Episode 54: Trade Dreadline

“Jax has 20 grade resilience” 

So true and a great quote 🤣

C'mon, guys, Owen Caissie and Dalton Rushing are not good prospects.  You wonder why prospects ranked highly so often fail?  It's not a random thing.  It's that the ranking system hasn't caught on to the one fundamental.  Minor league slash lines don't mean nearly as much as they think they do, certainly not without context.  Major league pitchers are going to toy with Caissie, as evidenced by the fact he can't put the ball in play against minor league pitchers often enough.  It's more nuanced than that, but that's the general idea.  Rushing  just isn't that good.  His stats are inflated, and for his age/levels and parks, he also strikes out too much.  He simply is going to be mediocre.  Both these guys are bad targets, and the Cubs and Dodgers truly hope the Twins are interested in them.

Ballesteros, on the other hand, is a star.  His age/levels, production, strikeout rate, all project to star at the major league level.  If the Twins were able to get him for Duran, I would be thrilled.  You get Caissie for Duran, and the fanbase, after initial excitement followed by the pitchers figuring out his many weaknesses, will be screaming for the heads of Falvey and anyone else in the front office.  Ballesteros is the man, not enough by himself for Ryan (not even adding the pitcher suggested), but the man the Twins need to land next week.

I enjoy the podcast, at least until you get to the Guess the Twin segment.  That's unnecessary, I think, but I can switch off.

19 minutes ago, thelanges5 said:

“Jax has 20 grade resilience” 

So true and a great quote 🤣

Yeah, it is concerning, and it's the only reason I'd consider trading Jax over Duran.  I've mostly been hoping it's Duran traded.

1 hour ago, Mike Sixel said:

If you had not stated that ranking systems only look at slash lines, this would be a great post....but come on. Most of these systems are run by former scouts......

What are you talking about?  I never said that.  I said that's an issue they fall prey to.