ThejacKmp

Rooker has been fine but he also hasn't set the world on fire. He doesn't seem like a 2018 guy, more of a mid-season 2019 guy. He's also profiling as a corner OF option and occasional 1B/DH. I think it'd be presumptuous to think he's the heir apparent at 1B. Sano also looks fine at 3B. Not a gold glove but eminently capable. Still think there's nothing but room for Mauer as the strong side of a 1B platoon through 2020.

He's only 24 but that is an issue. I think he'll be fine til 28 or so though. And again, he can always DH. we don't have one of those.

So much more valuable at 3B. And you can always DH/1B him 40 games a year for defensive purposes. He's certainly a 120 game 3B for the next 3-5 years.

I don't think you never deal in your division but I think there are players that you hold off on. For example, the Twins would be unlikely to deal Sano but even then, they'd be way less likely to deal him in division. The same probably does not hold true for Eduardo Escobar. I think Verlander is a guy the Tigers wouldn't want to deal to a rival. Maybe I'm wrong.

I thought about that but (a) Rooker has mostly played OF for the Twins thus far. Maybe that changes, others likely know better than I but the Twins seem to be looking at him as a corner OF. (b.) Rooker is right handed. He might be a nice half of the platoon early in his career while getting some time as a 5th OF and part-time DH. Not sure that Rooker means you can't have Mauer unless he really takes off (.750 OPS isn't that) and needs to play every day. And even then there's DH/OF.

Gonsalves has one start at AAA, we should give him time. The Twins have a lot of options at 4th and 5th starter - I'd like to see them throw things at the wall and see what sticks. Between Santiago, Colon/Mejia, Sledgers, Gibson, Enns and Hurlburt, there's got to be someone who can step it up down the stretch.

Detroit isn't going to trade Verlander in division unless they get a sweetheart deal. I don't want to give a sweetheart deal. I don't see a bullpen trade that I want to do. I want to get Molly to start trusting Buesnitz, Trevor H., Gee etc. in more high leverage situations. I don't want to give up prospects. Maybe if it's a very minor prospect?

1.) The Twins have a real organizational dearth of MLB ready DH/1B types. Vargas, Palka and Byung Ho all don't seem to be in the long-term plans of the Twins at this point. Vargas seems the most likely but if this front office had any faith in Vargas, he'd have been on the team more consistently this year. Sano seems entrenched at 3B and Kepler isn't coming in from the OF. Robbie Grossman is a DH/OF but not a guy you hand the DH every day. After that, the only top 30 prospect at the position is Lewin Diaz and he's in low A ball. He's having a nice enough season but he's 3 years away if everything goes well. There's a lot of room at 1B/DH is my point - even if Vargas takes off he would likely DH. There's no internal option at 1B better than Joe. 2.) That means the Twins 1B in 2019 is likely to either be Mauer or come from outside the organization. I don't see the Twins spending big money in free agency (esp if they start locking down their young core) so the question becomes "Can you find someone better than Mauer when shopping at relative bargain prices?" I find that hard to believe, especially when you consider that Mauer still puts butts in seats in a way the James Loney types never could. Assuming Mauer is willing to take $5-$6 million a year for 2 years (I can't see him having much leverage, the only other place that makes sense for him is Tampa since he lives in FL?) he makes a lot of sense. 3.) The question then becomes, is Mauer good enough to be on the team? As others have pointed out, he’s not a prototypical first baseman, Not a lot of power. That said, he does bring things to the table. He’s become an elite defensive first baseman, particularly useful since the Twins have some subpar defensive options on the left side of the IF. His OBP is 40 points higher than average in total and eighty points higher against RHP. That’s a stat the Twins are short on. 1B isn’t where you usually get it but baseball isn’t a paint by numbers game. Mauer is definitely still a major leaguer. 4.) Mauer for the Twins in 2019 becomes more doable if you start thinking about a strict platoon. The Twins can either use Sano at 1B against lefties and put a better defender at 3B (they will likely have a surplus of SS at that point in time) or find the weak side of a platoon in free agency relatively cheaply (a Danny Valencia type who mashes left handed pitching isn’t going to cost more than $4 million). Either way, that gives you really nice 1B production for a fraction of the cost of a free agent stud. 5.) To me, the interesting part of the Mauer thing is going to be whether he wants to keep playing. He doesn't strike me as a guy who wants to chase records so that won't motivate him. He will have two daughters who are 4 years old so that will potentially pull him towards retirement. At the same time, he sat through a lot of bad Twins baseball and has to want to taste the upswing. He's never been a rah-rah leader so he'll be fine letting younger guys take the leading roles (has Joe Mauer ever wanted to do a postgame interview?). He seems to love the game and his body language playing is never down. To answer the original question, assuming that Mauer wants to keep playing at the end of 2018, I put the odds of him being back with the Twins at 90%. He makes too much sense as part of a platoon for a 1B position that the Twins don't have a lot of other options for. He's not getting in the way of anyone's development, there's a ton of room at 1B/DH even if someone unforeseen comes into the organization, he's a big part of Twins history and his brother may be managing by 2019. There's no reason to think Mauer won't be a part of the team in 2019.

One of the things I love about the Twins this year is how many switch hitters and lefties they have to run out there. When we face a righty, we have the positional advantage for 6 out of 9 matchups. The Tiggers on the other hand, will be facing right handed Kyle Gibson and trotting out seven righties, one lefty and a switch-hitter - including five righties to start off the lineup. Unfortunately, Kyle Gibson is pretty equally awful against righties and lefties but still, it's the principle that matters. Go Twins!

Source? Otherwise that's just you saying you read something some time. I can see how flamethrowers would be helped more but I don't see how command guys would be hurt by extra rest. They still have to hit their (lower) velocity and they have the same recovery path between starts. An extra day should help anyone.

No one has thrown more than they should but even in the 90s teams worked to have a bullpen game every once in awhile and give a guy a break. I can do ten sets of ten pushups but will do better on the later ones if I get a bit of a break between sets six and seven (well no I can't do ten sets of ten, but if I could this would be true). Getting an extra day off in the heat and drag of August is probably not a bad idea. An extra start might mean an extra start for the worst starter (might not too depending on how things end - with 50 games each of the five spots should get 10 starts so who cares what order the five are in) but the point is that the starts in between might be better if guys get an extra days rest 2/3 of the way through the year.

I mean, I'm glad he's doing better too but there's really nothing loud about hitting .226 if you're not a pitcher.

So what you're saying is that baseball is a game and we don't know what happens beforehand. Hrm, I think I agree. I know I'd like to see Gonsalves make at least three or four AAA starts before they throw him into a pennant race. If they're hanging around Sept 1 and have a real need in the rotation and he's been killing it in AAA, I can see bringing him up. But let's not rush his development - this has been a phenomenal year for him and he's setting himself up nicely for 2018. Let's trust the FO to know when it's okay to disrupt his progression. Not interested in Romero coming up. He's on an innings limit in AA - no reason to rush him to the majors. His name gets thrown around way too much on TD right now. Not an option for the MLB club. Not likely to even hit AAA this year. It's time to see what Gee and Enns can do.

Jaime Garcia over his last 8 starts: 6.65 ERA. He's not been very good for the past two months. He wasn't going to be a difference maker. They flipped him and made a tidy profit and are now turning to young arms that are much more interesting. Well played Twins.

Are you asking if the Twins are going to trade Dozier/Santana? I would think that would be highly unlikely - those aren't the kind of guys who get through waivers and once a team claims them the Twins have little to no leverage. No one else is going to be traded. This team will be the team until the end - if anything, you may see them add a reliever if the price is right? They traded Kintzler, it wasn't a slap in the face. He was a reliever pitching over his head. He's not even closing for the Nationals. The Twins will not make or not make the playoffs based on Kintzler. Garcia was barely on the team and the Twins are not turning to a guy who may be a part of the future (Enns) over a guy who would not be.

Also, Kintzler was fine but he isn't some dominant reliever you can't replace. The Twins have some fun internal options who may be just as good. Still a good trade.

I'm glad that the front office isn't pushing Gonsalves and Romero too fast. Gonsalves has 28 starts above A ball. Romero only has 22. Neither has tasted AAA yet. They're part of the 2018 Twins, not the 2017 Twins. If we get a cameo in September that's great but guys like Gee and Enns are better for this year. The big picture has to still matter - the goal isn't one improbable wild card berth, it's competing for a decade.

It's late in the season, getting everyone an extra day of rest is not a bad idea. I hope they do it more often.

I understand your example here but man, that's not great evidence. One of the great "what ifs" is what might have happened if the Twins had sold high on Perkins. He would've been an elite bullpen arm at the deadline and could have really jumpstarted the Twins rebuilding. Instead they got nothing. To me, that's an example of why you trade Kintzler - the guy is unlikely to be the difference between winning and losing and you can get something for him. His is less in his value vs. his impending free agency but the principle is the same. I like Tyler Watson more than most (20 year olds striking out more than a batter per inning in A ball will always pique my interest) but I get he's a lottery ticket. To me it's also about how you value Kintzler. He's not 2015 Perkins or 2005 Nathan, he's a guy with a nice season and a half but who you wouldn't be surprised to see regress some given his stuff. For that reason, I think it's a fine trade that allowed the Twins to get some interesting young guys without torpedoing this season.

Also possible that Watson becomes a three time Cy Young winner. My original point would be that Kintzler wasn't going to be the piece that put the Twins over the top. The Twins didn't give up when they traded Kintzler, they just said, "If we do this, it will be on young arms." That's a pretty decent idea in my book. Watson is another prospect lottery ticket.

Not necessarily. The Twins could be bringing Vargas up for three days and then bringing up someone else (Jorge, Sledgers, Melville) on Saturday while sending Vargas back down. They'd lose the ability to bring Vargas back up for 10 days (unless someone goes on the DL) but that wouldn't seem like something that would hinder them.

Their improvement in the pen should come from within. They traded Kintzler for value and now they have room to try younger guys during a pennant race. Pretty great.

Only a blunder if you consider Brandon Kintzler irreplaceable. I do not. Hell, Belisle has replaced him. Jaime Garcia basically doesn't count as he was barely on the team. This is why you don't trade Santana and Dozier. You get to go for it and prepare for the future.

Awful's original meaning was something that filled you with awe. But now it means terrible. Words have context in the locale they take place in. If I were reading an 1870s newspaper about a game, I'd assume stud muffin might mean something else. In 2017 on a blog, it has a sexual meaning that's kind of weird.

Is Clark Beeker a real prospect in anyway? Pretty old for low A Ball and obviously drafted in the 33rd but his numbers look good (again, he's super old for Rookie ball so hard to take beating up on high school kids too seriously). I want him to be for the name.