Whammy

Sort of like Kody Clemens last year. I wasn't expecting much. He exceeded my expectations. He worked himself into a bigger role and he's nobody's idea of a franchise player, but a solid guy to have in the organization even if it's just a short-term stop gap.

If Cleveland can keep Jose Ramirez for his career, then the Twins can keep Buxton. If you can reasonably keep franchise players, you do. Joe Ryan is awesome and I like having him on my team, but he's just not a franchise player, which is about more than just being really good at baseball. Trading Buxton would be damaging to the organization is ways that I worry Zoll and Tom Pohlad just don't understand.

Too many "Ryans" Gotta trade one to clear things up.

Based on their initial diagnosis, I'd like to say no, but E-Rod's thumb injury was initially presented to us as "a couple day injury," so I'm prepared for anything.

Hahahahahahahaha (For the record Cody Christie didn't say that)

We saw in Joe Pohlad's first few years, he wasn't afraid to spend money. I think it's a natural thing to take something over and want to maximize it. You're rich. You have as least SOME ego. And you want to make this thing that you now have control over amazing. Will Tom have the same feelings as his brother? Will he look at what's happening and think, "the best way to maximize, not only enjoyment, but franchise value is to spend at a level that's a bit uncomfortable." That's what Joe did, and it was pretty fun. But it also eventually bit him in the ass. Will Tom want to be viewed as some sort of savior (for the team and/or the Pohlad family), the way I think Joe wanted to be? Maybe. Does that mean he'll spend more money than we expect? Maybe. But also.... maybe not. In a vacuum I might say, it's just as likely that Tom tears it down to the studs and rides this thing out until the new CBA's effects kick in. But we're not in a vacuum. Tom's actions so far have not been of someone about to tear this down to the studs. People and companies that do that are not nearly as publicly available as Tom has been. My fears are more centered around Tom pushing chips in the middle that I don't want pushed. Tom has access to an immense amount of capital that doesn't cost him a dime. Prospect capital. My worry is that in a short-sighted attempt to be relevant and not really be able to spend actual money at a level that might be required to get relevant, Tom directs the baseball ops side to spend prospect capital to get players that would help the Twins be "a contender" in 2027. That might actually work in 2027 and 2028, but probably does longer-term damage to the franchise.

I'm late to the thread, but it feels like we've given up a run in the 1st inning a really high percentage of the time recently.

Available: Lawrence Orze Laweryson Questionable (in my mind): Gomez Banda In Zebby's 5 starts he's had one great start, two good starts, one decent start, one terrible start. We need decent or better from him today.

I’m kinda of confused about the need for the Abel rehab assignment in this case. The argument typically, after such a long time on the IL is that he won’t be able to go deep in the game. Let him ramp up in AAA. Makes sense. Except, in this case, instead of Abel making his short start, we’re getting a bullpen game. Likely even shorter of a start than Abel would be able to give us. I’m scratching my head on this one

I think that up until this point I've been able to squint hard and see some reasons not to promote Culpepper, and I'm not saying he needs to be on the field tomorrow, but if he's not starting at SS for the Twins vs Cardinals on Friday night, then I'm going to be very miffed/confused.

Do you have Gomez on your fantasy baseball team? Also, they seem to consider him their primary closer at this point, in that, if he's available and there's a save opportunity, then he's going in. Unless there are specific circumstances (string of lefties for example), that would make Shelton want to go in another direction.

Yeah. A discussion board is for discussing. And sometimes those discussions veer from the original topic. In this case, I think that the tangent of SEC vs A/A+ is actually pretty related to the original topic

I'd love to see the data on that because as @Jim H has pointed out, that doesn't really pass the sniff test. The best SEC lineups have, what, 6-7 guys who might eventually be drafted? And not all SEC lineups are created equal. I think that comparison might work a little bit better if you're comparing hitters to what type of pitchers they might be facing. If you're a Single-A hitter, the level of pitchers you're facing might compare to the pitchers you're likely to see in an SEC program.

Oof. You're right. I might need a Royce Lewis-eqsue reset. If you need me I'll be here: https://twinsdaily.com/forums/forum/9-twins-minor-league-talk/

I'm a "respond to a post when I see it" guy, so I didn't make it through the whole thread before responding. Hopefully my version at least had the best grammar of the 3.

Without agreeing or disagreeing with what it seems your takeaway is of all of the numbers you've shown, a large (immeasurable) part of an athlete's performance in just about any sport is confidence. If you lack it, you're sunk. If you've got it, then often it leads to even more of it. We've seen what low-confidence Royce (and low confidence Wallner) do at the major league level. They struggle. And they struggle in ways beyond how "normal" players struggle. We've also seen what the confident versions of each of those players can do. Right now they seem confident. I want that. This lineup needs that. If they get called up today. will we get that? No idea. But I'm fine with whatever the results are. The good version is fun and successful. The bad version means a trip back to St Paul and/or to another team. I'm to the point with these two players where I'm fine with that binary.

I think your false assumption here is that he can fix his fielding issues by just working harder at it. Maybe he's just not very good at 2B and never will be. Also, I don't think he's been getting a pass for his crappy defense. He's getting a pass for his inconsistent offense because, well, he has like 100 games at the major league level. There's going to be some inconsistency. Also, since May 1st he has like an 775 OPS. Not world beating, but for a young guy who was in a deep April slump, I'll take the progress.

One out! Half way there!

Are you watching the game? It was clear that Kreidler never had a good track on that ball and Keaschall was camped under it the whole time. The only thing Keaschall did wrong is not call it loudly enough

In the pie chart of blame for that pop up. I give Kreidler 80% and Keaschall 20%

Consistency from the twins… 1 1 1 1 1 Finding a way to score each inning.

Just a pleasure to have Molitor as the second (not third) man in the booth.

Guys, I don’t know why we’re worried about next year. Connor Wong will be included in the package from Boston for Jeffers and he has two more years of team control.

There is ZERO chance that any teams will be forced to dump contracts to get cap ceiling compliant. None. Zero. Zilch. It just isn't going to happen. a) There's a 100% chance that if there's a cap there will be multiple years to get compliant (probably for the floor as well), and b) a 95+% chance that any existing contract gets some sort of grandfathering in, no matter how long it is.

Obviously I have no idea what their plan is with Morris today, but I’m hoping it’s truly a 1 inning opener appearance. I like what I am seeing with him in that 1 inning roll. I’d hate to mess with the momentum he seems to be gathering with it.