SwainZag

I love Buxton and think he has all the talent in the world. By far the most pure talent Twins in a long time. But unless you give him a highly incentivized contract based on actually being on the field.....is it worth it? If it were just a shoulder problem, or a wrist that kept acting up, I think it would be different. But Byron definitely is prone to getting injured...and it's not just playing the field. He has been hurt at the plate and on the base paths as well. In the last 4 years, which IMO age 24-27 is or should be prime years for a baseball player, Buxton has been on the field a shade less than 39.5% of the time. 215 out of a possible 544 games. How many guys get injured a ton in the early parts of their career only to start getting healthy the latter portion? I doubt it's that often and is usually the other way around. Also, it's not like he was iron man before he got to the Twins either. The issue comes in, what is Buxton worth if say....he can only play 50% of the team's games? He was incredible last season when healthy but even then he had career highs across the board. He did build on a nice 2020, but it's not like he has been putting up those wild 2021 numbers for years now. The Twins discussing what to do doesn't surprise me at all. I would love for them to sign him to an extension, but I do I blame them for seeing what some other team would give up? Not one bit. I do think they are a bit between a rock and a hard spot with him though. He knows when healthy he can put up MVP type numbers. The Twins know this too. They both know he hasn't shown the ability to stay healthy in his decade in the organization. Hopefully there's a sweet spot they can agree on.

What other young talent in the last 10 years have the Twins traded away or not signed? I suppose you could mean Rosario, but other than that you have to go back to Hunter and Santana and both of those happened nearly 15 years ago under a completely different front office. I am guessing either the Twins didn't think that Berrios is worth $25M+ per year long term OR they have a good feeling he wants to test free agency regardless and realized this probably is when his value is the highest and pulled the trigger. I am not sure how in the world you can call a 22 year old and the 5th overall pick LAST year who is holding his own in AA in his 1st year in the minor leagues a "failed pick." And for that matter, SWR is only 20 in AA, striking out 13 per 9. His control is a little suspect, but he is a Top 100 guy for a reason. Calling either of these guys failed picks is just crazy.

Were any of them desperate signings? Shoemaker is on a 1 year $2M deal brought in as depth starting pitching. Colome is coming a very good 5 year stretch and a 2020 where he was near un-hittable. He does have some control issues, but this was a move to bolster the bullpen. Robles was a buy low $2M signing after a pretty bad 2020 following a very good year in 2019. So far he has only allowed hits in 3 of his 11 outings and seems to be a decent signing. I don't see how any of these reek of desperation, they all had their purposes.

How is Rogers awful? He gave up a soft hit single that probably should have been an out and Gallo somehow muscled a 95 MPH fastball that was 6 inches inside and could have possibly hit him over the fence? That was much more a wow piece of hitter rather than an awful pitch. I have preferred a 3 run win over a 1 one run win, but they count the same in the standings.

Not the prettiest ending, but a win is a win that is 4 out of 5! Really nice to see Jorge hitting the ball hard and Alex continuing to smash. Very nice to know that Buck can have an off night at the plate and they can still pull out wins. A little worried about Arraez, hoping the concussion symptoms go away. They will surely miss his bat atop the lineup if he has to miss any extended period.

I agree. He was in control most of the day, only walked 1 and the slider was superb. Dozier did take advantage of Jose missing his spot pretty badly which resulted in the 3 on the board, but other than that I thought he was pretty sharp.

If you are in the hunt for the division/playoffs/world series you do not trade players for prospects at the deadline.

As for Colome, it was a lot of pitches but the cupboard was pretty bare after the pen through 4+ innings yesterday and Colome was the 5th reliever today. My only question is why was Duffy used in the 4th inning? If the starter is going to go 3, why not use someone who can go more than an inning that early...like Smeltzer and save Duffy in case you need him later. With Donaldson's calf issues I find it defensible that he would get run for there. I get taking his glove out was a risk, but I would rather see that than having your 35 year old, $23M dollar player re-aggravate or re-injury himself trying to score from 2nd or some collision at the plate when it was avoidable. It's April. I'm not sure where you are getting your numbers, but Blankenhorn has a lot more experience at 2B than he does 3B. 1900 defensive innings to 1200 in the minor leagues, and using advanced fielding stats he is a lot better at 2nd than 3rd. Yes, Arraez doesn't have a whole lot of experience at 3rd, but it was a throwing error. If Blankenhorn can't field routine grounders in the majors, maybe he doesn't belong here. Using Rocco as a scapegoat for 2 routine fielding plays is a reach for me.

I don't think anyone is looking for a "savior." Buxton, Cruz have been absolutely raking....while Arraez has been very good. Donaldson and Simmons have both missed nearly half the games so far. Even with Polanco, Sano and Garver stumbling out of the gate the Twins are Top 6 in the MLB in all AVG/OBP/SLG/OPS.....which is pretty astounding after the double header shutout this week. They are 2-6 in 1 run games thus far and 0-4 in extras, neither which are sustainable. This team is better than it's 6-11 record. They have a run of beatable opponents in the next 16 games.

Field a routine groundball and the Twins win the game. Rocco didn't play a good game, but man the players need some accountability.

I will agree I hate this extra innings rule. If you must use this rule, make it the 12th or 13th inning or something, the 10th is way too soon IMO. For now I hate it though. I don't disagree with management for pinch running Cruz. I don't think Cruz scores on that passed ball and quite frankly I don't want his 40 year old butt out there trying to score on a passed ball in April. He is too important in the long run. 4/10 innings the Twins had a runner on 2nd or 3rd to end innings. 0/8 with runners in RISP. One clutch hit all game and things are different. A little early to be trashing the bullpen. How did the M's score on the bullpen today? Against Colome: Infield single, stolen base, single. Against Rogers: Bunt single, sac fly. One ball went out of the infield. They haven't looked "Championship" caliber, but it's April 10th. I'm not fretting yet.

I'd say execution killed the 2020 Twins playoff appearance. They scored 2 runs in 2 games. I get it's cool to blame management but they hit .119/.246/.153 in those 2 games. You blaming Molitor for that?

What message is this sending? That's the Twins are willing to throw away money and talent because of something done by the player in the past? The league did not come down on them, why would the Twins purposefully put themselves in a harder position? Gonzalez would get to keep 100% of his salary anyways. It seems the only ones getting hurt here are the Twins and their fans, what point is that sending?

People don't seem to understand this. If immunity wasn't given to players, no one would have talked and it would all be a witch hunt to try and figure out what happened. We would have bangs, but that would be about it. With the immunity we have heard how they did it and the commish's office acted accordingly. You can't tell people they won't be punished and then turn around and punish them, that's not how this works.

It's not like that's the only level of baseball he had played before though. When a guy in his 2nd season puts up a SLG% that nearly 100 points over what he put at any level before, it's usually an outlier. I would love of he improved on his numbers from last year, but I'm not expecting it.

While it's not a given for player's to regress after such a breakout year, breaking down Garver's year shows he is a good candidate. It's no secret that Garver raked against LHP. His slash line looked: .321/.434/.736/1.170 which is unbelievable. 36% of his PA were against lefties, which is a good 7-9% more in favor from what a guy who plays everyday usually see. Using him more often will result in more PA against RHP which should bring down his overall line, You also have to keep in mind he got a lot of rest throughout the season last year. He started 76 games at catcher and while we all expect and hope he starts more often than 1/2 the time, using him more will probably tire him out a bit more as well. I think expecting the rate numbers to go up as he plays more often is just asking for disappointment. Now, i don't expect him to fall off a cliff or anything, but an OPS of around .850 would still be dang good asset.

Or Maeda could be above average for 4 years and Graterol never develops into a top anything. I totally understand the disappointment in the loss of potential... but this deal could work out very well.

I am really rooting for Mr. Romero to have found something over the offseason and take one of the last bullpen slots.

Curious how you peg Maeda as #4 starter. Which numbers are you using?

I don't think you can call it a misstep when every one of those signings was a 1 year deal outside of Donaldson. If they were giving multi-year deals to older vets wit would be a different discussion, but bringing in guys on year deals are never a bad option IMO.

In a perfect world, Polanco probably would be better suited for 2nd, but with the emergence of Arraez, moving him to 2nd just isn't an option right now. Now if Arraez comes out next year and isn't the hitter he was last year, it opens up a possibility, but if he comes out and hits .330 again you deal with Polanco and hope he can improve at SS.

Eddie before and after his injury last season: Before: .282/.312/.529/.841 OPS After: .268/.465/.465/.750 OPS I really don't think he ever fully recovered and it impacted his defense as well. The top player you have no problem paying $8M to play a corner spot, the bottom one you do. I really hope he comes into camp fully recovered, we will see what his numbers do, especially hitting in an even better lineup. IMO, Eddie wasn't traded not because he didn't have value, but simply a contending team doesn't trade a piece like him unless they have someone knocking at the door and confidence they could replicate his production, which IMO, the Twins do not.

2017 Astros Postseason hitting splits. Alex Bregman: Road – .154 BA, .508 OPS; Home – .273 BA, .857 OPS. Carlos Correa: Road – .211 BA, .626 OPS; Home – .371 BA, 1.164 OPS. Jose Altuve: Road – .143 BA, .497 OPS; Home – .472 BA, 1.541 OPS. Brian McCann: Road – .037 BA, .198 OPS; Home – .300 BA, .849 OPS. Evan Gattis: Road – .200 BA, .533 OPS; Home – .300 BA, 1.014 OPS.

I'm pretty certain a post season ban in professional sports could even work.

It's not in the rules because sign stealing isn't a problem. We tried to de-code and steal signs when I was in little league from the dugout. Signs get changed all the time because of this. The problem with the Astros is they are using electronic means to give them real time information which they could not do otherwise....and it's a problem.