bean5302

Wow, I guess I totally whiffed on that. I wonder if they'd me more inclined to sign MiLB deals with the Twins or take a chance at a change of scenery?

Lots of underdogs performing well lately and that's nice to see. The Twins need some guys to step up in the minors given how thin the top ranked players are in the system.

Stop building strawmen, please. Nowhere have I ever suggested Palacios is as good of a prospect as Martin. They're not in the same ballpark. Martin is the Twins #1 prospect and a universal top 100 prospect in baseball. Palacios is, at best, a top 20 organizational prospect. Not every prospect is going to be elite. Not every player at the MLB level is going to win an MVP. That doesn't mean every player outside the top 100 prospect list is expendable or if they aren't top 100, that they're destined to be MiLB roster filler.

Honestly, wouldn't surprise me if Arraez or Polanco was moved this offseason. They're both starting quality 2B at the MLB level.

I wasn't saying anything. I just posted stats. People can take what they want, if anything, from the stats. My experience is most fans have a tendency to form strong opinions on prospects and players based on an emotional attachment for any number of reasons. I expect Palacios and Gordon would both be selected in the Rule 5 draft if left off the 40 man roster because regardless of whether or not there's a journeyman free agent out there, retooling/rebuilding teams will view the 5-6 years of team control over young players as potential gold mines if either one of those guys develops into a starter. I find it especially ironic somebody would be so high on Martin (a22) because of his OPS of .832, but believes Palacios (a24) is MiLB roster filler at .819. Even more so when Lewis (a22) is an obvious high value shortstop because of his AA OPS of .649, fielding percentage of .946 and RF/9 of 3.14... all dramatically inferior to Palacios in his last significant playing time which was 2 years ago.

Good news! Both can be promoted since the Twins have moved away from having him play shortstop a week ago. https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/news/twins-austin-martin-to-focus-on-center-field/

As far as I can see, Sano is just something in between Chris Davis and Chris Carter only more inconsistent. Sano is going to be here next year due to the $12MM guaranteed (9.25 + 2.75) due. Sano will then get a another team to give him a one year contract where he'll post negative WAR and then his career in MLB will be over.

It's kind of interesting to see so many comments on Thorpe. I expect he'll be non-tendered and catch on in Korea or something.

So back to the topic of rotation, what the Twins do in the offseason to address their rotation will determine whether or not their goal is to be .500+ (Pineda, Cueto) go for the World Series (Verlander, Stroman) or start planning their surprise at being awful speech before the season starts (all Twins controlled guys)

I took some data from Baseball Reference and compared the primary shortstops in the Wind Surge's league. Sorted by RF/9. Palacios's defense is probably borderline due in part to his poor error rate for his age (a common theme among Twins prospects for a very long time now). Mean and Median RF/9 is 3.73. Mean OPS is .707. Median OPS is .740. Player Age High Lvl Org Fielding% RF/9 OPS Kopach 26 AA Mariners 0.982 4.22 0.525 Davidson 23 AA Athletics 0.942 4.19 0.627 Perez 22 AA Cardinals 0.957 4.04 0.697 Abrams 20 AA Padres 0.968 3.92 0.782 Tejada 23 MLB Texas 0.919 3.80 0.690 Perdomo 21 MLB Diamondbacks 0.953 3.67 0.515 Palacios 24 AA Twins 0.955 3.57 0.819 Amaya 22 AA Dodgers 0.957 3.45 0.675 Witt 21 AA Royals 0.975 3.35 0.939 Leon 23 AAA Astros 0.943 3.10 0.803

Just sayin' Oakland owes us some cookies. Love playing spoiler on the Astros hahaha. Side note, does it look like Kepler was assembled with two different arms in that game photo? Hmmm... left arm looks much, much bigger than the right. Come to think of it, he is left handed... hahaha

I am annoyed. I've seen the Twins waste talent and jerk players around back and forth for years before figuring out what they had by sheer luck or only discovering it after they leave through rule 5 picks. It's a poor way to run a franchise IMO.

Bummer the Twins aren't in the hunt, but I think it's still fun to see prospects getting chances. I agree the Twins have spoken on Gordon and I think they have ample reason to doubt his ability to play at the MLB level. It's just a personal pet peeve of mine to see younger players who aren't given a chance but who are still locked down with team control. I remember another player who wasn't good enough to play shortstop a few years ago because he had no bat and questionable defense. Some fans might remember him. He played a couple years on the Twins after that. His name was Eduardo Escobar and he almost didn't get a shot to play because he was stashed way behind perennial MVP candidate Pedro Florimon. Ober is doing what he can to make a case for a rotation spot next year and Martin is a nice bright spot. Speaking of bright spots, Simeon Woods-Richardson and Joe Ryan should be headed back to the USA from the Tokyo Olympics soon. Honestly, such a bummer Woods-Richardson's number didn't come up after the rainout game scheduled with Puerto Rico, but I'm sure it was a blast anyway.

Absolutely true. Gordon, who has primarily played shortstop every single year of his professional MiLB career (including this one) can clearly not play shortstop. We know this because even though Gordon has the arm strength, quickness, reaction time and range to play shortstop, somebody on the internet wrote Gordon can't stick there one time. Thus... the book is closed. It's just the strangest thing the Twins keep having Gordon play SS almost exclusively... every year for 7 years now. Gordon's error rate has been bad at SS. Very bad. Gordon cannot play any defensive position with a bad error rate because he doesn't have the bat to make up for it (unlike Polanco). It'd be nice to see his skills at the MLB level rather than hear about his issues from an internet "scout."

Polanco's fielding percentage is almost always among the worst in MLB... Arraez, on the other hand is almost always average.

I fully expect the Twins will call Ryan up, but not before he's in the country Strotman's AAA stats don't impress me in the least, but I could see the Twins giving him a few innings out of the pen, maybe?

I expect the feel on Sands' ceiling will be well known by mid next year. He's been good with limiting walks since his return from the IL on 7/14, but it's such a small sample size with him throwing such a tiny number of pitches. (26, 29, 50, 65). He has been more consistent at generating swinging strikes over those starts as well and he's been pounding the strike zone, too. His previous starts were sporadic on swinging strikes every other game (6%-19%)with a fairly consistent strike rate of 60% or so. The last 4 starts have all been 10%-19% swinging strike rate with an average strike rate of about 70%. It's hard to say whether the improved performance is from pitching fewer innings and seeing batters fewer times or whether or not he's actually being a lot more efficient. Just have to wait and see if the Twins keep letting him ramp up the pitch count and watch the walks. Right now, Sands probably has a ceiling of 4-5 starter and a more probable outcome of setup man in my opinion unless he's able to increase his efficiency. In his last start, even with a 68% zone rate and a 15.4% swinging strike rate, he still averaged nearly 18 pitches per inning.

Who are the Twins going to take a look at instead of Pineda? Shepherd (28)? 5.88 ERA, 1.61 WHIP, 5.4 K/9, 2.8 BB/9 at AAA Albers (35)? 4.15 ERA, 1.37 WHIP, 8.0 K/9, 1.0 BB/9 at AAA Strotman (24) 3.59 ERA, 1.40 WHIP, 8.8 K/9, 5.1 BB/9 at AAA Ryan (25) isn't back from the Tokyo Olympics yet. Duran (23) is on the IL with a UCL strain and won't likely pitch again until at least next year. Winder (24) is shut down for the year with shoulder fatigue Barnes (25) 4.24 ERA, 1.35 WHIP, 7.3 K/9, 3.3 BB/9 at AAA is already in the rotation Jax (26) 3.32 ERA, 1.18 WHIP, 6.2 K/9, 3.4 BB/9 at AAA is already in the rotation

It's pretty simple in my opinion. Palacios is 24 and is a decent fielding shortstop who's maintained a cumulative .800 OPS throughout the entire season and 333 plate appearances now. His AA performance 2 years ago for Tampa showed strong enough peripherals with a 10% walk rate and 19% K rate and some bad luck with a .229 BABIP. Palacios is flashing plus power this year to go along with his plus base running and decent walk rate and while he's getting old for his level at 24, it's not like he's 26 or 27 and past prospect age. May - .311/.398/.478 .876 OPS June - .250/.348/.490 .838 OPS July - .221/.303/.364 .667 OPS Aug - .208/.321/.625 .946 OPS Either he's a prospect or he's not. He's rule 5 eligible and I'd be surprised if he wasn't selected in the rule 5 draft if left off the roster. Now, it's entirely possible Palacios will never pan out. His batting average is pretty ugly after all, and that 20% K rate is going to increase at MLB. It'd be better to know if the Twins are wasting shortstop talent or a 40 man roster spot when both are desperately needed. Honestly, I can't see a spot where we agree. I don't believe keeping a declining shortstop on an expiring contract playing every day in a lost season when there are two borderline, but potential MLB caliber shortstop prospects in the high minors who are both rule 5 eligible. There is no better time to look at the older borderline prospects. Gordon was in MLB until a few days ago. Riddle is blocking nobody. He's a journeyman utility player who's played 2B, 3B, SS and LF this year with a .555 OPS.

I don't see it happening and this lack of multiple conferences would be unlike any of the other top 3 sports. Baseball enjoys a lot of competition right now, though a little less in recent years, but I think this design would see an even greater loss of competition.

Nick Gordon has a stiff headwind to have any MLB career right now so I'm sure a Danny Santana career looks pretty good to him about now. Here's hoping at the very least, he can stay healthy in the personal life side of things. He's certainly been through a heck of a lot with the digestive tract issues and the bad case of COVID.

Palacios just continues to show he has nothing to prove at AA. Of course, Palacios can play shortstop in AA because the Twins have decided to move Martin to center field where he lacks the range to excel. I'm sure Palacios would be promoted except he's blocked by Nick Gordon at AAA so the Twins can get a good long look at young prospect Andrelton Simmons, our future franchise shortstop.

There are few teams I'd prefer beating than the Astros, but at least we took 2 of 3!

I'd like to hear about Varland's off speed offerings and how they're progressing. I've seen full articles dedicated to his fastball velocity, but not much in regard to his slider or change up. Sounds like he leans very heavily on his fastball and mixes in the off speed stuff later, but the off speed stuff is going to be required to have success at the MLB level. As a 3 pitch guy, all 3 of the pitches need to be good to be able to start. Still, really nice to see him continue to have success, especially considering he was such a late pick.

I'm also concerned about Arraez's knee issues at such a young age, but there are a few options for treating the issue. It doesn't have to be something which shuts him down across his career.