jokin

Some maybe sooner....

That would sure be an awesome outcome. Would have been hard to believe 4 months ago... but Mr Rooker is positively lost among the flurry of promotions, demotions, new hires, outliers, ILers and rehabbers.

Don't sleep on Mr Gray stepping up, either.

I still think my idea of using the Experimental Psychology Skinnerian approach to help "send a message" to Buxton and his agent on the right way towards a succe$$ful career... (operant conditioning, the subject individual makes an association between a particular behavior and a consequence). Hear me out, to reiterate, a arb-buyout-+-3-more-year contract at much higher base rate- at Twins' option- with the current base somewhere just near or below what is commensurate with his projected arb value.... PLUS huge incentive-laden, health related upgrades: $.5M bonuses applied at 100, 110, 120, 130, 140, 150 games played. And the sweetener to seal the deal and lock Buck up to age 31 (2025)? an additonal $5M bonus if he appears in all 162 games. Buck made $1.75M this year. I don't know what his projected arb # is for 2020. Certainly offering achievable incentives that offer significantly greater rewards for the next 3 arb years has to be enticing to Buck and his agent. In exchange, he gives the Twins potential control with his age 31 year (2025), with a base increase in the 3 out years, besides. I would think the potential $8M in bonuses, plus say, other potential bonuses for Golden Gloves, MVP votes, etc., would be plenty motivational for Buxton to re-evaluate his devil-may-care approach in CF. The thing that convinces me that this is the way to go? When I heard that the Twins were something like 56-22 in games that he has started this year. Perhaps, the above-proposed contract would "operantly condition" Buxton and resultantly mean less shoulder-separating collisions with inanimate barriers as well as headlong face-planting concussion-causing dirt dives when the worst outcome is only a harmless single falling in front of him.

Personally, I said WOW! and WAY more enjoyed the 11 single, 1 double, ZERO homer, ZERO error, ONE Brusdar, game on Sunday WAY more than the game on Saturday.... (WAY over WOW, every single time)

I get the L/R percentages thing that Rocco was looking for there with his hunch. But here's the deal, over the last 15 days: Schoop: .435/.458/1.130/(1.589) Arraez: .244/.300/.267/(.567) Arraez has been scuffling in the dog days of August, at bat, and in the field. And in all reality, after a blazing start, his 2nd half OPS is only .742. Schoop was well-rested and has been by far their hottest hitter over the last 15 days. And 3rd best in OPS for August behind only Cruz and Cave. (Arraez is 9th best over the same time frame.) Schoop's 2nd half OPS is actually .881, which is 4th best on the Twins (not counting Cave), while Arraez's .742 OPS ranks next to last- 11th best- only Jason Castro is worse. Schoop also has a season # of .840 OPS vs. RHP on the road. Still, it was a close call, but Rocco's percentages and hunches went with a scuffling rookie over an established vet with the game literally on the line.

Tomas Telis seems the definition of the AAAA player. He's absolutely crushed AAA pitching for the last six seasons. Still only 28. Any chance the Twins re-sign him with the intention as a major league depth piece and placeholder- assuming Castro's out- while waiting for Jeffers and/or Rortvedt to successfully complete their last refinements at Rochester next year?

Nope. That's not what I said. The Astros rallied to gain the lead and he put out the 6th inning fire by striking out Springer. Altuve led off the 7th and gave the 'Stros a 2-run lead. Anderson indeed proved he was human, yet fearless. And should the Twins somehow face the Astros in the playoffs in a similar situation, I would much rather see Anderson in that situation than anyone on the current Twins relief corps.... (unless Graterol somehow turns into the Second Coming of Mariano Rivera over the next month- we can only hope...)

Breaking Nick Anderson News Update: Nick Anderson proved that he is actually human last night in Houston. The bad news: Jose Altuve hit a 96 MPH FB, the first pitch Anderson threw to him, over the CF fence in Minute Maid Park. Anderson's ERA in August is now up to 0.84 and FIP is a more earthly 0.64 with the one ER against him. The good news: Anderson was inserted into a one-run ballgame, with the bases loaded, in the midst of a huge Astros rally to take the lead.... to face the Astros' Top of The Order Murderer's Row, starting with George Springer. Anderson proceeded to strike out Springer swinging, to end the 6th inning threat. After yielding the 7th inning leadoff HR to Altuve, Anderson calmly got two of the other best hitters in baseball, Michael Brantley to pop out on a weak infield fly, and then get Alex Bregman on another swinging strike out. On 17 pitches thrown by Anderson, 15 were located in the strike zone (although 4 were incorrectly called balls by the home plate umpire). This guy fearlessly pounds the strike zone, even against 4 of the very best hitters in MLB! Contrast that with the Twins "nibblers"? -> Are you as sick of watching all of these 3-2 counts as I am? Now try to envision some of the methods and outcomes of Twins hurlers in a similar situation come playoff time. Other than Rogers, I have little faith in a more positive outcome anywhere close to what Anderson accomplished. BTW..... Anderson's K/9 for August now stands at ~17 and in 11 innings pitched has 20 Ks and O BBs.

The Twins are likely to be outbid on Pineda in terms of years on contract- the Twins won't offer 3+ years for Big Mike, other teams will do so.

Rocco explained the situation- regarding the lack of availability of other pitchers- for why this happened in his post-game presser.

I'd bet on all three playing with the Twins at some point next year by ranking likelihood: 3) Rocco loves platooning, a fully healthy Kiriloff ( career MiLB ~.900 OPS vs. RHP) works his way onto the team by mid-year, playing both 1B and occasional corner OF. 2) Larnach was switched from RF to LF this year in anticipation of replacing Rosario at some point in 2020 or 2021. Is there a mid-year Rosario trade or do they trade him in the offseason and hire a stop gap FA as a bridge to Larnach? 1) Jeffers, the physics major in college, will likely do the math- and calculate how to use his bat for best use of Newtonian mechanics of the juiced AAA baseball- and hit 20 HR and OPS > .825 in the first half of 2020, thereby forcing the issue by August 1, as he replaces Astudillo (or Castro?, Telis?), as the primary backup to Mitch Garver.

Time to move the radio guy over to FSN (not Gladden) and send Bremer out to pasture with Gordo.

Another hole in this brief report. No justice for Laweryson!, who has acquitted himself remarkably well since judgement was passed on him to be only throwing Rookie level ball, despite arguably having made the case to deliver more.

Yeah. Major hole in this report...... Anyone?

How many of these guys led the International League in K/9, K%, K%-BB% and xFIP?

And that's a good thing. With all of the great pitching performances on the farm, both prospects and non-top 40 prospects, there's finally a fighting chance that the Twins can replenish their major league roster and depth with quality arms developed from within the organization, and not relying so much anymore on scrap heap lottery tickets, bounceback candidates, or weird two-year/one year-on-active-roster deals with another TJ case like Pineda.

I'm certainly willing to put my money where my mouth is. Especially after what he's doing in Pensacola. I've been following Jeffers closely since his exceptional debut in E-town. A gutsy 2nd round draft choice by the Twins for a catcher from a small D-1 school. 59th pick overall and not even in the top 250 on prospect lists. As gutsy as the pick was, the Twins FO has been even gutsier in pushing Jeffers rapidly up the system via the fast track. The Twins treatment/advancement of catcher development in the post-Mauer era has been glacially slow. By contrast, we now have Jeffers who has advanced FOUR levels in 1.5 seasons with the Twins. Consider Mitch Garver. Out of a more prestigious school (New Mexico) in a more prestigious conference (Mountain West), Garver was TWICE named MTN. West Conference Player of the Year, and finished 2nd in the Johnny Bench Award TWICE. Batted nearly .400 his senior season. Despite these successes, Garver was slow-tracked by the previous Twins regime, spending full seasons in E-Town (2013), Cedar Rapids (2014), Fort Myers (2015)... and nearly a full season in AA Chattanooga in 2016 before moving up to AAA for his final 22 games. And then, Garver only reluctantly was given playing opportunities with the Twins after tearing up AAA in 2017, until catastrophic injuries forced the Twins' hand to hand the job to Garver in the middle of 2018. The result? Garver is finally in the ascendancy of his career; unfortunately, he turns 29 in January. I'm thrilled to admit my own mea culpa on how Jeffers was initially handled when he was making a mockery of Appy League pitching in 2018. The Twins seemed to have learned, perhaps by the example of Garver, to hypothetically, NOT waste some of Jeffers more productive and healthy years while he's still in his 20s. Is there a review out there about how Jeffers is advancing in his catching skills/pitcher handling? I doubt he would be moving this quickly up the ladder if he was struggling. I'm assuming that the Twins have already made the decision internally for Jeffers to play AFL ball in October. Just one more stepping-stone to claiming a 40-man spot in 2020. Goodbye, Good Luck, Jason Castro. Hello Ryan Jeffers, sometime following Super 2 date, late June 2020?

FYI follow-up: How good was Nick Anderson in AAA in 2018? For all pitchers with 60 or more innings: K/9- 13.20 Ranked #1 in the International League K%- 36.2% Ranked #1 in the International League K-BB%- 28.4% Ranked #1 in the International League xFIP- 2.49 Ranked #1 in the International League Pretty questionable to just let someone go, without even a 2018 look-see call-up with these strike-throwing, result-driven numbers, especially with all the uncertainty in the Twins pen going into 2019.

Zack Littell... Nick Anderson Zack Littell... Nick Anderson Zack Littell... Nick Anderson Hmmmm Based on stats, both had promising and intriguing 2018 minor league stats, Anderson's numbers suggest that in his role as a AAA relief specialist, had a superior year to Littell, who was primarily a back-end SP with mixed results in AA and AAA. He was converted to the AAA pen during 2019 beginning in June. His AAA RP peripheral numbers pale in comparison to Anderson's RP numbers in 2018. (And of course, to Anderson's major league numbers in 2019.) The result? Littell got the major league call-up in 2018, with predictably poor results in 20+ innings. Why didn't Anderson get the same major league call-up? In 2018 Littell was 22 years old and Anderson was 27/28. Was it an analytical statistic decision? In which case, I don't get it, Anderson was missing bats regularly, with a 96.5 MPH FB and a good slider. The Twins let Anderson go and stuck with an even older aging lifetime minor leaguer in Ryne Harper.

To put it succinctly and in a nutshell, and using Ryne Harper as a very recent example, we have a very close comp in terms of the Twins' pitching evaluation/development acumen. Ryne Harper, aging veteran minor league RP, ultra-late round draft pick, never made a major league roster, fastball essentially non-existent, is picked up off the minor league FA scrap heap in 2018, does fairly well in in AA and AAA, and then magically/miraculously makes the Twins at age 30 in 2019 with a gimmick 70 MPH breaking pitch. Nick Anderson, late-blooming, unheralded veteran minor league RP who played almost solely in the Twins farm system, ultra-late round draft pick, never made a major league roster, possesses legit 96.5 MPH major league fastball and developing a legitimately good breaking pitch, outptiches Harper's #s while pitching season-long in AAA in 2018, is then let go heading into 2019 by the Twins for zilch at age 28 after 4 great MiLB seasons for the only club he ever played for.

Yeah... some folks are really stretching to make a point. Can anyone argue that relief pitching evaluation/development (both prospects and veterans) hasn't been a problematic blind spot for this organization, both the present and previous FO, throughout the last decade?

Mike Morin = younger 2019 version of Matt Belisle? Their career stats, pitching velocity, height and weight are virtually identical. Is the FO locked into the idea of annually seeking a certain "idealized" (inexpensive) and established RP over a well-thought-out plan in developing and trying out new arms? (Blake Parker and before that, Addison Reed are other virtual carbon copies of Morin). On your last point... based on recent evidence which seems as reliable as a coin flip... I have no faith that the Twins will choose the right position players/pitchers to protect or not protect.

The Twins had a chance to atone for their mistake, it wasn't logical to NOT make a deal with the Marlins to acquire Anderson, Romo and/or one or two of the Marlins young starters. As we know now, they were ALL on the trading block- and the Twins clearly were kicking the tires. (We knew it at the time, as well, the Marlins are chock-full with young pitchers and high-ceiling prospects on the way and NEEDED to deal the excess currently on their roster). It looks like pulling the trigger on a more blockbuster deal- with the potential "backfire"- was just a bridge too far for FalVine to risk. By contrast, look at what Falvey's old team did on deadline day- the Indians had the guts and wherewithal to trade a young, potential Ace- to address a bigger essential need via a complicated, three-way trade. And in the process, we now have a legitimate race for the AL Central.

Uh, yeah. I definitely thought about proposing that possibility, but decided not to go there. The only thing I could think of for why they let Anderson go was because he was an inherited guy, who couldn't possibly fit into their plans, because... maybe.... he "only"played for Mayville State in college and 3 Indy League teams before being signed by the previous Twins regime... and, despite his outstanding MiLB results, they KNEW better. It's gonna stick in my craw for a long time, much like the head-scratching trade of Pressley a year ago. The only way it's gonna hurt even more is if/when either Anderson or Pressly shut down the Twins in a Wild Card, ALDS, ALCS game come October. Making 2 mistakes wasn't the end of the world in terms of their chances this fall, but critical mistakes like this require proper atonement- and that hasn't happened yet. The fact that the Marlins had declared open season on their roster and that the Twins obviously had a second chance at Anderson and whiffed again is cause for concern. Without addressing this "blind spot" in their thinking, 1) replacing Pressley with similar quality in the offseason, and 2) when they've had opportunity to do mend an unforced error with a willing trade partner and failed to execute, their otherwise decent master-recipe for success for 2019 still comes off as half-baked.