JD-TWINS

$$ via TV contract seems to be a legit concern! My general understanding is Twins are around $153M this year in payroll. Assuming $$ are an issue: Kepler - Polanco are both serious maybes for ‘24. Certainly, unless playoff heroes, easy to justify not picking up their contracts going forward………$20M roughly Gallo……..$11M Mahle - Gray……..$25M roughly Taylor - Solano - Maeda………$12M Close to $70M reduced from $153M…….maybe re-sign the last 3 guys for $18M total? Pick-up option (doubtful) on one of two top guys $12M. $68M - $30M & they field a team in ‘24 that brings in a bit of youth and saves $38M over this year at a minimum. That’s 25% of payroll. Seems we could have afforded to pick up $10M (MAX) the balance of this year & jettison guys after November if needed for helpful pieces in August/September!

Our guys strike out too much as a group to not try to get them out…….goes for even the guys hitting OK. When you hit .175 (guessed) with the bases loaded it gives a feel for effectiveness (lack of) in key situations as a group.

Maybe I’ve errored but it’s what was shown above (by author) as his historical numbers v. LH pitching……assuming it’s correct. Appears they are career numbers over last 5 years.

I don’t see the problem with this guy! Not exciting, like a trade, granted. Toronto needs a guy to hit from both sides and we need a guy to just face LH pitching. They released him and he fits our need………he’s not a big power guy like “Joey” but his 24% strikeout rate against ALL pitching makes him attractive v. just LH pitching!……..Can release him in a heartbeat if that’s the next good move. Jeffers - CC - Lewis - Farmer - Solano & Co. need to be able to hit LH pitching……..there’s not an acquisition of ONE guy in the game that can solve the putrid performances we’ve had v. lefties this year. This guy may or may not spark something? .226/.337/.497 & .833 - what’s wrong with those numbers?? It’s .090 better OPS than Kepler & I assume his Slug% is better as well. How many guys do we have that Slug over .450 & have an OPS over .800????

Agree - they certainly didn’t play to stop that 3rd run from scoring! Not a big deal last night. He does seem to be giving up a lot more contact than he used to………….seems like he’s picking 2 of his 3 pitches to throw per outing. Not sure why? Even if he just wastes his curveball to show a third pitch it seems to make him more competitive. He had a mediocre outing a couple weeks ago where he didn’t throw a fastball. Odd.

I think he ran for Class President in Napoleon Dynamite!!??

Lewis to the OF in (3 weeks) or ‘24…….LF (Wallner to RF) Polanco at 3B Julien at 2B CC at SS Kirilloff at 1B Farmer & Solano & Castro in reserve rolls, same as ‘23. Would really like an off-season trade for Stuart Fairchild from Reds organization, to play CF. Gallo & Kepler gone (unless Max is a playoff hero)

Do you think he’ll give up 4 Hr or 6 HR in 3 or 4 innings?……we’re trying to avoid Ryan’s last few starts. Not expecting Sandy Koufax…..nor a young Dallas Kuechel. Trying to get to the 5th inning without giving up more than 2-3 runs. He’s experienced and used to contact. If we get 2 out of 3 “reasonable starts” we’re ahead.

No roster space for Lee along with Lewis. Maybe in September with the expansion of rosters.

Not to be harsh but Brooks Lee isn’t getting any of CC’s playing time, nor is anyone else, until 2027 or so. I agree that if he gets to .240 it would be a nice salvage……I think he needs to hit .270 - .280 rest of the year to get to .240 for the year. Would be nice - that’s for sure! The article stated his power numbers were down as well as his average. Who’s right?

Maybe a nice guy but we don’t need to pick up other team’s DFA guys. We face 25% LH pitching. We don’t have a roster spot for this elusive RH corner OF.

Same comments posted by me 3-4 times……seen half dozen others as well. If FO is reading this stuff for anything but laughs, we’re in trouble.

I don’t think they are as inept and dim as most commenters portray them as here. Miranda - CC - Kepler - Polanco - Buxton have all let the FO & team down……..Kepler has turned a corner since July 1, to be fair. These guys were viewed as decent players - probable contributors, by anyone that follows the game. Can’t blame front office for these guy’s performance to date - $70M of the $153M right here. Gallo hasn’t worked out & neither did Mahle. That’s on the FO……another $20 M. Tough to win when less than 40% of your team’s payroll is playing up to expectations. Again, I do not see the FO as being responsible for the players inability to get the job done. Castro - Farmer - Taylor - Solano - Vazquez are a big part of our success as role players. FO did a nice job pulling these veterans in to plug holes. Would have liked some relief help at deadline - at least one guy!!! Reasoning for inactivity on Monday: Guardians play 38 games v. teams above .500 in their last 54. Twins play 15 games v. teams above .500 in their last 54. Cleveland traded Civale & J. Bell on Monday. Gotta bet on logic winning out. Once we get to playoffs, we go with 12 pitchers and 14 bats. We have 2 months to jell v. LH pitching & Lewis will be back soon to help! Kuechel - Ryan - Duran - Jax - Pagan - Floro - Thielbar - Balazovic Lopez - Gray - Ober……Maeda Headrick & Ortega & Moran can help us get through August. Bottom line is once we are in playoffs we don’t need acquisition help!

I don’t live in MN so I’m not up to speed on Saints. I thought Helman played OF & that was mostly the spot for Martin as well????

We are going to host a 3 game series if we win the Central. We are in line to play Toronto or one of the two teams chasing them…….Boston or New York. If Chris Sale gets healthy he’s challenging - obviously, Cole is scary good. Toronto has Gausman…..we lit him up last time we faced him. All 3 teams can be good……all 3 can be mediocre as well. Gotta have some faith. If Kuechel works out and our starters get some rest in August we’ll be in great shape. October comes and we have Lopez - Gray - Ober with Meada in the wings. Ryan into the pen, more than likely. He’s a better option than Maeda. Who knows, we may still have Kuechel on the roster. 6 relievers & a 12 man staff in playoffs. We may go with the “opener” approach Kuechel/Gray & Maeda/Ryan to get 3-4 innings each with contrasting styles!

He batted 6th on the 21st, 22nd, 23rd, (off for birth) & the 29th……… 30th - 31st - 1st he batted 3rd or 4th but he also had 6 hits in those 3 games……..pretty confident in these numbers maybe off 1 hit? Rocco seems fine moving him around now?

CC hit .290 last year on the Minnesota Twins. He wasn’t hidden in the Houston line-up. We then signed him for $200M based on some realistic assumptions from ‘22. Unfortunately, his performance has tanked to career lows. Buxton had 3 doubles two games ago. 7 hits in past 4 games he played. He can still play when healthy……fairly healthy. He’s not Willie Mays because he’s not durable! We/he’s got to live with his shortcomings relative to durability.

Odd day to draw these comparisons as Buxton has 7 hits over last 4 games with 5 doubles? I do think, unfortunately, that there are scary similarities between Giancarlo & Byron. Didn't pick up on the reasoning for the Buxton scratch last night…assume it was some sort of injury related issue. It’s tiresome for sure. Really can’t see the logic many push to “just put him in the outfield and let him play til he’s unable” ………he’s already hurt. Just because we don’t know all the details of his ailments doesn’t mean they must not exist. He’d play CF if he could. The Twins/Rocco would play him in CF if he could. I was ALL for him going on IL & making room for a healthy player to contribute. After the 7 hits in 4 games (5 doubles) since paternity leave, I was then reluctant to judge. Now what? Hope he doesn’t become as rigid as Stanton - he’s really tough to watch & really fragile. Somehow, when Buxton plays, he seems to be able to run bases well. If he can’t return soon (in a day or two) I’d put him in IL until just before roster expansion in September.

IMO - after last year’s injury debacle & getting to the point where Jake Cave is your best offensive OF, they made a vow to have experienced depth. Taylor - Solano - Farmer - Gallo. With Polanco out Lewis out & now Kirilloff out they will ride Gallo through the month “just in case”. They’ll probably hold on to him through October 1 with the roster expansion. They get their money’s worth & still can drop him for playoffs if desired. He’s just got security at this point - Rocco is very aware he strikes out 45% if the time - hence the Pinch Hit by Solano last night.

9-1 going into KC for the year - 162 games - things tend to level off. If you don’t use logic to drive your actions in FO and behave like a fan, you will not have a job very long.

Guardians play 38 games v. teams over .500 in their last 54. Twins play 15 games v. teams over .500 in their last 54 games. Guardians pitching is really banged up (60 day IL) & they traded Civale. Conclusion?

Checked out schedules last night………I think you are right on the knowledge angle! The Twins have 15 games out of 54 left with over .500 teams. The Guradians have 38 games out of 54 left with over .500 teams. The Guardians are down McKenzie & Bieber until mid-later September, best case! They just traded Civale. That’s their top 3 arms 6 weeks ago. The Guradians traded Josh Bell. Logic would tell you the Twins are nearly a lock for Division title.

Can’t imagine they sat Kirilloff a day & then played him before the IL if it’s really serious. 2-3 weeks hopefully he’s swinging comfortably again! Miranda isn’t helping us. Alcala was written off. Gordon is not expected to contribute this year. Sounds like Stewart will not be back. Lewis is a big key - need him to lengthen the line-up.

I heard Brian Cashman on MLB & he used the same comments of the Twins FO, ……”the market got 3-4 more buyers over the past week & that made buying more cloudy/difficult”. An excuse. Not sure how it blocked us from targeting 5 different relievers and working a deal for one of them? Reality check- Sanity check on the lack of moves by Twins…………Cleveland is down McKenzie & Bieber until mid-late September. They also traded Civale…….I looked at our remaining schedule last night because I was curious what the “5th easiest remaining schedule” looks like. We have 15 games out of 54 remaining against over .500 clubs. Then, out of curiosity, I looked at Guardian’s schedule. Including the games v. Twins, they have 38 games out of 54 remaining against over .500 clubs. Logic would say that we are a strong favorite to win the Division. That said, we get through September & then DFA Gallo, we carry 14 bats into October, & we shrink our Staff to 4 starters with either Ryan or Gray moving to the Pen. Potentially, we could add internally in September to the staff and look at Headrick or Varland in relief roles as well! We have a shot to compete in playoffs. 1st round we would host the worst Wild Card and we get all 3 games in Minneapolis! Need 31 more wins out of 54 and we’re good!

They’ll win nothing if they are relying on Miranda - he’s done - based on his performance the entirety of ‘23. Larnach has shown nothing that says he’s an offensive improvement & has shown that he’s a defensive subtraction v. Kepler. Should maybe try Larnach, but no for sure upgrade. Adding Raley from Mets had about $1.5M left in ‘23 and there was an option at $6.5M for ‘24. Hand - Chafin - Suter are all cheaper and if they help us win games the fans will come. Knowing Stewart is going backwards as of Saturday and not getting one arm?!?!?! Mahle - Gray - Polanco - Taylor - Solano - Kepler - Maeda - Gallo …….these potential/probable subtractions in ‘24 equate to $70M ……from $153M payroll in ‘23. We can re-sign Maeda & Solano & keep Kepler OR Polanco & have $45-$50M left over. We have plenty of budget room going forward!!!!! My assumption is they plan on getting to later August & then pulling others into relief from inside the system. Headrick - SWR - maybe Varland. Would really like to see Kuechel to fill in, for 30 days plus, to get starters some skipped starts!