bunsen82

If we want a better site, community ect., there are better ways to have dialogue, educate and come to either a common ground. Merely having understanding, allows for a better base, but the messaging has not created a situation in my opinion that has changed anyones opinion. Individuals can have differing opinions based on facts, circumstances and personal experiences. We need to get the vitriol out as whole. I do think those that our way out in left field can be somewhat called out, but also understand their perspective. What does a white business owner have a perception of african americans if his business has been burned down? Likely not very good. As a whole everyone needs to take calm down a bit, listen. Ultimately I home everyone takes more of an approach of Martin Luther King than Malcom X. Ultimately Kings approached caused a lot more change to occur, but we still need more progress.

Boy am I glad I didn't see this post for a couple days. Even still, a lot to unpack. 1. In general many individuals do not understand- the extent of racism, or things or symbols that could be construed as racist. To have an entire post focused on an individual player who is extremely young and not likely fully aware of past historical context is short sighted at best. 2. There are a few bad cops out there, there are a lot of good cops out there. Just like there are a lot of good protestors out there and there are also a few vandals, thieves, and individuals have extremely poor intentions that are merely looking for an excuse to violate the law with potentially getting away with it. 3. If we are looking for tolerance and understanding, there is better ways to try to educate and have conversations that calling out players, posters, admin ect. (This goes for all sides) 4. I have seen seen the posts stating african-american individuals are more prone to be targeted, injured killed ect than white individuals. There is truth to this, but it also doesn't paint the full picture. There is multiple reasons african-americans are only 3% of the population yet 30% of the incarcerated population. Its due to quality of education received, opportunities, generally lower incomes, not as many good role models readily available, and an important distinction- minimal financial resources to afford good attorneys. Watch the movie Just Mercy. Overall a very good summation of some of the issues and racism that is still occurring in this nation. How do you fix this, you invest time, energy and money to help create a better opportunity. It will not solve all the problems but it will allow individuals to be on a more equal footing for opportunities. 5. This is a pet peeve of mine, but I get frustrated with individuals on facebook or even posters hear who appear to feign outrage whether due to true feelings or merely to appear politically correct in the moment than actually doing something that will cause change. This includes putting in time, energy money and generally just being involved with minorities, or lower classed individuals. Then you will gain more appreciation for their circumstances by actually building relationships with those individuals but also allowing for lasting impacts in their lives. Otherwise this post will just be forgotten about in a week or two - just like the nations focus on the issue similar to the 2015 2016 black lives matter protests. What exactly did those protests acheive? From my perspective obviously minimal impact. 6. Lastly the epidemic allowed to create this tinderbox, due to creating more financial uncertainty for many individuals, putting minorities more at risk by dis proportionally putting them at risk by either working in factories that didn't have the resources or plans to protects them, and bringing to the forefront an issue that has continued to be an issue for this country as it has been since essentially this nation was formed.

I have found myself really going through the last years draft and have become very impressed with the strategy and appreciate it more that I did when the draft occurred. We have a had a few months to acquaint ourselves with some of the players and see some performances. This is a developmental draft by far, and the performance of Cavaco is going to determine a lot how good of a draft 2019 was. Even still I really think the Twins are on to something with their draft style, get a lot of hitters in the first 6-7 rounds, a pitcher or two sprinkled in, and then draft pitchers in the rest of the early to mid rounds, that 1st have good body types and at least 1 good pitch and the rest can be trained or learned. Also they are willing to draft injured players. For example, in a redraft Cody Laweryson would likely be drafted in the first 5 rounds now. He really is well put together and has extremely good stuff at the lower levels, but his stuff looks very projectable to me. If both Canterino and Laweryson pan out, along with a reliever like Dylan Thomas, this draft on the pitching side looks very good, and that doesn't include all the other pitchers drafted that really have a chance at succeeding. Regarding the bats the upside is very very good. Cavaco and Holland both have very high ceilings, whether the bat tools get there is questionable. Wallner is very projectable and appears to be at worst a solid mlb bad. Steer, Gray, Prato and Julien all look like they have the potential to be middle infielders or 3rd baseman. It would not surprise me at all if 6 of the players drafted make the big leagues with the possibility of a couple players if they hit being truly elite. Its going to take a few more years, but with some time removed and getting ready for spring training I am anticipating to see how some of the players perform this year.

We will know more after this season. I will admit Cavaco ceiling is high, and he was drafted high last year, but for me he is more like #15 and behind Walner and Canterino.

I think the front office was being risk averse. Graterol is a boom/bust prospect, they would have loved to have the success, but needed a more projectable positive performance and were able to get that from Maeda.

We can purchase someone else's comp pick and possibly a better comp pick and still be way ahead. The only issue is if the cash was always part of the deal because we are internally capped on salary and this was a way to pay for Maeda this year. My other theory is we use the 10 million to do an extension with Berrios (that would be pipe dream).

The issue is the Red Sox screwed the pooch on Graterol. I am guessing the Twins made sure everyone was aware that the Red Sox had destroyed his reputation, and also the Twins value merely to improve a deal they got flack on. I think the Dodgers wanting to get the deal through and not burn a bridge with the Twins ( and make the Red Sox look bad) took on Graterol. They have cash to burn which the 10 million is worth more than Raley and the pick. Essentially the Twins got a better deal than was previously reported unless cash was always supposed to be part of the deal. The Twins can buy someone elses comp pick before the draft to get back to whole or use cash to purchase other prospects in trades.

I am guess we give up two hitting prospects. Larnach or Rooker and another player. I would have no idea how high on the prospect list the second prospect is.

I ultimately think Gratoral goes to the Red Sox, I think he is still highly rated by the Red Sox, however as long as a deal gets done between the Red Sox and Dodgers even if it doesn't include us, I think we still get Maeda. The irony of that is we might actual get a better deal for the Twins as we will be trading from a surplus, likely our bats for a pitcher, rather than one of our top 3 or 4 current pitching prospects. The Dodgers currently do not have a starting pitcher spot for Maeda and view him as a surplus if they get Price. They still need to trade Maeda then. I still think the Twins value Maeda more than any other team and are interested in trading for him, and now our hitting prospects now come into play as the Dodgers are loaded on the pitching side. My guess is this all resolved by Tuesday. We will see.

Graterols upside is tempting, possible #1 starter, possible elite closer. We will like get 4 very good years of Maeda of #2 pitching quality. The issue is Graterol has just as much chance at flaming out. If his velocity decreases there is not much left to work with. The trade as previously constructed was fair. Its starts getting a little overdone if we have to add in another top 20 prospect. Although ultimately if its just a thrown in, no harm no foul. My gut feel this was all to put more pressure on the Red Sox to make a decision.

Lavelle waffles, says Twins are still in it. So much for sources. I do think the Twins are putting pressure on and saying this needs done ASAP or we are leaving.

Here is the biggest point that confirms what I believed before. According to Lavelle the Red Sox still want Graterol. They are just trying to get more return than they originally agreed to. My guess is there is nothing new in the medical record than what we already know. Right now, this really isn't hurting the Twins too much, although they need to keep Graterol in the loop, the Twins just need to stand their ground and let the Red Sox and Dodgers figure out their end, both of those teams do not want this trade to fall through.

I'm not saying the Dodgers aren't. However I fully disagree that the Red Sox are not making preliminary calls to other teams checking to see if prospects they like could possibly be thrown into the trade. It would be a divide and conquer strategy. The other issue is they cannot finalize a trade, but they could easily relay the information to the Dodgers to say, Hey I think the Marlins may be interested in getting involved and they would be willing to send us prospect A potentially for Maeda. Maybe this is an opportunity for us to resolve this trade.

First off you are naive to think that The Red Sox and Dodgers are not calling other teams to see what could possibly be had for Maeda. This is essentially a 3 team trade. If the Red Sox want player A, they may call up and say we need someone else to fill in for our trade, would you be interested in trading him to us? The current value is Maeda or ABC even though its from another team. Also it doesn't matter who calls who, and I never stated that in the above post. What I said is if Maeda is currently the piece to get another prospect, Graterol is the highest prospect that would eventually go to the Red Sox. I also believe the Red Sox still truly like Graterol they are just trying to get an extra piece to save face after getting roasted.

Graterol was the best return for Maeda for 2 reasons. One is I think the Twins value Maeda more than any other team, I think the Twins actually think they can make him into a solid number 2 and possibly a low end 1. Graterol has the highest upside of any pitcher that the red sox can get for Maeda, the issue is he has some previous health concerns, it was why they got him in the first place. My guess is the Twins will remain in, because based on everything I have seen the Red Sox still want Graterol. If thats the case The Red Sox, take the deal as is or get an extra throw in most likely from Dodgers, maybe from the Twins.

My guess is Duran is rated higher than Graterol in the Twins organization. If we are sending someone else it would be Thorpe if they want a starter now, with another prospect like Nick Gordon or another pitcher like Blake Enlow is my opinion.

My stance is this, Graterol is likely the highest ceiling pitcher that the Red Sox or Dodgers can get for Maeda. I think the Red Sox really want Graterol, they just got cold feet with the reception and are trying to save face. Whether a minor addition like a #40 prospect in are system is added in, I could care less but nothing more and see if the Red Sox cave. The Dodgers will not be added any of their top pitchers to the trade. As to the trade, we are trading with the Dodgers. We are not involved with the trade with the Red Sox so the tweet above means nothing in the grand scheme of things. We will see how much do the twins either really want to trade graterol and/or how much they really want maeda if they add an additional prospect.

The difference is the option value of the contract. Ryu has had much more injuries than Maeda. However if either one were to blow out an arm, with Ryu you are stuck, and pay the remainder of the contracts at 20 mill per a year plus some possible insurance recovery. With Maeda it is 3 million a year for the remaining years and you move on. Health wise I would rather have Maeda than Ryu, although I agree Ryu has outperformed Maeda up to this point when they have been on the field. Not to say that will continue in the future years.

I really like the trade. Others have stated why didn't the twins just get Ryu? The difference is if Maeda doesn't pan out with the Twins, the twins will not be on the hook for an additional 17 million per a year. The other is Maeda doesn't have quite the command an arsenal that Ryu had, but its actual pretty close, but his fastball is in the 92-95 range where Ryu is high 80's. There is a very real possibility Maeda has better stats the next 4 years than Ryu. The other is Maeda was handpicked for available pitchers. I don't think the Twins make the trade unless they think he will be a #2 pitcher for them or possibly a low end #1. If with tweaks Maeda can give us close to what Ryu gave to the dodgers last year, no one on the twins side is going to be complaining about the trade. As to trading graterol it was all about probabilities, I think the Twins thought his probability of being an elite stating pitcher is minimal. My guess is grateral is going to be worth 8-10 war over the next six years, tops. I think Maeda will average a 2-3 war at minimum over the next four years while significantly improving our chances this year. Thus an 8-12 War. We still have upside, but not the 20 to 30 War If Grateral pans out, but we also won't be missing anything if he flames out. Fair trade.

Normal inning except if you watched it. The groundout and flyout were rockets hit right at the defensive player. He did get out of an inning, but they were teeing up on him, they just didn't score any runs that inning, it could have gotten out of hand quick. If it was such a great inning, why wasn't he left out for a another? If his health was decent, he would have a contract. He is obviously considered damaged goods at this point. Not to say he can't come back, but the writing appears to be on the wall. His only advantage is that he is young.

I wouldn't call what he did coming back pitching. He pitched a single inning and barely was able to get through that. Hopefully his arm and shoulder have strengthened after the off season, but I mentioned in a previous post, if he was fully healthy he would be signed to a 1 + 1 contract. Healthy, he has much more upside than someone like Martin Perez, when he can't even get a Martin Perez prove it deal, there are some serious concerns about the arm. I would like for him to sign a minor league deal and see what he has, but most likely his career is effectively done.

I tried to post this earlier. The Twins would obviously be the best choice if all he has are non roster offers, however you would have to think he can get a deal even for 2-3 million from a cheap organization looking for a bargain. Even Martin Perez was able to get that deal out of us last year, and then have a 6 million deal this year. Makes you question if his arm is cooked.

Josh Donaldson was a 6.1 WAR last year, with minimal protection behind him. He had the likes of Nick Markakis and Brian McCann hitting behind him. If you say he has slight regression this year, and he has a 5 War. That 1st year he was worth 40 million. He will only need 6.5 War to make the contract worth it although his worth will be slightly front loaded. Here is my guess on WAR value 2020 - 5.8 2021 - 4.5 2022 - 3.9 2023 - 3.2 2024 - 2.5 That is 19.9 WAR. Donaldson's issue I believe will be staying healthy. If he can stay healthy he will put up the numbers. In my simulation he would be worth $160 million. And by the way the last years value would be $20 million. As long as he has gradual regression the contract will be success. If he is continually injured he will fall off a cliff. The advantages are he will be playing on a real field not turf, we can load manage him, we can give days off at DH or just rest days. To me the risk is minimal with Donaldson.

My stance is this, the advantage the Twins have now is they don't have to do anything. They can stand pat. However, I will laud management that they always do look at ways to improve the team. If an opportunity arose for a player they deem to be a top 10 pitcher, whether that has been their history or the analytics say the pitcher can be a top 10 pitcher, they can do that trade. Or they can wait until the deadline to see what is available.

One other note, I can only imagine that Donaldson will likely see better pitches this year or will have better batters behind him that what he saw last year. From a couple lineups I saw it appears he was batting cleanup with either Brian Mccann or Nick Markakis following him in the 5 spot. He will have a much better hitter than either of those two hitting behind him in the twins lineup.