Riverbrian

Not bad. No idea what teams would offer and decline but I like the aggressive hastening of the rebuild. I'd say. Mayer and Casas... If the Red Sox offer that. I'm listening. If I trade Wallner... Catching is not what I'm going to acquire. Catchers require rest and their value is deeply rooted just being catchers for 100 games if they are a workhorse. I know we have a big hole at catcher but I'd rather the Twins punt the position and trade Wallner for almost every other position. If I trade Wallner... but let's be clear... I'd like to keep him. Now the Bullpen... I like your idea. Bullpen is the one place that I would spend money on this off-season. Otherwise... I'm out of the free agent market until they find some youth to build around. I'd bet on Williams or Helsley as good come back bets. I wouldn't offer a pillow deal. I'd go two years. Help us build the pen back up in 2025 and give us one more after that. My needs are less complicated. Give me a young 1B and a young SS and I'll roll with the offense as is. Casas, Keaschall, Lewis, Mayer, Lee and Clemens along with Buxton, Wallner, Larnach, Martin and Outman... It's going to be Outman... The Twins are not letting him go. Jeffers and Pereda. I could live with that. The starting pitching is still going to pretty good. Ryan's a blow but we got some decent options. Bullpen? Uff Da? Well... It starts by going out and getting a dude. It's fun to think about what you or I would do. I do it alot but I just don't know what the other GM's would do.

No doubt. If a team has a different evaluation and makes an incredible offer. You got to do what is best. I just doubt that Lewis is at a high point in value at the moment. Many teams would be willing to roll the dice on him... actually love to have him but would they pay for it? I have no way of knowing other than... my long distance educated guess. Lewis needs to go back and do what we think Royce can do. Then... those trade values would rise. Trading him now and watching him go back to being Royce on a different team so his new team can cash in on the increased value would probably be the end of the Falvey regime.

LOL... There should be more Bird names for MLB teams. My favorites are Cardinals and Jays. They are perhaps the most handsome bird in these parts. I've actually never seen an Oriole. I might be to far north for them. Got a pair of nesting Cardinals. The Male I've named Bob. The Female is Billie Lou Brock. Don't spend a lot of time thinking about the Billie part. Riding a train can be enjoyable. Sitting at railroad tracks waiting. That's too painful and I'm not strong enough to pull the train out of the way.

I saw 1987 and 1991. I'll certainly take another. The Twins are my favorite team in all of sports... But if I had to choose between the two. I'd take a Vikings Superbowl Win First.

I'm Ok with some Birdwatching Articles. Great Idea. If content gets tight... tear down the walls that limit the content options. I've become a Bird Watcher. My son bought me a bird feeder with a camera attached and I really enjoy it. That's was the exact moment that I realized that I had become old. Trainspotting? No Way... I hate trains. Especially when you are stuck in your car watching them for 15 minutes to an hour. Although... I do have one question and nobody has been able to answer it. Who the hell is doing all this train art. They all have the same block letter format and they rarely say anything so it seems like one person is doing all of them... but that can't be. So I assume there is college out their teaching the train art format and they are running amok out there spray painting trains.

I appreciate your entire post. It's a good well thought out post. I want to focus on this one section. Don't get me wrong... your entire post is worthy of thought and discussion but before we talk about the rest of it... this section is where we diverge. It's actually where I diverge with most posters. Martin doesn't need to play "Every Day". Don't get me wrong... Martin had a great 156 AB's in the 2nd half. He was a difference maker on the base paths even after you consider the rather large mistakes that he made on them from time to time. I loved watching him play. I want Martin in the lineup next year but he doesn't have to play every day. Larnach doesn't have to play every day, Wallner doesn't have to play every day. Outman doesn't have to play every day. There are two players who should play every day. Buxton and Keaschall based on performance and Buxton probably won't play every day either due to rest requirements. The rest can compete and nobody should have to get splinters. Take the two catchers out of the mix because they have their own specialized rotation. Take Buxton and Keashcall out as true every day players. It leave you with 9 players for 6 lineup spots with CF Buxton, Keaschall 2B and C out of the mix. Divide that equally... I'm not saying it should be divided equally but if you divide that equally... all of those 9 players will play 2 out of 3 games. True competition for playing time. May the best man win. Would you like to play 3 out of 4 games or 4 out of 5... Earn it! Out perform your teammates. We will provide the opportunity for you to do that... but we will provide the opportunity for your teammate as well. Earn it! Let the players make the decision instead of pre-determining the decision and trying to shoehorn the pre-determination in until it eventually proves you right or wrong. Do you want to avoid losing playing time to your teammates. Don't get out played. This selecting a LF, CF, RF and calling the rest bench is how you limit your possibilities. It's how you let Logan Morrison take you down or Royce Lewis for that matter. True Competition... pouring 13 players through the filter is the quickest way back. Limiting your selections to 9 and calling the rest bench is the longest way back because I will place a bet with anyone who will take it. Here's the bet... Not everyone of the chosen 9 is going to make it. We will be lucky if 6 of the chosen 9 make it. Your odds of finding 6 players to move forward with are simply better with 13 players through the filter at all times compared to a chosen 9 players. You can play Buxton, Martin, Wallner, Larnach and even Outman frequently enough. Nobody has to get in the way of anybody. Unless they just out perform them and earn the right to be in the way. Jenkins, GG, Erod. People are going to get injured... they should get their time in the sun and they should be allowed to compete when their time comes. I'm guessing that an outfielder will get traded. Weather they do or don't... I'm with you. I'd like to see a candidate converted to 1B. Don't know who the best candidate is for that but yeah... Convert someone because we have a big giant lake sized hole at 1B that needs water to fish in.

It's one of the things I appreciate about Twinsdaily. I can typically find this type of stuff if I want to read about Mendez and Winokur and I do. For me... Twinsdaily is important because I can't have in depth conversations at another level about the Twins or baseball with people in my regular life (Family, Friends). I can't talk about Mendez because my neighbor has no idea who Mendez is. But my neighbor knows the Pirates suck and he thinks the Twins suck and Pohlads are cheap and that is the extent of his baseball knowledge. My Neighbor will click on this headline. Yeah... The Pirates suck... The Twins Suck...The Pohlads are cheap... The narrative is reinforced and the mob grows larger. Unfortunately... My neighbor won't click on Mendez and Winokur.

I don't like it either. In another thread... I call it feeding the beast. But the truth is... Yes it is TRULY necessary and there is really no exit off this interstate. Without content there is no reason to visit this site. Without reason to visit the site, the numbers go down. Content has to be produced daily to keep numbers up and the truth is... There isn't daily content. So, different approaches to the same content is all you have to work with. And the sad part is... These types of articles work. The more shocking the headline, the more people that click on it. In the end... It's our fault... We click on it... When we click on it. We get more of it. So... As much as I don't like it. I'm to blame for it.

Great Post The best way to cool off a hot streak is to bench the hot streak. I'm not saying that Larnach had hot streaks (I'm sure he did) and I'm certainly not implying that Trevor Larnach didn't get opportunities against left handed hitters this year. I am saying that generally... Benching a hot hitter is benching a significant short term advantage in favor of strict adherence to the platoon that produces a slighter short term advantage. Is the left handed hitter hot right now? It doesn't matter... He's left handed therefore his hotness isn't a factor. The left handedness is the only factor that matters. It's a dial and not a light switch... it stands to reason that if a hitter is seeing the ball well and his swing is locked in... he will not only hit better against right handers at that moment but also against left handed hitters at that moment... if the manager doesn't allow him to left handers when he is playing his best baseball... you are left with a small sample baked in lower numbers that everybody points at and says... See... he can't hit lefties. It says so right here over these 20 AB's he got.

I've posted a lot on the subject. I've talked at length about the use of the platoon and the damage it does in regards to development. This isn't just a Larnach topic... the Twins comprehensively took every developing left handed bat they had and refused to expose them to left handed pitchers... every single one. Therefore compromising their development and that leads to compromised value. Do you want to trade him to aid in this rebuild. OK... but... you capped his trade value and did so on purpose for potential short term gains. The platoon advantage numbers can't be denied. They are real... however that platoon advantage exists on the other side of the coin as well. Left handed hitters also have a platoon advantage against right handed pitchers. This platoon advantage isn't really a focus when they are signing right handed handcuffs to protect the other LESS FREQUENT platoon advantage of avoiding left handers vs left handers. I have been saying over and over again. By playing the split right... they are playing it wrong. Play the 75%... not the 25%. Here are the 2025 league wide numbers that I grabbed back in July. LHH vs RHP: .744 (Platoon Advantage .041 75% of the time) RHH vs LHP: .709 (Neutral) RHH vs RHP: .703 (Neutral) LHH vs LHP: .656 (Platoon Advantage .053 25% of the time) Just dealing with the averages as they are and ignoring individual talent and individual talent is really the most important thing. Just dealing with the averages as they are. An overstaffed right handed lineup is basically neutral against left or right handed pitchers. An overstaffed left handed lineup produces a platoon advantage three times to every one time that it provides a disadvantage. 3 times the advantage over the neutral right hander compared to a 1 time disadvantage over the neutral right hander. They have been playing the split wrong and compromising development by doing so. 3 times to 1 time is also a platoon advantage that works synergistically with the .744 platoon advantage. 1 time to 3 times is a platoon disadvantage that works with the .656. Yet... they go out and search for that right handed handcuff to avoid that 1 time... ignoring the 3 times and everyone is talking about Trevor Larnach today like he's the problem. Larnach, Wallner, Kirilloff and Julien lost two years of experience, exposure, development, the chance to get better at it. The chance to grow during years where growth is critical. I've been asking for this to stop for awhile now. As I asked for it repeatedly... I knew that if it was ever granted... the OPS was going to come down as a result. After being held back for two years... Trevor Larnach's overall OPS was going to go down when left handed pitchers are added to the mix. You astutely point that out. You are correct in pointing that out. Nearly every left handed hitter that faces left handed pitching is going to take a hit to the overall number. Yet... the 75% platoon advantage remains. Not only is Trevor one of the few major league hitters on this current roster. He is also left handed and therefore equipped to play the platoon split the way it should be played. His left handed presence in the lineup should be joined by more left handed hitters. More left handed hitters will make it much harder if not impossible to compromise the next group of left hander hitters coming through the system because the right handed Garlick has no room on the roster to steal development opportunity. Can't platoon if you don't have enough right handed cover. I'll stop short of saying that we owe Trevor because of the strip mining of his parts. I'll just say... that Trevor is one of the few major league hitters on this roster. We have a lot of non major league hitters on the 40 man roster that need to go first.

The beast must be fed. We the beast are not happy and we must be fed greater and larger doses of unhappiness. It's not enough that payroll is potentially 90m... let's take it down to 50. It's not enough to be cold... let's make it colder. It's what the beast feeds on. Cody Christie is feeding the beast with a new article asking if the Twins are becoming the Pirates. Never mind that the Twins have spent somewhere around 500 million more than the Pirates since Covid. On Royce to the Angels... It would be nice for Royce. It would be wrong for us. You would have to believe that he can't be fixed. You'd have to believe that the fundamentals are not good. You sell this stock at a low point because you believe it could go lower. Just placing him on the trade block would make any trading partner suspicious... Why are you trading him now?

There are multiple paths back. Some longer than others but there are multiple paths. Speed is a game changer and it's a clear weapon in today's game, sometimes you just need to create runs. Besides being a game changer... it just makes baseball more interesting for the viewer. Look everyone... they are utilizing all of the parts of the game of baseball. I know Larnach isn't one of the fastest players on the team but I'll say this: The entire team (including Larnach) sure look different in regards to being aggressive base runners. After Rocco made that announcement.

I called the front office and offered my services. You know... To be the... umm... leader of the committee to select a major league manager group assembly panel. I exceeded the legal duration of voice mail length and never got to finish my thoughts.

There are a lot of people on this site that I respect who disagree with me on this and it's OK... You are one of the respected. I appreciate you at least acknowledging the argument. There is an argument to be made in that regard. I'd say the argument is for 3rd best hitter on the team. Or 4th. But... Larnach is one of a small group of remaining major league bats on this current roster. Buxton and Keaschall were clearly 1 and 2 but after that? Jeffers is probably #3 but Wallner and Larnach are in that ball park and it could be argued for all of them. When people start talking about removing one of the small, tiny group of major league hitters. They are talking about removing one of the few. With miles of roster space below him that has to be addressed.

Great post. There are a few exceptions but there are typically significant platoon splits with most left handed hitters vs left handed pitching across the league. There are a few exceptions but there are typically significant platoon splits with all left handed hitters vs right handed pitching. 75% of pitching is right handed. Which way should we play the platoon split advantage? I vote for playing the advantage against the 75%. Others may feel differently.

If Ryan, Lopez, Buxton, Lewis and Jeffers all quit baseball and joined the circus. This is what the roster would look like. That would leave the same impression on your readers with this 50 million payroll exercise. I'll continue to assume that we will get players back in these 5 trades.

Freaking Nuance Everywhere. 😄

4.5 Consonants? 1.5 Vowels?

Off the top of my head... Yes my head is crazy though.

It's something I'm practicing. I'm trying to use as many 6 letter words with only one vowel as I can. It's hard to be strict and string them together but there are plenty of them, maybe twenty or thirty. I don't want to stress over things going on with the Twins system. Just for a wrench in my writng.

Skubal is merely an example of a pitcher that didn't have the smoothest beginning. He was mentioned to serve as an example of why it's better to have a young returning pitcher produce Bundy-Esque numbers compared to Dylan Bundy producing Bundy-Esque numbers and then followed by the next Dylan Bundy esque one year contract. In no way was I implying that Tarik Skubal is sitting in our current room of arms. Skubal is a pretty amazing talent. So Yeah... I bristled at that.. The main issue in our discussion was my mistake. I take full responsibility. I know that any time I mention a specific player as an example for the larger point I'm making. The player immediately becomes the focus of the discussion. I know better... I've told myself to stop doing that and yet I did it. So It's on me.

I have a 1 game in person scouting report on Mendez that isn't worth anything. Sat in the 2nd row directly behind home plate on August 10th. One hit to show for it but he hit the ball hard every time. So based on that one game. Call him Up!!! 😉

The trade deadline should have been a pretty clear indicator in the direction and that is a direction set forth by the actions at the deadline set forth by the front office. The money available to spend and therefore path back is probably the unclear part. Regardless... I can't imagine them executing a trade deadline as extensive as this past deadline and not understand the direction forward.

I've always said... the manager would never be my target. He's too low on the food chain. It's always the people who hire the people that deserve the concentric circles on their back.

It is hopefully a decent core to build around. Development will determine the end result and the speed of the rebuild. My concern still lies in what has been a fairly highly rated farm system for quite some time that is still leaving us wanting quite some time later.