bunsen82

I thought we were supposed to be demoting prospects today, not adding new ones. Although I am really excited about this one. I am not sure he is going to let the Twins send him back.

My definition of a successful season will be much different than most and it has nothing to do with win/loss records. Its ultimately as an organization do they continue to improve the talent in the organization. This is from coaching and acquiring more talent through draft, trades, ect. So for me ideally I would like to see Correa do really well and get traded at the deadline. I want Lewis to continue to do well and earn the SS position on the big league team. If they can trade some of their short term pitching for something useful I would be ok with that as well. Sanchez we will likely have to keep as we really do not have a back up catcher.

Did this trade exclude us from signing Rogers next year? Has the regime paid for any legitimate relief pitcher in the last 5 years, I have only seen scrap heap additions. They have no plans to sign Rogers in the offseason is my guess. They don't spend their money on pitching period. They will use contracts on position players and are trying to draft to develop a pipeline for the pitchers. They have had to supplement this with some trades. This is my observation of the last couple years.

The contract will be rip up so Boras can get all the fees, he is currently splitting them with the previous agent. This is a 1 year deal. If Correa wants a long term deal with the Twins he will have to instruct Boras to take a team friendly deal. Will Correa do that- it doesn't make since with what happened in Houston and switching agents, it made Correa look like he was all about the money. However, maybe he really does enjoy it in Minnesota. The question is at what price would he be willing to make it work. The second is would the Twins even consider it with Lewis coming up the pipeline?

This all comes down to the time horizon. We lost a closer for 1 year. He was likely gone after this year anyway. I had this discussion with my uncle the other day discussing Correa and this years prospects. I would be thrilled if the Twins keep Correa all year and the twins are doing well, and then they use some lower level prospects to possibly get a closer more bullpen help. Falvey and Levine are looking at have this team competitive not for 1 year stints, but a continuous level of competitiveness. That means being willing to trade a closer on the last year of his contract for another decent reliever and a starter that can give you 3 years of very good value. This trade will likely go down as one of the best trades for the Twins is my guess. I will also be drinking my coffee watching Twinsdaily lose its **** the day they trade Correa, because again he is a valuable asset. The odds he is traded is 75% is my guess. The only way he isn't is we are one of the top 1-2 teams in the A.L.

Value, Value, Value. That is the mantra of this front office. Paddack and Pagan have the same WAR that Rogers has had this year, with Rogers pitching extremely well. A mid rotation to a #2 starter is worth much more than a very good relief pitcher, and that is no knock on Rogers. Forget the fact that this is for 3 years of Paddack and 2 for Pagan for 1 of Rogers and that is nothing to say of the other minor leaguer we got in the deal. Paddack had no spot in San Diego after they traded for Manea and their plethora of starting pitching. With more refined coaching and developing a third pitch, we are seeing the results. Now if we continue to do well we will need to trade for a couple relievers to strengthen the bullpen.

I am still preparing to sell Correa :). Just need his bat to heat up to MVP level status to get maximum value.

FYI speaking of Cruz, the end of last year and this year, it is looking like father time is catching up to Cruz. His stats have dropped precipitously, especially this year even though its a small sample size.

I think your characterization of Julien isn't quiet accurate. He was the #88 prospect for fangraphs and the #177 for MLB. Essentially he was viewed as anywhere from a 3rd to 5th round draft pick. What happened is he dropped and dropped and then the Twins took a shot in the dark in the 18th round. What happened was he went bonkers in the college world series, don't remind him of the overthrow that cost Auburn a game. With saving some money in earlier rounds, Julien signed as essentially a 4th to 5th round draft pick. He has always had talent and a power bat, the question was his overall hit tool and what would be his defensive position. Now I think the odd thing is he was viewed as more of a plodder- which has been the exact opposite. The twins bulked up on middle infield and corner infield slots in the 2019 draft - for some reason I have made that draft a key point of interest for myself. Everyone seemed to be so upset with the draft, yet when you really started to dig into it you realized they picked up a lot of kids with a lot of talent. Currently there is something like 20 players from that draft still in the minors and many of them in the top 40 prospect lists. I will continue to watch and see how many make it to the big leagues.

I only listened and watched updated on espn. The version of Paddack we saw last night shows why you always trade a reliever straight up for SP if they are of decent ability. You are getting 6 innings of production vs 3 per a week, and it is much more difficult to pitch 5-6 consecutive innings than 1 at a time. Paddack and Pagan's WAR is the exact same as Rogers, with really only 1 really good start from Paddack. Paddack in 3 starts is starting to look like a really solid addition. If we can get 5-6 innings with a pitcher with 3-4 pitches that can throw up to 94-95 mph, that is a huge upside. As much as I love Rogers, this looks like a trade that will turn out very favorably for the Twins. Even still I think it was a good trade for the Padres. This was a trade good for both teams primarily due to each teams roster construction and the twins ability to improve Paddack, due to better pitch mix and likely facing easier hitters.

Quote, are you surprised to know that April 2017 was an extremely warm year. As the temperatures go, so does Sano. I wonder if he is just uncomfortable with the colder temps along with the fly balls not traveling as far. In either case this is likely the last year for Sano in a Twins uniform.

The issue is the Twins went into the deal with a 1 year or 1/2 year mindset. This was to give Lewis more time, and Lewis looks very very good. I like Correa, I actually think he has played really well and brings a calm leadership to the Twins, but with Lewis coming up the pipeline this is just not a likely proposition unless Correa likes it so well he makes a sweetheart deal. With Boras as his agent the odds of that are slim to none. Then you would likely have to trade Lewis. So effectively you have a player who even though I think has played well, isn't playing up to the contract and is slightly worried the money won't be there if these stats keep up (I think he will warm up in a big way). I also think he genuinely likes it in Minnesota (other than the cold temps- although he hasn't experienced a true Minnesota winter). I would actually like a long term contract in the 22 million range for 6-7 years. If he is willing to add 3-4 more years for an additional 45-60 million on the contract it would be interesting.

Buxton is one of the top 5 talents in the game, when he is available. Remaining healthy continues to be the major issue with Buxton. This ferrari continues to need regular maintenance and rest to maintain its optimal performance. We will continue to watch for any slaps on the ground or yells in frustration on the next awkward slide, slamming into the wall, diving to catch a ball or just running. Even Buxton is showing frustration with his injury history. That aside, if Buxton continues to be healthy, and Correa starts to turn the corner which I think he is, the top 3 of Buxton, Arreaz and Correa is going to cause a lot of damage this year. With OBP of near 400 from those 3 players is going to be something to watch. They will set the table for Polanco and whoever else decides to step up and make contact and clear the bases for this team. The bats will continue to warm up especially with those 3 continuing to put pitchers in difficult spots.

I honestly think Johnson is a very good coach, he won’t hit on all of them. I also have a bit of a worry Bundy may turn into Martin Perez 2.0. The only difference is he has more pitches and seems to be an overall better pitcher. Batters will likely begin to figure him out a bit. Even still, the pitching talent is drastically better than years past. Wes has much better clay to mold that what he started with or even last year after things fell apart. As to the bullpen, I honestly think if they have a decent shot, that is when they will begin to build it up similar to a couple years ago even though one of those trades failed miserably. I still think the plan is for next year and beyond but these last 3 games have been entertaining even if they have been against an undermanned white Sox team.

So is this our new closer with shades of the past, every day Emilio? Gives me the same type of heart burn with similar results.

Did you read the first part of the sentence, he could wash out due to control issues? Yes he is a live arm, yes I am doing some projection, even still the current pitching program seems to be doing very well at developing these pitchers, and also seeing traits they like they can work on. He was extremely young for these leagues. Stating he has control issues is a bit of a misnomer. I wish the kid well.

This seems like an overpay by the padres, but for the padres to get under the salary cap and get cash, and Roger’s they felt it was worth it. Honestly this was a good trade for both teams. The padres are a legit WS team and Rogers helps them on that front. Pagan can be serviceable for the twins, and Paddack looks like assuming he can remain healthy the twins will be able to tweak him to be an above average pitcher. Medina has all the talent in the world, but is obviously still raw and has some command issues. Now he could bust out due to command issues, but his floor appears to be a reliever, or possibly a middle tier starter if he can develop a third pitch. That is awfully good for a ptbnl. The twins continue to improve their pipeline.

I could see Rogers affecting 1 game, maybe 2 but Duffy is likely still given opportunities to blow a game, and we would still have the same outcome.

Eh, I am not going to let some early season slow bats affect what I am seeing. What I do see is that we have some decent Starting pitching. If Paddack can continue to improve and give us this type of performance, we win the trade by a large margin. You get a #3 type pitcher for 1 year of a reliever, you take it every day of the week. Buxton is a game changer, we need him back. As to the rest of the team, I will give Correa a pass. When the team is constructed for a long ball game, and it is cold and windy, you won't do well generally. As the temps warm up I do expect the bats to get better. Urshela looks decent and honestly Sanchez is better than I expected. I am still looking at a slightly less than .500 team. But I didn't come into this season with lofty goals.

Isolated a few batters may cool off, but as a whole the minor league system depth but also top level prospects are doing very well. Whatever you may think Falvine and Levine are doing at the mlb level what they have done to improve our pipeline is a massive improvement. My observation has been they will make moves that can improve the team at the MLB level they will, and they aren’t afraid to make trades but for now it is only for the long play or the future. That includes the Correa signing especially if they trade him at the deadline which is my baseline. Correa has time but needs to start playing better defense and his bat needs to wake up for this to come to fruition. All said it was fun night of baseball in the minor league system.

I think the PTBNL will be a much lower prospect than what was being discussed above. If we can get any of those players it will be a major win for the twins affectively in my mind. Paddack has a lot more value than most realize and similar to what the twins did in effectively salary dumping Donaldson, the Padres were willing to do it to get under the salary cap threshold. Otherwise I don't think they would do it. Their maneuvers just like what we did with the trades that gave us the cap relief to sign Correa, greatly helped this year performance and excitement, but just like us there is no long term value in the 2 trades the Padres did for Manea and Rogers. It helps them win now, unless they want to flip them at the deadline. Paddack on the other hand is on long term contract and has much more potential value as starter than even Rogers as a closer. We used cash to essentially to buy Paddack, and then added in a little extra to get them under the salary line. That extra will be what determines the PTBNL, The fact is we just don't know how much money that was. My guess is it is closer to the 1.5 million range as suggested in other posts.

There is not much to be concerned about this early in the season. My guess is Duffy won't be given the next chance. Honestly I bet they will try Pagan, see how he does if not pass it on to Alcala or Duran. Duffy just doesn't quite have it going right now. Every single hit seemed to be hit hard. Its 1 game. Honestly I don't expect us to contend, mainly 500 ball but I do want to see better situational hitting. We have to be able to get more hits. It may be early in the season but we have a lot of swing and miss players out there right now.

They wouldn't consider it unless they thought they could flip him at the deadline. There just isn't much value there.

As an aside Palacios if he makes it to the big leagues is a very interesting case for the Twins, You trade him for Odorizzi and then he struggles in the Rays system he comes back to the twins and it is as if he never left and he really played well last year. If Correa gets injured or traded this year, Palacios will likely be the fill in unless we are willing to pass on the mantle to Lewis.

Ashbury, this has been the storyline since he was drafted. A five tool player that had played 3rd base but that the Twins would try at SS. Most pundits still thought he was a 3rd base candidate. The other thing is go look at him now, he is really starting to fill out. If you can find an elite player at 3rd for the 13th pick you do it. However, the twins were taking a chance on him, he has a really low floor if his hit tool doesn't come around. Your other choice for SS at the time was Bryson Stott - who is now up for the Phillies as a 3rd baseman. Now Cavaco can still be a SS but even on his team you now have Noah Miller at shortstop. I do think there will always be someone a little better than Cavaco for defense at SS. Stott is 3 years olders and would have Miranda competing him with him for the next couple years if he was with the twins. Now lets see where he it becomes interesting even with a lost year. He is known for being a professional. He works extremely hard and his body shows it. He had some rough spots last year but really improved. This year he has come in and to me looks like a different player from where he was before. His swing is much better, and he still has all the athleticism- his ceiling is ultimately higher than a player like Stott even though the odds he reaches it is much less, but based on what I have seen and read about him this year makes him a very intriguing player down the road. SS is still going to be where we will continue to hope to develop. You hope Lewis can be the man, and then we are building up the depth. You have Lewis, Palacios (probably the most ready player) in AAA, You have Martin in AA with not much else, Javier and Holland at High A and then Miller in A ball. Holland unless the hit tool suddenly improves drastically is not likely going to be able to progress. Good defense and speed will only get you so far.