Riverbrian

Verducci just went into my Dinosaur column on this special spreadsheet I keep by me. I agree that shopping for bullpen arms is pretty volatile. The baseball highways are littered with poor numbers and big contract combo's... although... it should be pointed out that in the small sample size world of relief pitching, one horrible performance can be hard to overcome and some metrics can end up looking worse than they actually are. Regardless... you just gotta do it and do your best to do it right. Monster bullpens are being built and they are producing victories. You handicap yourself getting a closer, a couple of setup guys and finishing off the staff with a bunch "I'm just trying to stay in the profession guys" who get to throw when the starter chokes. The closer goes down and everybody moves up a chair and pretty soon you are counting on one of those "I'm just trying to stay in the profession guys in a high leverage situation. The Yankees had a great bullpen and still went out and got Robertson and Kahnle. We knocked Severino out in the 1st inning and that bullpen beat us. The Indians bullpen was 7 quality deep. The Dodgers had arms lined up. The Red Sox. The Astros D-Backs Rockies The Nats didn't start with a great pen but they finished with a pretty nice one. Of all the playoff teams... Only the Twins and maybe the Cubs had what "I myself" considered to be sub-par bullpens. All 30 teams should be looking for or trying to create their own Andrew Miller. I'm trying to think of a team that had a lights out bullpen and didn't make the playoffs. I can't off the top of my head. All of this is driving the price up in my opinion. The evidence seems to be pretty clear... The Year is soon 2018... baseball is different than it was two decades ago and bullpens are producing playoff teams.

Bullpens are becoming the new currency. The Twins need to get bullpen serious. This is off season #3 of me saying this. The prices are reflecting it.' Wish I would have bought reliever stock.

It's like we can't get everyone to agree 100% on any topic. I think we all agree that Mosquitoes are horrible things. Apart from that... there is at least a minority opinion on every other thing in life. I know a guy who likes Orange Juice after brushing his teeth. I'm pro Pineda... even if he doesn't work out. I'm also anti orange juice after brushing my teeth.

Yep... We need some Major League Arms. But... I'm happy that we got a log jam of choices in Rochester to audition and choose from when the starters in Minnesota fail, struggle or get hurt. Depth!!! I love it!!!

They have to fill the same spot over and over again. Pitchers get hurt... sometimes in bunches. I don't do the #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 thing like some do. I'm simply looking for arms who can hang a zero on occasion and give the offense a chance to win a game and a team with depth has about 10 of those guys and use all of them during the course of a season. Doing the number thing... The past decade... we have been trotting 7's and 8's to fill in the gaps. I remember throwing Blackburn over and over again because we had nobody else. I remember PJ Walters, Pedro Hernandez. I remember having nobody to perform better than Vance Worley. I remember Yohan Pino and Logan Darnell. Call them 5th spot guys... it's OK with me as long as they are not 8th spot guys. Having potential guys who can actually get outs with Aaron Slegers, Felix Jorge, Dietrich Enns, Stephen Gonsalves, Zack Littell and Fernando Romero in Rochester... allows us to choose from whoever is doing best when they are needed and allows us to ignore who is struggling. Pat Dean won't be coming up because we have nobody else. Depth... I love It... I've been waiting for it.

Because I'm such a deep guy. It's easy for me to say: "Depth... I love it".

I don't want to see Mauer wearing another uniform. I also don't want to pay him a large amount of money. I'm hoping that both sides will be fair with each other. I hope Mauer doesn't try to squeeze extra money out of the Twins and I hope the Twins don't try to keep him with a low ball offer. I won't really have an idea on what that fair contract for both sides will look like until after the 2018 season concludes. Personally... I'm not looking to ask Mauer to retire until we have someone who out performs him. We don't have that yet... yet.

I agree with you Nick. They have been taking advantage of some under the radar stuff. Adding on 4 plus million in payroll to upgrade the farm with those Yankee prospects took some creativity. Acquiring the bonus pool cash and then turning that into additional prospects. If they add that glitzy move to these smaller forward thinking moves? We might get that franchise that we all deserve. I've been impressed... and they can impress me further if they go out and support this young team with solid off-season off pitching acquisitions.

It's hard to even guess what the market would pay. The Twins were not the only team with extra IBP money left. If they squeeze too hard... The Yankees can always pick up the phone and tell the Mariners and Angels that they have even more money available than the Twins do. The Twins front office jumped right into it and made a deal with two of the three teams that can add bonus money for Otani. I tip my cap to them.

The Padres are capped at $300,000 because they over spent last year. The Dodgers, Giants and Cubs have the same penalty. They can't add money. Oops! If Otani signs with any of those 4 teams... It will be pretty clear that Money was absolutely not a factor. Only the Rangers, Mariners and Angels can get in this Otani Bonus Arms Race. I find it interesting that the American League clubs have the bonus money and the DH. The National League teams don't have the DH or bonus money.

I'd imagine that Shohei trying to make a decision based on public transportation, restaurants and culture would be difficult for a 23 year old who has never been here. It would be like me trying to make a similar decision where I'd like to put down stakes in Japan. I don't know Tokyo from Hiroshima. Although I like the beef in Kobe and that's all I know. If I'm Shohei... I'd want to be as far away from North Korea as possible and also as far away from Donald Trump as possible. That makes Minnesota a perfect fit.

It's pretty simple for me. If the front office has 2019 circled... they lose me immediately. 1. The 2017 Momentum needs to be augmented and supported with pitching to match. 2. The Tigers, White Sox and Royals look promising for down years. Maybe big down years. 3. The Majority of American League Teams appear to be lacking a roster full of capable arms. Capable Arms may be a huge advantage. The door is open... they better walk through the door in 2018 and not wait until 2019 to see if it leads to a different room because ... well... it will be a different room and that may not be good. It is not the time to move vets who produce for younger players who haven't produced yet but maybe will later. Santana, Berrios plus Darvish? -- Plus? Strengh in numbers! It's time to spend... Mr. Pohlad... It's time to spend.

It's too bad because we could use a player who can play like... Park was supposed to play. I was happy that the Twins took a shot and I hope they keep taking shots but I sure do wish they were better at it. They were two separate players and two separate circumstances from two different leagues but they missed horribly on both Nishioka and Park. One may have been signed under Smith and one may have been signed under Ryan but I don't believe Smith or Ryan went to Asia personally. They both probably relied on the opinion of the recently let go Howard Norsetter and Howard missed horribly. Job One for Falvey and Lavine has always been assess and clean up the advisers and they did so by letting Norsetter go and returning Park home. Norsetter gets credit for Kepler, Thorpe and some other Australians no longer with the organization but MAN... did he ever miss with Nishioka and Park. With those two... he missed the target like he's never shot a gun before.

In the end... I'm ok with it all. They ended up adding a decent pitching prospect for money so they did move a direction. The end of the July sure looks wishy washy from that smaller scale but I think if you lengthen it out and look at it from a beginning of the year time frame... it should appear like they stuck to the plan because it makes sense that Kintzler was probably always targeted as a trade deadline chip... due to his impending free agency. The damn team.just didn't cooperate by being in the race. They showed me the ability to adjust to that data... even if it was momentary. I guess... i like that they were willing to consider that they may have been wrong. The worst thing a GM or anybody can do is... go the wrong direction... and then keep going the wrong direction due to hubris.

At the All Star Break Twins: 8C 8H Rays: AH 10D Royals: JD 9D Rangers: KS 2S Angels: 10H 7D Mariners: 9H 4D The Flop Was 6H 5H 4C a week later The Twins made a small bet The Turn was a jack of clubs a week after that The Twins Checked The Riverbrian was 7 of Spades a month after that We hit a gut shot GUT SHOT BABY!!!!

Yeah but that's only because of that time your wife talked you into 37 for a Power Ball Number when your heart was screaming 29. As a result... when you go out with your wife to Chili's for Supper. You decide that you will have the Guacamole Burger around 3PM and you start looking forward to it. You finally get to Chili's with your lovely wife and the server tells you about the Endless Mix and Match Ribs special for less than the price of the Guacamole Burger. You look around the restaurant and you see incredible looking ribs everywhere and you almost order them... but then you remember the Power Ball number thing and you decide that it is best to stay with the original plan through hell or high water and you order the Guacamole Burger that you have been looking forward to for the past 3 hours. The burger ends up being OK but your wife was making multiple "These are delicious comments" while enjoying the endless ribs. You could have had those ribs but the Power Ball number ended up being 28 and 29 would have been damn close. I give them credit... It takes a special kind of pluck to change your mind out of necessity in front of many people who will claim a lack of confidence because of the indecision. Those who can't change their minds... can't change anything.

In a very short period of time. They showed me that they are willing to support a team worth supporting and willing to rebuild a team worth rebuilding. After the year after year of my foot has fallen asleep trade deadlines under Terry Ryan and staff. How this can be seen by anyone as anything other than refreshing is beyond me.

Darvish is still hitting mid 90's with his fastball that he will also cut and sink as he mixes in a variety of breaking pitches. He's a unique pitcher in terms of stuff. If he gets back to trusting his entire assortment like he did when he was younger... I'd take the gamble. Darvish didn't look like the same pitcher in the World Series. It was like he was avoiding his breaking stuff. I'm less excited about Arrieta. I just have a thing against those cross body guys. I'd guess his velocity will be below 90 soon.

Otani is from the Iwate Prefecture Nishioka is from the Osaka Prefecture Not a good comparison

I keep them held high until the PK takes the field in the 4th quarter of a playoff game. Just like everybody else I assume.

I'm a Vargas guy I believe he received chances to prove himself last year and didn't. However... I also believe that he didn't fail to the point that he needed a bus ticket. He's young... He's affordable and he can hit the ball a long way. If he fixes a couple of issues... and players do fix issues every once in awhile. He could turn into something that everybody needs. I'm quietly hoping that he has a place on the roster next year.

And after the big apple thriving. We would have been pissed!!!

Landing both Darvish and Otani would be the greatest Twins off-season ever. I'm going to keep my expectations in check because I've never been allowed to reasonably have such expectations.

Strictly speaking from a "how does he look on our roster" standpoint. YES... Absolutely... YES I have no idea what he would cost... I have no idea how his cost would compare to others who might be available. All of that aside... We could use the guy... I think he's fantastic.

It's all about the splinters for me. He got all of them on the field without anybody getting splinters in their hind end from bench time.