Thrylos

Gonsalves, Gordon, Kepler. Make it happen.

As a matter of fact, it takes place the last day of the Winter Meetings...

Add Harrison Bader Paul DeJong Ian Happ David Fletcher And the fact that all but Swanson and Bregman were picked up after Jay and makes that pick pretty bad. Need to mention that several of the first round picks who did not make it to the majors are high schoolers, including Brendan Rodgers #15 overall prospect at MLB.com, for whom it is tough to make it to the majors 3 years after drafted . The Twins' drafts have been pathetic. Another data point: only Gibson is still with the team from the players who were drafted before 2012. That speaks tons.

The actual shame is that the person who made all of those first round picks, including the other wasted ones is still in the Twins' organization...

Stuart had a career.660 MiLB OPS and managed to achieve a .426 MLB OPS with the Reds before was sent down this season. Not much of a loss. Navaretto's career MiLB OPS is .575. If anyone wants him, more power to them, but will not even project to a .350 OPS in the majors...

and throwing with the other arm

2018 MiLB numbers in AA and AAA against RHP: .281/.391/.409 against LHP: .189/.266/.297 No. He does not hit LHPs. He is pretty much an automatic out against them. He does mash against RHP. The Twins already have 4 lefty throwing OFs on their 4 man roster. How given is a 5th? Or an 8th total OF? Meanwhile the infielder roster, including 1B sits at just 5. It is a numbers game

Interesting to see the answers up there... I guess people are not familiar with Arraez, what he brings on the table, and how close to the MLB he is, lets say compared to Nick Gordon...

Suarez < Moya, but I would do De Los Santos for Lamonte Wade 1-1 any day of the week Regardless De Los Santos (and Suarez FWIW) need 40 men roster spots so the balance would be 0-2 for the Twins. I really don't like Santana, but I like De Los Santos. He is future closer material

Donaldson has chronic leg (calf) issues. Santana is not that great. He had a 105 OPS+ and he is in decline. That OPS+ is lower than the yet to reach his prime Tyler Austin (108 OPS+). I'd give advantage to Austin. Cruz is old. From that group only Murphy (whose defense if you ask UZR is about as good as Dozier's at second base) does something for me, esp. as a most-time DH. I like to buy low and my candidate for that is Jonathan Schoop who is a year removed from being an All Star, just entering his prime, and in a year full of injuries was ok in Baltimore before falling apart in Milwaukee.

Greinke is not the answer. Here is a fact: Other than the 2004 Boston Red Sox, no team won the World Series without a LHSP. So the Twins need to focus on a lefty (and Mejia is not the answer). On the other hand, even If their intend is not winning the WS, then they should stay away from Greinke, since he will not add anything to the team. Greinke's FB velo dropped to 89.6 mph down from a career high of 94 mph. Slider down to 83.4 mph, down from 87. His change was at 86.6. That's only 3 mph differnce from his "fastball". Give him more years and he will get pelted. He is not a very good pitcher right now, esp. if he moves to the AL. As a matter of fact, I suspect that Gibson will be better than Greinke in 2019 in the same league.

At least they are braking the mold of 3 decades in which they were expecting different results if they were doing the same failed things over and over again. Openness to data (aka analytics) is one thing. The hardest is to formulate hypotheses based on that data (eg. Pressly should be throwing his curve more), be willing to test them when it counts (eg: Pressly actually throwing his curve ball more, like he did with the Astros), and be willing to adjust is another whole bunch of things. And the Twins' coaches need to do all of those things, and the Twins' players need to be receptive to all of those things. Open mindedness helps both ways. That said, let's see who will be the first and third base coaches

Jeremy Hefner has been an advance scout for the Twins the past season. here is a good writeup on him.

Weirdo. That said, if they did not throw balls in the stands there would be less of a problem.

I would not like that here or there, I would not like that anywhere.

Freddy Galvin's career slash line: .246/.290/.374; 79 OPS+ Ehire Adrianza's career slash line: .242/.303/.355; 80 OPS+ If I were bargain shopping I'd take the guy who would cost the least, and that is the devil I knew, since neither is a difference maker with the stick. That said, the Twins have two many production questions to afford yet another below average bat. Polanco is fine at SS and has been improving. His range is better than average but still makes too many errors. I hope that more playing time will help him there. As far as middle infield goes, I'd try to sign Daniel Murphy to an one year incentives ladder contract to play second base and PT DH.

-1.98 WPA (27th of 27 Twins' RPs in 2018,) 5.52 ERA (18th,) 4.53 FIP (14th,) 13.8 K-BB% (9th,) 1.38 WHIP (15th,) should not make someone a "given" for the Twins' bullpen for 2019. Do not understand the infatuation with Hildenberger. He stunk up the joint last season.

Here is Zach Bove's website. Really interesting stuff. A very good pickup for the Twins

Everything is possible... There is precedent and last time I checked nobody was proven guilty. I'd let the MLB investigation reach its conclusions before I reach mine.

Really good story on Griffin Jax from the Cronkite News (Arizona PBS) : https://cronkitenews.azpbs.org/2018/11/13/jax-throws-for-twins-serves-for-united-states-air-force/

Inherited runs scored is the poster boy of making something out of small sample size. Would probably need an n of 1-200 to make it meaningful. Check these guys out: Arodys Vizcaíno 100% IRS%, 2.11 ERA Steven Wright 100% IRS%, 2.68 ERA Brandon Woodruff 100% IRS%, 3.61 ERA For May IR n = 16...

Pitchf/x will agree (here is the fangraphs link to pitch values) with the difference that his fastball improved to league average now and the slider (he still throws about 10%) of the time stayed a pretty awful pitch, unlike the improved curve and change. I think that getting rid of the slider will help him even further, but it is a confidence thing to throw a curve or a change when he used to throw one...

Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch --------- 12/13/1988: The MLB transactions for the Minnesota Twins had one line: The Twins signed free agent catcher Brian Harper to an one year contract worth $90,000. The Twins were the sixth franchise for Harper who was drafted by the California Angels in the 4th round of the 1977 MLB June Amateur Draft, traded to the Pirates and then the Cardinals who released him on April Fool's 1986, and then signed and released by the Tigers and A's in single year assignments. Harper was an intriguing guy. He hit .353/.403/.653 as a 28 year old in AAA Portland before the Twins brought him up to finish the season with the big club, hitting .295/.344/.428 with 10 walks and 12 strikeouts in 184 plate appearances. Harper became the Twins starting catcher in 1989 and held that post until 1993. His tenure with the Twins included an otherworldly .381/.435/.476 slash line in 26 World Series plate appearances in 1991, the best World Series ever. Fast forward about 30 years: November 25, 2017: The Twins sign 26 year old Willians Astrudillo as a minor league free agent. After a stint in AAA, like Harper, Astrudillo made it to the bigs, where there were a lot of accolades, regarding his low walking and strikeout percentage, and about his lack of being a "three outcome guy". Astudillo's line last season ended up being .355/.371/.516 with a 2.1 BB% and a 3.1 K%. In 1991 Brian Harper ended the season with a 3.0 BB % and a 4.7 K%. Both were about his career average for the Twins. After 1993 strike Harper moved on and ended up his career with a .295/.329/.419 major league line with a 3.9 BB% and a 5.6 K%. Both Harper and Astudillo have had questions about their defensive ability, and like Astudillo Harper had to play other positions (OF, 1B and 3B) before he was established. Harper was an integral part of the Twins 1991 team. Might be the time to let Astudillo be the "Harp" for these Twins...

Bit of voluted methodology, but fangraphs' Craig Edwards ranks the Twins farm system pretty high https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/post-2018-farm-system-rankings/

Severino surprises me. I'd have Urbina, Arraez, Alcala at least ahead of him.