Linus

The AFL is certainly useful for players to get extra reps but I don’t think you can draw much meaningful information from it.

Really difficult to say as I have no idea what restrictions TP put on him. I liked that they made the change in the infield. That single move improved our defense and set us on a new course. I don’t really care about the trade deadline moves because I disagreed with the whole idea of “going for it” with this current team but I realize that Zoll probably didn’t have anything to do with that decision. I am assuming he endorses Falveys philosophies since he was hired by him and worked under him for a long time and that worries me because, at this point, it’s pretty clear (to me anyway) that Falveys principles did not work at a high enough level. Certainly Zoll could be different but it is going to take some time to find that out. I sure hope he is because if not, we could be treading water for a few more years.

Excited for both. That they are both 21 and one is in the big leagues is not insignificant.

Excited we have Taj. Wish other pitchers would have made the choice more difficult 😀

The atmosphere in Milwaukee looks fantastic. Would be nice to experience that again.

Interesting to watch teams with a different offensive approach than the Twins.

Yamamoto is fun to watch - kind of an old school pitcher. Bauers is someone the Twins could really use.

Baseball has some of the best team names in sports. I like it when the names have a real connection to the place where the teams are located. For this reason I like the Twins, Brewers and Mariners a lot. The original Dodger name was the Brooklyn Trolley Dodgers which is the coolest name ever however it makes no sense for LA. Names I don’t care for are more generic names like the Cubs, Royals and Guardians. what are some of your favorites and otherwise?

Good topic clearly the Twins will be more athletic and faster going forward. This should bode well for defense and baserunning.

Not my intention. Have a good rest of the weekend.

Nope. They didn’t “own” the Polanco asset any longer. They owned the trade return assets. My point is that it’s reasonable to assume there was more than one trade package to choose from. Given how poorly the return we got has been it’s likely they chose the wrong package. In business and economics the concept is called Opportunity Cost. Everyone should familiarize themselves with it as it’s useful for trade discussions.

But at the time of the trade he had value. What he did after doesn’t matter - they didn’t get good value.

I had no problem trading Polanco (although I would have dealt Julien) they simply didn’t make the right deal. Strange that you would make the same deal when we are likely to end up with nothing. I’m guessing there were other trade packages available.

Disagree. Polanco had value when traded. He fell off a cliff after.

Why would he want to come to the Twins? He’s approaching the end of his career and I assume would like to have a chance at a World Series.

This is it!

Seattle suckered Falvey into taking the guy. Their first response would be “no backs”.

Like what they wore in Grumpy Old Men. The plaid ones with ear flaps. How about a lumberjack theme? Plaid work shirts with wool knickers!

Taj has become a favorite for me. The stuff is electric so if he improves his command even a little he is going to be a beast. The splitter is just okay. He should experiment with a different off speed option.

Ty France is a complete sucker bet. Pay for his one career year and wait for the contract to expire.

I should have included the sarcasm emoji I would rather have Lowe anyway.

The allure of Marek Houston. I believe you have read about him here 😀

First thing is the notion Falvey was the architect of Cleveland’s pitching prowess is complete bunk. I’ve been saying it since he was hired: there is no evidence that he was responsible for the run of strong pitching in Cleveland. Certainly he was privy to the philosophy and principles of their pitching system but they were just fine without him and Cleveland’s expertise in this area certainly didn’t land here with Falvey. The Twins have a schizophrenic history developing pitching during the Falvey era. The first part of his tenure he refused to use high picks on pitchers - they failed miserably drafting and developing homegrown pitchers. Ober, Jax and Varland are your success stories for homegrown pitchers in 10 years. However Falvey was very good at obtaining pitchers via trade. Once he acquired them they often improved with the Twins - think Ryan, Lopez and now Taj Bradley. Of course this acquisition method is far more costly than drafting and developing your own but the bottom line is he assembled some good rotations. His history with bullpens is even weirder. They obviously could identify pitchers who had something to build on but then were not able to complete the job. It also appears they have been poor at self scouting. You could assemble a great bullpen right now from guys they let walk let alone traded for nothing. So he gets an F, I mean an A, or a D+. The Twins have some talent depth for their rotation currently. It’s really important that we can form a solid rotation for several years from this group because down on the farm, pitching is bleak, barren and almost nonexistent.

This makes some sense. Lowe could transition to first for Clemens if / when Houston is ready to come up. People need to remember that Houston still has to hit at two higher levels before he is a mainstay. That is not guaranteed. Free agency for first baseman is horrible so we need to get more creative to add a difference making bat.

I’m not worried about metrics at this point. He’s got the athleticism to be a big leaguer - now we just hope for good progress.