SwainZag

I'm shocked. Correa was the pipe dream. The Twins do not do this. 2nd biggest contract to a middle infielder EVER. Insane.

First off, I am not going to comment on the accusations of the Twins manipulating anyone's service time. Before this past season Miranda had done very little to show he would have such success. He hit very well last season in 125 games in AA-AAA, but they had zero reason to rush him to the majors. I am a big Josh Donaldson fan. You fail to mention he missed 50 games in 2017 and 1 10 in 2018. He had a great 2019 season which led to the Twin to offer him the contract that he got. He played half the games in 2020 and missed a very important playoff game the Twins could have really used him for. He did play in 135 games last season and he was clearly not 100% for most if not all the season. How many times did we see barely limp into 2nd base on a double that should have been easy? He isn't getting any younger and his calf has been an issue. Our own Nick Nelson goes very in depth about Dondaldson's calf issues here. Where was the bad luck factoring in here? If Buxton had better luck he might have won MVP last year.

He also have been very injury prone and his defense has taken a big step back. His advanced metrics are based upon him being on the field 90% of the time. If you could guarantee that then yeah he would probably be worth keeping, but that's a huge if right now.

Those projections also have Donaldson getting 600 PA and Garver getting 500. If both stay very healthy then yes they are attainable, but both players have missed a lot of time over the last few seasons. Josh did get 543 PA last season, but how much of the season did he play hurt?

Santana was hardly a long term solution when the Twins dealt him. He pitched very well in 88 games in the next 3 seasons and then his career was basically over. Yes, they handled it poorly, but the Mets ate almost $80M over the last 4 years of that extension where Santana pitched in a grand total of 21 games.

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.

I think we probably get a point where some team starts to collect the Luis Arraez type player and flips the narrative on relying on home runs for strikeouts. Obviously it's been the sexy play for the past few years, but how low are teams willing to let batting averages fall and strikeouts rise before it's not worth it anymore?

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.

One helleva play by Miguel to end it

Not to be too optimistic as the O's are terrible.....but that's 6 outta 7

Caption this:

SANOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Very true, but when there are only 2 players on one side of the diamond and 5 on the other, a lot of time you don't need to rocket a ball out there to get on board.

Good thing games aren't over after 5 innings!

It's just the way the game has changed. You see it once in awhile, but pretty rare to see any hitter change his approach, even when staring at an extreme shift. The same goes with hitting with 2 strikes. I grew up playing you choked up on a 2-strike count and made sure you made contact. Now you seem the same swings on 0-2 as you do on 2-0. With league wide batting averages going down and strikeouts still on the rise you have to assume that we are do for change in philosophy once again. But who knows.

A couple hits would be nice to see

My finger was hovering above the "stop" button on my MLB audio feed before that Ref-ie came down with that one.

Good call, he played 3rd in the 8-5 win against Cleveland....I apparently didn't pay that much attention.

The big man playing 3B, it's been awhile

Sloppy or not, we take runs anyway we can get them.

I hate to sound optimistic because opponents were not of high quality...but that's 4 outta 5

Team must have loaded up on Wheaties during that rain delay. They have as many hits in this inning as they had the 7 before the rain.

Hello Mr Wells

Garv Sauce!!!!