Rod Carews Birthday

While those prospects weren't as highly regarded as the ones the Twins have at the top of their list right now, that's really a depressing list. (Who can forget the Tom Stuifbergen era?). I do think the Twins have some prospects that will turn out, the simple fact remains that most of them won't, and then they won't have any value at all.

I think some people are mistaking activity (or a lack of it from the Twins) with productivity. The Dodgers got better, but how many teams actually got better and how many were just shuffling chairs on the deck? I would have loved to get Flaherty, but beyond that there weren't that many realistic targets for the Twins to trade for that would be difference makers. I think that the Twins are pretty solid and will likely challenge the Guardians for the division title. Will they catch them? Not sure, but it should be fun to watch and find out. In the meantime, I'm gonna cheer for the guys we have (like Ober and Ryan) rather than lament the pipe dreams that didn't materialize. Complaining about the Pohlad family's money and cheapness just gets me sweaty and frustrated. That doesn't change it or make me feel better.

Yes.

Point taken, but it also means that they have to sign the “right” guys to make a difference. That’s a long ways from a sure thing, plus you do have to sign another catcher. I’m not defending the (lack of) moves at all, but it’s not an easy fix.

I think that is a reasonable starting point, but I don’t see the trigger being pulled on it. As others (and you) have said, you have to trade something to get something, and expecting to trade a backup utility infielder and a bag of balls for a quality MLB starter is just ridiculous. Specifically, you need to figure out if you think that Rodriguez and Festa will be stars or whether they will just be players — think the difference between Royce Lewis (who appears to be on his way to stardom) and Max Kepler (nice career WAR but really only a star for a couple of short bursts over the years). If Rodriguez is going to be as good as a healthy Royce Lewis and Festa is going to be Brad Radke, then you can’t make that trade. However if you think those outcomes are unlikely, don’t dream on what could be. Trade them now for something better.

Vasquez and/or Farmer isn’t going to fetch the kind of pitching that a contending team needs. At best, a low level lottery ticket. Just getting someone to take on the Vasquez contract would be difficult. I agree that I would not relish trading some of our upper prospects, but we have to decide what we really want. If we want to hang on to everybody, then this year’s team isn’t going to get a talent infusion and we continue to play the hand we have been dealt. If we trade someone substantial from the prospect list, we can be better in the short term but maybe lose something for the future. Remember, not every prospect (even “sure thing” prospects) turns out. The key is to guess which ones have a higher value now than they will in the future. Those are the ones to trade.

Unfortunately, if all of the top prospects are off the table, this is the type of pickup that we are looking at. It won’t be flashy. It might help a little bit, but it will lack the excitement of a big pitcher trade. We (fans and the team) have to realize that it takes some serious capital in prospects/players to get some serious return. We tried that two years ago with Jorge Lopez and Tyler Mahle and got snake bit. Odds are that won’t happen again, but you never know. Baseball is funny like that.

Funny. Quick, let me go check under the couch cushions. . . OK. That’s 37 cents. . . . and I was saving up for my new Bentley.

Sorry. My reply wasn’t as clear as I had hoped. I was responding to whether I wanted to trade away all of our top prospects for a few players at the deadline. No. I do not want that. However, I am totally supportive of making a trade or two that will better our team. We’re not trading for Tarik Skubel, but picking up a rental piece like Kakuchi or Flaherty or a solid lefty reliever would be great. If that takes trading Jenkins, I’m out, but if a package of other prospects (and maybe a MLB player) would get it done, I’m in. We have more than enough prospects to get this done. What people sometimes forget is that prospects can and do fizzle. Even 1st round draft picks sometimes don’t make it to the majors. That means that in our top ten or twenty prospects, there are plenty that even though they look great now (against lesser competition), may not even make it to the show, or certainly not become stars. The challenge is trying to figure out who to keep and who to trade so that you get the player you want in trade and still hold on to the guys who will do well on your MLB team in the future — i.e. trade them before they fizzle. We can’t get hung up on individual prospects (without more information, and the teams have more information), because many will wind up doing nothing in the majors.

No. Just some if we can make our team better.

That would be a really bad time to figure out you don’t have something you need!

Any time that a team "must acquire a particular player" it sets them up for an overpay. If the Twins are smart, they will kick the tires on every available starter and then make an offer for one they like. Kikuchi is one, but there are others as well who could also do as good a job for the team. The best deals are usually the ones that nobody saw coming.

He is likely a better version of Dallas Keuchel. Not likely to start a game in the playoffs, but could provide you with 50 innings down the stretch of reasonable pitching which would save/rest some other better arms. For the price, which should be a prospect in the 30 to 40 range, he would be a useful get.

I was always a much bigger fan of Justin Morneau than Joe Mauer. I just liked him more. There's not a lot of logic to it, nor is there for most fans of a particular player. (I also really liked Danny Ford?!?!) However, I recognized that Mauer was the superior player and certainly deserved the honors he received over the years. For me to think otherwise would have been an "emotionally immature loser move" because I would have elevated another player illogically over him and his accomplishments because I liked the guy more. I could also have pointed to the fact that Mauer didn't hit enough home runs and was just a punch and judy hitter and that I just knew more that everyone else and that Mauer didn't belong in the HOF because he didn't hit my decidedly arbitrary (and decidedly amateur) standard. I believe that would have been a "cynical knuckle-dragging move." Dimwits? Well, they're everywhere. I just try as hard as I can not to be one even though I only sometimes succeed. On a more serious note, and perhaps a more controversial stance, there always seemed to be too many fans (for my taste) that would continually denigrate a guy who was certainly a generational Twins talent, like Kirby Puckett, Rod Carew, and Harmon Killebrew before him. Was he Johnny Bench? Nope, and I don't think anyone else compares to maybe the greatest catcher of all time (and I hate the Reds). Harmon Killebrew wasn't Babe Ruth either, and I'm immensely proud that he played for my team. The message I take away from this original article is that some of those people might want to re-evaluate or reconsider their position because the rest of the baseball world (or at least 75+% of the baseball writers) has declared otherwise. Perhaps the good-natured poke was too strong, but I think we are strong enough to handle it on Twins Daily. We should all be celebrating Mr. Mauer today!

If you don't recognize the position, there is probably no complaint that needs to be registered and you are not the intended target of the criticism. It does, however, seem that there was a small but exceptionally vocal contingent that seemed to fit the descriptions put forth by the original author.

Also. . . loved the crack about the 1991 doubters.

It’s definitely clever. If it also manages to make some uncomfortable defending a position to which they have set their flag, then it indeed accomplishes what good satire can and should do. That’s the point, and I think it’s preferable to an article which blatantly screams that these guys are idiots.

So, in other words, the people complaining about using data are in fact collecting data and using it to argue against a manager using data. Hmmm. They’re probably right. Decisions arrived at randomly by gamblers would be so much better. Sheesh.

There are kernels of truth in your statement about baseball fundamentals, but I think you are overestimating the abilities of the other teams in the league. Not every team is White Sox bad, but nobody is nailing every move and every opportunity out there.

If you can get a Joe Ryan type starting pitcher for Eddie Julien, make that trade right away! I'm a big fan of Julien and believe he will rebound well and go on to a decent MLB career, but getting a controllable solid rotation starter for him would be terrific. Unfortunately, timing is everything in the world of trades. Yes, other teams understand how prospect promotion/demotion works, but it is still much easier to get a team to bite if the player is playing well in the majors.

Oops. My bad. You had Festa at #13, which I can support. I'm still a little baffled though on the other omissions.

So, Rodriguez, Jenkins, Lewis, and Lee are four of the top five. That leaves Jax, Duran, Festa, Castro, and Buxton as candidates for the last spot. I guess maybe Festa as a prospect starting pitcher who is cheap with lots of control, but that seems pretty high. Would you trade Ryan or Pablo for him? I think not. Buxton could be left off based on no-trade clauses, but you put Correa on the list, so. . . I'm not sure. Jax, Duran, and Castro certainly belong on the list somewhere (even if it is lower on it), so it seems to me somebody needs to go to make room for a at least two or three players.

Trading Julien may not be a terrible idea, but I would question doing it now, with his value certainly on the low side. I also can't imagine trading him for a relief pitcher and a minor league infielder. A relief pitcher is usually something you can get for a veteran on an expiring contract, not for a potentially starting caliber player with many years of control. We need to find somebody who REALLY likes Julien. The kind of trade I could get behind would be packaging him with other prospects/mlb players to get a quality starting pitcher. I haven't done the homework to figure out who that should be, but a good look at next year's 40 man roster would be in order before pulling the trigger. Certainly there are players who will come off of it, but there should also be players that have to be added (and maybe a couple who we want to add anyway) as well as a few major league contract signings this winter. Subtracting a couple off of the 40 man in exchange for a better player would be a really good idea.

We all have bosses. Sonny used to whine about wanting to pitch longer and then generally had a (predictable) drop off the third time through the lineup. Players are not always reliable sources.

I like this trade idea a lot. In two years, either of them could straighten things out and be an ascending star. However, it is equally likely that they could never straighten things out and be out of baseball. Kiriloff’s issues seem to be a little more physically oriented, while Detmers looks to need more of an overhaul to the approach. Do it. With Kepler and Santana gone next year, more time at 1st base and the outfield opens up but I think that it’s more likely that Julien/Miranda takes over at 1st and Wallner/Larnach/Martin/Castro takes over in the outfield. Unless everything changes and he rediscovers how to hit, AK doesn’t really have a place to play.