Riverbrian

My opinion... which is going to meet resistance because it offers some support for Outman and people will have none of that sort of thing. My opinion... The Dodgers spit out higher quality garbage. You have to consider the context of the team that isn't providing him playing time. The Dodgers have a lot of talented context. Outman's debut with the club is going to be delayed because they have an expensive roster full of talent every year that won't yield opportunity. Outman got his debut at 25 and he went on that extended run and got the playing time. His next season... the Dodgers were counting on him and he struggled... bouncing back and forth for 156 AB's. These would be short little bursts of attempts to see if he could do it. Last year would have been his third season with LA and he only got 44 AB's with them and they were not good but there wasn't a lot of them and of course not because the Dodgers are stacked. The Dodgers had a lot of different choices but they were still trying to translate that AAA performance to the major league in case it worked. In both of those down years... His AAA stats in Oklahoma City were really really good. Power Speed Defense. The Twins want to give it a shot. OK... Fix him. I don't worry about age. I worry about 300 AB's committed to a .147 batting average in the attempt to fix him with Jenkins, Erod and others sitting in St. Paul watching him. I worry about releasing the subject of this thread just to give 300 AB's to a .147 batting average.

Baseball Games are games that involve multiple pitchers. You dig up interesting stuff. That's what I appreciate about you.

Just assumptions... that is all I've got. The Dodgers had a lot of roster shuffling and a pretty impressive list of 40 man roster options throughout 2025. In short... Injuries and the recall of injured players is going to create roster pressure. The Dodgers could have released Outman at any time prior to the deadline. They didn't. I assume the Dodgers had a sense of his value to other clubs. Teams would be waiting for him to spill out the back end. Just assumptions. Perhaps the Twins were the only team calling. But I assume someone was.

I appreciate it. It's a big math project and I was just asking in case you had the answer in your pocket already. You are right... In the end... it won't matter much because 15 starts and 25 games is going to be a small sample on both sides of the coin and probably the most likely explanation. Sample size is why I asked the question and it planted a question in my head. The question. If you only looked at games where lefties started. How does the AB's breakout vs Right Handers and Left Handers. We would naturally assume that there would be more AB's against left handers but I think right handers will end up being the dominant. Most of the damage would have to have been done against right handed pitching replacing the starter because the swing between .775 and .608 is quite large and something has to drive it up .167 points. It's good food for thought and what it does show is that there more to this than the cumulation of stats one AB at a time.

The Dodgers probably had roster size issues that needed some trimming in order to add Brock to the roster. Now... the Dodgers could have traded a 17 year old for Stewart and then they could have just cut Outman to make room. The only assumption that I can fathom is that the Dodgers knew that teams (Plural) were interested in Outman and they didn't have to let him go for nothing. The Twins were absolutely without question one of those teams because guess who walked away with the prize by providing a reliever that could shore up the pen if he remained healthy. The Twins wanted Outman. They negotiated his acquisition.

In those games started by lefthanders. Do you have the breakdown of how many AB's against Right Handers compared to left handers in those games?

By all means sign him. Lee can take a backseat. Let's see if we can get France back as well who is also playing in the World Series. I'll book my hotel now so I have space reserved for the 2026 parade in celebration of the 2026 Twins World Series win.

His OPS against left handers would rise accordingly and not sit in complain about it territory. Read his post again and think for once in your life.

As always... I appreciate your additions to the nuance.

I don't mind discussion. I don't shy from it. I understand that I have thoughts that run counter to conventional traditional baseball thoughts and should expect discussion. Your belligerence is simply nothing I want any part of. Learn to discuss respectfully or simply ignore. Failing that... I'll just give you a taste of it. You ask for it consistently.

I've asked you to stay away. You can't. What comes next... You've asked for it.

They acquired him knowing he has no options remaining. They could have kept Brock they didn't need to deal him. He's not on the roster because I chose him. I believe the Twins have already chosen him... because a 2 month rental in a lost season is pointless. The Twins are going to make an attempt to get him producing.

The answer is easy: Stop thinking about putting players in buckets like starter and bench. In my opinion... On the current roster... We have two players who have earned everyday playing time. Buxton and Keaschall. That's it. With Two catchers on the roster in their own rotation. That leaves you with 9 players and 6 lineup spots to divide up playing time. I'm not saying the time should be divided up equally but if you did divide it up equally... Everybody plays 2 out of 3 games. Nobody is going to be neglected. Nobody gets splinters. You are running 13 players through the filter with competition for more playing time or less playing time.. You need to run 13 players through the filter at all times if you want to find 9 players who can get it done. If you just run 9 through... you won't find 9. It increases your odds. Wallner, Larnach, Martin and Outman can compete with each other for two outfield spots and the DH position. Rodon, Erod, Jenkins can be quick callups when injury occurs and then they should be allowed to compete. If Outman hasn't figured it out by June. Cut him... Rodon, Erod and Jenkins can be called up to replace him. Lewis and Lee need competition. They don't need to play every day. They can play two out of 3 and be just fine from a development standpoint. If Lewis figures it out and starts being the Lewis we think he should be. Move him to every day status. Now you have 3 every day players... 2 catchers and 8 players to compete for 5 lineup spots. 2026 should be all about compiling as much young talent as possible and competition for playing time. Just get out of the way and let the players tell you through performance.

In my opinion... If it's baked in through evolution. It is what it is. Quit fighting it. Take the incremental improvements that you just might get through exposure. Instead they settle for the neutral split of the right handed hitter to avoid that disadvantage 28% of the time and that is playing the split wrong. RHH vs LHP - 2025 League Wide .721 (.28%) RHH vs RHP - 2025 League Wide .703 (72%) LHH vs LHP - 2025 League Wide .664 (.28%) LHH vs RHP - 2025 League Wide .747 (72%) Why are they running and hiding from the .664 and ignoring the .747. Left handed hitters should be preferable to the right handed hitter all things being equal. If you take the .747 at 72% and the .664 at 28% and compare it to the .703 at 72% with the .721 at 28%. The .747 at 72% and .664 at 28% is going to add up to the correct way to play the platoon split. Of course players are not equal. Talent... Hitting Talent regardless if they are left handed or right handed is what you need up and down the roster. The very second you trade for Manual Margot to limit the development of your left handed hitters. You have compromised the future and gained nothing in the present because Manual Margot will see more right handed hitting due to injury changing the carefully laid out spring training roster with handcuffs placed perfectly on the team breaking camp. That perfectally laid out handcuffed roster will not last 162 games and when it goes away... you'll be wishing that you just went out and got the best hitter you can find instead. Just absorb the left vs left so you can enjoy the left vs right. Going out and seeking Manual Margot to hit 28% of the time isn't going to work through 162 games. Injuries and unexpected poor play are going to change the equation and change it before April ends. And now you got Manual Margot facing more right handed pitching. The equation will change in late September when Margot gets hurt and then all of sudden. Hey Trevor... We need you to all of sudden face left handed pitching in the playoffs. I know we kept you away from it but... we need you now. Sorry for the crappy preparation for this moment. It simply drives me nuts to read posters who are taking Larnach and using his lefty splits against him. Nearly everybody struggles against left handers. Righties struggle against lefties. Find people who don't struggle against right handers and now you have something.

And they still get it wrong. We can down the list on players they got it wrong with. It's extensive. Assessment is hard when you dealing with a large pile of players that are seperated by inches. I don't blame them for being wrong. I want them to understand that they are wrong frequently... I want them to staff the 26 and 40 man rosters using all the predictive powers they have and once they set the rosters... I want them to get out of the way and let the players show them. Defense... I like Defense... I'm a fan. A catch that others wouldn't make are outs they shouldn't have gotten and that turns 3 outs to 2 and this greatly decreases the chances of putting up a crooked number. A catch that wasn't made that others would have made is going from 3 outs to 4 outs in an inning and that greatly increases the odds of a crooked number. I get the value of defense but there is more to the game than these separating OF events that occur once every two and half games... if that. In the meantime... someone still has to out perform Trevor at the plate and we don't have those players on the current roster yet and the DH spot is still an option... if his defense is just to scary.

Excellent post and I wish other could see what you see. I'm all for youth in large numbers rising up through the system but they still have to be better than Larnach before they take their job. I'd rather keep Larnach because he is one of the few who have actually shown something and still make him compete against the army of corner outfielders coming behind him. I want the players to make the decision through performance. If Erod beats Larnach. Erod beats Larnach but you'll never get to that point when you are choosing one over the other in an all or nothing decision. It is uninformed guess work that Larnach would be better against lefties today if allowed to face them yesterday. I fully recognize this. My only argument with your post is the "Baseball People" part. Yes... there are baseball people... they are more informed and better at it than you and I are. These baseball people from all 30 clubs get it wrong to the downside frequently. I'd rather the developing player be allowed to show it and work toward it. I'd rather they not be just dipped into cement.

His vs left numbers indeed suggest platoon but that isn't the mistake. 1. There are at most 4 platoon spots available to 13 hitters on a typical roster. 2. In order to platoon to protect every left handed hitter from the platoon you have to limit the number of left handed hitters on your roster. 3. Left handed hitter vs Right Handed pitching is also a platoon advantage that is now limited by the limiting of left handed hitters on your roster. 4, This forces you to sign lefty pitching specialists. In other words... Right handed hitters who can't hit right handed pitching. 5. When injuries occur and injuries will occur those right handed specialists will now have to face right handed pitching and any platoon advantage you gain against 25% of the pitching is erased by the right handed hitter hitting right handed pitching 75% of the time because you've gone out of your way to add right handed bats to a team that already has 9 of them. 6. By ignoring the 25%... It allows you to focus on the 75% advantage. Adding more left handed hitters than you can platoon and now you are playing the platoon advantage correctly. Do the math... Plug the numbers in. Just take the LHH vs RHP baseball average and apply 72% to it and then take the LHH vs LHP and apply 28% to it. Then do the same with RHH vs RHP and apply 72% to it and then take RHH average vs LHP and apply 28% to it and add them both up. You will see that in order to play the platoon split correctly. You need more left handed hitters in your lineup than right handed hitters. 7. With the first 6 points under full consideration. I'd rather the team just look for hitters period instead of bringing in specialists that just rob development from your left handed hitters. Which leads to something more important still. The actual mistake. 8. Young left handed hitters are still developing. Young Right handed hitters or switchers are still developing. What they are is yet to come. Some may feel differently but I don't expect Brooks Lee to remain a .636 career OPS. I expect Brooks to take his experiences vs Right and left and get better. Taking away the opportunity to face left handed pitching for two years in their early development is pre-determining the outcome. Trevor may never be left handed pitching capable... I don't know... you don't know... the front office doesn't know but the front office left no doubt but not allowing it in the first place. A left handed hitter doesn't have to OPS .800 plus to be worth it. They can OPS .650 and still be worth it. Simply closing the door on them isn't development it's using spare parts and eventually throwing it away. This attitude toward development has led to the situation we are in... not just with Larnach but with the entire squad... over veterened with no trade value, no money left to spend and very little trade value from young players that typically produce the most trade value. And of course... I believe it has been a major factor in the hitting of the wall and the eventual selling at the deadline that we just experienced. 9. When you were a child... you learned the most from birth to age 5. If you want them to learn French... this is when you teach it... birth to age 5. This is when they are becoming who they will become. Go ahead and take something away from a 1 year old and see what happens to them when they reach free agency at age 6. Rob them from social interaction... Keep them in a closet. See what happens when they hit Kindergarten. 10. Go ahead and typecast your young players and see if you can get anything for them in the trade market. If the argument is that the Twins broke him so let's throw him away. I'd be more inclined to accept the discussion. As of right now... This Roster as it stands. Trevor is one of 5 players who are professional hitters on this club. We are standing here looking at Brooks Lee with a 2025 .655 OPS as our everyday shortstop and Twinsdaily is continually overweighting Trevor's .604 against 1 out of 4 pitchers.

I'm going to put my helmet on and get in there again. Trevor increased from 23 PA's against left handers to 118. Thank God they finally let this happen. However... His overall stats were going to come down when lefties got introduced to the equation. It happens when you introduce 100 extra PA's of something into what was 567 total. There will be a cause and effect with that kind of percentage jump. This is something that should have happened two years ago. If his .608 in 2025 against left handers is in line with his career .585 OPS. Surely his .759 OPS in 2025 is in line with his .784 in 2024. Or in line with his .759 career OPS. My hope is that the team continues to add left handed hitters in order to focus on gaining a platoon advantage 75% of the time. My hope is that the team stops announcing to the world that they are looking for right handed hitting and then signing right handed hitting for the sole purpose of facing left handers in order to avoid a platoon disadvantage 25% of the time. My hope is that the Twins stop compromising the development of young left handed hitters likke Jenkins, Rodon and Erod like they compromised the development of Trevor, Matt, Alex and Julien. I also hope that they just stop overweighting the 25% at the expense of the 75%. I also hope that fans would realize that they should probably stop looking at the 25% and I'd like the fan to realize that the Twins did this and fans sure like to see those immediate results. His Stats were going to come down when they finally got around to correcting this mistake two years later.

I win my fantasy league almost every year. They never call us!

The ship is in motion. Tough to turn that thing around now. I've never sailed a ship. I've been told that you got to go out a few miles in order to turn around. I don't know if that's true or not. The plastic ship that I play with in my bathtub can turn on a dime.

I have no inside information therefore no way of knowing but I believe that Falvey and Lavine arrived in Minnesota with an impression that they could significantly increase payroll. The reason I have this impression is because nearly every move they made to staff the roster each and every year can only be justified if they are under the impression that they could significantly increase payroll. They did... they significantly increased payroll and then it stopped. Right about the time that RSN money went away. All of sudden nearly every move they made left the impression that they had absolutely no money at all to work with and they didn't change course. Now Falvey gets a chance to do things more in lines with traditional Minnesota revenue. To not get the rug pulled from under. No false or unsustainable impressions. Commit to youth... Develop or Die. After two years of trying to squeeze the last ounce of baseball out of Ty France and others. There should be no impression that there is significant money to work with. What has to happen next should be absolutely clear. Commit to youth... Develop or Die and maybe just maybe... a decent core can be built at a price point that can augmented by higher price point free agents for a better class of free agent.

I can only guess but the gloom and doom long term thought from many... probably comes from the past. It comes from a long standing stigma attached to youth that in my opinion is no longer necessary or accurate. The farm system is much much more relied upon in today's baseball than it was in the past. Teams are relying upon youth to a larger degree and this has increased the value of prospects to the point where it is now expensive to acquire them. This wasn't true back when the Cubs were giving up a boatload for a half year rental of Aroldis Chapman. If you want a top end prospect now. You'll have to give up talent with years of control to get a top end prospect. The Twins are at a crossroads right now. They can go down the path chosen by Milwaukee and Cleveland with more money as they commit to development at the major league level right now. Doing so will free up significant money to spend to compete for one or two key free agents at a higher price point. Or they can just go down the same path they have taken since Falvey/Lavine arrived in Minnesota. That path is the same path that Philadelphia and the Yankees go down without the money to significantly compete with the Phillies and Yankees on this same path. There is a difference between signing Bryce Harper and signing Ty France. A huge difference but it's the same path. If they continue down the same path that Philadelphia takes and do so without Philadelphia money. If they jJust fill the numerous development gaps with the affordable free agents that Philadelphia doesn't want and still running out of spending money in the process. This will take a painfully long time and there will be a new front office completing it. For 2026 and 2027... I'll just say... Youth doesn't scare me. It's all about finding talent as quickly as possible right now.

This re-whatever it is. Doesn't have to take a long time. Can it take a long time? Yes it can. If the Twins aggressively commit to development and stop the Frankenstein approach. This doesn't have to take a long a time. If they sign a bunch of IKF types to fill space. This re-whatever it is... will take a long time. If they platoon Erod and Jenkins. This will take a long time.

Joe Ryan has the highest value of all players on the Twins roster. Therefore... in theory he returns the most in a trade. His value will never be higher than it is right now. We have multiple holes to fill. It pains me to say it but you trade him this off-season. Everything going forward is going to lower his trade value and I mean everything is going to lower his trade value. Trade him now... you have two years of control to sell. Trade him at the deadline you have 1 year and 2 months of control to sell. Trade him next off-season... you are trading an expiring contract and his value crashes especially when his arb 3 raise goes to 16M to go along with that 1 year of team control. His value just goes straight down from here. If he gets hurt in the first half... Oh Boy... His current value could be erased at the drop of a hat. The time to trade him is now. I can't see any reason where the Mets would trade McLean for Ryan. The Mets need to add arms... not trade arms. The Mets need McLean and Ryan.