Jump to content
Twins Daily
  • Create Account

tony&rodney

Verified Member
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    9,422

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    85

 Content Type 

Profiles

News

Minnesota Twins Videos

2026 Minnesota Twins Top Prospects Ranking

2022 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks

Minnesota Twins Free Agent & Trade Rumors, Notes, & Tidbits

Guides & Resources

2023 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks

The Minnesota Twins Players Project

2024 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks

2025 Minnesota Twins Draft Pick Tracker

Forums

Blogs

Events

Store

Downloads

Gallery

Everything posted by tony&rodney

  1. tony&rodney
    This is why trades are so crucial to half the teams in MLB. Unless the Twins are fully content with their current roster, which is actually possible, then some deals need to be completed. Transactions can be difficult and risky, yet remain a path to filling needs.
  2. tony&rodney
    Two things can be true. The cacophony surrounding Baldelli would make more sense if the same heat was applied to Falvey. They come (and will go) as a pair. I'm sure they have times when they disagree on this and that point but Rocco knows he is not the boss and they are on the same page for better or worse. The players are restricted, in part, because they have not proven themselves to where they are fixtures in the lineup. We have seen this time and time again, especially with the less experienced guys. Opportunity calls for a little bit of performance. The question I have is whether all of Keaschall, Eeles, Rodriguez, and whomever else is new will go through the same pattern. Would the Twins have stuck with Jackson Merrill? It will be interesting to see how Wallner and Larnach are used this year.
  3. tony&rodney
    Nobody is a fan of the payroll cuts. Nobody. At least not the fans ... us. Go to BaseballProspectus or other sites and you will see the Twins have the same amount of money or more than their division foes or Milwaukee after subtracting the two highest paid players. My point is that the front office is playing on the same or better level than their immediate competition. The Twins will never match the big boys in spending. The roster configuration is up to the front office and their ability to do so matches half the teams easily. It isn't about the owners unless that is the bone a person must gnaw away on. You can check it below. This is not a defense of ownership but merely stating a reality, the rosters are put together by the front office.
  4. tony&rodney
    Voit likes Mexico. The weather is better, the food is fresh, and it is generally safer away from the known regions.
  5. tony&rodney
    The harping on Baldelli is a function of his position, manager. My guess is that the entire front office and management team is on notice this year, to a much greater degree than the players. If the Twins finish below .500 and compete with the White Sox for the AL Central cellar, it is very likely that there will be change. If Royce Lewis repeats his year, he will still have a job next year and get a raise. The nature of the manager position means eyes on on the decisions, even if they are the company line. The manager goes first and then the front office when everything goes south. Occasionally I will read a Yankee blog and those fans are brutal towards Boone and Cashman, far beyond anything I have ever seen on Twins Daily. I commend you all for your civility.
  6. tony&rodney
    Something that the Cubs may have noted is that Thielbar had a number of games where he was awful but was pretty effective most of the time. The consistency necessary to succeed in relief is important and Caleb crashed too often last year. When a pitcher simply doesn't have it, someone has to notice that pretty quick. Perhaps the Cubs looked over the game logs, specific situations, and data related to Thielbar's stuff and concluded he was a solid choice with their management style. It will be interesting to see him in another uniform.
  7. tony&rodney
    A forgotten guy might be Nowlin. The lefty was so unpredictable, good one outing/inning bad the next. He has some nasty stuff at his best. Can he morph into a decent bullpen arm with sudden unexpected consistency? Seems like a long shot.
  8. tony&rodney
    Every single time I mention this I get a pile of thumbs down, but the reality hasn't changed at all and it won't. The Twins have a payroll that is tops in their division and considerably higher than the NL Central division champion Milwaukee Brewers. I would love a payroll at $150-200M. Sure. Why not? Not going to happen. The Pohlads have never even heard of Mickey Gasper or Mike Ford. They have nothing to do with players added to the roster unless you count the two big contracts of Byron Buxton and Carlos Correa. Remember that Detroit, Cleveland, Kansas City, and Milwaukee all have a few players with big contracts too. The guys who make the roster decisions are in the front office. They don't have anything to do with ownership. Yes, they have a payroll budget. So does every single team. A new ownership, which we all hope occurrs asap, will also set a payroll ceiling. If one is a diehard fan of the 20 teams that have dollars below the top ten, you depend on the front office for a competitive roster. Hello Cleveland and Tampa Bay. If one wants to see your team sign Juan Soto, become an avid fan of the New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, or Texan teams. There are opportunities to trade or acquire players. It happens frequently. Last trade deadline, A.J. Puk was obtainable. Last week, Jesus Luzardo was available for a song. I do not criticize the front office for passing on those players if they did not see a fit, which was their choice. I do think there are deals to be made. Hopefully, a few acquisitions are made for players who can improve the Twins roster in 2025.
  9. tony&rodney
    Of course you know that the Twins are well above their AL Central brethren as well as Milwaukee when it comes to payroll spending. The Twins are in the middle of MLB in payroll. Not everything is about money. All teams are restricted by money. Pity the poor Dodgers signing a new free agent and paying double due to the CBT penalties. Mike Ford is a good addition for St. Paul. A pile of injuries could see him play at Target Field.
  10. tony&rodney
    Falvey seems to struggle with this as you suggest. One wonders why. Do other POBO's or GM's read Falvey? I just don't understand the guy at all .... more bewildered than negative. I don't get his ideas.
  11. tony&rodney
    The team is for sale, thus all non players are lame duck pending a sale. Who even knows how much the Pohlads are involved. If the team sells change may happen, or not. In any business of size it is hard to fire everyone.
  12. tony&rodney
    If the Twins sit Emmanuel when a left-handed pitcher is on the mound, then you will know it is not analytics but insanity. EmRod doesn't care which hand a pitcher uses. He swings and misses or crushes the ball against either hand.
  13. tony&rodney
    Put Emmanuel Rodriguez in left field. Trevor Larnach can DH and play some outfield, maybe even a little first base from time to time. Move Royce Lewis to first base and let him mash with having to dive around as a 2B/3B player. Third base goes to Brooks Lee. Perhaps he earns his name a little bit. Second base? Well, see what happens between Willi Castro, Payton Eeles, Luke Keaschall, and Austin Martin. Turns out Greggory Masterson was correct. This is easier than we were making it.
  14. tony&rodney
    When you meet with your boss several times per day and their ideas are clearly communicated to you in detail with examples and various scenarios, you always go back to your post thinking that you make all the final decisions but it was good to talk with someone to see what they think. Right? One would hope that the team is reassessing any number of factors in how they proceed. We have read repeatedly that the debacle the last weeks of August and September overshadowed that the Twins were among the best teams in baseball. Perhaps the Twins might assess the record versus teams with winning records as opposed to their performance against teams like the White Sox. Al the games count. This is true. Do the Twins make plans to go 23-3 versus CHW, LAA, and SACA's in this coming year to balance their expectations of an 0-15 record against NYY, BAL, and ATL? So yes, I'm hoping there are conversations and a reassessment of the roster, team, strategies, and plans for 2025 in hopes of some improvement on the field if not necessarily in the won-loss column.
  15. tony&rodney
    A real gutsy player and one who provided amazing value to the Twins over his time playing for Minnesota. Considering how many players tanked last season and knowing the entire roster cannot be purged it seemed like there might be another year for Caleb. Apparently the reality of last season and Thielbar's age meant it was time to move on. Good luck to Thielbar. I sure hope he is a star for the Cubs and enjoys pitching in Wrigley Field. Chicago is a great city.
  16. tony&rodney
    Well, I'm not exactly issuing support for Vazquez. Cleveland, among other teams, has a preference for catchers who catch. How well they hit is secondary. The Guardians have Ramirez but not a pile of guys getting MVP votes or pitchers getting CYA tallies. Per the post, if the Twins could trade Vazquez for McCann the idea might swim. Who will take Vazquez and his contract? No one might be the answer. As it is the Twins have a tandem that has worked for the past two years. Vazquez's contract expires after this year and then the Twins will have a new catcher. When one considers the Twins at 1B, 2B, 3B, LF, RF, and DH the catching situation almost looks stable. Eventually the Twins will need to make a move for a catcher. I have proposed several ideas which may have been lame or otherwise not feasible but they were reasonable for both teams to an extent. Until Falvey sees fit, the Twins will need to prosper with Vazquez's bat in the lineup half the time. It's the reality that Falvey chose.
  17. tony&rodney
    Winokur made so many improvements last year. His speed, athleticism, and potential make him the ultimate prospect with an unbelievably high ceiling even while his floor could be A+ ball; crazy disparate outcomes possible. I'm excited to see his progression this year.
  18. tony&rodney
    My initial reaction after drifting through the article was wondering how the writer came up with those two names. The Dodgers do this trade every day. Reading through the comments I wondered what ideas people might have as a response. Somehow it seems Duran has lost value, which I don't see.
  19. tony&rodney
    Forever, at least in my lifetime, coaches have worked with catchers to "receive" the ball as quietly as possible. I was a pitcher, but caught some and was shown a few tricks. Coaches worked quite a bit with catchers on setup and receiving; a series of flips. I don't believe we should dismiss that there are several calls made each game due to proper catching but the measurement of it and comments by announcers has been a little out there. LaTroy Hawkins has discussed this on air several times. He gets pretty disgusted and dismissive actually. His comment goes something along the lines that stealing a strike is just bad umpiring. He does go on to explain that catchers work very hard to be smooth and also explains how frustrating it is for a pitcher to throw to a catcher who jerks all over the place and even obstructs the umpire. This post asks about picking up McCann and that seems like a slim odds deal. Gasper is AAA support only. I would almost expect a trade of Lopez before Vazquez is moved. I don't want that at all. Do wish the Twins would consider making a trade for a catching prospect, but have no idea what. I just throw out stuff like Brooks Lee for Jeferson Quero or Varland, Miranda/Julien for Harry Ford as thoughts and guesses.
  20. tony&rodney
    Every time I tuned into a Connor Prielipp game he looked dominant .... until he faded. 2025 will determine his future and I expect it to show by June. Injury? Starter? Relief? I'm going to tune in.
  21. tony&rodney
    Catching is a skill and the concept of strikes being called because the umpires are fooled can only be measured poorly. Umpires are human so mistakes are made and they also are very familiar with the catchers so there is going to be some natural bias on close pitches on a few seldom delayed calls.. With strike zone accuracies in the mid to upper 90% range umpires are really good at their jobs. Nevertheless, we have catchers posing as they receive the ball. If you ever umpired a game where the pitchers can throw in the 80s or better with an occasional decent breaking ball you understand that the umpire actually cannot see the catcher's glove. The focus is on the ball. The best umpires pay no attention to the catcher.
  22. tony&rodney
    I was there. It was hilarious.
  23. tony&rodney
    Agree that the employees do evaluate and that it is tough. My issue with the Twins is that often we see similar players filling roles, good hit/less glove. This along with overlap, which I try not to second guess because I'm not a fan of that. There are players best suited to utility roles. Farmer and Castro come to mind. They are good because they can step in as regulars for an injured player. The Twins carried both last year plus multiple guys who played the same positions. There is no such thing as too much depth on one hand but there are also opportunities to trade when the overlap involves players who are too similar. Naturally this is difficult. The trade of Arraez was a good example of a good trade. The Polanco trade was bungled, not because of the loss of Jorge or the poor return but because he should have been bundled with one or two others for a significant guy or sent solely for a prospect. So it is complex, that is for sure. An example of gambles by division foes are the Guardians trading Naylor and Gimenez and the White Sox trading Crochet. These trades were not about money, they were done to improve their teams. Sorry for the sloppy ramble.
  24. tony&rodney
    Long before the trendy and inexact science of "framing", there were catchers who always had a job because they can catch. Drew Butera was one such guy and long before him, Phil Roof and Andy Echebarren (RIP) among others. Catching is really hard and brutal on the body. A fair amount of wild pitches are caught or stopped by the best catchers. These statistics are impossible to quantify because one wild pitch bounces in the dirt while another goes five feet over the head of the umpire. The people who can tell you who the best catchers are mostly keep their mouth shut in the interest of the team. Pitchers know. Everyone wants a Joe Mauer behind the plate because he stops everything and then grabs a bat and hits too. Teams make difficult choices based on their pitching staffs and options. Houston rode the worst hitter in baseball, Martin Maldonado, simply because he could catch the ball. Once his catching and throwing deteriorated, he was replaced. The Twins have a fair catching tandem for now. They don't need to dump Vazquez for payroll considerations. If the budget calls for a slight decrease, there are a number of teams that will take Chris Paddack, which solves the financial problem if there even is one. A much bigger concern is next year. Without catchers, the game doesn't work. I think it is past time for the Twins to make a few moves to bring in a catching prospect or two. They may need to overpay to get on the front side of this void in the organization.
  25. tony&rodney
    The Houston Astros and Martin Maldonado might disagree with you. I'm not real familiar with McCann's catching skills so I'll leave that to someone else to determine. A pitcher needs to have confidence in their catcher or stuff goes south in a hurry. Every manager looks for a catcher who can hit and catch, winning teams focus on catchers who catch. The bat is a bonus.
×
×
  • Create New...