jmlease1

It's interesting to see the updates on how guys are doing since the trades, but not necessarily all that meaningful because of the small sample sizes. Where everyone sits at the end of the season will be worth taking a look at to do a little more intermediate evaluation of the trades. Some of them are still going to be hard to evaluate accurately this soon, but others (especially where we flipped a rental) will probably be easier. I think the Varland deal is going to stay hard to swallow for most fans, and it puts a lot of pressure on Rojas to make it to MLB as a starter. The Stewart one was looking pretty upsetting, but the reminder that it's very hard to count on Brock Stewart to stay healthy might start mitigating it, even if few seem sold on Outman (I'm one of those for sure). I'll miss Duran, but the return for him does look pretty respectable. People were very down on the Castro trade, but I do think people were overrating just how good Willi actually was. I loved watching him play, and he's been a good dude too...but he really shouldn't play SS any longer and he's such a streaky hitter that can fall off very quickly. I think his value was down quite a bit around the league, similar to how by the time Polanco was dealt.

Interesting that you see a spot for Eeles, who has an OPS of .762 in Saint Paul and not for Sabato at .768. Eeles may have more positional flexibility, but Sabato fills a role the Twins could use (RH slugging 1B). I'd argue that they both have a lot to do to show that they could be capable MLB players. Eeles has looked a lot better at the plate lately, but suffered through a long stretch where his power production utterly vanished. Sabato has started heating up again, but went through a dreadful July where he wasn't making contact, wasn't taking walks and just looked awful after a nice start. Eeles is only about 6 months younger than Sabato too. Both are nice stories who have taken very different paths to AAA, but I dunno about either of them. I suspect Sabato will not get added to the 40-man again, and I think it'll be fine. Really hoping this recent outpouring from DeBarge is a sign he's out of the doldrums and will finish the season strong.

A very nice win. Twins played very well, which surprised me considering that it was supposed to be a bullpen game and we don't currently have one. But Hatch did good. Not sold on him yet, but he did good. Maybe Detroit thought the Twins were quitting and they didn't need to try today, but regardless they got mowed down pretty well. Paddack was the bad Paddack today. Interesting that Hinch took the attitude of "you made this mess, you get out of it" rather than yank him. Wonder if anyone will accuse Buxton of just going through the motions again?

How is Hendry Mendez's defense looking? He's listed as playing all three OF spots, but hasn't logged an inning in CF this season, so I assume he's just a corner OF guy at this point. The bat's been showing nice improvement this season and he's done quite well since joining Wichita. Be great if he's also a quality defender in LF? Very nice outing by Abel. Wouldn't mind seeing him at Target Field, and would vastly prefer seeing him vs these bullpen games. 11 K's in 6 is nothing to sneeze at. Abel has made 6 starts back in AAA after getting demoted and has a Game Score over 70 in 4 of them (the other 2 were 35 and 52 respectively). That's pretty darn good. But it is clear that limiting walks is the most important things for him, so if he can keep doing that he can be in a rotation.. He's fairly efficient too, which is nice to see in a less experienced player.

Pablo isn't a #1 pitcher? Please explain. ERA+ of 151, career best WHIP of 1.071...sure looks like a top of rotation starter to me, even if Ryan has actually been better (and healthier) this season. The pitching pipeline was actually doing pretty well until they sold off the entire bullpen. It's hitting where this front office has fallen down in terms of development and it's showed out this season in particular. Selling off Bader & Castro and not getting anyone of MLB quality back in has made a bad offense worse. Beyond that, I'm confused as to how it's Falvey's fault that young pitchers with no real injury history got hurt...(neither SWR, Festa, or Matthews have any significant injury history) I'm ready to move on from this crew of decision-makers, but let's apply logic, accuracy, and reality to them. When you don't you undercut any arguments you have about what we actually need going forward.

I didn't like this trade because Stewart was at least someone who could throw in the closer's role and be credible and after the deals we simply don't have anyone like that. Getting back Outman seems to do nothing for the team in the short or long term, so why make the deal? Admittedly, you simply can't count on Stewart to be a core part of your bullpen with his injury history (I think you have to look at him as a player where if you get things out of him it's additive, not something to be relied on) but very hard to be enthusiastic about Outman. He's got some talent, and he clearly can play all three OF spots and run the bases effectively, but he's really flopped as a hitter the last season and a half. Is he better than Kiersey? Probably, and if he can stop chasing everything that any pitcher throws his way, maybe he can be an acceptable 4th OF. But the floor is low and the ceiling ain't high. I'm fine with flinging him out there for the rest of august and september and see what we've got, I guess? But if Rodriguez were healthy I'd much rather have the Twins take a look at him, since he offers everything Outman can bring to the table except baserunning with a much higher ceiling at the plate. Maybe that's why this deal happened: they simply don't believe Rodriguez can stay healthy for a anywhere near a full season any longer?

Gasper's the backup catcher right now with Vazquez on the IL. Do you really want us rolling with one catcher? Pretty sure it doesn't matter when your pitchers give up 12 hits and issue 9 effing walks. Zebby has to do better; he wasn't terrible, but 90+ pitches in only 4 innings isn't the kind of length we need from a starter. The K's show he can be effective, but he's got to start having efficient innings and give the team at least 5. Ugh, this bullpen is awful. Just don't know about Adams: he's had some moments, but also get knocked around like he's tossing batting practice. Offense took a while to get going, but put up enough runs to be competitive. Too bad Buxton had a bad day, might have added another one or two in there if he'd been in form, but that's going to happen. Pitching just wasn't good enough, and that was with them getting very lucky with runners in scoring position.

Ohl wasn't good, but also didn't get much help from his defense. But one of the signs of a good pitcher is being a guy who can pick up your defense when they clank one (or two). Mixed game for Keaschall: did well at the plate, but a howler of an error and he knew it. Normally if you draw 7 walks you'll push a run or 3 across, but Twins bat were awfully silent. Urena was quite competent. Didn't expect that. But I shuddered as soon as Provus said it was going to be a bullpen game, because right now we don't have a bullpen. If we're not getting Festa and/or SWR back by the next start I'd hope they'd bring up Bradley.

I just don't think the Pohlads care. Joe is the only one who is a baseball fan, and I doubt most of them have been coming to the games. It's not like they're going to get shamed in their rich people circles, and they've demonstrated pretty clearly that money is far more important to them than the fans. There will be no wake-up call. But I'm still glad they got this in. As team owners, they're a bunch of tossers, the lot of them.

Meh. Let's see him get his slugging % above his on-base % first. He's had like 1 1/2 good months this season, and August hasn't been one of them. He's been awful on the road this season, so how much of his decent overall numbers are inflated by the hitter's paradise that is CHS Field? He simply has not been the same guy coming off the injury...yet. I suspect he's still adjusting and recovering a bit. AAA is the right spot for him right now.

definitely puts more pressure on Rojas to be good. Roden has had a few moments, but mostly looks like the same guy he was in Toronto: not capable of hitting MLB pitching right now. This would be less of a concern if he was 22 instead of 25. But it is his first time in MLB, so you never know. Sometimes guys need to fail before making the adjustments that will bring them longer-term success. Or he might be a Quad-A guy. I agree it makes sense to keep running him out until the end of the season; I doubt we learn anything by sending him to Saint Paul.

Hope Jenkins is ok. So frustrating when our best prospects get injured, because it's been such a trend. As long as it's not broken, all will be well I'm sure. Nice to see Rosario draw 3 BB's in a game. He had a horrific start to the season before getting on track in May, and I got a little nervous about the wobble in July (he wasn't terrible, but the contact and patience vanished for a bit) but seems to be back on track again in august. Still have concerns about his ability to make consistent contact, and he's not much of a defender, but we do need more RH power...

100% all of this. The only person this is a good result for is Joe Pohlad, because he's going to get to stay in charge of the Twins for the Pohlad Family. Under no other circumstances does he remain in any kind of decision-making role with a major professional sports team. (I'm quite certain that the idea of Joe remaining on to "guide" the team after a sale as was floated was a total non-starter with anyone serious about taking majority ownership. Wyc tried this with the Celtics sale and they pretended it was going to happen...and now that the sale is done, he's out as Governor. And Wyc was a GOOD owner.) I'm stunned at how consistently tone-deaf and out of touch this team's ownership is. Screw them. Everything they say makes it easier to not buy tickets.

LOL, Austin Martin has been one of our best hitters? I'm rooting for the guy, but he's got an OPS of .686 since returning to the Twins after his injury. He's got a career OPS+ of 89, and his OPS+ in 2025 is 86. There are things to criticize Baldelli over, and it's more than fair to be saying it's time for a different manager after 7 years and missing the playoffs in 4 of the past 5...but making stuff up because you hate the manager really needs to stop around here.

Can we stop with the Sonny Gray nonsense? He left because St. L offered him a lot more money and it put him closer to his home. Berrios wouldn't sign an extension because he wanted more money/years than the Twins were willing to pay, not because he "hated" Rocco. Find me ONE pitcher who left because he didn't like the manager, with actual proof, not just things you've inferred because YOU don't like the manager. I'm pretty sure Sonny Gray has never wanted to come out of a game in his entire life, even if he'd given up 9 runs and couldn't throw a strike. So either he's hated every manager he's ever played for, or this is all just nonsense. BTW, his last season in MN, where he was the runner up for the AL Cy Young, Gray averaged 5.75 innings per start. In St. Louis the next season it was 5.92. This season it's 5.62. Does he hate Marmol now too?

Premier FA aren't going to look at MN as an attractive landing spot because the Pohlads are unlikely to issue a payroll that will accommodate their salary demands. They'll be able to sign free agents if they're willing to pay them. That's the basic reality with pro sports. Some teams have an advantage because playing in a bigger market is more attractive to many FA, but at the end of the day the biggest advantage those bigger markets have is their payroll. When things are evened out more (like the NFL) small markets have no trouble signing free agents so long as they pay them. Green Bay has no trouble signing people in the NFL. Hell, even a gross franchise with a disgusting racist owner and a lengthy track record of incompetence like the Clippers (Sterling Era) were still able to sign FA's...when they paid them. Players want to get paid (as they should). Meet their price and you can sign them. Don't and they'll go elsewhere.

They talked about this on the broadcast; apparently Buxton doesn't like it. It's something that he's not comfortable with. :shrug: (I'll expect the people screaming either about how much Buxton is paid and/or blaming this on Rocco being a bad manager in 3...2...1...)

The good thing about Pohlad ownership has been that they don't tend to pretend they know baseball well enough to interfere with the day to day baseball decisions, screw around with the manager or try to act like a de facto GM. The bad thing about the Pohlad ownership is almost every other business decision beyond getting Target Field build has been either wrong or poorly executed. Maybe you'd prefer to blame that all on Dave St. Peter, but I'd say the massive bungling of their media rights and reach is on ownership and hasn't just been a 1-time thing. The stunning tone-deafness at multiple points is on ownership. Joe Pohlad almost certainly is a baseball fan in a way that no other member of the family is. Which is a good thing...except for the fact that he hasn't shown any actually competence/success in his time as the family's ownership representative...and still has to answer to the rest of the clan (Jim still represents the team to the league, and it's not like this transaction has increased Joe's share of the team where he individually controls a chunk of it; it's still just part of the Pohlad companies). On the one hand, we're being asked to hope that he'll be able to convince the family of more investment in the team. On the other hand, we're running the risk that the 3rd generation rich kid is going to try and involve himself more on the baseball side to try and prove himself. The reporting says that the capital investment is going to pay down debt...but no one knows how much of that debt will get paid down, and we never will because they will never ever open their books to an independent evaluator that's allowed to speak publicly. And what about the Pohlad ownership should make anyone trust them at their word? And even if they're clearing their debt service off the operating costs, they're exactly the sort of owners that will just replace that with the money owed to Correa for the next 3 seasons, and keep payroll low for 2026 with the anticipation of lockout in 2027. The apparent business decisions of the Pohlad Family in relationship to the Twins after getting Target Field built (utilizing public financing and a lot of public funds) have given me nothing to believe we should be ok with them continuing to own the team.

Kind of loss that's representative of the Twins season: good enough to win, but managed to lose. They did a pretty good job against Skubal, who is a beast, and exactly the kind of pitcher capable to annihilating the Twins lineup. And yet they battled well against him. Ober was...ok? The 2-run homer was disappointing, and right now Ober seems to have these stretches where he just loses it for a bit and starts getting hit in an inning. But the changeup looked good and he overall looked more like the pitcher we've seen most of his Twins career against a good lineup. But the difference between being good and meh is whether or not you can finish off innings, and Ober couldn;t do it in the 4th. Very good game by Julien; 2 hits vs a LHP? First dinger Skubal has given up to a LH all season? That's good work, and he played a more than credible 1B. He hasn't been hitting enough in august and needs a lot more games like this or he's going to push himself out of any Twins plans (which I'm sure is what many around here are hoping for...)

Dan Barreiro burner account has just entered the chat.

I think you meant, "Mr. Ishbia"...

It's always going to be a threat when you have owners like the Pohlads. Is it likely, or the biggest threat to Twins fandom? No, but it's always going to be lurking. Stadium situations are usually the biggest impetus driving relocation, and the Twins status is still pretty good on that one.

people need to stop putting Wallner in the same group with Larnach. Wallner has been a much more productive hitter, and it's simply not close. Stylistically they might be similar but, Wallner's got a career OPS+ of 131; Larnach is at 99. Wallner has an OPS+ of 116 this season in a down year for him; Larnach's career high is 116.

Pohlads exited the banks years ago as well. If anything, the primary family business these days is commercial real estate, which is going through some real struggles as an industry. But they're diversified as well. The Twins are probably the single biggest, saleable asset though. "Stability" was a poor term for what we're likely to see for Twins leadership: stagnation is a better term at this point. I can respect loyalty and there is something to be said for not being reactionary in your decision-making for sports franchises; we've seen many times in pro sports how teams get sunk by wild/impulsive moves (are things going well for the Phoenix Suns?). And stable organizations tend to do better over the long term, and can often bring sustained success. But you also can't get complacent. You have to recognize when things are going in the wrong direction or when new voices are needed. And the Pohlads have pretty consistently shown complacency since '86. The only real instances of them being somewhat aggressive is moving out Bill Smith (who had a bunch of notable and high profile fails) and Molitor (who still got 4 full seasons). I don't have the hate or contempt for Falvey that some do around here, but he's had 9 years, and instead of getting us to sustainable winning, they've missed the playoffs 4 of the last 5 seasons and are back in a rebuild. Twins may not be losing 90+ games like they did in the late 90's or early '10s, but there's been a lot of mediocrity. They haven't developed enough hitters, even if the pitching pipeline that some like to mock constantly is actually looking pretty deep and strong. I don't have the hate or contempt for Rocco (and I refuse to make up stuff about him like some people do pretty consistently) than many around here do, but they've missed the playoffs 4 of the last 5 seasons and he's had 7 seasons to lead the squad. It's more than fair to say it's time for someone else to get a turn at the tiller. But it seems like we won't get that, and expectations appear to have been drastically lowered by ownership, back to the bad old days. Ownership is responsible for setting expectations of the baseball staff. They're responsible for making smart business decisions, and putting together a competent business operation to market the team and grow the fanbase. The Pohlad Family is a failure at that, and their version of "stability" is a continuation of that kind of failure.

Not the best day from the top prospects in the system! It'll happen. Good to see Eeles having some good days, but his OBP is still higher than his slugging for the season, and until he starts showing that he's got a little more pop back in his bat I don't see him as being an option beyond a reserve utility guy. The OPS he's carrying right now is not impressive in the international league. Have to wonder if the knee is still bothering him a bit in recovery and whether or not he'll be able to build back a stronger base to hit from. I was slightly less outraged by trading away Brock Stewart than many, simply because he's not a player you can realistically count on as a bullpen building block, but that doesn't mean I'm sold on Outman. He's going to have to do quite a bit more to convince me he can be part of anything here. That said, it would be hilarious if the Twins are able to "fix" him, considering how some people think the Dodgers are so great at player development that you shouldn't even consider someone they want to get rid of... Nice start by Langenberg. He had an awful start to the season but has looked substantially better in the last month. Still a long way to go for him, IMHO: the walk rates simply have to come down. He's only had 4 games this season where he was under 2 walks (out of 19) and even in this more recent and improved stretch he's handed out 2 free passes in each of the last 5. But it looks like he's starting to figure some things out. Good for DeBarge to have a couple of good games; really hope he can finish strong because he's been pretty rough for the past few months and right now we've seen the bad hitter for more games than the good one this season.