mlhouse

Here is a point I have made for years. You can't do it half way and that is what the Twins ownership have done for decades. I criticized them for years because instead of committing to rebuilding, they played it half way and filled their lineups with mediocrities over developing their prospects. Now, when they have taken a step forward if they don't come out and sign a couple of bigger free agents to fill the glaring holes in their lineup and staff, they are just playing it half way again. With Pineda signed (but suspended) the Twins have a full cost salary base of about $95 million. While the league average is $140 million, that is just the average with teams that are in the rebuilding/tanking phases Miami, Baltimore, and Tampa. If they don't make at least two big free agents splashes to take the next step, they are just playing it half way again.

I think the biggest decision that needs to be made is by the Twins ownership. Do we a) commit to building on a 101 win season and the financial resources needed for that commitment or go back to playing it half way. I think the Twins kept their fans in continuous purgatory for almost a decade because insted of committing to a full rebuild mode they always played it half way. While I did not see the 2019 101 wins (nor did anyone really otherwise why did the Twins trade Ryan Pressley and others at the 2018 deadline), playing it half way could just send us back to reality when we don't have a season were every hitter has a career year. While I don't see the Cole/Strasboug signings, I think they need to make another $15-20 million commitment on a starting pitcher and another for a position player, preferably a 3B. Then they can make some more middle of the road moves by trading some 2nd element prospects/Rosario to get a closer. Make a commitment to Graterol as a part of the rotation. I think that would be a very good team.

JOrdan is the best pitcher I have seen pitch in Ft Myers.

1. I think Twins fans overvalue Rosario's trade value, although this article seemed realistic. 2. I also think that ALL Twins hitters are being overvalued by Twins fans than by MLB GMs because I think they are going to discount some of those power numbers as an one year aberration. 3. I still think a teams would want to make a deal for Rosario but it will be somewhat minor type of deal.

The way it works out, we need Graterol to come through. The farm system needs to produce and if a guy like Graterol can't be the 3rd/4th starter then that is a major issue with our system. Resign Odorizzi. The other way that your farm system has to produce is turning some of the prospects into starters. Find a trade, for one of these guys or others, were we traded a package of lets say, Enlow, Rooker, and Gordon, for a guy who is a 3/4 starter. I think that gives us a rotation that could be competitive. In baseball, you either do it one way or the other. If you believe you will be competitive, and coming off a remarkable 101 win season we should believe this, then act like it. That means you trade prospects to fill holes in your roster and rotation. That means you spend some money. The Twins have always played both sides of the fence.

I can see approaching a team for a trade for Archer or Gray, but I am certainly not going to pay a premium price for either of them. I would offer them a package of 2nd tier prospects were the best player would be Blake Enlow. Maybe Enlow, Brent Rooker, and Ryan Jeffers. If they acquire Gray, then the rotation should be Berrios, Gray, a resigned Odorizzi, hand the 4th starter to Graterol no matter what, and a 5th starter salad bar of Smeltzer, Dobnak, or Thorpe with the one who has worked the hardest going north the winner. If they don't acqire a similar pitcher, then Berrios, Odorizzi, Graterol, a veteran FA signing similar to Pineda, and the 5th starter selection.

Gordon should commit himself to earning a utility infielder role with the Twins. That means he needs to get more experience playing 3B, improve his defense at both middle infielder positions, and like Arreaz he should look at being at least a primitive LF. This defensive flexibility would create value for him even if his bat disappoints a bit. The Twins should also look at putting him in a trade package. I doubt his trade value alone is worth much at this time, but as a piece of a package he could bring the Twins in a quality bullpen arm.

MItch Garver has long been a favorite prospect of mine and he has done nothing but hit in his professional baseball career. I think the Twins dwaddled too much in moving him along through the minors and have been too reluctant to use him at the major league level.

Rosario's trade value is very limited.

I think the Twins should make a move to retain Odorizzi by making a QO and should look at making an offer for Pineda after they evaluate all of his suspension related issues. That gives them 3 starters in the rotation. The Twins should pencil in Graterol as the 3/4 starter and do everything in their power to get him ready for the 2020 season as a starter. The 5th starter is a competition amongst Dobnak, Smeltzer, Thorpe, even Zack Littell, or some combination of those guys.

Sure, but I think there was some malfeasance on the Giants part. And the Giants might think they will be found to have committed some malfeasance. So, the Twins should negotiate a settlement and ask for Teng to be returned to our system.

The Twins should ask for Kai-Wei Teng back.

The critical question is did he know she was underage? I personally think that should be a bigger part of the equation than what it sometimes is. For example, Roman Polanski drugged, raped, and sodomized a girl he knew was 13 years old. But, there are a lot of situations in which young men really can be deceived as to the age of the person. I am not saying this is the situation. My sister once dated a man who had a daughter who was 14 years old and looked 25. They had all kinds of problems with 21-28 year old men that SHE came onto and who believed she was over 18. (My sister is in her 40's and young looking, but 99/100 of the people would pick the 14 year old girl out as the older of the two in photographs). So, was it really the guy's fault in that situation? I am also not saying that a person like this, who is 28 years old, should not behave more appropriately. But it is a quick judgement to claim it is anything.

When you have a player with a .410 OBP, the leadoff hitter is obvious. NOt only that, Arraez lefty-righty OBP split consistent. He is obviously a natural left handed hitter and has a .918 OPS vs. right handers vs. a .707 OPS vs. left handers. BUT, his OBP is .418 vs. righties and .407 vs. LHP. HE SHOULD LEAD OFF EVERY GAME. The key to getting runs is to get your lead off hitter on base every inning. Polanco should be the #2 hitter. Good power, decent OBP. Cruz should hit cleanup, not 3rd. Your slugger with the best OBP should be the cleanup hitter. The 4th spot in the lineup has one of the highest percentages of leading off an inning than any other spot (1-2-3 first innings), and if they are NOT leading off, there are runners on base. The 3rd spot should be a slugger with high strikeouts and lower OBP. That should be Sano. Kepler should hit 5th. Garver 6th. Rosario 7th. Cron 8th. And Schoop/Gonzales 9th.

Cash considerations. There is a solid chance that a team would give up the minimum cash value in a trade and Stewart would be lucky to have a team be interested in him in that situation. I think a change of scenery would be good for Kohl and would extend his professional baseball career as a AAAA level type pitcher.

Well, I did not mean trading him now. Rather, in the next offseason in a minor deal. I am not even claiming he can be dealt, just that he is the only guy on the bottom of our 40man that has any potential of at least being part of a cash deal.

And I probably do not disagree that at the end of the season he is removed from the 40-man. But good god, he isn't the 40th guy they have on the roster by a long shot. Before you DFA Stewart I think you could look at finding a team that would be willing to make a minor deal for him, a low level prospect or cash in a trade, and give him a new team.

Ian Miller Marcos Diplan Ryan LaMarre WHy even discuss Kohl Stewart?

Just my opinion but Jaylin Davis should not have even been eligible for the voting as he did not finish the year as a Twins prospect. I think it was great for him though as he got his call up to the show. Jumping to 35 minor league home runs and a AAA OPS > 1.000 was a great year. Also, Luis Arraez should be the minor league hitter of the year. All of those minor league statistics are great, but he has a .412 OBP with the Twins in over 300 PA.

I live in Ft Myers and Balzovic was the best pitcher I have seen pitch for the Miracle. I also have to say Chris Vallimont was not that far behind in the outing I say him in (no hitter through 7). I wish I could make it to more games. The weather and timing sometimes is not always the most agreeable. I really wanted to see Enlow pitch this year but missed him. MIssed a few pitchers down the road. But I have seen Stewart and Thorpe, and many others.

Well. that is sort of the thought of the short season A. You put your drafted college players and perhaps some other players in your system at a higher level of minor leagues to start. Maybe you move some of the players to your A and even A+ teams during the season. Starting the drafted college player at short season A ball makes a lot of developemntal sense. The highest level players move to A+ from there. The ones that need more seasoning go to A the next season. The Twins seem to add at least a minor league step year to all of their players. I think they have been more aggressive this season in minor league promotions than in past, and have worked a lot of the AAA level pitchers into some spots with the MLB club. Which, to me is really interesting because you would think that they would be more aggressive when they are non-competitive and rebuilding. They baffle me with their logic sometimes.

With respect to Lawyerson, why did the Twins "demote" him from CR? He is a college draft choice who had a 2.05 ERA in Rookie ball with ELizabethton, moves up to A ball Cedar Rapids and throws 5.0 innings of shutout ball with a WHIP of 0.60. But then he is sent back a level? I get this game was impressive, striking out 15/21 batters faced, but it is clear that the guy is too advanced for Rookie ball and should at least be at Cedar Rapids (if not Ft Myers). I think players like this demonstrate the need for a short season A level minor league affiliate.

Watching Jeffers at A+ Ft Myers, he is a significantly below average defensive catcher. His arm seems to be at least average although he had some problems in accuracy. Jeffers problem is that he is a big guy and is not very mobile behind the plate and his footwork suffers. So, at a listed 6-4 230lbs this should not be surprising. From my obersvations, I think his conditioning could also improve and help his defensive game. At 22 years of age, he has some improvement that could be made with his mechanics and if he wants to make the big leagues Ryan should commit to extensive conditioning and weight lifting programs. The Twins organization has only played him at catcher and DH, but I think they should really look at giving him some time at first base and perhaps right field to increase his defensive versatility. II am sure that the Twins see Jeffers as a DH candidate down the road, but if they can get him games in the field it will only help his value, including his trade value to other teams.

WHy Cron and GOnzales, you have to field a team and they were reluctant to completely rebuild with guys like Gordon and Rooker. AS far as your above list of "non-rebuilding", please. Sano and Buxton looked like he was done. People were saying that as of a couple of weeks ago. Kepler, Polanco, and Rosario were guys that looked like tehy had reached a career plateau. Berrios looked like the next guy they would trade away in the future because they could no longer "afford" him. Cruz was a great signing because suddenly in the new baseball environment, the Twins turned it around. I believe a lot of the credit has to go to Rocco. If Paul Molitor is the manager of this team this season, Sano and Buxton have hardly played and if they did play, they sucked. Even with the livlier baseballs, the team has half the home runs because the way Molitor and Gardenhire ran the team you don't play like that.

The same people that have predicted this team would be in contention every year. I get being a homer, but to claim that their predictions had any validity is idiotic. I will repeat, not even the Front Office predicted this season of contention. THe proof is that they traded away Ryan Pressley at the trade deadline last season. If they thought they would be even partially competitive they would not have made that deal. For example, if you predicted Max Kepler would have a .866 OPS your prediction would be worthless. Kepler has had seasonal OPS of .734, .737, and .727 in his previous full time MLB seasons. The reason not to sign Cruz is that a 38 year old player that is declining, slowly, but still declining, was not the type of player that profiled for a rebuilding team. The justification for signing him was that he was relatively cheap and at least we could have a decent bat in the lineup rather than another embarrassment. But, if anyone is claining that they thought he would have a career year at 38 is just BSing. To date, he is having a career high in slugging pct, hist best full season OBP, his highest career OPS, and OPS+. His 33 home runs in 387 PAs is at a 57 home run pace over 162 games, 19 home runs above his career 162 game pace. The 2019 Twins have the fortune of having not just one, but almost every player on the roster have a career year and even those that are not having career years having solid campaigns. SO, going forward there are two real questiosn. 1. What was the cause of this (I believe it is the new manager and overall MLB power trends) and 2. will it continue (I believe it can since one guy having a fluke year is a fluke, many guys having a career year simulataneously has a causation). The approach at the plate of this Twins team is so much different than the previous decade. Lastly, as a long term critic of how this and the previous Twins FO handled minor league development, I believe that this year the team has finally got it. I like how they have given some of our minor league pitching prospects opportunities and I like how they have advanced our other prospects that have earned promotions.