Whammy

Rodney is on pace to be about 0.5WAR. At $8M per WAR, it sounds like $4M is just about perfect.

Care to provide ANY evidence to corroborate that statement? Or did you just throw it out there to justify some sort of anger you have at the Twins?

The beauty of trading all these players is that we need to spend way less in the offseason to match this year’s payroll. If we can move Dozier before the deadline and Santana in August we might just creep down below $110M

Or they could sign players to extensions. Or they could trade for guys from teams that are looking to cut payroll. $70M isn't THAT hard to spend. And I'm not going to criticize them BEFORE they don't spend it.

I guess I just tend to save my criticism until after something actually occurs rather then speculating what will occur and complaining about that speculated result. Then you've doubled down on that speculation by saying since they can't possibly spend all their money next year, that saving $7M was a bad thing.

I'm aware of the payroll situation. I suppose it depends on your definition of "slash" If the Twins spend freely, address their glaring needs, and come with $10M of this year's payroll, I'm sure there will be people complaining about "slashing" payroll, but I will not be one of them.

Do you have any evidence to support this claim?

I wish him success in AZ, but not so much that resigning him becomes unreasonable. It’s completely reasonable for him to expect a Cozart-like contract (3/38). And I’d be good with that.

Maybe this has always been obvious to everyone but it just sort of dawned on me. We talk about how most batters need an adjustment period to adjust from seeing minor league pitchers to seeing major league pitcher. That makes logical sense. Major league pitchers have faster and nastier stuff. So wouldn't it stand to reason that a catcher would need an adjustment period to CATCHING major league pitching? Faster and nastier makes it harder to catch and block, not to mention the idea of calling the pitches for someone with faster and nastier stuff than you're used to catching.

If that isn’t the quintessential Fernando Rodney experience, I don’t know what is.

I wonder how much a 2nd round pick would go for.... like if the Marlins could auction off their Comp A pick, what would the top bid be?

Zack Cozart is a pretty good Escobar comp and he got 3/38 last offseason. Albeit without draft pick compensation tied to him.

If you were Escobar and you thought you would get 3/35 as a free agent, would you accept 1/18? Where's the breaking point?

Unless you count Peralta as still being in their farm system, the cupboard looks pretty darn bare.

Gonsalves was what... a fifth rounder? I’d say that draft pick was tremendous so far. His upside is just fine. There are plenty of instances of guys that “lacked upside” that turned in cy young candidates (not that that’s what I’m predicting here)

Pretty sure it’s unlimited. Most of the roster will likely get put on waivers. No harm in it.

Gotta send him through waivers on Aug 1 and hope he builds a little value in the first few weeks of August.

Never mind... I found it. Their search engine is terrible I guess. You’d think search for his name would find a result. Guess not.

Do you have a link for The Athletic article. I can’t find it

As for the date that would affect team control years.... I believe it was just before they sent him down. So, there is no date the rest of this year that would affect that at all.

I'd say the gas was off, then he decided to turn it on once he realized it was going to be close.

I believe on the Gleeman and the Geek podcast, Aaron gave roughly these same numbers for Lewis and Kiriloff on BP's as-yet-unreleased rankings.

Some of them are behind a paywall (Baseball America is out and I think BP is this week), but this one is not: http://sixmanrotation.com/midseason-top-150-prospects-2018/ 14. Royce Lewis, SS, MIN | Age: 19 Connor’s Rank: 18 | Rhys’ Rank: 13 Connor’s take: Royce was a tough rank for me, because although I’ve seen good grades, I’ve never actually seen him defensively and infield actions are a big one for me. Plus some people think he’d fit better in center. Decided to go aggressive though and Rhys outdid me. Rhys’ take: I do believe he can stick at short but even if he has to move to center he would still be this highly ranked for me. He has a 60 hit with 60 speed and above average power. I love me some Royce Lewis. 42. Alex Kirilloff, OF, MIN | Age: 20 Connor’s Rank: 44 | Rhys’ Rank: 46 Connor’s take: Boy can hit. Rhys’ take: He can really hit and play an above average right field 46. Nick Gordon, SS, MIN | Age: 22 Connor’s Rank: 46 | Rhys’ Rank: 48 Connor’s take: A change to his setup allowed him to get to more power in AA this year, but it hasn’t carried over to AAA, which I’m not overly worried about. He’s gonna hit, add a little power, and at the very least play up the middle, though I’m bullish he sticks at short. Rhys’ take: I also believe he sticks at short, hits for a high average hits more long balls than his brother Dee. I don’t envision 20-20 seasons for him but I think he can produce a few 20-15 season in his future. 90. Brusdar Graterol, RHP, MIN | Age: 19 Connor’s Rank: 83 | Rhys’ Rank: 106 Connor’s take: Upside is huge for Graterol, who has hit 100 with his fastball and has the potential for 2 above average to plus secondaries. Some health/delivery concerns, but he has a strong build that has me bullish. Rhys’ take: Brusdar is an 80 grade name. His fastball gets to 100 and creates plenty of weak contact. He just seems to go on the DL every week. 103. Steven Gonsalves, LHP, MIN | Age: 23 Connor’s Rank: 91 | Rhys’ Rank: 128 Connor’s take: Concerns with the breaker and how it’s general inability to miss bats will play at the ML level, but it’s a good fastball with command and deception and an easy plus changeup, so I’m hanging in there. Rhys’ take: He could pitch in the majors right now thanks to his command and the deception he gets on his pitches. 144. Wander Javier, SS, MIN | Age: 19 Connor’s Rank: 137 | Rhys’ Rank: 153 Connor’s take: Still could break out, but missing this season is a big loss. Rhys’ take: *pour one out for Wander* I was all aboard the hype train and will buy anyone’s stock of him. 149. Brent Rooker, 1B, MIN | Age: 23 Connor’s Rank: 156 | Rhys’ Rank: 140 Connor’s take: If he’s a LF or 1B – a poor one at that – he’s really going to have to hit. He could, but it’s been a so-so year at AA for Rooker so far. Rhys’ take: Big boy power who will play a non premium position.

In my opinion if you aren’t viewing your pool as The MLB Assigned Pool + 5%, then you’re doing it wrong. ESPECIALLY is a year where our draft pool is significantly lower than previous years due to a) 2017 success, and b.) The Lance Lynn signing. We could have spent an extra $300k with the only penalty being a 75% overage fine (225k). 23 other teams went that route. We didn’t (and haven’t). That’s not using resources to the fullest extent. Maybe they offered every dime of it to the kid that ended up choosing to go to Missouri (?), but history tells us that probably wasn’t the case.

No. This year