bean5302

People are awfully excited about Gabriel Gonzalez. I really like what he's doing in A+ ball right now, but it's in A+, and his 3rd season in A+ ball. Gonzalez was all but written off coming into this year after back to back unimpressive seasons in Cedar Rapids. Seattle had been pretty aggressive with his promotions so Gonzalez isn't old for a good prospect at A+, but he's not really young, either. Gonzalez needs to move to AA sooner than later so his skills can be tested to see if he's improved.

Using this kind of logic, any free agent any team signs could be attributable to their last trade. Santana was clearly a valuable signing for Minnesota, but if the Mariners had offered the Twins Ty France as part of the package, would they still have signed Santana?

Went back and looked at Emma's last 5 games in detail pitch by pitch, and I just don't see how he's a legitimate top prospect. Fangraphs shows Emma at a 9.6% O-swing rate, but in the past 5 games, its been 28% by my count, not that it's helped him. His swinging strike rate (whiff rate) has been at 17.2% and he's had a 18.4% called strike rate. Both are terrible, and within tolerances for his season. He generally won't swing at absolute junk, but he almost never makes good contact, either. He does foul off a ton of balls in the zone, but many of those foul balls are going to be swinging strikes at the MLB level. The results he's getting have been good lately, but it appears to be heavily influenced by luck rather than skill to me. Glad to see Miranda and Holland with a couple hits a piece, but it'd really be nice to have additional better bullpen options in St. Paul. Further down the minors, it's great to see Dasan Hill back on the mound and DeBarge clearly not missing a beat after his brief few days off from being HBP.

I do not see this trend of moving away from closers for enhanced flexibility. There were essentially the same number of pitchers with 20+ saves in 2024 as there was in 2014. There are more injuries, and closers are used a bit more flexibly, but Duran still has 4x as many saves as anybody else on the Twins this year. He's on pace for about 30 saves this year. Tough to earn saves when your team loses 12 in a row (no saves) and then wins 12 in a row (can't pitch every day). It feels like the legend of the opener and 6 man rotation strategies. When it comes to Sands, his xERA, xFIP and SIERA are all at 4.00+, and it's not like he generates a crazy number of pop-ups. He's due for regression.

Pretty sure they've both talked about it. Here's Morneau speculating he had concussions while playing hockey. One of the biggest issues with concussions and history is... nobody cared until about 10-15 years ago so nothing was documented. https://www.startribune.com/day-and-night-justin-morneau-was-a-twins-star-10-years-ago-when-a-slide-into-second-base-changed-everything/571729992

Much is going to depend on Buxton, Correa, Lewis and Wallner, I think. The pitching regression is coming, just not sure how rough it's going to be, and how many runs the offense can consistently score to deal with it.

Cherry picking is when you choose a few pieces of data that favor your argument while ignoring the stuff that doesn't. You absolutely cherry picked. Furthermore, it's arrogant to trash talk another franchise when the Twins were in the exact same position as them 2 weeks ago.

The Orioles offered top dollar to Burnes. He wanted to play in Scottsdale. Falvey's success with Jorge Lopez should be commended. His cast off of Yennier Cano looks pretty good, too, right? It's not too hard to cherry pick to support a position. The Twins were 7 games under .500 just a couple weeks ago so to come out here and start bragging about Falvey's ability to develop mid/late round pitching prospects when one single guy in the entire rotation fits that bill seems a little too much for me. I don't think the Twins would be doing so well if 3 of our best starters were on the IL and another had walked.

I think it's long past time Gonzalez was moved to AA. He really doesn't have anything left to prove in A+ ball, he's been a top prospect, and he's rule 5 eligible this December. I don't like the idea of adding a guy in A+ or with limited AA experience to the 40 man roster, and I don't like the idea of exposing him and losing him like Akil Baddoo, either.

Mauer and Morneau were both catchers and played heavy contact sports (Mauer QB and Morneau who was a hockey goalie) prior to the start of their professional baseball careers. Both experienced many concussions prior to the career crushing ones so they're a little different. Concussions can have long term lingering effects, but the increased risks are more prevalent when there have been multiple concussions. Let's hope Correa's lack of known concussion history helps him out here.

When I go back and look at each plate appearance, something sticks out. MLB umpires are very, very good compared to MiLB umpires, LOL. Anyway, as much as I've been impressed with Gonzalez this year, he had 3 meatballs which turned into ground out, ground into DP, ground out. Those walks featured several "strikes" which were called balls. Not his best effort, haha.

2013 - a19, NCAA OPS .731 (Mediocre) 2014 - a20, NCAA OPS .668 (Poor) 2015 - a21, NCAA OPS .794 (Mediocre) 2016 - a22, NCAA OPS .610 (Poor), Undrafted 2017 - a23, Indy Ball OPS .695 (Poor) 2018 - a24, Low A wRC+ 109 (Mediocre) 2019 - a25, A+ wRC+ 109 (Mediocre) 2020 - NA 2021 - a27, AA wRC+ 128 (Good) 2022 - a28, AAA wRC+ 85 (Poor) 2023 - a29, AAA wRC+ 103 (Mediocre) 2024 - a30, AAA wRC+ 95 (Poor) 2025 - a31, AAA wRC+ 153 (Great) -> 148 PA, .398 BABIP, This guy can handle the bat!!! He's a bad hitter, but the Twins will be able to DFA him without anybody claiming him, and he should be able to adequately cover middle infield. The Twins can't feel too comfortable about Fitzgerald's defense if they started Lee at shortstop over him.

I honestly have no idea how good / bad he is. I had previously noted his arm is poor. He was adequate at controlling the run game in the minors, but it's certainly not a strength. The topic was about the danger of being labeled AAAA, and I think your comments are especially on point here. You determined he was not MLB caliber after watching 3 games and pointing to how other teams have deployed him. Gasper has that AAAA reputation. My interest in Gasper as a potential backup catcher is for 3 reasons. 1. Vazquez is one of the worst players in MLB. Even if Gasper is poor, how much worse can he be? 2. Camargo, Cartaya and Winkel all look like busts so if Vazquez or Jeffers gets hurt... 3. Ricardo Olivar is the best catching prospect in the Twins' system. In no way shape or form do I believe Gasper has a future as a starting MLB catcher, but the Twins have virtually no depth at the position, and the backup they do have is terrible.

The Wild looked like a Minnesota team in the playoffs. The good 'ol, we'll give it our best shot and oh by golly if things go right we might just have a shot. The Wolves have a different feel and look to them. A level of confidence an attitude you'll find in championship teams that we don't see in Minnesota.

I think the rose trees I planted in my front yard are still alive, but I'm pretty sure the climbing roses I had in the back yard didn't make it. Rabbits annihilated my 4 of 6 of my stargazers and 3 of 6 of my liatris as well. Surprisingly, virtually everything I got from Menards made it planted into the poor soil in the front, and most stuff I got from Gertens that I planted in raised beds with folded up shop.

A recent drop in velo for Matthews corresponded to him getting knocked around hard, but he bounced back in both velo and results in his last start. It'll be interesting to see how hard Matthews is throwing on Sunday, and get some indications on how his pitches are working against MLB hitters.

Without a doubt, this is the best Joe Ryan has ever been in his career. It's rare for a pitcher to take a step forward by adding a good pitch after reaching MLB, let alone to go from fringe starter to a mid rotation arm. The way Ryan has been pitching this year suggests there's still more in the tank. Ryan doesn't have any overpowering pitches, but everything he does have is average or better, and his command has been outstanding. Ryan's Achilles heel has always been the second half, but we're kind of seeing the 2nd half of 2024 right now as I think this is the first season where Ryan hasn't made major tweaks to his arsenal. Up until now, I've dismissed calls to extend him; however, Ryan is beginning to look like a legitimate front end starter. A back-loaded 5 year extension close to the deal the Twins gave Lopez is starting to make sense, but it would mean Ober was on borrowed time.

I haven't. Could be that he's terrible, but I haven't had a lot of opportunity to watch him, either. I'm only evaluating him based on stats, and it's hard to pull a ton of info from that. Of course, you, having 'watched the MiLB games' know all about Gasper behind the dish. I'm not sure when that happened since you'd never seen him play according to your comments back in January, and he's only played a couple games behind the dish with St. Paul.

I don't know Pete Rose, and he certainly never wronged me in any way. His prime was long over before I was born. He's dead. He can take no pleasure in any respite from hate, yet comment after comment drips with hatred and vitriol, eager to demonstrate the virtue of the commentor. Perhaps we should take his rotting corpse and hang it from a tow truck to haul it across the country from state fair to state fair. Sell tickets to commentors for $2 to take a swing and beat it with a baseball bat so as to demonstrate refined moral superiority while proving their virtue? When it comes to Pete Rose and his relationship to baseball, his contributions are unquestionable. He's the all time leader in hits, RoY, MVP, and has accumulated 80 career WAR while being one of the most popular players of all time, representing the game and drawing in fans an insane 17 times as an All Star. His behavior also critically damaged baseball. It was a series of massive sucker punches to fans, and he also risked a potentially catastrophic impact if fans believe play was all showmanship and entertainment rather than a competitive sport. As far as the non-baseball related claims against him, they're paper thin, but no type of claim is more powerful so it's not surprising it's been so intently weaponized. For whatever reason, Americans have both been taught and embraced the concept of persecution or acceptance. If a person isn't willing to actively persecute somebody they don't know, and demonstrate outrage while demanding endless vengeance for behavior which did not personally injure them in any way, it means the person is actively endorsing the harmful behavior, and therefore must also be persecuted. Of course, it's all intensely hypocritical, but it makes an American feel good to judge themselves to have superior value in society while seeking an active minority group to persecute. We're not allowed to persecute based on skin color or sex or gender or body shape or hair color or smoking status anymore. Who can we find? Somebody, certainly, and it's our duty to destroy those people to demonstrate moral superiority. It saddens me a little to see people so bent out of shape over somebody they don't know who did nothing to them, hasn't been relevant in 40 years, and is now dead (or somebody who hasn't played in 100 years for that matter). Rose paid and paid again for his actions. I can't comment as to whether or not he regretted his actions, but I suspect being widely hated after having been so beloved and honored was probably a truly never ending horrible experience. I don't have a vote, and I'm not sure how I would vote. I'm quite positive I won't lose any sleep over it.

I've seen this phrase continue after the Twins missed the playoffs last year, and it's confused me a little. What do people think Sim saved last year? If he hadn't flopped hard in the 2nd half and the Twins had made the playoffs, his contributions would have been meritorious. I don't see what he actually saved last year versus the Twins making Dobnak or Boushley the 5th starter. The Twins don't make the playoffs either way. Dobnak as a starter is probably 0.0 WAR vs. SWR's 1.8 WAR. So the Twins win 2 games more with Sim instead of Dobnak in the rotation. I think people are still in the mindset of the results Sim was getting in his first few starts when all the balls were bouncing his way, and it looked like Woods-Richardson was going to save the rotation by helping the Twins make the playoffs. He didn't.

McCusker is like that perfect doughnut sitting on the counter that I promised I wouldn't eat until I go to the gym. No. I have to go to the gym first. There's a reason I have to go to the gym first... staaaaaare. Gabriel Gonzalez needs to be in AA now. I like to see Will Holland starting off well with the bat. We may need him at shortstop sooner than later...

...and "Clayton Kershaw" is almost back for the Dodgers. Coincidence? I think not.

SWR's pitch splits. vs. RHB = 50% Four seam, 30% Slider, 15% Curve, 5% Change vs. LHB = 50% Four seam, 20% Change, 20% Slider, 10% Curve A couple things to consider. 1. He throws his fastball way too much. 2. His fastball stinks. 3. He's a 3 pitch pitcher against RHB. 4. Adding the changeup to RHB is not an option. They're "slugging" 1.333 on it this year, and .923 on it last year, and the expected slugging is just as bad. The changeup should pretty much never be thrown to a righty. 5. His changeup isn't great against LHB, either. I was a huge fan of SWR's potential when we got him from Toronto. I have to be honest, all the advanced metrics, the stuff evaluation and how hitters have tee'd off against pretty much everything other than his slider makes me think he's a bullpen guy. Dial up another 1-2mph on the heater, ditch the changeup, and start throwing the curve to lefties.

Seems like the Twins are revisiting Gasper at catcher now. I know he hadn't had a single game there at St. Paul through the first few weeks of the season, but I see there giving him 1-2 starts a week now.

Age and team control matter a lot, and so does whether or not a team is competitive or they have time to let a struggling player work through adjustments at the MLB level. It's tough to compare how Viola was viewed to SWR, now 40 years later. I base my expectations on not only SWR's results, but his stuff+ score and the peripherals. Pitchers do reinvent themselves and get better, and Joe Ryan is a good example, but I just don't think it's that common.