Riverbrian

OK... That's much different. No Venn Diagram needed. As I age (I am getting older at lightning fast pace it seems). The conditional probability of my becoming President obviously increases while the conditional probability of my dating Taylor Swift decreases.

Agreed The front office doesn't need to consider him for a 26 man spot out of camp unless they deplete other options and it would be extremely aggressive to deplete other options forcing you to use your safety net without a safety net. I'm willing to bet that infielders Lewis, Correa, Polanco, Julien, Farmer are all players who will not start at AAA next year. Having Miranda as a safety net waiting in the wings is wonderful.

I have not forgotten about Miranda. I think Miranda has the talent to be an important part of 2024. I'm willing to bet on him. He has an option remaining. He can start in AAA. If he hits the ball in St. Paul they will bring him across the river because injuries will occur that require his call up. If he performs decently with the Twins... He will probably get to stay and be a part of the future. With that said 2024 will be a huge year for him. Because once his last remaining option is used. He shall then be judged and he will want a good 2024 to present to the court as exhibit A. In the same vein... 2024 is big year for Larnach as well.

Since you used "Or".

Love what you wrote. I agree that K's are not the be all end all. However in the case of our Twins... nothing wrong with trying to achieve more balance. Too little K's is not the cure but too many K's is a disease that we suffered and that disease is crippling without the OBP medicine that you mention. In the small sample size of our current playoffs. We struck out 73 times over 6 games. The Rangers have struck out 69 times over 7 games. That's about an extra strikeout per 9 innings. However... the Rangers also produced 66 hits compared to our 37 over those time frames and the Rangers produced 27 Extra base hits to our 14. Your point stands loud, clear and accurate in my opinion. I worry about the strikeout totals of Larnach, Gallo, Buxton and Taylor because they came with an OBP of .311, .301, .294 and .278 and those strikeout totals and low OBP surround each other, hug each other, they become synergistic when they combine into a big blob of togetherness. I do not worry about the strikeout totals of Julien and Wallner as much because they came with an OBP of .381 and .370. Bottom line... We can all look at every stat in the universe, over focus on one or two or three and a lot of us tend to do that in the name of simplicity. You or I or others can pull out our favorite stat when the mood or context hits us but there is one stat that trumps all stats... One stat that can swing the percentages of success and failure in enormous proportion. That stat is... The OUT. We get three of them to play with every single inning. The longer you delay making outs, the better you are offensively... the quicker that you can produce them... the better you are defensively.

Hats off to the author of the article Ben Clemens. I thought his thoughts were thoughtful... he pointed out his side of the coin while also trying to examine the other side of the coin. The world painfully lacks this sort of balance in the presentation of the information we receive from the wide variety of sources that we receive information from. The disease of acid filled opinions that many of us hold are ultimately formed from the typical lack of balance. Ben Clemens and the style presented in this article is the antidote.

Agreed It's a good thing that isn't the only option. Trades, development or shifting players to CF are also possibilities.

7. I do not want the Twins over paying for a catcher via free agency or via trade. Catcher are nearly always over pays. Therefore... I have no problem with Jeffers and Vazquez back next year. My concern is going to be #3. It was nice that Jeffers and Vazquez were healthy all year but I don't think it's wise to expect that to happen again. We will need a capable #3 down in AAA. Whoever the #3 is... I'll be willing to bet that we will be getting significant work in the majors in 2024 due to injuries. I don't know if Camargo is that #3 but if he is. He needs to be kept. If he's not... I don't have an answer. Teams need to develop backstops. I hope Camargo is that #3 and I hope that #4 whoever he is... arrives soon. 8. Kyle Farmer... Good question. He was a good player but he wasn't Eureka lets stop looking for something better good. I guess it depends on the comfortableness with others to play the SS position. Someone has to be able to step into the SS position when Correa needs a day off or is hurt. Do the Twins trust Castro to play for a day or two or three if Correa is unavailable. Will the Twins slide Lewis over to SS for a couple of days if necessary? Gordon? If there is a long term injury to Correa... Will Brooks Lee be ready for that call up? If the Twins have comfortableness with others to play in case Correa can't. Farmer can be traded for really young guy with some upside. If they don't... Farmer gets a roster spot and he will be part of the roster next year. Farmer is a good question. 9 - 10. If it were up to me. Jorge absolutely bring him back... Kepler... Nope. I know that many see a log jam of sorts in the infield and yes I can see it but I don't worry about log jams. If we are 5 deep in the infield... that is a good thing. There are enough AB's and positions to go around. We need to keep our best players and Polanco is one of our best players and I believe that Kepler is not one of our best players. I know many are going to disagree with me on this... Kepler was wonderful to close out the year but there is no way that I am going to look past the 2.5 years of not being close enough to good enough. If the front office brings him back... he will have my support but if it were up to me... he would have been gone in June. 11. They have to reduce strikeouts. The front office can't have it both ways. They can't develop and acquire strikeout pitchers (They have) and then pretend that strikeouts on offense don't matter (They seem to). I hope for offensive additions to the club mainly at OF or 1B. I hope that we acquire hitters who actually put the bat on the ball at a much higher percentage than some of the others that we are counting on. 12. You can't pick a starting 5 and call it good. You need 8-9-10 quality starting pitchers to get through the season. If we can't bring Gray back... we need to find someone Gray like. It'll be hard but yeah... they got to find that guy via FA or Trade. No more Bundy types please.

1. Byron's health is going to determine how much Byron and where. I hope and pray that he is healthy enough to play CF and I hope and pray that if he isn't healthy enough to play CF that he doesn't roadblock that DH spot. We will have too much depth to not have the DH spot available for utilization across the roster. Buxton is going to be on the roster and I am very happy that he will be because the guy is a game changer when healthy. but... please... Healthy means being able to play CF. If he can't... He's not healthy and he needs to spend time on the DL until he can. Sign or trade for a CF that can capably man the position in case Byron can't. If Byron can... There are no issues having two capable CF'ers on the roster. 2. I don't like hearing anything static coming from Rocco in regards to a Lewis and 3B... it sounds like lack of consideration of the unknown future challenges that will occur. I like hearing the possibility of fluidity coming from Falvey because it sounds like... we understand that the future is unknown. WE DON'T KNOW WHAT WE WILL NEED when injuries or Gallo type performances rear their head. The context of the team may abruptly change and now Lewis might need to be moved to the OF. There is no room for definitive answers when the questions are yet to be asked. 3. Sign or Trade for a good CF. Having two capable CF's on the roster is wonderful and should be strived for... especially when one of those CF's has been a career long injury issue. If both are healthy and performing... one can play LF or RF. Depth is never a problem. Not having Depth is always a problem. 4. I didn't expect Correa to sign with us and he did. I don't expect Sonny Gray to sign with us and... umm... let's see what happens. I hope he comes back. He's a great pitcher and there is room on this roster for a quality pitcher and Sonny is quality. If he signs elsewhere... I won't blame him. He finally gets a chance to choose. If it was me... there is no way I give up that opportunity to choose. 5. I think they need to add a big bat. 1B or OF are the positions that you concentrate on for this big bat... whoever it may be. We want to be better than we were last year. Offense is the most obvious place that requires betterment. 6. I don't care where payroll is. If it goes down... it goes down. We have enough young talent on our roster that we should be able to throw together some money for some one more costly.

It can't be ruled out. 😎

I can't be absolutely sure. I also can't rule out the possibility of becoming President or dating Taylor Swift.

Hope she lands on her feet somewhere. Her time in Miami has been successful. She is important... She needs to keep blazing that trail.

“That’s a reality of our offseason. It’s not just for us. It’s for other clubs, too. That’s a piece of information we’re going to have to navigate. It’s a factor that there’s lack of clarity on TV revenue. That’s a fact, that’s no secret to anybody. That plays a role (with payroll), just like all of our revenue sources play a role to some degree.” – Derek Falvey When Falvey says this sort of thing. I believe him. I'm not worried about it. There is plenty of talent coming back. Ohtani isn't coming.

According to reports... the surgery being done is to "Excise Plica". I've asked someone who understands what Plica is and this is what he told me. 1. Plica is leftover knee tissue from when you were a developing embryo that didn't reabsorb back into the body. 2. Not everyone has Plica. 3. For those who have it. It can be a source of pain and swelling after knee injuries or overuse. 4. Plica doesn't show up on a MRI 5. Plica is pretty much useless to those who have it. You don't need tonsils... you don't need plica. 6. It is typically something they look at after they look at everything else. 7. Looking at point #3 again... It can be a source of pain and swelling. Here's to hoping that the excising of Plica makes it better.

I was sleeping in med school but your quoted sentence is where I lay my head these days. He can't block up that DH spot anymore. The damage of a struggling every day DH is never contained to just that position... it will bleed into other spots in the lineup especially if you are building proper depth.

They have to play somewhere. 😉

We were hitters short of perfection. I never expected perfection.

I don't have an opinion on the players under consideration but I was curious to see what everybody else thinks since the roster building of 2024 kinda begins with these decisions. I must say that this thread has been the most enjoyable read on the site in the past couple of days.

Gray Hot Dish is perfect. Everybody knows that the cream of mushroom soup... looks Gray after cooking.

At 28 hours and one minute. She finally pulls into the parking space, walks into Target only to find that they don't sell Alcohol on Sundays. And she needs it bad... just to put up with everything.

I wonder if it would help or hurt negotiations if he publicly said: There's no ****ing way I'm returning to Minnesota. The People smell like lutefisk, they think putting the cheese inside a burger is genius. If they combine the beef with tator tots and cream of mushroom soup, they pretend it's not a casserole... it magically becomes hot dish. They take 30 minutes to say goodbye to someone even if they are just running to the Hy-Vee, they drill holes in the ice to catch fish small enough to fit through the hole, and let me just say that anyone who has to scrape ice off a car window in order to see where you are going is an idiot. I wonder how that would fly?

I've heard people say that Joe Ryan is gone now because he is so out of his mind angry that Rocco pulled him after two innings. The winter of 2028 is gonna suck.

Whatever deal Sonny gets next year and whatever team he signs with... One thing is for sure. Sonny has earned whatever he gets and he has especially earned the right to choose. He was fantastic last year and he has also been really good over his career with 3.47 ERA over 1,571 innings. Wherever he lands... I'll be happy for him. I'd love to see Sonny back in a Minnesota uniform but will hold no ill will if he goes elsewhere. As for the narrative that Sonny and Rocco were at odds over his short starts in 2022. Let's go back to July 2, 2018. On that day... The Twins front office sent Byron Buxton down to the minor leagues for the rest of the season leaving Byron 12 days short of service time and delaying his free agency eligibility by a full year. Many in the Twinsdaily crowd were angry claiming that Byron was screwed by the Twins and that Byron was sure to be gone when the opportunity to leave presented itself. On November 28, 2021... Byron Buxton signed 7 year extension to remain in Minnesota. Just another attempt to climb into the heads of others without a decent sized earhole to make it through.

The Astros won 3 more games in a 162 game season. We were not hopelessly destroyed by the Astros in the playoffs. The Blue Jays were not hopelessly destroyed by us. Are the Dodgers or Braves one of the the big boys? Yes we are golfing now... but I'm not sure people realize just how close we were until strike three was called against Kepler to end it. And I'm not sure people realize just how close we were back in July when people were declaring this team not worthy of an addition at the trade deadline.

I don't care much for the prediction game myself. Although... For the past 10 years... Every single year I have correctly filled out my College Men's Basketball bracket and have nailed every winner from the beginning of the tournament to the end. I simply do not make mistakes. We are all capable of such things. Just do like I do... wait until the games are completed before filling the brackets in.