Thrylos

He has a change up that he has been throwing for about 10% of the time, which is improving, but still below average pitch. The problem has been that this curveball went from plus last season and the beginning of this season to an average pitch.

Berrios: 2017: 3.89 ERA 3.84 FIP 2018: 3.92 ERA 4.05 FIP Slight improvement in K and BB rates and WHIP but the latter is based on lower than league average BABIP. He hit a wall in July. He was much more improved in April-July that last season and then things went downhill, esp with the breaking ball. If I were the Twins, I'd shut him down, figure out what's up, plus let someone else show what they can do.

Or additional time to see what Cave and Kepler and even Rosario can do at CF. And since it took Buxton an additional season of development (at least) before performing the way the Twins want him to perform, the Twins are fairly taking this season back. If he performed the way expected he would had not "lost" service time. I think that it will be better for him and the Twins to finish the season at a high note at AAA instead of coming in the majors and hitting .175...

100 L managing a team with the 7th best ERA in the league and Stanton raking, means that they did the right thing...

I think that it is complicated, and the grade I give the FO right now is I (Incomplete). Why? I believe that the came in with a 5 year plan to turn a pathetic team into a contender, and the 2017 unexpected quasi-success aberration threw them off a bit (more on this later). I will wait the 5 years for a grade other than incomplete. That said: Things that this FO did well: Take a $ hit to get rid of players like HughesDL people right away to have 25 able bodies with the team instead of 21 with a bunch of day-to-daysTrade people in season and get something before they leave for nothingGo out and be a player in high level FAsTake risks and cut the cord when they don'tMuch better in season roster management; the above, plus rotating arms via the minorsGo out and get players in the off-season (but, see below)Promote players even when not ready (but, see below) Things that this FO did not do well: Kept too much of Ryan's staff around, including proven disappointments like the head of the player personnel and the head of the draft, and even the head of player development; areas the Twins have proven to be behind the rest of the leagueLikely misguided by 2017 but keeping Santana and Dozier in the off-season was a disappointmentGoing half ass with pitching instead of going for proven arms when they did not get what they wanted in FA; again likely misguided by 2017 and/or an effort to put butts on seats. Their closer is a 7th inning pitcher in a competitive team, their star FA starter took 2 months to throw strikes, and their opening day trade is a 5 in a competitive team on a good day (but they were all inexpensive)Expose non-ready players with major flaws (like Gonsalves) thus potentially dropping their value in a trade.Yet to see: The ability to trade prospects to fill holes, such as an ace or all star level closer.Cutting ties with Mauer for baseball reasons vs re-signing him for " PR reasons

There is at least another article on the TD home page that does mention that...

To put Mauer's achievement in prospective relative to the two Hall of Famers: Carew & Puckett achieved their numbers in 12 seasons to Mauer's 15. Carew ended up playing 7 more sasons with the Angels and got 968 more hits. By no means Mauer passing Carew as second best in the Hits parade under a Twins' uniform puts him in a Hall of Fame discussion...

If Derek Shelton helps the Twins win a World Series or two, that will elevate the Twins' brand much more than having a Minnesotan Hall of Famer as their manager

Here is my beef with Molitor: - He lost the clubhouse. This has been a very unmotivated team. - He has been playing favorites. For example, he kept a sub .300 OBP guy hitting lead off for 3 months, because that was his preference - Bullpen usage has been bizarre to say the least. That said, I'd take him over Gardenhire any day of the week. Still, he has to go. The Twins need some new blood, preferably outside the organization and preferably with a huge aversion to losing games

I would argue that they did not move the needle that much yet because even if they did (which would had cost additional assets) wouldn't be enough by itself for the team to contend deep in the postseason, and it is worth to save those assets to move multiple needles when they deem that the team can.

You do realize that Gonzalves looked worse than both Stewart and Littell, correct?

Have you seen where he has been ranked in certain prospect lists? Not all teams scouting players 20 times a season. As soon as there is MLB film, game is over.

Good pick ups. For the 2018 Twins. However, the question we all should be asking is whether any of the 3 would have had a place in the 25 men rosters of the Yankees, Red Sox, and Astros. Because that's where the bar has to be set if the Twins were to be competitive in the post-season ever again. Not at the Detroit and White Sox levels...

My concern with Gonsalves as a prospect has always been his fastball command. In the minors, if you have decent secondary stuff (and Gonsalves has a plus change) you can do ok, albeit run high pitch counts. As we saw yesterday MLB teams adjust quickly and instead of swinging at fastballs out the zone, are siting on those change ups. At some point the Twins have to start thinking of prospects as assets (esp. for trade situations) and should not expose them like that, but trade them instead. They have needs on the top of the rotation and at the end of the bullpen. Gonsalves could have gone a long way towards solving one of those needs, maybe packaged with Gordon and/or other top prospects. There is no need to expose your players if you know their weaknesses...

There are many versions of that card. The cheap ones are not signed by him...

Flip him while he is hot. And sign Escobar next off-season to play second.

Re: Rortvedt: He is hitting worse than Butera did in high A. Just sayin' regarding that "improvement". Does not need to do much to improve from a below .600 OPS your first 2 seasons as a pro. Whether that might be enough to make him a major leaguer and not yet another high pick wasted under Deron Johnson, is yet to be determined. Wish that someone asked this guy about Levi Michael, Trevor Harrison, Boyd, Bauer, Shooter Hunt, the closers to be turned into starters strategy, and the rest. But nobody does...

Some of the best closers were made by failed starters. Aguilera, Eckersley and Nathan come to mind (Smoltz too, but he was not a failed starter, just lost endurance after surgery). We kinda know that the Twins do not have anyone in the pen who marginally flashes dominance (May excluded.) Same with AAA. So, what I would do, would be to see what Odorizzi can do as a closer just with the fastball and slider (both have scored pretty well) while dropping the "thing" and the curve that suck. He is under contract for another season and clearly the Twins have better options in the minors (and majors) than him for 2019. See if changing the role might change his effectiveness. Alternate version of that: Kohl Stewart. Might even make more sense at this point, since his FB has ticked a tad higher than Odorizzi's.

Hopefully not. Romero is scheduled to pitch tomorrow for Rochester. Lewis Thorpe was promoted to Rochester tonight. Hopefully Romero will be starting for the Twins and Santana would go to his happy place #smellbaseball

Stuff happens, but with Berrios you hope that it does not get between his ears. He tends to overthink

Rochester, then instructs, and then winter baseball. He needs to see live pitching. Oh. And a $1000 fine for each hands first slide

Yeah. Rodney could not go away soon enough, as far as I am concerned.

Darn. I agree 100% with what you said about Santana. weird.

His start today was better than any of Slegers's or Santana's starts this season, and about 2/3rd of Odorizzi's. I'd say that he deserves to stay. Next man out of that rotation should be Santana.

But Santana cannot keep his end of the bargain, can he? If he cannot walk his talk, he should shut up. He sucks. And he has fulifilled about 1.5 years of his 3 year contact. And he is keeping worthy kids in the minors from getting MLB $. I'd rather see Romero take over his starts, but that's me....