KnoblauchWasFramed

Byron Buxton in 11 seasons with the Twins - 2 All Star Games - I Gold/Platinum Glove - 2 seasons with over 100 total hits but 5 seasons with over 100 strike outs - 2 seasons over 20 stolen bases - 1 season with a WAR over 5.0 - 3 seasons with over 100 games played - 7 official playoff at bats - 1 season with 30 home runs. That is all.

It's amazing how this team can take a starter who has amazing potential and works as a starter all the way through the minors just to hit the big leagues and get moved to a relief arm almost immediately. Jhoan Duran being the most recent famous case of this. The Twins just bail out instantly the second a young starter starts to show the slighest flaw. No attempt to repair the kid, just off to the bullpen and then sign a dumpster diving washed up starter in Free Agency for $12M a year. Griffin Jax and Louie Varland as the most recent famous cases of this.

Terrific - with that being said this will be the third year in a row I won't be at a single Twins game. Officially the longest stretch of my life.

Right now this lineup looks to match all of the "Piss & Vinegar" that the 1997, 1998, 1999, and 2000 Twins lineups had. Buckle in boys and girls - this is going to be a really rough ride.

"Taylor Rogers Brings More Than Left-Handed Relief to 2026 Twins" Does he tho.... ??

A couple of guys in the Twins FO - probably; "Wasn't he an All Star with us?" "Sure was, he just can't strike anyone out anymore." "Wish we had him 5 years ago..." "We did have him 5 years ago." "9 years ago then."

Looking like a 65 win team as is right now. Depending on what further free agents are added to fill out the roster I would guess that, based on recent history of signings, this bumps the Twins up to around 68-70 wins. Awesome!!

Not gonna lie - seems like a stupid trade. He would have been on the 40 man roster, yes, but he also likely competes for the backup spot behind Jeffers and could have maybe been ready to contribute at the MLB level. But now, instead, we have a teenage prospect who is years away from even AAA. We already have two catching prospects that fit the exact same situation. Should have kept Susac and given him a shot to make the team this season.

Two years ago, I hit .675 and had 8 home runs in D League Slow Pitch Softball. Does Cody Christie think I could also have a shot at playing First Base for the Twins next year too?

This is the same BS that you've seen constantly in the NBA, NFL, and the NCAA. The "Good 'Ol White Boy Network". The constant and constant rehiring of mediocre white guys that only fail upwards. In case you haven't heard the phrase failing upwards before, it's the phenomenon that involves coaches receiving new or better job opportunities despite a track record of losing or underwhelming performances. In a sport dominated for decades by black and Latino players, the Twins can't tell their fans with a straight face that there weren't literally dozens of better choices than this. Torii Hunter was 100% not qualified to manage a team yet, but I would roll the dice on someone like him and see what you get before hiring someone like Shelton who we already know isn't a winner and likely never will be. James Rowson would have been such a better fit for this team helping the young guys develop their hitting skills like he's been doing with the Yankees. I hate everything about this hiring, what it says about the future of this team, and what a middle finger it is to the fans. And as a mediocre white man myself I know what I am talking about.

Trade them both. Seriously, they are both “failed” starters who found that they could be successful one inning at a time three times a week. Literally every year Falvey drafts 3-4 new starting pitchers who will also all eventually “fail” as starters and can also just as easily transition to the bullpen and be dominant three times a week just like Duran and Jax did. If we can get several top prospects for these guys then you have to do it. To keep them on the team after this specific point in time when their trade values could never be higher would be criminal. The Twins aren’t going to be competitive next year or probably the year after that. Even if the team was sold this offseason it would still take a completely new regime 2-3 years to get the guys they want and take the team in the direction they want to go. So why keep any asset right now? Build for 2028.

Damn, I am having the BIGGEST case of Déjà vu ever right now. I keeping having flashbacks to this time when some guy name Ron Gardenhire used to run the team in the mid 2000s. And he for sure had his core of “Gardy’s Boys” on the team that could do no wrong and constantly got second and third and forth chances that some of them never deserved. But I digress. Anyway, I always remember that the weirdest phenomenon would happen right around mid to late July. Gardy’s boys would all of the sudden come up lame with some random injury that was never too serious but was just enough to either require a quick stay on the DL which would carry over the trade deadline or an injury that was just enough to make them a tough sell for a contending team to take a chance on. So year after year Gardy’s boys always made it past the trade deadline safe and secure. And yes I am talking about Hunter, Punto, Dougie Baseball, Kubel, Koskie, Radke, Bartlett – etc etc etc. So it’s kind of weird that in his one and only season where he has any trade value Buxton has a random injury that is not all that serios, but is just enough to get him over the trade deadline. Now before you scream it at me I already know that BUXTON HAS A NO TRADE CLAUSE and he just said over the All Star Game that he IS A TWIN FOR LIFE. Yea, yea, yea. But if a team that is always in contention every year came in with some unbelievable deal and Buxton could have the chance to play for a winner and not a team just starting on a 3 year rebuild do we all really believe that he wouldn’t at least consider the opportunity? A guy who has only won one playoff series in his career and could be 34-35 by the next time the Twins are competitive??? But now, with this injury, this is all academic and a moot point. But… the parallels are pretty coincidental, you must give me that.

Let's see where to start here – The Owners - Aren't interested in baseball and have no desire to do anything with the Twins business that improves it. But then, on the same hand, they are already do-nothing billionaires who inherited everything they have so run around acting like movie directors or whatever the heck they’re into this week. And they are holding strong on a $1.5B asking price for something that is probably, at best, worth $1.2B. Already getting all of that money without having done any of the work and still have to shake down the extra $300M instead of just walking away. The Front Office – I understand that they were given strict restrictions on what they could spend on payroll every year, and things have downgraded over the last two years on that front. But this does not in any way alleviate the failures they have consistently had in the draft year after year. (The failure to develop players is coming up next with the manager and coaches) There are times where they make stretches in the draft and take someone way early and present it as some kind of outside of the box move filled with tons of information that no other GM had. But when those surprise picks almost all fail and never even make the Major League team then clearly you were full of crap and you had no idea what you were doing. It only works if those players develop into everyday players. Management – Rocco “The Spreadsheet” has consistently just not gotten better in all of these years. He still has not developed “on the fly” or “in the moment” decision making skills. He constantly changes the lineup in non sensical ways and still can’t figure out how to properly and effectively run a pitching staff / bullpen. It’s one thing to use sabermetrics as a tool and for some assistance, but it’s another to only rely on them and allow them to determine every decision you make like you’re a computer. Beyond that, after Joe Ryan, can you name any players, pitchers and batters, that have developed once they joined the Major League team? Young players tear up the minor leagues and then almost immediately plateau and hit a median line of production and then never seem to progress and get better as the weeks and months go by. The last coach who showed any actual ability to develop pitchers and bullpen arms quit on Rocco midseason and went back to coach in college – literally something that has never happened before or since. And don’t even let me get started on Tommy Watkins… This team doesn’t even know what small ball is. The team doesn’t bunt, doesn’t steal, doesn’t move runners over. Since 2019 it’s been home run or not much else. This isn’t a home run hitting team and Rocco has refused to accept that and work with what he has – small ball guys that need to learn how to generate runs without the long ball. Players – For the last several years, and the playoff year included, there have been constant issues with lack of drive and desire by a lot of the key names on this team. The only real sparkplug lately had been Royce Lewis, but then he gets injured again and again so it doesn’t really help all that much. Buxton has really shined this year – finally. But there were plenty of other times that Twins fans tried to cover up where he was a horrible hitter who just swung away and would strike out 3 and sometime 4 times a game multiple times a week. Correa has just overall failed since he’s been here. Wallner, Larnach, Lee, Ober, Jeffers, etc etc etc are all filled with all of the potential in the world yet none of them seem to get any better. Not all of that is on them specifically as the coaches have consistently failed them. But there should also be some of their own personal internal development happening that just isn’t. Overall – This team is sliding more and more every year to being in the Pittsburgh Pirates, Colorado Rockies, and Miami Marlins neighborhood. Owners that just want to make some form of profit no matter how small that is and refuse to invest into the team – the whole just treat it like another business and have no fun with it routine. It’s already very had to get free agents to want to come here and it’s only getting worse each year. Even if the Twins were allowed to spend money, how much are they going to have to be overpaying players to come here now??

These trade deadline articles never fail to bring a smile to my face year after year. Every time the Twins give up their best player and do not ever remotely get enough in return, This team can't ever develop front line starting pitching but somehow got this much out of Joe Ryan. So clearly move him and bring in a young hitter to work with these bunch of clowns who constantly have top hitting prospects immediately level off and never seem to improve. Ryan Jeffers, Matt Wallner, Trevor Larnach, Brooks Lee, Eduard Julien, Jose Miranda - etc etc etc. Guys who rake with minor league managers and coaches and then regress in record time once they meet Rocco and the boys. Not remotely enough of a return - and even if it was, I wouldn't trust the Twins major league guys to help develop any of them. But I know this article was for clickbait so I won't give you too much grief because it did generate a lot of comments.

I guess I will have to be the one to give the "Unpopular Hot Take" on this one, so here it is – unload almost anything and everything that you can, with some obvious exceptions. The Twins need to be major sellers and not looking to buy anyone that isn't a prospect. If Buxton is willing to waive his No Trade Clause, which I 100% believe he would in order to get a chance to play for a winning team who is currently in position to make the playoffs this year and beyond. It's time to move on - we have already had several years to see what he has to offer when he wasn't injured and it was still, at best, highly highly streaky. He is already 31 years old and is at the stage where the normal regressions start even if he was a full-time injury free player. He could be 34 the next time the Owners allow the Twins to be competitive. And best of all, his value has literally NEVER been higher and could likely NEVER be this high again. The next round or players are the obvious ones like sell Ty France, Chris Paddack, Kody Clemens, Harrison Bader, and Christian Vazquez to anyone who is willing to take them on. At best you are looking at 5-7 lottery tickets, which is fine, because they serve no real value over the next two years while the Twins figure out the ownership situation. And I would look to grab as many Catcher and First Base prospects you can get. The next round of players that could actually bring back a Top 100 prospect or two would be Willi Castro, Brock Stewart, and Danny Coulombe. These guys are guys that could slip right into key roles for a playoff contention team immediately. And, again, they have no real role in the team over the next few years and would be past their primes by the time the team is competitive again. And then you have the big boys, the guys that should bring back 2-3 prospects each with at least one Top 10 in that haul. Griffin Jax and Jhoan Duran. Just like with Buxton, their value would never be higher than right now for a team who is for sure making the playoffs and wants to lock down their 8th and 9th innings. These guys were both former starters who got moved into bullpen roles and flourished. There is no reason to think the Twins can’t do this again easily with other guys in 2-3 years. They are team favorites, but in the end, they are expendable and replaceable as bullpen arms and could command a real bounty in return. I would not look, however, to move Joe Ryan, Bailey Ober, Pablo Lopez, David Festa, or Zebby Mathews. Unlike bullpen arms, the Twins had historically struggled to develop young pitchers that have major league success and to replace them with free agents is not going to happen with current ownership. In fact, I would look to lock down Ryan and Ober with extensions that get them to age 34 range. The Twins could have the top 4 rotation spots locked down when they are competitive again and would not need to get into the $30M a year free agent market. Take these guys and hope that Royce Lewis, Matt Wallner, Trevor Larnach, and Brooks Lee get it figured out along with some of the other prospects the Twins have coming up over the next two seasons. And again – the Twins really should look to bring in some high end Catching and First Base prospects. That it something that needs to finally be addressed since they haven’t down so in the draft. It sucks to watch players leave but you also have to face the facts that this is not a playoff team – it’s just not. And maybe the Twins get new owners by next season and they can further develop the younger core mentioned above and then supplement with free agents as needed. Or, maybe some of the prospect haul develops rapidly and they Twins can use that collateral to make blockbuster trades to push the team over the top.

Below is a post I made back on 04/13/2022 talking about the Twins horrible draft ,missed on high draft pick pitchers; It is truly amazing on how quick the Twins will highly draft, or trade for, a pitcher with all of the potential in the world to greatly impact the Twins rotation for years to come and then turn that pitcher into a bullpen option. Or worse, the pitcher never even has a career. 2010 (RD – Pick) Alex Wimmers (1-21) – 0 Career Starts Pat Dean (3-20) - 9 Career Starts 2011 Hudson Boyd (1-50) – 0 Career Appearances Madison Boer (2-27) – 0 Career Appearances Corey Williams (3-27) – 0 Career Appearances 2012 Jose Berrios (1-32) – 148 Career Starts Luke Bard ( 1-42) – 3 Career Starts Mason Melotakis (2-3) - 0 Career Appearances JT Chargois (2-12) - 0 Career Starts 2013 Kohl Stewart (1-4) - 9 Career Starts Ryan Eades (2-4) – 0 Career Starts Stephen Golsalves (4-4) – 4 Career Starts 2014 Nick Burdi (2-5) - 0 Career Starts Michael Cederoth (3-5) – 0 Career Appearances Jake Reed (5-5) - 1 Career Start John Curtis (6-5) - 5 Career Starts Jorge Alcala (IFA) - 0 Career Starts (Currently In Bullpen) Jhoan Duran (IFA) - 0 Career Starts (Currently In Bullpen) 2015 Tyler Jay (1-6) - 0 Career Appearances (Currently Out Of Baseball) 2016 Griffin Jax (3-16) - 14 Career Starts (Currently In Bullpen) 2017 Blayne Enlow (3-1) – On 40 Man Roster (AAA)

*** Amazing Side Note *** Not related to this current story but I just realized again this morning that Opening Day is less than two weeks away now and I still have no actual solid idea on how I'm going to be watching Twins games. I have DirecTV and I have not been able to find anything anywhere that tells me if I am either going to be paying them more to watch the Twins on a new dedicated channel/network, or if my only option is to get the Twins App for streaming games... and if so, is this available on SmartTVs or just my phone? Is anyone else in the same position, or is it just me right now? Does anyone have information on what's going on with the Twins on this???

The fact that this team has not only mastered the ability to draft and "develop" injury prone players but also the ability to go out and find and trade for injury prone players as well is quite the wild accomplishment.

I loved Luis Arraez. I loved Alex Kirilloff. I love Edouard Julien. I love Royce Lewis. I love Brooks Lee. Hi, it me. I'm the problem. It's me.

You never want to be a team that drafts poorly. And you never want to be a team that has a horrible medical staff that constantly misses and/or misdiagnosis and/or improperly treats injuries, Amazingly, the Twins have consistently been a team that does both epically at the same time.

Bro... seriously? Taylor has owned the team for 30 years.... they have made it out of the first round of the playoffs twice. One point of that run they didn't make a playoff appearance for 14 straight seasons. They lost more than 50 games 11 times while winning more than 50 games 5 times. Correct, spending money hasn't always been an issue, but the same can be said about the Twins in several of the last Target Field seasons for the Twins. The problem is the incompetence shown when spending that money. The Twins have exceeded expectations and surprised us several times by spending money on free agents... the problem however... is the money was almost always spent poorly. It was like the Twins spent the extra money just for the sake of saying that they did it and then took no real regard for who they spent in on. Their obvious philosophy was "why spend $30M on one top flight player when we can spend $30M on 4-5 trash players" - this was almost always exclusively done with pitching. Glen Taylor, just like the Pohlads, was a billionaire who bought an asset and then refused to have fun with it and required that it must always turn a massive profit above all else. And when they had to spend money they showed how inept and incompetent they were. That's why it is a HARD PASS on anyone like Glen Taylor.

Spending more money on dumpster diving finds is still dumpster diving.

Here we are again with the every other day article on trading Bailey Ober for someone else's castaway's. I know these articles are filler material and all that this time of year, but bro, can you at least throw out reasonable and logical scenarios for us to chew on???? Mountcastle hit 33 homeruns - once - 4 years ago. Since that time his numbers have literally slid every single since season. Last year he played 124 games and had 507 at bats - definitely not part time bench player numbers. He is a full time player so that is not an excuse. He threw up a .271/.308/.425 line with 13 HRs and 63 RBIs in that top notch Orioles line up. Not horrible but nothing to give anything of huge value for. So for that you are suggesting that in addition to giving up the Twins #2 starter with four years of control AND one of the Twins highest pitching prospects on top of that --- for Ryan Mountcastle !?!?!?! That's like Randy Dobnek and a prospect in the 20s range at best.

His line is an amazing .236/.284/.373 for last season. The Twins literally have like 3 other guys putting up the same numbers. So, if anything, I will say that the Twins clearly have a type.

As I have already said several times this offseason, these trade evaluation articles are always great for their comedic value, I will give the writer that. I mean clearly this article was written tongue in cheek and without any sincerity...... right?? Seriously though, another analysis where we are giving up one or more of our best players for some mid level pick up that would NEVER counter off the actual cost of losing Ober or Ryan??