bean5302

So you're saying Francisco Liriano level meltdowns? Hope we're able to fix that haha

The only reason the Twins were able to get him as part of the trade is because of the ERA performance this year. Had Woods-Richardson been pitching like previously, he would have been untouchable so I like the move. Woods-Richardson has the pitches to be a top of the rotation starter. I haven't heard anything about a 5th pitch, but having 4 out of high school is exciting enough. I'm pretty sure I read that Woods-Richardson's walk rate might come down to control vs. command. Throwing strikes vs. throwing exactly where he wants to throw. If he's working on command, it would stand to reason he might be missing his spots, aiming for corners or something. Tough to say, but at at his age, he's got a good 2-3 years before it's time to make a verdict.

Anything for Robles was a win. Just like Happ, really.

Glad to see the Twins were able to move Happ, but I have to be honest. I can't fathom why Simmons is still on the roster. Pineda should have been moved as well. So having expiring contracts on the roster in a lost season isn't exciting to me. Overall, I think I'd give the front office a B. Berrios = A- The Twins got two better prospects than I was expecting, but the Twins got no help for 2022. Cruz = A The Twins got Ryan, who looks like he could be ready for to provide value in 2022. Strotman and Fauchner don't feel like they're a world apart, to be honest. Happ = A. Anything for Happ was going to be an A. Gant's peripherals look like a train wreck as he hasn't been ablet to hit the broad side of a barn this year, but he's had results somehow despite that? Evan Sisk is PTBNL quality, but that's more than nothing. Pineda = F With some expected solid value and an expiring contract, moving Pineda felt like an obvious must. The front office wasn't able to get it done. Simmons = D Simmons wasn't going to attract a ton of interest, but the Twins had a vested interest in freeing up some middle infield opportunities. When it comes to trades not made for players not on expiring contracts (Donaldson, Maeda, Buxton), I have no idea what was offered and there's no need for the Twins to sell any of them at all right now. Maeda is likely at a value low point right now, but likely to bounce back. Donaldson is playing well and the longer he plays, the smaller his contract gets. Buxton is still apparently an extension candidate for the Twins and no matter what happens, Buxton likely increases his value to the Twins front office with more time on the club this year. If he plays in more games, it increases his trade value and if he's unable to play more, it likely increases the likelihood he signs provided the Twins are still interested in extending him.

Craig Kimbrel to White Sox for Nick Madrigal and Codi Heuer https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2021/07/white-sox-to-acquire-craig-kimbrel.html I'd bet money the White Sox are in like Flynn on Story now that the Rockies have dropped their ask.

On a different note, article title says 7/27 instead of 7/29. It's all those trade rumors messing with our heads!!!

Interest in Byron Buxton Picking Up The Twins have already traded Nelson Cruz and Jose Berrios, and they’re surely not done for the day, with several other players to shop to contending clubs. Center fielder Byron Buxton’s market has picked up steam since last night, tweets Dan Hayes of The Athletic, although it’s no sure thing he’ll be moved just yet. MLB Network’s Jon Heyman tweets that the Phillies “love” Buxton and are one six or seven teams inquiring with the Twins. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2021/07/byron-buxton-trade-rumors-twins-phillies.html

Because Lewis may not be a SS and will start next year in A+ ball. Lewis will have missed 2 years and struggled in 2019.

Low A ball is two levels below AA. The two biggest steps in the minors, in my opinion are Low A to High A and High A to AA. This is especially the case after the restructuring. The competition level for Hassell is dramatically lower and he's probably an ETA of 2024-2025, cup of coffee in 2023 probably at the earliest. An .807 OPS in AA from a first year pro as a potential shortstop is way more impressive than a .855 OPS in Low A from a first year pro as a potential center fielder, even with the age difference. That said, Martin might have a tough row to hoe in becoming an MLB SS so that might slow him down a bit. He was primarily a 3rd baseman at Vandy before this past season when he saw more time in center field. His fielding percentage at AA SS lines right up with other Twins prospects at the position (which is to say very bad). Right now, I'd say Toronto is trying to maximize his value to the club by pushing the shortstop plan.

Tough to gauge true competition level at the Olympics, but what a great experience for him!

Simon-Richardson was one of the big pieces in the Mets Stroman trade a couple years ago. 4 pitch pitcher. Fastball, chaneup, curve and slider. Seems like he ran into pretty massive, and unexpected, control problems this year, but he's a 20 year old pitching at AA after the lost 2020 season. A very nice write up on Simon-Richardson https://jaysjournal.com/2020/02/15/blue-jays-2020-top-prospects-4-simeon-woods-richardson/

Santana was shut down early in the seasons to receive minor things like elbow chip cleanups when it wasn't necessary for the Mets. These kind of optional shutdowns happened multiple times. Santana remained one of the most dominant pitchers in baseball for them until the shoulder capsule, failed surgery and never ending rehab. In any case, it's not possible to view Santana's trade assuming the Twins would have been the same team in the future. Moreneau, Nathan and Cuddyer were all extended because the Twins had the money to make those extensions when Santana was traded. The lesson, to me, is not to overplay your hand. The return for Santana was very low and it was expected the Twins had received much better offers than what they finally took. Just like the Blue Jays' return for Stroman to the Mets a couple years ago. Piss everybody off, let your market dry up and then desperately pull the trigger. It's a bad look.

Well, I can't disagree that everybody is probably sick and tired of the Dodgers at this point, but they've honestly only replaced the Giants as the NL West juggernaut. The Dodgers television deal was insane and unfair for the rest of MLB. It grants them an enormous competitive advantage. Their farm system has declined quite a bit in recent years, though, and the Dodgers just gave up their top pitching prospect. Their window may be closing and they've already got roughtly $150MM potentially commited to next year with a lot of rotation questions. Making the playoffs 9 years in a row is a problem for sure, but a lot of that stemmed from playing in a division with the Rockies, Padres and Diamondbacks coupled with a lot of NL teams sucking. All three of the weak division rivals were low budget and pretty awful most of the time.

They're trailing the Giants in the division right now and the Padres have a heck of a roster right behind the Dodgers. It's all but certain the NL West will have the Wild Card team. Also, with Bauer unlikely to show back up at the teams facilities and Kershaw on the IL, the Dodgers rotation was getting very thin. Picking up Turner probably doesn't make them a whole lot better than how Chris Taylor has been playing at SS so far. The Dodgers have some weaknesses.

Yeah. The place is other teams don't want to go for it. Too many teams are trying to be the Rays and they're no good at it.

Kepler was also playing a little beat up for a while because of other injuries. A lot of Kepler's value in 2019 came from him playing so much center field. I'd expect Kepler to play a bit better down the stretch and post a 2.0 WAR season or so. I think everybody was hoping Kepler was going to be a perennial All Star, but the Twins certainly aren't paying him for that level of production. It would have been a Christian Yelich style steal of a contract had Kepler taken a major step forward.

I don't feel bad if guys were picked up from the waiver wire. That means another team wanted to assume their control/obligations. I just really find it unacceptable to see a guy be under team control until he's 35.

Yeah, that's utterly horrible. I'd be eliminating that in the next CBA hands down if I was the MLBPA. https://www.mlb.com/glossary/transactions/free-agency#:~:text=Definition,the two parties can agree. "Players become free agents upon reaching six years of Major League service time or when they are released from their organization prior to reaching six years of service time. A free agent is eligible to sign with any club for any terms to which the two parties can agree. If a player with fewer than six years of service time signs with a club, he remains under the control of that club until reaching the requisite service time to reach free agency -- even if the contract he signed does not cover the remaining years until that point."

Question in general on Chargois. While he's shown as being under team control for like 4 more years, the Dodgers released him in 2019 and that should have made him a free agent in full right there, shouldn't it have?

I'm actually way more concerned about our middle infield defense. I feel like somebody brought up Cavaco's struggles a couple months ago and I responded with players in A ball often have defensive stumbles. Then I went and looked at Cavaco again the other day and realized maybe it was only Twins prospects who stumble so badly in the minors. We have a very long history of horrible shortstop fielding that goes all the way back to Trevor Plouffe. Polanco, Gordon and Cavaco appear to have have rocks in their gloves with Lewis being mediocre and even Palacios' error rate isn't good despite all his experience. I'm starting to wonder if Gordon's defensive woes are a function of poor coaching. That kind of stuff will kill a team for years.

I remember when Sano was expected to be a great third baseman with an elite bat. Then maybe just a solid 3rd baseman with a very good bat. Then, well, at least his athleticism and reach will make him a great 1st baseman and he'll still have a good bat. Well, maybe he's passable at 1st base, and if he's just solidly above average at the plate. I mean... how bad can a first baseman really be, and he had a great year a couple years ago! Ah ****... well, we can put him at DH and his bat is still league average after a nice 2 week hot streak. That's what we all expected, after all, and maybe the $9.25MM is an ever so slight overpay for a guy who has a negative fWAR, but negative WAR values never hurt a team! The only way Miguel Sano should be on the Twins' roster in 2022 is if they don't expect to compete.

I see a lot less criticism of Rooker lately, but I wonder why? Maybe because in just 6 games he's hit for .348/.444/.826 OPS 1.271 and that tiny sample has now pushed him to an above average MLB bat for the season at OPS+ 113? I mean, this isn't going to continue, but he's also walked 11% while striking out only 19%. If Rooker puts together a good run down the stretch, it would be hard to argue against his long term potential and it will be, yet again, another strike against the front office for not recognizing existing talent.

I'm really glad Maeda is pitching far better as of late. If there's a guy who should have a chip on his shoulder to prove he's the real deal, it's Maeda. Being paid peanuts long term, traded for a likely high upside reliever and not respected as a starter on his former team. He really is quite the underdog and I like those guys succeeding and breaking molds.

Ah the flashbacks to Jim Hoey.

Palacios went 2/4 as well. I really think it's time for him to get a promotion to AAA as he's risen out of the doldrums recently and is back to hitting with an .802 OPS over his last 8 games. I'd like to see if he can keep it up at AAA since he's apparently now the only potential options the Twins might view as a shortstop in the system for the next couple years considering the Twins are apparently attempting to turn Gordon into a center fielder? Trading Rortvedt would be a move that would leave the Twins without a 3rd MLB caliber every day catcher on the roster. He's got 3 options left and he's a potential starting MLB catcher in the future with excellent defensive ratings. Rortvedt was also drafted as a bat first catcher so it's expected he has some tools to work with and there's a fairly decent MiLB track record when it comes to being potentially an average MLB level bat. He looked outright overmatched in his time with the Twins, but that'll give him a great idea of where he needs to improve and time in AAA will allow him to work on his game. Garver misses a lot of time so having only 1 good backup option on the roster is tough. Keeping Wallner in Ft Myers this long seemed a bit conservative given how long he's been in the system and considering how he was drafted. Wallner was a comp round draft pick out of college as a junior and it's technically his 5th professional season so if he's not ready for AA pitching by now, it's probably not going to happen. Hopefully, the Twins move him up a level so they can better evaluate his potential future. His big numbers in Ft Myers reflect a wRC+ of 189 so far. Nothing left to prove considering his age, draft position and level of experience. Varland's performance is pretty exciting for a dark horse candidate to be a starter at the MLB level. He's already exceeded a lot of expectations by getting it done at Fort Myers before moving up to Cedar Rapids. If he pitches continues to pitch this well the rest of the season, I could see him starting next year at AA. Love to see the home run by Cavaco considering his lack of power has really held him back at the plate. I've looked into his numbers in fielding though... and wow. I think the Twins need to make some major coaching changes in the low minors. Yet again, another horrible fielding shortstop. Cavaco is literally the worst shortstop in the league with the highest error rate and lowest RF/9. At .900 fielding percent, that means he's booting/air mailing 1 in 10 balls that come his way and it contributes to a dreadful RF/9 of 3.01. Utterly no excuse for that level of incompetence. Compare Cavaco's fielding percent and RF/9 to his peers. .900, 3.01 - Cavaco (a20, 2019, 1st round) .920, 4.07 - Winn (a19, 2020, 2nd round) .932, 3.52 - Martinez (a19, 2018, Dominican Republic) .915, 3.56 - Escotto (a19, 2018, Dominican Republic) .960, 3.89 - Nunez (a20, 2019, 2nd round) .913, 3.18 - Garcia (a20, 2017, Dominican Republic) .933, 3.50 - Johnson (a22, 2019, 4th Round) .977, 5.22 - Fryman (a23, 2016, 37th Round) .951, 3.33 - Volpe (a20, 2019, 1st Round) .944, 3.40 - Workman (a21, 2017, 14th Round) Most of Cavaco's peers are as young or younger with the same or less college level or professional experience. Cavaco sits dead last in defense. Why are Twins shortstops incapable of developing defensively?