Rod Carews Birthday

I think this is one of those longshot, lottery ticket style trades. There are some underlying traits that could play well, but not much to show for it -- and also not much of an opportunity gotten from the previous team. Teams do this all the time. Not a big cost, but not a big return either -- just hoping to catch something useful. They did it a couple of years ago with a claim on Willi Castro. In the Twins current situation, I really like the trade. They weren't going to pitch Moran, and it appears the league agreed with that assessment. They could use a lottery ticket as a catcher (he could be the insurance policy on them trading Vasquez) and it appears that he has a few other flexible defensive skills. It wouldn't surprise me at all if he winds up on the opening day roster. We all thought Willi Castro wasn't going to stick a few years ago too. Getting into the cheapness factor or the bad management factor or the bad trading factor (all of which are relative, and perhaps not always based in reality) does the Twins or the fans no good at all. From a purely baseball standpoint, this makes a ton of sense. Now go out and trade a middle infielder or two.

Agreed on the '84 Twins turning into the '87 and '91 Twins. None of those additions were amazing players though. They were certainly contributors, but none of them were players who could carry the team on their backs. I would argue that most of the improvement came from guys like Hrbek, Gaetti, and Puckett getting better and carrying the team on their performance. My hope is that guys like Wallner, ERod, and Jenkins can do a similar thing for this latest group. With Correa, Buxton, and Lopez already in the fold, the potential is certainly there.

So. . . .you’re saying that a difference in fielding percentage (not the best stat on Earth but we’ll use it) of .015 is going to be crippling to a right fielder with a cannon arm and will completely negate the offensive production difference (139 OPS+ in three years vs. 102 OPS+ in ten years with a most recent 91 OPS+) — production that we’re admittedly not sure of but that seems to have tons of potential to grow in a full season? OK. . . It would seem that Kepler is a better outfielder, but the bat just isn’t holding down the position. I do believe, that Minnesota wanted out of Kepler also.

Gosh, if only weak contact Kepler were there to drive in all of those runs. . . . . oops. . . wait a minute, it doesn't work that way. I think Max Kepler might be the nicest guy in the world, but as a baseball player he got way too many chances with the Twins. I wish him well and hope he has a great season elsewhere. It was past time for him to move on.

Tune into the 70's and 80's sometime. It had some very shiny moments but a lot of misery and pain. The mid-90's weren't special either.

People think he was really something because he occupied a spot for a long time. He was not without his merits, but I don't think he will be missed much at all. He had one great season, and two periods of about 10 weeks that were good. Otherwise. . . . zzzzzzzz.

Apparently your history as a fan doesn’t go back far enough to appreciate what low morale really was. It has plenty far to go down.

Good for him. Glad he signed. At least that prevents the Twins from bringing him back.

No. He’s better than who in the lineup?

No they're not. It's very smart business -- assuming the market cooperates. That being said, it is still a fantastic deal for people who are looking for reasonable concessions, especially families. They can focus all they want on making a buck by growing the brand, but if along the way there are more and better deals for regular consumers, more power to them! The more I ponder this potential ownership group, the more I think this would be somewhere near a dream scenario for the Twins and for fans. But, as always, I could be wrong.

And in regard to the previous post, I don't particularly like the guy, so I'm no apologist.

He graduated from H.S. in 1934. That makes his dropping out after two football seasons, spring 1937. He took a low level job delivering bank collections. He was in his very early twenties and not making any real decisions for any lender I'm certain. He's delivering at that point, not foreclosing. By 1940 the great depression was effectively over. He was drafted and went off to war in 1943. It seems unlikely that he got rich before he came back from the war. AND, after the war there weren't many farms to foreclose on as the 1940's and 1950's were some of the very best times to be a farmer. It was also very profitable to be in just about any business, including banking. He was a banker. Yes. Was he more than a bike messenger? By 1950, certainly, but probably not much before then. Did he likely foreclose on some farms? Sure. He was a banker. Foreclosed on cars too I bet. But I think the statement is a little melodramatic. The depression story makes for good story telling, but the years don't really add up.

Yes, a little, but good owners employ the right people to run the team so they don’t need to know everything.

As scenarios like this go, we’ve got to be pleased that these guys check many of the right boxes to be good for the Twins. Certainly they aren’t perfect but that’s a relative term. Billionaires usually didn’t get that way by being pillars of virtue, and there are many who scare me much more than they do. If they buy the team there will certainly be some changes. Some we may like and some we won’t. Let’s just hope that the process plays out quickly and they are either in and buying the team or out and another bidder materializes.

Definitely not. You would be basing an extension off of a flicker of high potential without any sustained performance whatsoever. This article actually did a fantastic job of telling me why the Twins should NOT give him an extension at this point. I agree with @Linus. Pay him until the end of his control and then slap on a QO.

Goltz, Reardon, and Grant.

Completely agree with that sentiment. It is indeed a lottery ticket, but one with only an investment of time and energy. That time and energy has to be spent on something, and this would seem like an extremely worthy target. You never know. Who thought we would get Correa a few years back?

Pierzynski was more of an example of someone you hated because he was an extreme competitor moreso than because he was a bad guy. I think he probably begrudged the Twins for trading him, even if it was to open up the job for future hall of famer Joe Mauer, and played with a chip on his shoulder against us. He was just that intense. The Sox certainly got their money's worth from him.

They have (tied for) the largest pool of international bonus money, so I would approach Sasaki with a "we want you so much that we will give you our entire allotment of bonus money this year" kind of offer. A. It's the most money he can get. B. He might be flattered just a little. C. It can't hurt at all.

I personally don’t think that we can count on Lewis as a core piece until he has a real season of baseball where he hits, fields, and mostly avoids injuries. He’s got lots of “potential” that has been flashed, but not enough of it has manifested itself on the playing field. I completely agree on Buxton. I’m actually more optimistic on him than I have been for years. He was mostly good last year and I would actually set the over/under on games played at about 125. A healthy Buxton is definitely a core player. I’m not as concerned about Correa’s PF. It is unquestionably a “you never know when” kind of condition, but he had it on the other foot this year so it wasn’t a recurrence of the first condition. As a PF sufferer myself, it was horrible (and I had it on both feet) and I spent about a year dealing with it. But, when it was gone it was gone and nothing has happened since. I will admit to being very cognizant of any foot pain that I may have, panicky that it could be the dreaded condition. Correa likely has much better health care (or at least more urgently and tightly focused) on this front than I did, so I think he will be fine.

I do think this is possible, but I think at the end of the day if they trade pitching, it will be something outside of the big 3 in the rotation. Certainly they have many “almost ready/just ready” starters and a selection from that group could be traded. I’m also on board with trading Duran (even though his numbers weren’t as good as Jax last year, I think he still has more value — just because of mystique). The difficulty I’m having is coming up with a better catcher situation. They will probably need to pay (in $$ or prospects) to get rid of Vasquez and even though we don’t love him, he is a pretty viable second catcher, albeit an overpaid one. If they trade Vasquez, they still need to sign a catcher and there isn’t much out there to be had that’s very good. Perhaps a trade for a youngster from the Dodgers or Brewers could happen, but catchers are hard to come by. Jeffers would bring much more in return, but again, he needs to be replaced, and that’s not very easily done. I’m curious what value some of the infielders have. Would trading Julien, Lee, or Castro bring back a similar player who happens to profile as more of a first baseman? If you could pull a trade like that for a player who blossoms at the position, it would be a major win. In the outfield, while I would love a RH bat, I’m very comfortable with a Wallner-Buxton-Larnach outfield, at least offensively. Do you think that they are trying to keep Castro (good for baseball reasons) or trade him (good for budget reasons)? I can’t decide which way they are leaning at this point. In some ways, he is maybe more valuable to the Twins and their style of lineup building than most other teams. At the end of the day, I’m certainly glad I’m not in charge. There are tough questions without easy answers out there.

Don’t be impressed. They booked it on Black Friday.

Meaningless and useless, perhaps, but also fairly entertaining and interesting. Some of those are probably symptoms of other good and bad things, but I think they stand on their own too.

This is not a bad idea at all, but I personally would wait one more year. By then he will hopefully have an even more consistent track record AND you will have a better picture of what more of the young pitching looks like. Maybe Festa and Matthews (and others) look awesome, and then he becomes a trade candidate. Maybe they are lousy and we desperately need to hang onto Ober. When it comes to extensions, next year becomes the big year. There are so many players on this team who currently have three years of control it's a little scary. We won't be able to keep them all, but hopefully some will be displaced by younger players coming through the minors.

I think that part of the reason this came out is to loosen up the general public to the idea that someone we care about might be traded (and that might not be Correa), because people aren’t beating down his door for Vasquez or Paddack. Every single trade is a matter of the right return. Lopez for a couple of prospects? No way. But, Ober for Crochet and Robert? Now you’re talking! In every trade, it matters who we get in return, whether that is for a prospect or for a starter or for a star. The harsh reality is that the Twins need to shed some salary. I’m guessing that Falvey is actively trying to do that in general but so far hasn’t found any trade that is palatable or worthwhile. Let’s hope that he finds some takers on some of our lowest hanging fruit rather than having to trade the stars. However, as @TopGunn#22has pointed out, there are indeed returns that could make this worthwhile. Tomorrow in Twins world will likely neither be the worst day nor the best day.