Road trip

I mean, if cost doesn't matter, sure, I'd love Snell. But if they get him on August 1 he is still owed $10 million for the duration of the year, which the Twins claim they won't/can't spend. And then there is next year's $30 million if he doesn't opt out. The Giants are only 3 games out of the NL Wildcard so they aren't exactly in sell mode yet. To talk them into it they will want....idk, 2 of the top 5 prospects in the system, plus a major league ready player like SWR? Snell is great when healthy, but he's caviar for a family on a meatloaf budget.

I wouldn't advocate this every year, but this year I think they need to roll with the players they have. The busted TV deal and poor start (at least relative to Cleveland) led to lower attendance which leads to even lower revenue which means they can't even afford the players they have next year. Can't/shouldn't be sellers with a playoff contending team. Can't/shouldn't trade low-cost youngsters for a high quality rental when you need those youngsters next year after the Twins shed payroll yet again. Beyond the can'ts/shouldn'ts above, the FO doesn't have a great track record exchanging prospects for rentals... and that is putting it kindly. Grit your teeth, hope the existing players get/stay healthy, hope the youngsters and a few underperforming vets improve, and hope you somehow catch fire in October. That's a lot of hope, and hope really shouldn't be a plan, but I don't see a lot of good alternatives unless you want to mortgage the future for a shot this year with a somewhat flawed team and very flawed organizational approach to increasing revenue (i.e., the broken tv deal).

A good gig if you can get it. Kinda like a 3rd string NFL QB. Collect salary, hold the clip board, stay awake, endure boredom.... until those fleeting moments of sheer terror when you suddenly realize you may have go into the game. 😁 Actually, I'm sure Camargo woke up this morning hoping he would be in the lineup somewhere..

Buxton not in the lineup again. Hope he is ok. That wall crash Friday looked a little rough.

Yunior may not be in the doghouse, so much as Yunior is not considered to be a reliable glove at 2b or 3b at this point in time. Right now they rather desperately need an infielder who hits right handed (because lefty on lefty matchups are an abomination, I guess), and Yunior has mostly been playing 1b at AAA. It makes me think the Twins have decided his glove just won't play at 3b or 2b, even though he has played there a lot in the past. I think his glove has always been rated as shaky, at best. Castillo is a placeholder. Looks like he will give the Twins adequate defense and likely won't hit much, but he probably is only on the MLB squad until someone comes off the IL, and perhaps not that long. He can then be removed from the 40 man when a spot is needed.

2nd base is pretty much the last position I would move Lewis to. Although sliding hard to break up double plays is no longer part of the game, 2nd base remains a position where there is greater injury risk. It requires significant nimbleness, lateral speed, and range, which isn't really Lewis's strength. Lewis has plenty of arm for 3b. IF he has to move off of 3b, it probably would mean going to the OF (assuming Correa is at SS for a while). Brooks Lee looked like a gold glove player at 2b yesterday. He's sneaky athletic, much more so than his body type appears. I'd have no concern playing him anywhere in the infield, so if 2b is open he will be great there.

So, not an MLB move, but an interesting one. Twins signed Wynton Benard to a AAA contract. Who is Wynton Benard? A right handed hitting center fielder with good speed, and frankly a pretty decent AAA hitter. He was briefly at MLB with the Rockies in 2022, but has spent most of the past half decade at AAA for more organizations than I wanted to count, waiting for a chance. He's neither young nor a prospect, but he has options and can be stashed at AAA and called up and then sent back whenever needed. Basically, he's Buxton insurance.... or just maybe a 4th/5th outfielder if you absolutely positively feel the need to carry a platoon guy for the lefties. It's entirely possible we never see him put on a Twins uniform.... but he does provide a kind of security blanket for a FO that likes to stash depth. It could, just possibly, mean that the FO is preparing to trade one of the current outfielders.

I guess, if I try to look for a strategy behind it, Vazquez at DH instead of catcher allows Rocco to easily pull Vazquez for Larnach/Wallner/whomever the moment a rhp enters the game for the Giants. But yeah... Vazquez at DH is just a strange move.

Cruz was great, but it was $39 million for 3 years, where he produced 8.4 WAR (a stat that in this case perhaps doesn't measure his total worth to the Twins organization, as he clearly had a mentoring role for some other young players). Add in that the Twins flipped him in a trade for Ryan, and yes, to be certain it was a great signing. Castro has thus far cost a measly $5.1 million for 2 years, and has accumulated a coincidentally matched 5.1 WAR so far through 1.5 years of play. From an ROI standpoint, this was an even better signing.

Castro is a strong candidate for the best free agent signing for the Twins in recent history, especially if measured in terms of return on (a very small) investment.

What's real is his total OPS for the year, not an arbitrary June 1 to July 3, which you conveniently cut off before his 1 for 13 streak since July 3. Oh, and he was a below average fielder and hitter last year too. Last year we watched the FO hang on to Joey Gallo for far too long. It's a pattern at this point, holding on to veterans who are past their prime. Gallo at least contributed a very low .5 WAR for the year. It will take a minor miracle for Margot to get to 0 WAR because his defense is far worse than Gallo's was. Unfortunately better players will be sent to the minors soon enough so that Margot can stay.... likely the moment Austin Martin comes off the IL. While Martin also has his flaws, he's young enough to have upside and he's been better than Margot this year.

My takeaway is that while there were some brutal stretches of play, overall it was a pretty decent 1st half for the Twins. 13 games over .500 just before the All Star break? Yeah, I would have taken that back on April 1. Can't help the crazy hot 1st half for Cleveland, although part of the blame falls on the Twins who played poorly vs the Guardians. Cleveland might last, might not, but at least the Twins project to make the playoffs. Enough of the young players are hitting and improving, mostly, even if there are some disappointments like Kirilloff. That's good and needed because the vets we have are already at their performance ceiling, and for some the ceiling isn't very high. Injuries have hurt, but that's a league-wide problem and at least they haven't yet affected starting pitching where the Twins have very limited depth. But the starting pitching.... yeah, we need Pablo to find his 2023 form. Without that it is hard to envision significant playoff success unless the offense just catches fire in October.

Yet still better than Gladden doing play by play, after only 2 game of experience. 😉 I actually kind of enjoyed having Span in the booth with Morneau. They had a good rapport.

Couple of nice defensive plays in the 9th by some guys that aren't known for their gloves.

Well, maybe Lee can get on base to start the 9th. Only 2 guys hitting today and Wallner is 2nd man up.

It's not new. He was a good outfielder for years but the drop off showed up in the stats already least year. Year Age Tm Pos Lg G GS CG Inn Ch PO A E DP Fld% Rtot Rdrs Rtot/yr Rdrs/yr RF/9 RF/G lgFld% lgRF9 lgRFG Award 9 Seasons OF 802 678 572 6216.0 1630 1591 18 21 2 .987 53 36 10 6 2.33 2.01 .986 2.12 2.10 2023 28 TBR CF AL 55 49 44 435.1 104 100 1 3 0 .971 -8 -5 -22 -14 2.09 1.84 .990 2.54 2.51 2023 28 TBR RF AL 43 32 28 299.1 70 70 0 0 0 1.000 1 2 4 8 2.10 1.63 .987 2.17 2.14 2024 29 MIN OF AL 70 37 19 394.2 92 90 0 2 0 .978 -2 -5 -6 -15 2.05 1.29 .988 2.29 2.26 2024 29 MIN LF AL 45 9 6 171.1 37 35 0 2 0 .946 -2 -2 -17 -14 1.84 0.78 .987 2.07 2.04 2024 29 MIN RF AL 32 24 10 185.0 41 41 0 0 0 1.000 1 -2 7 -13 1.99 1.28 .986 2.14 2.11 2024 29 MIN DH AL 6 1 2024 29 MIN CF AL 5 4 3 38.1 14 14 0 0 0 1.000 -1 -1 -18 -31 3.29 2.80 .990 2.65 2.62 I didn't paste all of his early years when he was very good. Look at the very bad rtot and rdrs numbers the last two years, yet he still has positive #s for his career totals. The FO must have thought 2023 was an aberration... but it wasn't. He appears to be in steep decline mode, at least on defense.

Indeed. It seems an obvious solution, but Lee has yet to play an inning at 2b for the Twins, which is where so many of us had him penciled in. Perhaps there is a reluctance to ask him to play too many defensive positions this early in his MLB career. He has certainly been great at the plate, but I don't really recall Lee being tested yet by a difficult defensive play.

So, as a regular Wallner advocate, I actually agree with this. We don't know. Perhaps he can make adjustments, perhaps not. We can't know until he gets those few hundred MLB at bats. Right now he has 300. Let's give him a run of another 200-300 to see what we have? Thus far, its a career OPS+ of 131. Pretty good. Like, only Royce Lewis has a better career number on this squad (unless you want to count Brooks Lee). Wallner (and also Martin) is a completely different case than say.... Margot, because we have enough data to know exactly what Margot is. 2791 career MLB at bats and an OPS+ of 91. His hot June is just a tiny data point in his career at this juncture. Margot didn't suddenly figure out MLB pitching in June, any more than he completely forgot how to hit back in April. Now if Margot was still fast and could play CF, or even was an above average corner outfielder, well you could live with a below average bat. But he isn't, and yet this "platoon bat" has played more games in the OF than any other Twin this year (what a depressing statistic). He will be 30 before the end of the year. He will spend the remainder of his career as a placeholder at best. That's fine if your squad has places that need holding, but when Martin and Lewis come back from the IL the Twins need to free up some places to at least give the team a chance to improve.

I'm with you on preferring Wallner, and have been waiting somewhat impatiently since late June. If we are going to ignore April and May for Margot as many seem to want to do, can we not do the same for Wallner? Oh wait, we don't have to. Including the horrific April for Wallner, 2024 slash lines - .167/.333/.433 OPS+ 116 .2 WAR vs Margot .235/.302/.335 OPS+ 81 -.7 WAR There will come a time, hopefully quite soon, when Lewis and Martin are healthy and there will be a roster crunch. Not much question in my mind who needs to stay if these lines continue.

Indeed. But people are going to gripe and look for someone(s) to blame when things don't go well. I think the griping has decreased somewhat in recent weeks as the play has improved. As a fan base we are processing several relatively new realities, and change is hard. These new realities would include: 1. Players spending far more time on the injured list compared to a decade or two ago (this is a league-wide issue, but it is always more noticeable on the team you follow closely). This has led to the perception that the FO has signed/traded for injury-prone players. This is true, but so has everyone else. 2. Scoring being down dramatically compared to just a few years ago (which leads to the perception that the FO/Rocco can't evaluate and develop hitters, or that they pursue too many platoon bats in a desperate attempt to squeeze out extra runs). 3. The advent of the analytic/corporate Manager, vs the traditional Billy Martin/Earl Weaver/Lou Pinella passionate yeller-screamer. This is also a league-wide trend. If Rocco were fired tomorrow, the Twins would almost certainly hire a similar type of manager. It isn't, however, what many older fans are accustomed to. 4. The failed TV deal...which has just generally pissed off everyone in the Twins home territory, and for good reason. Overall, I'm content to slightly disappointed in this year's team. Things are trending upward, and perhaps the Twins really are the 6th best team as determined by FanGraphs. The problem is that it seems like there is a very wide gap between the very top teams (Yankees, Baltimore) and the Twins at #6. I've very much enjoyed seeing some of the youngsters progress (SWR, Miranda, and now Lee). Development is key for this franchise... gotta roll the dice on the kids because the Twins have almost never spent big $s, and certainly won't this year.

I've been sort of pleasantly surprised by Larnach this year, as my expectations for him had become quite low after last year. I still view him as sort of a high floor/low ceiling kind of player. There is value in that, but I'll be stunned if he ever becomes a star. Maybe he has a 25 HR season in him, but more likely is he gives the Twins an adequate or better platoon bat, sort of adequate corner outfield defense, and slightly below average base running. Kind of sounds like Randy Bush, for those of us who remember the 1980s? There is value in that kind of player, but I have a hard time penciling him in as a long term every day starter at LF or DH.

WAR is an incomplete story, agreed. It is hard to say what Steer or Enc-Strand would have done with the Twins. However it is also incomplete in another way... Steer is likely going to double or triple his current WAR going forward, as he looks like a long term part of the Reds plans. Thus, this trade will only look worse with time..

While I agree that Varland is more likely a bullpen candidate than future rotation depth, I think it is way too early to determine a "solid no" on Festa. His underlying metrics weren't nearly as bad as his results (for example: 8 to 1 SO/W). Any organization unwilling to give young starters more than 2 starts will almost never be able to develop a starting pitcher. Sending Festa down now for further development is appropriate, but I certainly expect to see him get another opportunity this year or next.

Santana is 38, played nearly every game in June, and is on an 0 for 12 streak. Doesn't hit right handers nearly as well as lefties. Early day game after a night game. He likely needs a day off. Logical time to give him a break.

Very glad to see him get his chance. Hope he adjusts to MLB pitching and is up for good. Not quite certain where he is going to fit defensively. He's played SS almost exclusively in the minors. I know we have all been thinking of him as a future 2B guy... but he has played a grand total of 3 games there. 3B is really no better, with a dozen games played at that spot. Maybe they'll just DH him? It's asking a lot of him to learn to play new positions at the MLB level. With Correa entrenched at SS it's a little odd to me that he wasn't moved around the infield more often to prepare him for alternatives.