp]

 

If they want to compete down the stretch and in the playoffs, they're going to need the fire power and quality depth. Two high end pitchers would certainly help. If one or more of Smeltzer, Thorpe, Stashak etc.. could be solid down the stretch, that would help too. It doesn't matter where the Twins get quality pitching from, they just need to get it. The Twins still have three 13 game stretches left in the schedule (plus all of their other games). They play 26 games in 27 days from Aug 27th to Sept 22nd. They're going to need high end pitching and they're going to need quality depth.

I agree the Twins need more depth - quite a bit more - but there are at least ten other teams vying for maybe ten good arms this deadline. It would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, for the Twins to outbid those teams and land roughly one-third of all arms available at the deadline.

[Brock Beauchamp]

Unsurprisingly, no big trades overnight.

 

But we're now just 32 hours from the deadline and the only real trade of note is the weird Stroman deal.

 

Quite the deadline.

[terrydactyls]

I agree the Twins need more depth - quite a bit more - but there are at least ten other teams vying for maybe ten good arms this deadline. It would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, for the Twins to outbid those teams and land roughly one-third of all arms available at the deadline.

And, as I've said repeatedly, it takes two sides to complete a trade. If the Twins don't have what other teams want, no trade will happen until Wednesday at 2:59PM CDT when panic sets in on both sides to do something.

[Doctor Wu]

I hate this waiting until the last minute stuff. Too much drama and uncertainly for my fragile nerves! As good as the Twins have been this year, I still think they need another high quality arm --- in the bullpen obviously, but another very good starter would be nice too --- if they want to advance past the first round of the playoffs. But this darn clock is ticking ....