Greglw3

That's the amount of years and range of dollars I proposed in Nick Nelson’s thread yesterday for Jeffers. Great minds think alike!

To me, no brainer. With the quality of the young pitching and the current offense with St. Paul loaded with premium offensive prospects, the clear leaning is toward an increasing level of competitiveness and contention. I say Tom Pohlad is boxed into a corner with his public pronouncements and will green light significant upgrades at or before trade deadline. You extend Jeffers at market value through age 33. 3 yrs, 45-48 MM.

In support of Martin, he’s hitting .360 since June 22 and he still carries a .360 obp for the season. Plus he’s made some pretty spectacular catches in the outfield. He plays hard and takes good at bats. Plus he lends balance, with Keaschall to the lefty heavy of.

All in All, a good acquisition!

All is well! Roden got his much deserved call. Let’s go Alan!!!

"You believe AAA and MLB have the same difficulty level so a prospects stats in AAA could be directly compared at active players in MLB." That’s not what I believe or what I said. In the case of a heavily scouted and universally deemed to be one of the top prospects in baseball, I’m saying it’s much more likely that his MLB stats will match or better his AAA stats, certainly within a couple of months. Kody Clemens is performing now at about the same level as his last stint in AAA in 2024. Kirby Puckett was hitting in the .230s and then just before callup, low .240s when he was called up by the Twins. Then in MLB, immediately, he wildly outperformed his AAA numbers. Anyway, I’m happy for Allen Roden and I hope he tears it up and never gets sent down again!!!

Unless you’re a pitcher, then they have a shuttle bus ready at all times to whisk the next guy to St. Paul and shuttle in the next AAA pitcher to the Twins. With mixed results. Travis Adams has been a disaster, Laweryson, so-so and Gomez and Morris, pretty smashing successes so far. Let’s hope Go is strong, I like his 41.1 IP with 21 H in AA and AAA combined and the .1xx batting averages allowed both places.

Travis Adams, please!

Roden's OBP at St. Paul this year is .397 and Jenkins’s is .385. That’s 12 points, not 100! They both have a .272 average. Roden is out slugging Jenkins but Jenkins has hit .314 since returning from injury and Roden’s average of .272 represent a fairly precipitous recent drop.

Jenkins has, in about a third of a season, a .385 on base percentage. Most people would be enamored with that. He’s stolen 7 bases in 8 attempts. That projects to 21 stolen bases in 24 attempts. Most people would be enamored with that. And is hitting .272. However, that .272 includes a strong trajectory that has him hitting .314 since he came back from his injury including back to back games with 3 hits (when he fell a homer short of the cycle) and 2 hits. He’s trending well. His .440 slugging percentage is not superb but respectable. All in all, if he could replicate those stats in the majors, he would arguably have the best statistical set on the Twins, besting Larnach with the stolen bases and a near standoff with the avg. and obp.

For all those doubting if Walker Jenkins is worthy of a callup or think he hasn’t distinguished himself enough, let’s look at the facts: In 859 At Bats in the minors here are Jenkins numbers: 255 hits 53 doubles 12 triples 24 home runs 130 RBIs 47 Stolen bases Batting average .297 On Base Percentage .400 Slugging percentage: .470 OPS: .871 Since returning from injury recently, he’s hitting .314. That’s where he’s at. As for .200 point drops from AAA to MLB, there have been lots of players, who hit much better in MLB than the minors. I watched Kirby Puckett in Toledo AAA hit in the upper .230s and then just up into the lower .240s before his callup and then he started off with a beyond scintillating stretch and never looked back. As far as slow starts, it’s not that relevant if you have the talent. I submit that very few hitters could show a hitting line in 800+ AB like the one I showed above. Examples of players that got off to wretched starts in MLB but were great prospects are Robin Ventura, who started something like 1/41 but then grew into a perennial strong hitter and gold glove caliber player. Willie Mays started his career 1 for 26, starting 0 for 12, hitting a home run and then going 0 for 13 after that. No player is a certainty but you need to look at his pedigree. Some great prospects flop. I’ve watched some Saints games and I like what I see of his swing.

Don’t ever count out Austin Martin. He has continued to help the team with myriad stellar defensive catches and he’s chipping in the occasional, off-the bench hit. His average is still in the mode zone of a statistically insignificant stone’s throw from .244, around league average. Essentially the same as Luke Keaschall with better defensive. Keaschall looks better in right. AT the same time, as Jenkins, Roden, Gonzalez, Culpepper pile up at bats in AAA, it’s tough to ignore that Hendry Mendez is still hitting .339 with an absurdly high OBP. And to notice that today, it looked like while all of the above that played went 0-fer, Mendez went 1 for 3 in the game Hunter Greene started and threw 6 1-hit innings. Not sure if his hit was off Greene or a reliever but it was 1 of 2 team hits.

Martin's fielding has been spectacular and he’s gotten a couple hits recently but yes, a big offensive drop-off. After that really bad botched play by Keaschall at 2nd, I wonder what to do with him defensively - he’s made a lot of really bad plays this year and yet, recently some good ones too. Maybe Culpepper at SS and Kreidler at 2B? Is Houston almost ready? I’m thinking about sending Keaschall down to work on his fielding but conflicted due to his mild to moderate offensive improvement. I don’t want to block Jenkins, Mendez, Gabby Gonzalez or Roden with Keaschall in the OF though. Austin Voth not so good. It’s really an absurdity even having a $100 team playing about a half billion dollar team (including luxury tax paid) but being old school, I still blame Marvin Miller for setup up this inequitable system with no salary cap. If anything come out of new agreement, at least a floor of $170 MM escalating over the agreement. That would help some. With that the Twins could have bought 4 or 5 $15 MM relievers. I’m seeing some slippage on plate discipline from some of the hitters. I think if the Twins believe Jenkins is the real deal, (it sure seems so, his swing is a thing of beauty) sign him up to an 8 year deal and bring him up along with Culpepper and Roden. They are the future and could help now too.

I’m not sure, from watching Saints games, reading, etc. that Wallner is ready for MLB pitching. I see Alan Roden as ready now for a full shot. And I would love to see Walker Jenkins up soon as well, pending AAA performance. I also think Hendry Mendez and his .330 Saints average would warrant a look ahead of Wallner, who has clearly failed the last 2 years at the MLB level. I’m not picking up much different in his swing approach, maybe a slight more willingness to take base hits when they’re there? I agree, Clemens could go back to reserve if Roden, Jenkins, Culpepper, Mendez or even Wallner succeeds. He’s a very streaky hitter where I think Roden, Jenkins and Mendez have a chance to be more consistent players. Martin could platoon with Roden or Jenkins at first to give them a better chance at initial success. I like Gray, but realistically he should not block the level of talent we’re talking about. Get as many as possible up now and they may be above .500 at trade deadline and could add, put Sir Tom to the test! He owes it to the new coaching staff, Jeremy Zoll, Shelty, Byron Buxton, even Joe Ryan who they should absolutely keep.

time now to call up Roden