biggentleben

100% accurate. Even in my (extended) rant on the weight number issue, I'm not even saying Souhan is the culprit. My comment was that anyone in the org would report that he's overweight having looked at Sano this season. Still frames from spring to May to now showed minimal, if any, added weight in his waist area. He added weight in his thighs and chest, however, and that could be exactly where that number is coming from, so a good journalist would have sussed that out and gone deeper, not just left it at surface level.

There's SIGNIFICANT nuance to that, however. Bruce Matthews retired having played in one of the most violent sports there is for nearly 20 years at or above 285 for much of his career and still being considered one of the most athletic at his position. Baseball is, to be completely blunt, on the dumb side of the understanding of the body and the athlete. For so many years, baseball skills ruled and no one worried too much about how those baseball skills got there outside of a scale, not really ever thinking so much about what actually constituted that number on the scale. Then, the Oakland Athletics hired a renowned athletic trainer and strength coach who had worked with championship college football teams and basketball teams to be a full-time strength and conditioning coach. It was 1993, and he was the first person who was even half-time in such a role for a major league baseball club. The NFL essentially had strength and conditioning coaching teams by the mid-80s. The NBA had strength and conditioning coaches full time for every team in the league before 1990, and every team had multiple full-time staff in that area before 1995. In 1995, the Colorado Rockies became the first team to employ two people in strength and conditioning at half-time or more. There is so much that is still being learned about properly training a baseball athlete due simply to how late the highest level of the game was in adapting to proper care of those athletes in strength, conditioning, and nutrition. Notably, since the last of teams finally adopted the idea of strength training (much like analytics, it took over a decade for every team to finally hire a full-time person), the average ballplayer has grown in size significantly, though in one particular team's anonymous team height/weight/measurements their staff took, the average waist of an MLB player remained neutral to actually shrinking as weights increased. Sano made comments about seeking out ways to ensure his body could handle a full season at third base after his back issues last season. He was quoted often in the offseason about the weight lifting he was doing as part of that work. Many things, from someone experienced in the power lifting realm, were obviously new to him, and he was going to see some pretty dramatic muscle growth. That would be of concern, but his workouts also contained a very healthy dose of flexibility and plyometric work that would allow him to maintain or even improve his athleticism at his new muscularity. So, Sano quite literally could weigh 270-290 right now and be in better shape than he was at 260. That's 100% feasible. He also could have a very long career playing at 280 pounds on the infield. The number on the scale has minimal bearing on whether he's able to handle third base, it's 100% on the composition of his body as he attempts to handle the position, and Sano has missed almost nothing this year as far as games, outside of a few games early in August when he was plunked on the hand. The durability he's shown while getting very minimal days off from Molitor over the season shows exactly the type of athleticism and recovery his body is able to handle at whatever number is on the scale. That he is unable to immediately return from an injury is not a "told ya" moment for Souhan as much as it is evidence of widely-reported consistent impacts to his shins that had cause repeated trauma to that area. If he's even 80% and the team is able to handle without him now, wouldn't you rather him get closer to 100% and ready for a possible run in October than to come back and have the chance of just getting worse when he takes the next foul ball off the shin?

A Braves fan across the hall who was part of ESPN's forums? Hmmmm.... I did not realize I had missed essentially this entire thread. I, too, miss BYTO, though interestingly, I did put up some original stuff there that was part of how I first got a writing gig. Generally, I left the Twins talk alone and stayed in the rest of the forum, but I have been talking with many on this forum now since those Elysian Fields days...and really only one Twins fan ever got the ban hammer when I was in charge of the ESPN Braves site, but when they chose to let moderation go to an outsourced company, the forums turned into a comments section.

Four of those (Enlow, Leach, Rooker, Lewis) are draft picks from June, so that's not surprising, especially with the #1 pick.

I'm glad you did the research and posted this. I cited it in an article I did for Puckett's Pond and credited your list here.

Those sorts of trades happen all the time. Heck, the PTBNL with the Braves/Mariners trade that involved Alex Jackson was based on a guy who was Rule 5 eligible or the deal would have been finalized ahead of time. I would wager 3-4 such trades happen every year.

Haley was able to be stashed as a DL guy until they returned him. Not exactly apples to apples.

There are multiple TOS survivors who have been able to have a productive major league career after surgery. The surgery dates back multiple decades - it's just exploded in frequency in the last few years is all, so recent guys are more highlighted. Heck, some of the world's best volleyball players have TOS and come back to be Olympic athletes.

That is correct. When I was on Cory's podcast, I hadn't looked that up, but I knew there were changes to the qualifying offer, so I couldn't say for sure that there was no QO available. However, the actual offer system has not changed, and Garcia would not be eligible, but the return on those who do offer a qualifying offer is much less now, and players can only receive the qualifying offer once.

No mention of the fact that Recker's posterior will be a high point for those fans who will enjoy that... That has to be a win! (Seriously, that is one of the things that has been mentioned about him at every stop recently)

Yes, and the Braves have done that 3 or 4 times recently, so it'd be an ideal thing to do with Burdi, to be honest.

Burdi was surprising to me on the Braves end for pretty much all the reasons you mention...

You do realize that the Braves and Twins have basically the same record, right? The AL has been so mediocre this year that there's everyone hanging around the middle, leaving the Twins very near playoff contention while the Braves are roughly 10 games out of contention with nearly the same record. Also, the Braves aren't at any "early stages", either. The team is expecting to compete for playoffs in 2018 and have financials set up to be able to possibly make a splash going into 2019 to push for a big piece for contention if needed. The top prospects in the system are primarily in AA/AAA or already getting major league time.

Absolutely always my perspective. There is no such thing as a bad one year deal. If all else fails, you cut the guy before the year is done and eat the entire year early. You know you're getting rid of the guy at year-end anyway. When you know he's a rental, pay the cash, go for less of a prospect (or in this case the likelihood of the Braves not opening the book on Burdi's medicals and cancelling the deal).

I'd give that possibility a plausibility score of about 0.00000000001%

I'd wager it was a flyer and the Braves wouldn't have even cared all that much on medicals when the Twins were paying every dollar, but when the Braves were taking on cash, they were more picky about those medicals.

Rosenthal's tweets indicated that the teams are still talking.

Multiple beat guys on both sides had tweets about negotiations about how much money would be split. I'd have to search for it, which is not something I'm going to worry to much about at this point with the deal dead, but it was discussed.

From what I mentioned on Cory's podcast, the Braves have a habit of targeting certain players, so it would make sense that they came to the Twins looking to get Burdi. The Twins then balked at something in Garcia's medicals and asked the Braves to pay more, based on people I know within the Braves. That suddenly made Burdi's medicals much more vital to the deal, and when they didn't come back clean, the Braves backed away.

He did throw a tremendous game. If you watched the game, you would have seen the way he attacked the Dodgers hitters was something that hasn't happened to them in ages, so much so that their announcer (who is tremendous, btw) mentioned it multiple times. He was through 5 innings on less than 65 pitches. I think he could have been pulled earlier, but he had been through five without stress and worked through issues quickly all game.

Like I said, I understand. I just know they started the year with their two A-ball teams having paired starters because there were so many starters needing work, especially left handed starters. I would love to see Thorpe in the Braves system. I'm happy I get to cover him in the Twins system. Win-win for me! LOL

Rosenthal says Burdi...

Not debating that, though there is the depth on the team to allow them to be picky.

Thorpe makes the most sense based on the Braves strong interest in Australia. It wouldn't surprise me if it was Jay as well. Perhaps Brusdar Graterol as well.

Grand Slam for Garcia tonight against the MLB's ERA leader coming into the night.