LA Vikes Fan

This is actually a big blow. Banda had 18th St. scoreless appearances before giving up the two run homer to Colorado. FranklY, the BP just got a lot thinner.

Agreed. This is a no-brainer. Paredes should stay and be a multi-inning reliever in the bullpen. He can take Adams' spot. He could also pitch some short relief to keep him sharp. In any event, when we look at the Twins roster and minor-league system and we tried to decide who are the eight best pitchers to put in that bullpen, Paredes is easily in the top 8 and he should be there. In fact, Ober's return should definitely help the bullpen precisely because Paredes can now be part of the bullpen.

I think the Twins see real potential with Keaschall and are trying to find a spot where he can maximize that potential. He's only 23. and has hit .268/.349/.3685 (.717) in 456 ABs, with 52 walks and only 77 SOs. That's 508 plate appearances, basically 85-90% of one season's worth of regular time, and he has a .717 OPS, 10.2% BB rate, and a 15.2% SO rate. He has speed and a .349 OBP. That's a decent regular NOW, and he is more likely than not going to get better with more experience. He has shown hitting competence at the MLB level while Emma, Jenkins, and GG are still trying to conquer AAA. Now, playing him in the OF may be holding back Roden who actually has conquered AAA, but I would argue its Fedko being on the roster and rostering a DH only player like Bell is what is keeping Roden down for now. There is absolutely no reason why the Twins don't demote Fedko, promote Roden, and find Roden 15-20 ABs a week. Even better, demote Fedko, trade Bell, and now you have space to give a bunch of guys regular ABs. This season should be about finding the core for next year and beyond. Keaschall could be an integral part of that core, he could be a bench guy, he could be a AAAA player. We will never know if he is a keeper if he doesn't play. He's shown that 2B isn't going to be his long-term spot. I applaud Shelton for trying him in RF and giving him ABs. This is the year to find out if he can make it now. Same for Lee, same for Lewis, same for Kriedler. The jury is still out on all of these guys. PLAY THEM and FIND OUT.

Any word on Banda? Assuming he’s now out through the ASB, time to get either Rojas back or promote CJ Culpepper or, in my view, do both. I would promote Culpepper to replace Funderburk. Rojas comes up as an injury replacement for Banda who goes on the IL, otherwise both Rojas and Lawyerson have to stay down in AAA until their 15 days are up before they can come back. I understand they would like to stretch out Rojas as a starter, but it looks like Ober is close. I would rather have Rojas as a late inning reliever for this season and stretching back out for next year. When Ober comes back, Parades can move to the bullpen and Adams can go back down. Here’s what I would do for the upcoming road trip. Roden or Wallner comes up for Fedko. Which ever one comes up plays RF in Houston since they’re starting three right handed pitchers. I go with Roden since I have no interest in seeing Wallner try to field in the outfield again. Rojas and Culpepper come up for Banda and Funderburk for some bullpen help.

Well, looks like the two new BP callups are not going to provide much bullpen help. Both not only got hammered, but threw at least 50% un competitive pitches. You cannot survive at the major league level, throwing pitches that are a foot out of the strike zone. They will just sit there, wait you out, take their walks, and hammer anything that actually comes in.You guys have a great rest of the game. I’m out.

I was one of the guys that said maybe Funderburk is as good as he was last year and it was a sick wife and new baby that was causing him to lose focus.I admit now I was wrong. He just isn’t good enough to pitch at this level. Pitched two days in a row, isn’t available tomorrow, so send him back down and replace him. Leave him there this time.

I now remember why we cut Funderburk. He isn’t good. Can’t throw enough strikes.

Agree Mike, except on Ryan. Have to trade Jeffers and makes sense to trade Larnach, Bell, and Wallner (if anyone will trade for him). Bell and Wallner can be traded for prospects, but I do expect at least one MLB ready reliever for. Larnach or I don’t trade him. Someone floated Larnach and a 20-30 prospect to the Padres for 22 year old reliever Bradley Rodriguez plus maybe an A ball lottery ticket. That’s the kind of deal you want for him and I would do that deal in a heartbeat. Im not trading Ryan unless blown away by MLB talent coming back. We can trade him for high-end prospects in the off-season, no need to do it now. The return isn’t gonna be much better at the deadline for someone at his level. I say keep him and then if he cannot be resigned, trade him this the off-season. Also, I’m not trading Clemens. He has a lot of control years left, has value because of his versatility, and you’re not gonna get much for him at the deadline. He’s worth more to us than he is to other teams. Other than that, I’m with you.

Player of the game was Andrew Morris. Came in with the ghost runner on second, made the great defensive play, and shut them down. He’s been inconsistent but he may be a keeper. Has the closer mentality.

I guess I have a different role in mind for him. I agree that having a guy in the BP who is only used for 3 plus innings and then who has to wait 4-6 days between outings isn't very useful. My thought would be to see if he can be a 2 inning middle guy pitching every 3rd day. He could be a bridge guy between our short starters Paredes and Preilipp and the late inning bullpen guys by covering the 5th and 6th or 6th and 7th innings. We could use those appearances to try to get him back on track to be a starter again next year. It would be better to have him work things out in AAA but with no options I doubt any team will get that chance. I think its worth a host and frankly, I don't see any better options in AAA with Funderburk and Raya now up.

I started a blog on that. I'm in, let's resign SWR and put him in the BP. We can create space by Iling/waiving/retiring Taylor Rogers. Great guy, franchise Icon, but Rogers is done. SWR was a decent pitcher as recently as last season. The way things are going we are going to need starters later this year and we already need BP help. Let's grab him, put him in the BP and see if we can figure out and fix what's wrong. It's worth a shot.

Hey, we may be on to something. Tonight's lineup has Clemens at 2B and Keaschall in RF. It also has Gray at SS but I'll let that moment of lunacy slide. Larnach is in LF with Martin on the bench. Fedko is getting coffee for the rest of the guys while waiting for his demotion back to AAA.

In an interesting and perhaps ironic twist, Toronto just designated SWR for assignment. Since going to Toronto, SWR has pitched 10 innings in three appearances, 2 3 inning appearances and one 4 inning appearance. His line is 4 hits, 7 walks, and 5 strikeouts. Whip of 1.10, FIP of 4.20. Middle/long relief only, no saves or save opportunities. He did finish one game so that suggests he was the mop up guy in a blowout. So here's the question - Do you pick SWR up on waivers to return to Minnesota? We won't get a chance to get him as a free agent because Toronto can assign him to AAA; he doesn't have previous DFAs or enough time to refuse the assignment. To get him, we either have to trade probably using the ubiquitous "cash considerations" or claim him on waivers. I say YES! Let's get him back and see if we can fix him in the bullpen. We make space by waving Taylor Rogers, putting him on the IL, or allowing him to retire with a nice press conference and sendoff ceremony. He is cooked. SWR was it good pitcher as recently as last year. This all assumes he's willing to go into the Bullpen. The recent DFA's by both the Twins and the Blue Jays does make me wonder if there is an attitude issue like "I'm a starter, not a reliever", but I have no information to support that. I say we grab him.

Now, here's something interesting. SWR just got DFA's by Toronto. Should we grab him back on waivers and move him to the Bullpen?

Ok, I see that. Basically make the OF a 5 man group between Buxton, Martin, Roden, Keaschall, and Larnach with Roden the backup CF. Play Keach 1-2 days a week at 2B, Clemens 5 days a week between 2B, 1B, DH, and 3B, and Gray becomes the 13th guy who doesn't play much.

Interesting twist, but it puts Laranch on the bench. Would probably have to wait until Larnach is traded (if he is) or Bell is gone and Laranch can be the DH.

Getting back to the current club, these numbers match the eye test and illustrate the real conundrum we have with Lewis, Lee, and Keaschall. I want to play them every day so we can see if their bats play at the MLB level but where? First, hitting is more important than fielding for every position except SS, C and maybe CF. You can find good fielders, Its MUCH harder to find quality hitters. First, I like the idea of playing Lewis at 1B and Lee and 3B. They both seem to be getting better and could/should be at least average or slightly at those spots. On a team bereft of middle of the order bats, you have to find a place for guys who can hit 20 plus HRs and drive in runs. The signs are there for both, so we have to find out if they can be that guy consistently. I really like the idea of moving Clemens to every day 2B if he can play there. Whither Keaschall? Well, we need a RH OF badly, Fedko ain't the guy, and GG is 22 and still hasn't mastered AAA. Maybe we should try Keasch in a 4 OF rotation with Buxton, Larnach, and Martin. Keasch can play 2B once a week when Clemens plays CF (unless Keaschall could play CF). This means more ABs for Clemens and Martin, less for Keasch which I don't love, but I think would improve the D. Also give us a place to play Culppeper when he's ready because he's not a great fielding SS for AAA, which means he will be even a less great fielding SS in MLB. Maybe 2B is his place to break in. SS is easy to fix on defense with Kreidler, but will he hit? So far, so good but his track record is abysmal. Still, he's only 28 and can hold down SS until Houston is ready in 2028 or so. Here's the basic lineup I would run with until the deadline: C- Caratini, Jackson, Jeffers briefly until he's traded (has to happen) IF - Lews (1B), Clemens (2B), Kriedler (SS), Lee (3B), Gray (UTL) OF - Buxton, Larnach, Martin, Keaschall DH - Bell Fedko stays until Jeffers comes back and then goes down. Culpepper can come up but only if we dump Gray. We will have to carry 3 catchers when Jeffers comes back because Jackson is out of options. He won't last 30 seconds on the waiver wire - teams are depurate for catching. Guys like Sandy Leon, Joey Bart, Austin Hedges, Aramis Garcia, and Kelbert Ruiz are on MLB rosters or have been in the last month. All of them can't hit water if they fell out of a boat and most of them are mediocre or even worse on D. Jackson can play the position and is hitting. No way he can be DFA'd and kept.

I agree that we have to many holes to fill by trade without guiding the system and I don't think we're close enough to make try to do that. I do think were close enough to where trading valuable asset, particularly one as valuable as Jeffers, should be or players who are to contribute this year or next year at the latest. I would be looking for players to add to this group, not just guys 3+ years away really will be ready to contribute until the next group. A good example was the trade of Duran. We got a pitcher was ready to help us now in Able plus an A ball guy. Tait may turn out to be a great player but there is a an equally good chance he will turn out to be a second catcher type, a complete bust or get have a career derailed by injury, and he isn't going to help us for at least three years. I'm fine with getting both types but at least one of the players coming back needs to be someone like Able, Roden, or Rojas, a player that at least theoretically can help us in the short term.

This. The Twins are not a bad team, but they aren't a good team either. By a good team, I mean a team that can make the playoffs and win a series or two. We are 1 game into the second half of the season and just finished a series with the two time WS champs who are the best team in baseball again this year. Good time to evaluate where we are. To me, the Twins are about 75% of a good team. They're currently short a least one starter, a middle of the order bat, a good fielding 2B, and about half a bullpen. Some of this is or may be internally fixable, some of it isn't: Starting pitching - Ober may be that quality 4th starter if he comes back after the ASB and/or Prielipp or even Paredes may be if they take that next step. Ryan, Bradley and Zebby all look like quality starters who can start a playoff game and Ryan is a #1 starter. This we might be able to fix internally. We won't be able to trade for this unless the Angels are dumb enough to put Detmers or Soriano on the block and no trades for rental starters. Middle of the Order bat - Maaaaybe Lewis or Keaschall can become this guy, but it doesn't look likely. Clemens is a nice player but he is NOT a middle of the order bat on a good team. He hits 6 on a good team. We need one of 3 things - (1) either Martin becomes a quality every day leadoff hitter with an above .370 OBP and Larnach becomes a quality #3 hitter by staying at or above where he is now -.296/.374/.419(.793) - with someone else hitting 3 against LH starters, (2) someone like Roden comes up and sets the world on fire; or (3) we trade for a middle of the order bat without giving up Ryan for it. Numbers 2 and 3 are pretty unlikely so this improvement has to come internally or not at all. The offense is good enough that we don't have to trade prospects for a bat unless we getting a young controllable bat back int the trade. Defense at 2B - I think Kriedler can play SS at an above average level or better. I think the only chance to get that at 2B is for either Culpeper to come and play 2B at a high level or Keaschall to continue to improve and get there. Color me skeptical on either happening this year but the internal solution is the only one we got. Find another 3-4 quality bullpen pieces - Could be a trade, could be internal. The cost of BP guys this deadline is going to be high and I don't think we're close enough to pay it. Raya, Funderburk, Rashi, Klein, etc. may be able to fill the gap but 50/50 or worse shot. That's where we are IMHO. It leaves me saying let's promote internally, see if we fill the gaps, hope to lucky this year and hit .500 or even sneak into a Wild card, and play for next year. Play the "young guys" and guys you'll have next year like Roden, Culpepper, and Emma, and play them 5 days a week. Don't trade for stop gap vets, only trade for younger guys that you can project contributing for at least the next 2-3 years. Take waiver fliers on 26 year olds with talent like Gomez, not on the Ian Hamiltons and Richard Loveladys of the world (both of whom are on MLB rosters by the way). Don't trade decent prospects for 2 month rentals you can't keep. Trade your rentals - Jeffers and maybe Bell - for guys at AAA who you can give a shot to in August or September, not 19 year olds in A ball. Run with what you got, promote aggressively, and push who you got. Guys will fail. If they do, replace them with the next guy (like Roden for Fedko), and create a culture of accountability and performance with no scholarships.

I think they sent Rojas down to stretch him out as a starter and to work on his control. There really isn't anybody in AAA ready to come up and start in the Bigs if there's another injury, and it looks like Ober and Able are both at least a few weeks away. We need a starter in waiting at AAA. I think Rojas is going to be that guy. If he stretches out and dominates there over the next 3-4 weeks, that also gives the Twins the option of bringing him up to start and moving Paredes or Prielipp to the bullpen. Moving Rojas back to AAA makes sense to me if that's the plan.

You're right, its starting. Raya and Funderburk up. Voth DFA'd. Rojas optioned to St. Paul. My guess is that Rojas went down to build up innings so he can potentially come back as a starter after the ASB for Paredes or even Prielipp, each of whom then goes to the bullpen. Also gives us some more starter depth in case of another injury and gives Rojas a chance to work on his control. This tells us that Abel and Ober are not near returning to the rotation. If they were, we'd keep Rojas in the bullpen. I don't think he went to St. Paul to work on bullpen innings.

We don't have to make room for Kreidler to start at SS. We got nobody else. Culpeper is on the IL at AAA and he's at least a week or more before returning. Then, he ahs to have a week or two to knock the rust off before he'd even be ready for a call up. Lee is a lousy SS and Gray is even worse, something I didn't think was even possible. Ross is a UTL who just got to AAA and Arcia is a 32 year old has been with no future. There just isn't anyone else right now to credibly put out there at SS and there won't be for a month so let's take the time now to find out if Kreidler can be the answer. If not, we haven't lost anything. I agree with your sentiments on Keaschall and would extend them to Lewis at 1B and Lee at 3B. Ride them this year and see if they can be the long term answer. You won't know unless you try.

Agreed and I would add that Bader for Hendry Mendez looks like it might be a big win for the Twins.

Yeah, I think many here are being a little too impatient on Keaschall and assuming what he is today is what he'll always be. The much more likely result is improvement at the plate and in the field. The question is how much improvement and how fast. The idea that we should bench him and play Arcia, a 32 year old has been with a .657 OPS and no future (and that OPS is an improvement over his last 2 years), is beyond absurd. This year is about developing the core, not trying to patch together 78 wins instead of 75. We've got to play guys like Keaschall, Lee, Lewis, Martin, and Culpepper and Roden (both soon), and pitch Morris, Rojas, Prielipp, Gomez, Funderburk, and Paredes (Adams doesn't look like he has it). Later this year there may be chance for guys like Emma, GG, Ross, Klein, and/or Jenkins (I think Fedko's chance is slipping away; he may just not be good enough). We need to find out what we have and find out now, not next year or the year after that, or there will never be a good year. We will always be experimenting. Do it now and get it over with. I do disagree with you on Kreidler. He's only 28 so he has some runway (29 in December) and it looks to me like he already is an above average fielding SS. The question is his bat but the guy stands at .282/.365/.506(.871) after 85 ABs this year. This marked improvement is after overhauling his swing and hitting well in AAA last year, especially in St. Paul. I know its a small sample size and may just be a never repeated hot streak and I know he was awful in his first 180 MLB ABs from 2022-05. Still, the bad batting is also a SSS. Frankly if Kreidler can field at an above average to elite level, and it looks like he can, I want him on the team as the starting SS even if his BA and OBP each drop 20 points and his SLG drops 50 so he's at .260/.345/.450 and on the team as a UTL even if his OPS drops to .700-.725. He's one of the guys auditioning for a long(ish) term job for the Twins. He needs to play every day at SS. We can find a place for Culpepper by moving Keasch to the OF, Lee or Lewis to a UTL spot or by just having those 5 guys play 4 spots with one of them as the DH or getting the day off. We may have caught lightning in a bottle with Kreidler. Let's play it out and see if he can sustain this level of play or even something close to it.

If it does, let's do it.