arby58

You'll always have more at bats against right handed pitchers, as there are more of them. 108 at bats over what are parts of two seasons isn't 'scattered' - it is 20 percent of his at bats to date. Why do you think he will get any better at it? Larnach hasn't, and he's had far more at bats.

In MLB, he's got 108 PAs versus left handed pitching. He has a .144 BA, .510 OPS with 43 Ks. He hasn't shown any ability at the MLB level to perform against LHP. MiLB numbers don't mean anything until you prove it against big league pitching, and Wallner hasn't proven it.

You only have so many spaces for left-handed hitters, unless they can show they are capable of hitting left handed pitching. For Larnach and Wallner, that has not been proven.

That's two big ifs - but since they are all left-handed hitters, . . .

Wallner's ceiling is higher, so I'd trade Larnach. Agree it's unlikely to be happening, though.

Chourio played 6 games in AAA.

This is what is known as cherry picking.

They did win. Jones has three Super Bowl titles, and even lacking recent success, he is 16-15 in the play-offs. For all the Vikings love directed at Zigi Wilf (and I do like him), the Vikings play-off record since he has owned the team is 4-8 with no Super Bowl appearances. Davis also won a Super Bowl - not so much for the Vikings. So yeah, I'll trade some ownership meddling for a Super Bowl for the Vikings or a World Series title for the Twins.

While I agree in spirit, I would also note that all three won the Super Bowl or World Series during their reign.

The Twins lease has a non-relocation clause that is effective through 2039. Seems highly unlikely that a new owner who wants to relocate the franchise would be buying now to relocate in 15 years.

My take on the 7: Boswell was good, not great. Chance: 3 years, even if 2 were exceptional, isn't enough to qualify. Erickson and Grant: mostly remember for one really great year. Just as Roger Maris isn't in the baseball HOF, I wouldn't put these two in the Twins HOF. Golz: This is a tough one. There are currently 9 pitchers in the Twins HOF: Blyleven, Viola, Aguilera, Radke, Perry, Pascual, Guardado, Santana, and Nathan. Probably the best comparison is to Radke, who was 148-139 in his career, entirely with the Twins. He had 1 20-win season, 1 time All Star and 3rd in Cy Young voting his 20-win season. He had a career WAR of 45.3. Golz was 113-109 in his career, the first 8 years with the Twins, and his production fell off after that. He also had 1 20-win season and was 6th in Cy Young balloting that year. Golz' career WAR, though, was only 23.1. I think there are more worthy candidates. Perkins was only middling as a starter, but he was the Twins' closer for four years, and he was an All Star in three of them, putting up over 30 saves in each of those years. His WAR is not impressive (8.9), but he had 4 excellent years as a closer and another very good year as a starter. Reardon is a tough call because he was only a Twin for three years. Yes, he was fabulous in 1987 as the closer on a World Championship team, but there are already plenty of players from that team in the Twins HOF. For me, another 'small sample size' contestant. Worthington: Last six years as Twins closer, including the 1965 World Series team. I'm old enough to remember him, and five of those six years were really good - in an era where closers were not valued the way they are now. You can line his stats up with the other relievers in this class, and he looks good. His WAR over those five excellent years was 10.2. By contrast, Reardon's three years produced a cumulative WAR of 4.4, and Perkins 5 years as a closer was 7.5. My picks: Worthington clear number 1, Perkins gets a not-as-clear number 2.

From the end of the 2023 season through the start of 2024, the Twins traded Jorge Polanco, Noah Miller, Nick Gordon, Niko Goodrum and Matt Bowman. Which of these was 'needed players?'

It's becoming clear that baseball needs to do something ala the NBA, where there isn't a salary cap, but there are limitations on teams (and not just a luxury tax) that go over certain player salary thresholds.

The Twins are one year removed from winning a play-off series and being competitive with the team that made it to the World Series. While I'm not optimistic about next year, the suggestion that they're never competitive is myopic.

The pitching pipeline last year provided more arms because it was a necessity. The same thing could happen with position players. MLB says the Twins top three prospects (Jenkins, Rodriguez, Keaschall) are all position players. Keaschall looks ready, and the other two aren't that far behind. I might trade Duran but wouldn't give up any of their top three starters.

Not for the minor league portion of the draft, which is what he was referring to.

It's not that bad. No Twins pitcher had an at bat in 2024, and they did use Jeffers as the DH in 34 games.

Again, this is one use per game, so the potential impact on statistics is pretty small. For that matter, you could make part of the rule that the Golden At Bat does not count for statistical purposes, if that is the deal breaker. Question: how exactly does the DH 'return the game to its roots?' Answer: it does not. As Heraclitus noted, 2,500 years ago, the only constant is change.

You can certainly take the 'what ifs' out of the equation within the rule. They did that with the DH - situations where the DH plays in the field and the pitcher then has to bat. I don't have a problem with the Witt situation described, but if that is the 'deal breaker' you could make it so that a player who is on base cannot be the Golden Bat. The 'hit too many homeruns' nonsense is the fallacy of absurdity.

I assume this could only be used once a game, so some of the concerns seem a bit hyperbolic. Tradition dies hard - the DH altered the fundamental fabric of the game as much or more than this, and baseball life went on. I find this less artificial than the runner on second base in extra innings - and it may well lead to less extra innings games. Bottom of the ninth, tie game situations, with the bottom of the order coming up could get potentially a lot more interesting.

Dodgers are reportedly signing him for 5 years, $182 million. Yeah, the Twins had a real shot at that one...

Please don't use Arraez as a positive comparison. Yes, Arraez hits for a high BA. His offensive contributions pretty much stop there. He was fourth in MLB in BA last year but could only manage a 1.1 WAR. He doesn't get many extra base hits, he doesn't run well, and as a result doesn't score many runs. He also has little value defensively. Jenkins will be better than that in every category but BA.

Newsflash: Dobnak can leave now - and he could have left last year. Why does he stick around? There are three million reasons, and he's not getting that contract elsewhere.

Larnach has had 958 career AB and produced a 3.2 cumulative WAR with 35 HR and an OPS of .726. Wallner has about half as many ABs (490), has produced a 4.2 WAR with 29 HR and an OPS of .866. Wallner is also a better outfielder and runner. Yes, he strikes out a lot, but he also crushes the ball when he makes contact. I'll take that over a spray hitter, especially considering the other factors.

No way they are going to burn a year (both of development and control) to have Emma as a fourth outfielder. If/when he comes up, he's going to play every day. Granted, Buxton's health is always an issue, and there is also the DH spot - but I also doubt they want to turn a 21 year old into a regular DHer.