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etwink

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Everything posted by etwink

  1. etwink
    Sorry, this is million dollar negotiating by billion dollar teams, there is no “fair”, you can’t call “no back-sies” and only the bottom line matters. This is a business. The injury report nonsense is what generally happens behind closed doors or over the phone; the only difference here is that the Red Sox did it out in public and the Twins were unfortunately affected. That is the issue here, not whether the result is “fair” or not. I’m pretty sure that the same people who have liked the Maeda trade would still have liked it if the final trade had been the initial trade - Graterol, Raley and a 3rd Rnd pick for Maeda, a lottery catching prospect and cash. Works for me anyway. Finally, Graterol is going to make, or not make, big money based on his his PERFORMANCE, not on a doctor’s report that may or may not be accurate. How many guys come up with injury concerns only to prove them wrong? Graterol has an opportunity to do that. The Dodgers know how to develop pitchers and he’ll get the opportunity.
  2. etwink
    I think everyone needs to relax about the Trout comp. Howie has already said it wasn’t backed up with data. Having said that, this does seem like a high ranking, but the kid has had about 5 minutes of pro experience and anyone who has read these rankings over the years know that toolsy guys are pushed up the rankings regardless of their stats, at least until they get to AA and flame out....or turn the corner.
  3. etwink
    Ok, I’ll bite and play the (uncommon for me) role of optimist. Do the Twins have a single undeniable stud starter? No. Do they have a bunch of guys in the bullpen who have established themselves enough to be sure locks for 2020? No. Do they even have Maeda? Not now. Have the Twins assembled a reliable, and potentially dominant, bullpen and a starting staff that is competitive and competent, and with a nearly guaranteed to be dominant lineup might have the chance to make noise in the playoffs? Yes.
  4. etwink
    Trade is expected to be official today, per sources. We’ll all find out whether we’ve another solid rotation piece or keep our solid bullpen piece!
  5. etwink
    I’m not sure what the concern is. $400K is literally nothing compared to the money he will command. We can make it up with an extra half-mil on top of a five-year $60M contact (or whatever the price will be) because at that point it’s just decimal points. Wham, the money thing disappears. As well, I think we are reading into his comments and over-doing the mind reading here. Have we monkeyed around with his service time? No. Have we treated him like anything other than our most important pitcher? No. Have we suddenly added another guy who could vie for his “ace” role? No. Has he lost some buddies to the business of trying to win baseball games? Yes. Is he really that naive that he thinks this is just a beer league where wins don’t matter? Nothing I’ve read suggests that he’s that clueless.
  6. etwink
    Gosh, that’s all of a sudden a pretty dang good team. If Buxton and Sano finally bring it for a whole year and the rotation puts on its best 2002 Angels (just enough pitching to stay out of the way of the hitting), we could really have something special here. What am I saying??? I’ve probably just jinxed and ruined the season!! Hahaha
  7. etwink
    I hope your optimism comes through. I really do. I look at his stats - while playing on a consistent NL leader - and see a guy who was pretty much a #5 guy on the Dodgers. Now their #s 1-4 last year were pretty good, so maybe that answers the question, but “ace” says something more than a 32 year old guy who spent the last four years as a bottom rotation starter/reliever who hasn’t pitched more than 150+ innings in three years. i will be thrilled to be proven wrong, though!!
  8. etwink
    My problem with this is we’ve about 15 tradeable position assets that other teams would want and about 5 pitchers....why didn’t we trade from our strengths? How about a couple MiLB OFs, rather than Graterol?
  9. etwink
    Sorry to appear like a Miranda-hater, but I’ve seen his name here for years and am just not getting it. All the guy seems to do is hit .250 every year, without power, and yet someone above mentioned Arraez as a comp....excuse me? Someone please tell me, because I don’t know; what is the HONEST ceiling for José Miranda, if he reaches the majors?? I can’t see him as any more than banjo-hitting UTIL and yet he’s constantly in the TD Top 20 lists with guys like Sands, Colina and Blankenhorn who “look” superior to me.
  10. etwink
    Thanks Carew, you got the point that I was trying to make! I just messed up and referenced someone with a ring from a beloved Twins team, rather than a goat like Pedro Florimon or someone like that. ....though having actually watched Lombo play, the idea of he being mentioned in the same breath, talent-wise, is so beyond ludicrous.
  11. etwink
    This was a really interesting, though subjective review. My only complaint is that Correa DESTROYS Polanco. It’s not even close. Yes, there is the injuries, but you weren’t comparing stats, you were grading their ability. Also, you are assuming the 35 yr old Gardner will start in CF....not Aaron Hicks? Does a healthy Hicks beat out a healthy Buxton.....that would be an interesting debate. The “cheating Astros” comments overall are getting old. Are we really to believe that José Altuve would turn into Steve Lombardozzi without the banging? Come on. Cheating is bad, of course, always. We live in a broken world here. But the best players are still the best.
  12. etwink
    Nice review Matt. The Twins haven’t had players who would push back since AJ and Torii. One of the reasons, stated here many times over the years, that the Twins couldn’t win big games is that the Twins have been too nice, too passive and willing to just take a beat-down (and lacked big time pitchers too often...but anyway). Donaldson will hopefully help to change that a bit. If you are going to win, sometimes you just have to want it more. Simple enough. The hand-wringing comments above have me a bit bemused though. Josh has played more than 1000 games and people seem to be biting their nails over a few confrontations like we’ve just signed a monster. AJ was a jerk, pure and simple. However, Donaldson comes across as extremely competitive and emotional. I’ve been watching baseball for years and I’ve never thought of him as a jerk. The Gibbons video, to me, looks like a manager without emotional intelligence; sure, Donaldson threw his bat, but clearly just needed to vent and was calm and passive after that....why poke the bear and get in Donaldson’s face? Silly. Besides, people get older and more mature as well.
  13. etwink
    Sorry, but can’t disagree more. I personally think that the NCAA system is ridiculous. We all know that the Gophers went to the Final Four - we saw it. Fine the team, take draft picks, hit them where they hurt....but take away the championship?? Do we really know that the Astros wouldn’t have won the Series? Their team was STACKED; cheating or no. Of course they cheated, but how do you connect causality? If a great team has to cheat to get a title, if that’s your assumption, then how do surprise teams win, like the ‘06 Cards or the ‘10 Giants?? The ‘87 Twins won A LOT of home games on their way to a title; did they cheat....or did they ride two pitchers, a couple hot hitters and a bunch of HRs? I think we all know the answer to that.
  14. etwink
    Good job of bringing out some potential value for Bailey. The reason why everyone wanted Ryu or Wheeler though, is because no one has to be convinced that they’ll bring value. That’s the problem with focusing too much on securing The Floor, rather than focusing on The Ceiling; you might get lucky and the acquisition makes you look really good (like Phil Hughes’ first year with the Twins) or they just play to their historical levels (like every other year the Twins got from Hughes). The Ceiling is more expensive, and brings more risk, but the possible reward can’t be compared. Homer Bailey at his best is very unlikely to make people ok with the fact that we missed out on Ryu or Wheeler.
  15. etwink
    In general, if you can add a top-flight “known commodity” - such as Bryant - for a couple minor leaguers who are not sure things, this is always a good option. Always. Whether you actually pull the trigger is based on how much losing those minor leaguers will affect your major league team. So, if we are trading away two MiLB hitters for a guy like Bryant; when the MLB team is currently LOADED with young hitters......I’m just not getting the hand-wringing. Yes, those guys could turn into stars, but come on now we don’t have room for everyone!! Trading Larnach and Kiriloff for instance, while it would be a blow, is not like trading away Ruth and Gehrig....or even Mauer and Morneau, and it gets value out of the players. No, to Graterol and literally any of our better pitching prospects, obviously, but why wouldn’t you take a shot at loading up this team, when we have so much other talent? We, as Twins fans, have to break out of this mindset where anyone in the minors is worth 10X any trade option. All that gets us is teams that are decent but not superior (like the 2019 team) because we are constantly waiting for guys to mature, rather than paying for talent and loading up for a shot at the title......like virtually every other winning franchise.
  16. etwink
    I think that we’d all love to look at a couple averaging stats and make a judgment, but I have to agree that the only way to make a firm assessment would be to review all the HRs hit and make assessments that anything within X feet would be an out and do the sums. LA, EV and everything else less important than if a guy’s homers were all wall-scratchers and he’s now going to get less carry on the ball.
  17. etwink
    I imagine that you were just trying to be provocative, but I disagree. Does everyone know that Minnesota isn’t the #1 FA destination? Yes, we all know it’s a disadvantage. Do we have proof that the Twins have offered “significantly” more money OR an extra year in order to overcome this disadvantage? No, we don’t. All we know is that the Twins were in the ballpark of the other offers. Until the Twins are willing to make “stupid” contracts, we can’t say that they’ve done everything possible. It’s just that simple. If the Twins don’t want to do that, fine, but then stop acting like we have a chance here.
  18. etwink
    Absolutely! Best hair in Twins history. Best Smile - La Tortuga Best Butt - The ghost of Marty Cordova (my wife always thought he was hot) Best Pharmacist - Michael Pineda Best Gut - La Tortuga
  19. etwink
    If the Twins sign Donaldson (other than making one wonder why they couldn’t open the check book for a SP), the lineup is going to be on par with having an arm that looks like Popeye’s after he eats spinach! On the other hand their pitching arm.....will look something like mine....when I was 2 years old...
  20. etwink
    Decent pickups, if you ignore the past 6 weeks. More securement for the floor. At this point the floor is eight foot thick, uranium-laced, titanium rebarred, earthquake-proofed, force-field protected concrete!! Unfortunately, the ceiling made out of balsa wood.... Clearly the FO has so much faith in our young pitching that they’re doing all they can to make sure that they’re not blocked by guys with long contracts.
  21. etwink
    Looks like you’ve pretty well nailed things. It’s not like there is a real clunker in the Top 10! I mean the book is out on Gordon but he’s not done yet. I wouldn’t mind seeing a write up of the best Twins minor leaguers, based on their stats, who never had more than a brief stay in the majors (not just the Twins...so guys that we gave up and did well elsewhere don’t count). Guys who we were dying to call up but when we did they just faded.
  22. etwink
    Generally people don’t talk about “championship windows” until a team has actually won “a championship”, I mean did any of us talk about championship windows when the Twins we winning all of those Central Division titles 10 years ago? But for the sake of the spirit of your post, and if we are still believing the obvious Falvine tripe about spending money when “the window is open”, this team will go as far as it’s pitching takes, or in the current case, doesn’t take it. The beauty of the current team, kind of like the last good string of (non-championship) years is that we’ve a load of performers and the loss of one or two guys shouldn’t cripple us. As the previous poster said, we’ve a fully stocked minor league system. Can’t win championships without pitching though.
  23. etwink
    Berrios. He’s got the stuff and the attitude. He WANTS to be great. He is unlikely to settle for being just a 2/3 guy when he so clearly can dominate teams. I know that people are frustrated with his inconsistency, but I expect that he is as well. of the rest.... I think that Kepler has another level, but can he find it? Of course Buxton, we all know the talent is there, but can he mature enough to stop hurting himself and play 140+ games? We’re beyond “freak accidents” at this point. Of course Sano, same as Buxton, but can he mature enough to treat his career and great latent talent seriously enough to improve? I think we’ve seen the top end of Garver (how could he be better???), Rosario (what makes him so exciting also holds him back), Polanco (just field and I’ll be happy), Arraez (see Garver) and Odorizzi (just get into the 6th inning consistently and I’ll be happy).
  24. etwink
    You’re probably right, for all the reasons that you mention. We needed him to play a certain way because he was such a huge part of the offence (and the whole “swing-away” cookie cutter approach to hitting that we used back then), but the BoSox already had great hitters so they just told him to swing away and he found his comfort zone. I imagine that he took something as well, given the times, but people forget that he was actually a sensitive introspective guy with the Twins and so he just wasn’t ever relaxed enough to just do his thing. So, with that in mind, what if we were to transport ourselves to a parallel dimension where the Twins are able to unlock his ability, but just in a “Twins Way” ala Morneau or Mayer or Cuddyer, and he spends his career in Minnesota. Forget salaries and all that....what kind of player do people thing he would have turned out to be?? Still Big Papi-esque? 300 hitting singles and doubles hitter? A little bit of each?
  25. etwink
    I think that Cruz will probably choose when to retire, rather than have it forced on him. He seems like a great guy and a smart athlete so his regression should be slower. Having said that, we should all be rubbing our lucky rabbits feet in fear that it’s all because of some steroid. I also think that mentioning David Ortiz in this current climate where Twins Daily readers are insanely frustrated with the Twins front office’s decisions shows a lack of emotional intelligence. You gotta “read the room”!!
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