Riverbrian

635 Plate Appearances

We don't have the health to utilize two roster spots for one complete player. They will have to get better at it. They won't get better at it as long as we roster a Margot doppelganger and a Farmer doppelganger to round them out. The new hitting coach could get them dressed up for a left handed pitcher party... but they still won't have anyplace to go because of those doppelgangers. My neighbor has frequent BBQ's that he invites me over to. There is a fence in my backyard that makes it harder to get into my neighbors backyard. I was complaining to my wife that I had to walk all the way around to the other side of his property to enjoys some ribs and a beer. She reminded me that I was the one who built the fence.

Most trades are equal value at the time of the trade. GM's would have to be pretty in tune to the value of each player. There is one sure way to win a trade. That one sure way is to increase the value of the player you acquired. Make the player you acquire better. There is one sure way to lose a trade. That one sure way is to decrease the value of the player you acquired. Fail to make the player you acquire better. The Yankees didn't win the trade at the time of the deal... they didn't acquire a rookie of the year when the trade was made. They won the trade by developing a rookie of the year. The Twins lost the trade because Jake Cave after a couple of OK seasons at age 25 and 26... fell apart in his prime at age 27 and decreased in value to the point that he was placed on waivers (Zero Value). Jake Cave wasn't an old vet... He was a 25 year old also with a future in front of him. The Twins can't be blamed for the Yankees doing a good job developing Gil. The Twins can be blamed for failing to develop Cave. We needed Cave at the time because we failed to develop a Cave.

If there is a department on the roster that I'm semi comfortable with at the moment... it's the bullpen. In regards to stuff. Duran, Jax, Stewart, Alcala and Varland are all closer talent or closer potential. Sands looks like he has hang a zero ability. Topa looked like a decent arm in Seattle back way back in 2023. Please... Falvey... Please Zoll... Please Rocco. Don't borrow from the bullpen to fill other holes and please... please... please... No more specialists!!! Quit hiring two employees for one spot. Our absenteeism doesn't allow for such waste.

The best players on any college team or high school team tend to play SS. A college coach or high school coach isn't going to play their best player at 2B because he might project as a 2B in professional baseball. That player is going to be his SS because he is the best they got. Teams draft the best players on any college team or high school team. Therefore an excess of SS's drafted. Therefore the strong possibility of moving to another position or positions in their professional career when they find themselves surrounded by lots of drafted SS's in the system. The Twins are just like the other 29 teams in this regard.

I admit that I wasn't thinking about international pool money. I am now. In theory,,, The Twins may want to take advantage of this Sasaki market condition. The big boys may be willing to pay.

I understand that we would all like the 10 million attached to Vazquez back. I also understand that many are willing to give up A LOT and I mean A LOT to acquire a rookie catcher. Over Pay to acquire Vazquez. Over Pay to acquire Rushing. Just want to make sure that everyone understands that neither Vazquez and his 10 million or Rushing who cost us Duran PLUS will not play full time. Catcher's are consistent over pays and I understand that many on TD are willing to just keep committing resources toward it. Resources (Money to spend or talent to spend) that are seemingly beyond tight at the moment. If the Twins front office takes this approach to the catching position. We would have Lloyd Christmas in charge of the rations.

Garlick... A specialist taking roster space... clogging the pipes... gumming up the works. The rabbit hole of taking a spot and making it harder to find someone who doesn't need to specialize. Since you don't find someone who doesn't need to specialize because you chose someone who specialized. You have to find another specialist who again makes it harder to find someone who doesn't need to specialize and on and on it goes. For those who don't understand why Margot, Farmer and Garlick matter. This is why they matter. They insure that you will keep needing Margot, Farmer's and Garlicks and keep making it harder to find Rooker's. The Rooker miss is synergistic... it isn't just missing on Rooker. The miss is multiplied when you consider who they chose to keep instead. Who they chose to keep was also a miss. Garlick, Celestino... The Turtle... Gordon. It's interesting that Astudillo also got more opportunity than Rooker got. Some people think what's the big deal? It's a very big deal... they didn't have space for Rooker because THEY predetermined what Rooker was going to be. They predetermined that Astuadillo, Garlick and Celestino would get the phone calls telling them they are going to the show. They not only missed on a superstar in the making but missed by almost equal distance to the real bad side on who they kept. Add the scale of not believing in Rooker to the scale of believing in Celestino and you have a miss that ended up being the Size of New Hampshire to Arizona out of a couple of players 6.5 vs 6.4 in that big pile of players in the middle. Oops.

It was I who tossed out the 6.5 thing out. Just for clarification... I wasn't calling Rooker a 6.5 out of 10. 6.5 was random number for player X that the club has to make a decision on. 6.4 was for player Y that the club has to make a decision on. I used the random numbers to express the enormous pile of players in the middle that front offices have to sort through and make decisions on. Most players reside in this big pile in the middle. I agree with what you are saying. I believe that they missed on Rooker big time... It can't be argued that they missed on Rooker. It's not my job to assess talent. It is their job to assess talent and in the end... they missed on Rooker... and it was a big miss. Just like they missed on Nick Anderson big time. I believe all teams miss. Sometimes a Rooker comes out and shows the world the miss. Most time those misses remain hidden to the world because the player just fades away which almost happened to Rooker. No matter... I believe all teams miss. I believe that they would miss less if they realized that they are going to miss and instead of forcing it... maybe provide more opportunity for players to prove them wrong. Some players get chance after chance... Some players get none and the difference between them is slight in that big pile in the middle.

Agreed. The differences are slight. They are drawing hard lines between players who are a 6.6 out of 10 and 6.5 out of 10. It's nearly impossible for any front office to be avoid this sort of thing from happening. It's why I think keeping struggling players on expiring contracts is a big huge deal. Every Margot hanging around for the season just keeps it clogged up for players in AAA. Bad Today No tomorrow. Severino can go as far as I'm concerned. There was injury provided opportunity for him last season and the Twins elected not to use him. If Severino is going to amount to anything... It will have to be elsewhere. The Twins will not give him a chance. They might be right... They might be wrong. He will most likely disappear into the baseball wind.

Not sure what the Twins thought of Rooker. Not sure what San Diego thought of Rooker when they acquired him in a trade. At the time of the trade it looked like Rooker was an addition to the deal to even out the 40 man roster space spots but who knows... maybe the Padres were insistent on Rooker being part of the deal instead of other options. We have an idea what the Padres thought of Rooker when they traded him to the Royals. They got him for a weak hitting 29 year old catcher that they kept stashed in AAA. That return sure looks like the Padres and Royals both didn't have a ton of value placed on him. Back to the Twins... Here's what I know. Celestino and Gordon were given roster spots out of spring training. Celestino could play CF... Gordon could play multiple positions. Kirilloff and Larnach were on the 40 to play corner OF. So my suspicion is that Rooker was a positional casualty. Just two years later... Kirilloff is out of baseball... Nick Gordon is a 29 year old free agent probably looking for a minor league deal after being DFA'd and unclaimed by the Marlins. Gilberto Celestino is a 25 year old free agent looking for a minor league deal after being released by the Cubs. Larnach might be alright... we will need him in 2025. Rooker hit 39 Home Runs for the A's last season. In terms of assessment... of projecting players into the future. It sure looks like they missed on Rooker. Will they miss on Severino or Winder. Time will tell. It will depend on if anybody provides the opportunity to be proven one way or the other.

Cookies? Clearly another marketing mistake made by the Twins marketing staff. A promotion like Lefse for a Lefty could have landed us Blake Snell. If you are marketing to Minnesota... Market to Minnesota. If they don't have a Lefse stick... They could use a bat. Maybe Vazquez's bat... Lefse production would increase the value of his bat. Cookies? The Twins decided to compete with the Girl Scouts?

Brent Rooker was given one shot at achieving positive value for a major league team prior to his breakout with Oakland. His options were burned up with consistent .900 plus OPS in the minors. In 2021... He got 213 PA's in his first extended look with the Twins. In the 21/22 Off Season. He was included in the trade with the Padres to clear roster space. The Padres gave him 7 PA's... traded him to the Royals who gave him 21 PA's. His minor league numbers remained .900 plus in 2022. He showed up in Oakland... Injuries gave him a job. He ran with it. In my opinion... The Twins, Padres and Royals all failed to assess what Rooker was capable of and as a result failed to provide opportunity. In 2022 the year that Rooker was handed over to the Padres... Celestino and Gordon both broke camp with the Twins so I assume they were both chosen over Rooker. Larnach, Cave, Garlick, Contreras were all needed before the year was up to fill space and all 4 of them were space filling non-producers. Assessment are tough moving targets... 40 man roster decisions are tough decisions because the margins can be thin. Therefore I don't fault the Twins, Padres and Royals for missing on Rooker... but yet I believe... that the Twins management chose Gordon and Celestino over Rooker due to 40 man pressure... So Yeah... Their Fault in the end. Oops

Radio Audience measurement is a pretty simple formula. Cume X TSL. Cume is how many listeners tune in. TSL is time spent listening... How Long do they listen. Pitching measurement is kind of the same in my way of thinking. Can you Hang Zeroes (Cume). And how many can you hang (Time spent listening). If Griffin Jax can hang zeroes and double the amount of innings that he throws. You do it. If he can't... He stays in his current role. The more innings he can throw... the higher value of the radio station.

Once he tastes a Juicy Lucy. He'll be a Twin.

I will judge the front office on development and development alone. Pitching Development looks good. Offensive Development is primarily being strip mined for parts and therefore not developing complete upper level talent.

Yep I've been to worse a few times. I own a cabin there. I know the way. There are couple of different roads that I can take.

The roster is decent enough... The key is to not make it worse. Who they bring on is what will matter.

I recommend taking the formula and running the numbers to watch the wheels turn. The first thing I noticed was the overwhelming number of routine plays strangling the data. Once you notice the overwhelming number of routine plays... you come to the conclusion that the differences in data must be drawn from the underwhelming amount of non-routine plays.

I'm wondering what increased his trade value to jump start such conversation?

I remember Cliff Diving once. Jumped off the cliff and then I changed my mind.

Most policies in all industries are in place as a reaction to something that needs a fixin'. There is a Preparation H warning that says "Not for Oral use". Someone ate a tube and complained that it didn't work. Unfortunately he had to write a letter to complain because his mouth shrunk to the point that he couldn't speak.

Indeed... he does have to prove these things. Same thing goes for Lewis... Wallner... Larnach... Miranda and Lee. Castro still has to prove it. Martin does... Erod... Jenkins... Eeles... Proving it is part of the process. Julien had a bad year last year... Yet still after that bad year... After 709 PA's in the majors. He's sitting at 106 OPS+ Kyle Farmer has a career 87. Miranda career 105. Larnach 102. Castro 95 for his career. Lots of people need to prove things. He got us into the playoffs in 2023. Polanco is expendable because of the presence of Julien as the front office prepares for 2024. Now he can't even be mentioned in an article for 2025.

Maybe... But... They have coaches and they practice and stuff.

I don't know a lot about Payton Eeles. I can see that he moved through the system fairly quickly this year however he was 23 in his final year at Coastal Carolina. That means that he doesn't really have the time to get comfortable in Fort Myers so he can one step at a time it. Looking at his stats which is all I have to go by. His OPS across 3 levels (FM, CR and ST.P) was almost identical to the OPS produced by Julien in Wichita at age 23 in 2022. I also notice that Payton doesn't have to be added to the 40 man until Dec 2027 so his addition to the 40 man in 2025 would be considered more aggressive than his aggressive rise from Fort Myers to St. Paul in his first year with the organization. I don't know a lot about Payton. But he sure looks like someone who doesn't apply roster pressure but could get a spot when injury or failure necessity creates the need for his addition... if he continues to do what he is doing.