umterp23

I don't think the Cubs who have money are just going to eat all of Vazquez contract along with just Jax. So let's throw some more stuff at it. Matt Shaw to me would be an awesome get. He was a short stop I college at MD, may alma mater and I got a chance to see him play plenty during his days there. Think of Brooks Lee but better. So with that being said, you want to make a splash, throw in Lee or Julien into the trade, along with a top 20 prospect and see what you can do there. Now do we really believe that ownership group is going to take $13MM and invest in more broken pitchers to come our way and now another catcher to split time? Seriously doubt it. 2 MLB players for 2 prospects and we don't have to eat some of Vazquez contract, Cubs will laugh at Falvey and say thanks but no thanks.

I chuckle when I see Garver and Rortvedt as who should have stayed to man the position. Twins who wouldn't pay Garver $MM's in his early 30's to stay healthy and play the position and was actually right in that trade, who doesn't play the position hardly ever wasn't the guy. Then there is Rortvedt who couldn't get on the field for the Yankees and then put up these awesome numbers last year with Rays WAR 0.9 hitting .228 AVG .303 SLG .621 OPS w/ 3HR's and 31 RBI's while committing 9 errors catching and throwing out 16% baserunners. Jeffers with WAR 2.1 hitting .226 AVG .432 SLG. .732 OPS w/ 21 HR's and 64 RBI's while committing 6 errors and throwing out 17% baserunners. Rort and Jeffers don't light it up on defensive side of things compared to top end of league. I'll take Jeffers/Vazquez any day of the week as you know what you will get. Trading either one is the least of my concerns for building a better team when owners won't be spending to do it anyway. No depth in minors knocking on door. Carmago with a couple drinks of coffee in bigs this year was there as a need not a playing necessity.

Gone will be guaranteed contracts that tie up $100's MM per player unless it gets a Bonilla/Ohtani retirement structure. Yearly opt out clauses could be the new norm and players will fight for earlier arbitration structure that gets them out of baseline MLB minimums and 6 year team control. More and more minor league teams could fall victim as well based on not having enough money. the Players Union and or Owners could be headed to a lockout scenario if the TV revenue explodes that way it could in the next 3-4 months. There is roughly 5,600 professional baseball players across all levels of MLB/MiLB today. I could see short season minor league teams falling off the cliff after the college draft takes place. The draft could go down to 10 rounds vs 20 rounds and opportunities to play at the next level be truly harder and harder. Many high school talent could be college bound except for elite high school guys will be impacted. Let's see how good Manfred is for all of baseball to earn his salary paid for by the owners

Playoff Teams compared to Twins in '24 payroll and allocated $$'s: # Ranked High to Low / Team / Payroll / 26-man active payroll (% of remaining payroll injured, retained or buried) 1. Mets / $317MM / $186MM (41%) 2. Yanks / $309MM / $260MM (16%) 3. Astros / $255MM / $174MM ( 32%) 4. Phils / $247MM / $226M (9%) 5. Dodgers / $242MM / $171MM (30%) 6. Braves / $236MM / $156MM (34%) 15. Padres / $171MM / $143MM (17%) 19. TWINS / $130MM / $102MM (22%) 20. Royals / $122MM / $84MM (32%) 21. Brewers / $115MM / $71MM (39%) 22. O's / $109MM / $65MM (41%) 23. Guards / $106MM / $50MM (53%) 26. Tigers / $98MM / $33MM (67%) Top 6 teams have big payrolls and huge expectations year in year out. You can throw Padres into that conversation at 15th position, but 8 teams missed playoffs that have huge substantial payrolls and expectations clearly not being met. Twins bottom half in payroll and expectations not being met. Guards and Tigers outperformed everyone with low payrolls, more dead money vs 26 active man roster than everyone else, but exceeded expectations. They proved it can be done to get to playoffs, winning in playoffs will be a tall task, but they have just a good a chance as anyone else in the field. Weakest division conversation last year was AL Central, but this year is the strongest in numbers, not financial but seats at the playoff table. Twins very lopsided in high priced players to MLB minimum type of fillers of the roster. Comes down to developing your youth to supplement and be stars vs injured/aging stars carrying the weight. Twins don't have that balance compared to other teams

How does lewis go from $740K this year to $2.5M in '25 under the category of team control? Team control should equal mlb minimum increase to a Julien/Wallner level. Maybe just a type typo. 10 arbitration guys coming up will be painful to the wallet.

Pitch framing as key measurable for a catcher is quite laughable with plate umpires and inconsistencies are so varied. The strike zone box is stagnant, doesn't adjust for player heights for one, so low strikes may be somewhat consistent, but high strikes can be all over the map. Plate umpires from game to game can be tight strike zone, loose zone, pitcher wildness, etc. Focus on caught stealing, errors, passed balls, wild pitches, etc. Then the complaints come from throwing guys out, but that can also tied to slow to home by pitchers, what pitch did they run on, game situation, were they going to throw to 2nd with guy on 3rd, etc. Passed balls/wild pitches/errors are a scoring opinion by a stat guy in the booth. What we thought back in the day for us old guys isn't quite the same today with stats being called today. Human judgement of defense is subjective, hitting a baseball is pretty easy to figure out. Way too many statistical elements being introduced into the game is tiresome. Give us 2 guys behind the plat that can hold their own both offensively and defensively, which I believe we have them and move on to more pressing needs

When you are the so called face of the franchise, you play and insist on playing and you don't come out of a game. Pulled early because a deficit in score that manager threw in the towel and said we can't win and you pull your faces out, sends a message to the rest of the team as well. I hear we have great clubhouse leaders, which means nothing to me when we praise guys for that by the way, you set the tone, you play until you are eliminated. Pretty sure Royals and Tigers aren't resting guys like we do. Best 9 on the field regardless of starting pitcher lefty or righty has to be the mandate this week. Musical chairs batting order is quite laughable as well. Set it and get after it like your season depends on it because it depends on it at moment.

I would think if Correa wants out and a trade is possible, he may be willing to restructure his contract to new said buyer. Do we believe in Lee enough to move off $30+ MM a year in budget help? I ask question in jest as I believe ownership wouldn't use the savings the way we would want them to.

So last year we win the "weakest" division in baseball by a handful games. Now the "weakest" division in baseball is now the "toughest" division as we have 4 teams fighting for now 3 spots in postseason. O's crap the bed and you may see 4 teams get in from "weakest" division in baseball. Did I mention the Weakest division in baseball? Payroll, lack of moves off-season/deadline and t.v. contract have an impact but leadership drives the bus. Rocco doesn't have that quality and guys can only hold each other accountable for so long. We've blown a few tires and have no spares left to stay on playoff road.

$30+MM for 75% of playing time at best last two years. Is he valuable for sure, but did other teams dodge the injury bullet and balk at the contract, maybe they knew something we don't. Could the remedy be the shoes, change of position, let's hope so. If not, going to be a really expensive contract as he ages. I like Lee as he gets more and more comfortable, but I do believe he is a 2nd basemen and SS for short Correa stints

Cleveland in W/L column is better team for sure, but I'm surprised at this stat in this 4 game series. Twins went 9 for 27 (33%) with runners in scoring position. Guards went 8 - 32 (25%) with runners in scoring position. Guards have better depth in bullpen, pretty good starting pitching but really stood out was how clutch they were in sphincter tight moments. On to the next one. 9 games to go and Twins most likely have to go 7-2 to get into playoffs. I for one will root them on till elimination but just don't see how they get enough wins at this point. Go Twins

terrible at bats by $47MM batters. Ugly swings = ugly outs.

2 bad innings over 3 days pitching wise and instead of looking for a 4 game sweep, we are looking to break even today. Kick in the you know whats either wakes up the team moving forward or was final nail initiated in the coffin. Hoping for the wake up call though.

High $$$ guaranteed contracts for x amount and the rise of baseline contracts heavily influences injuries (minor) more than really bad major injuries. The investments made in the top line guys from each team with really large $$'s tied to the team bankroll come into play. Owners need performance for their investment and then protecting that asset tied to money spent. One way is tie $'s to category of player for salary minimum and then back end the money tied to performance bonuses from that year. We have a crap ton of measurable statistics to choose from, so are useless in my opinion, but there can be a way to balance year over year money vs the 2-3 year guy who has been awesome takes a team for 10 year deal and $300MM and then plays less than 50% of the time during the contract. Then reset the following year and earn your bag of money as the kids say these days. Now this will never happen, but the model would have guys fighting to stay on the field to earn money based on performance. If it did, talk about leveling the small market big market conversation by base pay for a player being the base pay no matter what team he is on. You perform you get a bonus, kind of like us non professional athletes live, work and provide. Interesting take but MLBPA won't like, Owners would

Buxton leading off in CF

Some workouts, some live BP vs low minor league arms, what could go wrong? Let us hope nothing but track record means something happens with either one of them or both. Just make the playoffs and see what happens. Go Twins

2 strike approach vs long ball happy approach is vital to being a balanced hitter. 2 Strike approach is lacking from him and he needs to adjust as he is in 2 strike mode more often these days. 1st pitch swinging at pitches in the zone don't help either. Jeffers and others have adopted it, battle to stay alive in at bat and some times good things happen. Not ideal to be in 2 strike hole in many at bats and others from what I can tell choke up a bit on the bat, look to put ball in play but others swing away. Consistency of staying healthy longer than a month at a time keeps you on the field and in form to produce. Some guys aren't built for the DH position, Buxton being one of them. At 24 years old, being relegated to DH to keep bat in lineup isn't ideal. Has raw talent, has overcome injuries to get on the field. Has to find a way to stay on the field

8/21 Update: TWINS Win, 1-0. Guardians Lost 0-1 (Twins -2.5 back) 8/22 Update: TWINS off day, 1-0. Guardians Lost 0-2 (Twins -2 back) 8/23 Update: TWINS Lost, 1-1. Guardians Lost 0-3 (Twins -2 back) (((( Royals Win, -1 game back to Guards) 8/24 Update: TWINS Win, 2-1 Guardians Win 1-3 (Twins -2 back). (((( Royals Lost - -2 back) 8/25 Update: TWINS Lost, 2-2. Guardians Win 2-3 (Twins -3 back). (((( Royals Lost -3 back) 8/26 Update: Twins Lost, 2-3. Guardians Lost 2x (Twins -2.5 Back). ((((Royals Won 2x - 1 back) 8/27 UPdate: Twins Lost 2-4. Guardians Lost 2-5 (Twins -2.5 Back). ((((Royals Won - 1st place even) 8/28 Update: Twins Lost 2-5. Guardians Won 3-5 (Twins -3.5 Back). ((( Royals Lost - 1 back) WildCard Twins +3 to Sox for final spot 8/29 Update: Twins Off - Guardians Off - Royals at Houston - RedSox vs Blue Jays

Royals aren't going anywhere, so it now puts pressure on Twins to hold serve the best they can. Handful of games in the clear of BoSox, so the perceived weakest division in baseball holds 50% of playoff positions. Go Twins!

8/21 Update: TWINS Win, 1-0. Guardians Lost 0-1 (Twins -2.5 back) 8/22 Update: TWINS off day, 1-0. Guardians Lost 0-2 (Twins -2 back) 8/23 Update: TWINS Lost, 1-1. Guardians Lost 0-3 (Twins -2 back) (((( Royals Win, -1 game back to Guards) 8/24 Update: TWINS Win, 2-1 Guardians Win 1-3 (Twins -2 back). (((( Royals Lost - -2 back) 8/25 Update: TWINS Lost, 2-2. Guardians Win 2-3 (Twins -3 back). (((( Royals Lost -3 back) 8/26 Update: Twins Lost, 2-3. Guardians Lost 2x (Twins -2.5 Back). ((((Royals Won 2x - 1 back)

8/21 Update: TWINS Win, 1-0. Guardians Lost 0-1 (Twins -2.5 back) 8/22 Update: TWINS off day, 1-0. Guardians Lost 0-2 (Twins -2 back) 8/23 Update: TWINS Lost, 1-1. Guardians Lost 0-3 (Twins -2 back) (((( Royals Win, -1 game back to Guards) 8/24 Update: TWINS Win, 2-1 Guardians Win 1-3 (Twins -2 back). (((( Royals Lost - -2 back) 8/25 Update: TWINS Lost, 2-2. Guardians Win 2-3 (Twins -3 back). (((( Royals Lost -3 back)

Back after a day off for myself - Date/Result/Record of remaining games (games out of 1st in division): 8/21 Update: TWINS Win, 1-0. Guardians Lost 0-1 (Twins -2.5 back) 8/22 Update: TWINS off day, 1-0. Guardians Lost 0-2 (Twins -2 back) 8/23 Update: TWINS Lost, 1-1. Guardians Lost 0-3 (Twins -2 back) (((( Royals Win, -1 game back to Guards) 8/24 Update: TWINS Win, 2-1 Guardians Win 1-3 (Twins -2 back). (((( Royals Lost - -2 back)

T&R - I think Lee could be outside looking in if and when Correa/Buxton return. What might get interesting is making the playoffs, your 1st round roster will only need 3 starting pitchers but do you keep a 4th to piggy back let's say a SWR who may go 4-5 innings and then you throw a Zebby or Festa piggyback to reduce the quality of bullpen. Let's say we do, we could add a bench guy for defense/pinch run that has some speed late might a Kiersey get a look in September to see if he fits the bill? Thanks for following along on the Road and commenting!

Final 36 Games Road to Playoffs 8/22 Update: TWINS Win, 1-0. Guardians Lost 0-1 (Twins -2.5 back) 8/23 Update: TWINS off day, 1-0. Guardians Lost 0-2 (Twins -2 back) chpettit - didn't look at is close enough for final series, but could work in Twins favor as well. O's starting pitching has a serious injury bug and Yankees could be in front by decent margin, so O's could be fighting Red Sox for a playoff spot. Looking forward to September baseball, especially if Twins close out August on a really good run of W's

Good morning all, not a blog contributor by any means, but I did put one together yesterday in case anyone wants to follow along on Road to Playoffs. Go Twins