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stringer bell

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Everything posted by stringer bell

  1. stringer bell
    He didn't play like a major leaguer last year, but he has hit at the highest minor league level. Gasper wasn't comically bad as a catcher and the Twins don't have any depth at that position at the present time.
  2. stringer bell
    I think you may be correct on this. It could be that the Twins want to send Gasper, Keirsey Jr. and McCusker back to the minors while they have announced the guys who have become free agents. All of the other teams are making roster revisions and they might be trying to sneak some guys off the roster, but keep them in the organization.
  3. stringer bell
    Of the players named in the OP, I think Matthews should stay in the rotation for at least half of the 2026 season. He showed the ability to go deep into games and still dominate. He was wildly inconsistent, but many younger inexperienced starters are like that. Sands was mostly good in the second half of the season except for a brutal week in September (9/12-17). Funderburk was excellent and even thrived in high leverage situations after the bullpen selloff. I wonder if the Twins will even keep Topa--he seems more of a middle innings guy than a late-innings high leverage reliever. Thielbar had a fine season with the Cubs and I would expect that if the Cubbies want to keep him he will stay there. If not, he might want to come home to Minnesota.
  4. stringer bell
    Total rebuild or retooling? Two years ago, it looked like the Twins would be relevant at least until team control of López, Ryan and Ober was exhausted, along with Correa and Buxton. That has blown up, mostly because no other players have stepped up. Trading three players with extended team control at the deadline plainly indicated that the Twins gave up on 2025 and almost certainly 2026. Correa is gone, Ober is diminished, but the other key players are here. Not nearly enough to contend, but some decent pieces. IMHO, a trade of one starter (López or Ryan) and not much else indicates the Twins are trying to retool without a long term rebuild. If both Ryan and Pablo leave, we're looking at contending sometime after a new collective bargaining agreement is in place. Trading Jeffers also indicates that the club won't be serious about contending for years.
  5. stringer bell
    Something didn't click for players that came to the Twins during Baldelli's tenure. Getting pinch-hit for, no attention to small details or maybe the players just weren't that good. Shelton will get his chance with different players and maybe he will have the right blend of confidence and protection for the majority to thrive and perhaps the players are better. The mix in the clubhouse in 2024 and 2025 didn't work and the remix after the trade deadline had no chance. Hopefully we see the top prospects and they thrive in 2026.
  6. stringer bell
    Agree, and I think the process for awarding Gold Gloves is much better than it used to be. France worked hard on his defense and it paid off. The two others for consideration were Vladdie Jr. and Carlos Santana.
  7. stringer bell
    I have to believe this is a surprise. His defense wasn't supposed to be good at all, but he performed very well for the Twins. Good for him. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/11/gold-glove-winners-announced-3.html
  8. stringer bell
    No to Vázquez. He is an okay or slightly above defensive catcher, but his hitting has been epically bad and that negates whatever he offers on the defensive side. I doubt that Pereda is a capable backup. He looked okay in an extremely small sample with the Twins, but there is no indication he can hit or defend up to major league standards. Today's MLB Trade Rumors listed Jeffers as the ninth most likely player to be traded. It seems he is much more likely to be moved than extended, so the cupboard may be bare of qualified major league catchers. They have a couple prospects that could be "the catcher of the future". I think the Twins should look for a solid defender to back up Jeffers, if he's not traded. It would be nice if they found a guy who can contribute for years to come. Maybe they could get someone in a trade for one of the players who are likely to be moved.
  9. stringer bell
    MLB Trade Rumors is reporting that Super 2 will kick in at 2 years, 140 days. That would exclude Clemens from Super 2 arbitration this winter.
  10. stringer bell
    I just don’t think a coach makes much difference for the great majority of major league players. If a coach works hard doing what they do most can be a small positive in developing and improving players, but 99% falls on the player. Popkins and James Rowson have seen their teams improve and they’ve both seen their teams fail to improve in other seasons. Did they work harder or smarter in “good” seasons? I doubt it. To broaden my point, was Rocco Baldelli smarter in 2019 an 2023? Much of coaches and managers fate is out of their hands.
  11. stringer bell
    The nerd in me eats up these roster and arbitration rules. I wasn’t aware that a player needed half a season of major leagues service time to qualify for Super 2 status in the following off-season. I don’t think arb status is enough to keep him on the 40-man roster, but it does help his cause.
  12. stringer bell
    Historically a lot of guys start their careers with bloated ERAs, despite having good to excellent stuff. I see the same thing in most of the Twins younger pitchers, particularly Matthews. He had a severe two-out problem and his command was questionable, mostly missing his spots with pitches closer to the heart of the plate. It is interesting to me, but not quite a deal killer, that he allowed a lot of soft singles. I would like to see what results with a bigger sample before Matthews entirely changes his approach or repertoire.
  13. stringer bell
    A footnote about the '61 Twins. While there are no position players living from the original Twins, a large number of significant pitchers have survived the 64 years--including four of the five most used starters--Don Lee, Camilo Pascual, Pedro Ramos and Jim Kaat.
  14. stringer bell
    I agree with your swing and stance analysis FWIW. Of course my opinion isn’t worth much. I say the same thing about Royce Lewis—way too many moving parts, hence ongoing timing issues. Making adjustments isn’t easy. Watch any amateur golfer. When one issue is fixed, two others come to the surface. IMHO, for some reason Wallner was getting beat with both velocity and location, so there is a lot to fix, but the bat speed and exit velocity can’t be sacrificed by whatever adjustments he makes.
  15. stringer bell
    As of now, there’s plenty of room on the 2026 Twins staff, especially the bullpen. I don’t think anyone that debuted this year this year should be ruled out, even if they struggled, but OTOH none of the new guys proved they are a major league pitcher. I like the idea of going with all of the best arms and sorting out roles, but there may be some need to tinker with a small number of guys at AAA. With so many question marks, it is very predictable that there will be a lot of turnover in the coming season and that just about every viable arm will get a shot.
  16. stringer bell
    Bill Pleis, a member of the inaugural ‘61 Twins passed away at age 88. Pleis was a left handed reliever who Halsey Hall called “Shorty”. He spent his entire six-year career with the Twins, winning 21 games and losing 16.
  17. stringer bell
    Some of Lee’s assets aren’t easily measured. He has pretty good hand-eye coordination, his internal clock is good, he has a quick release and decent reactions to batted balls. We have beaten the negatives to death early this off-season. I think he can have a bit better approach—swinging at strikes, getting ahead in the count—and I think he needs to be able to grind through a full season better. He has slumped noticeably in September in both ‘24 and ‘25. I think he needs to be in better shape to maximize his athleticism and he needs to be mentally tougher and not let his offense affect his defense and vice versa. It doesn’t look like he has the tools to be a star, but he has enough skills to be a decent regular.
  18. stringer bell
    Wallner's 2025 season was at least a disappointment, if not a disaster. It is hard to fathom a less productive 22 homer season. For now, I think he will stay on the team and be the primary DH, but he probably has less than half a season to find his '23-'24 form before he is cast aside. I don't think a player should be traded when his value is at a low ebb, so I think the Twins should hang on to him this off-season. I will admit to being wrong on Rooker. I didn't ever think he would hit like he has with the A's. I also think that he, like Wallner, needs to be considerably above average as a hitter to be a team asset.
  19. stringer bell
    I don't know if it was mentioned earlier in the thread, but Berríos is done for the season according to BBRef. Those minor league contracts with opt-outs are a tough call for the signing teams. IIRC, Hoffman looked pretty good in Spring Training, but the Twins pitching staff was pretty healthy and there wasn't room for Hoffman and that was pretty much the same Danny Coulombe when Baltimore signed him.
  20. stringer bell
    I don't mind the idea of choosing a guy who hasn't managed in the big leagues. Guys like Suzuki, Hunter and Punto have spent many years in different clubhouses and have a pretty good idea of what works for teams over a long schedule. As noted by @ashbury, I would hope the interview process reveals what the candidate feels about the Twins organization and what steps he will take to improve the organization. I don't want to be an apologist for either Falvey or Rocco, but the decline of the Twins correlates pretty much with reduction in payroll. Big swings (Donaldson, Correa and to some degree Sonny Gray) and big contracts (López, Buxton) are gone and now the transactions are about role players and prospects. I think Falvey has made plenty of poor decisions on who to get and especially who to keep and Rocco failed to develop guys who were projected to be very good or elite. That is plenty of reason to lose your job, but the rules seemed to be changed after the 2023 season and that is on ownership.
  21. stringer bell
    Lewis is an easy decision to tender a contract for 2026. As noted in the above posts, there is some reason for optimism, but his performance in both the second half of 2024 and for the full season of 2025 hasn't been very good. Having a full healthy off-season could put Royce in position to being the elite player we saw in flashes in 2023 and 2024.
  22. stringer bell
    If Royce is the dreaded "clubhouse cancer", yes his demeanor, or more generally off-field behavior, is a reason to show him the door. I don't think that is remotely close to the actual situation. Lewis has said some things that might be true, but come off as both me-first and immature. That is unfortunate, but from what I can tell, those around the team don't view him as a bad guy at all. No team wants to go to arbitration and the Twins in the Falvey era have done a pretty good job of avoiding those hearings. It is counterproductive to diss a player publicly and then have him on a team.
  23. stringer bell
    Sometime in September, Glen Perkins provided some month-by-month sprint speed numbers for Lewis, in which he was above average in August and September. I can't find such a breakdown, but I believe Perkins' comment to be factual. The eye test and his twelve stolen bases in the second half of the season tell me his sprint speed is not declining as he has recovered from all of the leg injuries. According to Baseball Savant, Lewis went from the 28th percentile to the 34th percentile from 2024 to 2025, so his speed actually increased over the full 2025 season. I don't think Lewis will ever again have elite speed, but if his legs stay healthy, he can and will be an above-average runner who can steal a base.
  24. stringer bell
    Honestly, I won't like it, but he will probably get major league service time next year and if he stays in the organization, he might get some run as the 26th man.
  25. stringer bell
    Competition for Fitzgerald for a utility spot (at this point). He's younger, faster and he can play in the outfield. It looks like he can't hit as much as Mickey Gasper.
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