Riverbrian

You just did a thing there. Not sure what it was... but it was definitely a thing. I've seen things before so I recognize them.

There are multiple paths forward. One path is to keep the current group of starters and build around it. All paths forward have changing unpredictable conditions that should make any declaration on October 1st premature. Yet we ask on October 1.

You are fine without the fancy stuff. The deeper you dive into stats... the more it equalizes. Good stats with bad stats mix together. More data typically leads to more average. Of course... if you do run into that player with minimum bad stuff. There is no debate with those players. You don't have to look at the stats to know that Aaron Judge is pretty good. I think you are right. The Twins have access to data that tells them who is most likely to succeed and they use that data to provide and limit opportunity. It makes sense... but... the thing that I can never get past. They are wrong often... and I mean often. Not just the Twins... All teams. The information, is maybe 50% (making up a number) correct and they deploy it like it's 100%. And past data is always past. Development isn't linear. Coaches... have a reason to get up in the morning and report to work... to coach... to improve... to make better... that's why they are paid. Austin Martin doesn't have to be frozen in time at age 25 with no hope. Can't hit the curve ball on the outside corner. Let's face some and go over it. This is better than... you can't deal with the curve ball... OK... you sit here on the bench... I'll pour the cement over you and we will lock this problem in.

In my opinion it matters greatly. The young pitcher will be back next year. Bundy will not. They can take what they learned and apply it the next year to the benefit of the Twins. In the case of Bundy... if he learned anything with those 140 innings that he ate... He applied what he learned to the benefit of the Syracuse Mets the following year. Tarik Skubal started out Bundy like... he got better. I'm watching Bello pitch against the Yankees. He started out Bundy like... he got better. I will take 79 Innings of 5.56 from Zebby Matthews over 140 innings of 4.89 from Dylan Bundy every single time. Same with Festa, SWR, Bradley and Abel. I'm not sure if you have specific players in mind when you say Cleveland pitchers don't last more than a couple of years. A broad response to that is. A couple of years is fine. Yes... we all want 6 years of fantastic from young players but we rarely get it. Especially on the mound when injuries are prevalent. Only getting a couple of years is still a couple of years. A more specific response. Cleveland trades players before they get expensive or before they reach free agency. They restock rather than lose them for nothing and then they consistently beat us with significantly less payroll year after year after year. Just imagine having this constant wave of young talent plus an additional 40 to 50 million to spend. We could out Cleveland Cleveland with more money. We could out Milwaukee Milwaukee with more money. As cheap as we all claim the Pohlads are. We out spent Cleveland and Milwaukee by a considerable amount. Since 2021... The Twins have spent 275ish million dollars more than Cleveland. Since 2021... Cleveland won 428 games with 3 AL Central titles and the Twins won 390 games with 1 AL Central title and three years of drafting early in those same 5 years.

I don't know if I've mentioned this before... in case I haven't. I enjoy your posts. You are one of the few who is consistently researched. Yep 24 players. 21 in 2024, 21 in 2023. 25 in 2022. 24 is a little on the high side but not far from a typical number for any given year or any given team. We sold at the deadline so some of that 24 will be trade inflated. Cleveland ran through 21 players in 2025. 13 of those 21 were below .650. 14 players if you count Carlos Santana who was exactly at .650 and those 14 players produced over 3000 AB's. Cleveland would love Trevor. I would also say that... of those 24 players that the Twins ran through the filter... 7 never really made it into the filter... they bounced off the side of the filter and onto the floor. Keirsay, Bride, Fitzgerald, Roden, Miranda, Pereda and McCusker never built a sensible sample at the MLB level or any kind of consistency. Roden got hurt, the others were manager decision. 5 of those 7 players would be included in your 9. I'd just toss Keirsay, Bride, Fitzgerald, Miranda, Pereda and McCusker overboard right now. No faith was displayed toward them at any point. O course... that could have been Rocco... He's gone now... Maybe somebody new would feel differently about those players. 24 is a normal number and exactly why I'm insistent on pouring 13 players through the filter at all times and creating competition because searching for 9 will never be enough. Brooks Lee might be our everyday SS and people may think that SS is covered. He won't be the SS for 162 games. Could end up being the SS for anywhere between 0 and 162 games. We will need someone besides Brooks who can play SS in 2026 and if Brooks is going to OPS below .700... he will also need competition.

You can call it whatever. A pipeline or ham sandwich. You can all debate effective or ineffective. I'll just point out that we haven't had to sign Dylan Bundy types in awhile and that's good. If the pipeline or ham sandwich is effective enough to make Dylan Bundy unnecessary... That's good start. On the offensive side of the ledger... we are trying to survive off of Dylan Bundy types. Duran, Jax, Varland are from this pipeline or whatever it is and they brought back 3 starting pitchers which keeps you further from Dylan Bundy. Plus they acquired a highly ranked young catcher in Tait and a decently ranked outfielder who are now products of this whatever you want to call it. On the other hand... this pipeline or whatever you want to call doesn't seem to be near the Cleveland (trade Beiber, Sewald at the trade deadline... lose Clase to suspension and get better afterwards) level. This pipeline doesn't seem to be near the Brewers (trade Corbin Burnes and get better after) level either.

I don't know anything about the inner workings of the decision making process at 1 Twins way to be happy or sad over this so I'll carry on with my day. If Rocco is part of the development bottleneck. OK... Let's get this thing cleared. If it's because they think that Rocco isn't the best choice for development... OK... Let's get this thing cleared. I don't know the thoughts, preferences, manager style of any potential candidates so I won't even try to recommend anyone. The only manager that I know that will do things the way I'd like to see them done is me. I'll wait for my phone to ring.

Your sticking point is also my sticking point in reverse. If the Twins have pinch hitters on the roster next season... I'll lose my mind. You pour 13 players through the filter at all times... not 9. Martin playing 5 out of 6 is not going to hurt him. Outman playing 4 out of 6 or 3 out of 6 is not going to hurt him. Larnach playing 4 out of 6 is not going to hurt him. Wallner playing 5 out of 6 is not going to hurt him. The only outfielder that has EARNED 6 out 6 games playing time is Byron Buxton. The rest can compete with each other for playing time and I'm certainly not going to predict winners with up and down performance from year to year. You pour 13 players through the filter not 9 because I'll guarantee you that not all 9 of your chosen 9 are going to make it through. Your odds of finding 9 major league talent level players improves by pouring 13 through instead of the bare minimum 9. The front office has to stop pretending that they got this evaluation, forecasting thing nailed and therefore limiting the numbers going through the filter with focus on a select few. It's way past time to let the players decide by performance. I've railed against the low value one year contract guys that won't be back the following year. He works out he's gone anyway. If he doesn't work out... he's gone anyway. That ain't Trevor yet. Plus... I'll admit that there is part of me that is reacting to the unfairness of the stupid approach they took with all of their left handers. I'd like to see that rectified to see what happens better late than never.

I'm not much of WAR fan (Fangraphs or Baseball Reference) and I don't pay a lot of attention to it. I think WAR is over weighted by defensive metrics that are over weighted by small sample range stats. Max Kepler in 2022 with a 1.6 fWAR with a .666 OPS is enough for me to put it aside. Perfection is the enemy of good. Most of our players have sub level parts of their game. He also doesn't have to be a regular. He can compete for playing time with the army that is coming behind him.

Bad D... I disagree. His D isn't as good as others but Bad... nope... he is able to catch fly balls. Like you said... It's a dial... not a switch besides DH is always sitting there for use. Baserunning sure seems to have improved team wide following a simple declaration from the manager to go for it so I won't hold that against Trevor. Exactly league average hitting... Well... His OPS is going to come down when lefties are added to the repertoire. Lefties should have been part of the repertoire years prior. I'll show patience in that department and if he can get that LH OPS up to .650 his league average OPS will no longer be league average. 5 million and a limited budget. Budget isn't limited at this point. 5 million isn't a concern like it was when we were already running into a wall at 140 million. He is potentially back the year after and then you can make a harder decision on 8 or 9 million. All of the potential options. They will still be available. We are going to disagree on this one. We got a ways to go here... you don't start by DFA'ing players that are productive when there are many unproductive players that need to go first.

Catcher could be a different thing. I'd like them to punt the position until they can develop catchers. If punting the position... Peredes at age 29 might be a decent punt. Might is the key word but you need information, exposure to deal with the word might.

The only thing that I have to say on the subject is this. Buxton has been through a lot with the injuries he has suffered throughout. This year... he came close to a full season and that makes me happy for Buck. Byron is on my team... no matter what we go through in the next few years. I hope Byron remains a Twin for his entire career. Players that play their entire LENGTHY career for one team is rare. Byron is already a rare player from a talent perspective Playing for one team... would make him rarer than rare. Please don't request a trade... help us out of this hopefully temporary hole.

My post was in support of your post. The only logic with Larnach in my mind... is keep him or trade him. DFA wouldn't be a consideration in my mind. They will probably have to trade an outfielder when you consider the number of outfield considerations that they have and we have rather large holes in the bullpen to fill along with 1B and someone else who can play SS. I have no idea what his trade value is and won't pretend to. If his trade value is non-existent then let him hit the ball for us but just letting him go when he has another year just doesn't make any sense to me at all. I don't like how the Twins have handled him thus far. He finally got to face some left handed pitching this year... It's two years too late but like I've stated many times in my many posts on the subject. Taking a hit against left handers is OK with hope of improvement with more exposure. In the meantime, that dent against left handers is going to drag overall stats down and that happened this year... and it's OK to absorb that dent for overall development to try and lessen the dent in the future. He is still an above average hitter against right handed pitchers who we will face 75% of the time. I'd give him another year of facing both hands. By the trade deadline... the team can look for a right handed hitting handcuff if necessary. In the end... I would be happy to keep him on my roster. He wouldn't be handed anything, He doesn't have to play 6 out of 6 games. Competition for playing time would be in place on my roster. As for right now... He's a good (not Juan Soto) hitter on a team that needs good hitters.

If they don't get serious about development... they are going to regret it... maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow but soon and for the rest of their lives. I'm no good at being noble but it doesn't take much to see that the problems of 3 baseball players doesn't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world of rebuilding this roster.

50 million would probably cause revenue sharing complications.

String is one of the most logical posters on this site. He has 13 players cleared off the 40 man. 13! 5 bullpen and 8 position players. 13 is a lot. 13 players that will need to be replaced. Actually 13 is really 14. Since we don't have a full 40 man currently. We are already a player short with 38 on the 40 man and only 1 on the 60 day. So, 13 is really 14, If you trade a player... It's 15... if you trade 2 players... it's 16 spots to fill and so forth. 16 is a lot! Do we have 16 players to protect from rule 5? Do we have 10? Protecting 5 in a given year is a lot? Does anyone believe we will bring payroll back to 140 million? We have cleared a lot of money off the books so his Arb 2 money is not taxing the budget. We have a lot of space to fill... before you even consider Larnach... Lots of things to fix before you get to Larnach. And when you consider Larnach. He's a good hitter. We will need some good hitters.

I don't understand the willingness to let Larnach go.

If they gave up Brock Stewart just to rent Outman for 2 months in a lost season... knowing he is out of options. That would be a little... umm... questionable. I gotta believe that Outman has a 40 and 26 man roster spot waiting for him.

I agree

I agree with you. I don't wanna focus on case by case because all teams make these types of mistakes but the collective is where it gets concerning. 40 man and 26 man decisions make the job hard. Lots of fairly equal players piled up in the middle to decide on. The ticking options clock make already hard decisions time sensitive and therefore much much harder. The job is already hard. What makes it even harder still. Limiting major league AB's, limiting major league innings for those who you need MLB information on before you set that 40 man. Choosing Belisle over Nick Anderson when you need MLB information on Anderson just increases the chances of missing on Nick Anderson. Choosing Nick Anderson over Belisle decreases the chances of missing on Nick Anderson. Choosing Celestino over Rooker because you think you need a CF this year... increases the odds of missing on Brent Rooker. I'd try and get rid of that self admitted age bias. It's OK if they can give us 3 or 2 years or 1 year of decent play at the major league minimum. They don't have to be 6 years productive before we lose them to free agency to be worth it. Keep in mind that most players drafted out of college finally arrive at the major league level at an advanced age. It sure seems like teams are really focusing on college players come draft time. If someone gets his shot at 29, does well and is no longer worth it at age 32. Those productive years while short... are still worth it.

From San Diego to Baltimore... nearly all the organizations in baseball are waiting for this parade. It's a nice mantra to set a parade goal... Rah Rah but it's not the first step. You got to get past the bouncers in front of this playoffs nightclub before anything happens to you inside. There will be 162 games next year.

It's good to see... However with all the expiring contracts (except one) dealt away. There is no choice at the moment. The vets were dealt. Having no other choice isn't a strong commitment. It is still possible that the Twins sign 6 or 7 low dollar one year deals this off-season. When they choose youth... instead of signing Ty France or Jonah Bride or IKF. That's when we know it's starting to happen. The current evidence isn't heart warming. Only Vazquez's contract is expiring. Back from injury and he's getting the reps. Pereda nope. In other words. The only place they could choose... they chose the expiring vet.

I didn't listen to it. I just read this synopsis. Here's the deal. These things are typically just PR food for the masses.. Just sound bite explanations in what probably requires a 1,000 page document explanation. However, If he is feeding the narrative of growing pains... he isn't helping. From a PR standpoint... that is what has to change. The narrative that links youth and growing pains together. Youth/Growing Pains is stuck inside the majority of fans like Peanut Butter and Jelly and it may require dynamite to get it out. Is Luke Keaschall going through growing pains? Is Cleveland going through growing pains? Is Milwaukee? You are going through a youth movement right now. Are growing pains what you want to promote to run along side of this movement? Is that the message? What about the struggling vet... the below average vet. Are those growing pains? It's the same result... but the growing pains stigma isn't attached to them. Again... I didn't listen to it but I'm hoping that "Growing Pains" is coming from blogger interpretation and not Falvey himself... because if he believes "Growing Pains"... it will just lengthen this thing out because he will just constantly look for ways to avoid it. By saying Growing pains... the impression that is left in the souls of the audiences is... "This rebuild is going to take forever. That's what people think when they hear growing pains. They think... I'll see you in five years and that is complete ********. Players can struggle in April and be doing quite well in June. He just has to commit to youth... not just one ute... but all utes. Commit to players who will back next year instead of giving full 100% commitment to the players who won't be back. They have consistently allowed vets to work through their equivalent of Growing Pains. Choose youth over the cheap one year vet. This is something that they haven't done in many years and it's created this rebuild, reset or rewhatever this is. The ignoring or lack of production from the farm is why we have a lot of lottery balls next draft. There are enough examples around the league of teams thriving with youth. Growing pains have been dealt with quickly and efficiently. There are enough of examples of pre-arb players performing in the same range from bad to good as the vets. Commit to youth and FIX YOUR DAMN DEVELOPMENT NOW and this rebuild will not take as long as we fear. Talk about growing pains... selling growing pains. We will see you in 5 years.

Celestino and Garlick over Rooker? Cano to the Orioles?

Concerning the subject Royce Lewis. I'd keep betting on him. He will be back next year. In a nutshell overall... Royce Lewis and everyone. I'd rather they show patience with all players that will be back next year. I'd rather they show less patience with players that won't be back next year. I think it's quite possible that they have been playing it backwards. And I'll say that the Twins are not the only team that seem to play it backwards. However, teams like Milwaukee and Cleveland tend not to. I'd like them to use April, May, June and July to establish who is getting the job done in order to answer the important time sensitive question. What do we need to do at the trade deadline? How do we shore up the weak points? Can Wallner hit left handed pitching for the stretch run or do we need to rent Grichuk for the stretch run? Will Royce come out of this slump or are we going to play Kody Clemens at 3B or do we need to rent Eugenio Suarez for the stretch run.