tony&rodney

Almost a wishing/reverse psychology manner of looking at the current situation. I would think Falvey & Sons are on the clock. The end product will determine if their days in MLB are numbered or not. As such, despite my complete inability to relate to how these guys put a team together, we should expect to see at least two significant trades. Does Falvey have what it takes? We are waiting to find out.

Manfred has caused enough problems without writers giving him more insane ideas. MLB needs a new commissioner, a new focus, and a turn away from gimmicks.

There are opportunities to both improve the team and reduce salary. Money is not a sledgehammer crushing the hopes of the team for 2025. The Twins will almost certainly open the season with the highest payroll in the AL Central. Falvey needs to make it work by finding the teams who are open for transactions. On a simple budget note, Chris Paddack has value to multiple teams at his $7.5 million contract for 2025, if all the Twins want is to get below $130M. We can be certain that teams are interested.

What were the chances that the Twins had any interest in Montas? Clearly he was going to sign for a seven figure salary. Whether that was $10M or higher, the Twins had zero interest in him due to cost. The Twins are almost certain to have a higher payroll than their Midwest brother, Milwaukee, and all of the AL Central teams. This means Falvey & Sons need to get on the phone.

Your painting realism over idealist dreams.

None of Sasaki, Verlander, or Scherzer would sign a contract to pitch with Casas, Lewis, and Miranda wearing gloves behind them. The idea of one DH playing the on the infield is tolerable. Putting multiple DH's in the field is a no-no to free agent pitchers. The contracts would need to include stupid money, well beyond a level anyone else would match. The Twins have very little to offer Sasaki in the way of income via endorsements or a notable Japanese community. Would i like the Twins to make an attempt? Yes, by all means. Offer the maximum amount and aggressively seek corporate help for endorsements too. Realism is a thing though. Before the Twins can approach Sasaki, they need to make a few moves to fix their defense.

It is 2024. You went to a number of Twins games and watched them play in the field. You also watched their opponents as well. You worked hard to construct a pile of numbers to make the Twins look average. Now you hear your brain tell you that what you witnessed was not compatible with the statistics that were created. It's the offseason now and the overwhelming consensus is to roll it back in 2025 with the same team as 2024, minus the free agents Kepler, Santana, Farmer, and Thielbar. The fans believe. The stats you constructed will work better next time. You don't need to watch because you can look over the best analytics to explain everything. You accept the fate of the team. All praise to AI.

Satchel Paige, "Don't look back ...." There are people who may need this article to explain the story because they are unfamiliar with Brent Rooker and his time as a Twin. So good post for that reason alone. For those who are familiar with this tale, let bygones be bygones.

Maybe the pitchers who get batters out (lowest WHIP) is the best idea. Seems pretty worthless to have a roster spot taken up by a LOOGY in 2025. Tanner Scott would work. JK. $.

I'm pretty sure Hays gets $5 million or more. Does that eliminate the Twins as an option?

Was just referring to his baseball career. Garbe was quite an athlete and good student who took what he learned to find success in his life. He is living in Moses Lake, Washington running a construction company. Playing professional baseball is really an extremely tough job.

Where have you gone B. J. Garbe?

Seems like this coming year will be really exciting for watching Walker Jenkins. Everything will be predicated on how Jenkins adapts this year. Worth remembering that Mauer spent an extra year in the minor leagues because he needed more work as a catcher and the Twins had an excellent catcher in A. J. Gardy said on numerous occasions that Mauer was MLB ready as a batter as a 20 year old. Will Jenkins be ready at 20 or 21 years old? I'm not worried about the entire idea of putting too many expectations on the young man. These elite athletes have had eyeballs on them since they became teenagers. Signing for $7.14 miilion as a top draft choice, you can be sure that Jenkins has extremely high goals for himself and has a system of checks and balances in his life to keep everything under control.

The thoughts on whether Emmanuel Rodriguez needs to show himself as ready in St. Paul versus those of us who would like the Twins to put him in the lineup is pretty much an endless loop of basic opinions. What I think should be clear is that a few people believe that there are sometimes players whose talents separate themselves from the vast majority of prospects. There are zero current Twins who I would advocated for skipping AAA. That doesn't mean ER is a sure thing at all but I'm seeing him as a Twin more than a Saint. It is easy to understand the usual stance of more time in AAA, but this time I will simply disagree even if the path is one Falvey surely chooses.

Personally, I have more confidence in the pitching than the position players. I see a need for the Twins to upgrade the defense behind the pitchers with a minimum of one new outfielder and one new infielder. The current roster does not meet an average level of play in the field forcing the hitters to produce at very rates and the pitchers to throw more pitches and record more outs than should be expected. A player who does meet the standard, Carlos Correa, may be the key, whether he is traded or kept. The Twins need him at the plate and in the field yet his salary seems to stop the Twins from getting creative. We have already discussed Correa but I wonder how the Twins can proceed with him or without him. Perhaps when Soto and 2-3 more FA starting pitchers sign their contracts there will be discussions and some movement across baseball. I hope the Twins see fit to improve their roster.

For that matter, one wonders whether Caleb Thielbar returns, healthy and ready to pitch?

Consistency is a good thing.

Very strange response from you. You are the king of all stats, buried up to your eyeballs with so many interesting comparisons, lists, and never-ending assortments of analytics, many quite relevant and others missing first person knowledge. Now you drop a name many of us are very familiar with. a guy who had great athletic promise but never accomplished much of anything except to flash potential in spurts. I'll leave the stats to you. Why choose Benson is my question? How do you see Benson in Jenkins? I'm genuinely curious. They are both hyped prospects, but I can't see it. What am i missing?

And no less an authority than Paul Molitor, among others, have stated how unselfish Mauer was to play his career as a catcher because his ceiling was virtually unlimited as a batter playing in the field. Mauer was the only person ever named athlete of the year in two major sports when he was in high school and he was good enough to start as a freshman for any D1 major power basketball program in basketball as well. If you never saw him in person as a high school athlete and have seen seen others of significant accolades you have no comparison. In multiple sports, particularly basketball and baseball, i have seen a multitude of stars up close and Mauer ranks amongst the greatest of athletes of my decades long career. Nobody can definitively state X number of base hits (mine was just a wild hair-ass guess), but the talent was there. Catching is so far removed from any other position that it is impossible to compare. Imagine if pitchers had to win 325+ games in their career. There is a reason so few catchers are in the Hall of Fame. If you have never caught a minimum of 100 nine inning games in a year for a half dozen years, you simply do not have a reference point. Mauer was among the top athletes in baseball for decade. His peers were in awe of him and he never really gained the level of respect locally that he did nationally. Yes, I'm way out there, but only because of the number of professional athletes I have seen as a comparison to Mauer. So, I guess you know where I am on that. Of course there are those who simply disagree and many people of those are still jealous about his contract. Fine. Walker Jenkins has a long road to go and health is his number one challenge. He also has to evade the circus of social media and a society that has its sole god, money, as a focus which can tantalize and ruin many a career in the hyper competitive world of athletics. I wish Jenkins well on his journey and hope he drags our Twins into a World Series or two .... or more.

Is this Falvey's idea of "creative"?

This year, 2024/2025, the answer is no. Good speculation though.

If Joe Mauer had played his entire career at any other position, other than as a pitcher, he would have won a entire trove of batting championships, had well more than 3300 base hits, etc. He was a catcher by choice (demand if you will) and the best in baseball. I don't think many Minnesotans still understand the respect that Mauer had among players in MLB as a pure athlete. We can only hope that Walker Jenkins has it all together like Mauer, and boy it would be sweet. Wouldn't it?

Yes he does and I, for one, would not bet against him. His biggest challenges are his head and injuries.

I sure hope he maintains that swing and let the doubters doubt all the through a Hall of Fame career.

I think the closest comparison to EmRod amongst current Twins is Matt Wallner. Nothing Julien does is very similar to Rodriguez except for their both having a good idea of the strike zone. As far as just watching hittable pitches, one might throw Jeffers or other names in the hat too.