Riverbrian

I agree... that's how I read it between the lines as well. It has all the motivational buzz in it. 1. Why not name the other teams? Makes it sound like the named teams the Giants and Red Sox are the front runners if the mystery teams don't add a year to the deal. 2. Prioritizing Winning Makes it sound like the mystery teams need to an add a year to the deal. 3. Open to other positions short term Makes it sound like the mystery teams better add a year to the deal. 4. Making a decision soon Makes it sound like the mystery teams better add a year to the deal soon. Dear, Derek Falvey and Thad Lavine Just add a year to the deal... Just get it done. You'll need more offense to overcome some of your pitching question marks. You can always add Ryan Jeffers in a package to someone in 3 years if you need to get out from under it. Sincerly, Riverbrian

I agree with you. 16 different pitchers made starts for us last year. 10 of those pitchers made 5 starts or more. Naming a starting 5 coming out of training camp is never enough. It doesn't matter if those named 5 are who the Mets and Dodgers are going to name. Pitchers 6 though 10 are going to get the ball. Every team needs them and most fans overlook them so I appreciate your recognition of it. However, what I don't want to see anymore... ever again. Is a Shoemaker type making 11 starts and tossing 60 innings of what he did for us last year. It was a mistake to sign him and it was a bigger mistake to double down on that mistake by handing him the ball 11 times because he can't be easily moved off of. Or Happ making 19 starts and tossing 90 innings of what he did for us last year. It was a mistake to sign him but doubling down on that mistake and handing him the ball 19 times was what killed us... the signing didn't kill us... the letting him pitch badly over and over again killed us. These types get too many chances without the option to take them off the 26 man roster easily. I don't want to roll the dice on pitchers that you can't easily get away from. I'd rather roll the dice with youngsters with options, A pitcher with options can be moved down quickly if they get lit up like Shoemaker did and replaced with another youngster with options until you eventually find an Ober that gives your offense a chance to win and then you give him the ball again. Innings management of the youngsters has been something that I've thought about a lot when thinking about the pileup of arms on the 40 man. I was thinking about that before we signed Sonny Gray and thought this could get interesting. Necessity is the mother of invention. It will require some creativity. If you alleviate stress on the starters... the stress doesn't go away... it just transfers over to the bullpen. Over 1400 innings need to be covered in 162 games. The traditional 5 man rotation coupled with the traditional bullpen set up won't get the job done this year. With that said... Pineda hasn't been bad for us. So... I'm ok with Pineda... i'm just thinking... what if he's not OK this year.

Pineda did a decent job for us. Not overwhelming but decent so I'm ok with Big Mike but my impatience for farm raised pitching is getting in the way of that OK'ness with Big Mike. If the Twins fail to trade for one of the Oakland arms... I'd rather not see the rotation cluttered with the typical middle priced free agents on one year contracts. That way a clear path is there for upcoming youth with the potential to be better than the typical middle priced free agents on one year contracts.

LOL... I think the crowd was already whipped up based on the glow of the torches behind you. No... Josh Donaldson could not be easily flipped at the deadline. There are very few teams that can take on the 33 million plus that he will still be due. Of the teams that can just drop 33 million on Donaldson... none of them will and that's if Josh has a good year as you suggest he will. The options are not there at that price point. However, If Josh has a rough year due to age, health, or punching an umpire. Moving Donaldson at the deadline or in the off season will go from trying to pick a lock with your teeth -- to trying to pick a lock with your teeth and but now you have no teeth.

There are certainly no guarantees of a Hollywood ending here. A good title would be "Two to Tango". A cliched title for sure but fitting. These are the moments where freewill bugs me because we can't force Story to ignore all other offers and take ours. At the moment, it sure feels like Arraez would be someone floated in a trade package to the A's. Yet... it also feels like the A's aren't looking for anybody that has some service time usage. If the STORY goes elsewhere. We will still need a SS so a plan B has to reveal itself. I have no idea what that is. I'm just going to keep eating popcorn.

Well yeah, at this point of the STORY. He would be. However, every good STORY has an arc to it.

The Twins didn't give away Donaldson. Essentially, the Twins paid the Yankees to take Donaldson. The Twins had to give up value to make up for the negative value attached to Josh. We paid with our starting SS. A steep price that should show how hard it was to get out from under the contract and how badly the Twins wanted out of that contract.

OR the capacity to

Good to see Gordon at SS.

When it comes to pleasing both of us at the same time. It appears obvious that front offices will have a difficult time accomplishing that. ?

Trevor Story Splits do not scare me. Someone jumping out of a box while yelling Boo does from time to time.

Agreed... Although, I don't need the designated closer... but I'll take the "bevy of flamethrowers" because the entire bevy could all close when needed. When the Twins starting adding those type of guys and deepen that pen in this fashion, they will finally become what I call Bullpen serious.

In my opinion The Twins did not have to "trade Donaldson in order to sign or make a deal for a starting pitcher". It has been speculated by some that the money available now after trading Donaldson could be spent on starting pitching but one doesn't have anything to do with the other. I simply believe that the Twins will have a hard time spending the Donaldson money on starting pitching because it simply isn't available. The A's and Reds are the only sellers and the arms they have to trade (THAT ARE WORTH SOMETHING) are not expensive from a money standpoint... they are expensive from a prospect standpoint because they are probably fielding a lot of calls right now and that will drive the prospect price upward. The Twins could have kept Donaldson and still added a Montas, Castillo or Manaea to payroll along with the addition of Sonny Gray and been within what we typically shell out yearly. It'll be the prospect price and all the other clubs trying to acquire pitching that is prohibitive to bringing any of these guys to Minnesota. In my opinion... the Donaldson trade was a simple value trade and that's it. I believe that the Twins have been probably trying to off load that Donaldson contract for quite some time and found no takers because of the dollars left on his contract, his age, health and performance... yes performance relative to what he was paid for that performance. Some of us fans are upset because we are losing a good player but the reality is... I don't believe any of the 30 front offices wanted him. I believe that it took a player or players (Kiner-Falefa and Rortvedt) that the Yankees really wanted to be added to the deal for the Yankees to agree to take Donaldson's contract. Until these pieces came together... the Twins were probably getting nothing but crickets trying to move Donaldson and those crickets should help us all understand why the Twins moved him at this odd timing. It was because someone finally said OK... and the Twins took the deal before it became a no and the Twins were probably not planning on that happening. Surprise! It'll be hard to spend that Donaldson cash on pitching but they could spend it on Story directly and fill what is still a hole even with the addition of Urshela. Urshela, Arraez and Miranda are already in house to play some 3B and they can still add a Montas, Castillo or Manaea even if they spend all that money on Story. Then the trade becomes Donaldson for Story and I will personally take that deal... not that what I'd like to see matters. ?

Not Expected - However, the unexpected should be expected.

I have this friend. I've known Josh for decades. Great Guy... I've seen him do favors for me and others without a second thought... sailed through med school, he's an expert in his field in something, I don't know what it is... too many syllables for me to remember or understand. Josh was coming to town for a couple of hockey games and he had an extra ticket because his wife had to stay home. He swung by, picked me up and on the way to the game, he was talking about how cold it was in Grand Forks because he had recently come back from Cancun or Chattanooga or someplace warmer. Just making conversation, I asked him how he liked the trip and while driving about 40mph in a 25, he fishes out his cell phone, locates all the photos and he goes over them with me... while driving about 40mph in a 25. In the process of pointing out the photos on his phone, he drifted to the other lane multiple times almost sideswiping a parked car on the opposite side, he also ran a stop sign without slowing down a bit. I had to make the suggestion that he show me the photo's later while pointing at the road. Things were much better when he actually started looking at the road but before we got to the arena, a car nosed out into the road. It had to because of a large snow pile that blocked the view of oncoming traffic. It was a surprise appearance because we also couldn't see with that snowbank. The car just slowly nosed out and Josh swerved a little to his left, it wasn't really that close but it was a surprise so Josh laid on the horn for about 15 seconds, while shouting, you stupid (whatever) and the things he said about that driver was pretty rude. It's good time to remind everyone that Josh is absolutely without question a very nice guy and very smart but he failed to connect his driving with others. When fans call coaches and front offices idiots or clueless or whatever, it reminds me of road rage reaction. Completely out of perspective. BTW... At the hockey game. We fell behind 2-1 in the 2nd period and after the goal was scored, Josh started telling me that it was time for Coach Berry to go. He couldn't believe that a player was moved to a different line and we were now losing the game and it was 100 percent on the coach. He went on for awhile about every mistake that Coach Berry had made during his entire career behind the bench (about 5 examples) and then he asked me what I thought. I told him that the City should do something about that snowbank.

I was that poster. There isn't a front office or head coach that isn't feeling the wrath of diehard fans. If you searched Crimsontidedaily. I'm sure you'll find a contingent of posters who think Nick Saban is clueless. This is what fans do when things don't go perfectly because they know that they have had 387 straight days of perfect performance doing whatever jobs they do and are absolutely qualified to judge because of their perfection. There are 30 of these jobs. Going through the interview process and the vetting to land the job with competition from all those candidates who have a clue just to end up getting the job and still be clueless when it is all said and done. That would be stunning if that actually happened. Now... How they stack up against their peers is probably where the debate could legitimately begin but diehard fans calling a major league front office clueless would be more interesting to me if I haven't heard it a million times. This what they do all day. They employ large staffs of people who do this stuff all day. The stuff they do... are the very definition of clues. ?

It's quite possible that the Yankees suggested Urshela in the deal. If it was the Yankees... it would have been an easy sell to the Twins with IFK going the other way. If it was the Twins... it would have been an easy sell to the Yankees with IFK going the other way. I can possibly agree with you on Polanco at SS being better... I don't have the same fear that others do about his SS abilities and potential utilization at SS even if 2B is clearly a better fit. Can't agree with you on Gordon and I don't think the Twins agree with you on either of them. Giving up Garver for IFK was a pretty clear indication that the Twins intend to keep Polanco at 2B, even with Arraez on the roster and the way they utilized Gordon last year seems to indicate that the Twins don't consider Gordon SS material. On the other hand... As I posted a couple of spots upward. Aaron Boone named Urshela the Yankees starting SS if nothing changed just hours before the trade. That seems to indicate that Urshela has SS ability that at least trumps Torres. It's easy to paint Urshela as an expensive utility. However, utility is something you are tagged with when the club you are on has stronger options. I like Urshela for his utility abilities so Miranda can be given a clean look this year when the time comes but... I like Urshela only if we acquire a significant SS talent with the Josh Donaldson money. Urshela handling the SS position because we failed to upgrade the spot would be horrible. If we don't acquire a significant SS with talent... this crazy weekend will have been a mistake. On Sanchez... I look at things in degrees. I think there is no doubt that there are defensive issues with Sanchez... maybe even significant issues. However, those issues are almost always over played on chat boards like these. I remember the conversations about Ben Revere's arm.. Yeah it wasn't the strongest arm but posters made it seems like baserunners were going to gain 3B every time by default because of it. No it's not a cannon but he can get the ball into the infield. Sanchez... may not be a good defensive catcher in comparison with others but most games will come and go without the defensive issue causing an issue. But Yeah... I suppose it will rear its head from time to time. The Key is getting some of that Garver power replaced.

Here's a quote from Aaron Boone just before the trade. I know that it suggests that they were still looking but it also suggests that there were some faith that Gio could handle the SS job if necessary. “Gio,” Boone said Sunday when asked about his shortstop right now — one of the biggest questions facing the team all offseason. “Gleyber [Torres] will have to mix in there. Obviously we’ve got some young guys that are knocking on the door that we’re really excited about, [Oswald] Peraza and [Oswaldo] Cabrera that are here. We’ll just let that situation shake out. I’m sure there’s still things to be done across the game and certainly with us that are going to change that landscape potentially along the way.”

No way of knowing from my chair but the one that thing that seems (almost) obvious is this: The Twins have been trying to move Donaldson's contract for probably awhile now and they finally found a taker. The other assumptions that I have (with no way of knowing) are not quite as obvious: Does this scenerio seem possible - 1. The Twins were looking for a SS 2. The were talking with the Rangers about IKF and probably were not talking about Garver originally. 3. The Yankees were looking for a SS and also talking with the Rangers about IKF. 4. In order for the Twins to beat the Yankees offer for IKF (Whatever it was) Garver became the new ask. 5. Once the Twins acquired IKF... The Yankees started talking to the Twins about IKF. 6. The Yankees were probably well aware of the Twins desire to move the Donaldson contract and agreed to take on the money in order to acquire the shorter term SS they needed. 7. The Twins would have insisted on Urshela being part of the deal because someone would have to play SS if they couldn't replace IFK. 8. After this new found opportunity and abupt change in gameplan... Falvey and Lavine quickly realize that they needed to make a phone call to the agent of Trevor Story because they were not expecting to move the Donaldson contract and now they have the money to fill the SS spot. 9. The agent of Trevor Story probably knows that the Twins really need a SS now. 10. Knowing the Twins need a SS. The agent of Trevor Story is probably trying to drive the price up and is having conversations with the media to float the impression that other teams are also interested in Trevor Story when there will be very few teams interested in him at the contract he is trying to get. 11. We will have to wait this out but the Twins pretty much have to sign Trevor Story now and I don't believe Story has a lot of options left that will allow him to stay at SS. BTW... the inclusion of Andrus in a deal to lessen the price of a Starting Pitcher with Oakland was something that I thought about. It's a possible solution however... there are some things that really bug me about that idea. Andrus is really struggling and simply doesn't look like an MLB player anymore. Taking your financial gains and giving up 15M to Andrus just to get a deal done for a SP cheaper doesn't address SS and the Twins were clearly trying to address SS to contend. After giving up Garver to solve the SS problem and not trading Garver for a prospect. Then trading a highly ranked future pitcher for Sonny Gray are the actions of a team that is trying to contend. If they are trying to contend and they clearly are. The newly found money from the Donaldson trade has to go somewhere and Story is the most obvious answer in the current team context. If Story does sign with someone else. Then... I don't know how the Twins dig themselves out of it.

In consideration of recent events. The Twins have left themselves almost no other choice. They must sign Trevor Story!

I mean no disrespect to any front office, they are all better at what they do than us mere mortals making comments about what they are doing. However, I truly believe that "dart throwing and hoping something works" is something that every front office does on a regular basis, no matter how much data they absorb. The values of every player in the organization are not static, they change, evolve, regress year to year, moment to moment and team needs will change accordingly with all the ups and downs of individual players. I'll applaud any organization with the guts to move accordingly.

It's not that unlikely unless of course Urshela is doing well and if he's doing well why would you want to shelve him at all. Miranda will probably start in Rochester but with Urshela at 3B the utilization of Miranda increases in multiples. If Story gets hurt... Urshela can slide to SS and Miranda can show us what he can do. If Polanco gets hurt... Urshela can take a breather at 3B to allow Miranda to play while he replaces Polanco on the active roster... and show us what he can do. If Miranda doesn't show us anything... We still have Urshela. With Donaldson on the roster... the options for Miranda to DH or wait for Donaldson specifically to get hurt... which... yeah I know... was always likely anyway. This is the type of roster that I'm looking for. Options... competition for playing time... depth. Story would be a perfect get.

I'm much happier today... apparently I'm in the minority. If we sign Story - Urshela could be the rug. If we sign Story - Urshela will provide decent depth at the position. Miranda now has a place to play if the time is now and it probably should be now. Urshela can provide decent depth at 3B as well in case things don't go well for Miranda. WIth Donaldson at third. We would have to wait for an injury to get a good look at Miranda. We wouldn't have to wait long for that to happen and if we wouldn't have to wait long for an injury. The money is better allocated elsewhere. Finding a taker fo Donaldson was a good move in my opinion. BUT... only if we sign Story with the moeny... or trade for an equivalent SS. Re-allocating those dollars to Story opens up space for Miranda, Arraez, Urshela, Kirilloff, Larnach, Sano. All of them and we got decent depth everywhere. 1B - Sano, Kiriloff 2B - Polanco, Arraez, Gordon, Urshela 3B - Miranda, Urshela, Arraez, Gordon SS - Story, Urshela, Gordon LF - KIriloff, Larnach, Rooker, Arraez, Gordon CF - Buxton, Kepler, Gordon RF - Kepler, Kirilloff, Larnach, Rooker C - Jeffers, Sanchez DH - Rooker, Kiriloff, Larnach, Arraez, Sano... All of them Now of course... if we sign Story - Someone will have to go from the above list. Gordon or Rooker I assume Or.... maybe a guy like Larnach could be sent to the A's for a year of Manaea plus a reliever like Trevino. Or Larnach as part of a package for Montas. GO GET STORY! These rumors today (Story and A's Pitching) are rumors that I really want to believe and I've been working real hard trying to not believe rumors lately.

Dear Front Office, I apologize for the post above. Clearly you hadn't finished yet. I have my popcorn now and I'll sit back and watch. Sincerly, Riverbrian

We are going to find out how high they are. ?