Riverbrian

My Wife and I were driving back from the Twin Cities. After a fuel stop, I made a mistake, I accidentally got on to I-94 EAST bound when needing to go WEST bound to North Dakota. My wife wasn't happy with me. Her level of concern over this mistake left me with the impression that she must have been thinking that we would have to drive around the entire world now to get to North Dakota. I hit the next exit, turned around, corrected the mistake and everything was fine.

My Mom used to spend a lot of time separating her food very carefully on her plate. The Potatoes and Gravy was carefully tucked into a corner of the plate. The Gravy was contained in a Potato indentation in the center. The stuffing had it's spot, The Broccoli and Cheese was not touching the Turkey or the Ham. It was a work of art as she sat down to eat. Too bad it doesn't last that long once the baseball season begins. By April, an injury here or an injury there and pretty soon the gravy is pouring into the jello. It's nice that they have that balance to start... let's see how long it lasts. 😉

Sports is not different than the other aspects of life. Those Civic leaders don't get elected unless they tell the majority what the majority wants to hear. They don't even have to do what they say they will do. They just have to tell them. Your employers work behind closed doors from time to time. Your employers are not walking in and announcing that 3 people are going to be cut in the next month. Your supervisor isn't telling you that Angie hasn't been here all week because she is in rehab while you are adding her work to your schedule. The business you purchase from? Tony the Tiger disagrees with you. Are Frosted Flakes Really that great?

From the Marlins trade to spy balloons. I have never seen what you are talking about in this post. The only thing that I will agree with is that "reactions are varied". You are asking for "a representative of the organization to say something along the lines of 2022 was an F-minus in terms of grades". Here's your variance because I'm not asking for that. You already believe that the 2022 was an F-minus... I don't believe it was an F-minus but maybe if this representative works hard enough... maybe they can convince me. Is this really what you expect? 🤔

Great Article and this is a great post. Fans demand full disclosure, complete transparency but if actual inside information was provided, a large segment of the fan base would strip that meat from the bone in seconds. We want the truth... We can't handle the truth. As a response to our reactions to almost everything. Young Folks are graduating with public relations degrees by the thousands in universities across the country and put to work handling us and our reactions. Which just drives us further and further from the truth. If we are not getting the truth... look in the mirror... it's our fault. Great article... good luck with your posting of truth and let's watch what happens when you present it.

I think you are going to find a lot of players getting days off early in the season. That's good because you never know what you are going to need until you need it. Agreed, Kirilloff is not a sure thing from a health or performance standpoint. There are very very few sure things on this roster or in baseball... the front office doesn't know what they need until they need it. Depth is the only thing that can provide some protection from not knowing what you need until you need it. If you have actual depth... it makes no sense to only use a portion of it because if you only use a portion of it, you don't have depth. If you have actual depth, trying to contain it in neat little boxes is only going to drive you crazy. Gallo doesn't have to be Kepler replacement. Kepler doesn't have to be superfluous. Take them out of the boxes you are putting them in... you'll feel better.

This is a path I wont follow. Its just my thing. I am 100% against platooning a young player. Unless that is all they think he can be in the future. Personally I want more out of Kirilloff. Farmer could play SS if Correa signs with someone else. His 8 million could help pay for Correa. The Angels were calling. Gallo probably wasnt a consideration until Correa said Giants.

Personally, I agree with you. If I had to choose between the 3 of them. I'd choose Gio 6 days a week. But, I still think you are focused on the wrong players. Im willing to bet that Gio was traded for Farmer indirectly but yet basically straight up.

And the Yankees and Blue Jays are all right handed. Turns out we have a bunch of left handed hitters. Clearly survivable. Let's see if they can hit.

I've always assumed that Gio was basically traded for Farmer. They were traded bang bang so it makes sense. Farmer was necessary if we didn't land a SS and Farmer could do what Gio did if we landed a SS so it was a better fit. I don't see any connection to Kepler, Gallo or Kirilloff at all. If I were to continue my assumptions. I assume Gallo was signed primarily because we had some money to spend after we didn't get Correa. It wasn't long after Correa agreed with the Giants that Vazquez and Gallo were announced. I also assume that if Correa would have signed with the Twins right away and not flirted with the Giants and Mets... Gallo and possibly Vazquez as well would probably not be Twins right now. I assume that 11M would have been too much and they might have went with a cheaper catcher instead. If I were to continue my assumptions. When Correa became an option again and the Twins got the deal done... it created a new unplanned thing called Correa plus Gallo and Vazquez. Kepler? No idea. I assume that the right deal would have pried him loose from the very beginning... even before Gio/Farmer. I just don't think the market was ever going to pay the right deal and I think the front office has moved on and have included Kepler, into a new Correa, Gallo, Kepler, Vazquez paradigm. I think all front offices start the off-season with a plan but end up with adjustments to that plan based on opportunity or lack of.

Pitchers may love it but three players in one outfield with WAR metrics primarily generated by defense is an offensively scary thing for me.

Back in the early 90's. There was a legion baseball tourney in East Grand Forks. I was sitting on the top row of one of those portable metal bleachers down the first base line. The concession stand and bathrooms are located behind the RF fence so there was frequent foot traffic behind you and it was an extremely windy day blowing out of LF. So windy that the baseball cap that I was wearing blew off my head and took off on a roll. I jumped off the bleachers to chase after the hat. A gentlemen was walking past and the hat rolled right in front of him and he was kind enough to chase after it for me... maybe 20 yards... It was really really windy. As he walked back with the hat instead of handing to me... while saying here ya go, he attempted to toss it to me from maybe 5 feet away, the wind caught it again and this time the hat blew even further away. I jokingly said to him... "You'll never make it to the major leagues with an arm like that". He laughed and I took off after the hat. It was just a random stranger who just happened to be Dave Goltz walking behind me at the exact time that I could use some hat assistance. I didn't know it was Dave Goltz until later on when I heard someone sitting nearby point and say that's Dave Goltz over there and then I could see it... Yeah, that's definitely Dave Goltz and the team he was watching was Fergus Falls so it made sense that he was that random stranger. I still laugh about it to this day. I assume that he thought that I knew who he was when I made the joke... but I didn't. What are the odds, that I would randomly make that "Never make it to the major league joke" to someone who actually made it to the major leagues in East Grand Forks, Minnesota. Of all the gin joints in all the world.

I will be giving him a chance. I will give him my support. Hope he knocks the cover off the ball. This support will be 100% but it does have opt-outs that I can use every 30 days.

I feel 100% the opposite. I worry about the offense. I am happy with the pitching. It's got to be hard for the front office to please both of us simultaneously. 😄

It's good to question these things. Let's look at three guys who played a similar amount of games in 2022, didn't play much and hit terribly when they rarely played. Jermaine Palacios 25 games - OPS+ 19 bWAR -0.7 Miguel Sano 29 Games - OPS+ 3 bWAR -0.8 Mark Contreras 27 Games - OPS+ 24 bWar - 0.0 What did Mark Contreras do in those 49 defensive chances in the OF (less than 2 a game) to avoid the negative dash in front of his bWAR number? Was it one catch in a low probability zone? Was it seven catches in a low probability zone?

I was being flippant with my implication of flippancy.

I was half joking about the middle finger but since you took me seriously... I do agree that Dylan Bundy was a known and proven quantity... Career ERA of 4.74 and we got a 4.89 in 2022. WHIP 1.30 and we got a 1.27 in 2022. Fielding Independent Pitching 4.68 which suggests that those numbers were indeed sustainable. Since Smeltzers 5.23 FIP in 2022 is the stat you have chosen to highlight for sustainability. Dylan Bundy had a FIP of 5.51 in 2021 the year before the Twins signed him. I guess that suggests he was better than the 6.06 ERA he produced in 2021. I'm not making a case for Smeltzer remaining in our rotation this year because I've got 10 pitchers on the current staff that I like better. I'm not even making a case that Smeltzer should have been a guy that we staffed up when putting together the roster in the spring of 2022. But I am saying this... These guys want a major league job and they'd like to keep that job and make it a career... this is the dream... this is what they work for... they want the ball on that hill, they want an organization that believes in them and gives them a chance and they will report to AAA to keep the dream alive but AAA is not where they want to be when they are so close that they can taste it. Smeltzer would have loved the opportunity that Bundy got. Smeltzer I assume would like a multi-year deal that provides income that can set up a family for generations. There is a lot riding on the line for players that we all flippantly call AAAA. Who knows but it would take incredible character to sit and watch Bundy and Archer get the ball time and time again knowing that your performance was better without frustration. It's quite likely that Smeltzer did the smart thing as he departed for Miami but put yourself in his shoes and then consider that I was half joking.

This is a great point. If he is the same hitter as has been the past two years (Same goes for Gallo). We wouldn't want him to replace someone hurt or ineffective because you'd just be replacing ineffective with ineffective. You would cut him much like we cut Duffey last year. Give someone else the chance to help us or develop if we are beyond help. The only way I see it working is if he is productive with the bat and he needs to earn it after two years. If he doesn't... he shouldn't be here in August. Another good point. Last year in August and September we had decent OF defense with Cave, Celestino and Kepler while 5 through 9 (including Sanchez) in the batting order was as offensively unproductive as offensively unproductive can be. This 2 win player measurement helped Cleveland run right past us.

Good Article - Fair Assessment in my opinion. I've been hard on Kepler and I don't want to be hard on him anymore. I truly want him to succeed and I hope he does in a Twins uniform... we can really use a Max Kepler playing above average. If I had Kepler - I wouldn't trade him If I didn't have Kepler - I wouldn't trade for him. We are not in the current position to be skinny with our outfield options. I'm all for giving him the opportunity to win the job... I am against simply giving him the job. It's easy to look at all of these options and say let's clear some people out of there but we need the depth and the competition just to find the players who will get the job done assuming that some might not. Don't want to choose wrong and be left with players who are not hitting with no place to turn. Let them compete and then clear out the ones who lose the competition.

The Brewers didn't trade for an ace. The Brewers developed not one but two aces. Corbin Burnes was a 4th round pick. He was the 21st ranked prospect in the Brewers system in 2017. He was the 69th ranked prospect in baseball one slot behind Fernando Romero in 2018. He was a complete nightmare in 2019 with an 8 plus ERA in the majors and an 8 plus ERA at AAA. Nobody was thinking ACE when 2020 rolled around. In 2020 he found the ACE light switch. No Trades were necessary.

Me To The expectations that I'm picking up on is coming from posters and bloggers.

Yeah... I get that... I'm very pro lots of options in case of injury or struggles. I am very anti Eggs in one Basket in case of injury or struggles. I explained it in a post earlier. It's the expectation that a healthy Kirilloff is going to replace what we lost with Arraez is the weight. Take a load off Arraez... Take a load for free... Take a load off Arraez... And... And... And... You put the load... put the load right on Kirilloff. Robbie Robertson and Levon Helm are better at this sort of thing than I am. 😀

I was sleeping in med school so I can only hope that the procedure went well and that the decision makers are getting accurate reports. 😀 Who knows... We also are hearing reports that they are toe-dipping into Gurriel discussions... who knows how much toe they are dipping and what that means in regards to their confidence level of each individual player on the existing roster. Right now... I'm just reacting to articles and individual posts that seem to suggest that Kirilloff is going knock the ball around the park with the greatest of ease if healthy. I'd be happier with: A. Arraez and Kirilloff together in 2023 or B. Replacement for Arraez with Kirilloff in 2023 I'm nervous about C. Kirilloff making up for what we lost with Arraez. C is a lot of weight is being placed on his shoulders.

I'm not that concerned about who puts on the big glove. Farmer can play 3B and Miranda can play 1B on day one if needed. Gordon can play some 3B to if needed. It's the thought that the offense lost in the Arreaz trade can be easily mitigated by a healthy Kirilloff. That's the incredible weight being placed upon young Alex's shoulders.