Cleveland Got Worse at the Deadline; Thank the Dolans

[Whitey333]

Some major publication recently predicted the Twins will win the division with an 80-82 record.  Of course they also predicted that we would have a major league shortstop and DH.  I guess you can't have everything.

[Peter]

Cleveland/Minnesota will be division battle for the next 5 years-don’t count out rest of division either. Twins did right thing at deadline staying put while the other teams were in sell mode. With our prospects/draft twins are going to be awesome fun and better team in the next 5 years. Future for twins is looking great!

[python85]

19 hours ago, Hosken Bombo Disco said:

What Cleveland did here was the equivalent of the Twins trading Gallo and Maeda

Comparing Civale to Maeda is insane. Civale has a career ERA of 3.77 (2.34 year) with 2+ years of control left. Meadea was a career ERA of 3.92 (4.53) is year with 2 months of control left. Their returns wouldn't have been close.

22 hours ago, 1991 said:

The Twins should have done the same with Gray as the Guardians did with Civale

Since we can give Gray a QO next year the minimum we would have to get for him would be the value we could get with the comp pick if he leaves via free agency. The Guardians got that with Civale because of the control he had left. I don't think anyone was going to give that up for 2 months of Gray.

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

48 minutes ago, python85 said:

Comparing Civale to Maeda is insane.

Actually, I don’t disagree. I needed a starting pitcher comp on the Twins, even though there isn’t a very good one. I didn’t want to use Sonny Gray, so I used Maeda. Maybe I should have used Joe Ryan…. 

[saviking]

23 hours ago, 1991 said:

The Twins should have done the same with Gray as the Guardians did with Civale.  IF the Twins make the playoffs, they will be trounced.  Sometimes you have to be a realist.  Hope is not a strategy...

Well said, 1991 ..

[Minny505]

3 hours ago, jmlease1 said:

Didn't they trade Bell for a player that they're cutting? That was a pure salary dump. Gallo may have a better OPS right now, but it's been in free fall since the first month of the season; Bell has been at least consistent and might be effective as a platoon bat. I'm not going to pretend Bell has significant value, but he's still more likely to be consistently productive. 

The Guardians got Kahlil Watson, a 20 year old 5-tool SS that has had injury issues in his first few years in pro ball. He has a FV 45 according to Fangraphs, with the tools to be in the top 100. He once was a top 20 prospect.

A comp in the Twins system might be Austin Martin. I'd trade Gallo for an aging veteran to cut and Austin Martin in a heartbeat.

The Dolans suck, but Chernoff might be the best in the biz to pull off a trade like that. 

[python85]

50 minutes ago, Hosken Bombo Disco said:

I needed a starting pitcher comp on the Twins, even though there isn’t a very good one

I agree there isn't a strong one. All of our pitchers either have significantly more team control (Ryan, Ober, Lopez) or significantly less(Gray, Meada). I think we agree that their Bell and Rosario trades might be sneaky good and something the Twins could have emulated, but we just don't have a very good comp for Civale. 

[JD-TWINS]

On 8/2/2023 at 11:52 AM, 1991 said:

The Twins should have done the same with Gray as the Guardians did with Civale.  IF the Twins make the playoffs, they will be trounced.  Sometimes you have to be a realist.  Hope is not a strategy...

We are going to host a 3 game series if we win the Central. We are in line to play Toronto or one of the two teams chasing them…….Boston or New York. If Chris Sale gets healthy he’s challenging - obviously, Cole is scary good. Toronto has Gausman…..we lit him up last time we faced him. All 3 teams can be good……all 3 can be mediocre as well.

Gotta have some faith.

If Kuechel works out and our starters get some rest in August we’ll be in great shape.

October comes and we have Lopez - Gray - Ober with Meada in the wings.

Ryan into the pen, more than likely. He’s a better option than Maeda. Who knows, we may still have Kuechel on the roster. 6 relievers & a 12 man staff in playoffs.

We may go with the “opener” approach Kuechel/Gray & Maeda/Ryan to get 3-4 innings each with contrasting styles!

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

Manzardo in this series against the Twins: 

6 for 9, with 2 HR, 2 walks, 4 RBI. Hit the game winner in game 1.