Riverbrian

I’ve always like Eovaldi. Even when his numbers sucked. He had has stuff. However. The time to get Eovaldi was when his numbers sucked. Right now you are paying for a small window of greatness coming on the heels of a ton of injury time. I’d rather the Twins look for the next Eovaldi type with stuff but numbers that ain’t so good and that smaller price tag as a result and then take the money you’d spend on Eovaldi today and get a little closer to a sure thing.

If they do I don’t want them to but if they do. I’d want a 3B/OF combo guy. He must play immediately (not hidden) and his roster inclusion would force either Cron or Austin off the roster so he must produce better then those two would immediately. If that guy doesn’t exist. Stay out of the rule 5.

I think they are trying to compete. You don’t even talk Cano if considering a rebuild. Syndagaard rumors are probably an attempt at balancing the roster. Position of strength/Position of weakness thing. They will probably only move him if the return brings back MLB ready talent. Otherwise... yeah it doesn’t make a ton of sense.

If Buxton and Sano have years that we all hope they have. The front office will regret not having complimentary players surrounding them because it will be a missed timing of opportunity. If they wait for Buxton and Sano before investing in complimentary pieces. The core will be one year older and more expensive leaving less money to compliment Buxton and Sano with no guarantee that Buxton and Sano will be healthy or repeat. Bottom Line: Staff the roster to compete right now in case Sano and Buxton decide to join the party this year.

Need more Child's Play I suppose.

I may have been misunderstanding you a little but at the same time... I've kinda always known that you felt this way. The only thing I can say. There are not a lot of needle movers (in that sense) that will be easily attainable.

From your fingers to God's Eyeballs.

If forced to compare Cron and Austin as 1B/DH only. I dont see massive improvement if any but i like Austin. If Austin can play OF. Then the dynamic really changes and Austin wins hands down but you could still roster both and still sign anyone you want with the DH spot to play with. Ultimately I would have preferred a 3B/OF over Cron but Tampa didn’t release one.

A game or two or ten. Whenever the need arises due to rest, health, poor performance or great performance or specific matchups. Cave? Yeah sure if Cave is on the roster and hitting balls into the gap and over the limestone in CF but what I really envision is signing Cutch or Brantley and needing an escape hatch in case all 4 OF’s are performing. What I don’t want and am frankly scared to death of is this: we can’t or won’t sign Cutch or Brantley because the organization or Manager cant figure out what to do with 4 quality outfielders. If they stop themselves because Kepler is too good defensively then we got the same nightmare potential in 2019 that we had in 2018, Buxton and Kepler playing everyday and playing at or below replacement level with Michael Reed to turn to and the manager won’t turn to him because he isn’t Cutch or Brantley. This brings me back to my original point. If you get 25 players who can play... teams will be forced to adopt flexibility to accommodate and any fear of flexibility will stop teams from adding that 4th OF because they don’t have a place to play the other 3 and therefore don’t sign that 4th OF. Ultimately if Cave can play 1B... it makes sense to keep Kepler in RF for his plus defense. I want a manager who can make common sense decisions like that. Flexibility shouldn’t be willy nilly but it has to be more than a single utility guy who became the utility guy because he didn’t win a starting job. The Dodgers and Cubs have figured this out. The rest of the league has to catch up. I only mention Kepler as an example. It could be anybody but my true poster boy is Tyler Austin with the addition of Cron. If anybody needs some OF time for career survival it is him. If I’m Austin I’m calling Baldelli everyday and telling him that I’ll play any where and work day and night at it. And if I’m Baldelli... I’m letting him.

We agree And here is how they did it. They dont tolerate bad play. They didn’t buy it with money like most assume. Back when Dozier was playing like crap for us, I stated that the Dodgers wouldn’t tolerate it while the Twins tolerated that sort of thing all the time and have for decades. Well... Dozier gets traded to the Dodgers and they didn’t tolerate it and it was Kike Hernandez playing 2B the majority of the time.? It can be argued that the Twins had no choice because of Ryan LaMarre and whatever. But the Dodgers replaced Dozier with their versions of Ryan LaMarre. The Dodgers created a full roster of talent because they gave playing time to players who played the best. It wasn’t money that gave them Taylor, Muncy and Kike. This how they created depth and flexibility allows them to keep it all. The Twins will be handicapped trying to create depth if the team continues to be satisfied with bad play getting everyday time or nervous about Kepler playing 1B to handle over flow in case you decide to try and create overflow. And if they can’t create depth... we will be victimized every single time we have players like Dozier playing like crap. The Dodgers didn’t buy it. The Dodgers simply said... you must perform and didn’t care about the pedigree of those who were or weren’t performing.

You don’t have to move Rogers to the rotation. All you gotta do is increase his innings from 60 to lets say 100.

I'm going to simplify my thoughts the best I can... and that is really hard for me. For example... If you put a roster together with 25 players who can play. If you do that... all organizations will be forced... and I mean forced... to adopt positional flexibility to accommodate all the talent. Necessity is the mother of invention. The Dodgers are over loaded with talent and they have to move pieces around to make it work. If you are fearful of the side-effects of moving Kepler around to playing 1B for a game or two. You immediately restrict and put parameters on flexibility and the eventual result of that is: You don't sign a 4th outfielder and are then forced to hope and pray that Kepler becomes the RF we need him to become and if he doesn't... Grossman is the guy waiting on the bench. Flexibility is a natural by-product of having a talented roster. Fear of flexibility prevents you filling out your roster to the brim with talent. Just adopt the idea of flexibility and fill your roster.

Why can't Romero throw 150 plus innings out of the pen? The only reason he can't is because of past baseball conventions that you have a 5 man rotation and a bullpen full of guys who throw one inning at a time. He could start in the 5th and pitch until the 8th out of the "Pen" and do it twice every 5 game stretch. The Rays, A's and Brewers (and Twins) kinda showed everybody that the 5 man rotation is about to go away for teams that keep trying and dying to find 5 competent "Innings Eaters" to absorb all those innings in the traditional way. They are growing tired of throwing a 5 plus ERA starter every fifth day trying to get through a season with 5 designated starters.

All in all... I agree with every word you saying about Astudilo. His bat plays... I'm a believer. The only place where I disagree is going to come down to the definition of "Stashed". If starting in Rochester means that he won't see the light of a major league day then I agree with you. However, my definition of stashed is... he comes up when someone is playing poorly or is injured. With his flexibility... he could be the first call up for poor performance or injury at Catcher, 3B or 1B. In other words he wouldn't have to stay there long and if he performs like he did last year. He wouldn't have to be sent back and you have now created depth. The alternative to that isn't appealing to me. That would be to give Astudillo a 25 man roster spot because he earned it (he kinda did). Count on him doing it again... and if it doesn't work out due to poor performance or injury... now you got to go with Bobby Wilson #2 who was signed as Farm filler. The Twins are in much better position for all eventualities if they have Castro and Garver with Astudillo waiting for a phone call. If you hand Astudillo a 25 man spot... (I get the temptation, I'm half way there myself) you are not as strong nor prepared for failure. It also needs to be considered that every time you hand a 25 man spot to someone with options like Astudillo... It closes the door on adding someone else to the 25 man roster because he got the available spot.

I’m some cases it may be ability and some cases it is about the quickest access but the majority of cases (in my opinion) its because of an arcane sense of specialization.

Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc.

I use Kepler as an example of the idea. If Rosario could play IF it wouldn’t be necessary to move Kepler. If Austin could play OF. DH opens for a bunch of different matchup moves. I’m not going to get tied to one specific player but I am tied to the concept. On Astudillo. I love the guy. He should have gotten at least a hundred more AB’s with us last year. I want the team stacked with enough talent that players with options have to Knock down the door to make the roster.

Nick... You'll be getting resistance on this but your thinking is exactly how you the team needs to think. The team doesn't need to follow your plan to a tee but the concepts you raise are important. Kepler: I understand that he is a plus plus defender in the OF. The discussion isn't a full time move to 1B never to play OF again. It is the occasional game played at 1B. If anyone is claiming that our defense is going to fall apart of if Kepler isn't in RF EVERY DAY, then they didn't notice that Kepler wasn't in the OF every day last year. It doesn't have to be Kepler... Rosario occasionally at 3B. It allows you to acquire more assets if you have places to move the over flow. This isn't a hard concept and the fears expressed are 18th century. Romero and May: Sconnie is right, Remove the starting/reliever pitching labels. Make them pitchers. You don't have to choose between 1 inning of work or 6 innings of work with May. If he's getting people out... let him keep getting people out. Those who get batters out, get more innings. Same thing with Romero. Working Romero out of the bullpen with the idea that a bullpen arm doesn't have to throw just one inning will be a way to manage how many innings he throws. Across baseball Starters had a 4.29 ERA and the bullpen arms had a 4.09 ERA. Astudillo... Oddly enough. This is the only place I have a slight disagreement. He has options... you need depth in the minors. By starting Astudillo in Rochester... it prevents the team from needing Bobby Wilson as injury replacement.

Exactly... I’m ok with the signing. I want assets acquired. I want improvements regardless of the increment. My concern at the moment is Austin. If this causes Austin to be cut. I may have an issue. If signing Cron makes them think we don’t have room for further upgrades then I will have an issue. Ultimately... I want upgrades and assets acquired and will wait to see the finished product.

Since May, I have been talking about the need for flexibility. First move of the off-season was the exact opposite.

Methodology that can't be dismissed.

All in All... I don't think they were planning on Cron but Tampa Bay screwed up those plans.

Cron does not have options remaining. Austin does not have options remaining. Neither can be stashed. Cron will cost 5M. Austin will Cost the minimum. Cron will cost 10M in 2020. Austin will cost the minimum. Cron has 1862 AB's. 96 Home Runs (1 per 19,39) with a .772 OPS - Austin has 367 AB's 24 HR's (1 per 15.29) with a .758 OPS. This isn't just a 5M who cares deal... They gave up two years of control between the two and we don't have clear separation in production between them. This is a gamble that Austin will not pan out over the next two major league minimum years... or at least a gamble that Cron is significantly better than Austin. Signing Cron was not gamble... DFA'ing Austin is the gamble. If it's not the gambles listed above because the Twins will use the DH to roster both. Then it becomes a different gamble that Sano will be everything we dreamed at 3B. I wouldn't take any of those gambles but I'll support the right of the front office to make the gambles they choose to make. All in all... I want them to improve the roster... roster spot by roster spot.

I suppose you'd have to consider that the bulk of his 5M will already been paid by the Twins come July however, it still doesn't solve the league wide power hitting/high K 1B saturation problem.

Giving Austin a scholarship isn't the way I look at it. He showed some potential and he's out of options. When they are out of options you have to give them a roster spot or let them go, Austin intrigued me enough that I don't want to let him go to end up being a Voit type player for someone else. I'd like to see what he could do with 500 AB's. He's got 40 HR power with 500 AB's in my opinion. I feel the same way about Cron as I did when they signed Morrison last year... I was OK with it because I like it when the try to upgrade even at small increments but I mentioned when he was signed that he better be better than Vargas (I've always irrationally liked Vargas) because Vargas would be paid the minimum and Morrison got 6M. Same thing between Cron and Austin... He better be better than Austin if Austin is a causality of the move. It's not a scholarship thing... It's an option thing... losing him thing.