ashbury

That just means I disagree with different people for different reasons. 😄 At least, if they consider any single factor the only one that matters. Analogy time: Kirby Puckett was brought up in May 1984 and batted .296 the rest of the season. That was great, but aside from that it was an empty .296 because he hit literally 0 homers, and he scored runs at a rate of 80 per year for his first two seasons (which is pretty pedestrian, nothing that leads a team into contention). It was only in 1986 that he hit 31 homers, scored 119, and became the KIR-BEEE PUCKETT!!! we all remember and love. The economics of the game were different then than now. The Twins were able to sign Puckett to extensions keeping him a Twin for life. What are the odds we'll be able to do that with Jenkins? He's projected to have good major league power, but it hasn't come in yet, and at age 21 no one is fretting about that. If it turns out that we get 6 seasons and then he moves on, do we want those seasons to include two of the type that Kirby launched his career with? If it's just a matter of waiting for his man-muscles to finish developing, what's the smart move? Lockout, 6-year window, RoY considerations, current need versus future, where he's at in his development cycle after 1100 PA - all these factors play a role in deciding what to do. I am reasonably analytic but consider myself nowhere near qualified to second-guess what this (or any) FO must routinely decide about such matters. And I can't help pushing back a bit when people indicate that they think they are.

Angel Genao has 2000 plate appearances in the minors. Walker Jenkins has 1104. There is a lot that goes into these decisions.

Yeah, I hit submit and then had second thoughts about maybe the question was whether to acquire talent at the deadline. The first of the two posts, rehashing past trading decisions, probably threw me. Buxton and Ryan both being question marks are not good news. Still, a game or so out of the wildcard, I'm not too worked up over the prospect capital expended. Prospect capital dies on the vine every year, and is replaced by new draft picks and so on. Of course it's important that the talent evaluators not completely whiff, when another team starts to show interest in one of our young'uns.

A lot to unpack here. If the team "knows", and they don't share the information to trading partners, do they want a reputation for trading damaged goods? If the trading team does know, won't the players offered in trade be much reduced in value? If we're talking about unknowns, and the Twins want to trade because they think the "odds" of a Ryan injury are high, won't the other team have their estimation methods too, and again reduce their offer? What's the guarantee that the players received in trade don't get injured too? Maybe we get the next Tyler Mahle. There's a great deal beneath the surface of "we shoulda traded him before now."

I had to go double check MLB's glossary to confirm that it really is At Bats, and not Plate Appearances. And then I double checked my calendar to see if it's still 1947. "We're starting you here in game 162, but we want you to keep your bat on your shoulder in hopes that they walk you every time so you preserve your eligibility for Rookie of the Year next season." 😄

Kremer's HR rate and OPS-against this season amount to him making opposing batters the equivalent of Hunter Goodman. Maybe the HR rate will revert, but he's always been a bit high relative to the league. And I don't see an "unlucky" BABIP waiting to come back down in his favor. His final two starts for the Orioles raised a big lump on his ERA, but his FIP just before those two games was already above 6 and those two games actually were a little unlucky as the season FIP hardly budged - when ERA and FIP disagree by this much I tend to split the difference (I realize some prefer FIP for predictive value) - I am thinking an ERA around 5 for the remainder of the season. Maybe that quad injury flared up again, and Kremer won't be fully right until an off-season of rest. Or, I can hope, the 8 days between starts means that tonight's game will be the Dean Kremer of past seasons: serviceable workhorse.

A few? I believe you listed all 11 players that b-r.com shows as being under age 22. Six of these have contributed as much as 1.0 WAR this season. There are 30 teams. A few have brought up players as young as Jenkins and had good results. But it's not the case that "every" team is doing it, or anywhere close.

We just traded for Jeff Hoffman. Please do not mention Jorge Lopez in any context.

I was hoping Roden was a trading chip to balance out the respective FO's views of the trade, and would be used during the off-season in a package for something more useful than another lefty-hitting corner OF. I doubt they'll ever be candid enough to explain what they were really intending.

I'm convinced. Bring him up. Alan Roden, who I never cared about, missed his brief window of opportunity.

No.

Terse posts. Rest of day. Make you feel better.

Why? He strikes out hardly at all, by present-day standards. He walks plenty. That's a lot to build on.

Someone says home runs are overrated and somehow I'm now on Team I Hate Walker Jenkins? Bring him up. Or don't. I'm not salty either way.

I'll say again, my reason for responding was to challenge the notion of "relying too heavily on OPS and HRs". If the coaches want to bring him up, fine. Any roster with 3 catchers for fear of losing one via DFA, and that carries Tristan Gray, can be improved on.

I find myself saying this now and then, but it seems faintly possible that different individuals were the ones posting these contradictory things, perhaps also at different times.

or ...

This is going big.

SABATO!!!!

So far, these deadline deals for bullpen help haven't changed anything one bit.

Narrator: "It was him."

Jenkins could solve the problem all by himself by kicking the door open.

I'm sorry the tone was preachy. Your take "relying too heavily on OPS and HRs" seemed misguided so I broke it down to basics. Sabato isn't on my radar. We want run-scoring. Without HR power, Jenkins's game is incomplete. Badly. How long do we wait? A while. If the power never develops, he's not the high first-round prospect we thought we were getting. Will he develop power sooner by facing major-league arms? I'm skeptical but could be persuaded by a AAA coach I suppose. We could bring him up right now, but if we do we basically have a taller Alan Roden with a better arm. I'm not happy to say that, and Jenkins has time on his side while Roden does not. But I don't see the Twins being a better team for 2026 by promoting Walker Jenkins. Having him outperform his AAA numbers seems wishful thinking.

Do you like players who score runs? In large quantity? I took a look at this season's major league stats, and when I sort by runs scored I have to scroll down to the #20 guy (Otto Lopez) to find anyone with fewer than 10 home runs, here at the 2/3 mark in the season. Unless you believe Jenkins will demonstrate better power hitting at the major league level, you stand to be disappointed at his run-scoring production if brought up yet. A player can score runs, or drive them in. You probably don't even want to know the result of the same approach if you sort on RBIs. But I'll tell you anyway - you have to scroll down to #71, the self-same Otto Lopez, to find anyone with fewer than 10 HR. The beauty part of a HR is that it does both at once. I could offer a similar analysis using OPS, based on Walker's current .818 OPS at AAA, but some guesswork would be needed as to what it translates to against major league pitching. But the end result is the same. For run scoring, we by no means rely too heavily on OPS and HRs.