DaveW

Dogs in bars are a great thing.

People that are allergic to dogs need to be phased out of the gene pool anyways Ditto with peanut allergy.

I would like that rotation as well, but they need to actually give May a chance to start (and succeed) for that to happen. I also am not very high on Duffey/Meyer's current odds of sticking as starters as well. Bringing in CC or Fister or someone similar on a one year deal wouldn't be the worst insurance ever IMO.

NTM it's pretty easy to find a DH type on the waiver wire anyways. Hell, just ask the Rays! Signing Park certainly made no sense, even if Arcia continued to struggle, the Twins had a plethora of options to take over the DH role internally anyways. And if all would have failed, they could have easily snagged one.

Yeah, if they keep Park up for the sole reason of a stupid and pointless ballpark promotion that might just end up being the lowpoint/dumbest point in this franchises history. I trust/hope/pray they aren't really that stupid.

The FA market for SP isn't sexy by any means, but I think you can find a decent 1-2 year deal here and there. Rich Hill would be an interesting pick up on a 2 year deal IMO if the price is right. He is a wild card more or less, but the bizarre upside is there and its hard to argue with his results (albeit limited) the last 2 seasons. Though when it comes to the FA market as a whole, I would love for them to take a run at Ramos or Wieters on 2 or 3 year deals before any offer is made to a SP. Franklin Gutierrez is a real sneaky guy you could platoon with Rosario (or Arcia if he was still here...grrrr.) in 2017 as well. The guy mashes LHP, plays good D and wouldn't cost much. Basically he would be the picture perfect 4th OF. As far as SP worth looking at on a one year or Minor league deal: Brett Anderson: His stuff isn't sexy, and he is injured this year (like every year) but you can't argue with the results. 1 year, 1 mil guarantee with up to 6 mil in incentives might entice him to give the Twins a shot. Jorge De La Rosa: The stuff has always been there, the results have not, his numbers have been poor in Coors, but in 2015 he had a 3.24 ERA on the road. Could be a sneaky signing for a 1 year+ 1 year team option for him. Doug Fister: The stuff is "meh" but the results have always been there. Only 32, a career 3.42 ERA guy and has been hitting that number in 2016. If the price is right on a 2 year deal, he would make an excellent #4 type. (#3 type for this rough ass rotation) CC Sabbathia: No chance a rebuilding Yankee team picks up his 25 million option. CC has had a nice bounce back year (3.17 ERA) , and could potentially be had on a "prove it" one year contract. The Twins I'm sure wouldn't mind a LHP in the rotation as well. As an in recovery alcoholic perhaps a city like Minnie would be more appealing than a large city like NY, LA etc. There are a few other interesting 1 year type guys out there as well. The FA class isn't as great as years past no doubt, but than again the Twins never went after the elite guys anyways. I think there are a couple potential gems lurking....

IMO Dozier and Nunez should be shopped very aggressively. If you can get anything close to a catcher with upside or a pitcher with upside you pull the trigger immediately. If you don't end up trading BOTH of Dozier/Nunez then you need to shop Escobar hard as well, his return likely wouldn't be as high, but it's time to make room for Polanco (and then Gordon) Plouffe, Suzuki, Santana should all be traded for anything. Santana maybe you hold out for a tiny bit more, but he certainly shouldn't be held onto like some asset that is going to help the future. I would also prefer they pick up 95% of Nolasco's remaining contract and ship him out for a PTBNL. He serves zero purpose on this team moving forward. Giving those innings to Berrios, May, Meyer, Gonsalves, or hell, even Dean is better a better use of those games. I would also offer up Park for anyone that would take his contract straight up at this point. Let someone else deal with him. Pray that someone offers up the next Tommy Milone for Grossman and go ahead and pull that trigger as well. Abad? Frankly this bullpen sucks, unless you get a good offer in return I would much rather he come back as LOOGY next year. Milone: trade for whoever you can.

Yes, we have established and all agreed that Arcia wasn't some asset defensively. But the thing is, the Twins could have had him play DH this year if they did two very obvious things: 1. Trade Plouffe, give 3B to Sano 2. Not sign an unknown 30 year old DH out of Korea (Park) Arcia is far from a perfect hitter at the plate, but he has shown some nice flashes and he still is only 25! In 609 career at bats against RHP, he has hit 35 HR. 1.5 years ago, as a 23 year old he hit 17 HR in in 241 AB against RHP (.843 OPS overall) These aren't hopeful projections by the way, these are major league stats. Even if Arcia never improves his fielding (he isn't as bad as people say he is in the field anyways..but whatever) or learns how to hit LHP better (he actually was showing some nice improvement this year so far in that dept) Even if Arcia doesn't improve at all from age 25-28, he is at the very least is a pretty nice guy that you are paying next to nothing for (for a couple more years), as a platoon type masher to have on your roster. 35 HR in 607 AB against RHP is something you can't teach. I would be shocked if we see another Twin player reach that mark anytime soon. Again, there was absolute ZERO and I mean ZERO reason to cut Arcia from a team that is on pace for a 110+ loss season.

I was a HUGE Molitor fan growing up, his swing, playing style and everything about him made him a fun player to watch, my folks still have a framed photo of me as a rather youngster getting an autograph from him when he played for the Twins. However when it comes to being a manager my overall issue with Molitor is the following: Molitor was/is one of the top 1% of MLB players of all time, he had 3,000 hits, was a first ballot hall of famer, hit above .300 for his career, was solid in the field and stole over 500 bases in his career. Of course he worked hard for everything he earned, I'm not questioning that, but he certainly had a good amount of God/Rocketpig given talent to play at such an elite level for so long. That is his biggest weakness as manager IMO, he doesn't understand personally what it is like for a player to be not elite, not be able to adjust on the fly, bot be a natural born hitter/fielder and not be able to run the bases like a speedster. Essentially he is the anti-Gardy in those respects. I for one think Gardy was a very good manager during his time here, he certainly had his faults, such as falling in love with scrappy util players and not managing a bullpen the best, but you can't argue with the overall results. He seemed to get the absolute best out of players when they were here, and very few went on to suddenly have better careers (hitters at least) once they left the Twins. Perhaps if Molitor would have taken a few years at AAA or somewhere else to learn the ropes as a manager this wouldn't be as big of an issue now. Hell, I actually think if he focused 100% of his energy on being a hitting coach for this org, things would improve quite a bit across the board. Of course, Molitor seemed to have no interest in being a AAA manager or a hitting/bench coach way back when he was interviewed the first time (2001 I believe) That not a knock on him, as certainly it was his right/decision to not follow that path. But however 1.5 years into the gig, it's pretty clear he doesn't have any real business being the major league manager of a young/raw team like the Twins. I'm not saying he can't be a good manager some day, or even now if it's in the right situation, but for this current team? He is the wrong fit, plain and simple. On a veteran team like the Yankees, Angels, Dodgers, Giants etc things may be different for him, but that isn't the case. It's clear that it's just not a fit anywhere around, the best thing to do would be to let him go, give him a few months to regroup and let him plan out his next step, whether it be going for another MLB job, another coaching job, or something else entirely. He certainly doesn't look like he is enjoying it at any level this year, even Gardy during his down years (until the very very end) seemed to still have some joy, smiles, jokes etc. I don't see it with Molly at this point.

Park is the right and obvious choice. Or just cut Santana finally. But i fear they will manage to send down or cut someone they never needed to instead. IE sending down Buxton for more AAA work, opening the door for every day CF Santana.

Yup sorta like "I tuned in and saw him hit a 2 run home run in the only inning I watched! Dude is gonna have 400+ HR this year!" Arcia isn't a good fielder, no doubt but he isn't as bad as people make him out to be.

They still grossly overpaid for 1.5 seasons of a mediocre RP.

Hu sits at 95. He was traded for a completely average RP (Jepsen) at the time. It was dumb and unnecessary, and like clock work it has failed miserably.

Archer had a 3.26 ERA the last 3 years and leads the league in strike outs this year. His HR/9 has doubled, once that normalizes he will be back to his old self. Additionally he is getting very unlucky in the BABIP department this year. Smyly also has been very unlucky with the BABIP God's this year (.25 higher than last year) 1.9 HR/9 Still a great k/bb rate. He will be fine. Their patience will be running low with Moore soon.

The A's could have had 41 starts from Shark. Instead they got 11 starts, + Semien+Phegley+Bassit, and for the 5th time, Semien has performed just as well overall as Russell has thus far! Thus, it wasn't 11 starts for Russell! The Hu and Ramos trades were both for "proven" mediocre closers, while dealing from a position of weakness both times in the org. Additionally, no other real moves were made to actually put the team even close to over the top.

If I were Adam Brett Walker I would be very seriously considering heading to Korea to play ball for a few years, that dude would be an MVP over there.

So far it literally has been a wash at worst for the A's. If Semien and Russell put up more or less the same WAR moving forward how is it such a problem?

Pretty sure if the Twins were actually contending this season and needed a pitcher brought up, Hu would be brought up much quicker this season then either Stewart or Gonslaves. If either of those guys were close to ready, then why on earth did we get the Pat Dean experience for several games?

Yes, Shark was worth 1.8 WAR in 30% of a season for the A's, that nets out to a pretty good return during that time and had they not blown a 4 run lead in the 8th inning of the wild card game, they would have had a rotation good enough to contend in the ALDS. Hammel (who was a pending FA) was clearly a throw in in that trade, stop acting like he was the reason why the A's decided to give up Russel, Shark was the clear centerpiece. And like I mentioned above, the A's were able to turn around Shark and trade him for 3 guys who gave the A's a 5.5 combined WAR last year (Bassit, Semien, and Phegley) Semien is giving them 3 WAR this year and looks to be one of the better power hitting MI in baseball. So yeah, maybe if the Twins would have turned around the following season and traded Capps for a few good players then your comparison would make sense. Of course the Twins didn't trade Capps, they resigned him and kept him around until he became a sub replacement level player!

FWIW The A's then traded Shark for the following: Marcus Semien: SS 105 OPS+ as a A 2.7 WAR last year, on pace for 3.0 WAR this year and 25+ HR. Josh Phegley: Catcher 107 OPS+ thus far as an A One of the better backup catchers in baseball, who could be a potential starter as a trade chip. Bassit: SP A guy who put up a 3.54 ERA for them last season (injured this season) Losing Russel hurts no doubt, but honestly, for what they ended up flipping for Shark it's not that bad of a deal overall for them. Semien WAR wise pretty much has equaled what Russel has thus far (albeit the upside isn't the same)

Well that's settled... Also he sits 95, that's not exactly "low 90's" FYI I guess I will disagree that stat lines in AA mean very little, especially when said prospect is only 22 years old and is showing a pretty damn good K/BB rate. All I know is I would much rather have Hu as our plan B in the minors than Pat Dean.... Lastly, nobody is saying Hu is some front of the rotation type guy, however at this stage he looks like he could be a real nice #4 type. IMO the Twins could use a couple guys like that in the high minors, it would prevent them from overpaying for back end rotation guys on the FA market (Nolasco, Pelfrey X2 etc)

Shark had a 2.99 ERA that year and a 3.14 ERA for Oakland. Oakland was also up 4 runs with 6 outs to play to advance past KC in the WC round, and they certainly would have had a punchers chance the rest of the way IMO. Sometimes bad things happen in playoff series (especially a one game playoff) At least Oakland went for it. Sure they gave up a hefty amount for them, but that's what happens sometime.

Related: At some point we should probably just stop trading with the Rays. Bad things seem to always happen.

Jon Lester is mediocre?

Perhaps most damning for TR is now even his "moves" that looked to be ok/good initially now look pretty bad. For instance: Park- Got off to a real hot start, looked like a good signing (even though the Twins had some depth at DH) however, Park has a sub .400 lately and a sub .650 OPS overall. Needless to say, that is completely unacceptable for a DH/1B type. Couple that with Arcia being let go (partly because Park is here) and this looks like a poor signing/decision as things stand now. Jepsen- Nice 28 innings last year, this year he has been a complete disaster. Not looking like a good trade at all at this stage. Grossman- Stock is falling faster than the pound after the Brexit vote. Honestly the only move made in the last two years that seems to have worked is Abad, who has been a nice Loogy. At some point it's not just bad luck, its poor leadership/decision making.