tony&rodney

Cabrera was a trade I proposed last November, but I put him in the bullpen. He is out of options and a little shaky with his control, but basically unhittable when going well. In terms of coaching, I love the cool and confidence that Maki projects. However, we should remember that Miami is a franchise that seems to develop more pitchers than most organizations and certainly more than the Twins. It might be a stretch to say out guys could do what their guys could not accomplish. Still, sometimes an organizational change and some maturation wakes up a player and helps them to focus where before they had problems.

These are likely ongoing front office debates. The cost ($25,55) of Vazquez, Farmer, Santana, and DeSclafani could perhaps be spent on a single or two better players. Sometimes it does seem like those smaller contracts will get cut off more. That said, the conversations may counter that a Hoskins can bomb or get injured which negates the ability to add those peripheral players who can be critical to a team's depth. Agree that Vazquez was added at a time of need at the price the market set.

Just curious - did you see him play when he was in high school or later when he played for Auburn?

I agree that Lewis will not be traded. Lewis would be the name in a big trade. I don't think the Twins should trade Lewis. This is why the Twins do not have either Kirby or Gilbert right now. They are not willing to trade Lewis. I agree with that, although I have hesitated and weighed the pros and cons many times. The Twins have one pitcher that is in their rotation who was developed in the system, Bailey Ober. It is now time to completely remove the limitations from Louie Varland. He belongs in the rotation. Furthermore, i believe he is a key to the staff. Why? Because Varland has stamina and can deliver 180 innings of 4.00 - 4.50 pitching. None of the others considered for the back of the rotation can deliver that production. Varland is a big reason I would not trade Royce Lewis for George Kirby. While Varland will not come close to being the ace that Kirby is, having Lewis at third base along with Varland's more than decent pitching for a #4 starter makes the Twins a better team.

I'm a little confused as to the title of the post. National writers and various prediction engines (ZIPS, etc.) all predict the Twins to have a minimum of a top ten rotation. Going into last season, the Twins were not in the top half of baseball. If your starting staff this year has greater respect in predictions than the starting staff that started last year did, how does that equate to fallen? Might be a good idea to wait until the year is finished before we compare 2023 to 2024.

The comparisons from the start of each season is a fair thing to do. You cannot compare how a pitcher X did last season to how pitcher Y did this season. This season has not been played. Pablo Lopez was an hopeful unknown last season, but he is now looked at as a potential Cy Young Award guy. Joe Ryan was looked on as a solid guy and he still is. Experience should mean he is better. Bailey Ober was seen as someone who could be counted on and now he is counted on. Louie Varland has pitched effectively but is still unproven. Sonny Gray was proven and pitched wonderfully. Chris Paddack closed last season looking healthy and should replace Kenta Maeda who entered last season in a similar position to where Paddack is currently. Anthony DeSclafani says he is 100% entering Spring Training as did Tyler Mahle last year. So there it is, apples to apples. Gray gives the 2023 staff a big win, Paddack/Maeda is a wash, Lopez, Ryan, Ober are a plus for this year, and DeScla cannot be any worse than Mahle unless he too goes down for the year. Final tally is 3-1 with 2 draws in favor of the 2024 starting staff. If you want to compare how each starting staff does, wait until November of this year.

The answer depends on how you felt about the guys who left and whether you expected them (if resigned) to be better than what is present currently. Health is always the key. Pablo Lopez was pretty good last year. I hope he repeats. Joe Ryan had a good year but should be even better this season with experience and health. Ober should better than last year with more experience. Paddack should be good for 100-120 innings of solid pitching, enough to replace Maeda, who was good. Sonny Gray cannot be replaced. Mahle was a loss due to injury. I believe that Varland can be very good. In summation, the starting staff clearly needs to be healthy but that is true for every team every year. I'm as bullish on the 2024 starters as I was for the 2023 ones. I also think an improved offense this year should help the pitchers.

None of Kirilloff, Julien, Lewis, or Wallner have even one year at the MLB level. Lee (Happy Birthday to him) has just 168 PA at AAA. We are getting way ahead of ourselves here. Does anyone remember a player by the name of Jose Miranda?

The lower numbers for Funderburk may well be due to uncertainty of his appearances/innings due to options. The same can be said for Varland. I'm hoping with the depth of the pen that the Twins choose the best pitchers for their staff. The Twins opened last year with Sonny Gray, Pablo Lopez, Joe Ryan, Tyler Mahle, and Kenta Maeda. Ober had a great camp but it would have been rare to choose him over a returning, healthy, accomplished veteran. That decision made sense. This is not the situation this year. Lopez, Ryan, and Ober are the returning, healthy, accomplished vets now. That leaves two rotation spots. The Twins are invested in Paddack for the #5 SP position. He will need to have his starts and innings monitored. There isn't any reason to not make the #4 SP spot a competition in camp. The Twins should be playing to win.

Perhaps the title perfectly describes why nothing will be done for several months at least. The logjam is only apparent at this time as you state. Is Kirilloff healthy enough to play on a regular basis? If he is then 1B is set for quite some time because that swing will play in any lineup. Does Julien continue with his strengths at the plate while making additional strides as a fielder? If so, 2nd is set. Will Lewis blossom as all hope and expect? If so, 3rd looks set. Can Wallner make the needed adjustments to be a full time regular? If so, he is a lock in the lineup. Can all of these players avoid injuries? The depth is solid now with Farmer, Castro, Martin, and others ready to play. I believe Brooks Lee will be a very good MLB player. How will he do early this year in AAA? It seems to me that the Twins have a full year to see how each of their young players develops before they need to make any decisions on moving someone to another position or making a guy available in a trade. They certainly had conversations about all of these players with other clubs during the offseason and decided to hold for now. Got to know when to hold em.

Well, as a previous comment mentioned, teams prefer to keep some of their guys in camp for a few weeks and playing in warm weather. The Twins have some significant funds invested in Jenkins and a month of Florida weather in April beats the vagaries of whatever might be occurring in Cedar Rapids. If all goes perfectly, expect Jenkins in Iowa no sooner than May.

Last season, it seemed like the Twins carried a pitcher in the bullpen who rarely actually pitched in games. The relief pile looks pretty good right now. Hopefully the Twins are a little more proactive about using everyone. The post points out that the pen is pretty full with Duran, Stewart, Jax, Thielbar, Jackson, Topa, and Okert seemingly set. That leaves some pretty decent arms (Alcala, Funderburk, Winder, Sands, Weiss, and others) trying to squeeze into one slot or waiting for their shot while pitching for the Saints. Staumont, if healthy, is a strong pitcher too. I can't disagree that having a host of options increases the odds of success for the bullpen, but do feel for guys like Funderburk who are good enough to be relied on consistently but because of options are long shots to start the season on the roster. The one area where I want to see a clear positive decision concerns Louie Varland. I don't really care that he has options. Unless DeSclafani is fully healthy and displays better pitches than Varland in March, Varland should be the #4 starting pitcher. I'm fine going with DeSclafani if it is clear that he is the better pitcher with superior stuff. If not, and if DeScla is fully healthy, the last bullpen position can go to him (DeScla). It would not be a surprise for Staumont, DeSclafani, or someone else to need a stint on the IL out of training camp. A number of people are still hoping for a TOR pitcher and I'm not opposed to that if we are talking about Luzardo or much better. That means no pointless signings of shredded guys like Syndergaard or Lorenzen. I'm not too worried about Falvey handing out long term deals to Montgomery or Snell. The pitching looks good.

JB is 6'-5" and listed at 215 pounds (looking bigger). DF is 6'-6" and listed at 185 pounds (looking like 155). JB had AA/AAA WHIPs of 1.40, 1.97, and 1.73 with BAA of .255, .338, and .269. Jordan had innings where he looked good but really struggled at AA and AAA in the last three years. He is still in the system and will be at AAA. Festa only pitched at AA and AAA last season. He looked really good for 3-5 innings before losing it at times. In AA, DF had a WHIP of 1.36, a BAA of .249 with less hits than innings pitched and a ton more strikeouts than innings. In only 12 innings at AAA, DF had 15 SO but also 9 walks. The BAA was .222. A bunch of numbers that essentially say that Festa has to refine his control but can dominate hitters at AAA, whereas Balazovic really never got his feet settled above A ball. Festa is still learning how to focus but seems to be growing quickly into a potential beast on the mound. Balazovic was all over the place in every inning I saw him with little apparent understanding of how to pitch. He was a thrower in AAA. We shall see, but I think you would really enjoy watching the skinny guy pitch.

I don't know where you are coming from. I will merely give some information that we know with mild speculation. The Giants tried to sign Correa for more money than the Twins signed him for. Insurance did not sign off for SF, it did for MN. Why? I don't know the details. The Giants now have a prospect just like Lee, Marco Luciano. The Giants are not looking for a shortstop at this time. The Red Sox would not pay their former shortstop (Xander Bogaerts) to a long term contract because Marcelo Mayer is a top ten global prospect, considered the best fielder shortstop prospect among all shortstop prospects. The Red Sox have zero interest in other shortstops. Correa has a no trade contract. These are very difficult and rarely given up, usually only for a much better deal. Unlike most scouts and talent evaluators I believe that it is possible for Brooks Lee to play shortstop in MLB. He is most suited for third base. Absolutely no one would predict Lee to be near as good as Correa at shortstop. On pitching, here is where you and others may grievously disagree, the Twins have a top of the rotation pitcher in Pablo Lopez. Behind him are Ryan, Ober, Varland, and Paddack with DeSclafani available. Numerous sites have ranked the Twins starting pitching anywhere from top 4-9 in baseball. David Festa is a year away and Marco Raya another year behind him with plenty of other arms developing in the system. The Twins have never signed a top free agent pitcher and I'm not even interested in either Snell or Montgomery unless they want to play for $10 million on a one year deal. I'm sure open to trades for any of Luzardo, Kirby, or Gilbert. Do you believe the Twins will trade Royce Lewis and/or Brooks Lee? That would be the price. Brooks Lee will get an opportunity to play major league baseball. The team and position are still unknown, but openings occur in a myriad of fashions. An example .... many have called for Lewis to be moved to the outfield. I don't expect that, but an injury or need could arise and perhaps against all odds Lewis is needed on the grass. If Lee has impressed and shown that he is primed and ready to play with the big boys .... poof, he is our new third baseman. Stuff happens, just not trades of key players who have huge contracts that include a no trade clause. This we can all be certain of, right?

He is an elite talent by consensus of virtually anyone in baseball. Is Juan Soto an elite talent? How about Shohei Ohtani? You get the point - there are elite talents whether you or somebody else decides to ignore a specific player. Now would the Twins trade Pablo Lopez for Soto, Ohtani, Betts, Freeman, etc.? Of course not. Money is real and teams won't make a trade for a super expensive player and give up a top of the rotation pitcher who costs very little. The Twins would not trade for Gerrit Cole because their budget does not allow it. The Twins decided to sign Kirby Puckett to the largest (at the time) contract in MLB, they signed Mauer, and they signed Correa. All of these guys are elite talents. You may not like Correa making money and Correa may have had a down year last season but neither of those change the reality of how baseball views Correa - he is elite. Now the Twins and their fans hope he has a great series of seasons strung together.

The hype is huge but Jenkins would benefit from a week in MLB camp to see that the road ahead is hard work. He just needs to keep healthy and play.

Law spends a ton of time looking over information and tries to watch a bunch of prospects play. I actually like Law as much as any prospect speculator. It sure seems to me that he was quite familiar with Jenkins, Lee, EmRod, and Raya while seeming lost on both Festa and Gonzalez. Tough to know every prospect in the minor leagues, so if you have seen a guy quite a bit you might have different thoughts than Law. May not be true, but Law may have just put Gonzalez #4 because he didn't have much to refute other's opinions. Who knows? There is always a ton of guessing on prospects down the lists. You can see that among the differences that our experts on Twins Daily show in their lists.

I'm not feeling the love on Twins Daily for David Festa that I have for him. Fangraphs may give Festa a boost because they have a guy or two who like the tall skinny pitcher. Don't know what to think from reading and seeing so many blah forecasts on Festa. I have seen both Raya and Festa pitch on multiple occasions and have Festa as the #3 Twins prospect ahead of Raya. Festa does have some warts. His control, which can be pinpoint, falls off rapidly in some outings and he seems to either tire too easily or lose focus. What do i like? Festa can totally dominate a lineup, including dicing through hyped players from Texas, St. Louis, and Dodger minor league teams. While Raya gets great movement, Festa has more velocity and better control when he is on his game. I guess Festa is still growing into his body and becoming comfortable with pitching. I have wondered whether he was basically just throwing the ball until he became a professional and now is adapting to the mental side of pitching. Hey, maybe he flames out .... or becomes a fixture in the rotation in early 2025. i do think Festa will get some outings for the Twins in 2024, but I don't beleive he is ready right now. I do believe that Varland is far better than any of the other options for a #4 starting pitcher for the Twins in 2024.

Do you think the Twins will trade the player required to bring back a top of the rotation starting pitcher? That player is Royce Lewis.

I cannot think of a single team that would trade a #1-2 starting pitcher for Correa. If the Twins truly felt the need to trade for a top of the rotation pitcher, Royce Lewis would already have been traded. Please propose any deal you think might work. Virtually every team in baseball will have one or two players on their team who make significantly more money than the pile of players earning from minimum to $5 million. Correa is the Twins best player and acknowledged leader. It is actually surprising to hear the glowing comments that grizzled vets like Sonny Gray made about Correa. People need to ignore the money. Players work for far less than their financial worth for an organization until they reach the point where they can determine their own future. At that point, some team has an actuary advise the front office concerning a signing. Mauer had a big contract and despite people liking him better when he played for minimum, the Twins were never once pinched by that deal. Mauer made the team a ton of money. He still makes them money. Correa was Falvey's choice to earn the largest contract now. In a number of years it will be someone else. FWIW, Correa is not the player I most enjoy watching. I just recognize his value to the Twins.

The roster is stronger this year than at the beginning of last year. A fully healthy Correa, Kirilloff, and Buxton makes a difference to the lineup. I'm bullish on the offense. No to adding retreads. Martin is ready to protect both Buxton and Wallner. Hopeful that Castro can play all over and repeat his performance or improve on it from last season. Louie Varland belongs in the rotation as a #4 with Paddack used as a #5 where they can protect him with occasional skipped starts. Staumont and DeSclafani may open the year on the IL, giving Alcala, Winder, or Funderburk a slot. Not a fan of adding a starting pitcher unless it is a guy like Pablo. Falvey was likely unwilling to take a significant risk in the trade market, which may turn out for the best. It would not help the team to add a back end piece to the rotation and may actually lower the expected win total.

Gray was great but he is gone. Maeda was decent but he is gone. Paddack should easily pick up 100-120 innings to cover for Maeda. We hope Lopez repeats his year. Ryan and Ober will be better and get more innings. The key .... ..... is Varland. Have faith.

All prospects, and to some extent all players with less than one full proven year of MLB experience, are less than a sure thing. Where, exactly does the front office draw the line? Where does anyone? Consider that if there are not untouchables (or any such related term), the Twins will discuss trading all of Jenkins, Lee, EmRod, Raya, Festa, Lewis, Julien, Wallner, and Varland among a host of other names of players not established. I believe all of those names were in various conversations. Considering that Jenkins carries a higher rating than Lewis, how does one decide to make a trade? These are the permutations that Falvey and his merry men have gone through all offseason. There is plenty to think about and it seems like the Twins are holding some guys from trades, at least to this point. If fans want a pitcher like George Kirby, then Royce Lewis is going to be the ask. I'm good going with Varland behind Lopez, Ryan, and Ober with Paddack the #5, watching his innings and stress levels coming back from TJ 2.

The big networks have shaved their writers in the last decade due to costs. They are way more in tune with the East Coast. I agree with Fangraphs, although I haven't looked over their standings yet which is strange given that I use that site way too often. I had the Twins at 87 wins before the trade and 85 victories now. Many look down on the AL Central, not me. My thought is that the team will be stronger at the end of the season and well equipped to handle oppenents in the playoffs. The 162 game schedule is a slog and winning the division remains important.

Oh my. Shame on me. Good for you. Thank you. I did that so fast I forgot Kaat. Holy cow, what a miss. Can those who were not able to listen, watch, or go to the games in 1969 or 1970 even imagine those teams? Five HoF players on the same team. It was a crazy good team that unfortunately ran into the pitching of the Baltimore Orioles (who won 109 & 108 games each year) in the first two years of league divisional playoffs.