Riverbrian

Exactly... Umm... except for the entertain part. I won't even entertain it. Position scarcity over pay every time. Grow your own catcher and be on the other side of such over pay trades in the future. Realmuto would play 125 games tops and his best season ever was last year and he hit what Eduardo Escobar hit last year. The reported price tag for Realmuto would get you someone like Kluber.

I'm ok not "Fixating" on the payroll number as Falvey mentioned. Production is production and there are plenty of examples of minimum salary producing and high salaried players not producing. Finding players that produce is the job that they are tasked with and this is what I have been and will be razor focused on and I don't care where they come from or how much water they draw out of the payroll well. So yeah... I'm absolutly OK not "Fixating" on the payroll number as Falvey mentioned. However... that potential fixation is a two-way street. If Derek Falvey is going to ask us to join him and not fixate on the payroll number... then they can't fixate on it either. MEANING: If you are paying a guy 6 million dollars and he is failing. Don't fixate on the 6 million you spent by keeping bad performance in the lineup everyday. That is a form of fixation of the payroll number. A failing player in the lineup is a mistake, continuing to play that failing player is a 2nd mistake that synergizes with the first mistake and is much much worse than the original mistake. So Derek, I personally promise to you that I will not fixate on the payroll number and I ask you to promise to not fixate on it either. In 2019 and going forward, don't take as long as you did to discover Astudillo or Cave in 2018. The amount of time you took to find those players is a form of fixating on the payroll. I've heard you a couple of times clarify an original comment about one year contracts being a lesson learned from last year, by adding the lateness of the signing to the context. Bottom Line: It doesn't matter what the reason was or what the lesson learned was. It's wonderful that you found the reason for the poor performance... if you did? However... the question that needs to be answered is: You recognized the poor performance... why did you steadfastly stick with it? It's like standing in the rain in your backyard, instead of going into the house. You have the option of going indoors at any time but you just stand in the rain until it ends. The next day you say to your wife. "I figured it out... the reason I got so wet yesterday was because it was raining". Your wife is going to say: You are right, but why didn't you come inside".

To be honest... the one thing you don't really question is by far the most concerning concern I have. This team went down with the ship last year.

Believe me... I get what you are saying. I don’t have time at the moment to find the quote or remember it exactly but there was a quote from the front office implying at least a portion of what you are saying. Something along the lines of they will get aggressive when Buxton and Sano show their potential so I believe you are right but... I thought it then and I think it now. It’s a bad plan. I’m not comfortable with those two being Green Lights or Red Lights in any shape or degree. I’m fine with short term contracts and I demand that they sell at the deadline if out of contention... on that we agree but I can and will deny that they are the most important cogs in 2019 because that is simply forcing it and I’m done with forcing it because there are 25 and 40 roster spots. I simply take issue with any suggestion that Buxton and Sano are the go button or canary in a coal mine. Both of them should be sweet sweet bonus should they become what they are supposed to become. 2019 and beyond should be about performance of everyone and increasing value of as many assets as possible for trade value or good ole fashioned victories.

I think it's possible you are right but... OMG... That's a bad plan. Any plan based on the performance of only two players is a bad plan. Any plan based on two players who were sent to Ft. Myers and home in September last year is even worse.

I don’t care who they sign or where they come from. My only focus is how they perform and are deployed. If the Twins try to get 150 innings out of Martin Perez with a 4.80 ERA. Then I will take issue. My concerns are strictly fundamental at this point. 25 players on the roster who are all given the opportunity to compete for playing time and whoever performs the best gets the playing time. I simply won’t suffer through another year like last year where under performers get to walk past the lineup card without checking It because they going to be playing. I don’t care where they come from scrap heap or 200 million dollar free agents or straight from Ft. Myers. So the front office can sign who they want. Roll the dice how they want to roll it. I’ll simply be watching the playing time allocation afterwards and that’s when I’ll applaud or complain.

Bingo

Could Austin play OF? Cave has options.

I don't understand how Cuddyer has become questionable in any light. I hope I get a chance to shake his hand and if I get that chance... I will proudly do so. For 11 Years he competed for my team. He is one of us. He has my full respect.

Defense is huge. The difference between extra outs and outs taken away play huge roles in crooked numbers and crooked numbers play huge roles in wins and losses. Defense is huge. However... there are some amazing defensive CF'er's on the beach because they can't hit enough to out play the average defensive CF. Buxton has to hit.

if you want someone... you go get him. That's how I think it should work. Waiting for a bargain doesn't do much for me.

They are shedding all over the place. Cleveland hair in clumps on the furniture. No new immediate hair growing back.

It was a mistake to make that stupid statement. If it was me. I’d say “Byron, I’ll give you a roster spot. The rest is up to you”. I’ve got playing time here and a minor league option over here. I’m prepared for both. I’ve been on record of saying “I wanted the year back”. But how can you go from sent home in September to named the starting CF before the snow flies. If the Twins feel they gotta make it up to him now by naming him a starter. It goes from understandable to a bad decision.

TD has a "Blake" and a "Parker" contributing to this website. I like both of them so I'm sure this signing will be just fine.

Well said.

Two weeks younger

On that we agree. Up in North Dakota a 20 degree temperature doesn't mean much by itself. When you add in wind speeds, that's when you really start getting a sense if you need a coat.

That's fair. I'm saying that I have no idea but I find his skill set interesting enough to see if it blossoms into something with more AB's and I don't believe he's had enough chances to show what he could or can't be. I don't have this down to a science either but I'm interested. However, If he can only play 1B, He'd have to hit at an extraordinary level to survive.

I'm not knocking the skilled staff. They know more about baseball than I do... but let's be honest... it's a hard job and the margins are thin, and the production level rises and falls. Bottom line... they are frequently wrong. If they weren't sometimes wrong... David Ortiz would be in the hall of fame as a Minnesota Twin. I'm not knocking them for it... I'm recognizing the difficulty of the assignment and pointing out the reality of mistakes being made often. I trust that they have advanced data that is not available to me... I trust them to use that data to staff the 25 and 40 man rosters and make decisions with as much knowledge as humanly possible. However... once the ball is hurled toward the plate, the paradigm shifts and if a player is playing well... get out of his way. I'm not saying that Kepler should be tossed aside and I don't believe Cave should be tossed aside either. I'm saying let the best man win and last year the best man was Cave. Nobody is going to convince me that Kepler is better because he is supposed to be better.... If Kepler is supposed to be better... Please make him show it. He's had a few major league AB"s by now. The list is lengthy... Jose Ramirez wasn't supposed to be better,, JD Martinez wasn't supposed to be better, Tommy Pham wasn't supposed to be better, Matt Moore was supposed to be amazing. Solar and Alex Gordon were supposed to rule the world. The list goes on and on. The skilled staff has burned the last ounce of any trust I had that they got this thing down pat... They don't and the reason is because sometimes the players have something to say about it. Otherwise I wouldn't be standing here tapping my foot waiting for Sano and Buxton to be real. If the skilled staff is looking at someone out producing someone else and saying that he shouldn't be out producing, just to go with the guy who is being out produced. They deserve their fate... but I as a fan do not and last year was the last year I will tolerate this fundamental, easy to fix, error. A good small sample size deserves a larger sample size. If the skilled staff doesn't allow it because they know better they will lose by their own hand and deserve their fate.

I don't know if Austin can play a passable OF or not and I'm going to assume you don't either. However, Making the assumption that he is one-dimensional and assuming that it is highly unlikely that he can't play the OF based on the Yankees moving him to 1B is dangerous. The Yankees had an outfield surplus and a gaping hole at 1B. I don't know if that's why the Yankees moved him from OF to 1B but... the explanation is extremely plausible and plausible enough to doubt that he was moved because he was terrible in the OF. I'd think it would be safer ground to simply wonder why he couldn't beat Bird for the 1B job. And... I know I'm not trusting the Twins to make a capable assessment after watching them stiffly deploy playing time over the years. I agree with the last two paragraphs you type... and therefore... If Austin can play some OF... it would be insane to throw that away. If Rosario could play 2B... it would be insane to throw that away... If Castellanos can play 3B... it would be insane to throw that away. But teams throw flexibility away all the time for stability or consistency and the shrinking pitching staffs are working against them. Starters can't just trot out to the same position every day. Utility guys don't have to be only guys who didn't win a starting job and then get shackled to one position. Just stop the madness. Starters can move to different positions and still be starters... See Kris Bryant, See Cody Bellinger. When Adrianza gets a chance to play. Polanco could move to 2B so Adrianza could play SS instead of Adrianza moving to 2B and Polanco playing SS. The Twins have a long history of this kind of crap.

I agree with you 100% about small sample sizes. But... have we reached critical mass with Max Kepler? Isn't it fair to say that Max hasn't earned a starting job? And doesn't the small sample size earn a chance to become a bigger sample size. Saying it's a small sample size, dismissing and moving on from the small sample size will only kill the small sample size and not allow it to become critical mass/stable data. LA Vikes is right. Max has to start singing for his supper. Personally I'd use the options and start Cave in Rochester but he's earned the right to challenge Kepler for the job.

Make him be a one dimensional 1B only type and you will kill him and his career. If he can play OF... you have given him a chance to help you and a chance to prolong his career. He was an OF in the Yankees minor league system. I won't pretend to know the circumstances but I know that there is always circumstance.

Nelson is a great name for a Minnesotan!

These type of assumptions appear frequently enough on TD that I feel a need to correct it each time. I can't think of a single discussion on TD that didn't have two sides. Creating a combined voice on any topic is impossible. Placing that combined voice on one side of topic and then claiming contradiction on the other side of a topic with another falsly created combined voice is pointless because... in the end... you'd have to ignore the opposition just to make it happen. Alright... Carry on All.

I have no problem stashing Astudillo in Rochester. There is a very small chance our catchers avoid the DL. I’m also OK giving Austin the 4th OF job and stashing Cave in AAA as well. I’m also Ok with the Cruz signing because he will provide a boost but I’m insistent on a handcuff move with this to upgrade Adrianza because Cruz will force Adrianza to backup Sano and we can’t gaurentee his health or performance. So OK... Cruz is signed... go get Beckham or someone who can backup all 3 infield spots with some pop. Otherwise we give back the gains with a Sano issue.