Riverbrian

The only honest answer that Falvey can give is... I don't know. Fans will not tolerate... I don't know... for an answer. Fans will continue tearing him a part. Falvey is therefore put in an impossible position when he is asked the question before he could possibly know the answer. Let's say he intends on trading Ryan but doesn't get the value he is seeking. Ryan stays and he told everybody including Ryan that he intends on trading him when prematurely asked the question. I see no good coming out of that. Let's say he intends on keeping Ryan but gets blown away by an offer. Fans will tear him a part for that. With that said. The Twins need to trade Ryan whose value will not get any higher than it is right now. You have to trade him this off-season and hopefully acquire a young 1B in return. If not... the Twins should spend the off-season converting an OF'er to 1B. I won't offer names for suggestions. If not... Go with Julien or Sabato or Fedko or me and live with the results. I'm sick of paying for the same mistake over and over again. One year rentals can make sense at times. They no longer make sense when we are in the 7th year of plug and play. They no longer make sense when Ty France is not only rostered but playing EVERY DAY!. Whey Ty France is playing every day after he signed for a million bucks non-guaranteed because nobody else wanted to pay him 1.5 million. You are no longer eating nutritious meals. You are drinking Soda to stay alive because nothing is coming out of the tap. You are not going to win drinking Mountain Dew instead of water. DIG A DAMN WELL.

OK... Let's not use the 6 year old Baldelli. And let's use 2025 data since that is the Baldelli we knew. But since we are being specific. Baldelli will use 2025 data for his sensibility but making decisions based on the 1987 performance data. To answer your question. Game 7 is typically all hands on deck... every pitcher can rest tomorrow. I think once Ohtani was pulled in the third inning and with the game close throughout. Nearly every manager in the world would have turned to Yamamoto because every path would have led to him. Of course this would be dependent on Yamamoto telling his pitching coach, Manager that I'm good to go. However... I don't believe Rocco leaves him in for 2 plus innings. I think Sasaki comes out for the 10th and 11th if Rocco was the manager.

I remember exactly where I was. I was at a friends house. I remember I was standing not sitting. There was no way I could sit. When the ball left the bat... I knew. You watch enough baseball... you know when it leaves the bat. My arms immediately started doing exactly what Hrbek's arms were doing as he rounded first but I was doing it before Kent even dropped the bat so I was doing it first. This will sound overly dramatic but I honestly felt a connection... at a different level. I remember high fiving my friend so hard that his German Shepherd started growling at me.

To answer the question posed in the title. If they have a choice... umm... no... they ain't coming. It would take paying more money and we shouldn't be paying more money at this juncture. Or should I say... we won't be paying more money at this juncture. Those will little choice... They'll come. Jorgenswest did a great job laying out the possible exceptions. Someone trying to get back into closing. Someone like Devin Williams or Ryan Helsley could try to rebound as a closer with a team like Minnesota. Middle Relievers could graduate to set up roles with the Twins. If I'm a player with something to prove. I'd love to join the Twins. The other guys... the ones who proved it... the ones most of Twinsdaily wants. They ain't coming.

Good Article Nick and it's a good question You are a smooth writer. I always read your stuff. Don't always agree but you know your stuff. You threw a lot of tomatoes at the front office and I think it's quite possible that... well... this is probably of their doing so it tends to get a little La Tomatina toward them. However... There is one thought that I can't shake. One answer that I'd like to know (will probably never know) before I toss that tomato. Why did Falvey and Lavine think that the money would be there? Nearly every move they made since 2017 strongly suggested that Falvey and Lavine thought the money would be there. Yeah... they sold on the down years as everyone should but nearly everything they did suggested that they thought the money would be there... and it largely was. The money went away with the FSN debacle. With a snap of the fingers... the money was gone and they stood there with a team constructed without a similar sized escape hatch. Why did Falvey and Lavine think that the money would be there as they talked about sustainability and drove payroll upward?

The Dodgers and the Blue Jays would absolutely care if they had to sign the free agents that we do. The Twins will never be in this neighborhood. It's a gated community with 24/7 security wearing suit and ties at 3AM. We shouldn't spend a second of time thinking about payroll right now. The Twins are not going to get Dodgers and Blue Jays type free agents. And even so... Like a dog chasing a car. In the current context of this team. ... we wouldn't know what to do with one if we somehow caught one. 😉

This post should be tattoo'd on the right hand of every member of Twinsdaily so we all can refer to it while typing. Perfect Post that just nails it.

For fun... it would be interesting to put together a perfect redraft since 2017, Not just catchers but all players drafted after Twins selection. What would the Twins look like today if they perfectly nailed every single draft. BTW... If Ohtani would have been draft eligible instead of an IFA. He would have been a Twin. I think he declared his intention prior to the 2017 draft. We had the first pick that year,

Redrafts are fun but incredibly unfair in my opinion. But... it didn't stop me from looking back at past drafts. 2025... #16 overall - Marek Houston was the selection - 4 catchers Irish, Bodine, Oliveto and Stevenson were taken after Houston and before the Next Twins selection. I will pass no judgement on this. Only Irish was drafted near the 16th selection. 2024... #21 Overall - Kaelen Culpepper was the selection - 3 catchers Moore, Lomavita and Cozart were selected after Culpepper and before the next Twins selection. Only Moore was reasonably distance from the #21 pick. 2023... #5 Overall - Walter Jenkins was the selection - 3 catchers were taken between Jenkins and the next selection. I don't think anyone is regretting the Jenkins selection so the names don't matter. 2022... #7 overall - Brooks Lee was the selection - 3 catchers Parada, Susac and Rushing were taken between Lee and the Twins next selection. Only Parada was drafted reasonably close to #7 overall. Hindsight could suggest that Rushing would have been a better selection. I'm not saying that... I'm saying could. However... I think it matters that Rushing was selected 40th and that's a long way from 7th. 2021... #26 overall - Chase Petty was the selection - Only 1 catcher Mack was taken between Petty and the Next selection. If anybody wanted to be concerned about the Petty selection. Catcher isn't where you would direct that concern. Jackson Merrill was selected the next pick after Chase Petty. 2020 - #27 overall - Aaron Sabato was the selection - 3 catchers were selected between Sabato and the next Twins selection. Wells, Romo and Dingler. If we wanted to do a redraft and criticize the Sabato selection. It would be a legit criticism. Wells went one pick after Sabato. Romo 8 picks after and Dingler 10 picks after. 2019 - #13 overall - Keoni Cavaco was the selection - 1 catcher Lee was selected between Cavaco and the next selection which was Wallner. Corey Lee went 19 selections after Cavaco so I'm not sure we can criticize not taking a catcher at 13 instead of Cavaco but we can certainly criticize the selection of Cavaco over Corbin Carroll. 2018 - #20 overall - Trevor Larnach was the selection - Ryan Jeffers who has one year before free agency was out 2nd pick at #59 overall. 2 Catchers Siegler and Bo Naylor between Larnach and Jeffers. I have no criticism. Jeffers has out performed Siegler whoever he is and Bo Naylor. We got the guy. Well... We got the guy if you ignore Cal Raleigh who went #90 that year. 2017 - #1 Overall - Royce Lewis was the selection - No Catchers were selected between Lewis and the next Twins selection. Looking at DECENT catchers on rosters across baseball that have arrived since 2017. IFA's Basallo, Narvaez, Quaro, Diaz, Moreno, Alverez 3rd round or later Picks Wong, O' Hoppe, Raleigh, Feduccia, Goodman, Hicks, Pages Was available after a DFA Joey Bart That's pretty much it for the Falvey era. Looking at the current Twins catching roster. Jeffers - 2nd Round Gasper - Trade (Cost us Moran) Pereda - Waivers Olivar - IFA Cardanes - 8th round Winkel - 9th round Baez - 12th round Cossetti - 11th round Ruiz - Undrafted College Player Tait - Trade (Cost us Duran) Diaw - 3rd Round Jimenez - Trade (Cost us Paddack) D. Pena - IFA R. Pena - IFA Castillo - IFA Nunez - IFA Again Hindsight is 2020 so this type of thing can be unfair. But I would conclude that they blew the 2020 Draft in regards to Catching picking Sabato with Wells, Romo and Dingler drafted shortly after. I also think that whatever we are doing in regards to our approach with International Free Agents could be questioned. Other than that... The Twins and a 28 other teams really blew it with Raleigh, Goodman and O'Hoppe going in later rounds. Hoppe was drafted in like the one millionth round. Just for fun - Cal Raleigh was selected 90th overall in 2018. As I mentioned earlier... The Twins took Jeffers in the 2nd round - 59th overall. Interestingly... the Twins did not have a 3rd round selection that year. They forfeited that pick when they signed Lance Lynn. The pick probably would have been after the 90 pick had they retained it. Just for fun - Hunter Goodman... I really like this kid. Hunter was selected in the 4th round 109 overall. The Twins selected 98th in the 3rd round and took Cade Povich 11 picks before. Carter Jensen and Adrian Del Castillo were selected 78 and 67 that year. Hajjar was selected by the Twins at 61. I'll add 2021 to 2020 where the Twins could have... should have drafted a decent catcher if they had the powers of foresight. So in conclusion... Unfairly... If the Twins knew then what I know now. We could have had Ryan Jeffers, Austin Wells, Hunter Goodman and Basallo on the roster today. Would have cost us Sabato and Hajjar. Oh the Pain... The Pain.

You are probably right and we are talking about Hrbek who is one of the best players in Twins history. On the other hand. Even Kepler eventually got sucked into the vortex when the left handed hitter pile dwindled with those right handed hitting handcuffs needing to be fed. Kepler was able to avoid it for awhile when there were 3 or 4 other left handed hitters on the roster to pair up with the right handed hitting specialists. The 1987 Twins were extremely right handed. I could be wrong but I believe that Hrbek and Randy Bush were the only pure left handed hitters on the team come playoff time. This is question is impossible to answer and I appreciate your answer.

From my viewpoint... At the moment... Things seem very similar between Minnesota and Pittsburgh. Both teams have the makings of a young talented rotation. Both teams have a lot of work to do in the bullpen. Both teams have been struggling to develop hitting talent. Both teams committed a significant number of AB's to aging veterans (Cutch, Pham and IKF) with expiring contracts instead of youth. I think Shelton is looking at the Twins players that he has to work with and feeling like he hasn't left Pittsburgh.

If you limit the search to those who qualifty for a batting title 502 PA's. There was exactly 100 players on all 30 teams with higher OPS last year than Spencer Steer. There were 97 players on all 30 teams with a higher OPS last year than Larnach. Based on those parameters... (how often they played and OPS as the sole comparison data set)... based on the actual data... any given team should have 3.33 players better than Steer and Larnach. 3 players better on average can apparently cause a stink for the 4th guy with 13 players typical for a 26 man roster. If you remove any AB qualifying threshold meaning 1 AB qualifies you. There are 206 Players who had a higher OPS than Spencer Steer. 201 better than Larnach. Approximately 6.86 per team. That's every sample size under the sun and most rosters require 13 hitters on a 26 man roster. If you put the threshold to 182 AB's. I chose 182 because people are pretty sure Keaschall will never stumble and are at the moment pitchfork less toward Luke. We are talking an average of 5.5 per team with better OPS than Steer and Larnach. 13 hitters at a given time the typical requirement for a 26 man roster. There are people on Bulldog daily who want Kirby Smart fired. I tend to believe that the people with pitchforks are not doing the math.

I thought Derek Shelton coached the Chicago Bears.

I'd love to have the opportunity to ask questions. I'd come up with a lot of them but I wouldn't want the press conference answer. I'd start with... what went wrong in Pittsburgh... Followed by what went right? What would he do differently if he could do it again? Was there interference from the front office or ownership? How much control does a manager really have? Why wasn't or isn't Pittsburgh able to do what Milwaukee has been doing with a similar budget? What went wrong with Minnesota last year. How are you different from Baldelli? I'd probably have about 150 additional questions on development, platooning, rotations. bullpen usage. you name it. I would probably need 12 hours straight and I'd probably need to inject him with a stimulant periodically to keep him awake and participating.

LOL Well... I'd advise not letting me stop you. It's fun trying to think about trade ideas. I do it all the time. Never knowing if I'm even close and I'm just as crazy as you. No more qualified for such things. I've actually spent man hours trying to decide what I would do with my Twins now. I'm 60 years old with responsibilities and I'm spending mental energy on if I would trade Ryan. To the point that I missed a two minute story my wife was telling me about a co-worker and I was totally busted when she asked if I was paying attention... Spoiler Alert: I wasn't. Anyway... It's fun... it's a topic for discussion and people are absolutely willing to participate. It drew me in... because I liked the opportunity to post my controversial punt the position idea.

Yes... and with his offensive talent... the price tag goes through roof. I'd love to have Rutschman on my team. If you could choose a catcher. He'd be a top 5 consideration. I'm just trying to avoid paying the exorbitant scarcity costs for a position that needs more rest that other positions. Our trading resources for big acquisitions isn't endless. We can't fill every hole... you have to prioritize. Our resources for big acquisitions appear to be quite limited in my opinion. If we are trading one of our biggest trade chips value wise. We actually might be trading perhaps our ONLY sensible big trade chip. We are not going to move Jenkins. At least... we better not. If you are moving another pitcher besides Ryan because that is where the most value is. Well... Now you have really weakened the pitching staff and that alone almost nullifies the need for a big expensive talented catcher like Rutschman because your pitching staff is no longer good enough to justify it the investment. I think we will have to Trade Ryan. Once you blow that value and trade it off... there really isn't anymore of it. You fixed catcher for 120 games maybe and you don't have a 1B... our a SS that can move the needle for a 162 games.

Trades are fun to think about but really hard to assess because the other team has to cooperate with your hopes and dreams and there is really no way of knowing. So I can look at it from my perspective. If I were the Orioles. I'm thinking last year was just last year. There is still young talent on this team. Having two solid catchers is what you want. Having three solid catchers is the goal so you can take advantage of the market. If I'm the Orioles I'm happy with my catching and I'd rather not put every chip in the Basallo bucket being that he is young. They need pitching... so even if I decided that Rutschman is the best option to acquire pitching. I don't think Ober would do it for me. I love Bailey but I'm making more calls around the league.

I really can't argue with you. The catching hole is gaping. I get it. I just have to be the guy on the website that needs to say. We should focus elsewhere because we are on the wrong side of this market. I'd rather not over pay for this particular organizational mistake. Value has to be a consideration when drafting. Catchers are consistent over pays. We have to fix this. I had dinner with Dave Ramsey once and I asked him... What's the biggest mistake people make with their money. He said the car payment. He said if you just drove a beater around for awhile and made the car payment to yourself and bought new when you saved enough and repeated that process they would save incredible amounts of money. I guess I'm saying... the Twins should just drive a beater around for awhile until they can create something new.

When I say punt... I'm saying just grab the defense guy who can't hit without the catcher price tag. Forget the offense. The catchers who can hit are the ones that cost the resources. Take your resources and spend it on other departments for more bang for the buck.

That could be. Regardless... The Orioles are not afraid to draft Catchers higher in the draft. I don't know how they compare to the other 30 teams in that regard. The Twins... Not so much.

Not to mention the trade of Steer and CES.

Rutschman is a good player. Love to have him catch for the Twins. I'd rather they didn't. Catchers are almost always over pays. He will be expensive for the two years remaining. We have limited resources available to offer in a trade for something significant. I'd rather they spend those resources on a position that doesn't require the rest that catchers typically require. So please no. Just punt the position. Sleep in the bed you made. The Twins front office will not have the ability to fix everything at once. Something will have to be punted. I will say this... Wouldn't it be wonderful to be on the other side of this inflated catching market? Wouldn't it be wonderful to have Rutschman, Basallo, Irish, Bodine. Wouldn't it be advantageous to be able to trade one for an inflated price to a team that didn't have the same foresight to pile up catching and needs to pay the inflated price. The Orioles have been loading up on catching in the early rounds. The Twins... not so much.

497K views · 7.3K reactions | On This Date in 1987: With the bases... WWW.FACEBOOK.COM On This Date in 1987: With the bases loaded and two out in the bottom of the sixth in Game 6 of the World Series, the Cardinals brought in lefty Ken Dayley to face Kent Hrbek, who deposited...

One of my favorite moments in Twins history was the Game 6 Kent Hrbek Grand Slam. The Twins were down 3 games to 2. I believe the Twins were ahead 6-5 in the 6th inning when Kent Hrbek came up to the plate with the bases juiced. Whitey Herzog sensibly predictably brought in the lefty Ken Dayley to Face Herbie. Hrbek had pretty deep splits in 1987. .660 OPS against lefties and a 1.042 OPS against right handers. In the 1987 playoffs... Hrbek was 0 for 17 against left handers when Dayley was called from the pen. I think it was one pitch and Boom... Over the CF wall. That's the setup... Here's the question. Do you think Baldelli would have pinch hit for Hrbek in that situation? The switch hitting rookie Gene Larkin would have been available... over the course of the 1987 season. Larkin had a .752 OPS against lefties. He is a rookie and Kent Hrbek is Kent Hrbek. It's a pointless question to ask but I find myself wondering when a video of it came across my facebook video feed last night.

You just got to squint. The hope is in the small print. BTW... I just wrote a line for a song. I Need to go work on a chord progression and melody.