bean5302

Morris had an ace level mustache and diva attitude acceptable for an "ace," but on the mound, Morris was was never competitive with the best pitchers in the league. Even in 1991, he was the 3rd best pitcher in the rotation behind Tapani and Erickson. Even at his peak, Morris walked a lot of guys, spiked a lot of balls in the dirt and gave up a lot of hits. Thankfully, Morris had a host of gold glovers backing him up.

I think the writer is just a big fan of Jeffers so he's fudging Jeffers' production a little through some cherry picking and optimism.

To be blunt, Keirsey sucked for 5 of 6 years in the minors and he was age 27 when all the sudden he had a near .400 BABIP. Eeles has always produced and he's age 25. If he fully recovers from surgery and has some good peripherals while raking in AAA, he'll probably get a shot this year.

If the Dodgers played in the AL Central, I'd say the 116 win record was in danger, but the NL West should be strong this year so feasting off the division will be hard. In addition, both the Phillies and Braves look to have overpowering rotations, though you have to think the Braves could have 3+ candidates for the award. That team could be a juggernaut when it comes to pitching. AL East - This should be another brutal division. The Red Sox look to have assembled a very real threat this year. The Yankees and the Orioles have their work cut out for them. The Blue Jays are dangerous, too. More than they get credit for. The Rays should be an also ran here. Just too many question marks. AL Central - The stat padding division for the AL. None of the teams look dominant. The Royals could be powerful, but it depends on their young guys stepping up. The Tigers have a higher floor than the Royals, but I'm not as convinced of their ceiling. The Twins have the highest floor of the bunch, but also the most limited ceiling above the floor. I heard MLB is going to swap rosters in the White Sox organization between the Charlotte Knights (AAA) and White Sox so Chicago plays better. AL West - Seattle has the rotation, but more questions at the plate than I'd like. The Rangers' rotation depends on the health of the most made of glass pitcher in MLB. The Athletics aren't there even despite the survey voter who picked Brent Rooker as the 2025 MVP. Homerism you say? Well I'd pick Rooker MVP way before any Twins pitcher winning the Cy Young. NL East. The Phillies and Braves are my favorites with the Braves ranking a little over the Phillies. Atlanta is going to win some games scoring only 1 run. The Mets lack the rotation, IMHO. If Trout and Ohtani can't drag a team into the playoffs, Lindor and Soto can't either. Washington will be bad, but Miami should be the subject of an MLBPA grievance allowing all their players to elect free agency at the end of the season. They're worse than the Rockies and White Sox (who at least try sometimes). Miami is a joke. A blight on baseball. NL Central. Forgot to even talk about them so I'm editing. Yeah. Ummmm... Cubs? The Cubs have a solid lineup and a capable rotation, and that should be enough to win the division IMHO. The Cardinals, Pirates, Reds and Brewers all have tons of holes in their team. The Reds are probably the next most complete team with what should be a solid enough rotation. This division will feed a lot of NL West wins... NL West. Obviously, the purpose built unlimited expense All Star team that is the Dodgers is the favorite, but their top rotation arms could be challenged in the playoffs. The Padres have a powerful lineup and deep mid/upper rotation group. The Diamondbacks and the Giants are both potentially dangerous with rotations which could be very good and while there are a couple holes in the lineup, they'll hold their own. The Rockies are... dreadful. The project even lower than the White Sox. AL MVP - Bobby Witt, Jr. NL MVP - Juan Soto AL Cy Young - Garrett Crochet NL Cy Young - Spencer Strider AL RoY - Kristian Campbell NL RoY - Roki Sasaki

Sonny Gray. Tremendous. Everybody knows it. He's the guy. He's the best guy. Other pitchers? Garbage. Can't compete. Everybody agrees with me.

I think the Twins will trade him in 2027 when his NTC bends to allow trades to 5 teams chosen by Buck.

I have my fingers crossed for Connor Prielipp this year. It's pivotal. If Prielipp stays healthy and dominates AA as a starter, I could see him getting promoted to AAA and stretching out to 100 innings with the potential of being in the Twins rotation mid next year. He could turn into Tarik Skubal or Matt Canterino. He's the only guy in our system I think has likely elite potential.

Or how other teams feel about a guy who is worse than a AAA replacement player.

Cal Raleigh is one of the top catchers in baseball. Jeffers is not anywhere close. I'd go 4yrs $28MM for Jeffers now. Raleigh is durable, a better defensive catcher, and a consistently near All Star caliber bat for a position player, let alone a catcher. He put up a more valuable season last year than any Twins player has ever accomplished under Derek Falvey's regime. Raleigh vs. Jeffers from Raleigh's first full season. fWAR 2022 - 4.2 vs. 0.8 fWAR 2023 - 4.3 vs. 2.3 fWAR 2024 - 5.4 vs. 1.7 fWAR Last 3 - 13.9 vs. 4.7 fWAR Plate Appearances 2022 - 415 vs. 236 PA 2023 - 569 vs. 335 PA 2024 - 628 vs. 465 PA Last 3 - 1,610 vs. 1,036 Batting 2022 - 122 vs. 86 wRC+ 2023 - 113 vs. 137 wRC+ 2024 - 117 vs. 107 wRC+ Last 3 - 117 vs. 112 wRC+ Jeffers has a league average bat. That super luck fueled 2023 makes a huge impact on Jeffers career numbers. wRC+ 83, 86, 137, 107. It's pretty easy to see the outlier there. Jeffers is just your average run of the mill starting catcher.

What does 2019 Paddack have to do with today Paddack? Let's get Stephen Strasburg out of retirement! Bet he'll be cheap! Career ERA 3.24, dude!!!

The starting rotation is interesting because of who is not part of the Saints. Keeping Paddack means both CJ Culpepper (a23) and Corey Lewis (a24 finished in AAA) will be back in AA. On top of that, there are no MLB retread/comeback stories blocking prospects this year. When it comes to the catchers, I wonder how much playing time and leash they'll get? Cartaya and Camargo were both K machines in Spring Training while Winkour got a couple looks late in ST and managed to not be overwhelmed in ultra SSSS. Morales has no room for catching duty. Infield is another major depth issue. I'd wager. With Holland, Eeles, and Lee all hurt, it sure does make the infield situation thin. Thinking Severino at DH, Ford at 1B, Alvarez at 3B, Prato at SS, and Keaschall at 2B? The outfield looks pretty set. Emma CF, Morales LF, McCusker RF is my guess.

The legend has it DaShawn Keirsey just didn't try for his first 5 years in the minors. He actually paid a look a like beer league softball guy to play in his stead. Then, last year, Keirsey decided it was time to make the big leagues as he got used to the salary bump from the new CBA and he wanted more. Once Keirsey actually took the field as himself, not a single ball ever dropped for a hit in the outfield and he made prior Twins legends at DH like Jim Thome and Nelson Cruz look like lightweights, and former hitting icon Joe Mauer look pedestrian when it came to plate discipline and hitting skills. Seriously, though. Keirsey's reputation reminds me of the legend of Anthony Slama...

Some of these are definitely bold haha.

Manny Margot is absolute proof of that.

Yeah, on mobile it's pretty impossible so thanks for responding at all, haha. Here is my full evaluation methodology for determining a player's rotational fit. ERA, FIP, xFIP, QS, QS2, Streak (number of QS2 in a row) ERA is king, but sometimes it's all luck so I use FIP/xFIP (especially compared to historical differences) to buffer it a bit. I look at quality starts, QS2, and the max number of QS2 in a row trying to identify anomaly. There are usually patterns which emerge. Even #2 rotation pitchers rarely put together more than 4-5 QS2's in a row where Ace pitchers typically do it week in and week out for an extended stretch during a season. Pablo Lopez 4.08 ERA, 3.65 FIP, 3.36 xFIP. QS 53%, QS2 59%, Streak = 4 Overall, that's mid rotation area. '21-24 GS Paddack 4.94 ERA, 3.72 FIP, 3.91 xFIP, QS 25% QS2,41%, Streak = 3 Luis Castillo 3.64 ERA, 3.91 FIP, 3.82 xFIP, QS 60%, QS2 60%, Streak = 10 MacK. Core 3.90 ERA, 3.53 FIP, 3.87 xFIP, QS 34%, QS2 56%, Streak = 4 Chris Bassitt 4.16 ERA, 4.08 FIP, 4.28 xFIP, QS 39%, QS2 45%, Streak = 5 Kyle Gibson 4.24 ERA, 4.42 FIP, 4.19 xFIP, QS 43%, QS2 50%, Streak = 5 '22 Dylan Bundy 4.89 ERA, 4.66 FIP, 4.70 xFIP, QS 7%, QS2 45%, Streak = 4 Paddack has been poor to very poor by any real result I use. He rarely goes 6+ innings, he doesn't even give the team a good chance to win a ball game half of the time. His ERA is poor and he has 2 bad starts for every 1 good one. That's over 44 starts from 2021-2024. He honestly compares to 2022's Dylan Bundy pretty well, and that was Bundy's last year in a MLB team uniform. Then there are the metrics used to evaluate what we think might happen for a pitcher. While TD articles have often painted Paddack as having upper rotation ceiling and stuff, he certainly doesn't strike guys out, and he does give up a lot of hits. The only thing that keeps Paddack even serviceable at the back end is he doesn't walk a lot of guys. Paddack has been all hype since 2019. Lots of pitchers have a promising rookie campaign before turning into pumpkins. There's just not much to suggest to me Paddack has some sort of ceiling above "serviceable."

100% Fans were deluding themselves thinking Bader wasn't going to be playing every day. If Buxton is healthy, it means Bader is likely in the corners.

Yeah, I mean, if all three of Buxton Correa and Lewis combined for their best career years at the same time and Lopez, Ryan and Ober combined for their healthiest and most productive seasons ever and the Twins get career years from a couple other people, they definitely are World Series Contenders. This kind of happened in 1991. Tapani, Morris and Erickson all had career years. Puckett, and Mack had awesome years, Knoblauch was RoY and the Twins got big performances from Hrbek, Davis and a few others. Having everything come together does happen, and it can lead a team to a World Series, it's just not really a strategy.

The big 3 are not MVP Caliber players or anywhere close to it. Even if they were healthy, they're no where close. The Twins playoff status probably depends on the other AL Central teams. The Twins look to be a team better built to make the playoffs than advance yet again. I feel this team is trying the same tried and failed philosophy they've had for 15+ years. A rotation which consists of the top 3 all being good rather than anybody great with two very low ceiling or retread types at the back. A position player roster of no truly elite players, and mostly guys who are borderline every day players. It's not as if the Twins are outright "bad" at any positions, they're just lacking the high ceiling at many spots. The bullpen looks to be formidable, but Baldelli's tendencies could easily lead to overwork and collapse when the team needs them most. Twins MVP: Matt Wallner Top WAR Pitcher: Pablo Lopez Top Rookie: Luke Keaschall Comeback Player: Royce Lewis

Don't forget about Dobnak and Blewett.

Agreed. That rough go 'round A+ season in 2022 at a high true prospect age 23 for that level put a big damper on Morales. That said, it was an isolated down year for him. He's consistently hit well otherwise. Unfortunately, he's been pretty old / experienced for the level by true prospect standards. It's preferable to see a23 in AA or higher for higher end prospects. At age 26 this season, and a ton of catching depth ahead of him, Morales has a high bar set to get opportunities. As far as outfield options go, his fielding numbers aren't great due in part to a poor error rate (stop me if you've heard that about a Twins prospect before...) and he was used exclusively as a left fielder with no playing time at CF/RF over the last 3 years. He'll need to be able to pass guys like Keirsey and Martin on the depth charts.

Injuries. Did pitchers not pitch because they were hurt or because the team didn't want them on the mound. That's the distinction. If the pitcher was getting roughed up with a 4.50+ ERA, it's because the team wanted a better option/result. Paddack's history isn't just last year on the ERA. 2021 on... 5.04, 4.03, 5.40, 4.99. You might counter about oh, well he's injured all the time so the samples are small. That's not a good reason to add him to the rotation. No, it sets people up for a reasonable expectation. First off, Lopez has never earned the "ace" moniker a lot of people around here assigned to him. So if you're using "ace" as a starting point for your vision of Lopez, it makes sense why you might be in disbelief Lopez could have such a rough year. IMHO, Lopez has been a back end #2 or top end #3 guy. Similar to a Berrios. Last year was a bad year for Lopez. I care about results, and Lopez was a mixed bag. The evaluation I use for a pitcher's performance generally includes ERA, something like FIP and percentage of starts 5.0+ IP with ERA 3.99 or less (I just call it QS2). If a guy has a few blow up games, but is otherwise highly effective, it can distort the ERA. I don't like FIP a lot for specific pitcher applications, but it can be helpful. What I really care about most is how often a pitcher goes out there and gives the team a start that puts the team in a good position to win the game. The meltdowns matter too, but often the meltdowns are a partial function of the manager and bullpen. Lets compare three pitchers last year. Lopez vs. Berrios vs. Gibson vs. Sears ERA 4.08 vs. 3.60 vs. 4.24 vs. 4.38 FIP 3.65 vs. 4.72 vs. 4.42 vs. 4.71 QS2 59% vs. 67% vs. 50% vs. 53% Lopez had a pretty nice FIP, but he put the Twins in a less than ideal spot in quite a few starts. That said, he was better than his ERA suggests on any given day with his overall 59% QS2 suggesting he's more on par with a #3ish starter. Lopez seems to always have a "shoulda woulda coulda" number a lot better than what actually happens. His ERAs are consistently much worse than his FIPs. It's not luck at this point. People would be a lot happier if they stopped setting expectations for Lopez based on his FIP. Berrios gave up a lot of HR, but they did minimal damage when he allowed them. It was the highest HR rate since his rookie year so while the FIP was sky high, he also probably gave up more HRs than expected, period. When it came to his starts, 67% of the time he delivered at least 5.0 innings and had an ERA of 3.99 or less. Not ace territory, but consistent with that #2/3 range that his ERA matched. Toronto usually wins the game when Berrios pitches. Even in Berrios' down years. Like his disaster of a campaign in 2022 (5.23 ERA, 4.55 FIP, 53% QS2, Blue Jays winning percentage that year with Berrios? .718). Kyle Gibson had results pretty consistent with Pablo Lopez. He had 2 fewer starts get that QS2 thumbs up than you'd expect for Lopez starting 30 games. Gibson is viewed as back end rotation arm. JP Sears also had results pretty similar to Lopez. I'm not sure how you view JP Sears as a starter, but I'm going to go ahead and say nobody views the guy as a mid/upper rotation option. Pablo Lopez's results last year were consistent with a lot of guys viewed as #3/4ish starters. They were not consistent with a pitcher you'd want at the front end of your rotation.

I gave samples that were relevant. Mixing in the other counts just makes the waters muddy because you have no idea how Jeffers got there.

There's a disconnect between acceptable for a #5, and what a team might actually just have to suck it up and eat. There were 71 pitchers in MLB who went at least 150 innings starting last year. Of those, only 10 had ERA's above 4.50. Less than 1/2 of them were expected to start the year in an MLB rotation. Mitch Spence a27 - 4.58 ERA, lost rotation job for the Athletics. Brandon Pfaadt a26 - 4.71 ERA, (3.61 FIP) made Diamondbacks rotation Austin Gomber a31 - 4.75 ERA, Rockies, shoulder injury, out. Frankie Montas a32 - 4.84 ERA, 2 year $17MM contract for Reds. Lat injury, out. Chris Flexen a30 - 4.95 ERA, MiLB contract with the Cubs. Griffin Canning a29 - 5.19 ERA, 1yr $4.25MM deal with Mets, IL replacement depth #6 in DC Miles Mikolas a36 - 5.35 ERA, Under 3yr contract at $18MM AAV Patrick Corbin a34 - 5.62 ERA, 1yr $1.1MM contract starting year in AAA IL replacement depth. Fans who believe 4.50 ERA is acceptable for a #5 aren't being realistic IMHO. 4.50 ERA is a fast ticket to the bullpen, the minors or totally out of MLB. Guys returning to the rotation from having an ERA at or above that breakpoint are pitching not because the team really wants them in the rotation, but because the team doesn't have any good options. This is about where the break points for a pitcher to be competitive and keep their jobs in my opinion 0.00-3.30 Ace 3.31-3.60 #2 3.61-3.90 #3 3.91-4.10 #4 4.11-4.30 #5

How low is this bar? Is it actually like a closet rod rolling on the ground? Paddack earned a DFA/release last year, but his contract prevented it.

International politics matters when the US is openly hostile with things like long standing economic and political sanctions on the proposed venue country. There's a difference between the view of the United States government diplomacy and businesses which operate in the United States.