bean5302

The first issue is who plays starting shortstop if Correa is traded? My bet is probably Jermaine Palacios. I like Palacios and I think he could play well enough not to be a real liability, but that's certainly no guarantee. Palacios has been more than holding his own in St. Paul posting a .286/.352/.446 OPS .798 wRC+ of 113 since June 1st once the pop he showed last year in AA returned. The K and BB rates are... okay. Handing him the starting shortstop gig for the rest of this year involves quite the leap of faith in a player the Twins weren't even willing to put on the 40 man last year. Nick Gordon is another candidate. I just can't see this happening. While the Twins have given Gordon a few innings at SS this year, it's clearly against their better judgement and he's viewed as an emergency SS. Without Celestino on the roster, Gordon is going to be the backup CF for when Buxton is out making this even less likely. If the Twins were trading for a passable shortstop, that would steeply gut any return for what's viewed as a rental on Correa as well. I just don't see the trade happening at this point.

Rosario did get 2yrs and $18MM for his run with Atlanta, but Rosario also had double Sano's WAR and provided more consistent value recently. I mean, worst case scenario, Rosario was always at least a role player whereas Sano is literally worse than a AAA replacement player across full seasons sometimes. Sano's track record is way uglier than I think people realize. He's been a scrub or worse than AAA in 3 of the past 4 seasons. The only season he's been worth rostering recently is 2019 with the juiced ball... Rosario vs. Sano bWAR 2015 = 2.2 vs. 2.4 2016 = 1.2 vs. 0.3 2017 = 1.6 vs. 2.8 2018 = 4.3 vs. -0.4 2019 = 1.5 vs. 2.5 2020 = 1.2 vs. -0.1 2021 = 1.1 vs. 1.0 https://library.fangraphs.com/misc/war/ Scrub 0-1 WAR Role Player 1-2 WAR Solid Starter 2-3 WAR Good Player 3-4 WAR All-Star 4-5 WAR Superstar 5-6 WAR MVP 6+ WAR I guess if I looked at it as technically an $11.25MM option (since the Twins are on the hook for $2.75MM regardless), yeah, no. Sano could absolutely light things up in the 2nd half and I don't think he'd get more than $6-8MM on a one year deal.

Are not going to or haven't been? Kirilloff and Polanco recently returned and Sano has just been added now. Considering the "DH" position, there are 5 infield/DH positions. I see 7 every day players who need at bats. Honestly, I'd like to see Palacios playing at the MLB level, but he's not on the 40 man because he got screwed by the COVID protocols allowing him to be added and removed from the 40 man without exposure to waivers. Steer is also not on the 40 man so seeing him in September would be more complicated as well, but both Palacios and Steer deserve some time in the lineup. Sano Kirilloff Polanco Arraez Correa Miranda Urshela Larnach could return as early as a couple weeks from now as well so that complicates the DH situation as well.

Cavaco has really fallen down the ladder to the point where he's probably MiLB roster filler at this point. He hasn't played a single game at SS this season so it's obvious the Twins have given up on that potential. Unfortunately, moving him off SS to 3B hasn't helped Cavaco's yips in the field as he owns a brutal fielding percentage yet again at .906. That said, there's some hope he can make the changes as despite his high error rate, his range factors are solid against his competition due to his mobility. It sure seems like Cavaco has changed something in his approach at the plate as his power has fully manifested out of the blue. But, like with the fielding, there's a big caveat. He doesn't get on base thanks to very poor plate discipline. Cavaco hasn't improved his walk rate which sits right around 5% and his K rate remains right around 30% in Low-A ball. That just doesn't project at all. Still, Cavaco just turned 21 and there's raw power and athleticism to work with. Is Cavaco's struggles with plate discipline related to just being overly aggressive like Royce Lewis or does Cavaco have a problem recognizing pitches? Time will tell.

The narrative that Arraez is some terrible black hole in the field is baffling to me since the metrics and logic don't really support the position. Arraez is fine at 2B and should be fine at 3B, though I certainly don't expect he'll win gold gloves at either position. Arraez doesn't have the range of Polanco, but has a better arm. Depth is good... but it only helps when you need it. When starting caliber players aren't playing regularly because they're "depth" and a team has holes elsewhere which need to be filled, the depth is a liability. Miranda -> Arraez -> Gordon -> Palacios -> Steer The Twins are overloaded on infielder depth right now.

Pretty logical move. The Twins would move Sano in a heartbeat if they had a buyer, and they'll probably be shopping Urshela hard as well. Moving Miranda to 3B, while keeping Kirilloff at 1B and Sano at DH technically works, but Arraez needs playing time, too. Quite the logjam. Guessing Sano has a very short leash before DFA if there are no buyers.

Neither do I believe analytics solves everything, nor do I believe a baseball player being popular makes them great. I believe only great players who were among the very best of their eras should be in the Hall of Fame. That's not Jim Kaat and it wouldn't have made a difference if he was my favorite player or if I watched him play every single game he ever played.

There is a 0% chance any team picks up Sano's option. Sano has no realistic potential growth as he's way, way too old to be viewed as a prospect in any form. Even if Sano didn't lie about his age, and there's reason to speculate he's 31 not 29 at this point, Sano's potential has been reached, crested and he's now in the decline phase of his career. Ortiz was 26 coming off a season where he hit really well, but had some injuries and was overall trending even to upwards. Sano is consistently injured, age 29-31 and has been largely trending downward for the past few seasons. If you want a comp to Ortiz, it's probably more Kennys Vargas than Miguel Sano.

As other's have noted Syndergaard does not appear to be the same pitcher he was prior to TJ. His velocity has dropped about 4mph. That's crazy. Syndergaard's drop in velocity hasn't impacted how effective his fastball is, but it's really wiped out his changeup and slider value. I think Syndergaard is still a good pitcher, but he's no top of the rotation arm at this point. That said... it is intriguing if the front office could identify the cause of Syndergaard's drop in velocity and address it. Even if they could, I don't think it would be something so simple it would happen overnight. While I believe Syndergaard is better and more reliable than Bundy, Archer and Smeltzer, I think it'd be foolish to believe he'd be a difference maker in the playoffs, and making a difference in the playoffs would be my objective when acquiring a pitcher. The Angels are taking calls on Ohtani and they're asking for established MLB players in return. That could be a good situation for the Twins, depending on what the Angels really mean. Kepler, Polanco, Arraez, Larnach could all be highly coveted in that scenario.

I swear... it's like people try their hardest not to read what I wrote.

Yes. It matters if we're talking about a 7th round pick being the only thing of significant value in the pitching pipeline drafted by Falvey's front office. If the front office hasn't been able to make anything stick in the upper rounds of drafting, that's a problem. Maybe you think relying on late round draft picks exclusively for drafted pitching talent is sustainable. I don't think it probably is because I don't think Falvey and his front office and teams are so incredibly far ahead of the curve they can outperform every other team in MLB by a mile that way. Side note, I didn't say trading Winder wouldn't impact the team, especially since I believe Winder has the potential to be the best arm in our rotation right now. Today. To ignore him being shut down with shoulder issues the past two years and assume Winder can max his potential out is riskier than betting an elite arm will continue to be an elite arm IMHO. Again, we're talking about a hypothetical since Winder on his own should not gut the Twins pitching pipeline. If you believe it will and the Twins have nothing good coming down the way, that's a problem for Falvey.

While his AAA ERA of 2.19 looks pretty stellar, and his FIP of 2.88 is very encouraging, the xFIP of 3.63 suggests there's plenty of room for regression. Honestly, we're just looking at some pretty small sample sizes. Nardi's K% is outstanding and it feels like the scouting report on his pitches might be bearish. It's hard to get those kind of K rates in the upper minors on pure control, especially considering the K rates have continued with or without high BB rates. Here's a fangraphs writeup on him from 6/29. https://blogs.fangraphs.com/miami-marlins-top-35-prospects-2022/ 29. Andrew Nardi, MIRP Drafted: 16th Round, 2019 from Arizona (MIA) Age 23.9 Height 6′ 3″ Weight 201 Bat / Thr L / L FV 35+ Tool Grades (Present/Future) Fastball Slider Changeup Command Sits/Tops 50/50 55/55 45/50 45/55 92-94 / 95 He isn’t going to be a dominant late-inning reliever or anything, but Nardi was a relatively innocuous Day Three draft pick who knifed through the low minors and has put himself in a position to claim a 40-man spot after this season. He sits 92-93 mph, will top out in the 95-96 range, and has an average low-80s slider and a playable mid-80s changeup that relies on location more than action. He also has experience working four-to-six outs at a time. He’s in position to work as an optionable long man next year. It’s imperative for Miami to keep guys like this coming as support for the aging/oft-injured group likely to comprise their bullpen for the next several years.

I said if the loss of a 7th round pick was enough to gut the Twins' pitching pipeline, that's enough to fire Falvey If that were the case, his front office had utterly failed to draft/develop good pitchers which is a big part of the reason he was hired. I'm not calling for Falvey's head if he trades Winder as I don't think I can make a judgement on what's behind Winder or declare Winder on his own raises the performance of Falvey's front office.

I seem to recall Winder was throwing 91ish out of college and was hitting 97mph before this season. His FB averaged 95mph so far this year.

It's RBI(s) if you want to get technical. A single "run batted in" vs. multiple "runs batted in" with the word run being pluralized.

Oh yeah, that's exactly what I said. Hey, when you have no argument, the best option is to create a strawman, amirite?

Not sure. It seems possible adding 5-7mph of fastball velocity through mechanical changes (Twins method) just eats up arms for pitchers who are learning to change their approach in their 20s.

I don't know why Blyleven never gets the respect he deserves. Comparing guys like Morris and Kaat to Blyleven is really brutal. Blyleven was one of the most dominant pitchers in baseball for a long time and his enshrinement was from the realization he truly was an elite pitcher who'd slipped through the cracks. Blyleven's 7 year run from 1971-1977 (avg ERA+ 135) was better than any single year Kaat ever had and Blyleven's career was shorter, yet more than TWICE as valuable as Kaat. Verlander would have to pitch at a steady Cy Young level for at least 4-5 more years to match Blyleven's 96 career bWAR. I mean... we're talking about the 38th best WAR total in MLB history here...

Honestly, there's really no legitimate argument for Kaat, and Tony Oliva is a very tough case due to the very short career. Kaat is another Jack Morris. Absolutely never great, just a sometimes quite good, but mostly above average steady accumulator over a 25 year career with only 3 All Star appearances. Kaat doesn't even have the historical game 7 World Series shutout to dominate people's mind's when they think of him. The same career bWAR as Brad Radke, only it took, literally, more than twice as many seasons to get there. I can't even fathom why the "Big Hall" guys would support Kaat's enshrinement. There's just nothing truly remarkable about his career other than how long he played. Tony Oliva had an excellent 8 year run, and that 8 years was so excellent it's hard to overlook. He made the All Star Game 8 consecutive years and won the Rookie of the Year award with 3 top 4 finishes in the MVP voting. That said, Oliva wasn't anywhere near the best player in baseball and appeared on the top 10 of bWAR for a season only once in his career. Outside of that excellent 8 year run, Oliva wasn't worth a roster spot. I think he got the nod due to how his knees wiped out his career, but Oliva is dramatically short of the typical HoF career as the 462nd highest career bWAR. Only a handful of position players who didn't play prior to 1900 are lower than Oliva.

Bizarre to point out hypocrisy? If the games are already decided, then the players you have don't matter. 9 years of Buxton is worthless. Literally worthless except the fan interest in his highlight reels because there is nothing Buxton (or any other player) will or could have done to make a difference in any game they play. It just would have been offset by everything else that happened. If the Twins won the game, they won the game because of a different reason. If the Twins lost the game, they would have lost all the same. That's literally your argument. Placing a virtually impossible, and irrelevant, qualifier on a legitimate argument that aces matter in the playoffs and world series is ridiculous. Aces are very rarely traded, but elite pitching performances in the playoffs are almost always the recipe for a World Series winner. I can't prove the Twins would have won or made the World Series with Syndergaard any more than you can prove they wouldn't.

I like Winder's potential a lot. If everything went his way, like literally everything, he could be a top of the rotation guy. I think he profiles better as a mid rotation guy, but he's had shoulder issues in two consecutive years. That's a major red flag to me. If Winder's shoulder can't handle the starter workload consistently, it means he's going to be in the bullpen and the value he brings at that point is heavily diminished.

I think it the Twins draft and development pipeline depends that greatly on a 7th round pick, that's enough for me to call for Falvey's head.

While the Twins may not have won a playoff series with Santana, Johan Santana pitched in 2004 when the Twins won their last playoff game. also, the Twins scored 4 runs in game 1 vs the Yankees in 2019. Maybe Cron doesn't commit that error at 1B with Syndergaard pitching and the Twins win game 1. Not that it matters because everything can change based on in game action, luck, etc. Maybe Berrios pitches lights out in game 2 and the Twins win instead of having Dobnak shelled the way he was. Now the Twins are up 2-0... It's entirely conceivable that series goes different with the Twins anchored by Syndergaard. It's not like Buxton had any impact on the 2019 series since he was *feign surprise* hurt anyway. Based on your response why do you even care about Buxton in the first place? By your logic, he's a colossal waste of money anyway since the Twins are destined to win the same number of games regardless of who is on the field. There's no point in spending a single dollar more than MLB minimum on anybody.

Mudcat Grant was pretty good in his short stint as a Twins pitcher, but hardly great.

Morris was only the 3rd best pitcher on the team in his only season in a Twins uniform (1991). Tapani and Erickson were both better than Morris that year so I don't think I'd give Morris the nod here. I'd definitely take 2010 Jim Thome over Nelson Cruz as well.