Greglw3

Sano was an enigma at 1b, sometimes making brilliant plays and sometimes showing his lack of experience. I think he can improve and I wouldn’t want to reserve the DH spot just for Sano as I think Jose Miranda can be in a rotation of 3b, 2b, lf and DH. I do remember when Kirilloff first came up at minimum one extraordinary catch, diving as I recall, which was an eye opener. I think he could be a fine right fielder and will have a bat far superior to Max Kepler’s career stats. I think the best route is a FA left fielder, Castellanos or even Eddie, Buxton in CF and Kirilloff in RF, 1b Sano. One man’s opinion ?

In case anybody missed it, here’s the update, credit MLB Trade Rumors, on Danny Duffy’s status. I would be strongly in favor of the Twins signing him to a 2 year deal, the first year at a minimum rate to pitch as a lefty out of the bullpen from sometime in July to the end of the season. Then a higher salary a/la Dylan Bundy in the second year for him to pitch out of the rotation. And sign Michael Pineda for sure plus trade for a pitcher, possibly from Oakland. Jon Gray would be okay too. With the pitching staff they’re going to have, they’ll have to beef up last year’s shaky offense. Castellanos would be be good and if both parties are amenable, Eddie Rosario would be my second choice.

You came up with a good list. As a big Eddie Rosario fan, I would rank them realistically as Castellanos, then Rosario. And I wonder, what of Mark Contreras? He could be a good cf, lf option and a marked inprovement over Cave. I also favor a separate Billy Hamilton low cost signing as the Buxton insurance policy.

He would supplant a 30-40 HR per year hitter. I like Sano at 1st.

I think his sounds like a good plan! We just need a new LF or RF with Kirilloff in LF or RF and give it a go!

I agree with you. I think they are headed for that, but yet they could still salvage a conventional rotation with Stroman, Duffy and Pineda, maybe an Oakland and/or Marlins starter. Maybe the Buxton situation is gumming up the works.

Clint Frazier. I’m a never Caver. Disturbing move signing him like the team is being run by total incompetents. I sure would have signed Castellanos or Canha before Cave. Unbelievable.

With the aggressive layer of teams having signed Heaney, Thor, Rodriguez, Berrios definitely gone, Carlos Correa to the Tigers rumors/reports pretty heavy and Doug’s report that the Twins are not in on Stroman (I hope I got that right)-- with all that, I’m getting the same sinking feeling as last year. There are several teams doing what I’ve insisted the Twins need to do, that is being very aggressive in acquiring quality talent before it’s mostly gone. So far it looks like the Angels, Tigers, Dodgers, possibly Blue Jays with the Yankees lurking as another grabber-of-talent that the Twins could use. I hope they’re not pursuing the cockamamie approach of using a bunch of starters and relievers in a "gang pitching" approach. It seems like every quality player that I’m reading who is in on that player, the Twins aren’t mentioned. All that said, my blueprint with them signing Canha for LF (they should be able to do that now), Iglesias at SS, Robbie Ray as the ace (a tough lift) and Danny Duffy as #2 pitcher (for the life of me, I can’t find any reports on his current health) plus Pineda as #3 is still alive. SIgning Buxton was part of it and based on reports, there’s no excuse for this FO to fail to sign him 100M 120M, it has to get done. Can this FO step up. It’s early so that sinking feeling is possibly premature but we need to see some action, especially with the Tigers behaving like the super-aggressive WHite Sox of 2-3 years back. This is a chance for the FO to win my confidence back. SO far, nothing to indicate their passive approach has changed but the story hasn’t been written yet. I just wish they were showing some spunk like the Tigers and Angels.

I have to agree. All 3 of those prospects could be stars. It would be tempting, especially if doing a quick strike trade could cause a Stroman and Ray to fall to the Twins like dominoes. By the way, if the Reds are interested in Kepler, I have no problem including him in a trade.

I think quite possibly Jeffers will hit and quite possible hit big.

I think it sounds appealing in a way, you’d probably have to have games of 5-2-2. However this is what I was thinking as I read the article until you mentioned it. I couldn’t get it out of my mind as I read. "The downside of this model is that established MLB starters are probably not going to want to sign on for such unconventional and reduced usage. " And that’s a huge consideration. The other thing is you’d probably have to go past the 13 limit and frequently be reaching into the Saints pitching staff. One way it could work is if you signed several very good MLB middle relievers and closers and setup men. From what I’ve noticed, the Twins when using this method with the opener us it as an excuse to start and/or follow up with inferior type pitchers. That’s why to make the plan work, I don’t think you could rely on Dobnak. He is, in my mind, a guy who might surprise but has been too erratic to plan around. I could see Minaya, Ralph Garza Jr., Duffy, etc. being part of a credible group. If that’s what they want to do, they’ll do it but I’m a bit reticent. I think to do it they still need a Stroman or Ray to eat a lot of innings and maybe single handedly put the team 10 games above ,500.

In the name of the well managed by Gene Mauch, Bombo Rivera, I agree on Minaya. He was just plain good!

I’m pretty sure he would pass through waivers, then I think the new team would owe him maybe 600,000 or so and the Twins would owe him the salary of the deal unless there’s a team buyout provision. Don’t hold me to that, though!

I like your current roster as you see it. It gets rid of players such as Cave, Smeltzer, Thorpe, Garlick, Astudillo. I’m leery of Dobnak but they signed him to that long deal which I think was a mistake. From your roster, I’d like to see Kepler traded, maybe as part of a deal for Montas or Bassitt. As you know I’d like Canha as a free agent LF sign. I would pencil in Miranda as the DH/3B/2B. Maybe I’m wrong but I like Contreras with good defense speed and power. I think he’s worth a 40 man roster spot.

Long live the powder blue!!!

Double Ugh!

Iglesias!

I agree wholeheartedly. He dropped a lot of balls. He was a disaster. It would be much better to sign Iglesias and his .271 avg and good defense for $3 M which is the same as Simmons is projected at.

Thanks Nick! I appreciate that, especially coming from you. It was definitely a fun exercise. This way of building a viable roster with the spreadsheet was a really good idea and is the kind of thing that makes Twins Daily special! I think there have been several interesting and creative rosters built! Greg

I would clarify that I think Larnach is going to eventually be close to all star caliber, if not all-star caliber. I just felt that he probably needed to start in AAA, dominate and then come up again. I wish Kepler could reclaim that 75%! I’ve just watched him pull the ball to the 2B/OF way too many times. He seems incapable of or unwilling to adjusting and using the whole field. If he could do that, I’d never think about demoting him. He could easily bunt to the left side, take a tip from Rod Carew and raise his average and help the team a lot and get the other team out of that shift that has been his Waterloo. I hope Falvey and Levine read Twins Daily because I think several of us are showing the aggressiveness necessary to build a contender, next year!

I really like what you did! You stretched the payroll the same way I did, mine was to 142.1 M. I like your full time promotion of Miranda! - I did the same thing. You saw the necessity of innovating in the OF, which is a key for next year. If Celestino is ready, that could be a real nice OF. We agree that Kirilloff is needed to strengthen a perilously fragile OF. Getting McHugh and Knebe is a really great strike. I wanted McHugh but used 8M to get Canha in LF, moving Kirilloff to RF. Our rotations are similar. You were very clever the way you got that big 3. I had Ray, Danny Duffy and Pineda with the same 4 and 5 as you in Ober and Ryan. If we could get that roster that you compiled for 140.6, I would be thrilled! Take a look at my roster, if you like. The main point is that I really want Levine and Falvey to go aggressively after it like you did and like I did! Do they read Twins Daily??? Greg Allen

Overall, I like what you did with the rotation, giving Miranda a big role, Gordon and the lineup moves. The only thing that I think a lot of Twins fans may be overlooking, admittedly arguably, is that they will be repeating the same mistake with the OF as they did last season. Kepler is a .211 hitter. I’ve never seen a corner outfielder who hit .211 who was a plus, SABR statistics notwithstanding. And Larnach hit in the .220s. In my workup I signed Mark Canha as the left fielder and moved Kirilloff to RF. I honestly think Kirilloff can blow away what Kepler is contributing. He’s really talented. Now we have a strong OF. We did the same thing with the rotation but with different names. Yours is a little more creative.

A pitcher with a 3.62 ERA in the #5 spot? I see him as a solid #3.

I agree on Ray. See my workup using the format that Nick Nelson used - in Greg Allen’s blog.

All I can say, Cody is that I’m 100% in agreement with you! See my blog post using Nick’s spreadsheet. In that SS, Robbie Ray is the #1 starter. Danny Duffy #2. A top shelf ace is a must for a team in the position of the Twins!