Brandon

Well David Robertson got traded to the Marlins so that isn’t happening now.

Honestly if we can get a rh bat I would be happy especially when we get our own players back from injury.

Well I feel better about it knowing there is a benefit for doing so. That extra money could be planned to help pay payroll and draft and stuff. With our payroll at an all time high and draft bonus one of the highest in the league, I am not going to complain. Though if we could have signed one of the 2 last draft picks then that is a missed opportunity for us.

Addition by subtraction trade. We get a reliever with more reliability and less commitment in exchange for a reliever who wasn’t getting it done here and couldn’t be counted on here. It’s a fair upgrade of a middle reliever. Because no other assets were involved I give this trade an A. It’s just not the most impactful. But still a good upgrade.

Incremental improvement with addition by subtraction move. I like this one a lot. But it’s a small improvement. I just like how we are trading a problem for a bigger upside play.

What about Robertson. I hear he is available again.

Any word on if we will sign Jenkins our first round draft pick since the deadline is later today?

I agree with this, though I do understand the importance of going for the win and substituting players just not all the time.

Especially since we have so many more games against opponents with losing records over the ones with a winning record. We have one of the easiest schedules for the 2nd half which should help us in the standings. Because of the ease I would be surprised if we couldn’t go 35-26 to close out the season putting us at 88 wins on the season.

Depends on how many opt outs are in his contract. Or if a new opt out date is renegotiated. I’ve seen both play out in the past.

I imagine there is a handshake agreement that if he is not with the Twins by July 31rst they will try to trade him. That would be better for Keuchel then going into free agency now.

Last year Kepler was off to a good start till he got hurt which sapped his power if I remember correctly.

I just woke up when I wrote this. I think there is a better way to say this. Let’s make this a multiple article series evaluating defensive performance for the starting 9 using different defensive metrics and then bring the info together to compare defensive capabilities at the end to spark a well informed discussion on who deserves a gold glove.

Surely there is more than one stat available to use in evaluating if a player is the best in the league.

3 year 70-75 million or 4th year at an extra 10-15 million.

With the budget that is available on this team, there is probably not much we can do. I doubt the front office will allow the front office to take on more than 5 million in additional payroll at the deadline since we have our highest payroll ever right now. With that in mind here are the incremental improvements. I think playing Walner more in favor of who is slumping in the OF. including Taylor as Gallo or Kepler can slide over for a game or two from time to time. With Polanco coming back give Julien starts at DH in place of Buxton if he continues to slump. Also not opposed to giving him starts at 3B. Lewis will be back from the DL soon and will contribute at 3B and possibly DH. So even if we don't make trades, we have in house improvements on the way. But.... here are my trade thoughts. If we do, make a trade it needs to be a small one like a RH OF who won't add more than a few million to payroll and that is a maybe. The low-cost options include to Lane Thomas of Washington (idea from Twins Daily Article) or Tony Pham (Brock posting it and being against it). I like Boston player Turner if they take a salary back in the trade. If the Twins receive insurance on Mahle contract, then maybe trading a reliever like Pagan or Lopez would work in a Turner salary level type of trade.

I’m still learning the prospects more and more. If I had more time, I’m sure there are a few more tweaks I would make to my list. Lowering Festa is one of them. Putting Sevirino higher. Combining the three injured players to tie at 19 so I could add others including Lewis…..

Brooks Lee having a nice showing in AA in first full season. Lots of doubles will turn into lots of HR's. Walker Jenkins Probably number 1 but hasn't played yet so I reserve the top spot till after he gets a chance to show his skills professionally. Marco Raya Pitching really well in High A and made a AA appearance. looks promising. Hopefully he can debut next season. Charlee Soto Exciting to see what he will do. Not sure where to rank him. Here looks good to me. David Festa Has a 5. era but lots of Ks hopefully he keeps improving. Matt Wallner Waiting for opportunity to show he can hit in the show..... again.... Emmanuel Rodriguez Needs to show more soon as he is starting to fall down the list. Jordan Balazovic making a nice comeback from the free fall of last season. Simeon Woods Richardson Sliding. I hope he turns it around. Yasser Mercedes I don't know this guy. must be expensive international signing. Noah Miller All Star Defense and no offense. He is made for the current team. Brent Headrick fringe bullpen help but nice depth. Yunior Severino making a nice climb up the ladder. Was a free pickup from Atlanta since they had to let him go back into free agency as a penalty. Jose Rodriguez Still very young and just getting started. Has nice power for his age. Luke Keaschall Should be right there with Severino and Tanner Schobel. Blayne Enlow climbing back up the prospect list though a rough showing in first 3 AAA outings. Matt Canterino Injured and out for the season so in time out at the bottom of the top 20 in wait and see pattern. Austin Martin Coming back from injury so let's wait to see what he does to really evaluate him. He drops for not being around but is still top 20 in wait and see pattern. Connor Prielipp With the impending TJ surgery and the fact, he hasn't pitched much yet I am not sure where to put him. but he is a top prospect he can pitch. Kala'i Rosario This prospect is interchangeable with several others who are having similar seasons. Tanner Schobel, Ben Ross, Chris WIlliams, DaShawn Keirsey..... There are lots of prospects deserving of top 20 towards the bottom of the list. There are many injuries to players who are top 10 when healthy. It becomes hard to pin some of these players who aren't playing or haven't played.

I would love for them to trade for Goldschmidt. Since he is not likely available, lets go with an inexpensive RH hitting OF bat like Pham. I think the Twins need to horde their prospects a little bit more this year. last year we sent out alot of them and we need to restock. Good thing we had a good draft this year as that will help. I think we also had a solid international prospect signing season too if I remember correctly. so hopefully our system rebounds quickly with lots of prospects coming down the pipeline soon.

Torii Hunter is another 1rst round OF hit as was Kirby Puckett. I was sad when we traded Petty because he seemed like Berrios replacement. The drafted pitcher you want to see succeed. Enlow is another. But I still think the trade of Petty for Gray was a good trade. If Petty comes up and has a development year then 5 good ones with Cincinnati we still break even considering the present value of the trade and that Gray did everything and more he was brought over here to do. If he signs a 3 year 60 million extension that would be nice. one thing I have noticed is we are seeing more of our drafted players reach the majors. The thought process from Andy MacPhail former Twins GM is that the goal is for the Twins to develop 2-3 players a season to the majors and we are doing that. Though Baltimore (Cano, Tyler) Cincinnati (Steer and CES and eventually Petty) and almost Detroit (Baddoo and I guess Goodrum though not with team anymore) also benefitting. Our farm system got a lot stronger with this draft. I am excited to see where our system ranks now. Though we did just graduate 2 top 100 prospects (Julien and Lewis).

Joe Ryan is 1991 Scott Ericksom

The front office is not holding on to Kepler or Gallo out of stubbornness or inability to admit being wrong. They have made changes in the past. I think the front office is giving the guys they are paying millions to every opportunity to succeed. They do not have room in the budget to make moves maybe if there is salary moved to even out a trade but I think they are capped for this year based on comments about improvements have to come from what we already have. I think a 2-3 week run after the all star break should be enough opportunity to either release, trade or DL someone to give Larnarch or Wallner a month to see if they can do better. I also think the front office doesn’t want to make a move the can negatively affect the pitching staff. Our OF defense has a high floor.

The 5.9 was a projection for the year not actual. 2. We are only half way through the season. 3 at his price break even is 3.5 WAR. He is on track for 2.0. Yes below value but also time enough to close the gap considerably. And he is trending up. Absolutely make the complaint he hasn’t performed to standards. Even he would defend your arguments to some degree. But to say least valuable is over doing it by a mile.

Kinda harsh. Correa is trending up. He raised his average 25 points the last three or 4 weeks. If his average was .260 just 35 more points his line would be down but not out of range of expectations. His power numbers are still in line with his career. So let’s give him a break if it’s the injury causing this.

Trade prospects for Goldschmidt move Killeroff to LF then trade Gallo for a prospect or whatever you can. The hard part of this is the money. The budget is probably tapped out already which makes trading for Goldschmidt difficult. What else can we include in the trade to help offset some dolars? Maybe Include RP Lopez and trade Kepler for a prospect and let Larnarch and Wallner compete for RF. Not sure how much we improve here and lots of moving parts. But I’m sure there are other more cash neutral deals out there. Trading Gallo or Kepler for a prospect and bringing up Wallner. Then trading for Pham or Duvall. And still give Wallner his shot. Can Julien play 3rd? That would solve the blockage at 2B for now. and of course the minor adjustment is giving Jeffers 60-65% of the playing time at C. CF we need to just give time there to Kepler whether he wants it or not. His .720 OPS plays ok there or Duvall or Pham could get some time there if no one else wants to play CF. Especially since we would be able to give Wallner his shot if the OF we traded for us standing in CF some nights. but the biggest improvement should come from Buxton and Correa getting on track and hitting at the .850+ OPS level again. Our bench is pretty solid for a bench. This regime like the last one is pretty good at building a strong bench.