Riverbrian

I'm OK... with Julien getting sent down. His fate was sealed when he couldn't come up with a key grounder and that over slide of 2B on his stolen base attempt on Friday. I still believe in Juliens ability to hit the ball... however he isn't at the moment with a .198 avg and .607 OPS that just isn't going to overcome everything else that he has to overcome.

Injuries are no excuse. This front office should be plenty practiced dealing with injury issues, With all of the injuries that the Twins have suffered over the years, through all the opportunity potentially provided to others by all these injuries,,, this front office should have somewhat capable pre-arb options coming out of their ears... yet we don't. Other teams are able to turn these opportunities into pre arb options. We turn them into opportunities for one year low priced vets to lead the club in plate appearances. You keep filling with low priced one year vets at the expense of making your own... there will be a bill to pay in the future. Is that bill coming due? Maybe. Why does Carson McCusker have to wait behind a DFA?

OK... Let's go through them. New York Yankees/Mets. I've only been to New York a couple of times. There so much to do and see that you just can't do and see it all. I'll be going in August when the Twins are taking on the Yanks. My plan is to just eat as much pop culture food as I can without exploding. Nathans Hot Dog on Coney Island, A legitimate New York Slice of Pizza, The Soup Nazi Restuarant made famous on Seinfeld and Tom's Diner made famous on Seinfeld. In my past trips to New York. I consider Katz Deli a must. Granted... there are probably a hundred musts in New York but the sandwiches are great and you can sit at the table where Meg Ryan had her famous scene in When Harry Met Sally. Baltimore: Got to have crab when you are there. I went to the Lexington Market. Restaurants all over the place. Found a seafood place that served Crab Cakes and crabby food, had an oyster bar. Baltimore isn't the type of place that you just walk around... they got some rough neighborhoods but a walk along the Harbor gives you the impression for the moment that Baltimore is all right. Boston: I don't have any food recommendations but the city is extremely walkable. Just walk it... the city is interesting. Tampa: I really liked St. Petersburg... I'm not sure St. Petersburg even matters any more but I enjoyed my time there. In my opinion... Florida food is just food brought in from elsewhere. Want to eat a Grouper? You'll find sea food of course and you will find every regional food around the world brought in from restaurnatuers that moved to Florida along with everyone else. The majority of action in St. Petersburg is on Central Avenue. Get a Cigar and walk it. It's good people watching. Toronto: Been there a long time ago... No recommendations... it was a long time ago. Cleveland: There isn't anything that I would call Cleveland Food. I recommend the West Side Market and take your pick. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is interesting if you like your Rock and Roll like I do. I went once... found it interesting once but I don't need to go back because I'm not sure it would be interesting twice. Chicago: Chicago has great food. One of my favorite food cities. For the iconic stuff the Italian Beef is my favorite... GET IT WET!!! learn the stance. Went to Big Al's... loved it. You can't go wrong with a deep dish pizza or a simple Chicago dog. Squirrel was a good guide when I was there. She took me to the Billy Goat Tavern and I really appreciated that. The Billy Goat restaurant is famous from Saturday Night Live in the early days. Cheeseburger, Cheeseburger, No Coke Pepsi. I'm a sucker for the pop culture places. Kansas City: BBQ - Ask the locals... they'll tell you where to go instead of the tourist trap BBQ joints. Although the tourist trap joints are still pretty damn good. Not getting Burnt Ends in Kansas city is a mistake... get the burnt ends. Detroit: If you go... watch the game and get out quick. Houston: Tex Mex is what they do best. Although... If I ever go back to Texas... I'll be looking for authentic Texas Chili (No Beans). Texas: Dallas... See Houston. BBQ, Chili and Tex Mex. San Francisco/Oakland. San Francisco is also one of my favorite food cities. Dim Sum is where I left my heart though. If I ever go back... I'm heading straight to the Good Mong Kok Bakery in Chinatown. When I was there I joined a line around the block. You stand in line for almost an hour but it's worth the wait. No Place to sit down... barely any place to stand and place your order... no time to look at the 60 different options on the menu because you don't see the menu until you get in the building and when you get in the building you have someone immediately waiting for your order and a line around the block behind you. They really try to keep the line moving. Give the number when ordering. If you try to say what it's called... they won't understand you. Absolutely delicious and you can fill yourself up easy for under 10 bucks. You quickly understand why there is a line around the block. Finding a place to eat it... that's tricky... I ended up eating mine on the hood of my car with busy Chinatown happening around me and I would do it again and again. There is no way I miss this place if I ever go back. One of my favorite restaurants anywhere. Seattle: Pike Place Market. Get some Coffee... I'm sure you'll find someone who will sell you a cup at a fair price. Los Angeles: Like New York... Too much to see and too much to do. Keep it simple... make sure you get an In-N-Out Burger. Philllipe the Original is where the French Dip was invented. They may have invented it but others elsewhere made it better. Pink's is an Iconic Hot Dog Place if you like Hot Dog's while looking at pictures of all the famous people who had a hot dog there. I spent my time checking out all the pop culture stuff, Hefners place, the house where OJ did it, Rodeo Drive, Whisky a Go-Go, drove all the famous boulevards one stop light at a time, You can't do two green lights in a row in LA. Malibu, the Valley, The Tar pits. Glunn was a good host in my week long visit. I sure appreciated the chance to see as much as I could.

McCusker continues to hit. 2 for 3 with another home run for the big guy and he is a big guy.

If he's platooning... they are forcing the platoon. Who knows if Bride can continue being a hitter but as long as he's hitting. Play him. Let him fight for a job. I liked that he was in the lineup against a right hander yesterday.

It's quite possible that you are right. I think that means Bader is full time.

BTW I'm not sure that I would have signed Bride in the first place. However... now that he is here and now that he is 6 for 12 with only one strikeout. Keep playing him until he cools down.

The Twins rank 2nd in Team OPS over the past 7 days. 1. Dodgers .872 2. Twins .868 The uptick of offensive stats seems to coincide with a bit of a winning streak.

String, I think you are right but Keirsay needs to be included in the discussion.

I think you have nailed it. We have 8 starters against right handers and I assume Rocco will rotate the last spot with the occasional day off for the 8 starters. It'll be a good week to find out what Rocco's going to do. With Cleveland tossing their lone left hander yesterday, We will get right handed starters every day until Crochet on Sunday in Boston. Does Bride have to wait until Sunday to get a start? When will we see the debut of the Clemens? Will we see the debut of Clemens? On the Rocco value chart. Ty France has been Mr. Not Replaceable. He leads the team in plate appearances. An odd position for someone who was signed at close to the league minimum on a non-guaranteed contract.

.830 team OPS in the past 7 days. 4th best. That has been tremendously helpful. Trevor Larnach leading the way.

Whenever you have injuries at this scale... there isn't much anyone can do. I get that. However... in this specific situation. We need hitting. You promote your best hitter and our best hitter as of late April is McCusker. Open 40 man spot, rash of injuries and a guy with a plus one thousand OPS and more home runs in the entire organization. 27 years old so there is no sense waiting longer. Keaschall sure looked good before he got hurt. McCusker was out hitting him in St. Paul by a large margin. Seriously... you pass him by now. When will he ever... not be passed by.

This isn't the 'the" issue but it's an issue with this FO. This is a symptom of the low number of pre-arb players on the roster. When would McCusker ever be called up... if not right now. He's 27... should we let him season some more? He's hitting the ball hard right now. Best hitter in St. Paul at the moment. If the Twins are not going to call him up now. He's hitting... and we are bleeding. If not now... the answer is never. The Twins front office have already decided that he's a waste of time. They prefer the safety of Kody Clemens. It's a shame because right now... all he has to do is out perform Kody Clemens.

I agree with you. McCusker would have been my choice. He's 27... He's hitting the ball right now. Hitting it hard. We need players who are hitting it hard. When someone is swinging the bat well... that would be the perfect time to give him a moment instead of granting someone else another moment. I'm not a fan of pre-determination.

I found a 7 step process for Ashpalt paving Step one actually says that you have to get rid of Manual Margot types first. 1. Demolition and Removal of Manual Margot types. 2. Grading and Sloping 3. Prepare the Sub Base 4. Proof Roll, Undercutting and Sub Base Repair 5. Binder and Surface Course 6. Install New Asphalt Surface 7. Butt Joints and Transisitions I don't understand steps 2 through 6 but I assume they all pertain to the process of developing players that are better than the Margot types. Step 7 the final step... I don't understand that one either but since it mentions "butt joints". I can only assume that it has something to do with the injury history of Buxton and Lewis.

That's true... it wasn't long ago that we had an analytics department of 1 analyst. Increasing pay? In my head it sounds great but I wonder if a team actually jumped in that direction,,, I'd assume that the other 29 owners would show concern about the change in pay scale. They would have to respond to stay competitive and now you have raises across the board that in the end not only increased pay for the best but increased pay for the bottom end of the pool. Just things that bounce around my head as I continue to hope for an organization completely focused on development like their future depends on it.

The highly ranked prospect will get chance after chance until they are proven to be what the organization thinks they will become or proven to be a bust. The lesser ranked prospect will get one shot... if they get that shot and I'll contend that in a lot of cases... the margins are pretty slim between those two groups of prospects. Yet every year... A Tyler (Who is this Guy) Fitzgerald shows up and takes advantage of that one shot. So another question is: How many potential Tyler Fitzgeralds are out there that we don't know about. I don't know the answer to that... but I do know that Manual Margot kept his job for the entire year for some reason. You are absolutely right. The real question is how many quality big league players has your system produced. Quality doesn't mean Juan Soto type uber prospect... quality can also mean... simply better than the low value one year vet plugging up the system. The Twins have 20 players on the roster right now that came out of the system. That's a high number. We currently have 9 pre-arb players on the 26 man roster. That's a low number. We are still signing low dollar free agents to cover for the low number of pre-arb players on our current roster. Our pre-arb players have graduated to arbitration eligible and we are not filling in the back end. We've had a highly ranked farm system year over year... That doesn't mean a damn thing to me right now. Our current 26 man roster isn't reflective of such lofty status. If the rankings were accurate we have failed. If we haven't failed... the rankings were not accurate.

Makes perfect sense to me. Apart from winning... the most important job that a front office has is to increase the value of the players on the roster. Increased value increases trade value and of course production toward the bottom line of winning. My opinion isn't worth much and rightfully so because I've never seen the inside of a baseball front office but I've often wondered in my head. Could a team actually consider taking money away from the player pool and reallocating those dollars toward scouting, coaching and therefore development. For example... could they double what the best scouts and coaches are being paid to ensure that they get the best at those positions. In theory... If doubling the salary of scouts and coaches costs let say an extra 10 million. Those best scouts and coaches could produce multiple young players with MLB talent for the price of one overpaid low level vet. I don't know much about the operation but ideas like yours and mine may be good out of the box thinking to try.

Sticking with a failing vet on a one year contract that won't be back next year is opportunity lost for someone else. It might a little bit of opportunity or it might be quite a bit of opportunity but it is opportunity that provides information for roster decisions in 2026. It's easy for all of us to sit back and say there was no one in the farm anyway. Well... if there is no one. That's a development problem because as you correctly point out... other teams (based on pre-arb roster numbers) seem to have someone and always keep in mind that someone doesn't have to hit like a superstar to be someone. All they have to do is perform as poorly as Margot performed at the bare minimum. I don't know what Keirsay will become... it doesn't matter. I don't know what anyone will become but I am saying... opportunity needs to be provided for someone... anyone else and if they don't have anyone else... that's a development problem. Margot's protected place on the roster not only kept someone else from getting opportunity... a little or lot of opportunity which will provide information on weather they need to replace Margot with another Margot the following season and Margot's protected place on the roster also compromised the development of our young left handers by keeping our young developing left handers from hitting left handers. Which of course... is a development problem that already existed because we failed to develop left handers that could hit left handers or created a development problem by choosing to strip mine the young players for parts. And we paid 4 million for Margot to sit like a cork in the middle of development. Why do other teams have twice as many pre-arb players on the roster? The answer is either: Margot types being necessary because of an existing development problem or Margot types are part of the reason that we have a development problem.

With the injuries... We basically have a starting 9. Vazquez, Bride, Keirsay and Gasper appear to be watching with Vazquez and Keirsay getting some starts on occasion. Bride appears to be waiting for a left hander. We haven't seen a left handed starter since Saturday and the next scheduled left hander is tomorrow night against Kikuchi. Batting order means something. It doesn't mean everything but in regards to who the manager believes in... batting order has to say something. Keashall is batting third. Correa 5th France 6th Jeffers 7th Bader 9th Buxton 2nd Batting order doesn't mean everything but... could that be a ranking of how Rocco is feeling currently about our right handed hitters? It is certainly debatable. While you all debate that... Mainly... I just wanted to point out that Keaschall with 6 games major league experience... is batting THIRD. Does that speak to how good Keaschall has been in those 6 games or does it speak to how poor our offense has been?

Utilization update. Pre and Post Foul Tip. Since Vazquez took that foul tip to the hand. Jeffers has become the primary catcher by a large majority. Since the foul tip. Vazquez has managed to make two starts behind the plate, while Jeffers had made 7 straight starts (6 at C and 1 at DH) before resting yesterday, Since Vazquez has caught two games since the foul tip. It's hard to say if this severe change in what used to be a 50/50 rotation is injury driven or performance driven. Jeffers seems to agree with the extra playing time... at least offensively. 8 for 24 with 4 doubles over this stretch. Jeffers had a pre foul tip OPS of .492. It has since risen to .682 with this regular playing time. Vazquez has done better for himself playing less post foul tip. In what is of course a small sample size. His two for three yesterday raised his OPS from .365 Pre Foul Tip to .467 Post Foul Tip.

Yes... This is my suggestion... This is my primary suggestion... All the words I type belong in the category of this suggestion. Develop or Die. We all know that the Twins can't afford to sign players developed by OTHER organizations. We have to develop our own. There is a bill to pay for not developing your own and we are paying that bill year after year. Despite 20 players on the current 40 man roster coming from our system. We are currently sitting near the bottom of the league of pre-arb players on the 26 man roster. This is paying a little bit extra for every player who is not pre-arb which takes away money that could be added together to get a bigger free agent. We are about 6 pre-arb players short on this roster compared to other teams that are winning baseball games with pre-arb players on the 26 man roster. Development doesn't mean the next Juan Soto although the next Juan Soto would be nice since we haven't developed a top end player like that in quite some time. That in itself is a development issue. Development also means the next Ben Rice who will be back with the Yankees next year or traded with his increased value for someone else... The Development of a Ben Rice type is important so you don't have to turn Ty France into an every day player and he won't be back next year.

I am generally satisfied with the development on the pitching side. We have seemingly developed our way past the need to fill roster space with Bundy types. This is a positive and I give our front office full credit. However, I disagree that our focus on pitching development means that holes will be left on offensive side of development. All 30 teams need to develop every player in the organization.

I don't have as big a problem with the signing of France as other here seem to have. That's strictly because he is basically costing the minimum and France deserves the right to fight for a MLB job just like pre-arb players or minor leaguers do. However... the question from you that I have quoted is the wrong question to ask. The question is why do the Twins need to sign Ty France to nearly a minimum contract and then have to turn him into an everyday player. Nobody else was willing to offer him over 1 million and this is an everyday player for us. Seemingly vital to the overall healthy of our club for all of the reasons that you list. Is this need to sign Ty France a development issue? It's not the player that bugs me... it's the need for the player. Ty will probably have to play nearly every day... just like Pete Alonso will play nearly every day. France might do a great job, average job or he may what he has been for the past two years. Regardless... he won't be back in 2026. The need to sign a player that nobody else is willing to invest in and need him to play every day is the problem and that is a development issue in mind. It's not like the Twins haven't looked for big bopper types in the draft.

Before the year is out. Well... I guess I called that one.