Riverbrian

Yep All things being equal: A pitcher who can throw 130 innings is twice as valuable as a pitcher who can only throw 65 innings. On the field and on the market. Both matter.

An above average Kirilloff would be huge.

I read a yelp review on a restaurant once where the reviewer gave a restaurant two stars because they were handed 3 menus when the party of 4 was seated. Some folks... just search for a negative to hang on to.

This makes perfect sense. I applaud this sentiment. It makes no sense to ruin your off-season prematurely. In the case of Gallo, I could use a big dose of what you are saying because you are absolutely right. My premature concern remains this: Will Falvey, Lavine and Baldelli pivot off of Gallo or anyone who they believe will be a performer who is not performing. If Gallo is the same guy as last year, will he still walk past the lineup card without having to check it because he is is going to be in the lineup despite his performance? I don't mind them spending 11M on a player. I don't have to agree or disagree with that acquisition. If Gallo is the guy they want, that's good enough for me. I don't mind them making a mistake with that 11M if that is what happens. What I will mind is the doubling down on that mistake.... if that is what happens. It's one thing to blow 11M on a player... it's survivable if you react to that poor performance by limiting opportunity to perform poorly. It's another thing to blow 11M on a player and allowing that player to take you down every day with seemingly unlimited opportunity to perform poorly. I wish I could say that they wouldn't do that but... they have done it enough times that it has created a preemptive nervousness with me when all I want is get a chance. Yes... I'm a complicated conflicted type guy. Sano got chance after chance. Vargas did not get chance after chance. Let's see how Gallo is deployed in 2023.

I'll take Austin Meadows in RF. I'd let Perez qualify for catcher and be the catcher. DH if you must... I'd be looking at Eloy. The rest looks right in my opinion.

Amen to all of that. Young players like Miranda, Kirilloff and Larnach will not become givens with a bowling pin mentality to roster construction. If Miranda struggling at 3B and needing to play 1B knocks Kirilloff over like a bowling pin because playing time becomes this impossible issue. We will severely handicap ourselves reaching too much talent. Those 10 to 20 prospects that you mention will never get here if you can't figure out how to make an adjustment to Miranda or adjustments to the 10 to 20 prospects. We will never get to "Too much talent" if we look at Kepler and Gallo on the same roster and think a trade has to happen because you have too much talent.

In hindsight maybe not. Vargas got some opportunity the following year in 2017. 264 PA's with a .758 OPS so he didn't light the world on fire. Still that OPS is much better than what Kepler has been producing lately and there is no doubt that Kepler got a lot more rope. 2016 though... Yeah... I didn't like it one bit. It's was not what a team out of contention should be doing. It was the opposite. The team is tumbling toward the #1 draft pick. You have a young player hitting the crap out of the ball to a 1000 plus OPS (70 AB's) a player who is basically the only player on the team hitting the ball in July and you send him down. So the team... out of contention, tumbling toward the #1 pick could make sure that a player who is a pending free agent and gone next year can get the AB's. If you are out of contention you play your youth, you trade your expiring contacts and if you can't trade them... you play the youth first. If Vargas is allowed to build on that hot streak... perceptions change... maybe 2017 goes better with some faith and additional AB's to add to his experience. Maybe he hits a wall and crashed but... we will never know. You take away a hot streak... you take away everything.

Absolutely. Having too many players is never a problem. Every club should strive for having too many players. No club should ever purposely get in the way of not reaching that goal.

Kennys Vargas was never going to get a chance with the Twins. In 2016... He was called up on July 4. Over 60 July AB's. His OPS was 1.129. He was benched and then sent down when players who would be leaving in free agency at the end of the year returned from the injured list. The Twins finished 2016 with 59-103 record. Bench a guy when he is hot is a really good way to make earning a job impossible.

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.

Agreed... I don't think you can time the guy who goes 3 for 25 and follows it with a 11 for 25 for a .280 but I am talking about that guy who goes 5 for 25 and then goes 5 for 25 again. I am talking about that season long problem spot that you keep playing expecting to turn it around that doesn't. We all know who those guys were last year and in years past and we should all know that the Twins have shown that they will be patient with them. How long can you stay patient with them and if it takes a while what is the reward at the end? With the combination of depth and the If's on this roster... these thoughts are on my mind a lot.

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 believe most are in agreement that money is a competitive advantage. I'm not sure who would argue against that. I know you are talking about money spent by the Mets, Dodgers and Padres in comparison to what the Twins, Pirates etc. spend but for the purpose of this discussion... let's just talk about the money spent on Joey Gallo this year. Spending more money on Joey Gallo than other teams are willing to pay for Joey Gallo is using Money to gain a competitive advantage. It doesn't matter if any of us think it's a bad move and it doesn't matter if the Mets spent 25 billion on someone better. Acquiring Gallo with money was done to make an incremental improvement to the team. Coaches working with players to improve them is done to make an incremental improvement to the team. Analytics, shifts, hot/cold zones, spin rates... you name it... this data is used to make incremental improvements to the team. Everybody is trying to make incremental improvements to the team. Teams platoon to make incremental improvements to the team and the incremental improvement is maybe 1 extra hit every couple of games. Teams do a lot of things, employ a lot of people, spend a lot of money in order to gain an extra hit a game on average. Letting one player... or two players, work through extended slumps negates these incremental improvements that you are spending time, money and resources on. I didn't want to mention names... but I started this discussion because of Emilio Pagan, Max Kepler, Joey Gallo, Gilberto Celestino etc. Pagan got chance after chance... he personally negated the slight gains that they worked real hard to gain. Kepler negated gains, he got chance after chance. Gallo will negate gains if he is allowed to hit like last year and keep playing. We platoon Garlick with a lefthanded hitter for a slight platoon advantage, We give it right back by ignoring actual Pagan performance. We turn to the bullpen after two times through the rotation to gain an advantage the third time through the order. We give it right back when Celestino is allowed to hit like crap. Runs per game... if you highlight #1 (5.2 Dodgers) and #30 (3.4 Tigers) and say massive! OK... but you are comparing top with bottom. It gets a lot tighter when you compare #6 through #25. But... OK... let's compare top with bottom. Yeah... that's 290 more runs a year. It's quite a bit. Also consider that the Dodgers led the majors in runs allowed so the Dodger advantage must be doubly massive. The result. Two extra wins every 10 games. If the Tigers gain one more win per 10 games and the Dodgers lose one more game per 10 games. They are both 81-81. The margins are thin. The overall point is this... teams do an awful lot of things just to gain a hit here and there and produce a run here and there in order to produce a win here and there. Letting a player just struggle negates it.

I'm frequently misunderstood.