Rod Carews Birthday

Assuming he's not a complete butcher behind the plate, it is a nice backup to the backup plan to have, although it's always interesting to learn who has catching experience on the team when an emergency happens. Sometimes it's surprising.

It would be wonderful if he would be a late blooming player who really materialized into something special. Remember, Nelson Cruz didn't get good until he was 28 and it seemed to work for him. That being said, when there are minor league players with big numbers that seemingly have to wait too long for their chance in the majors, they tend to flop -- it's almost like the clubs have more insight into this than we do. I'm still rooting for him!

Gallo to a contender for immediate but temporary slugging help, then Larnach to a poor team for a bet on the future, then Kepler for a bag of balls/other salary relief only.

OK. I'll play. 3 P Santana 1 C AJ 5 1B Killebrew 5 2B Carew 1 SS Guzman 3 3B Rollins 3 LF Mack 4 CF Hunter 4 RF Allison 2 DH Winfield 2 CL Reardon I pained over this way too much. Lots of really good players to choose from. My "value" plays were Santana as a $3 pitcher, Reardon as a $2 closer, and AJ as a $1 Catcher. Moving my closer from Nathan to Reardon saved me $3 which was enough to get me Allison and Rollins from back in the day. My "core" if you will, were Carew and Killebrew, with a capable but cheap Guzman and AJ to bring the costs in line with the budget. This lineup would definitely compete, but I don't know that Santana would hold up very well being the only pitcher in a 162 game season. Not even Blyleven could do that (unless you ask him!), and he costs more!

I think the answer is the same as it was for Joe Mauer, only in smaller sample sizes. When Joe Mauer was in his first couple of years, it was obvious that he was a big deal, and then came the magical year when he was "Mauer with Power", after which he signed the big contract. Well, he was only Mauer with Power once, although he continued to be a very fine player for a long time. The problem, however, is that everyone expected that signing him to that contract was a way of locking in the player at his absolute peak. What we were really doing in that contract was paying for the production that he had already given, with some still to come, but as fans, we fell into the trap of Mauer always being amazingly good, instead of just good. The same thing is now happening for all of us, only in a more extreme way, with Byron Buxton. It is more extreme because we imagine this complete five tool player who has amazing seasons, when he is healthy. Truth is he's only been healthy part of the time, but we want him healthy all of the time. We also want him to hit at his absolutely (SSS) peak while playing platinum glove defense. We want to see him be the franchise cornerstone for the next six years, but so far it's not happening and that makes us all frustrated. Me too. I don't know if he gets better or not, but I'm hoping so.

Completely agree. With strong pitching, anything can happen. Ryan, Gray, and Lopez are a pretty solid top three in a playoff rotation.

It should be obvious that this was a conversation between friends/colleagues. From Correa's point of view, he too sees Buxton's potential and wants him in the lineup. He was likely lobbying for that to happen and to try to get Buxton's head in the right place for that to happen. If he were hitting .280 with 25 HR's right now, we would be praising the decision, but he's not so we're looking for a scapegoat. It's got to be somebody's fault, right?

Byron Buxton moving to DH from CF is what takes this deal from being great to being just OK. His current offensive production would be excellent for a centerfielder, but is just OK for a DH. Unfortunately, by clogging up the DH position, he prevents another good hitter from getting regular at bats or half days off, not to mention the developmental opportunity for someone like Julien (or Lewis, or Lee, or Martin, or ??) to get some MLB at bats. Buxton's output as a DH on a "per WAR" basis is likely about what his contract pays for. The question at this point is whether this is a permanent move. If it is, the impact is substantial. If he can move back to CF (or even RF or LF), it would be a great improvement for the Twins. We can only hope that happens.

Sorry. This is the "he's been around for a long time so we should keep him" argument. I'm not in the "Max Kepler is a disaster" club, but calling him one of the best outfielders in team history is statistical interpretation cherry-picking at it's finest. He had one pretty good year and one great year, combined with a lot of not very much. His glove isn't that valuable unless he can man two positions at the same time. I will agree that the Twins list of all-time outfielders isn't that impressive compared to some other teams, but they have had a number of "really good" outfielders out there like Tori Hunter, Dan Ford, Tom Brunansky, Lyman Bostock, Shane Mack, Caesar Tover, and more. Those players aren't in the Puckett and Oliva category, but they are still preferable picks to Max Kepler.

IF all of those things worked out for him a big dollar deal would have worked out for him too, BUT they didn't. In his current situation, he had one really good year two years ago and is now missing most of next season. So. . . on a 2025 season contract, it seems likely a best case scenario that they would get 125ish innings at maybe a 4.00 ERA. That to me doesn't say $20M dollars. Instead, I think it only says $10M or so for the second year, and that is again, IF, he recovers properly -- an item that is now taken for granted, but still really isn't a sure thing. I don't think people will be lining up at his door this coming offseason.

ALCS. Anything can happen in the playoffs. Think 1987. Think White Sox pitching in 2005. They don’t need to be a 100 game juggernaut (or even 90) to start something if the stars align. By August they will trade for a relief pitcher and move Maeda to relief full time. They will also DFA Kepler and add a useful bat. I’m hoping that Buxton gets healthy enough to play CF, as that would effectively add another bat as well. Correa remembers how to hit as well and the offense looks a lot different. They’ve gotten this far with a struggling offense. A little improvement would go a long way. A top five pitching staff just needs a competent offense to win. They don’t need to be murderers row.

I too am in enemy White Sox territory and really love how Twins Daily keeps me engaged and enjoying the Twins. Being originally from "far reaching" Twins territory in South Dakota, I grew up listening to Herb Carneal on the local WNAX radio station, mostly from the seat of a tractor before I moved to the Chicago area. Being around two other baseball teams, with their own local coverages and biases can be frustrating at times, but I think it also helps give me a little more perspective that we are neither the greatest nor the worst team around. Thanks everybody from making this a great baseball site!

A few years back we had a hitting coach who seemingly propelled the Twins hitters into breaking the all-time home run record. He was poached away for a better gig and since then has experienced. . . drum roll please. . . pretty much zero success. Last year we had a pitching coach who took over partway through the season, was absolutely awful, and obviously didn't know what he was doing. Since then. . . another drum roll please. . . he's the greatest thing to happen to pitching in the history of mankind. It still comes back to the players. They are professionals. They need to get the job done. They are being paid serious $$$ and have plenty of motivation. They are not getting the job done. Period. Can coaches and managers make an impact? Sure, maybe a little and at the margins, but it still comes down to players executing in the game. The coaches and managers get way too much credit and way too much blame.

It will always boil down to "how much?". I'm not sure I want to pay him 2/$20M. It seems like $5M is a lot to be paid to "recover" and $15M is a lot to pay for the first year back, which tends to be just OK in the best of circumstances. The contract either needs to be for less money or for more years so that we can benefit from the recovery. Three or four years seems better at $25M or if it must be two, then 2/$12M. There is also the question of how his shoulder is doing. If that is directly related to the TJ than it should be fine, but if not. . . . hmmmm. . . . .

I was hoping out loud!

Just trying to figure this out. Is it possible that Garlick is up because they are hoping he gets a hot couple of games so they can trade him somewhere for a low level prospect or a bag of balls? At some point, when everyone (if everyone) gets healthy, they will need a room on the 40 man roster, so somebody needs to go away. Maybe that's Garlick and they are just prepping it weirdly. I'd rather think it was Kepler, but I think the experiment of hoping he gets hot has probably fizzled by now (and several times over the past couple of years) so that seems unlikely.

Or Patrick Murphy?

After doing more reading, I think I'm changing my mind as well. I originally said to trade him for salary relief (and a bag of balls). Upon further reflection, it might be just time to DFA him. Gives him better potential opportunities and removes at least one boat anchor from the offense. Defensively, if he's not going to play centerfield, it's not like we are replacing him with Sano. I'm not sure that Max Kepler is going to get anything but a minor league contract in the off season. As to leadership, I think we automatically assign "leadership" chips to a veteran player who has been with the team a long time, but I just don't see it with Kep. Unless he's dramatically different in the clubhouse than he is on the field, he doesn't seem to be providing much of that. Correa in year two has more leadership points by a mile. Twins veteran leadership = Polanco and Buxton, not Kepler.

I agree that he is really stretched as a starter on a good team (that needs offense!), but imagine where we would be without him. I suppose we could trade for Jake Cave!

I think the difference between this year and some of the past years is that some of us see the potential for this team. For the first time in about forever we have a starting rotation that is playoff worthy. We are leading the division despite the offense playing at a lower level than we think they are capable of (and we are still middle of the pack in runs scored). The bullpen is at least OK with the potential to improve. IF (and that's always a bit IF) the pitchers keep doing their thing and the bats start coming around, this team could be quite good. That is enough to get excited about and and mostly an improvement from past years (yes 2019 was great, but what was the pitching like?). This is much better than the teams from the past where many players had career years and we still only won 84 games. As to the "style" of baseball being played, last time I checked there were no wins or losses based on style points. You can not like their current style, but it has given us at least some semblance of success. Whether the trade of Arraez for Lopez was a good idea is certainly up for debate, but it's ultimate success or failure cannot be judged for years to come. They are both young and talented. We don't know the final result of 2023, let alone 2024 and beyond. Will Arraez' knees hold up? Will Lopez' arm hold up? Who knows. I'm sorry if that displays too much positivity for some posters. I've been watching the Twins since Harmon Killebrew and Tony Oliva were playing for the team (and Caesar Tovar and the first iteration of Bert Blyleven as well) and have very much learned how to take the long view. The seventies and early eighties were tough, as were the post WS 1990's. We aren't the Yankees or the Dodgers, so taking the "every year we must win the WS" approach isn't practical (it's actually not practical for their fans either, but that doesn't stop them). I choose to see the potential here, find some joy in it, and enjoy the season rather than nitpicking every part of it.

It is a convenient time to bash this trade, with Arraez in the middle of a hot streak that has raised his batting average above .400 and Lopez has been quite hittable for the last month or so. Neither of them are likely to maintain that pace. Arraez might hit .340 or .350 and win a batting title. He is quite valuable. He’s was one of my favorite Twins and I’m not here to bash him, but let’s not turn him into Rod Carew or Ted William. He’ll be on another team by the time he racks up the kinds of titles they had. Whatever there is to be said about his hitting, his defensive position on the team was easily replaceable. Evaluating Pablo Lopez is a little more complicated. Starting the year, we would have been OK, because we still had Maeda and Mahle pitching. When they went down to injury, we called upon Ober and Varland to fill in and they have done so admirably. Now subtract another pitcher (who has been a “workhorse” at 70+ innings 1/3 of the way through the season). Where do those innings go? Who are we calling up to take his place? I don’t necessarily think that Lopez is the pitcher he was in April, but I also don’t think he is the May version either. So, let’s make him the 4.00ish ERA guy he has been with close to 200 innings pitched for the season. That’s a key part of the overall team picture for the year. In the past, we would have been thrilled to have a guy with those numbers on the team. This year, that probably makes him our 4th starter (at the moment). As to the awards that are likely to come, Arraez may win another batting title or two for Miami. That’s not nothing and is very impressive. IF Lopez were to win a Cy Young or even finish in the top five or so, that is much more valuable. Do I think he will? Not necessarily, but he has the stuff to be in the picture for that award in the future. When you can get a guy like that who is “on his way up”, it makes a lot of sense to deal from an area of perceived strength on your team. It’s a trade you have to make.

This was a nice hit for the Twins, and with a couple of years of team control as well. It is definitely “found” value. Good job! The alternative way of writing this comment would be this. . . . Wow! I can’t believe the Dodgers let this one get away, especially when they had a guy with an 80.96 ERA on their team. No wonder they never have any decent pitching! The team is always bad and this is why. The entire management team surely must be fired. See how silly that looks?

It sounds like some of us are eager to blame and unwilling to credit the Twins for anything and everything. If you are going to slam a trade, great. That’s your right. But the reality is that the team got to a position where they are contenders while many teams are not. They have made trades that have worked out and ones that haven’t, but it doesn’t seem reasonable to question their motives or intelligence based on cherry-picked information long after the fact. I may be be wrong, but I was under the impression that TD was a place for some intelligent dialogue (and even disagreement) and not just drive a drive by. A deeper dive would consider more factors than the quick surface view. For the people who don’t like that, perhaps a new team or a new sport to root for might be in order.

I was there in September, 2021 and it was a really nice experience. Cooperstown is not the easiest place to get to due to the finger lakes and a lot of north/south-ish sort of roads but not much east/west (we were driving from Buffalo). We stayed in a very low budget hotel on the road north of Cooperstown. It was very old school, but clean and pleasant enough. The bigger/nicer hotels were all booked, so I'm guessing the lesson is to book earlier than we did. The HOF is really excellent and it takes quite some time to work your way through. The room with all of the plaques is very cool as a general concept just because of how many really amazing players are enshrined there and looking for Twins (or any other teams) players is pretty fun. However, reading every plaque will get very tedious very quickly so I don't recommend trying to do that at one visit. The rest of the museum is a real gem. I probably spent at least five or six hours going through the exhibits, ranging from overall baseball history to information about baseball integration and women's leagues. The gift shop has good quality souvenirs as long as you are willing to cough up pretty serious dough. The rest of the town is quite cool as well. It is a quaint little place with a fun main street and neat little HOF field named after Abner Doubleday. As Seth mentioned, Cooperstown is also the home of James Fenimore Cooper. We didn't spend enough time there but the accompanying museum/gallery was quite nice and very worthwhile. There were also a couple of breweries in the area that we visited. We would like to have seen an opera (yes, an opera) at Glimmerglass, which is a state park on the lake and an opera company, but weren't there to see one timingwise. On a "normal" (non HOF) weekend you probably need two days to take in the HOF and the rest of the town. I would have loved to go during a hall of fame weekend to see the legends, but our visit didn't coincide. That would have been pretty amazing.

It certainly doesn't appear that the medical reports are the likely reason for Correa's offensive struggles, so I don't think that it is a reasonable assertion to make. It also seems extremely unlikely that the a third of a season is a reasonable basis with which to judge a six year contract. He has a track record. He will figure it out. That doesn't mean it isn't and won't be frustrating at times, but he is still very likely to be a cornerstone player for this team.