Twins GM Thad Levine: "We Have A Little Bit Of A Hole In Our Starting Rotation"

Julien’s control has more value than one year of Burnes. There isn’t any question on that. Is value in whole the only consideration?

Burnes’ one year can be more impactful. One year of Morris had great impact. 

8 hours ago, Cory Engelhardt said:

To each their own.

Id prefer a minor league signing, like Jake Odorizzi, to add depth compared to Clevinger. And I am a fan of SWR

SWR's minor league numbers are mediocre at best, and that's in the minors.  I don't understand why fans are so fascinated with him on TD.  I'm not sure he ever makes the majors.

When I listen to Thad it does not give me much optimism that they are gonna find anything by spring training.  My gut tells me they end up rolling with the starters they have currently (Ryan, Ober, Lopez, Paddack, Varland).  They would have to give up meaningful prospects to pry away any of Miami's remaining healthy starters and Miami's rotation is already thin with Alcantara down for the season.  That means one of Perez, Luzardo, Garrett, Cabrera and Trevor Rogers.  I just don't see the Twins trading for 1 year of Corbin Burnes.  Oh well.      

15 minutes ago, laloesch said:

SWR's minor league numbers are mediocre at best, and that's in the minors.  No thanks.

Woods-Richardson’s stuff+ numbers are pretty good. He has a lot of movement on his pitches.

I wonder if the movement on his pitches gave him a bigger disadvantage with the AAA electronic strike zone. There were a lot of problems last year in AAA with the electronic zone. Last year the ABS called strikes solely based on where the ball crosses the midpoint of the plate, 8.5 inches from the front and the back in AAA. Would pitches with more movement fall out of the zone before that midpoint or move into the zone after the zone after the midpoint? Did that disadvantage SWR more than others or at least did it take him longer to adjust to a 2D zone?

Is there still a hole in the starting rotation? 

14 hours ago, jorgenswest said:

Woods-Richardson’s stuff+ numbers are pretty good. He has a lot of movement on his pitches.

I wonder if the movement on his pitches gave him a bigger disadvantage with the AAA electronic strike zone. There were a lot of problems last year in AAA with the electronic zone. Last year the ABS called strikes solely based on where the ball crosses the midpoint of the plate, 8.5 inches from the front and the back in AAA. Would pitches with more movement fall out of the zone before that midpoint or move into the zone after the zone after the midpoint? Did that disadvantage SWR more than others or at least did it take him longer to adjust to a 2D zone?

 

Are we talking about a whole season, his minor league career, or just a snippet of last season here?  Because he still pitched almost a 5.00 era last season.  That's not pretty good that's pretty mediocre.  And in his major league deput he got shellacked.  Look i want the guy to succeed just like everyone else, but I'm not convinced he's the 4 leaf clover in the field with the horses.

8 hours ago, jorgenswest said:

Is there still a hole in the starting rotation? 

Yep, although not according to the FO

18 minutes ago, nicksaviking said:

Where did you see that?

Zero chance they think DeScalfani is anything more than he actually is, which is a DFA candidate.

Doesn't eliminate the possibility of adding anyone else, but sounds like it is no longer a priority when it very well should be

3 hours ago, nicksaviking said:

Yuck and even more yuck. The rotation has not been bolstered and the offensive free agents remaining have no business taking a spot away from the more talented young players the Twins already have at their disposal.

They might/must be counting on Paddack to replace Gray and Varland to step up also. Personally, I loved the way both of those guys looked in the pen at the end of last year. 

On 1/29/2024 at 4:16 PM, jorgenswest said:

Woods-Richardson’s stuff+ numbers are pretty good. He has a lot of movement on his pitches.

I wonder if the movement on his pitches gave him a bigger disadvantage with the AAA electronic strike zone. There were a lot of problems last year in AAA with the electronic zone. Last year the ABS called strikes solely based on where the ball crosses the midpoint of the plate, 8.5 inches from the front and the back in AAA. Would pitches with more movement fall out of the zone before that midpoint or move into the zone after the zone after the midpoint? Did that disadvantage SWR more than others or at least did it take him longer to adjust to a 2D zone?

 

The metric I like a lot better than Stuff + is getting outs. He hasn’t been very good at that. He is young enough to have hope but there are very real reasons to be skeptical.