bean5302

Clemens, Keirsey, Funderburk, Adams, Camargo, Bride... it's not hard to find some low hanging fruit on the team.

Sure. Might be as many as 13 games. You're right.

A rebuild? As it stands, this team has under a 10% chance for winning the division right now and we're setting records for poor attendance. The farm has a bunch of talent which is either scouted as mediocre or injured absolutely just all. the. time. Like all the time. Does it matter if the Twins lose 90 games or 95? They're already bad, and if this continues to the deadline, just how much worse is the team if they "rebuild?" What positions are we confident will deliver 3+ WAR this season? Maybe Buxton depending on how much time he spends on the IL? In the rotation, probably Lopez? Ryan and Ober combined have done it once in their careers. The term "rebuild" gets tossed around here like somebody yelling "shark!!! shark!!!!" at a popular children's beach in Florida trying to scare the crap out of people whenever some fan favorite (read: any player with more than 1 successful year on the team) has their name mentioned as a potential trade chip to fix this broken franchise. This Twins team looks very much like a team that needs a rebuild, and the only surplus value the Twins look to have is in the pitching staff.

Alcala had a 3.24 ERA last year, dude. In his only other full season, he was also solid. He's got 12 appearances this year. While he's not getting results, it's pretty clear his "stuff" isn't the issue. Obviously struggling with location, but unlike a guy like Varland, Alcala doesn't give up a ton of hard contact and exit velocities.

Fair vs. not fair is the problem. Society has changed a lot in terms of what is and is not acceptable. A lot. Look no further than Tommy Lasorda and how his attitude and style was accepted by the players and the league in his final years. In the 80s and 90s, managers could still get away with getting physical with players during angry disputes.

Tom Kelly's management style from the 80s and 90s would never work today so he'd really have to change his approach and communication style with the players who he famously pretty much hazed if he didn't like somebody. It seems like he regrets being so harsh when you read his retrospectives. Attitudes and communication styles have changed a lot since the 1990s in general People change along with them. https://www.twincities.com/2012/09/05/former-twins-manager-tom-kelly-i-took-the-game-of-baseball-very-personal/ Kelly would also have to change his approach to the game and coaching in general or the Front Office would can him. https://shamasportsheadliners.com/kelly-iffy-on-managing-in-2018-baseball/

If there's no fixing him, I'd rather he succeed elsewhere. If he can rebuild some value, I'd like to see it happen. Low leverage only at this point, though. With a quick hook, too.

Yeah, would have ended the inning 1-1. Tough not to find fault with that play by Julien. The long standing conventional technique would be to lean over and field the ball on the run or dive for the stop because it prevents the ball from getting past the fielder, period. Julien's technique, that I've seen him use many times, is to knee slide while fielding. It puts him in a bad position to view the ground ball and at what seems like an awkward angle to field it, but it's kind of a combo move. It provides him with a somewhat better chance of stopping the ball from going into the outfield if he mishandles it (didn't work here) than fielding the ball on the run, and it provides him with a faster throw than a full dive. Devers was out by a mile even if Julien dove. Bad instincts, bad technique, bad situational awareness in this case. Does the fault lie with Julien or the Twins' coaches for having Julien use that technique?

Alcala needs to be off the MLB roster. I don't think he's tradable anymore, and with his stuff, I'm hesitant to DFA him and watch him turn into the next Yennier Cano.

Rankings from 15-30 are pretty much interchangeable. It's not like there's a huge difference between them as they're all long shots to be valuable at the MLB level. Adams' average exit velocity is near 90mph in AAA, and he doesn't miss bats so that's a big problem. It's not going to get better at MLB, and I think Lewis has a higher likelihood of his pitches working out of the bullpen than Adams does as Lewis misses bats at a higher rate so there's less damage from hard hit balls to begin with. Neither one of them is going to be an MLB starter nor are either one of them likely going to be a dominant reliever. Cory Lewis is ranked higher by Fangraphs, MLB, Prospects1500, too so if you're surprised with my rankings because you feel strongly Travis Adams should be higher, you could always vent some rage at the entire collective MLB scouting base :)

Ricardo Olivar, yes. 33% split between LF/C/DH. Not sure why he's not catching more. Jeferson Morales, no. Hasn't caught a single game. I'd swap Olivar (AAA) with Camargo (AA), and release Cartaya soon or send him to Ft. Myers to work on his stuff and maybe rebuild some confidence. Cartaya wasn't good at AAA for the Dodgers, but he was never like this. Not sure why people are so obsessed with tanking Prielipp's value, but it sure seems like a trend here.

Sure do! Lets take a look at them, though. Mickey Gasper has a 1.417 OPS at St. Paul. Let's get that MVP candidate up here!!!! Oh... wait. Austin Martin, .978! Then again... IL and we know what Austin Martin isn't (good.) Well, maybe that Anthony Prato guy! .978 OPS! Oh... but, I think we're all pretty sure he's not going to keep that up and he's probably a MiLB journeyman type, though, honestly, maybe he's not worse (or much better) than one of our waiver wire type guys we picked up recently? When a .750 OPS is pretty much league average, an .800 OPS in the minors isn't all that impressive, though I'd absolutely 100% fast track Patrick Winkel to get a look at him and hope this is a big bounce back year for him so we can DFA/release Vazquez mid season.

Just doing the quick update since not everybody wants to sit through a 1hr podcast. Keaschall is 6-8 weeks. Rodriguez is day to day, not yet on IL. Jenkins' ankle is still sore, got a cortisone shot. Won't be back until at least end of May. Charlee Soto hitting the IL with triceps strain. Not expected to be too long.

Tigers. No question about it. I will root against the Dodgers if they're playing anybody.

I don't think the Twins' system is short on talent, but it seems everybody on the list has big red flags. The top end talent is a bit questionable.

This is how I voted: 1 Luke Keaschall Looks totally legit at the MLB level from a production and tools standpoint. 2 Walker Jenkins Injury prone, excellent hit tool, average power w/o room to fill out, corner OF 3 Connor Prielipp Elite stuff, injury risk, control/command issues. Bullpen risk, but #1 starter potential. 4 Charlie Soto Looks dominant in A+ already, multiple potential plus pitches, seems durable. 5 Dasan Hill 4 pitch lefty, dominant out of the gate A-ball a19. Sky's the limit. Building a floor. 6 Kyle DeBarge Hit/Power tools look good at A+, defensive results at SS dramatically improved. 7 Kaelyn Culpepper Hit tool great at the plate, limited power. Better at SS than expected. Could advance fast. 8 Emmanuel Rodriguez Power tool not playing against polished pitchers. Injury prone. High risk. 9 Marco Raya Good stuff, weak command, likely bullpen arm due to durability concerns. 10 Andrew Morris High velo, but can't miss bats. Back end rotation ceiling, probable BP. 11 Carson McCusker Huge power, but questionable contact/hit tool. Defensive liability in corner OF. 12 Brandon Winokur All the athleticism, but bat may not play. 13 Payton Eeles Great story and good hit tool. Below average power. Questions defensively. 14 Cory Lewis Middle relief ceiling. 15 Gabriel Gonzalez Bat keeps improving, but limited overall ceiling/athleticism. 16 Ricardo Olivar Twins desperate for catching, hampering progress with OF. No power, all hit tool in AA 17 Rayne Doncon Good, not great tools across the board. 18 CJ Culpepper No plus pitches so far, but looks like potentially a back end rotation piece. 19 Eduardo Beltre Huge ceiling, but DSL numbers are sketchy to project. 20 Daiber De Los Santos Billed as premium SS defense with great tools. Super young, but could pan out.

As if Detroit wasn't dangerous enough in the AL Central as it is, Spencer Torkelson has found his swing. He's destroying opposing pitchers with elite exit velocity, hard hit and barrel rates along with dramatic improvements in plate discipline and contact. This was not something expected to develop, and it's bad news for the Twins. On top of that, Javvy Baez is hitting, though at least all the metrics suggest there's no good reason for his high productivity. That said, if the productivity sparks positive changes for him mentally, he could start building on the success (like Royce Lewis did his rookie year). If those bats keep producing, it's not hard to imagine the Tigers winning 100 games this year...

Going to San Diego? 100% do one of the eat/walk tours.

Ober's absolutely elite in terms of locating his pitches this year. Combined with a huge extension to help his limited fastball play up and a bunch of pitches to keep batters guessing, it's just enough. Contact rates, hard hit rates and exit velocities are right at the edge of sustainable. I'd be pushing to trade him to a contender at the deadline because he doesn't look like a guy who is going to age well at all.

Louis Varland's stuff: 120-125+ would be 60 grade. Varland's definitely far short of plus-plus stuff. You can see the Location+ score is very high (very few pitchers are in that 105+ area). While the author postulates Varland has a meatball problem, Louis has to live in the zone because hitters won't chase his offerings outside of the zone because his pitches don't move well. If Varland could hit his spots perfectly, he might be more effective, but pitchers with elite command who never miss their spots don't exist. If Varland misses, his pitch winds up middle middle and gets clobbered or outside the zone for a ball because hitters rarely swing at his stuff out of the zone. This means Varland's primary weapon is the speed delta between his pitches. He lives and dies based on whether or not the hitter guesses the correct pitch since the fastball, sinker and changeup all move very similarly. In my opinion, Varland is getting pretty much the absolute best out of the stuff he's got.

Walked off again.

Trying to pick off Ramirez??? Like, why? Why risk the Twins pitchers throwing it into the dugout for the 874th time this year?

LOL, the irony.

Must be frustrating to the writers trying to push the diminished velo Duran story. Duran was over 100.0mph on 10 of 11 of his 4 seamers.

Re: Will Holland. He's supposedly great defensively at SS which probably makes him the best shortstop the Twins franchise has, but I think he's going to have a long stint between missing almost all of the past 2 months including virtually all Spring Training. If Holland had looked good in ST, he absolutely would have gotten his number called already. Huge bummer for him on the timing of that hamstring injury.