Riverbrian

Right now... Varland is one of our top five starters. I get he is throwing 100 out of the pen however... just thinking of Varland for the bullpen without someone better than him coming in to join the rotation is kinda crazy. Starters throw more innings. On December 26, 2023... Varland is one of our top 5 starters. Gotta find someone better than him before the pen talk can make sense.

Duvall has actually played more CF than any other OF spots in the past two years. I think he is better defensively than the credit you seem to give him. I have always kinda liked Duvall, He's a nice combo of power and defense but I have three issues with him. Strikeout rate - He consistently K's over 30% of the time. I'd like the Twins to look for around 20% just to let us all know that the team strikeouts last year was too much and they are at least trying to bring it down. Injuries - He gets hurt a lot... Maybe the stars will align so Buxton and Duvall can get hurt at separate times but at this point... 100 games from either of them is something you wouldn't bet on. Slumps - He has amazing slumps and crazy hot streaks. The slumps are pretty severe and have pulled him down to average hitter over his career. Average hitter despite a couple of well above average years. I'd be Ok... if the Twins went and got him but... he isn't that firm upgrade that I'd like to see.

Joey Meneses with the Nationals. Good Hitter. Nationals are rebuilding. They might take a couple of prospects that are not the prospects none of us want to lose. No idea what it would take. I have no idea what the Twins front office or Nationals front office thinks but I think he is someone that would boost our offense.

A full season of Royce will result in a conversation for American League MVP. I'm not out of mind if I say that Juan Soto is a decent comp.

Royce Lewis: I don't believe he will regress at all. May even get better. Royce looks like a superstar so I fully expect him to continue looking like a superstar. The question with Royce is how healthy he will be. He has been injured fairly consistently thus far so I'd imagine the same. Gonna need decent depth to get through the year. With health last year... I believe Royce would have raced past Gunnar Henderson for the rookie of the year award and Gunnar was an unanimous selection. Edouard Julien: Julien was our most disciplined hitter last year as a rookie. If he holds his approach at the plate I'll bet on him actually getting better. However... He only had 46 AB's vs Left Handers last year. Posters on Twinsdaily have traded Polanco somewhere to give Julien the 2B job. He only had 46 AB's vs Left Handers last year. He either needs a right handed hitter hand cuffed to him or he will be mixing AB's against left handers into his stats and how that turns out is anyone's guess since he was only given 46 AB's last year vs lefties. He wasn't properly prepared last year for what a lot of us are asking him to do this year. He won't step up and be the hitter a lot of us think he can be until he hits lefties. Matt Wallner: The most likely of the three to face the sophomore slump. We need to prepared for the possibility. We need our depth here. Wallner has two options remaining so he can be safely taken off the 26 man if needed. Having Kirilloff, Larnach, Castro and Gordon around is needed just in case. The possibility of Wallner taking a step back next year is one of the reasons that IMO we actually need a big hitter more than we need a starting pitcher if you had to choose between the two.

You are exactly right... Even the Dodgers have a budget... It may seem endless but it's not. When the Dodgers throw that kind of money at Ohtani, Yamamoto and Glasnow, they are essentially squeezing the mid level free agent out of work or at best severely limiting their options to teams that are rebuilding. The Twins for example would not be able to afford a Correa contract without Lewis, Duran, Ryan, Ober, Julien, Jax and Kirilloff being good major league baseball players and combining to make what a single player like Hunter Renfroe cost the Royals. The Royals wouldn't need Renfroe and his 98 OPS+ if they had the equivalent of Lewis, Duran, Ryan, Ober, Julien, Jax and Kirilloff and the presence of Renfroe just takes a roster spot that could be used for someone at the major league minimum. The current free agent system agreed upon in the CBA... is a road block for the average free agent and it basically demands that farms systems produce.

Yep And it's possible that you are working the count because you flat out missed the earlier mistake meatball.

Yeah I don't know either. I just did it as a stands to reason exercise. If you strikeout more because you are working the count. Then you would also in theory walk more because you are working the count so I added them together.

Not sure about the Strib or Nick but It was a topic here on TD awhile back when Ashbury provided some interesting data nuggets on Cleveland/Washington K rates in comparison. It was a very interesting conversation that could only go so far because you would have to lose your soul to enter what I assume was an enormous rabbit hole that Ashbury pointed at. I take Falvey's comments as nothing more than a general explanation on how a patient team that works the count is going to pile up strikeouts... it makes perfect sense to me but to me it's like someone saying,.. I drove my car 400 miles a day as an Uber driver, and I have to fill up every day and therefore spend more in gas. My bottom line opinion, The Twins set an all time record in strikeouts for a season. It was way too much... It must be fixed. In other words: Get a vehicle that gets better miles to the gallon, go hybrid, go electric.

For fun here is % of PA's resulting in either a BB and SO created simply by adding BB% and SO% together. Do these numbers suggest which batters are working the counts or missing meatballs. Do these numbers suggest which batters hit those mistake pitches or made weak contact with balls they shouldn't have touched. What worked for Julien did not work for Gallo or Larnach. What worked for Lewis did not work for Correa or Vazquez. I draw no conclusions. Gallo - .573 Julien - .471 Larnach - .467 Garlick - .434 Wallner - .425 Buxton - .415 Taylor - .402 Luplow - .383 Jeffers - .377 Polanco - .362 Kirilloff - .339 Castro - .325 Lewis - .314 Solano - .311 Kepler - .308 Correa - .308 Vazquez - .301 Farmer - .295 Stevenson - .250 MIranda - .217 Gordon - .129

I don't believe the front office ever mentioned Cleveland. I believe Nick brought it up as a valid consideration to express the complexity of the issue.

One step at a time. Gotta rise above Northwestern, Illinois and Purdue first. 😄 Or We can all just blame the owners and the lack of NIL Money.

Amen Brother!!! Strength in numbers baby. If people could ever as John Lennon once said "Come Together". Not only would we have parity in baseball... We'd have a 24 team playoff format in College Football! We give away our power for the low low price of PR crafted sound bites.

On that we agree.

I'm not sure that's true.

I have no idea because I tend not to believe marketing. But, I read reports that the owners proposed a salary floor of 100 Mill but included a lowering of the CBT to $180 and yes the players union didn't go for that. Tony Clark has said unequivocally that they will never agree to a salary cap of any kind. He wouldn't have to make such a statement if the other side wasn't interested in a salary cap. Anyway... I'm just not as one sided on the issue. Neither sides are Angels... It's big money battling big money to see who gets the biggest money. Measuring the pie slices. These battles are never for you and I.

Wasn't it the owners who were trying to get a salary cap into the CBA and the players union rejecting it firmly?

I love the concept of relegation but the reality is that it doesn't change the disparity between the haves and have nots. It basically swaps out the have nots. What it does do though is curb any thought of giving up. If you are at the bottom of the standings... you got to compete to stay in the league. The Revenue hit will be gigantic if they are moved down a level. September for the A's and Nationals would matter.

I am 100% behind relegation. It won't happen but I support the idea.

What is Rick Anderson doing these days? 😉

Great post You are exactly right. I just have one disagreement and that is the last sentence. I don't believe it is to the benefit of the league to put the stars in the largest markets. I understand the more bang for the buck logic and the market disparity between New York and Pittsburgh. However... even the smallest market has a population base worth providing hope to and therefore interest in the product. Pittsburgh may be small in comparison to New York but there are a lot of consumers living in Pittsburgh. What's that old quote: A million Here and a billion there... pretty soon you are talking about real money. All those small markets add up collectively. If you want the entire country to care about baseball you have to give them hope and therefore a reason to care. The Population of the United States is 332 Million, The Top Ten Markets combined is maybe 65 Million. Hope in Pittsburgh is vital. Hope in Kansas City matters if you want to increase your reach and interest in the game. A system that funnels superstars to the largest markets isn't the best thing for 332 million people. I agree with you though'... The Players union doesn't care about that. They want the big markets to spend like they do, then they want to crank the PR machine and cement the word tanking in our brains just to bully the smaller markets for not keeping up when they can't.

If I'm Seattle - if asked if I want Polanco... the answer would be... Yes Absolutely Please Thank You.

It's a trade off - First in Home Runs and First in Walks is a good thing. However... The Strikeouts drag that success downward. Twins First(Tied) in Home Runs(233) - First in Strikeouts (1654) Second in Walks (594) - Fifth in OBP - Fifth in Runs Scored (758) Rangers First (Tied) in Home Runs (233) - Ninth in Strikeouts (1416) First in Walks (599) - First in OBP - First in Runs Scored (881) Angels Third in Home Runs (231) - Third in Strikeouts (1524) Seventh in Walks (518) - Ninth in OBP - Ninth in Runs Scored (739) Mariners Seventh in Home Runs (210) - Second in Strikeouts (1603) Sixth in Walks (548) - Seventh in OBP - Seventh in Runs Scored (758)

Great article It all makes perfect sense Pitchers want hitters to swing at crap and they throw them crap until they make a mistake or run out of real estate. This dance between hitter and pitcher is going to drive up pitch counts including getting to two strikes... which makes strikeouts a natural by-product of this very sensible approach. It all makes perfect sense except for one thing. This isn't new territory. The Twins are not special, New ground isn't being broken. All hitters need to take this approach or they won't be in the league long. They shouldn't change approach but they really need to care about striking out too much.

Every year each front office paint the walls at this time. We watch the paint dry every year.