Riverbrian

I agree. With all of the injuries... the only place the depth held was on the mound. Yeah we took some hits but those young arms gave our offense a chance to win games. 5-9 in the order was well below average when we needed them to be at least average... if not better than average. Now our best bat after the all-star break is gone and we get article after article about needing an ACE. I agree with you.

First off, there a lot of people using Ace, 2, 3, 4, 5 to describe starters so the comment wasn't directed at your use of the system so sorry if I gave offense of some sort. I'm saying, that I don't do it. It's not too complicated for me to understand. You say Berrios is a 2. You think he is better than a 3 4 and 5 but not quite a 1... the concept isn't hard. Berrios had a 5.32 ERA in 2022. Jose's best years were in the 3.50 ERA range. Joe Ryan has been called a 4 by many (not necessarily you) with a 3.55 ERA in 2022. This is why I don't use it. It's subjective and not clear on if it's reporting or projecting. Others can use it if they want but I'm not going to concern myself with the "Is Rodon an Ace" discussion. I thought he was one of the top starters in the league last year. If others don't feel he is an ace. OK. Whatever that means. As for the discussion I started awhile back about your BETTER PITCHERS THROWING MORE INNINGS for discussion purposes. Not many are going to subscribe to that, Even, I don't think the execution is possible but I am trying to break the shackles of that 5 man rotation that requires below average pitching to keep chugging along. If the alternative is 5 plus ERA innings eaters tossing the bulk of your innings just to hold a rotation intact. I'd rather they don't.

Good Post I never know if poor performance is injury related or not. I just have these opinions that if injury is indeed causing poor performance they shouldn't be on the field. Someone hitting .200 because they are hurt is the same performance as the guy who hits .200 when healthy... both need to be played less.. if at all. I have hope that Polanco will rebound back to what we hope Polanco can be. I even have hope that Kepler can rise from the 2 years of ashes but if they don't we are back to where we were in August and September and we better add some hitting in case they don't.

I've already decided that I'm going to be optimistic again next year. I think the Twins are headed in the right direction. Kind of like the Green Wave Hockey Team. I just think if we are prioritizing under the assumption that we can't get everything. Offense should be the top priority. Correa is gone... Buxton is often hurt. Arraez, Urshela, Gordon are the ones who performed when the chips were down. Everyone else didn't. Asking Larnach and Kirilloff to overcome what we didn't have in the last half is too big or at least too risky of an ask of them.

I agree... Teams should be improved from stem to stern. Ace, #2, #3, #4, #5 designations for starters seems to be popular with the kids these days but I just don't do them. I hear people say Ryan is a 4... I don't know what that means. I think he can help us win. 4 makes it sound like there are 3 levels better. If I were to use the same type of designations with our hitters. We have way too many 5's I guess. We could use some Aces at that plate. ?

I understand the Value of a so-called "Ace" and I understand why these articles are written. However, Let's compare the OPS AND ERA Post All-Star Break while the wheels were coming off. Post All Star Break - Looking at 16 Hitters and 16 Pitchers -- The ones who we went to battle with during a pennant chase. Above Average Hitters 5 - Above Average Pitchers 9 Average Hitters 2 - Average Pitchers 2 Below Average Hitters 9 - Below Average Pitchers 5 Post All-Star Break this is the Twins OPS production at the plate. (49 AB's to Qualify) Above 2022 League Average: Buxton - .866 (Often Injured) Correa - .866 (Gone) Urshela - .829 Gordon - .780 Miranda - .760 2022 League Average: Arraez - .715 Wallner - .709 Below 2022 League Average: Polanco - .657 Cave - .644 (Gone) Sanchez - .620 (Gone) Celestino - .582 Garlick - .522 Leon - .502 Contreras - .482 Jeffers - .477 Kepler - .468 Palacios - .382 (Gone) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post All-Star Break on the Mound: We had 9 who were above 2022 League Average ERA. (Over 21 IP to Qualify): Above 2022 League Average: Duran - 1.05 Thielbar - 1.50 Ober - 2.01 Gray - 2:38 Moran - 3.27 Pagan - 3.56 (Yeah I know - But his post all-star break numbers are his numbers) Jax - 3.62 Fulmer - 3.70 (Gone) Varland - 3.81 2022 League Average: Ryan - 4.14 Lopez - 4.37 Below 2022 League Average: Aaron Sanchez - 4.71 (Gone) Dylan Bundy - 5.13 (Most Likely Gone) Chris Archer - 6.63 (Gone) Josh Winder - 6.65 Trevor Megill - 6.84 With all of these Ace Articles and Subsequent Ace Discussions - Are we focused on the right section of the roster?

I'm wondering why Milwaukee would trade Woodruff? Is the new guy Brad Arnold about to tear it down?

Did you just sarcastically "Brilliant" in response to Rosterman?

Just like everybody went from the 1st to 3rd on Ben Revere's arm.

Kepler's defense wouldn't have helped that either.

You see, this isn't going to work with me. Sadly, Kepler's fielding ability didn't produce enough runs for our offense. Celestino also couldn't defensively put runs on our board. ? The Phillies have a supposedly bad defense. Seems to be working OK so far. You can put an extra "very" in front of "very important" but right now... I'm struggling with "important".

I've been as hard on Kepler as anyone and I agree with you. He should get a roster spot to see if he the shift helps him. I don't believe he will fetch enough in return to justify shipping him out of town so we might as well give him a roster spot. However... I do not want the Twins coming out of the off-season with the attitude that we have Kepler so we are covered in RF. Bring in a solid bat and let Kepler compete for playing time with Larnach, Kirilloff and Gordon. Give him more playing time if he does what you suggest is possible. I do hold out hope that it is possible.

Once while Bowling I rolled a 272 in the first game and followed it with 64 in Game Two. My stroke came and went. Also could have been the beer.

Another Starter Pitcher Article. In my opinion... We need a big hitting OF'er more. If we spend that kind of money. Might as well go for Judge.

Wow!!! This happens in other organizations?

And his results this year reflect that. That is a statement about Cole Sands TODAY and not the entire development system. It also has nothing to do with tomorrow when it comes to Cole Sands. Cole threw 30 IP with a 5.87 ERA and that is certainly not a good look. The Jose Berrios debut year in 2016. He threw 58 IP with a 8.02 ERA... which was a worse look. Jose was much better in 2017. Players can and do get better... Sometimes they arrive with the lights on and sometimes they have to bump shins on coffee tables until the light switch is found. And sometimes players get worse. Only Khris Davis with Oakland produced the same results every year. ? All in All... I'd be pretty disappointed in John Smoltz if he was attempting to predict the future of Cole Sands based on a couple of innings of watching him from a booth. I will give him the benefit of the doubt that he wasn't. Now... If he was making a statement about Cole Sands at that moment... it was probably an astute statement and his numbers reflected that. Would Smoltz say the same thing about Ober or Winder? Or Jose Miranda?

These type of pitchers are like McDonalds. They can keep you alive while killing you at the same time. They can't be sent down so they stay in the name of depth.

I was referring to Kepler but it works for Rosario after last season as well.

This info isn't going to sell me on Wins above replacement. It will probably cause me to go to war with WAR. ? Better defensive metrics at two harder defensive position (2B and CF) than an easier defensive position such as LF and the results state that Jake Cave is slightly ahead of Nick Gordon in LF despite 17 less games played at that position. 4 out of 5 chances are routine. 233 total chances for Max Kepler over 115 games. Roughly 2 chances per game. That's 1 non-routine play every 3rd game or so to separate himself defensively from his peers. 216 Total Chances for Nick Gordon over 136 games. Roughly 1.5 chances per game so 1 non-routine play every 3rd game or so to separate himself defensively from his peers. 92 Total Chances for Jake Cave over 54 games. Roughly 1.7 chances per game so 1 non-routine play every 3rd game or so to separate himself defensively from his peers. 1 defensive play every third game is enough to elevate Jake Cave over Nick Gordon? You also have to assume that neither Max Kepler or Jake Cave is succeeding at every non-routine chance while Nick Gordon is failing at every non-routine chance. Is it possible that WAR is misleading and groaning from the weight of small sample size zone rating statistics?

According to Fangraphs how did Nick Gordon do? This question is for anyone to answer.

8 important players on the roster are Pre-Arb.

How many teams are looking to improve a corner outfielder spot with a guy that just produced a .666 OPS for 8.5 million dollars? I looked at all 30 rosters and I could only find one team. The Minnesota Twins.

Perfect This keeps Kepler out of the Miami deal. Now we can trade Max to Seattle for Julio Rodriquez. ?

When I look at a roster and how to improve it, I'm a little different than most folks. I honestly don't look at the top. I look at the bottom. I don't look at Aaron Judge at the top and dream. I look at the players who are playing badly at the bottom wide awake. The "How much should they spend" question isn't really designed for me. The pursuit of the superstar has those limitations that are the crux of this conversation. If the Twins sign Correa to that 10 year 350 Million contract. Wow... That would awesome and very uncharacteristic but the follow up question to that Correa signing is: Now that we just dropped all that money, who CAN'T WE PAY now. Trout, Ohtani and Rendon can't bring the Angels Home... apparently teams need more than 3 players. What's that line from the movie "Moneyball". "If we try to play like the Yankees in here, we will lose to them out there". The Twins just can't play in that spending stratosphere. It's a different game for the Twins. The Padres can't play there either. Yes the Padres are nearby now but they can't remain there. 0-18. It's better than 0-0. The streak began in 2004 and nobody on the 2004 roster was on the 2020 roster. The roster was different every single year the Twins went 0 for the playoffs and the roster of the team that took them out was different every single year. It's a small sample size followed by a small sample size followed by a small sample size. Keep getting in the door. They will win a game eventually... Maybe even two. The playoffs... who knows. Who had the Phillies coming out of the NL? If anybody raises their hand... just put your hand back down because nobody is going to believe you anyway.