Rik19753

Exactly. The front office clearly doesn't believe in Gordon long-term, so why is he on the 40-man when Baddoo and Wells aren't? And I know it's impossible to predict who will turn out to be good, but if you are filling those fringe roster spots with veteran placeholders and low-upside prospects who are close to the majors in order to maximize your chances of winning, you shouldn't be getting any excuses if you aren't even able to compete.

Exactly. On one hand, you trade Gil, who turns out to be a pretty good pitching prospect, for a 4th OF. On the other hand, you trade Wade, who was at least going to be a serviceable 4th OF, for Shaun Anderson, who you end up releasing in a few months. So if you are comfortable giving up a decent pitching prospect for Cave, you at least have to get something similar in return for Wade, not a Shaun Anderson.

I would be shocked if they traded for a #2/3 type pitcher. They certainly aren't going to trade for a pitcher on a one-year contract because that wouldn't make any sense given that they traded Berrios. And I can't envision them trading for a pitcher with multiple years remaining because they have had a dozen better opportunities to do so when this team was in contention, yet they passed up all of those chances. I think it's pretty clear at this point that they aren't comfortable trading multiple quality prospects, which is what it will take to get a front-of-the rotation starter. I could certainly see them trading a low-level prospect for a back of the rotation pitcher though.

I understand the frustration, but out of the pitchers that are ready right now, Jax is one of the best and only options that we have. The reality is that most of our pitchers are still a year away or injured. There is nothing to lose by starting Jax for the rest of the season. We have to take the good with the bad with a pitcher like Jax. While he has been very bad the last 2 starts, he had a stretch of 5 games before that where he had a ERA under 3 against some very tough competition. We shouldn't be so quick to write him off when he's still so inexperienced. You can't expect everyone to start contributing immediately.

9/1 against the Cubs would be the perfect time to give him his first start. The Cubs lineup looks like a AAA lineup, so it'll be like he's still in St.Paul. Would be a nice way for him to get acclimated to the majors and possibly pick up his first win.

Give the guy a break, he had 3 walk-off hits in the last week and ranks near the top of the league in WPA. He's not going to come though for us every single time. Not to mention that he was up against one of the best pitchers in the league.

I think seasons like these are the most opportune time to bring up prospects to see what they have. The front office has made it clear in multiple occasions that they would choose a veteran player over an unproven prospect when the team is contending, so this seems like the perfect time to give guys like Moran an audition. If you aren't going to promote prospects when you are contending, but you also don't want to call them up in a lost season due to service time reasons, when are they going to get a chance?

This team has so much potential with even an average pitching staff. I wonder how different our season would look if Happ, Shoemaker, Robles and Colome had league-average ERAs. I think an argument could be made that replacing Berrios, Happ, Shoemaker and Robles with Jax, Gant, Juan Minaya and Edgar Garcia is a net plus, which is laughable.

I feel like the negativity towards the front office is well-deserved. There is no denying that there have been plenty of head-scratching moves both before and during the season that raise serious questions about where this franchise is headed. While it is much too early to be calling for their heads, I think it is fair to criticize them for what has transpired this season, especially since the FO has gotten much of the praise for recent success when much of said success was driven by the core that the previous FO had assembled. The biggest problem I have with their roster management this season is letting players like LaMonte Wade and Akil Baddoo go in favor of Nick Gordon. I understand the reasoning behind leaving Baddoo unprotected and trading Wade; The Twins had a surplus of talent at OF, favored veteran players like Cave more than raw players like Baddoo and Wade, and in Baddoo's case, they thought the chances of him being selected were slim. What I don't understand is what did had to gain by keeping Gordon instead of these two players. I would understand this if they thought Gordon could contribute to this team this year or if they liked his long-term potential, but clearly the FO believes neither of those things. If Gordon is not even worth trying in the Majors in a season where we have absolutely nothing to lose, why keep him in the first place? Why are we content to let younger players with more upside like Baddoo and Wade go when you don't believe that the player you are keeping instead will amount to anything?