Dantes929

Aaron Hicks?

Of course Joe was a former ASTRO! Awesome, though it probably means we need to vacate the 87 crown as well.

I remember liking the Davis signing a lot. I liked the Morris signing but he was 35 coming off two mediocre seasons. Another case of getting an A because the players did way better than expected. Kind of the equivalent of signing Bumgarner 6 years from now after two years of 4.5 to 4.9 ERA. 2003 was a great off season. Aj for Nathan, Liriano and Bonser and cleared space for Mauer. Matt Guerrier off waivers. Signed free agent Shannon Stewart. Got Punto and Silva for Milton who never pitched well again. I probably should have left Guerrier, Punto and Silva off the list because I had never heard of Guerrier and I don't remember how I felt about the Milton deal at the time.

I take the exact opposite stance. They have no control over how the player performs.. If the Twins had done absolutely nothing would you still hold off on grading them? If they had done absolutely nothing and got to the WS would you give them high grades for doing nothing. Hindsight will tell you whether a transaction worked out well but not whether it was a good transaction to start with. A couple years ago they signed Odo, Lynn and Morrison. I thought they were great moves. All three of them. They just didn't work out but the success Odo and Lynn had last year says they could just have easily worked out in 2018. Its kind of no different than in game management. You can walk Nick Punto to get to Mike Trout and if you get Trout out does that mean it was a good move? If you walk Mike Trout to get to Nick Punto and Punto gets a hit was that a bad move to walk Trout? I give the Twins a solid B. I think Maida was a decent move. Risky but worth taking. Donaldson improves the defense and the lineup and all it costs is money but that money in year 3 and 4 might have alternative value. A little lower grade for Donaldson but still ok. A's for resigning Odorizzi and Pineda whether they have good seasons or not. C's for Bailey and Chacin because I wanted at least 1 spot for internal options. I would have given a B if they had just signed Bailey. B+ for signing Clippard especially since that mitigates the loss of Graterol.

No way do you sign an extension for Cruz. Closest comp is Thome. He looked just as super human at 39. Was pretty good at 40 and marginal at 41. You see how this year goes and offer him market value if you want him back. Don't extend but maybe resign. Odo is gone but we;ll have Berrios, PIneada and Maeda. If we don't have two great internal options by then it will be quite depressing.

I heard Nick Punto is making a come back.

3 walks per 9 is Odorizzi level but most pitchers considered aces have that much closer to 2 walks/9. I love pitchers that are capable of throwing 100mph but don't especially love when they actually throw that hard, especially in the minors. I know even the soft throwers (90 mph is soft?) develop arm problems but max effort doesn't seem worth it. I would think if he settles in around 95 it would help his command also.

His ceiling is whatever you want to guess but right now I would say his floor is .172 in GCL. Ranking seems a bit high.

Cmon Mike. Seriously? A job like any other? Of course they work very hard but you don't hear anyone saying its been my life long dream to work baseball. Nearly every kid I grew up with dreamed of playing baseball, not of having a baseball job. And the money never even entered into it. Working hard at a game does not make it less of a game. A job like any other doesn't have a million people envious for every one job opening. I work very hard on my golf game but thats a little misleading because I really enjoy practicing. I work hard at my job because if I don't I won't get paid. They work hard at baseball because if they don't they don't get to play or get paid. I am envious of Graterol because of what he gets paid and will get paid but mostly because he gets to play baseball for a living and if I could trade places with him I would and I would work really hard at it but would not consider it work.

Free meals, per diem, and at least a $555,000 salary if he makes the team. Oh yeah, that's all for playing baseball, in California.. I was hoping to see him play for the Twins but now he's just a guy playing for another team that was mildly inconvenienced.

In a perfect world we trade outfield prospects for Maeda, Graterol stays with us, becomes a starter next year, wins multiple Cy Young awards and leads the Twins to multiple World Series just so we can say "Suck it" to Boston management and their fans. Ok, really it would be great for its own sake. I don't really care that much about Boston or its fans but it would be a nice little bonus.

I'm a little surprised the Dodgers wouldn't just say Graterol for Maeda is a fair trade and take it on anyway without regard to the Red Sox.. By all accounts they view Maeda as expendable. They can get out of that contract and either have a top power arm or a still attractive piece of trade value.

I don't believe an agent. Do I believe a proposed trade of a really popular player that creates a strong backlash of criticism from fans can influence a front office to find a way to appease them in some way either by backing out or asking for more? Yeah, I think its possible. For example, though many now say they were against the Twins extending Mauer to that contract, at the time, at least in the Trib and other forums, it was overwhelmingly, near 100% that the Twins better not go cheap on Mauer with the new stadium coming. I thought it was a bad baseball decision but a great PR decision and yes, I think fan opinion influenced that signing just like I think it influenced the Puckett signing years before.

They were up 11 games by mid June and I don't think that will repeat itself. What surprised me was that the first half and 2nd half records were only different by a couple games. Keep in mind that as good as their stats were at the end of May their subsequent starts had to be really bad to average out to the mediocre numbers that many feel are replaceable. I fear a bad start but unless there is a some severe statistical anomaly, if the starters hold a combined better than 4.5 ERA, the relievers do better than combined 3.5 ERA and the offense scores over 5.5 runs then we should win a lot of games.

I tend toward that side. I would be ok if he ends up as a dominant back end reliever. That's a lot of value. I was ok with the deal also. I don't know if you can use Graterol in future arguments though since they actually did try to trade him while he was a top 3 prospect and throwing triple digits. Its the triple digits max effort that has always concerned me about Graterol. I love that he is able to reach those levels but think maybe he would be better served to stay at 97-99. I know 2 or 3 or 4 mph doesn't seem like much but try adding a couple mph to your golf swing. It ain't easy.

Ok, at least according to Rosenthal USchief is correct. https://www.mlb.com/news/dodgers-red-sox-twins-trade-update Really kind of makes me hope the deal doesn't go through, that Graterol is awesome in the pen this year and wins a couple Cy Youngs as a starter in the future. Part of me just wants the deal to go through. Part of me is still skeptical about the Red Sox.

Does anyone actually know the process for certain? I always assumed also that sharing the past medical records were done before it gets to this stage. The "pending physical" was the part where the acquiring team does their own physical before finalizing the deal. Again the language seems weird. They are not saying there are tears or damage. They are saying they are not sure his future is pitching 170 innings which is hardly news.

That's the problem with incomplete information. If the doctors said "Hey he had a shoulder impingement so we are not sure he can throw 180 innings" or "Hey, the guy throws 103 mph and we're not sure he can do that over 180 innings" then they really have no case. If they did an Xray and found out he's been held together by duct tape and WD-40 that's another thing entirely. I guess the assumption is that the Twins haven't hidden anything from his last medical and that he hasn't had any changes since the last pitch. I have always had concerns about his long term value because of how hard he throws which is why I didn't want him throwing 103 mph in the minors. Its wasted there. However, I also recognize he could throw for a long time with no problems. He's just more at risk. Its just weird the way its worded. They are not worried that he can't throw 103 mph for the short term but concerned that he can't throw 150-170 innings. That's the risk part of the reward and on the face of it they look unreasonable. Of course, new info may come out that changes that face.

So absurd! They knew they were getting a prospect that could throw hard and had some shoulder impingement last year. Did they think they were getting Kershaw? The ONLY question health wise is whether or not he can throw right now. Unless something in the off season happened health wise that we don't know about if he can throw right now then neither the Twins or the Red Sox know if he can go 5 innings or 205 innings.

I don't know anyone saying we should have gotten an ace for him. I was hoping for a guy with his exact stats but a couple years younger and doing it in the AL East rather than the NL West. This move makes some of the others less attractive. I didn't want three spots open for the young guys until Pineda gets back but I did want one.

Many on here seem to have an unreasonably low outlook on the chances of even top prospects having any significant future value. They look at guys like Gonsalves, Meyer, Gordon, etc. as support for their outlook. I look at guys like Kepler, Polanco, Berrios, Rogers, Garver, etc. along with Hicks, Hendriks and others as support for the idea that top prospects do often work out, given time. Along those lines I have what might be an unreasonable low outlook on mid rotation guys from the National League. Maeda is a tough one. I wish he were a couple years younger, his playoff history is good along with a lot of peripherals but his ERA in inter league play is 4.63 in 19 games. I would just feel better if his 3.87 career ERA was in the AL East. Then I would view him more favorably with Odorizzi. This deal also makes me like the Bailey and Chacin moves less. I really thought Dobnak deserved at least to hold the spot for Pineda. I know some will say he is still competing for it but it never seems to work out that way when signing veteran pitchers.

We should worry about ourselves. Winning major league games and winning division titles is not supposed to be easy and I don't want them to be easy. If the division comes down to the last week and the Twins are in the mix I think it will be a fun season. I am not specifically worried about the White Sox but I still want to beat them no matter how good they are. I would rather beat the White Sox than the Yankees.. Always have. Always will.

I hear a guy hits 100 mph I think arm problems. I hear a guy can hit 100 mph but throws 96 and I think Verlander. Looking forward to good things here.

I would consider his success as SSS if he was just so so in the minors but Dobnak threw over 160 innings last year with a sub 2 ERA over 4 levels mostly AA and AAA. 163 innings isn't real small anymore. That's 26 starts at over 6 innings a game giving up 1.3 runs. Comes down to whether you like strikeouts or run prevention. I prefer run prevention. Not saying Thorpe can't develop into that.

I don't know if they sat back on their laurels but is a point well taken. Lynn, Odo Reed, and Morrison were great signings. You can't control injuries but you also can't control guys playing well. 2018 was more talented than 2017 but played way worse. 2019 was only slightly better than 2018 but played way better. Its not like Musial who used to smile all ST because he knew he would hit .350. We don't have those guys. There is a world of difference between Kepler 2018 and Kepler 2019. People ask how you can keep the same team and expect to be better. The answer if by playing better.