stringer bell

We got him! (Mock excitement)

I wouldn’t want to go any higher on the prospect list than Rosario, Keaschall and Schobel and I wouldn’t want to part with pitching. I think Rosario is behind and below Rodriguez and Jenkins and the Twins have enough infield depth to trade a prospect infielder.

He has options remaining. I doubt he makes the club out of ST, but he can maybe find it in St. Paul and if he’s around in September, he could be a real asset as a pinch runner/defensive replacement.

I find it’s more fun to watch action on the back fields than the actual exhibition games. When I was last there (2020), there was an area where you could get autographs as the players started and ended their workouts.

Nitpick--I'd flipflop TonyO and Winfield. Tony only played 40 some innings in left. Winnie played over 400 games there.

Congratulations to Joe Mauer! As to the question of who will have a better season between Gallo and Sanó, they are both flawed hitters, but two of the more powerful guys to have ever played for the Twins. Gallo is a better all-around player, but he has never shown the ability to make adjustments to make enough contact to be more than a mistake hitter. Sanó showed flashes, but his "not hot" zones are too big. Sanó is on a minor league contract after sitting out an entire year. I think he has more to prove and will have the better year.

I don’t think they’d be that inexpensive. Maybe Kala’i Rosario or Schobel.

Gallo's OPS by month after April: May .654, June .674, July .567, August .718, and September .856, The September number is 2 hits in 9 AB, with both hits coming off a position player, his August numbers were greatly augmented by a 5-5 game in which he hit a homer off a position player. I would argue Gallo was a black hole commencing on or about May 1.

Yeah, I was wondering if he would be the youngest HOF member. He might be the youngest for a couple years. I know Miggy is a day older. Incidentally, Joe was born on my birthday.

Torii did well on the non-public vote, easily clearing the 5% threshold to stay on the ballot next year.

Mauer made it by five votes. I'm surprised Helton passed him in the private votes. Congratulations to all three new HOF members.

A one-of-us two-fer! He spent his entire career with the Twins and he was born and raised in Minnesota. His career was just long enough and he played catcher just long enough to be considered favorably. Good for him!

I wrote quite a bit about Hicks on another thread. He isn't the guy the Twins traded to the Yankees eight years ago by any means. He would be only a fill in for center field, as his defense and leg speed have slipped considerably. As a role player, getting platoon at-bats, Hicks could have value and he has always hit left handed pitching better than right handers. I think he was dreadful the last few years for the Yankees because the Bronx fans turned on him. He had something to prove in Baltimore and was a good role players for the Orioles. The risk is minimal. Minimum salary and no obligation for future years. It only makes sense to explore whether he is a fit for the Twins.

The big test for Torii is whether he’ll stay on the ballot. He is exactly at 5% after 200 ballots and he needs to exceed 5% so he’ll need 10 more votes out of the final 188. I’d say his chances are a little better than 50-50.

Really interesting discussion on Mauer. I do hope Mauer makes the Hall on his first ballot and adds to the St. Paul guys already there. I think the final vote will be decided by 5 votes one way or the other. Helton is only three votes behind Mauer and he is only two votes better than last year.

I have speculated that if the Twins acquire a starting pitcher, he won’t clearly be seen as a top 50 or 60 starter. I would think the guy will be either unproven, an injury risk or coming off a disappointing or unproductive season. Further, I think most teams are placing a high price on pitching, particularly guys under team control. Teams that have no real hope of contending should be a little more willing to part with starters under team control because by the time they expect to contend, guys in the majors will have moved on. In addition, bad teams might have pitchers whose stats look worse because they are playing for a bad team. Maybe a bad bullpen allowing lots of inherited runners to score, perhaps bad defense behind him or instances where the manager had no choice but to let a team put up crooked numbers because there was nobody available in the bullpen. There were four 100-loss teams in 2023. Two of them were in the AL Central and thus would be unlikely to deal with the Twins. The other two teams are Oakland and Colorado. In exploring the pitching staffs for those two teams, my first thought was ugh!, there just isn't anything there. However, in looking a little deeper, I found one guy from each staff to consider. From Colorado, Austin Gomber was 29 last year and pitched 139 innings, he is a lefty, something I think the Twins would like to have in their rotation. In looking at Gomber's home-road splits, he compiled a 3.68 ERA on the road, away from Coors Field. I don't know anything about his injury history, but acquiring the road Austin Gomber for prospects might be something to consider. It appears that Coors messes with a lot of pitchers' heads and adjustments made in the high altitude diminish effectiveness when the pitcher is at a normal altitude. From Oakland, I nominate JP Sears. Similar to Gomber, he is a lefty in his late 20s. He worked over 170 innings last year and while his numbers weren't good overall, he seems to have worn down over the course of the year and perhaps the wearing down was exacerbated by being on a terrible team. His first half ERA was 3.97 with a 1.044 WHIP. and over 8 Ks per nine innings pitched. The walks and hits soared in the second half, so I will speculate he did wear out. He's not a big guy--5'11"180 lbs.--and this was his first full year of the major leagues. Also, I have to suspect that his manager was forced to work him longer in games because of the rest of the pitching staff being pretty awful. The coming season might allow Sears to handle additional work better and the Twins probably would be better suited to conserve his innings pitched. I know very little about either pitcher mentioned other than a quick look at BBRef. For all I know, either or both could already be scheduled for major surgery, but I do think looking for an undervalued asset on a bad team is one way to get value.

I-N-T is the Dagger.

Absolutely the right call. Didn’t work, but they still have a chance to tie.

Dagger? Edit: Not quite.

The risk is about non-existent with only the league minimum in salary and no future years in play. The Bronx can eat you up, ask Sonny Gray, and there’s more than a small chance that the real player is the guy who played for the Orioles.

I don't think their defense is good enough to get past both SF and whoever comes through the AFC, but if they improve their talent on defense in the coming years, they have a chance. They found their coach I believe.

I enjoyed Torii and he was a fine player. Hall of Fame, no.

I think it's hard to make a trade when you don't want to take on salary. A Gray for Petty trade resulted in the Twins taking on over $10M in salary plus costing them a first round draft choice. Comparing to the Arraez-López deal Luis had a lot of value because of three years of team control. To get the equivalent of Gray or López, they are going to have to part with more talent and treasure. I maintain that the Twins will acquire a starting pitcher, but the guy they get will either need to "be fixed (like Alek Manoah)" or who is coming off injury or ineffectiveness.

Respectfully, the Yankee situation was a totally different scenario than a prospective return to Minnesota. Hicks had been a Yankee for more than half a decade and struggled mightily. He went to Baltimore with something to prove and perhaps a chip on his shoulder and performed very well. Nobody wants post-pandemic Yankee Hicks, but the guy who showed up and did his job for the Orioles (and played all three OF positions) would fit well with the Twins.