h2oface

🤔 After considering some of the insightful discussion here, I have convinced my mind to throw the dictionary out, and consider Justin Topa, who turns 33 in a couple of weeks on March 7, as the youngster of the bullpen. 🤔

Yes. Ha. Beat you to it. My apologies if I got anyone's age wrong.

I just watched Twins 2024 Season Preview - Royce, Byron, Pablo, Louie, Brooks, & more. It is always interesting to me how some ball players are considered young, and some old, or at least not young, at the same age. Joe Ryan, in this video, and plenty often around TD, is called a young pitcher. He will be 28 in June. Lopez is 28 in a couple weeks. I don't recall him ever being called young. Ober is 29 in July. He is often called one of our young pitchers. Jax 29. Alcala is 29 in July. Paddack was 28 in January. Is he young? Correa is 29 until September. Is he young? Varland just turned 26 in December. Duran in January. Winder is 27. Sands 27 in July. Funderburk is 27. Headrick 26. Canterino 26 all season. Are they young? If you spend your early 20's in the minors, and don't get established in the show until the second half of your 20's, does that make you young? Woods-Richardson is 23 until September. Jeffers will be 27 in June. Miranda will be 26 in June. Wallner is 26. Martin will be 25 in March. Julien in April. Lewis in June. Are they young, or are they prime timers? Are the same age position players considered older than pitchers at the same age? Just because you don't make the show until your mid to late 20's, do you get a hall pass and you are still young? And what is old? I hear mentions of 29 even being old at times. And early 30s. Polanco is 30 and turning 31 in July, and we had to trade the old man. If you are 35, good luck getting a multi-year contract, unless you are part of the very upper tier, and then good luck to the teams that sign them, because you are likely to have an albatross on your books. If 27 or 28 is considered young, and 30 old, that is a very short prime time. If you spend years injured, does that make you older and damaged, or younger because there was no "wear and tear" on the body for an additional season(s). Personally, I don't differentiate. 23 is the top of young. Soon to turn 21 Emmanuel Rodriguez is young. 24-25 is pre-prime time, and the clock is ticking. 26-32 is prime time. 33-35 is middle age, and 36-39 is old. 40 and over and you are an anomaly. What do you think? What is young, prime time, and old for a MLB baseball player? And do you consider the 2024 Twins generally young, or with Buxton, Kepler, Farmer, Vazquez, Santana, DeSclafani, Weiss, Topa, Theilbar, Stewart, Okert, and Jackson in their 30's (a probable 12 of 26 to be on active roster), old?

I can't believe our Twins (& X Marlins and Reds) gave up their number one bench cheerleader. He was infectious last year! Might be time to move on to his alter ego. G Cinco! Quit fooling around and get Devon Williams. When you only pitch your starter barely half the game, on purpose, the pen is how you win games! A reprise for "The Man":

MAT. The cutsie nickname with initials for some. (Although not him) We all have middle initials. Well, most of us. It was very important that he separate himself from other Michael Taylor's of the world. I don't know why people don't just call him Taylor. They all buy in it seems. Hey, since the A is so important, why not just call him A if you want to shorten the laborious 3 namer 5 syllables. Do the Fonz...... say it sustained, and proud. Aaaaaaa

When a team virtually never drafts the highest pitchers projected available on day one instead of the numerous failed position players they do draft (the few exceptions noted), they have to find a few acorns after day one, as it’s the only pitchers they do draft! Hopefully, Festa will be a ringer.

“Durán now follows in a line of the best relievers in team history (Joe Nathan, Glen Perkins, Taylor Rogers, etc.) who failed as starters but became All-Star-caliber closers.” Duran is not a failed starter. He always wanted to start, Still was talking about it after the 2022 season. He was never given the opportunity to start as he came back from injury.

That is soooooo presumptuous. Trusting writers that want to break a story and not being at the scene to really know. SMH. Have you even ever met him. Have you ever talked to him, even?

4 to 5 years later…. Balazovic the next Liam Hendriks? Hard to wait that long holding a roster spot and suffering through the wait for that gamble.

“essentially inessential” 🤣

Seriously? Baseball’s best? Counting on one year wonder, at 32, Topa? And Stewart to not regress? Counting on Theilbar to be ageless? Counting on quirky Funderburk to fool MLB hitters all season? Straumont to be healthy and achieve former potential? Alcala, Balazovic, and Headrick to contribute value? Jackson to rise? I would call it the most hopeful bullpen. Good luck to us!

Apparently his stolen bases aren’t a highlight 😞. Some good base running and head first belly slides, though. Smart base running and some sneaky extra bases. Thanks for the speed update..

I’d like to see them. Some kind of Defensive Indifference or charitable official scoring? Late in game that didn’t matter? Part of a double steal? Or a “real” stolen base? They all count on the stat sheet, but Santana is sssllloooooowwww And it is not like our Twins were prone to send a swift runner anyway.

Yuk. And not the funny yuk. Wait until Santana is the leftover on the table when the other teams have picked through the desirables. So what else is new. My bet is he strikes out a ton just from being around the rest of the team. I bet Polanco could have played first just as well, so nothing gained except a heavy slow guy at first, that will be slow on the base paths when he gets on. And old. At least the brain trust didn’t pay him 11 million.

Fa. Get the fa right.

A one year flash in the pan? That’s all he has got so far. We got him now to find out.

Topa (is that a typo?) was 10 years, count 'em, 10 years in the minors. 1 year, that's right, 1 year in the show, at 32, and that is what is the best part of the deal to help in 2024? I guess he relieved well 3 months more than Jorge Lopez, and we all know how that turned out. That is what we are banking on to be reliable? This deal is nothing but hope and dreams from all we now have. And the player of value is gone. A bonafide MLB top tier 2nd baseman and fan fav now gone for a net gain of $5.5 million in salary cuts. Half of what they "took a low cost flyer", they said, on Joey Gallo. Hey, any deal can go bad, and even the star players paid over 200 Million can sign for the big money and have their career worst year and have all those recent injuries. You just never know.

I guess they are looking to add prospects. And get rid of another top of the order bat. And a switch hitter at that. SMH.

No worries. He should have plenty of time to get those Ks up, not steal bases, and be slow in the outfield. He could fit in well with the Twins current MO. And DeSclafani can be cut by midseason when he tanks as the reversion seems to be on to the filler pitchers that get added to the mix (no need to have surplus of talent like Houston and actually get someone like Hader when you already have a great closer you fleeced from.....). And Topa didn't even really make it to the show until 32 to stay, so folks can call him a kid even if this will be his 33 y-o season. He has one and only one good MLB year, last year only, and that is a half a year more than Jorge Lopez had! And Bowen - they always need to fill minor league rosters. The most entertainment I see here is watching posters misspell DeSclafani in so many different ways. I guess it is only fitting to worry about injuries if the player is a homer (Polanco and Arraez) and a great value, but not if a $200 million new guy that has an excuse for something year to year (wonder what it will be this year) is signed to eat up the salary so you can't even supposedly afford what the rest of baseball considers a great value at 10.5 mil. Do they even save the precious $ we are hearing is necessary? Julien is no lock in his 2nd season, but he can watch the called third strike from lefties if they even let him hit against lefties without straining himself for the righties. Nevermind. Ignore all that. I hate underwhelming trades that don't improve a competing team this year. It is my problem. I just need to like strangers more, I guess.

I don’t need a player to ever play in the post season for them to get in. But IF THEY DO, it means their greatness can’t lay an egg, but their star should shine at least as bright as their regular season record. To tank when it means the most is not helpful.

Playoffs matter. A Hall of Famer needs to come through and perform when the pressure and stakes are the highest.

$5 million. Less than half what the Twins were silly enough to pay for Gallo. I mean, it’s not like the previous years weren’t yelling at the signers “DON’T BE FOOLS!”

Congrats to the recipients or their family. I always think of a Hall of Fame being comprised of extraordinary accomplishments and individuals, and not just good baseball men, but good for them.

Never a doubt. All those wasted words. Well played, Joe Mauer. Tori with 28 votes/7.3% after 4 years - and still on the next ballot.

I’m just hoping for one, just one, just one great pitcher these self proclaimed pitching identifying geniuses draft and develop. Not trade the house for. But draft. And I mean like a Kirby, etc. Not an Ober. So far, there have been none.