LA Vikes Fan

I'm not and that's not what I said. I said that Martin is a very productive player against LH pitching. And he is. He has an .809 OPS against lefties this year, .898 OPS last year. Could Jenkins or Emma be better? Over time, sure. In 2026? Highly unlikely. Most guys struggle when they first come up and neither Jenkins nor Emma is even really tearing up AAA. Not only that, both hit LH so they can't even really replace Martin in a platoon. Dropping Martin for Jenkins or Emma is much more likely to make the team worse this year than it is to make the team better. Those two will get their shot next year if they can stay healthy and Emma may get a look after Sept 1.

You are absolutely right. If we call up Jenkins for Roden, he gets maybe 10-15 ABs a week, if that. A day in CF for Buxton, a day in RF for Keaschall. Maybe a day in LF but who do you sit - Larnach with a .818 OPS against RHs or Martin with a .809 OPS against LHs? All of this for a guy with great potential who is likely to struggle mightily when he first comes up, and whose promotion could cause 40 man issues? Maybe if I thought Jenkins would come up and be a huge force down the stretch, I just don't think that's vey likely. I'm out.

Interestingly, the first of that happened. Buxton in, Jackson out. I'm with you, Roden down, Jenkins up gives us the best 13 although Roden has shown some signs lately. Big question is do we want Jenkins up if he's not going to play much? We've been over this and we can probably get this spot 2 days a week, maybe 3 , but not more unless we want to go down the stretch (1) sitting Buxton (our best player) more, (2) sitting Keaschall (our best hitter since July1) more, (3) take ABSs away from Larnach against RHs (.818 OPS) or Martin against RHs (.810 OPS), or (4) give Bell and Jeffers fewer ABs at DH. If this was May or June and we were still sorting out guys, I'd be in favor of some combination of those things to give Jenkins 3-4 games a week to see what we got. But it's not. We now need to max the playing time of the guys who played well in the sorting out period. Every win matters. That's what makes me hesitant. I'm willing to sacrifice Roden as the 13th guy, but I want Jenkins to get consistent ABs the rest of the season and the Twins might not have that. Keaschall's butchery at 2B really makes this hard. IF we look at what's happening, the guy who should give up ABs to Jenkins is Clemens. He's the guy not hitting, .186/,236/.364 (.600) over his last 118 ABs. That's a trend, not a slump. The problem is no one else can play 2B except Lewis, and none of these OFs plays 1B to my knowledge. We can replace Clemens with Kriedler but that doesn't help the offense. I wish Keaschall could play even a average 2B. If he could, it would be easier to call up Jenkins and play him every day in RF, same for Roden if they think he's the guy. I'm tempted to move Keaschall back to 2B (or 1B with Lewis the everyday 2B), call up Jenkins to be the everyday RF, and sit Clemens to be a UTL, but I just don't think we can take the defensive hit at 2B.

If I'm reading this right, Lee is making more contact, elevating the ball more, chasing less, whiffing less, and striking out less, while his swing speed is down and he is barreling the ball less often. Wow, that sounds like the profile of a guy whose batting average and OBP are both going to go up and should be expected to go up. A duck snort or seeing eye grounder to the opposite field counts just as much as a line drive single to the pull side. More balls in play, higher BA. Less chase, less whiff, less SOs, higher OBP. Really, the only outlier is the rise in SLG. But then, I realize that a ground ball double down the line counts just as much as a line drive in the gap or shot off the wall and it all starts to make sense. What's happening is he's putting the ball in play more and whiffing less, so he's sacrificing a little power/sting for more contact. Sounds like a positive, not a negative. To me, the only outlier here is the HRs. That may be the result of experience. He now knows which balls he can drive, sees them better and takes that shot when its available rather than swinging for the fences all the time. Sounds like a maturing hitter. His HR rate vs. times he swings for HRs is probably up (don't know how you would measure that), he just doesn't swing for the fences as often because he sees the balls he can drive better. Look, I love me some analytics but sometimes we put too much weight on small indicators. I'm no engineering whiz, but what I see is a player who now a has enough ABs to recognize how he's being pitched and can react accordingly. Can he be a consistent .270 plus./.325 plus/.450 plus guy with 25 or more HRs a year? Maybe. Is he likely to at least be a .245/.310/.450 guy with around 20 HRs a year? I think he 's showing us the answer is Yes. The former is a borderline All Star who hits 3, 4,or 5, the latter a solid starting player who hits 5 or 6, lengthens the lineup, and is an important part of a contending team. I'd love the former but I'm very good with the latter and I think that's what Lee is or is very close to becoming.

I hear that but who goes now that Buxton is back? Jackson is probably the only other alternative unless there's an injury.

Gotta think the corresponding move tomorrow is Roden back to AAA. Just waiting to see if there's an injury tonight before making the call. My guess is they'll keep Jackson because they need him for 2027. He'll get claimed on waivers and has an arb year left so the claiming team can keep him for next year if they want, probably for less than $2m. They've kept him this long, hard to see why they'd change now just to keep Roden in the "guy who never plays" spot on the roster.

Ninjaed myself. Just saw that Buxton has been activated for the game. No corresponding move yet since they get the extra player. Assumedly Roden goes down tomorrow unless there's an injury.

MLB is giving both teams an extra position player for the contest, adding to another rule change to the game. Saw this in the post. Any word on who will the extra position player? Buxton back early, call up of Jenkins?

Good points. The 40 man roster is not an issue this year but I see your point on the future. Your post reminds me that roster management is pretty complicated and not for the faint of heart. A good GM always has to be thinking at least one season ahead, if not two seasons, all while competing for talent against 29 other FOs all trying to do the same thing. It's easy to criticize roster management when there's too many LH OFs on the 40 man or too many "DH types" on the 26 man roster but it's a heck of a lot harder to find a solution. I think a lot of us here just focus on the next game or the next week or the next month and forget about some of these issues. I'm beginning to think that being the GM of a MLB team is actually not a job that a nutless monkey could do, it actually requires some real talent and effort. Who knew. Thanks for the reality check.

First, you have the burdens reversed. You need to make a compelling argument to bring an untested player up, it's not on the FO to make a compelling to keep a productive player around. Untested players are always a crapshoot. Most fail overall, is a very high percentage struggle in their initial call up. Still the compelling argument is there, at least for Martin, Martin vs. LH Pitching: 2026 MLB stats - .258/.409(!)/.400 (.809), in 120 ABS/146 PAs, overall 13.4% BB rate (Elite), 18.1% SO rate( Solid), 12-19 in SBs. 2025 MLB stats - .346/.404(!)/.481 (.885) in 52ABs/57 PAs, overall 12.4% BB rate (Elite), 17.4% SO rate (Solid), 11-15 in SBs. Overall 2025/2026 vs. LH pitching - 49/178 for a .284 BA, slash line (approx.) .284/.406/.435 (.841), overall 13% BB rate, 17.8% SO rate, 23-34 in SBs (67.6%). Overall (2025-2026) - 111/433 for .256 BA, slash line (approx.) .256/.362/.348 (.710). So, over 2 seasons with about 1 full season's worth of plate appearance (498 PAs), Martin has been a very good to elite hitter against LH pitching and overall a solid 4th OF against all pitching with good speed but limited power. I think he is in average to above average outfielder, but I recognize that others disagree. Overall, that's a guy who always starts against LH starters and is valuable RH pinch hitter against a LH reliever, key with the 3 batter minimum rule. Martin is a solid MLB player who belongs on a competitive roster. He's earned his spot so far and he's a great short side of a platoon. He's not yet a solid starter overall but he's heading in that direction with an established floor of a solid 4th OF. How about Emma and Jenkins? Great potential for sure. I believe in both, especially Jenkins. Still, the road is littered with guys how have great potential but never made it (see Jared Kalenic, Cristian Pache and a whole host of others). History tells us that it is more likely than not they will struggle when they first come up so for 2026, Martin is by far the better and safer bet. As for Roden, I tend to agree with you. If the question was calling up one of those two and sending Roden down I would be right there with you. But that's not the question. Roden is on the MLB roster just until Buxton returns, at which point he's optioned to AAA unless there is an injury. He is not holding up either Emma or Jenkins.

This tracks with what we've all seen - Gomez is effective, but hardly dominant. Still, I'll take any guy who can go 17 for 17 in saves. I agree that this is probably why they traded for Hoffman and tried to get Abreu before him. There are very few guys who are consistently good in save situations. Most contending teams have 2 guys who can be the closer and ride the hot hand. Very few closers stay hot forever. We went from none after trading away 1 (Duran) and it turns out 2 (Varland) closers, to 1 from the waiver wire (Gomez), to a 2nd from a trade (Hoffman), with Morris lurking in the background as maybe a 3rd. Falvey and Joe get a lot of justified criticism for last year's selloff and failure to rebuild the BP in the off season. I like the trade returns (YMMV), but there's no excuse for the pathetic bullpen "rebuild" last off season. Conversely, Zoll and Tom should get some credit for rebuilding the bullpen on the fly in about 2/3 of a season. That ain't easy to do and I think they've pulled it off. We now have a top half, maybe even top 10 BP that can even be better in the post season by adding Matthews and Rojas to the mix over Adams and Rogers. Never thought I'd see that this year. Gotta give 'em credit.

The 40 man situation is a real consideration but it's not a real barrier. We have 2 easy moves. First, Fedko is out for the year but he has not year been put on the IL. Put him on the 60 day Il and you have a spot. The second is to DFA Tristan Gray. If he passes through waivers he stays; if not, he goes. He's probably not part of next year's team any way so no big whoop one way or the other. I think they have purposely not put Fedko on the 60 day IL so they have the flexibility to create a 40 man spot to add a guy from AAA or a pitcher they get on waivers. Fedko is gone until at least May 2027 - torn ACL, MCL, and LCL, the terrible triad - so he can be moved at any time. No barrier from the 40 man to bringing up Jenkins any time they want to do so.

Isn't it likely that Emma gets a 4th option year? I understand the rule to be that a player who has not had five "full professional seasons" (at least 90 days on active major or minor league roster) before using up the third option will get a 4th option year. I've read several places that Emma is likely to get that extra year. I ask because a lot of the call to bring him up seems to be driven by the idea that he is out of options so we need to see him this year. I question whether that's accurate although Gleeman says that he was told by a source in the league office that Emma doesn't qualify for a 4th option year, so what do I know. Doesn't change my thought process anyway. Jenkins is clearly the better choice IMHO. He has been crushing the ball since returning from the IL and showing the one thing previously missing, power. He is also the better defensive player and can play CF, something we need for the 1 to 2 days a week Buxton is not going to play there. Conversely, Emma just came back after 100 days on IL, and has a 37% (!) Strike out rate this year after two years above 30%. He is going to wind up with a 35 to 40% strikeout rate in the majors when he first comes up. That's unplayable. You can't have a hole like that in your lineup the matter how much he walks. The ironic thing about this debate is I don't think either one of them is coming up unless there's an injury. Buxton will replace Roden, as he should, and I think the Twins are going to try to keep Alex Jackson on the roster so they have him for next year. If we put him on waivers and someone claims him, which seems pretty likely, they get him next year too because he has one arbitration year remaining. I hear the argument that there are other guys out there like him we can get for next year, and that may be right, but I think they go with the devil they know. Also, it's hard to find another place to put a call up with the way Martin hits left-handed pitching (.800+ OPS this year, 898 OPS last year), and as well as Larnach has been playing before the recent slump. We have to keep Kreidler so we have a second shortstop. We can't put Lee back there if Culpepper doesn't make it. There just may be no room at the end unless there's an injury. But let's face it, there always is an injury, so it's still a fun debate. Watch, someone will get hurt and the team will bring up Wallner.

I think you can find 2 or 3 games a week for another outfielder, probably not 4. Is that enough? Think it through. Six games a week, 18 "games" a week in the OF. Buxton takes at least 4, probably 5, with one game on the bench and one game as the DH. Bell takes the rest of the games as the DH, maybe ceding one more to Jeffers when Caratini is catching. No more slack at the DH spot other than maybe 1 game a week for the outfielders. Bell leads the team in RBIs and has been hitting well lately. There is absolutely no world in which he doesn't start at DH at least 4 or 5 games a week, most likely 5, and 6 on the weeks without an off day. Keaschall has been our best hitter since July 1 by far. He gets 5 games a week, frankly maybe all 6. They are not going to play him at 2B again because of his atrocious defense unless there's an emergency or an injury. Larnach is slumping right now for sure, but still has an on-base percentage over .360 and a track record of being able to hit RH MLB pitching. Martin has an over.800 OPS against LH pitching this year and it was over .890 last year so he is the platoon guy against LH pitching. All of this compares to two guys who have potential, but neither of whom is tearing up AAA, and have no MLB track record. They are complete unknowns at the MLB level. I would argue that Emma is very likely to initially fail at the MLB level since he has an over 30% strikeout rate in AAA, over 37% this year, so he is likely to be a 35% to 40% strikeout guy or more for a while until he gets his feet wet. He also just came back after 100 days off so he needs at least two weeks to knock the rust off before he's of any likely value at all. I don't think he helps us much at all this year. So where does that leave us? Depends on what you do with Larnach and Martin. You start with 18 available games in the OF and at least 10 of those go to Buxton and Keaschall, maybe 11. That leaves 8 and Larnach gets at least 4 of those 8. So, you could get 4 games a week for another guy if you never play Martin but why would you do that when he has a very good track record against LH pitching and Jenkins and Emma both hit LH and have no track record at all? At most, you would reduce his role and that of Larnach, or play Buxton in CF only four days a week, to give them one of them a 2 or 3, maaaaybe 4 day a week role. There is no way you can find playing time for both of them unless you send Martin down, thereby blowing all of his options rather than saving his last one for next season, or one of the other 3 0Fs is benched or gets hurt. I actually think it might be worth it to try to get Jenkins a few games in mid August just to see if he can be that instant spark kind of guy, but you would have to do that at the expense of playing time for Larnach and Martin. And I am talking about a very short, instant response type of experiment. Give him 20 AB's and if he takes off, he keeps playing. If not, he either goes back down or sits on the bench. As long as we are still in contention for a playoff spot, you can't bring a guy up and start force-feeding him ABs if you have competent options at his positions. It's not fair to the rest of the team because you're basically punting a little on this year unless the new guy hits right off the bat. That doesn't happen very often. Moreover, Buxton is taking Roden's roster spot this weekend so you have to either waive Jackson, which screws you up at catcher for next year unless you somehow magically re-sign Jeffers, or demote Martin who both doesn't deserve it and then will have no options left for next year. So for me, is Jenkins worth a call up and a short-term experiment? Sure, but only if someone goes on the IL to open up the roster spot. And that can be anybody since there is enough positional flexibility to move guys around. Emma hasn't earned it and has been hurt most of the year so he's a hard no less injuries open up a second spot. Otherwise, there is no room at the Inn.

While I might make a different decision since I'm a fan and not a front office guy, I think the decision to keep Jackson on the roster at the likely expense of calling up Jenkins is defensible. Jackson's roster spot depends a little bit about how you prioritize this year versus next year. If we waive him, he's gone and another team will use his arbitration year next year so he's gone for 2026 and for 2027. I suspect the thinking is that we will need him in 2027 two pair with Caratini when Jeffers is gone and he's better than anything we have in the minors or likely to be available on the free agent market, particularly at is likely less than $2 million a year price. So the key question is what's more important, adding a bat Jenkins who could but might not help us more than Jackson for the stretch run in 2026 or having Jackson available in 2027 to be a platoon/backup catcher? Seems to be that depends on whether you think were going to be more of a "contender" in 2027 then we are this year. It seems more likely than not that we will be more of a contender next year when all of the currently injured pitching is assumedly available, particularly Lopez, but who knows. They could all get hurt again. I think the Twins thinking is that the team will be better next year with Lopez and the other injured pitchers back and they're prioritizing having experienced decent quality catching next year over the contribution they think Jenkins can bring for the rest of 2026. I might not make the same decision but I think it's defensible.

I agree but I do see the logic. It's not about this year, it's about next year. Jackson has been pretty good this year in a limited sample size. Good defense and he's hit. Jackson is the 2027 backup or platoon catcher in the likely event that Jeffers isn't back. He has another year of arbitration left and will be a less than $2 million guy so if we put him on waivers and he's claimed (very likely), the claiming team has him next year. He won't be available for us to re-sign. That puts us back in the very grim FA market for backup/platoon catchers since we have nobody in the minors that is ready to make the jump. I get why they want to have him around for 2027. The price of doing that is to keep him on the roster in 2026. Still, part of me really wants them to call up Jenkins to see if can catch lightning in a bottle for the stretch run. Really, the only way to do that is to either send Martin back to AAA or waive Jackson. Martin has one option left and I suspect they want to keep that for next year, plus he has an OPS of over .800 against lefties this year with a .400 OBP and had a .893 OPS against lefties last year with over .400 OBP. That has value and he serviceable in the OF. That just leaves waiving Jackson. My guess is that Jenkins stays at AAA until there's an injury, especially since he's not exactly tearing it up there. I also guess there will be an injury and he will get a shot at some point this year.

It's really a Martin issue. Roden is gone when Buxton is ready to play, probably this weekend, and he should be. He's had over 50 ABs this year, 188 over the last two and he hasn't hit. Martin is a tougher call. He's hitting .258/.409/.400 (.809) this year against lefties, .346/.404/.481 (.889) against lefties last year. He can at least do that pretty well. That's where the regular playing time is because we aren't sitting Buxton or Keaschall more than once a week since Keaschall has been our best hitter since July 1 by far. Larnach has been great against RH pitching although he is slumping now pretty badly. Can Jenkins be better? Sure, maybe, but his .279/.355/.397 (.792) mark in AAA against lefties doesn't inspire a lot of confidence for a platoon role when you figure that on average in the first year jump to the Bigs, players lose 12-15% off their AAA BA, and 15-20% off their SLG, while their SO rate climbs 5% and their BB rate drops 5%. Hard to see a path to more than 2-3 starts a week with the current roster even if he comes up to replace Martin. Love me some Jenkins and I think he could be a very special player. Having said that, I think it will take an injury to get him up here with real playing time unless Buxton can't go. Maybe it's worth sending Martin back to AAA or more likely waiving Jackson to give Jenkins that 2-3 games a week to see if we catch lightning in a bottle. Hard to see it though.

Ahh, dig deeper my friend. Emma has all of 144 plate appearances this year. He was out for 100 days and just came back literally yesterday. Do you really think he could help an MLB team now? I gotta think he needs at least 2-3 weeks at AAA to regain his timing before he would have a shot at success in the Bigs. But let's assume though that he's not rusty and could hit the ground running. Let's actually look at where that OPS comes from. It's not from a high SLG rate (his is good but not outstanding) or a high BA (his is pretty mediocre at best) it to comes from a high OBP based on a very high BB rate, between 20-21% in 2026 and 2025, 24% plus in 2024. A BB rate that high is unheard of at the MLB level. His could easily drop in half or more and there goes his OPS. Moreover, his SO rate is astronomical. This year Emma has 43 SOs in 144 plate appearances - a 37.% strikeout rate! His SO rate in 2025 was 32.3%, 30% in 2024. All bad numbers with a bad trend. The general rule of thumb based on historical data is that a player's SO rate goes up 5% in his first MLB year, walk rate down 2%-5%, BA down 12-15%, SLG down 15-20%. So if the trends apply, we should expect Emma to run a 35% to 40% plus SO rate when he first comes up (unplayable, see Wallner), with a 12-15% BB rate at best (good), and hit somewhere around .215-.230 with a .375-.400 or so SLG. Generally speaking, that would equate to a .625 – .675 OPS. That's a guy whose primary value is to walk with occasional power. Not pretty. Hard or see who he would replace other than Roden and Buxton or Jenkins replaces Roden. And that's after he ramps back up, likely much worse now after a 100 day layoff. Despite what I just laid out I'm not a huge believer in the predictive power of analytical data. But here, it's just hard to see Emma helping his team this year based on his past performance. He really needs to come up in a lower pressure environment and get 500 plate appearances before he can add a lot of value. I just don't see a reason to bring him up now in a stretch run while we are trying to qualify for the playoffs. His history does not suggest we will catch lightning in a bottle. Much better to bring him up in September if we've completely fallen out of the race to see where he is, or bring him north next spring and slowly feed him into the lineup. I'm with you on Jenkins. I don't really care what the numbers say. He has the chance to be special. He is the one guy where we actually might catch lightning in a bottle and help ourselves this year. The rest of those guys wait until next year unless there's an injury and we need an emergency callup. I'll grant you that Emma may come up before GG, but I just don't see him coming up before Jenkins, Ross, or Mendez if that emergency occurs given he's been out most of the season.

Agree with you on Jenkins but not sure where. Emma is not one of the top 26 guys we have. There are at least 3- 4 guys ahead of him in AAA - Jenkins, Ross, Mendez, and maybe Gonzalez - and that's before we even think about Wallner and Sabato. I'm with you, let's have our best 26 guys for this final push. Buxton for Roden is a given. Jenkins for . . . Jackson? Martin? Kriedler? Martin hits LH pitching well (.258/.409/.400 (.809) in 2026, .895 OPS in 2025 against lefties). We likely lose Jackson if he goes on waivers. We need Kriedler's glove, especially if Culpepper can't hold down SS. Maybe for Jackson but then he's likely gone for 2027 because he has an arbitration year remaining so the acquiring team can tender a contract and keep him, probably for less than $2m. Jackson then only becomes available if waived or released by an acquiring team, not real likely given the paucity of catching. Jeffers proably leaves for 2027 so we need Jackson or we're back on the FA catching market in 2027, which is pretty grim. No other spots. Jenkins probably has to wait for an injury and he's next. To me, very doubtful Emma comes up in 2026 unless we fall out of the race and the FO wants to see where he is with the options exhausted.

Good point. I think we've all heard so much about Prielipp's inning limit that we just assume he'll max out at about 100-110 innings. He's actually at 82.2 now with 41 games left, which would be 7-8 starts for him. That's 40-50 innings and if you maneuver it a little so he only gets 6 starts, closer to 35 innings. That he should be able to do without having to be replaced in the rotation. Might be the best solution.

Couldn't agree more. He's the guy we should have traded but I don't think other teams value him very highly with the injury issues and inconsistent performance. Great potential, not so great performance. Was reported out here that the Angels were not interested in him. I'm interested to find out where Gleeman got his info that Emma is unlikely to get a 4th year option. I think the rule is that a player who exhausts his 3 options without yet accumulating five full professional seasons of service time gets a 4th year option. If so, he should qualify (which says a lot about why he couldn't be traded). Has that changed? Anyway, options or no options Roden should go down either for Buxton o`r a AAA guy but not for Emma, he should go down for the player(s) that have performed the best. That's Jenkins first, then Ben Ross, then Mendez, and maybe then GG before you get to Emma. No scholarships, no promotions based upon tantalizing potential. Promotion based upon performance. Roden has gotten over 50 ABs this year, 188 overall, and simply has not performed at the plate and hasn't added a lot in the field. His next shot is next year and it might be with another team. I suspect they're waiting for August 15 for Jenkins or Buck to return. Roden should be gone after this weekend. Emma is not his replacement.

The big questions not addressed in the post is who replaces Matthews in the rotation if Ryan isn't ready, and then who replaces Prielipp when he reaches his innings limit in about 2-3 more starts. We are quickly running out of starters. Rojas could be one to replace or team up with Matthews. He went 4 innings last night, 1 hit, 1 run (the hit was a HR). He only threw 57 pitches. He probably needs at least one more MiLB start to even get to the 70-80 pitches he'll need to cover 5 innings. He and Matthews could be a piggy back and we could to 7 in the BP, with Adams going back to AAA. Ryan could then replace Prielipp after another couple of turns, with Prielipp in the BP. That might work if Kremer continues to be the second coming of Pablo Lopez (or even the second coming of Kenta Maeda) and Ober can somehow get his 87 MPH fastball based arsenal past MLB hitters. There is no more help coming from St. Paul. Roznek got hammered last time out, Gallagher has a 5.50 ERA. and Baker a 5.40 ERA. Jack Anderson looks like the most promising arm after Rojas and he's been pitching short relief. The waiver wire and FA guys are not good, not good at all. This will be interesting to navigate and if we get another injury get ready for a lot of opener/bulk kind of games.

I wouldn't go this far but the grade on this one should be "incomplete". Sam for the Duran trade. Abel and Rojas were not expected to significantly impact the team until 2027. Both had a least a limited impact this year. We won't know until at least 2028 whether there were good moves. The Varland trade was a win if Rojas is a #3 starter or better, or our closer, by 2028, otherwise it's a loss and the size of the loss depends on whether he winds up a back of rotation starter, bullpen piece other than a closer, or out of baseball. Same for the Duran trade - it's a good trade if Abel is a #3 starter or better by that same year, or the closer. A good mid rotation starting pitcher is worth more than any relief pitcher, including a closer. The Duran trade also has other upside as Tait's all of 19 years old so we won't know about him for four or five years. Really, the only ones we can grade at this point are Jax for Bradley (we win), Correa for Milikuski (we didn't spend the money, so we lose), and Stewart for Outman (everybody loses).

I think that's they way things have played out this year. Remember, Ryan was never the #1 on the staff before Lopez got hurt; he was always a strong #2. Next year, Lopez is the #1 again, assuming he's the same guy he used to be before the surgery. Bradley may be the #2 .

I couldn't agree more. For some reason I can't understand, a lot of people here seem to root for Lewis to fail. Maybe his sense of humor falls flat and I'm just more used to it being in California. The "I don't do slumps" comment was in jest, as is a lot of what he says. And we wonder why some many athletes won't talk to the press or only speak in meaningless platitudes. I lot of folks also seem to want Keaschall to forever be branded as a bad defender only a DH, Martin as overrated or dumb, all Pohlads are the same and Tom is just a cheap SOB, etc. I can be just as bad because I keep saying how Wallner has little value to a competitive ballclub. C'mon now, Baseball is supposed to be fun to follow and this team is a lot more fun than last year. I'm enjoying this season. I just don't get the negativity. Bottom line, I think if this team makes the playoffs and wins a round (their ceiling IMHO), it will be in large part because of contributions by Lewis and Keaschall. I'm glad to see Lewis turn it around and I think he has a high ceiling. Who knows if he'll ever reach it but I'm rooting for him.