Riverbrian

When my son was younger... we'd have fun as I chased him around the room. I just kind of let him go where he wanted and I would follow behind him saying I'm gonna get you and we would laugh having a great time as he ran down whatever path was ahead of him with me following behind. Long story short... my wife wasn't happy when we ended up at the landfill. My son had to immediately take a bath when he got home and I slept in the garage for two nights. Anyway... chasing definitions around the room is going to lead us some place else. However... I'm adventurous. Disco had one good season in 2021. I think he is the definition of a so-so pitcher but let's assume that the 3 years at 36 million is a quality starter with value plummeting due to injury. Let's just focus on that make good buy low 6 million dollar contract that you mention. How many relievers are making 6 million a year? 15-Love Me - Your Serve

I agree with you and Squirrel. I can only say that It seems that my preferred use of similes, metaphors, analogies, parables often times fall short. In the case of Duran... He's a great closer. I think it's quite possible that he has the talent to be a starter. If he doesn't... he doesn't... But... If he had the ability to do both well and help the team... I think he'd choose starter because he would play more and get paid more. Also... if the Twins felt that he had the ability to do both... even the Twins would convert him to a starter because he would hang more zeroes. Yes... It does take another John Smoltz to ultimately answer the question because John is the only guy that pops into my mind as someone who was successful as a starter and then successful as a closer and then successful as a starter again.

I agree with what you are saying. No argument here... The inclusion of Max Effort into the discussion came from Ash and I was just going down the Ash Path that was mostly absent of the math of 1 inning here or 6 innings there. Yes... Physical limitations and requirements would sensibly part of the decision process. Griffin Jax might be an example of that. He struggled as a starter but has seemingly found his feet in the pen. Is that a physical limitation or requirement? Maybe shorter stints of letting the big dog eat was the key to unlocking it all. Did he just unlock his slider and just happen to be a reliever when it happened? John Smoltz was good at both roles. Dennis Eckersley was good in both roles. It's hard to say. Could Duran be a good starter if he backed it off a bit. If he was a good starter will he be as valuable as he is currently... as perhaps the best the closer in baseball. I don't know the answer to these questions but... I am reasonably certain that if he was capable of being a good starter. He would be paid a lot more. A lot More. You ask the question: Is a so-so starter paid more than a great reliever? DeScalfini is making 12 million this year. Wacha just signed for 16 million. Not many relievers are making that kind of money. Only 5 are making more than Disco is. The answer to your question is yes.

An alternate title suggestion would be "29 Major League Teams agree to let the Twins do whatever they want".

Ok Not a perfect simile however... I usually have a pretty idea what I'm going to get in a box of chocolates so Forrest Gump struggles with perfect similes as well so I'm in good company. I understand the point you are making about Max effort for shorter stints and I don't disagree. Those are the choices that confront managers when they are handing out roles. I'm saying that if the player (not the manager) is offered the choice. A. Do you want to go full max effort for 3 innings a week B. Do you want to back off a bit and be on the mound for 9 innings a week. I don't have any polling data to refer to but my guess is that most will opt to back off a bit and throw for 9 because they get to play more, compete longer in their chosen profession and ultimately get paid more. The position player who would rather play occasionally rather than be the guy they count on most every day will also be a pretty rare find. These type of attitudes may exist in the MLB landscape because on occasion I do reach into a box of chocolates and am shocked by Molasses and Coconut instead of butter cream.

Prestige and Money A reliever that prefers to remain a reliever is roughly equivalent to a position player who only WANTS 100 AB's a year instead of 500 AB's a year. In other words... if Anthony Rendon was a pitcher... He'd want to be a reliever.

You and I have learned over the years. If you are going to ask someone what is wrong. Before you ask the question. Make sure that you have recently gone to the bathroom and make sure that you are supplied with drinks and snacks.

When considering the question posed in this thread. I think it's important to consider the value difference between a starter and reliever. We live in a baseball world (created by MLB GM's value assessments) where Sean Manaea coming off a 4.44 ERA in 2023 and a 4.91 ERA in 2022 and Ryan Pressly consistently one of the top closers in baseball signed. Each signed for essentially the same years and dollar amount in the same off-season. Twins pitchers threw a total of 1,451 Innings in the 2023. Starters accounted for 922 of those innings. That leaves 529 innings for the relievers. 5 Starting pitching slots = 184 innings per starting pitcher slot 8 Relief pitcher slots = 66 innings per relief pitcher slot. Look again at what Manaea recently signed for and what Ryan Pressly signed for and it wouldn't be a stretch to theorize that the front offices are paying for innings and they should... because starters are throwing 3 times more innings than a relief pitcher throws. Sure you can argue High Leverage/Low Leverage as justification and I'll concede a value difference but I'm just going to counter that performance is important each and every inning no matter what leverage you assign to it. Next Year Joe Ryan and Jhoan Duran will be entering into the 1st year of arbitration and they are both on track to reach free agency in 2028. Between Ryan and Duran, under the scenario that each will continue to pitch like they have pitched to date. Does anybody want to take a guess on who will get rewarded more in the three upcoming years of arbitration or who signs the bigger free agent deal? I'll go first... I'm going to guess Joe Ryan will be paid more. While I love Joe Ryan, I'm a big Joe Ryan fan so I don't want to say anything negative about him... however... in my opinion... I think Duran is a much better pitcher than Joe is. Front offices are paying for innings. Arbitrators are rewarding innings. The more zero's hung... more wins. I'd like to see our best pitchers get more innings. Anyway... why you are all discussing the merits of the possibility of Duran starting. You may want to consider value to not only the team looking for zero's on the scoreboard but also consider the value to the pitcher looking for zero's on a contract.

Health Please Please Please... with sugar on top. Lewis hit the ground running requiring no adjustment to the new level of opponent. Only health has knocked him down. MLB pitching has not. With Health... It's my opinion that Lewis will be in the AL MVP conversation. I also think highly of Miranda. I Love the depth we are accumulating.

The simple act of inclusion on the 40 man roster suggests that a pecking order has been established by the front office. Helman and Prato will most likely have to wait behind Miranda, Martin, Severino and Larnach. I think it could be argued that Prato was our best hitter in St. Paul last year? Prato was better in AAA than Martin, Severino and Larnach. Actually his numbers were better than Julien and Wallner in St. Paul. If Prato produces around .991 OPS again. I think he will earn the right to budge ahead in the queue for a 26 man spot.

I should have included the word "necessarily". My fault but the sentence should have read like this. I think it has been established that increased contact doesn't NECESSARILY lead to increased offensive production. Cleveland and Washington led the league in not striking out by almost 100 less strikeouts than the 28th ranked team. Cleveland and Washington were not good offensive teams.

Rest is the X factor in what is ultimately a math problem. There are approximately 25 weeks of baseball. Duran threw 62 IP last year which is an average of 2.5 IP a week. 1.5 more innings a week will put him at 100 IP and increase the usage of the best pitcher on the staff. 4 IP every 6.5 games will get him to 100.

Both Santana and Margot K'd at nearly half of Taylor's rate. I'd say it's quite possible that the Twins front office are prioritizing K's... Less of them.

If he has that type of year. Why not pick up his option and keep him?

Very rarely do you run across the answer to a question inside of the actual question. Here are some more examples of the answer to a question inside the actual question. Why don't people like dogs that bite? Why don't people eat food that doesn't taste very good? Why do I sweat mowing the lawn when it's 120 Degrees? I'll open up the floor for anyone who would like to answer those questions.

The question comes down to proper rest. Based on usage... we can reasonably conclude that Starters after 100 pitches are rested at minimum 4 days and we can reasonably conclude that the one inning reliever typically can pitch back to back days with a day of rest on the third day. So if relief pitcher X throws 3 innings... how much rest is required. Long relief is a defined role that has been in place for decades. Availability and rest is also an issue with long relief. There are times when starters get pulled early on back to back days and one LR can't manage that. Essentially... what I am thinking about by stretching out the entire bullpen... is in theory creating multiple long inning guys. Will it work... I don't know. Just something that I've been theorizing for a long time now.

In past discussions... I think it has been established that patience leads to increased two strike counts and two strike counts leads to increased strikeouts. I also think it has been established that increased contact doesn't lead to increased offensive production. However... We set a record for the most strikeouts in the history of the game. That number must come down. Because I also think it has been been established that STRIKING OUT is not a positive result.

The possibility of Correa returning to Correa numbers and the possibility of Lewis continuing to play like one of the best players in all of baseball are indeed possibilities. I wish for that along with a sincere wish for health.

I will not speculate on player issues outside the clubhouse. I will not speculate on players personality inside the clubhouse. Some of the players that we think of as wonderful might be buying up property in Florida and tossing old ladies into homelessness. Some of those bad people may do some great things. Up can be down and down can be up. Everybody has a skeleton or two or twelve. A couple of years ago... I accidently clicked on a story that I was not interested in. After that accidental click... My news feed fed me story after story about how Ellen Degeneres is really really mean. There was no other conclusion to draw from the avalanche of stories sent my way on the subject. Ellen was clearly a horrible person. I want to state for the record that I have never met her. Social Media is a dangerous place. That said... I'd probably pass on Bauer... because... well... I mean... I do read X, Facebook, instragram, Tik-Tok.

I would also worry about that due to the lack of precedence. It has been done before to both failure and success. However... there has to be middle ground between 180 innings as a starter and 60 innings as a reliever. There has to be because middle ground is everywhere but sometimes we don't think about it. I was at a party talking with a friend (acquaintance). She was really really pissed at her husband. She told me that she hated him. I thought that was odd because last week she was telling me how wonderful he was. I asker her if it was possible if she was just disappointed with him at the moment. I was hoping she could find that middle ground between the extremes. Thankfully, somebody else called me away to have a heavy conversation on the best rock bands of the 70's. So, I was able to excuse myself out of that conversation.

Jordan Hicks is another guy who will be attempting to do the trick this year. It's a fair question that is going to require traditional thinkers to recover from the shock of the question before they can seriously consider it. Would I do it. Nope... I wouldn't go that far because Duran is one of the best in baseball but I've said this before... I would look for ways to increase his innings and not just limit him to 9th inning when we have a lead by 3 runs or less. Deploy that weapon whenever we need it... Squeeze some extra zero's out of him when you can. Increase his innings from 62 to 100. That will be 38 innings less for pitchers who are not as good. Get extra innings out of anyone pitching well in the bullpen. If you get more innings out of Jax and Stewart as well, They could add up to 100 innings not need to be thrown by an innings eater. Rather than an innings eater in the rotation... I'm OK with the bullpen handing the 5th day instead if need be. Why deploy a 5.00 ERA innings eating starter if your bullpen is posting a 3.95 collectively. When searching for the best 13 arms. Search for the best 13 arms. If you want to be a starter and pitch 150 plus innings. to justify that usage, you should at least produce better than the bullpen produces collectively.

If you consider how I wish the Twins would operate... Margot isn't the guy. If you consider how the Twins actually operate. Margot is a perfect fit. That wall isn't worth banging my head against. I have no expectation that the following will think exactly like I do. 1. The Twins Front Office 2. My Wife 3. The Twins Manager 4. Kevin Costner 5. Any Twins Player 6. The Democratic Party 7. Any Front Office in Baseball 8. The Republican Party 9. The road guy who plows snow into my recently snow blown driveway. 10. Dennis Rodman For not thinking like me... I will forgive 8 of the 10 listed as they have jobs to do. 6 and 8 can pound sand. I would have bet big money that the Twins were going to bring in one more player who profiles exactly like Manuel Margot. I hope he does a great job. He is one of us now.

If you are trying to find a pitcher. The players listed will keep you from finding a pitcher.

With Joc Pederson on the roster. The D-Backs will need Randal Grichuk insurance.

Not sure why the list was limited to three. Brooks Lee is a Non-Roster Invitee. One or two of the NRI pitchers will probably be needed. Limiting the discussion to the list. Prato - .990 OPS over 299 AB's. Michael Helman was hurt but he showed power and speed while he produced ,902 OPS in 118 Plate Appearances with the Saints. Compare those numbers to Brooks Lee - .731 OPS over 168 PA's. If either Prato or Helman repeat those numbers this year... I don't know how you can justify keeping them out of Target field. Niko Goodrum has a career .816 OPS against left handers. I think the front office will consider that.