Jump to content
Twins Daily
  • Create Account

stringer bell

Verified Member
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    21,409

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    95

 Content Type 

Profiles

News

Minnesota Twins Videos

2026 Minnesota Twins Top Prospects Ranking

2022 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks

Minnesota Twins Free Agent & Trade Rumors, Notes, & Tidbits

Guides & Resources

2023 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks

The Minnesota Twins Players Project

2024 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks

2025 Minnesota Twins Draft Pick Tracker

2026 Minnesota Twins Draft Pick Tracker

Forums

Blogs

Events

Store

Downloads

Gallery

Everything posted by stringer bell

  1. stringer bell
    Where is the reduced payroll in that? Honestly, I expect less than the anticipated 1.95M to attend home games and if they want to balance the books this year, paring more money will be happening. Maybe the answer is Royce Lewis becoming what he teased us with in October of ‘23 or maybe Emma or Walker Jenkins. Until and unless the team is sold, it seems this is reality. The Twins are trying really hard to make me a Vikings fan.
  2. stringer bell
    Let’s see, if we accept the $130M limit on payroll, what can the Twins do to improve the team and also contend in 2025? It seems to me that any move has a lot of risk and much less than an even chance of paying off. There is one “bad” contract (Vázquez), one “fair” contract where the pitcher could be superfluous (Paddack) and a couple of players with injury histories who might be tradable at a discount. There’s about $12M to cut. Last year, the Twins traded Polanco for two injury risk pitchers who got them about three innings and the $$ to acquire Carlos Santana. They also got Margot in a minor league infielder exchange and got him for reduced salary. Margot didn’t even play up to the discounted salary. I would count both of those trades as acquiring distressed assets. On balance they didn’t work. What other trade can they make?
  3. stringer bell
    Like signing Correa or Josh Donaldson? Or trading for Pablo López? I hate that there is (apparently) a firm cap on payroll, but what the FO can do is driven by not adding, but reducing payroll. Getting fair value for any player who can be traded is a tough lift. The Twins are waiting, but their potential trade partners are waiting too, knowing that the Twins have to make cost-saving moves.
  4. stringer bell
    Fangraphs says Gasper has three options remaining. With his versatility and being a switch hitter, I’d be surprised if he doesn’t get a chance with the major league team at some point in 2025.
  5. stringer bell
    Two questions—1) Does he have options?and 2) can he be adequate behind the plate in the major leagues? If the answer to both is yes, then I am okay with acquiring this guy I’ve never heard of. Good luck to Morán.
  6. stringer bell
    They sacrificed defense at second base and added defense at first base. Santana will make almost exactly what Naylor would have cost. Maybe they are brilliant or maybe are making dumb decisions. I guess we shall see.
  7. stringer bell
    The Twins don't have enough proven offense by a long shot at this point. They are going to count on some unproven guys like Miranda, and Julien to produce as they have in shorter stretches and how Lee is projected. It seems to me the Twins will either have to clear salary by selling off a high salary (Correa, Buxton or López) or selling off all three of the larger contracts that have been suggested. Just getting out from any one of Castro, Vázquez or Paddack just gets the payroll down the top number, not clearing enough money for even a so-so free agent. Goodness, I hat this self-imposed salary containment.
  8. stringer bell
    The disparity of the 40-man roster (22 pitchers-16 position players) tells me that it should be easier to move a pitcher and López doesn't have a no-trade clause that I'm aware of. I think Pablo López is just the kind of pitcher to build a staff around and I would hate to lose him, but any move short of trading Correa isn't enough to net one decent player in free agency. The Twins are really lacking in depth for position players. They need more quality and quantity among position players than they have right now.
  9. stringer bell
    Looking at today's Twins' roster, Julien and Miranda are the top two options at first base. Risking a season on the production of Julien and Miranda seems pretty foolhardy. Julien has primarily played second base and Miranda has primarily been a third baseman so either can move around to get their bat in the lineup. Both have had runs where they definitely looked like they belonged in the middle of a lineup, but haven't sustained enough to be trusted. Maybe Miranda can sustain his performance and be a good hitter and maybe Julien can get back to where he was in 2023, but it sure looks like there should be somebody who can DH and play an acceptable first base. The Twins carried Julien on the active roster when he probably would have benefited from going back to St. Paul. They didn't really have anyone else available due to injuries I guess. I think he should go back to St. Paul unless he looks outstanding in the spring. Of the remaining free agents, I guess I'd go with Josh Bell. He's pretty bad with the mitt, but his hitting is about what Santana produced and he's a switch hitter.
  10. stringer bell
    The Twins cut their strikeouts back (on offense) by over 300. They went from an all-time record to ninth best in all of MLB and yet scored 36 fewer runs.
  11. stringer bell
    Both last year and in his career, Miranda has hit better against right handed pitching, so platooning makes no real sense. Either he’s good enough to play every day, or he shouldn’t be on the roster IMHO. He has an injury history of nagging back pain that seems to really diminish his effectiveness, which makes it hard to count on him.
  12. stringer bell
    Smooth is off the board. Going back to Cleveland. This time he’s a Guardian.
  13. stringer bell
    Gee, isn’t a 15 year regular what Carlos Santana has been?
  14. stringer bell
    To paraphrase Yogi—90% of baseball is half mental. Confidence seems to trump mechanics for hitting and pitching. All three guys have looked like stars, lost confidence and flailed in the past two years. If the Twins coaches can be gurus who unlock peak performance of several players, they will have earned their salaries.
  15. stringer bell
    Ildemaro Vargas, who got in to 10 games with the Twins in the COVID year, signed a minor league contract with Arizona. I believe it is the third time he has been acquired by the Snakes. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2024/12/diamondbacks-ildemaro-vargas-agree-to-minor-league-deal.html
  16. stringer bell
    A lot to comment on from tha @TopGunn#22 post above. 1) Rocco not taking advantage of the 2023 rules changes has about 90% to do with roster construction, 5% to do with game situations and 5% to do with Rocco's judgment IMHO. Besides Castro and Buxton, who on the 2023 team would be a SB candidate, remembering that in 2023 Buck couldn't even play in the field. Secondly, the offense started so poorly, they rarely had runners on to put in motion. 2) Great and gifted players like Ohtani often put up a year where they steal a ton of bases, with Ohtani's 2024 season being the most extreme. I remember Jose Canseco putting up a 40-40 season and then hardly stealing at all after that. It takes a lot out of their bodies to steal that many bases and long term it doesn't pay off that much. 3) Lewis' body has changed as many players' do. Reaching a balance point between strength and looseness should be a goal and getting his lower body fully healthy is part one of this. I hope with better health both he and Brooks Lee post better sprint speeds and can be somewhat of a threat to steal bases in the future. 4) I like players that can win games with their gloves, their legs and their bats. The Twins' top two prospects so far look like they could be that kind of player. Let's hope the all-around development keeps happening for Walker Jenkins and Emmanuel Rodriguez.
  17. stringer bell
    On a somewhat more positive note, the trio of Keirsey Jr., Martin and Helman seem to have plus speed and have accumulated lots of stolen bases in the minors. Right now, at least two of those guys figure to be on the Opening Day roster with the other one the likely "next man up" early in the 2025 season.
  18. stringer bell
    Happy Birthday to the Rogers twins. 34 years old yesterday.
  19. stringer bell
    Hard to imagine that Bader will fit in the Twins' budget. He's quite an injury risk as well. BTW, Happy Birthday Buck! He's 31 today.
  20. stringer bell
    Lewis and Lee played after missing large chunks of the year with injuries. I also wonder if both of them might show more speed with a normal ramp up to their playing time. Castro was nicked for much of the second half of the season. I would hope he would be a more effective base runner in 2025 if he remains with the Twins.
  21. stringer bell
    I think the younger guys were pretty bad at holding runners in particular. When the Twins were going with three rookies at the end of the season in their rotation is when things deteriorated in a lot of respects.
  22. stringer bell
    Passed balls and wild pitches don’t figured into fielding percentage—it is putouts assists and errors. It’s probably fair to compare Jeffers and Vázquez, but wild pitch and passed ball scoring varies depending on official scorers, so catchers on other teams might be charged with fewer (or more) passed balls depending on the tendencies of their home official scorer.
  23. stringer bell
    There is much to agree with on both sides of the argument. Yes, it is true that base running isn't really the game changer that some seem to proclaim once a player gets picked off or thrown out trying to advance. However, stealing a run here and there with good base running will probably change more games than one or two games a season. It is pretty apparent to me that the hidden problem with the Twins base running (failure to take extra bases) is a bigger problem than stolen base volume on the offensive side. When the Twins are in the field, limiting stolen bases can and should be a priority. It seemed that the team did much better limiting stolen bases in '23 than '24 despite having the same catchers in both seasons. I think part of that is the Twins allowed more base runners and there were more runners on base in what I would call running situations in 2024. Another factor is the preponderance of right handed pitching--it remains accurate that running on right handed pitchers is easier than lefties. The Twins really lack speed as a team and I would hope that adding speed in future acquisitions would be a priority. I do buy that some players without great speed can still be athletic and be assets on the base paths, but it would be nice to have more than two or three guys with above-average speed.
  24. stringer bell
    There’s blatant and there’s gray area. Joey Gallo in 2023 is an example of gray area, and there are multiple examples across MLB where a guy with no options finds the IL during a roster crunch. Over the course of a season, players have nicks which they deal with, but there is something there. If the Twins like Castellano well enough to keep him and he has a minor injury, I don’t think he’d be prone to grieve since he would be accruing MLB service time and $$$$ instead of being returned and sent to the minors. Yes, if he totally healthy, that’s a horse of a different color, but if he has some pain somewhere from forearm to shoulder (which I would assume most pitchers have by midseason), using the IL isn’t going to generate much controversy.
  25. stringer bell
    Brandon Waddell (4 appearances with the Twins in '21) signed a minor league contract with the Mets. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2024/12/mets-brandon-waddell-agree-to-big-league-deal.html
×
×
  • Create New...