ashbury

Solid choice.

Betts is a great addition to any team, but since OF isn't an area of dire need for the Twins, I don't see moving heaven and earth to get him. If any acquiring team doesn't have a good shot at convincing Betts to sign a long term deal foregoing free agency, I can't see the asking price being quite that high. Moreover, taking on David Price at the same time is doing the Red Sox a great favor, in the full scheme of things, so that should bring down the price further. I want to remove both Sano and Balazovic from this package, and substitute lesser prospects. I expect the Red Sox could find a better trade partner, though. If the Twins really had no better use for their considerable payroll headroom in 2020, instead of Price they could offer to take on shorter-term dead money from the Red Sox, such as Pedroia's remaining contract (I'm unsure what Rusney Castillo's remaining obligations are). But I think there are better uses, so I don't really see how to make an attractive offer. Coming from the other direction, if I were doing an Offseason Blueprint for the Red Sox, Betts would be a guy I'd focus on as a cornerstone, unless he has made it clear he wants out of Boston when he's a free agent and would consider almost any other team. Yes, they want to get under the luxury tax threshold, and Betts will be above $30M when it's his turn after this year - but he's the kind of guy you consider it a privilege to pay the money to, and you work your budget around him when you're at the top echelon as the Red Sox are. I really don't get it, when I read the rumors, even though I think those rumors are well placed. All in all, Red Sox needs and Twins needs don't seem like a great fit to me. But I freely confess I don't really get the Red Sox's motivations.

By itself, Sano in place of Cron at 1B is a degradation and not an improvement in defense. The strengths Sano brings as a 3Bman are mainly negated over at first. Cron isn't fleet of foot but was pretty nimble. I don't envision Sano being good at scoops, based on how he reacts to rockets hit toward him at third; someone will need to handle those scattershot throws now to be coming from third instead of short. Two steps forward with the other moves proposed, one step back - which means not a very marked improvement, I'd be afraid.

I said nothing at all about Eddie that was negative. He was above league average at the important job of driving in baserunners.

You are kind. You might easily have said that the numbers were clearer than the verbiage.

Eddie led the team in RBI. By one. RBI is an opportunity stat. Here are the Twins' 14 busiest batters in 2019, sorted by number of plate appearances with runners in scoring position (RISP), with runners driven in (RBI-HR) in those instances along with BA and SLG (in other words, ignoring walks since they rarely lead to the RBI we want): 173 - Rosario - 71 / .340 / .538 146 - Polanco - 48 / .333 / .561 135 - Cruz - 54 / .368 / .575 121 - Cron - 48 / .299 / .598 116 - Kepler - 44 / .309 / .474 113 - Schoop - 25 / .176 / .422 110 - Sano - 32 / .245 / .649 109 - Gonzalez - 35 / .298 / .447 76 - Buxton - 32 / .282 / .634 71 - Garver - 27 / .344 / .770 63 - Arraez - 21 / .327 / .382 57 - Adrianza - 16 / .295 / .477 53 - Cave - 16 / .244 / .400 50 - Astudillo - 16 / .267 / .311 (Just to be clear - credit is given for runners driven in on a HR, just not the batter himself.) Eddie had fine efficiency in driving in runs when runners were on second and/or third, but so did Nelson and Byron (Buxton actually drove in a greater percentage than Rosario) at around the same 40% rate, while Max and Mitch weren't too far behind. Mostly what we are seeing and remembering is opportunity. Additional note: AL and MLB average was just under 30%, and as a team the Twins were above 33%, so overall our hitters did pretty well at driving in runners in scoring position, and only a few individuals (*cough*Schoop*cough*) lagged the league.

FWIW, MLB average SB / CS per team: 1979: 115 / 61 1989: 120 / 55 1999: 114 / 51 2009: 99/38 2019: 76 / 28 You're not imagining it.

One of those games that came down to whoever made the last mistake, and I'm glad it was them!

I'm almost more concerned about the negotiation psychology, of getting sucked into committing to one extra year at too high a price, with the rationalization that "eh, he'll probably have opted out by that time anyway."

Following only by the scoreboard, but I'm not thinking either side should be doing too much trash talking about the other's defense, quite yet.

To which the obvious rejoinder is, "then you are putting yourself at a negotiating disadvantage relative to other teams when targeting the very top-end talent, and you will have to compensate with more guaranteed money, or other inducements." I don't much like the opt-outs either, despite repeated arguments they don't really hurt, but they're a necessary tool.

More like the Dollar Store, one that happens to have a Maserati dealership in one of the departments, and a couple of guys selling $10M yachts in the back.

Jacob Wilson should have it so lucky. I have woken up in a sweat every night since the World Series ended, convinced that Tommy Herr has just been signed to replace Jonathan Schoop as our starting second baseman. My wife has talked me down each time ("Ash, the man is 63 years old, he doesn't even want a contract. It was just a dream." "Thanks, Mrs Ash.") but she's leaving on a business trip on Sunday, and I don't know what I'll do after tomorrow night if this follows the logical course and I start dreaming of Wally Backman as the next replacement.

"I'll take Comparisons I Did Not Expect To Hear Heading Into 2019, for $500, Alex."

He definitely had a very rocky stretch, 7 games, from mid-June to late-July, but then turned things around in his last game of July and was more than solid for those 10 games (aside from his eternally high pitch-counts) the rest of the way. I seem to recall something about a blister or bad fingernail. If so, other teams probably won't shy away too badly.

I'm 100% sure of that. I still don't think he shares the info widely. Probably only in heavily redacted form even to his clients. Only what he chooses to, to us fans. We get snippets, as you suggested, but it's not in the teams' collective interest to paint a clear picture. Neither if they were the high bidder and got snubbed, nor if they were second highest and "missed it by that much." None of these scenarios or a similar one is positive PR. it's only fitting, since none of the sides doing the negotiations offers transparency to any of the others. "This offer isn't going to get it done - I am expecting a higher offer than that this afternoon - but I can present your offer to my client and see what he says. I suggest you add that extra year, though." "We have a couple of other players in mind, if your client is really firm about that additional year." Etc etc yadda yadda. So I retain serious doubts we fans have enough information to know these things. The teams themselves may not know whether they were second or third or whatever, though they at least can compare the particulars of their own offer to what got accepted. I was responding mostly to the utter certainty - probably that word "Period" is what pushed past my inertia and prompted me to reply.

Go on.......?

Well, that's the narrative. I don't think Boras supplies independently verifiable data that lets us conclude this.

So, they switch to Budweiser's recipe. Problem solved.

Got a ways to go in development of teh awesum beard, though. http://www.milb.com/images/663905/t4124/180x270/663905.jpg

I'm no expert in cartography or the charting of waters, but I suspect that $140M looks eerily similar to $130M, in terms of decision-making. Get to $200M and I'll go along with "Here Be Dragons".

Concur. I just did a cursory YouTube search for footage of him in interviews, back with Tampa and then as recently as this past September. He seems about the same, then and now. He always looked faintly miserable, like under the weather, out on the mound, but I think it's just his game face. No reason for me to think he's been counting the days to get out of town.

That definition omits an important aspect, in the context meant when the term was invoked: being paid for doing this.

"You! What PLANET is this?"