Riverbrian

First off all... I don't use the word back-up. With the amount of injuries that the Twins suffer year after year... use of the word backup is problematic. Regardless, I don't believe Gallo, Taylor and Santana belong in any backup conversation no matter how the word backup is intended. I think Taylor was brought on board to play CF full time because Buxton didn't play a single inning in the field that year. Buxton was going to be the DH exclusively that season and that is exactly what he did. Gallo... I believe was brought on board to play LF primarily full time and occasional 1B if needed. I believe Santana was signed to play 1B full time. Solano might have been brought on board for platoon work... not totally sure. Although, his splits are almost neutral and I gotta question any decision by any front office to bring in SOLANO to platoon at 1B. That would make no sense... Regardless... I have no complaint with Donnie Barrels... Yeah... he did nothing for a future but I do not question that he did something for our present at the very least. The platooning to the degree that we platoon... as we know it... or at least I know it. Seemed to begin when Wallner and Julien arrived. Gordon/Farmer seemed like the only platoon set up coming out of spring training. The club maxed out later in 2023 when the young developing left handed hitters arrived.

During the time of Garlick... Kyle was the only short sider on the roster. Kyle Garlick didn't cost 6 million. He cost the minimum. The Twins have taken it up a notch since then... actually all of the notches... utilizing 6 roster spots the past few years. We have transformed from one guy at the minimum to over 10 million spent annually for the full allotment. The article guy that the Twins sign will most likely be able to play SS but... take it to the bank... article guy will be right handed and he will pair with Julien at 2B.

I read Keith Law for fun... I just don't read him and think to myself... Lee is a can't miss dude. I'd rather find out in real time. Julien was a can't miss guy after his amazing 2023 enough of a can't miss guy that Polanco could be split into 4 smaller pieces and Julien missed in 2024. I'm not going to predict his 2025 for Julien... Let's find out. Baseball careers are a ping pong ball. I'm not going to say that Kiersay has no chance... I can only guarantee that Kiersay has no chance when they pay a defensive specialist like Bader 6 million dollars. I can't say if Emma needs more seasoning but I can say that Emma will get more seasoning when they pay Bader 6 million dollars. I'm not even going to say that Bader or Article guy has no chance... I'll be cheering real hard for them because it's in my best interest to do so. However, you and I can both guarantee that the money spent on Bader and article guy will not be available to throw your hat in the ring for that guy that WAS DEVELOPED BY ANOTHER ORGANIZATION that doesn't need to be platooned and everyone needs to understand that we are not developing that guy who doesn't need to be platooned. That has been put on hold for two years running and article guy is going to make it three years. I believe front offices have the power to give certain players chance after chance (Kepler, Buxton, Sano) and certain players get one shot (Rooker) and some get no shot. The front office job has to be tough.. I understand the near impossibility of getting it right all the time under the constraints of the CBA timelines, the limitations of 40 man roster protection and 26 man opportunity. They have to make tough decisions based on the best information that they have. If I can quote Paul Simons 50 ways to leave your lover. Lee is the Key to getting yourself Free. Article guy is the key to needing another article guy next year and not having the money again to sign that guy that was developed by another organization that doesn't need to be platooned. You and I see this. It's hard not to see anything else when the virtues of DeJong and Urias are being discussed... because really... Quoting Metallica. Nothing Else Matters.

Lee still has options so I'm not convinced he's at a turning point this young in his career. However... the problem (waving at the topic of this article). Signing Article Guy for another 4 to 6 million is going to knock someone off the 26 man. That person just might be Lee. That's OK because we need players to come up when the need comes and the need will come but Lee will be back in that same prove it right now now role that he faced last year when that call comes. Miranda at 1B, Julien/Article Guy platoon at 2B, Lewis at 3B and Correa at SS. I'd guess that Buxton DH's against lefties. While Bader plays CF against the LH. With Castro and Martin taking up the corners OF spots with Cole Ragans on the mound. Against the Right Handers... Castro and Larnach will handle left field with Larnach handling the lions share of DH work but still playing in left when Castro is filling in for maintenance days elsewhere at other positions. Buxton in CF (Bader on Maintenance Days) with Wallner in RF. Full time 5: Correa, Buxton, Lewis, Miranda and Castro Left Handed Platoon Guys: Wallner, Larnach and Julien Right Handed Platoon Guys: Bader, Martin and Article Guy 2 Catchers for a total of 13. Then the season will come... players will get injured... some players with options will struggle and need to be sent down and the Twins will desperately try to keep the integrity of the system together. In the meantime, We will have spent over 10 million that we don't have on Bader and Article guy, Development will be compromised again for another year and we will have to spend 10 million that we don't have next year to replace article guy because we didn't develop a pre-arb cheaper option. When Lee was the key all along to kicking the dependence on article guy all along to freeing up that 10 million to be able to afford Pete Alonso. Sorry Chia Pet... I'm fixated again. It's all I can see. The system permeates every thing.

Thanks Ash All these years... You are consistently one of the brightest lights on this website. You are one of the reasons to hang around.

Not sure if I'm allowed to talk about it. If I were allowed... It wasn't I who brought up Henderson as a comparison but the poster isn't ridiculous because we won't sign Gunner Henderson. We have to grow a Gunner Henderson. I'd ask you to please go back and check Gunnar's 2022 splits, his 2023 splits and his 2024 splits and take note of the progression. Splits will bounce around typically so a progression like this isn't normal but what you see is a left handed hitter that was never platooned and progressed to what you say he is. All teams platoon. The Orioles consistently kept Ryan O' Hearn away from left handed pitching and that was really about the extent of their consistent platooning. Next you have to count how many left handed hitters are on the Orioles roster. Henderson, O'Hearn, Cowser, Mullins, Holliday, Kjerstad. Only O'Hearn was consistently kept away from left handed pitchers despite all teams having the capability of consistently platooning 3 left handers every day. As for the Wallner and Larnach failing to prove it. If you are right... the Twins have failed to develop left handed hitting because... yes... all teams platoon but no other team has shut down their entire left handed hitting department. The Twins stand alone. The Twins will need to fix this development hole quickly because the result is a farm system that can only produce a left handed hitter that requires a Paul DeJong (topic relevance) to attach and shadow it. Sorry Jocko Hey... My wife told me she saw a bear on the way to work. I was surprised by that so I asked her how she knew it was on it's way to work.

I left once for 2 years in 2020. Your experiences may be different but the place changed. When Mayberry grows, it isn't just Andy, Opie and Aunt Bea moving to town. It's a whole bunch of Otis's and that is how things grow naturally and not much can be done about it.. Since returning, I have been equal parts, desperately clinging because I need the outlet and barely hanging on because there is very few left to play with and my TD aftertaste is often times anger and if anyone knows me... anger is something that I go out of my way to avoid. I've actually started blocking people. That isn't what I come to TD for. If you would asked me fifteen years ago if I would block posters... I would have told you... no chance. I'm blocking people, I'm being blocked. It's the way it has to be I guess. To offend with a clean joke, to lesson Jocko's experience on TD is the last thing I want to do but Jocko's right, It's all I got right now. You are right... I'm fixated on it because it permeates nearly every facet of our roster construction. Dejong? Urias? Of Course... because it permeates nearly every facet of our roster construction. Someone will need to replace Farmer in the template. Randball Stu is a genius and a treasure. He's smart enough to stay out of the forums.

Accepting with the intended love. Your right. It's been my focus for quite some time. I wish I had something else but I don't. The rest is gone. I've known it for awhile. I'm telling ya... it's all I got left. I can phrase the same point many different ways but in the end... that point is all I got and I have nothing else... because nothing else really matters because roster construction for this front office is controlled by it. I can make the same point in different ways. I can list every rookie with over 100 AB's to make a point... Hey it's content... Did you know that 68% of all rookies with 100 AB's had a higher OPS than Margot but it's just a variation of the same point. I just get a "I'm not reading all that" comment from you. Which may have been a joke and it that case... Ha Ha Good one... But.. Jokes don't work anymore on TD. Used to spend my time here almost exclusively writing goofy stuff. Rarely talked baseball too seriously... the team was losing a lot so serious was kinda pointless... But as TD grew, the lines on the humor had to be drawn by others so there isn't much reason to go for a laugh anymore. Gotta stay between the lines. OK... Serious baseball discussion it is. And Yeah... this is all I got. And I really don't like it. Don't want to swim in the fire Rocco and the front office waters. Every website team website fan website is crying for firings. Every single one. Don't want to swim in the Pohlad's are cheap waters. Yankee fans think Steinbrenner is cheap. The Twins are no different than the teams right in the middle. Don't want to participate in the we should trade Vazquez for Cases conversations. Good GOD! I understand that the website has to create content when nothing is coming out of 1 Twins Way and I know the type of content that is created out of nothing yet content is needed... so here it comes daily. I understand this and I'll stay out of 90% of the created content out of this thin air because it doesn't suit me. Every once in awhile... I'll read something posted that is in direct opposition or complete agreement to the only thing I care about and I'll post. And Yeah... It's all I got. DeJong, Urias... Have at it. Yep... backup SS... Yep... Have at it. But... the player they add will be right handed and he will pair up nicely. It's all I got. Anyways... you are right. It's all I got and my time on Twinsdaily should come to an end. It's all yours Jocko.

I tore my ACL or one of my CL's... The inside of the knee one... whatever CL that is. Mine happened at the office Christmas Party. Limbo Contest. I was probably in my 40's... It was down to me and a 22 year old girl... Everybody was watching... nobody could believe I was keeping up with her. I was under the damn bar and I felt it pop. It happened early in the night... I stayed past 1AM to close the place down... Limped around slightly but I can't say that I was in pain. Woke up the next morning. Got out of bed and fell into the closet. The knee was barking, my injury had arrived and it was clearly not working the first step out of bed. Was on crutches for the next few weeks until I threw them away out of pure annoyance. Was given the option for surgery but at my age... the Doctor and I agreed... that surgeon would draw a fake moustache on me while I was under. So, I just let it get better over time and it healed up, Just a tish of Arthritis in that spot from time to time, if I piss it off by standing too long or get too obsessed with the Twins platoon strategy. I want to be clear... I was under that bar... I would have won that limbo contest. It become company policy that limbo contests were no longer allowed at Xmas parties.

Perhaps the greatest sentence to ever come out of your fingertips.

6.25 was too much money for the Mets. Brought in Jose Siri with a .620 OPS to replace him for 2 million.

The front office has to be complicit. The Junkie needs a supplier.

It's not either or: Both will pinch hit for Wallner and Larnach in the 5th inning. Both will face more right handed hitters than left handed hitters.

You realize that Kyle Farmer hasn't been replaced in the template yet.

I'd want out However... I'm right handed... I don't have to worry about left handed oppression. They deserve the painful spiral imprints on the fleshy part of their hand trying to write in spiral notebooks. I don't care if the ink smudges as they write across the page. Let the refrigerator door hit them in the face when they open it with that left hand. Let them try to read the measuring cup with the numbers on the opposite side. Let them reach across their body trying to change the radio station in the car. Jimi Hendrix and Paul McCartney would require platoons by the Twins to prevent their tuning pegs from accidently striking Noel Redding or George Harrison in the face.

All teams platoon but there is no team that approaches this level of iron fistedness against the left handed hitter. 4 young left handed hitters in the past couple of years. All 4 are supposedly not able to hit left handed pitching. The only logical conclusion is that the Twins have either: A: Failed to develop a left handed hitter that can hit left handed pitching. B: Over weighted the data from left vs left matchups (not right vs right) to a scale that exceeds the weighting applied by all other 29 teams to the same data sets... and they have over weighted in comparison to the other 29 teams by a significant margin. C: They are trying with all their might to keep the Twins percentage of left handers in line with the 10% of left handers in the human population.

Here they come. Walking down the street. They get the funniest looks from. Everyone they meet. Hey Hey... the Right Handers. Handling the short side. They're too busy linking to keep the left handers tied.

Psst Others are also affected or effected... whichever is accurate. Wallner, Larnach, Julien, Emma and Jenkins will only be able to reach the development level of at best always needing a 4 Million dollar Margot, 6 million dollar Farmer or 6 million dollar Bader on the roster. Thought I'd try help... You are doing fine... Keep fighting the good fight.

And everybody watching that game... They Knew... Without a doubt... They knew... That you were going to make that catch.

None of the three players that you listed are making 6.25 million this year. That is Chia Pet's point. Chia Pet would rather not spend 20 million dollars of money on a group of players who produce a low bar that can be at least matched by a Pre-Arb player making the minimum. He'd rather combine that money into a single better player that actually moves the needle. Larnach, Miranda and Lee will be back with the club next year. Larnach, Miranda and Lee are part of the future... they and others are the key to developing a team that will not require 6 million spent on the Harrison Bader look alike in 2026.

I can see the logic in letting Emma do some time in the minors. Injuries will provide a spot for him eventually. Will he stay when he gets his moment is another question of course. You are going to need some players in AAA for call up during the season. However... Yeah... I'm with ya on a big picture scale. With some it's almost like... the prospect or pre-arb player has to produce over .800 OPS to be worth consideration while the vet costing 6 million is OK with a .650 If Emma in his first year just does exactly what will Harrison Bader provide. You get the same production for 5 and half million less. You have given Emma experience that can be applied to 2026 while Bader is nowhere to be found in 2026 because he is shopping for work with another team next year.

Last Year around this time. I questioned if giving up one big piece (Polanco) for 4 smaller pieces was good strategy. I wasn't even being definitive at the time but you took that question and forced me to defend Polanco while you talked about how the Twins were log-jammed with Julien and Farmer covering 2B and then you proceded to beat me over the head with how Cleveland built their roster like I didn't understand how Cleveland built their roster even after I acknowledged that the Twins may have won the trade with the acquisition of Gabriel Gonzalez alone. You also lumped me into a group of people who wanted the Twins to spend like there is no tomorrow when I've never once complained about pay roll. If you are capable of understanding my point. I'll answer your question. If your not capable of understanding my point... Just ignore my answer and we will keep our distance from each other. Your Question: Which RH (Other than Vazquez) do I want to get rid of or replace with a LH? My Answer: Harrison Bader

There is no justification for wishing that the Twins don't make the playoffs. NONE. The very second you typed that your opinion no longer mattered to me. And now you think others apparently hate the Twins more than you because they are not fans of the acquisition. But wishing they don't make the playoff is an indication of love. Don't talk to me about hate. I'll be cheering my butt off for Hader to do well. If he does well, I'll acknowledge it. So will Chia Pet. I'll go back to asking... you won't do it but I'll ask again. Go back... read what Chia Pet is saying. Try to understand what he is saying and try again.

According to roster resource. The current projected Twins roster contains: 8 Right Handed Hitters 3 Left Handed Hitters 2 Switch Hitters 75% of the pitching that the Twins will face is right handed. By playing the left vs left numbers correctly... They are playing it wrong by over focusing on the 25%. They win the battle and lose the war. Harrison Bader is just a continuation down this path.