Danchat

Don't want to overreact to a small sample size, but I think Bride can be a solid bench player going forward. Gasper and Clemens belong in AAA and should be the first to go once the hitters start getting healthy.

Jax's last 5 innings: 0 runs allowed, 11 Ks, 3 hits, 0 BBs. 🔥

I see Will Holland is rehabbing... I think I'd take him over Clemens and Gasper once he's ready to go.

Props for the correct prediction!

I’m surprised the discussion here is more about the bullpen when the primary cause of loss is only scoring one run. The pitching staff going 8 innings with only 1 run allowed is a formula for success.

Welp. Not going to win many games scoring 1 run.

The bats were going to eventually get hot. And with the starting pitching playing up to our expectations, they're going to win some games. Just gotta hope we stay as healthy as possible.

I was going to attend it this year but didn't for health reasons, you don't have to pay to be part of the massive crowd. Only the seats in the draft theater and a handful of other special packages cost money. 99% of people there are attending the free festival.

And Sanders goes to the Browns... great value, but why did they waste a 3rd on Dillon Gabriel who is considerably inferior to him? Odd situation.

Fair enough, the draftniks I like think he was bad. I didn't realize he was barely 5' 11". Shough was a questionable one but I know some people who loved his tape. The only issue was he would go "blue screen of death" 1-2 times a game. Kinda reminds me of Darnold. Shough is also likely to be the last player ever to be born in the 1990s.

Yup, they chose to go with the likes of Armando Alvarez and Ryan Fitzgerald as their AAA infielders and don't have any low-end prospects to play there. Is Will Holland also hurt?

Felton was a bit of a reach on my board, but the production and measurables were very strong so I'll ignore the low grades from the draftniks and say that I like this pick. Maybe he can push Nailor for WR3 and add some depth, as I don't trust Rondale Moore and there's nothing behind Nailor/Moore. Even without the Sanders name, he's head and shoulders better than Dillon Gabriel, who is a borderline-draftable QB who is way worse in every respect that the Browns blew a 3rd on. He was at the very least worth a 3rd round pick, similar to how Malik Willis and Desmond Ridder wound up in 2022. If I had a 4th round pick, I'd bet on him, the kid will be motivated and have a massive chip on his shoulder. That's if they can keep the Deion circus away, of course, which is why he's still sitting out there.

Absolutely they have a ceiling, for pass blocking you can look at win rate / sack rate allowed and to get in the nitty gritty you could analyze how long they can last in pass pro. In run blocking, alongside of winning against the DL in front of him, you can examine how effectively he gets to the second level and can block guys in open space. My draft board is an aggregation of several sources - all my favorite draftniks had a 2nd round grade on him and his PFF scores in college are at a concerning level. There are some things to pick apart there, with his ratings understandably dropping when he played LT. At LG, he was a very good pass protector but his run blocking grades are at a level that could be a problem. That's why I don't see Jackson becoming more than a slightly above average starting guard but it's not impossible for a player to be a better pro than college player. He does have a 9.0 RAS on a limited scouting report which boosted him up, some noted that he is limited athletically but he should be good enough there. As for the other guards, Zabel had dominant grades (notably against poor competition) and has top tier athleticism. But his grades are way higher than Jackson/Booker. I actually have Booker at #60 as his PFF grades were worse than Jackson's and his RAS was very bad. He reminds me of Chance Warmack, who was a top 10 drafted guard about a decade back who was supposed to be a stud and completely busted. OL can overcome low RAS (see Orlando Brown Jr) but they are the exception. If the Vikings took him, I would probably get a lot of heat for hating that pick. Not to mention he's not a fit for their blocking scheme barring major changes.

Players I'd like to see the Vikings land in Round 3: RB RJ Harvey RB Damien Martinez RB DJ Giddens WR Savion Williams DT Omar Norman-Lott DT Joshua Farmer DT Vernon Broughton S Kevin Winston Jr CB Jacob Parrish CB Nohl Williams

I figured he'd continue to improve if they kept giving him chances. There may still be some more bumps in the road for him, but I think Varland will be a quality reliever for the next couple seasons. So far, another successful transition from starter to reliever.

His ceiling isn't as high as several other prospects out there. I think LB Jihaad Campbell can easily become a top 10 LB in the league and the Eagles were able to nab him at #31 (apparently they called the Packers and Vikings to jump up and land him in that range). And I think there are players at edge/WR/CB who will outperform Jackson who were on the board. I saw similar rationalizations to when they took Ed Ingram in the 2nd round in 2022 - they needed a guard and he was the last "startable" guy left in his group but he was a consensus 4th rounder, so they reached on him and big surprise, he's a bust. Jackson is a far better player and doesn't have the incredibly questionable off-the-field history Ingram did, but in my opinion they're settling for a guy with a lower ceiling in exchange for being able to plug him in at LG right away and be an every-down player. He was a 7th rounder. It would be nice if the Vikings could develop Day 3 players into starters, at least every once in a while. Or if Ingram could be an average starter, we wouldn't have needed to pick Jackson.

That was the same logic to why they took Ed Ingram in 2022, despite him being a consensus 4th rounder. Jackson's prospect profile is way better than him but this process is what leads to future regrets. I saw a medical report on Twitter (hard to trust, of course) that said his knees were in bad shape, seems like NFL teams concurred. If healthy he'd be a great pick but if other NFL doctors are giving him a red flag I'd listen to them.

I don't like reaching for Jackson, who is a clear 2nd round talent and another example of this regime drafting for need over BPA, but it's not a terrible move. He is a natural LG who can play LT in a pinch but is much better at guard. It was disappointing to see the two teams who traded after us were both able to move down, which is what I would have preferred. The Rams moved down to the 2nd round and picked up a 2026 1st, which is gnarly. I am a bit disappointed but I think they at least have an average starter at LG instead of going with Brandel and hoping Rouse/Jurgens could push him.

For those interested, I'm predicting picks live here on my draft board: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1v1cx09ZI-Qj5Im4EDU8uYfgw3vXo46snzTWFHgYAaxE/edit?gid=2122586536#gid=2122586536

Not often do you have 10 outs in RISP situations in a span of 5 innings...

I don't think either Cartaya or Camargo are going to be major league contributors, but it's not as if they have any catchers in the system that is going to push them out of their spots any time soon. I expect both will be DFA'd after the season is over unless they get an early axing.

It's already been pointed out, but Rocco leaves in his starters longer than the average manager does and unfortunately this is a modern baseball thing. The next manager isn't going to keep our starters out there for another inning on average. Sure, he could leave his starters in a bit longer but I have that same critique for most of our opponents we face. Methinks bullpen burnout has more to do with bad starters having short starts, not because of the manager. And with the improved rotation we've had the past few years, our pen hasn't been as taxed. Their usage this season is in line with other MLB teams.

While I agree with the article's main points about the organization itself being the root of the failure and not the manager, we could learn a lot after Rocco gets canned. Does his replacement A) provide no improvement whatsoever, B) improves but plays at a .500 level which doesn't get us anywhere, or C) massively increase and put this team back in contention. I think C is incredibly unlikely given the talent of this roster and B would be the worst outcome because it would allow the front office to continue treading water. A is more of what I'd expect as the new manager would likely continue to do a lot of the things that people hate about Rocco's management like with starters leaving early / bullpen management / lineups being different. And I agree with the "he's responsible for when they are underachieving but gets zero credit for when they overachieve" point, however, we're on track for 4 of the previous 5 seasons being incredibly disappointing as 2019-20 begin to disappear behind the horizon. It's a "what have you done for me lately" league and right now 2023 looks like the outlier. I do wonder how responsible Levine was for some of the FA and trade errors made in recent years and that's why he's gone. I appreciate the analysis, though I'd like to see more of a deeper dig into the farm system's issue with developing hitters / fielders and also having zero international successes in a long span of time.

I understand Jax is the main focus here, but are we going to talk about how Sands allowed the Braves to make the death blow by allowing two hits right after he came in? The game was salvageable if he could have held there. I agree, though it might be time to bump him back to the 7th inning or lower leverage situations. I don't think it's time to treat him like Colome or Pagan yet but we could be getting there.

Gotcha, didn't hear about that until now. We're definitely going to need him.