Riverbrian

Buyers buy and Sellers Sell. The Orioles have to reach buyers status before this discussion is even worthy of discussion.

Yeah... it looks like they just stopped like I was hoping they would. With all of the complaining that I've doing with their utilization of our YOUNG left handed hitters the past two years. Even I would have been OK with a pinch hit for Larnach in the 8th with the clock ticking down. That's when you pinch hit when you don't have additional innings to work with and the bell is about to ring. I'm ok that he didn't because a tie game brings extra innings into a play and a possibility of another turn at the plate against a right hander so letting him rip was also something... I was absolutely OK with. If we reconstruct that 8th inning. There was one out and runners on 1st and 2nd. He left Larnach in. He struck out on a foul tip and now it's two outs. Brooks Lee picked him up with that clutch double. Brooks has been improving... he hasn't displayed amazing numbers yet in his career nor a left handed killer profile but Rocco let the ROOKIE stay in the moment and Brooks came through. It's a dial not a switch... it was never an either or scenerio. We are talking an increase or decrease in odds and those odds swing wildly based upon who is seeing the ball well today. The Islanders are picking first in the draft. That's what Odds will do for you when it's one AB at a key moment. Now Lee can put that double in his pocket and carry it with him forward. In the end... Rocco left it alone and it worked out and I'm happy that he did. Well... not totally left it alone. Keirsay was brought in as a defensive replacement for the 9th with Duran entering the game. Keirsay went to RF... Castro went from RF to 2B and Lee went from 2B to 3B and Royce Lewis was the guy taken out for defensive purposes. That move may have told us something in regards to roster utilization. Is this what Rocco prefers defensively. Lewis is just coming back from injury and they are being careful with him as evidenced by his DH work. However... one more inning of work isn't going to be overly stressful on his comeback trail. These defensive switches are moves made for one inning to close the game out... moves made to prevent one mistake in the field to keep that tying run from reaching the plate. Under the consideration of the for defensive purposes motive... two questions arise. 1. Is Lewis the low man on the defensive totem pole? 2. Does Rocco like Lee at 3B and Castro at 2B rather than vice versa. Number 1... Too soon to tell because Royce is just getting back. Number 2... I'd say... Yeah... He likes Lee at 3B and Castro at 2B between those two. Otherwise there was no reason to make that switch.

Been watching the chaos of recent weeks. Castro and Lewis back on the 26 man should have calmed things down a little. The only thing that I can conclude through it all. Buxton, Correa, Larnach, France and Lee were everyday players through it all and Bader was pretty close. With Castro and Lewis back... we have a possibility of 8 everyday players. We will have to watch for awhile. Other observations: Castro has played all 3 games in the OF since his return. Now that Bader isn't ill. Will that continue in the new context. Larnach is clearly not platooning. He has 28 Plate Appearances in 2025. He started 0 for 11. He has gone 4 for 16 since. To put it in perspective. It's May 9 we are 38 games into the season and he has already surpassed the number of AB's against left handers last year. He had 22 PA's against left handers in 2024. SCATTERED 22 PA's over 162 games last year and OK... Now you can face them. 28 PA's over 38 games in 2025 projects to 119... this is a complete 180 that was long overdue. If anyone thinks this is a failed experiment. I've seen the comments stating such. Maybe... Maybe Not. However... can we at least give him a beat or two. He has been held back for two years and finally told OK now we will let you. Can we please give him a beat or two before he is called horrendous? Also... during that 0 for 11 stretch to begin his new "let him face left handers job". Trevor was also not really hitting right handers either. He didn't hit his first home run until April 18. Trevor was going to need to heat up against both hands not just that 0 for 11 against lefties. Larnach is 4 for 27 for the season including that 0 for 11 start. Ty France is 5 for 27 so he would also be the same adjective being applied to Larnach vs left handers. Now Bader has a decent OPS against the left hander. Bader is 7 for 26. 7 for 26 vs 4 for 27 is such a small sample that one good day will make up .400 points of OPS with the same snap of fingers that he is being expected to perform at.

Do they have options remaining after this year? If they do... time hasn't run out. If they don't... time is running out fast.

Loosely tying this IFA discussion to McCusker who is a completely different animal. I often think about the CBA and the role it plays in development and the big contract. Take Jorge Polanco for example. Jorge was 16 when he signed with the Twins. The Twins had to make a decision on him at age 23 because he was already out of options. This time line creates a boom or bust with these young IFA's. Many just ain't ready for a 26 man spot that they are forced into if you want to keep them at the age where college players are just getting drafted. Emma had to be added to the 40 man at age 21. He will be out of options before he reaches the age that Brooks Lee is right now. You end up with superstars like Juan Soto hitting the stage at age 20... becoming a free agent at age 26 and able to sign a 15 year deal because he is still young enough. Brooks Lee coming out of college won't be eligible for free agency until he is 30 at the earliest. There will be no 15 year contract for Brooks at that age. It's no wonder that teams prefer to draft college players when they can hold them through their prime years. And in the case of McCusker. 1 year in the Great West league, followed by 4 years at Oklahoma State... followed by two years in the Frontier league and he finally gets started at age 25. Here he is at age 27 hitting the ball and we have folks using age against him, small sample size against him. BTW... Another Double Last night. 😉

Love your post. I hold no expectation that new owners are going to ride up on a white horse. The Pohlads will be leaving in the same Uber that dropped off the new owners. Market conditions are Market conditions. I think Elias did not a nice job tearing it down and building it back up but... Morton, Sugano, Kittredge, Sanchez and Laureano to finish the job? I'd be bitching about that on Oriolesdaily.

I don't see anyone on the current roster. We got some hope in the minors with Emma at the top of the pile. We have 4 players on the roster who were signed from the international market. Castro was signed by Cleveland, Lopez Seattle, Duran Arizona and Alcala Astros. So all of them were acquired via trade or in the case of Castro... scooped up after the Tigers released him.

I'm not arguing your point. But I'd like to point out that the Twins are 10-5 since April 22. There was a 4 game losing streak inside of that 15 game stretch but it's been a good stretch of baseball. As much time as I spend on Bride/Clemens McCusker debate on another thread and I'll keep going with that debate... I do recognize that the club is doing pretty good regardless (for the moment). As much as I talk about Bader and France. I'll stand here and recognize that Bader and France have been nice contributors to the current 15 stretch of decent results. I'll recognize the spark that Keaschall provided as we started rolling. It's been nice to see Buxton and Jeffers get it into gear. And I'll applaud someone that I have been really hard on... Christian Vazquez has been getting some key hits during this stretch. The performance from those guys buys time for Correa and Lewis to join the party. And... I recognize that Clemens almost won that game in Boston by himself.

As concerned as we are about the Twins start this season and rightfully so. Baltimore is a good reminder to all of us that other teams/fans are also disappointed. As much as the pundits talked about the Baltimore off-season and not finding suitable starters to bring this talented club home. Not many pundits thought this Orioles offense would be the mess that it has been thus far. Hoping for another W today. Go Twins!

This is something that I fight with in my head. Are they struggling to develop even average talent. Forget the superstar... are the struggling to develop average talent or even slightly below average talent or are they just simply choosing to go with a low cost vet because they can milk just enough out of them to keep them floating. Either way... it's a problem with a bill to pay in the future. Draft position... That doesn't matter to me. The Dodgers draft late every year and out develop other clubs. We have all witnessed Dave Dombroski get fired from the Red Sox after he stripped the minor league system bare only to see the Red Sox explode past the Twins in terms of development. The Red Sox went from cupboard nearly bare to more pre-arb players on the Roster than the Twins do and two of the top prospects in baseball basically ready right now. And that's after trading a good chunk of upper end prospects to get Crochet from the White Sox. The next project that I'm going to work on is the International Free Agent. How have the Twins done in that department? I don't know... but I'm going to compare and contrast the Twins with the other 29 clubs and look into it when I get a chance. There are a lot of players who got paid a million and did nothing coming from IFA but there is also a high percentage of the games superstars that came from IFA. The Twins compare with the other 29 teams? I don't know but I have a suspicion that the answer will be not good.

I always appreciate you String. What would his role be? He's an Outfielder. He can DH. We have a team full of players not hitting decently enough. Why would you limit his role if he's hitting? You send him back down if he's not. Start against left handed pitching? You know how I feel about that. I'm really against strip mining players for parts. Would Rocco? Well we just added Clemens a left handed hitter instead and he isn't starting against all right handers. In regards to his age of 27. You'd be surprised how many 27 year olds become productive MLB players. I can think of Nelson Cruz and Joe Nathan off the top of my head. But... I hope this isn't some expectation that McCusker has to become Nelson Cruz or he isn't worth it. A prospect doesn't have to have a 6 year career with us to be worth it. Anyway... you'd be surprised... especially with organizations moving toward drafting college players over high school players. To find more of them... beyond the Cruz, Nathan, Encarnarcion, Justin Turner examples. Just take a tour around Roster Resource and look at each team and count them. From Yennier Cano to Jarren Duran to Connor Wong to Daniel Schneeman to Ben Lively to Zach McKinstry to Christian Walker to Ronel Blanco to Freddie Fermin to Seth Lugo to Lucas Erceg to Taylor Ward to Mitch Garver to Donovan Solano to Yandy Diaz to Jonathan Aranda to Kameron Misner to Adolis Garcia to Jacob DeGrom to Nathan Lukes to Ernie Clement to Chris Bassitt and Bowden Francis. We still have the National League to go through and I got to get to work. Rooker being a first round draft pick and McCusker coming from the Frontier league doesn't matter to me at all and it shouldn't to you either. I don't claim to know what McCusker will be but I have had enough... let's take a guy who has proven to be what we are worried McCusker might be.

I think the moves the Twins made can be justified. I'll concede the need for Bride at the time. I don't necessarily agree but I can concede Bride. Clemens I just can't. We didn't need Clemens... we needed a bat. We just added a couple of infielders with Lewis and Castro coming off the IL. We sent down a couple of infielders in Julien and Gasper. Infielders Bride and Clemens are still here. We were flush with infielders at the time of adding Clemens and we still are.

Yep and eventually there is a bill to pay.

When Bride was traded for CASH after getting DFA'd by the Marlins. We had Larnach, Buxton, Bader and Keirsay for the OF. We had Correa, France, Lee, Keashall, Julien and Castro in injury purgatory while they waited to make an IL call on him. Correa had also tweaked something so... OK... I can kinda see the need for Bride but let's be clear that we also didn't have a very good offense at the time. Later when we trade for Clemens for CASH after getting DFA'd. We had Larnach, Buxton, Bader and Keirsay for the OF. We had a healthy Correa, France, Lee, Julien, Bride and Gasper and let's be clear that we also didn't have a very good offense at the time. You're reasoning isn't completely off base and I'm sure the Twins front office can justify the moves and I'm certainly not going to say that McCusker is going to be the next Rooker. But... Yeah... I'm saying that the Twins are reluctant and whatever the reluctance. It's a development problem.

Spot on post. I can't stand the term log jam. I also don't like the use of the term AAAA. I don't know... You don't know... the front office doesn't know. If the front office knew... Rooker would still be here. If the front office knew... Julien wouldn't have made the roster. If the front office knew, they wouldn't have signed Vazquez to a 30 million dollar deal and on and on it goes. I don't blame the front office for not knowing. All 30 front offices don't know. Nobody can tell me what McCusker will be in the major leagues... I can't tell anybody what McCusker will be in the major leagues and I won't even try but I can guarantee everybody that he will be nothing in the major leagues if he doesn't reach the major leagues and I can tell everyone that the Twins have consistently relied upon a cycle of one year low cost veterans that spend one year with the club only to be replaced by another low cost vet when other clubs are filling that space with pre-arb players who are performing just as well and can be sent down if they can't clear the low bar being set by those players. Some sings the praises of the 1 year rental of Solono. I enjoyed watching him play... he still has a major league job but his OPS+ was a notch above average at 110. Some sing the praises of Michael A. Taylor. He played some nice defense and he hit some homers but his OPS+ was a below average 93. Joey Gallo cost 11 Million for... I don't care what his OPS+ was... He was crap. We sing the praises of WIlli Castro who was a DFA pick up that worked out. But, lets be clear... We are paying him 6 million now and his production was 105 and 108. At least Willi had a future with years of club control to come. Kyle Farmer... We sing his praises... OPS+ of 97 and 92 in his two years with the team. I haven't even mentioned Margot yet. This year... It's Bader, France with the additions of Bride and Clemens. Don't get me wrong. Bader has done a good job so far. I have never had a problem with Bader specifically but I have a big problem with the idea of needing Bader. Ty France is costing the minimum and he has done a decent job comparatively to the rest of the team thus far in 2025 with the Twins. However, while we sing his praises for what he has done so far... it's important to point out that he leads the team in plate appearances and his current OPS+ is 97. As our Pre-Arb players graduate to Arb we have watched the club strip mine our left handers for parts. Today we sit with single digit pre-arb players making the minimum while over half of the major league teams have over half their 26 man roster making the minimum. Why is that? Is it because we have simply failed to develop talent? Is it because they are so risk adverse that they simply prefer the endless string of vets over the endless string of farm raised players. I don't know but either way... it's a development problem and passing over McCusker not once but twice is a symptom of the disease.

The Twins had an open 40 man spot when they chose to trade mere Cash for Bride who was DFA'd by the Marlines and they had an open 40 man spot when they chose to trade mere Cash for Clemens who was DFA'd by the Phillies. Both times McCusker could have been that 40 man addition and the Twins chose to go with players that other teams were clearing off of their 40 man roster. The Twins have been consistently choosing low value vets over in-house options. They either: 1. Mistakenly don't believe in the talent that they are developing or 2. They unmistakenly have failed to develop players who only need to clear a bar set by players that have been DFA'd. Either way it's a development problem firmly attached to this organization that other organizations don't seem to have. If McCusker can't be called up with two open 40 man spots, two open 26 man spots... large number of injuries while he is crushing the crap out of the Ball at AAA and age 27... When? Two home runs last night. That's 9 now. A home run every 10 AB's and a .337 BA to boot.

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.