bean5302

Julien's actually MLB average-ish on the year due to his hot start. In any case, I think it's been mentioned Farmer is viewed as emergency catching depth. Looking at what the Twins have in the minors, I could see why they'd be awfully scared to risk it.

Brooks Lee - .253/.309/.333 OPS .642 wRC+ 81 <--- not good Eduoard Julien - .217/.320/.354 OPS .673 wRC+ 96 Canterino's career is over. I'll help you out with that.

The Twins haven't dealt with anything other teams haven't dealt with. They failed to plan and backup players and when they had foreseeable injuries, they weren't ready to cover appropriately.

Last year, Joe Pohlad communicated clearly the new goal for the franchise was advancing in the playoffs. Since that time, ownership has pivoted greatly on their investment in the team which makes it hard to speculate whether or not the performance goal remains the same. Lame duck GMs don't happen unless somebody is being seriously evaluated in terms of whether or not to part ways. Since nobody seems to understand the roles of Falvey and Levine it's also hard to tell who would be held accountable for any failures. Levine probably isn't well regarded as a potential GM since Boston didn't even grant him a second interview. Whatever he does, it doesn't seem to be running the show. It'd be awfully surprising to me if Falvey were already extended unless the ownership has recognized they're no longer going to target that "advance in the playoffs" goal so the Twins wouldn't be nearly as attractive to other potential GMs. Not sure what value running the franchise all "secret squirrel" provides. It's not like knowing who is in charge of what is a "secret" worth keeping, but the Twins do seem to like pretending their strategies are particularly special and valuable. Under Falvey's regime, the Twins have won more than 87 games just once, in 2019. They've won a single playoff series. I'm not impressed.

It sure feels like the front office has zero urgency. Laying back comfy because they have a lead on the Wildcard?

Watch the video recap. Max Kepler clearly had a not happy conversation with Tommy Watkins at 3rd. Also, The Twins sent Kepler over and over last year only to watch him be thrown out. He's not even an average runner at this point. Max is at fault for not looking for a potential signal change once he started slowing down. This article is quite the personal hack job.

Preparing for a start vs. preparing for a relief appearance is a different animal. That said, Dobnak's stuff doesn't seem to play at the MLB level. Our infinitely wise front office sent Winder down so they couldn't use him for 15 days reminiscent of how they badly mishandled Alcala out of the gate this year.

Winder's velocity and stuff have looked good out of the bullpen this year. The team's usage of him is a bit of a head scratcher. Feels like they're wasting his value.

Indeed. I was pointing out how sometimes things are unpredictable in terms of this team's strategy. I didn't expect them to focus on reducing strikeouts like they did, and in a big way, especially after so many comments about how K's didn't really matter to the team last year.

Wide variety of guys there with dubious comparability to a young, cost controlled face of the franchise player, but in general, players viewed as utility guys get paid less than players who are viewed a starting position players. That's an "in general" situation.

Correa was having trouble running, it was though to be a bone bruise and later diagnosed as plantar faciitis. Correa last year (with plantar faciitis vs. this year without) .230/.312/.399 OPS .711 wRC+ 96 vs. .308/.377/.520 OPS .896 wRC+ 151 I think it's pretty clear why the Twins want him to fully heal up, and I suspect it's taking longer than they had hoped.

Yep. They pushed Alex Rodriguez to 3B so the lesser fielder, Jeter, could stay on SS. I'm not sure how that would work today with metrics, but you reward your best players and team favorites with a position they earned most of the time. Giving your star players who've earned their positions and roles directives they're going to move around is unusual. Mookie Betts has been moved around a bunch recently, but he volunteered and wanted the opportunity. The Dodgers didn't tell him. Come ready to play!

You have your best players, and then you have your "not the best" players. I'm not sure why you'd think moving your best players around will benefit the team, but it sure seems players improve their defense by having static positions. Moving Royce Lewis to 2B changes what in terms of players on the field? What depth does it add? We have lesser depth at 3B than 2B. In any case, the article speculates no definite positional change is incoming. Moving your franchise cornerstones around willy nilly is a pretty good way to depress player salary (and trade value), though, so who knows?

I don't expect the Twins to get better at stealing basis, but then again, I didn't expect them to focus on reducing strikeouts, either. A lot of the fundamentals which were calling cards of the old scrappy Twins teams are not viewed as valuable under the current front office.

A lot of excitement about a player who has produced negative WAR this year. It's tough to gauge a true ceiling since he's got adequate raw power he could tap into in the future, and his defense is very poor in the outfield as he gets a poor read off the bat. The realistic high expectation for him is probably a 1.0-1.5 WAR type utility player. If he's never able to tap into his raw power, his ceiling is much lower. He needs to improve greatly in CF to become a legitimate backup there.

I've never been a fan of the musical chairs defense strategy. In my opinion, all you wind up with is a whole bunch of players who are poor at all the positions.

While I hope you're right that Keirsey can provide some IL backup relief for Buxton, I actually think it's probably a tall call to hope he'll be serviceable at the MLB level. I view Keirsey as more likely a slower version of Andrew Stevenson. Cave is being undersold here. He made the big show at age 25 after having never had a single season at any level of below average plate production, including AAA at age 23 for NY. Cave had back to back seasons where he projected as a serviceable every day player for the Twins putting up 1.0 (1.6 WAR at 150G) and 1.1 (2.3 WAR at 150G) WAR in 2018-2019. That's consistent with the value Trevor Larnach has produced in his 2 best seasons.

Keirsey didn't hit in AA in 2022. He didn't hit in AAA in 2023. Prior to the IL trip, Keirsey was raking, but there were signs of unsustainability with the highest BABIP of any sample size over 3 games (.370 BABIP), the highest ISO, the highest BB rate, etc. Everything was going his way, and then it all evaporated. Just looks like a flash in the pan to me, and probably to the Twins. He'd been struggling at the plate for 200 plate appearances after he returned from the IL on 6/22. His defensive metrics suggest he'll be adequate at CF, but certainly not a plus fielder at the MLB level. Basically, Keirsey probably isn't as good as Austin Martin, and on top of that, he bats left handed. Even with his couple big games recently, since Keirsey returned from the IL on 6/22 .272/.339/.431 OPS .770 wRC+ 99 in the International League. as of 3 days ago... .257/.327/.388 OPS .715 wRC+ 86 BABIP .326 as of his first 199 PA after return through 8/17 one week ago? .249/.317/.367 OPS .684 wRC+ 78 BABIP .310 If a player doesn't force their way onto an MLB roster by age 25, the chances they'll be a significant contributor in their career is low. Keirsey is already 27...

I know the article says Lopez struggled from time to time, but I never got the impression he wasn't in control of the game. It honestly felt like Lopez was dialed in and it seemed like the Cardinals hitters couldn't do anything consistent against him at all. The game was fast and Pablo was incredibly efficient. On the other side, Gray looked just as good to start the game. Everything changed in the 3rd. Larnach got a hold of a cutter inside, but inside and high is not a good pitch (hits cutter well) or location (rakes the high/inside corner area) to give Larnach, and Gray had already shown Larnach the cutter twice in the first. Feels like Larnach was sitting cutter the rest of the night, and it sure paid off. The Twins eeked out another run when it had a feeling double play when the ball came off Kepler's bat, but Donovan was slow to make a decision. If he goes 3-4 there, inning over, but Lewis probably scores before the ball gets the 3rd out so moot, I guess. Side note, was at the game over 2hrs before the start and the season ticket holder line ran out of jerseys before I got there. First line to run out at the stadium it seems. There were other places, but my friend had recently had surgery, and I couldn't drag her all over the stadium. I was more than a little mad.

If the throw is on target, Martin is out there. Manufacturing runs is great, but it felt like the risk was a little higher than I'd like. I was 60/40 on him being thrown out when he turned that corner. He made it happen, though!

@DJL44 I agree with @LA VIkes Fan. Jair Camargo has really struggled at the plate this year wRC+ 65. Williams is 28, and his bat is adequate as a ceiling, but he's no defensive wizard. Winkel hasn't hit or been passable defensively. Kyle Teel sure would look good in the Twins' system since we were in desperate need of catching depth. Any money the Twins save moving Vazquez is going to have to be picked back up in free agency or the team will have to shed prospects to acquire a high end catching prospect, and that's going to be expensive. Wonder if we could swap Jenkins for Teel straight up?

I paid for what I expected to be Product A and got Product C instead. I paid a lot for product A. I was told I was getting a different version of the product than expected months after my purchase. I was hoping that would be Product B, but what I actually got was Product C. Plenty of fans had Comca$t. They paid for Product A, but only got that product for a short period of time before getting nothing at all. Luckily, on August 1st, they started getting service again, which amounts to Product B. These are simple concepts. Had ownership told season ticket holders in August last year they'd be cutting 20%-30% of the budget for 2024, and they wouldn't be willing to spend at the trade deadline even if they were in the playoff race, I wouldn't have a complaint.

Maeda lost velocity again, and we've all seen what happens there so the Twins were right to skip him over, but Sonny Gray has looked dominant most of the year again this year, save for 3 very unlucky starts recently. Sonny Gray through All Star Break - 3.34 ERA, 2.57 FIP, 2.80 xFIP Sonny Gray after All Star Break - 5.50 ERA, 5.00 FIP, 2.69 xFIP Sonny Gray overall - 3.91 ERA, 3.21 FIP, 2.77 xFIP Gray's curve has lost some of it's bite? His stuff+ rating this year is the best of his entire career, including his curveball rating at 119 vs. career 111 and his slider at 151 vs. career 128. His pitches are more difficult to hit vs. the average competition than they've ever been in his career. If the Twins make the playoffs with 3 rookies in the rotation (a scenario which you'd struggle to find an analyst, front office or owner saying is desirable), they still don't have a Sonny Gray caliber pitcher in their rotation. This team is at a disadvantage vs. most playoff teams when it comes to the likely starters for the first 2-3 games, though Lopez has finally shown some signs he could be a major asset. The Twins absolutely need him to be the best version of himself to have a fair chance, provided they make the playoffs. It's not during the regular season that ace starter is such a weapon, it's when you're in must win games and your lineup is facing an ace pitcher from the other team.

I have season tickets which make up a huge portion of my recreation/fun budget for a year, season tickets I've had for about half the years I've lived in Minnesota since Target Field opened and I've owned seasons for the last 3 years. I even upgraded this year. How about you? Did you invest in the Twins only to have ownership say they weren't going to match your financial commitments? My guess is you don't. I'm willing to bet your sole investment into the Twins in any given year is a handful of free to use posts on an internet fan site you don't even support. I've come to the conclusion you probably don't read my posts. These were my positions at the beginning of the year & they haven't changed. Royce Lewis is a legitimate MVP candidate if he stays healthy, but I'm not holding my breath. Matt Wallner is a potential perennial All Star, and he's going to rake. Carlos Correa will absolutely be worth his contract. Jose Miranda is a quality every day player who wasn't given a fair shake out of the gate this year. Austin Martin was a better choice than Manuel Margot These were my positions as the season went on. Zebby Matthews should be called up before David Festa because he's been so unbelievable. Payton Eeles really looks like a stud and should be in the Twins top 10, just recently. As of mid June, Rodriguez has absolutely torn up AA and can hopefully provide the plus value backup to Byron Buxton before the end of the year (this has since changed as he's missed too much time) Andrew Morris is looking like the real deal, and I think he can be a quality back end rotation piece. I was bullish on Simeon Woods Richardson prior to this year. I was bullish on Josh Winder prior to his injury woes last year thinking he had an upper rotation ceiling and a mid rotation floor. I was impressed with Charlee Soto out of Spring Training and made comments supporting him being a top prospect, and exciting at the time despite not generally caring about pitching prospects in the low minors based on how volatile they are. Next year will arrive, and the Twins are way over budget already. $10-15MM over what their budget is expected to be (even after dropping Farmer and Margot) as reported here and by other industry analysts. This same Twins franchise has won more than 87 games just once, and has won the division just twice in the past 15 years. Willi Castro is going to be $7-8MM. Lopez is at $21MM. Vazquez is at $10MM. Paddack is at $7.5MM. Buxton has a NTC. Correa has an NTC. Other than Castro, none have much surplus value to trade, even if they could be traded. The roster is not projecting as young next year, but the Twins are going to need to shed payroll, and a lot of payroll if they're going to roll with what they have right now, let alone replace any openings with free agents. But, if it makes you sleep better at night when you personally attack me for bringing a dissenting voice to the discussion, I can at least tell you that you're in the vast majority of people these days. The desire to invalidate the person and therefore silence them to win all future debates rather than actually debating any position or topic is the default in America because it's highly successful and efficient. You don't even need to know what you're talking about to win.

Considering how truly abysmal the Twins have been at developing pitching for the past 20 years, that's a pretty low bar. There's reason to be optimistic about this group, but there have been stud can't miss guys for years now who don't pan out. Again, nothing as volatile as a pitching prospect. Falvey's philosophy has been to trade pitching prospects, btw. So a guy like Soto might not even be on the team next year.