Thrylos

Little perspective: Hughes is the long man/mop up pitcher right now, and hardly the problem Belisle, Boshers, and even Pressly are. He is pitching when the Twins are blown out. No leverage at allIn the limited sample, his numbers out of the pen are: 6.2 IP, 8 K, 2 BB, 2 HR, .455 BABIP; his 23.5 K% and 10.7 K/9 in that sample, are encouraging, and his BABIP and HR/FB% (that should be ridiculous) will regress.The Twins owe him $30 million or more. Not compared to Blackburn with $5M or so in his contract, so, rightfully, they will give him any opportunity to recoup their investment.If his issue is medical, he will go to the 60-day DL and the Twins will recover $ from their insurance. Not the same as cutting him.Any way you cut it, the Twins have bigger fish to fry than Hughes at this point...

Against the AL when in NL: 2013 4.55 ERA 4 GS 2016 5.23 ERA 3 GS 2107 4.50 ERA 1 GS 2014 was half the season in AL - cannot find 1st season splits against AL 2015 was in AL In other words, Kyle Gibson, plus the $20M per

Nope. Other than his half season with the A's he has been horrible in the AL. Gibson-like. And he is 33 and under contract until age 36 for $20M per. Unless the Giants are willing to eat 50 of that $60 million, it would be a non-starter. And still. Really. The Twins need to get better, young, controllable pitching. Samardzija does not fit any of that...

Twins' equivalent: Jordan Balazovic, Travis Blackenhorn, and Tyler Duffey. Reasonable? Would you do it?

He is 26 in A ball. 3 years older than league average. That's why

I think that if the Twins find themselves on August 1 (or even worse, September 1) with Santana, Dozier, Kintzler, Santiago, Belisle and Breslow it will be a mistake.

He has a $6M or so buyout. The least amount he is owed is $29.some million.

That. The second halves of Perkins (7.32 ERA, 4 S, 4 L) and Ron Davis' (4.22 ERA, 5 L, 13 Sv) were both horrible, with both killing the Twins' chances

Hamels is 33, has been in the decline the last 3 seasons and is owed at least $30M for 1 season. No need to. This team needs to be after young controllable talent, not expensive declining pitchers.

Quick: Pick the one that does not belong in this group. Hint: Has a fork stuck in him

FTFY As he proved in the All Star Game as well.

Well... I think that it is more of evaluation than incorporation. And some of that will happen at the minor league level with some players not making it to the bigs. For example: The one time I saw Slegers pitch in a game this season he was horrible. From what I have seen throughout his career, his stuff, like Wheeler's, just does not translate to the bigs. Maybe in the pen, if he can add 3-4 mph. Maybe. And then I think that his ceiling might be Tonkin... More than nit-picking: I would love to figure out what "solid" and "ok" is. Data: Game Scores (50 is average) Mejia's last four starts: 62, 61, 51, 51 Gibson's starts since his return: 30, 48, 53, 59, 28, 45, 49, 42, 58, 15 Jorge's starts: 42, 21 So "solid" Mejia, has been from above average to high average, while Jorge's "solid" start was way below average. I'd say that Mejia has been "good to very good" the last 4 starts, and that Jorge "struggled" in both of his starts, with the last one being horrible. Gibson's "ok" includes 3 horrible starts, 2 very good starts, 2 average starts, 1 above average start, and 2 below average starts. That is not "ok" by any means. Gibson, since his return has been "up and down", but mostly "not very good". For comparison's purpose, Nik Turley's game scores were 34, 13, and 20, Adam Wilk's 24 and Nick Tepesch's 29 (Nothing "ok" about any of those either) So if the "Nik Turley experiment didn’t work as a starter" It would be fair to say that the Felix Jorge experiment did not work, because he really was pitching at the Turley territory, and Gibson, also was there is about 1/4 of his starts post recall... Just not many SP options internally. I'd like to see Romero and Gonsalves make it (in that order) just because I would like to see them pitch for the Twins, but I don't want to see them pitch like Jorge or Turley and someone has to evaluate whether they can do that before they bring them up.

Value. Which means that based on what Quintana brought, Archer (and whoever they have higher) would bring the top 4 prospects in baseball or something; thus it is unrealistic, thus the "faulty" remark. And I just noticed that they have Madison Bumgarner who is untradable right now, ahead of Quintana and Stroman. Faulty for sure.

No and No way a. I ranked Gordon as the Twins' 5th prospect last off-season b. I ranked Vielma as the Twins' 14th prospect last off-season Ranking someone as the 5th best prospect does not mean "never been high"; It is pretty high. Just not as high as the "norm". If I thought that Vielma would have a better career than Gordon, I would have ranked him higher than Gordon. I do think that Vielma will be a better shortstop than Gordon. So, I am pretty high on Gordon, but I am not saying that a. he will be a shortstop in the majors or b. he will be a superstar and borderline hall of famer, like some. I think that he projects as a solid bat like Greg Gagne or Todd Walker and likely a second baseman. Re: Rollins' career 95 OPS+ : It is still better than HOFer Ozzie Smith's 87. Use WAR.

And Jose Quintana 42nd and Marcus Stroman 47th. Methinks their logic is pretty faulty

Trade bait

Paraphrasing his words: This is not an updated list. It is just a review of how the prospects in his preseason list are doing... Nothing really much new

Not.Even.Close. Jimmy Rollins had 20+ HRs and 30+ SB 5 times his career, including 30+ HRs and 40+ SB once. 8 seasons of 3.5+ fWAR and 3 seasons of 5+ fWAR. 1 MVP, 3 gold gloves and career 3.5 UZR/150 (peak 15.1) at SS. Career 49.4 fWAR. Rollins was a superstar. I'd be happy if Gordon gets close, but I don't even see him stick at SS...

Divine intervention à la Johan Santana Regardless what they do during the deadline, I hope they go hard after Michael Pineda during free agency...

Why? The Padres traded Jake Peavy to the WSux for Dexter Carter, Aaron Poreda (#63 BA), Clayton Richard and Adam Russell. Only one top 100 guy and much lower ranked than Gordon If you look at the KC Tampa trade: James Sheilds and Wade Davis for Patrick Leonard, Mike Montgomery (MLB #31), Will Myers (MLB #19), Jake Odorizzi (MLB #47) and subtract Wade Davis and at least on of the top 100 players on the other, you will see that the talent is pretty similar to that of Gordon, Gonsalves, Kirilloff

No he is not. He is a bona fide rising prospect. Sano is a bona fide rising star. Cannot call a guy who is performing well in AA in his first season with OPS >,721 a star, by any means. And his .825 OPS, is less than Buxton's .830 in AA, and we know how well Buxton is hitting in the bigs... Anothing thing that bothers me is his career 63/94 SB (9/12 this season). He should be doing better than that. Also there have been issues with his glove and most people do not think that SS will be his future position. The Twins have a glut of middle infielders in front and after him and they should sell high from a position of oversupply to get top of the rotation pitching. On the other hand, the 3 names mentioned are not what I would consider top of the rotation pitching. Quintana is a solid #3 pitcher in a championship team, Gray is getting there and Straily is a big questionmark with 4.11 and 4.23 ERA the last 2 seasons against the AL. I would not trade Gordon for any of them. I would not trade within the division to start with. Straily will likely require less to acquire because his inconsistency over the years, but he is pitching over his head against NL opponents. If someone like Archer, Stroman, or Carlos Martinez is available, then I would trade Gordon in a heartbeat. Otherwise he might look good as Dozier's replacement down the road.

I suspect that Molitor is part of the reason here. Looking at teams attempts/opportunity will not get you anywhere, because the Twins have at least a few non threats (Mauer, Vargas, Sano etc.) Interestingly enough, the Twins are tied for 9th in SB in the majors FWIW

In my book he is close to the Turkey of the year rather than the Spink Award. I'd rather see Sid Hartman win it. His problem as a writer is that he is opinionated and pontificates those opinions, instead of analyzing the big picture using data. Lots of writers pontificate, but they do not win any awards... On the other hand, an Award that includes Bill Conlin among its recipients, should not carry much weight...

Here is the thing: Buxton is right on top of the league in SB success, but right in the middle of the pack in attempting to steal. Career numbers: Buxton: 146 Opportunities (*) (H+BB-2B-3B-HR), 28 SB, 5 CS, 33 attempts, 22.6% attempt, 87.5 % SB success Hamilton: 460 opp , 222 SB, 45 SB, 267 att, 58% attempt, 83.1 % SB success Dyson 465 Opp, 196 SB, 35 CS, 231 att, 49.6% attempt, 84.8% success Turner: 171 opp, 70 SB, 14 CS, 84 att, 49.1% attempt, 83.3 % SB success Gordon: 724 Opp, 250 SB, 71 CS, 321 att, 44.3% attempt, 77.9% SB success Broxton: 125 opp, 41 SB, 10 CS,51 att, 40% attempt, 80.3% SB success Andrus 1486 Opp, 261 SB, 90 CS, 351 att, 23.6% attempt, 74.4% SB success Maybin: 839 Opp, 156 SB, 39 CS, 194 att, 23.1% attempt, 80.4% success Betts: 488 Opp, 69 SB, 15 CS, 84 att, 17.2% attempt, 82.1% SB success J. Ramirez: 394 Opp, 52 SB, 17 CS, 69 att, 17.5% attempt, 75.3% SB success Billy Hamilton goes for it 60% of the time he has an opportunity. Dyson and Trea Turner about half of the time. And Buxton is much more effective base stealer. He tries to steal at the rate of Elvis Andrus who is a pretty horrible base stealer. His attempts have to be close to 50% for the kind of speed he has. (*) The calculation of "opportunities" is ballpark and simplified, because it does not reflect the number of times the base ahead of him was occupied. By subtracting double (which is an opportunity to steal third) and not adding HBP, I kinda balance the two. Just looking for a quick way of calculating.

Well, this is true in the high minors. Big reason for this is that a lot of the young "hitting reinforcement" is in the bigs already. Sano, Buxton, Kepler, Polanco are yet to enter their prime. While they will be entering their prime, they can be supplemented by Gordon (in Dozier's spot) and Garver. Maybe LaMonte Wade. After those 3, ETA 2019 or so you got (random order) Lewin Diaz, Luis Arraez, Jermaine Palacios, Jaylin Davis and 2020 or so Wander Javier, Travis Blackenhorn, Akil Baddoo. There is a pipeline, but there are some gaps, esp. at the OF, but I suspect that some of these infielders could be converted to OFs at some point fairly painlessly. There are not (m)any "top-100" names, but not many national prospect writers spend much time in Ft. Myers, E-town or Cedar Rapids... C'est la vie