Marty Cordova is the Twins' Last Rookie of the Year. Could That Change This Year?

Would ROY come with draft pick compensation or did we miss some rule by calling SWR up too late? Anyway, I would never have guessed this in April. Great job, Simeon!!

I think there is still some MN fans who are waiting for SWR wheels to fall off, based on last season stats. But SWR is one step ahead of the league who are trying to figure him out. With his new arm slot, he is constantly working on his pitches thrown from that angle & improving.

His attitude is what has impressed me the most about Simmy. His constant desire to compete & improve. Also his teamwork mentality that appreciates what everybody is doing behind him but takes full responsibility for his actions. Gil is a great pitcher but IMO SWR has the greatest opportunity to stay up pitching in the MLB than Gil. Good fortune to SWR.

The greatest thing that happened for the Twins was DeSclavani going down rather than limping around the mound blocking the way of our prospects. That way we know early that Varland is better suited for the BP than starting (at least at this point), we discovered that SWR is a pretty darn good SP and Festa is given a chance to show what he has. All are very positive outcomes (but it'd have been better not to spend the cost of obtaining Desclavani)

17 minutes ago, FlyingFinn said:

Would ROY come with draft pick compensation or did we miss some rule by calling SWR up too late? Anyway, I would never have guessed this in April. Great job, Simeon!!

I never would have guessed it either. Sure, I had hopes that he would come up and contribute some innings, but so far the results have been much better than I expected. Overcoming the start that Gil has had with the Yankees this year will be tough, but we still have 3 full full months of the season left, so it's always possible that SWR could pull it off. I'll be curious to see if he can, or will be allowed to, pitch deeper into games as the season progresses. Or maybe, these 5-6 innings outings are the best way to use him for now?

Everybody should drop some cash in Vegas on SWR, because he still has some very, very long odds.

Best of luck SWR an keep up the good work.

Great job thus far SWR.  I think your good season will  continue throughout the rest of the season.  At this point you are ROY worthy.  But I don't think SWR will win it.  Keep up the great work SWR

I really think that this sort of talk is wildly premature and probably a curse.

Tom Kelly was a chess master. He was unfortunately hung with a lot of truly terrible teams in the late 90s and that obscures his genius a bit. I will always say that I believe that TK was the MVP of the 1991 World Series. 

I am lucky that I don't many regrets in life. OK, I should have bought Apple in 1980. But the one regret that I have is that I never had the opportunity to buy TK a beer and asked him about the players he truly hated.

Not to be presumptive about the great man's thoughts but I am pretty sure that Marty Cordova would be near the top of the list.   

I seem to recall the remark that " some guys are more interested in looking good at the beach than they are at the plate." 

TK, on the off chance you read this, the beer is on me.  

Woods-Richardson is definitely making me feel better about the Berrios trade.  I sure wasn't happy when he was traded.  still not.  He was one of my favorite players.  Martin looks like he will be a useful 4th OF.  But Woods-Richardson being a low-cost impact starter has lots of value.  Looks like the rotation will be pretty stable the next 4 seasons with Lopez, Ryan, Ober, and Woods-Richardson all locked up and Paddack through next season.  

1 hour ago, Karbo said:

Whoa slow down. SWR for ROY? Awfully early to think that way. Season is only 1/2 way through. When was the last time a pitcher won ROY? Has happened very often? I remember Fulmer and Hellickson and maybe Verlander?

The recent mid-season awards article on ESPN had SWR ranked 2nd in their AL ROY rating.  A distant 2nd, but still 2nd.  While there is still a lot of season left, SWR is firmly in the discussion.

For the record, Gil is 1st and he is also a pitcher.

I don't care how far metrics and stats have come. Nobody's going to win Rookie of the Year with W-L record of 5-3, which is where SWR will probably finish if things keep going the way they are. 

It's only optics - but optics mean something when it comes to awards. Gotta get 10 wins to be in the conversation as a pitcher for ROY. Gil has this thing in hand, and it's not even close. 

I like what I've "seen" (thanks Bally's, Comcast, Twins, and MLB) from SWR so far, but I think we're a ways from serious ROY conversation - sports books I've looked at don't even have him as the Twins rookie with the best betting odds (those go to Brooks Lee at, like, +15,000).

In addition to Gil, you've got Wilyer Abreu playing well for another high profile team. You've got Mason Miller, whose pitches are the things that MLB's social media team feasts upon (and his results are pretty darn good).  Then you've got Langford, who's starting to show signs of life. Cowser and Kjerstad as high-end talents that could turn things on between now and the end of the season, same with Holliday if he gets recalled.

I won't rule SWR out, but there's a lot more for him to overcome than just Luis Gil. We really should, however, rue the day he was traded for Cave though like we do with some of the team's other bad trades.  

I hope he does well, but being an ROY candidate (or considered) is a reach at this point.

What if we could get a race between SWR and David Festa? 

28 minutes ago, bean5302 said:

Mason Miller - Will be on a top team EoY, and he's lit the reporting world on fire already.

Are you saying the A's are going to trade him with 5 years (or whatever it is) of control left? And if so what team is going to pay that kind of price?

Still think part of the issue with SWR is that he was part of three different organizations early on in his career and there was no MiLB in 2020. He's found some consistency with the Twins and what they want him to do, and he's doing it quite well. Not sure about ROY. But, it does look like the Twins have a long-term piece to their rotation to go along with Pablo, Ryan, Ober and hopefully Festa. Future's bright for the rotation.

As for Gil, lots of talk up here that he's dealing with shoulder fatigue. His velocity hasn't had a big drop but command has been an issue for him the last two starts.

Just now, nicksaviking said:

He's at 85 IP this year after only throwing 21 last year and 29 the year before. If he's able to continue without falling off or getting injured, it would probably be unprecedented in the modern game. 

Yup. Would be shocked if the Yanks don't put him on the IL for a bit and let him get some time off.

I don't mind the talk of SWR for ROY. He's been doing really well for the twins, grinding his way through games and letting his talent and work ethic shine. I've been on his corner for a while and always felt like he had the ability to get it done, but had gone through one of the more screwed up developmental processes, one that was almost perfectly "designed" to make it harder on him.

Think about it:

• drafted at 17
• shows promise at 18 in low A ball with 20 starts
• traded at 18
• new organization bumps him up to high A immediately
• age 19, no minor season for COVID
• age 20, gets promoted again having only 6 starts in high A and not having pitched for a season
• age 20 picked for the Olympic team, but doesn't actually play
• age 20 traded again
• repeats a level at age 21 for the first time in his career
• age 21 promoted to AAA 
• age 21 gets his first MLB start

because he's been around for a while I think there was an assumption that he was experienced. But Toronto was extremely aggressive with him and I think they really blew it. they never should have jumped him to AA like they did and I think the move from the Mets to Toronto nearly wrecked his career. Props to the Twins development staff for basically throwing out 2021 and treating it as a re-set season.

I'm really impressed with how he's managed to get his free passes under control this season in MLB. Lots of players see that tick up when they go to the big leagues and SWR has actually brought it down. he's always been good at keeping the ball in the park and while it would be nice to see a few more Ks, he hasn't been easy to rack up hits on. They've been careful not to expose him too much, but he's also done his part by not having two clunkers in a row this year in MLB.

And it's not just beating up bad teams either: his best start was against Seattle (division leader) and while he took the loss against Cleveland, he certainly pitched well enough to win.

Always liked SWR. Glad to see it paying out for him.

Its likely Gil will fade with fatigue. If SWR gets stronger and finishes like a beast. He can win ROY. He has the bulldog mentality!  If the body holds up, he will be talked about in October.