bean5302

I've seen AA as a place where players work on their mechanics and craft against high level competition and AAA as a place pitchers prove their polish and locating, but that's just my opinion. If the Twins aren't having him make any mechanical changes and he keeps dominating AA for another couple weeks, it would make sense to me to push him to AAA and / or make a September call up, but I'd imagine the Twins are going to be watching his innings if it looks like he's going to throw more than 100 this year. Just my guesswork bouncing around in my head.

Glad to see Garver hitting the ball right away and Jake Cave running at full speed. Phrases like "back fracture" are kind of terrifying to me, and regardless of how people feel about his abilities on the field at the MLB level, I'd think nobody wishes those kinds of injuries on anybody. The fact Balazovic got through 7.0 innings on just 90 pitches and only 2 more batters than the minimum is awesome. That's serious efficiency to go along with the double digit strikeouts. Hope he can keep it going and get up to 100 innings.

Varland didn't sound like he was really heavily scouted as he was a 15th rounder in 2019 and, of course, missed 2020 due to the COVID shutdowns. The Twins reworked his delivery mechanics and he picked up several miles per hour on his fastball. Varland sits in the upper 90s now and can touch 100 in max effort throws. He also throws a slider, changeup and is working on a cutter, but based on his draft position and him describing himself as fastball heavy out of college, I expect all of them have needed some work. Evidently the work on his pitches must be paying off, but his UCL strain right away in 2019 does set off some red flags on durability expectations as far as I'm concerned. If he can continue seeing success as he moves up the ladder, it'll be a huge feather in the cap of the Twins front office and obviously a dream come true to stand on the mound at the MLB level for a kid who didn't have a hint he'd be drafted before getting the phone call. Seth did an interview with him earlier this year.

Because I'm assuming if the Twins trade Donaldson, Berrios, Rogers and Buxton, and then don't pick up the option for Colombe, they won't be paying Donaldson, Berrios, Rogers, Buxton or Colombe. https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/minnesota-twins/payroll/2022/ On the books currently for 2022: $52MM. Less Donaldson & Colombe = $26MM (includes Sano, Kepler, Maeda, Polanco, Dobnak). I eyeballed the $14MM figure. Garver, Duffey & Robles are the only other players we have control over currently making more than $1MM and performance or injury will keep all three of them from getting huge raises. If it winds up being $20MM instead of $14MM, I don't think the difference is relevant to my point, though.

In regard to whether or not the Twins can compete in 2022 if they move Buxton, Berrios, Rogers and Donaldson combined, the answer is yes. Colombe is going to need to pitch out of his mind good to have the Twins pick up his option. That would leave Minnesota with a tiny $26MM on the books for next year, plus another, say, $14MM for bringing back the rest of the roster. What could they do with $80-$90MM in a typical Twins budget? Just about anything they want. Major components of the team could look totally different. If the Twins only went with other in house options, got nobody MLB ready in return for those players and tried to compete with a $40MM payroll? Obviously, they'd look like a team gearing up to lose 100 games, but it seems really unlikely for that to happen.

There continues to be a lot of talk about Buxton, but the reality is he's not likely going to be out of a splint much before the trade deadline itself, and he'll need an obvious rehab assignment. Buxton being ready for MLB games much before early/mid August is probably unlikely and teams are usually pretty skittish about trading for injured players. I have advocated for Buxton being shopped, at least, to get a perspective on what other teams think of him, but it's hard to get a good feel for a player's value while they're injured. Sucks for everybody. Buxton himself, the front office and the fans.

If it's not about the money, Buxton would just sign for 1 year with 10 team options all for the MLB minimum. It's absolutely about the money, haha. That's okay, by the way. He's a professional and pretty much all professionals expect to be compensated fairly. The Twins aren't going to trash talk Buxton to the media and Buxton isn't going to trash the Minnesota Twins and say he doesn't want to be here, either. Well, at least it's very rare to see a MLB player take that position. The next couple of weeks should be really interesting.

Sounds a lot like a Tommy Milone ceiling, but only hoping for the best. It's a dream for any player to get a shot at the big leagues!

Yep, the Twins were also in a position to sign Yu Darvish in 2018, and there has pretty much never been a signing which would have made more sense. Basically, just because the Twins could sign Berrios, Buxton and Rogers doesn't mean they will or they expect to. I consider the Twins to be masters of saving face in the public eye by making lowball offers which aren't exactly "insulting" but are also unlikely to get guys to sign. The Twins claim they made a good offer and shucky darn, some other team just came along and paid more. What can ya do?

Donaldson's been hot lately and he's on pace to generate about 3 WAR this season which is totally solid for a starting 3B. On top of that, he doesn't have a long contract and that combination isn't super easy to come by. Donaldson is looked at pretty universally as a good to great bat. Worst case scenario, you trade him in the offseason. There is some risk he gets injured and misses a bunch of time again, but the bat is just too steady to ignore. Josh Donaldson isn't Chris Davis.

Rooker will turn 27 at the end of this years World Series. It's crazy to think guys like him have 3 option years remaining 7 years after he was drafted. Well, at least that's how it is for now. I'd be surprised if there weren't some big changes in regard to that kind of team control in the next CBA, especially if we're going to see a universal DH. Reducing team control would free up some fringe DH-ish talent for rule 5 acquisitions. He is taking a lot of walks at AAA this year (15%), but that K rate is just brutal for MiLB at 30%. There are a couple notable changes, though. I'm not sure how accurate this is, but Fangraphs shows Rooker has been using the whole field this year rather than being the straight pull hitter he was and his K rate is technically down from 35% in 2019. Looks a lot like Daniel Palka. Jose Miranda is just destroying the baseball this year. Hopefully, he keeps scorching the ball and forces his way onto the roster. The problem is finding a place to put him if the Twins don't move a couple guys before the deadline. I was thinking Palacios would get a promotion to AAA, but he's been scuffling in July. A stat line of .176/.300/.206 with a 25% strike out rate this month will hopefully turn back around. It's no serious slump, but a bad couple weeks. At least he's taking some walks at 12.5%. Still happy to see Cavaco hitting back from his stint on the IL. He's at .360/.484/.440 for a 924 OPS since his July 6th activation. SSS, but he's taking a ton of walks (20%), albeit with a 30% K rate too, but I'm hoping taking the walks will lead to him getting some better pitches to hit to show a little more power that's been absent from his game.

I think making a comparison to Donaldson is a pretty bold statement considering Bohm has very little track record to support it from a hitting standpoint and has received pretty poor marks in fielding scouting reports. Bohm had a .410 BABIP in his 180 plate appearances last year and has demonstrated no power above AA (he skipped AAA probably due to no MiLB last year). I do agree, though, no way Donaldson gets Bohm, though. I can see the Phillies being very interested in Donaldson, though, especially if they think universal DH is coming in the 2022 CBA. They get protection for Bohm's growing pains while not blocking him and getting a big jump on 2022's DH expanding to the NL. By "very interested" I mean enough to take on his contract and give the Twins a little something back.

There are advantages to "suck" seasons. While we may not be looking forward to the Twins playoffs this season, we can look forward to opportunities to see big roster shifts and young players getting opportunities. How exciting it is to see a guy come up and get a chance out of the minors and just RAKE or dominate on the mound? It really fuels excitement all the way into the next year. A lot of our young prospects are already getting vital MLB experience and it could help them avoid a sophomore slump. Plus, cheap tickets, etc.

No way, looks EXACTLY like every Twins pitching prospect in the system. Has to be. Look at the sling!

Highly recommend left field bleachers 128-129, row 9+ for guaranteed shade and protection from weather. They're inexpensive, decent seats to begin with, plus there are monitors you can look up and see for a closer view of the game. The right seats can make a big difference!

I'll admit, I'm laughing a little on the inside with all the comments about looking confident and the interview talking about him dripping in swag. Hopefully, he has a cute girlfriend. That's how you really know a baseball player has the confidence to succeed at the big league level. I learned that in Moneyball. Aside from all that, it's great to see him excited and enjoying the honor. That's fun to watch. A huge congratulations to him!

I don't think of Berrios as an ace and I don't think there's a reason to really believe he will be. The number of 3 pitch aces out there is pretty much non-existent. Berrios is what he is, which is a solid #2 or excellent #3, but with great durability and an ability to eat innings. That's why people are talking about 5 years $100-125MM and not 7 years $245MM like Strasburg got. I feel like the expectation is he's an ace and should pitch like one, but that kind of mindset takes away from how good he is at being who he really is.

I'm not sure where you got the information or feeling Gordon has a bad arm. Gordon had a low 90s fastball in high school and his arm strength was a major reason he was expected to be able to stick at SS when he was drafted.

Balazovic was allowed to go to 96 pitches in the game where he'd previously been capped at 85 and I'm glad to see the increase. If Balazovic is able to get to that 100 pitch count, it increases his chances of getting to 100 innings this year. I think I'd be surprised if Balazovic went to AAA this year considering he's pitched so few innings in AA and he had a bit of a rough start to the season.

The Twins' playoff struggles are epic and it's not related to one thing in particular. From the best closer in the game blowing saves to loaded lineups unable to drive in runs. Honestly, I think the biggest issue has been an anemic offense, even when it's loaded with regular season results. Since 2004, in 15 straight playoff losses, the Twins have never scored more than 4 runs and have only scored 4 runs on 3 occasions. Say what you want about the pitching, but 1-3 runs doesn't get you a lot of wins against playoff teams.

Opponents are swinging at Alcala's pitches more and they're barreling them up quite a bit. That said, it's not like they've been ripping the cover off the ball against him. I don't expect him to become a dominant closer or something, but I think he'll steady out with some regression away from what seems like some bad luck this year. I am a bit concerned about the K rate drop and corresponding BB rate drop. PTSD from the pitch to contact and avoid walks at all costs years.

Grossman took so much flak for his defense here, yet UZR/150 shows Grossman is and has been an above average left fielder for Minnesota, Oakland and Detroit for the last several years. Kepler's triple had an expected batting average of .910. If it was a hit, it was going to score a run and put runners at the corners in the bottom of the 6th when they're already down 2-0 with no outs. Grossman came within 1 foot of making a great catch which could have saved the game for Detroit. If you're going to sell out, that's where you sell out.

Love the defense and it's hard to tell how much of Rortvedt's struggles at the plate are related to luck as his BABIP is crazy low. He's still fairly young and his MiLB track record suggests he's got the upside of an average-ish MLB hitter if he can work a couple things out. Even as an average hitter at the MLB level, Rortvedt would still be a valuable catcher in the big show.

Balazovic is dealing with a .359 BABIP which suggests some of his ERA is likely from luck this year. That's especially the case when you consider the tiny sample size. Seems like the Twins have Balazovic on a pitch count around 85 over his past 4 starts. Looking at the number of strikes he's throwing (65%-ish), it's surprising to see him not getting later into games. In any case, once the BABIP starts regressing, it wouldn't surprise me to see Balazovic's results start to shine. The pitch/innings limit decisions have to be under the greatest level of scrutiny in recent history with the loss of the 2020 season for most MiLB players. Coupled with quite a few studies which have continued to debunk the innings/pitch limits as being valuable at preventing injury, I wonder how things will look going forward. Can the Twins afford to wait until 2024 to have a pitcher like Balazovic stretched out?

Glad to see a few games out there by Cavaco, and glad to see him hitting the ball. Cavaco performing well would sure be a big relief to the scouting department and front office!