Hawkeye Bean Counter

Lets be clear - wasted roster spots is a term thrown around a lot that has minimal application. The 13th man for the hitters is going to have minimal play no matter what. Jackson - had some speed, above average contact (although some luck involved), and some solid defense. Where we had minimal depth in the season. The 13th man position has always been intended for a vet that can provide something specific to the team. Speed, defenses ect. For Jackson the calculus was purely insurance. Any other player called up for him was never going to get the reps necessary to develop. I think more than anything in hindsight, the Twins were extremely afraid what would happen if there was an injury and Jackson was gone. Whey he was jerked around in August, I think 1 of the catchers got dinged although not reported and then we had the injury which opened up a spot. As to the end of the season, we will no fairly quickly but I think its money related. I think they dropped him for a more reasonable salary amount. Beyond that I am unsure. I do think the Twins treated Jackson incredibly well during the season, other than potentially taking more time for Caratini but all in all if they want a reunion potentially starting in AAA I think Jackson would do it.

Kody Clemens is your best and most consistently healthy hitter on the team for 2027. I think he is locked in as and IF before Brooks Lee who I am fine with locking in a spot for at 3rd. What Kody provides is flexibility, but he can be your 1st or 2nd baseman, or outfield in a pinch. It doesn't force the Twins at a specific position. C - ???? 1st ?????/Clemens 2nd ?????/Clemens or try Keaschall again SS Culpepper 3rd Lee RF Keaschall CF Jenkins LF Rodriguez DH Buxton Personally I think this lineup is more locked in that what this article purposes and Buxton will not be the CF moving forward as a mainstay. With the hip injury I see DH becoming is primary home with possibly RF. His defensive metrics were already declining significantly at CF.

This year was always going to be a non competitive year, that was going to be more about bring some of the young kids along and rebuilding the bullpen - after they put zero significant financial resources into the bullpen in the offseason. They spend a grand total of $2 million on Taylor Rogers. We had some minor trades for Banda and Orze. Tom's fantasy of this of being a competitive year, wasting trade chips in Jeffers and Ryan for short term ticket sales and then refusing to trade them at the deadline and buy with a 30% chance was extremely shortsighted. Of the traded prospects, the most likely to hurt was trading Dasan Hill to Toronto. Hoffman is a decent pitcher, and I guess if you wanted to trade him now for next season - he rehabilitated himself some you could in theory get more than a Dasan Hill. Personally, my goal would have been to continue the rebuild, know it was going to be another rough year and see if the boys could remain competitive. Honestly I was good with everything up to trading for Hoffman, and not trading Jeffers. There was a significant mismatch of demand and supply for Catchers at the deadline. This was the time to make hay and add a significant asset to the team. They completely dropped the ball. There were a few positives from this year. 1. The boys continued to fight all the way til the end of the season and last years sell off did not create a losing atmosphere 2. The bullpen is in significantly better shape than where it was last year. There are a few questions on Gomez and Morris and was their season a bit of smoke and mirrors. 3. We have some young studs coming up - the question is can we develop them 4. I like some of our young pitchers - Bradley - hopefully a healthy Abel, and Priellip is a very nice 3 headed monster of young pitchers. Matthews I am unsure of whether he remains a starter or goes to the bullpen. 5. We are seeing glimpses that we may have turned a corner in the scouting departing for international players Ultimately - nothing has changed in my opinions of the Pohlads. I feel they dropped the ball some this year to add the prospect depth and instead try to increase ticket sales to effect the near term future sales price after the new collective bargaining agreement is signed. The continued cost cutting in analytics and scouting departing is extremely concerning and seems short sighted. Letting go of Maki after giving him dog scraps of a bullpen seems like an extreme case of scapegoating for the front office incompetence of putting out an inferior lineup - even if they fought hard. Pohlad at the breakfast on July 6th that the boys and the record had outperformed their collective talent. It was the first time Tom acknowledge they had an inferior product, yet they still bought at the deadline. I do have some hope for the future - that is the definition of being a fan - but I don't think true hope will come until we change ownership.

This is the biggest question of the offseason. Are the Twins willing to offer the qualifying offer, or a significant extension? Then if its offered does Jeffers turn it down. It is clear they view Jackson as a 3rd catcher and not a true backup catcher on the big league team. Jackson will be hitting free agency in the minor leagues - however all in all the Twins treated him pretty well so I would not be surprised at all if he were to sign a minor league deal with the Twins and maybe a slightly lower rate than last year. So if no Jeffers who will be the other Catcher?

Now I will say believe Tom, he is pretty consistent on following through with what he says but to what extent. What we can judge him is on what he did and invested in this past offseason. When he was announced and throughout the offseason he stated they would be making additions and signing bullpen help. On Jan 27th he stated "We know that we have to continue to improve the bullpen." This was after they signed Taylor Rogers to $2 million in a low wattage move. The only other move that came was a trade for Anthony Banda on February 12th for 500k of international money. After trading away the bullpen - their answers were a washed up Rogers and trading for Banda after he was placed on waivers by the Dodgers (not good enough to make the Dodgers bullpen but will be one of the Twins key arms). I was extremely disappointed they didn't sign or trade for 1 high leverage arm. Overall the bullpen performed above expectations - but thats not saying a lot. By the end of the year they were a functional bullpen after some trades but still had some costly blown save opportunities. So yes I am coming in extremely skeptical.

He rebuilt a bullpen during the season with minimal additions to what was a depleted staff. That alone will make teams interested. Between Ryan, Bradley keeping Ober effective and even Kremer he maximized our starters abilities. Similar to Falvey he will end up in a pretty good spot.

No they don't do everything wrong. I have stated I think he has done 1 thing right and that is to try to rebuild relations with the players. That was smart. There also may be some calculus in the trades to be able to resign more players. There is a value to that. The execution of the plan for this year was not good. Losing Falvey right before the season with no option to hire someone else with the necessary skills was not good. Having a subpar team and continuing to buy mediocre players was not smart then buying at the deadline was extremely short sighted. He came in guns ablazing which is why Falvey left. In July Tom is on record stating he was pretty naive coming in and said he had very little understanding of the operations. He stated the Twins would be buyers at the deadline and the Twins followed through with that. https://www.aarongleeman.com/my-breakfast-with-tom-pohlad-we-have-to-****ing-win/

I personally think Tom is not only setting the direction but rubber stamping or approving every single trade. Yes Zoll does the legwork, but Tom is signing off on everything. Zoll may give his opinions but right now this ship is being run by Tom. Now daily minor decisions such as Jackson is likely between Shelton and Zoll. But any trade or signing of a player is ultimately being approved by Tom. This is likely something we won't agree on, but Tom has stated he is a micromanager and wants to be actively involved. Tom won't get rid of Zoll because he is doing Toms bidding. If he was going to be let go it would have happened this weekend with Maki and the other individuals let go.

Show me any move that we can say Zoll has made on his own accord?

Glad to have you on the forum Tom.

I may be paraphrasing, you said Zoll didn’t have the experience or knowledge and being based on the performance of players and picks he was a part of he should be fired. Everything that happened this season was based off Toms view. Tom wanted to compete so we didn’t trade players at the end of their contracts. We bought significantly at the deadline even with a 30% chance because Tom said he would go big or go home. My personal opinion is Falvey was extremely independent and wasn’t going to be Tom’s lapdog or scapegoat on his crazy expectations of being winners this year. Likely a good choice as Maki was the scapegoat. I think Zoll is a yes man and a butt kisser which Tom likes and will follow Tom’s orders to a T even if they don’t make logical sense. As I said at 5he beginning of the season you have an echo chamber at the top with extremely inexperienced individuals in Tom and Zoll for their respective positions.

After a late surge they are currently slotted #11. 1.6% of #1 pick 15.7% of Top 6 pick

You have even said he was the one making decisions and that Zoll was a placeholder. Zoll doesn’t make this move on his own. Now I am curious if Shelton had an opinion or not.

Its clear they don't plan him to be the backup for next year. I really don't know what the drop at the end of the season was for. I think now he becomes a minor league free agent. It was bizarre how the Twins treated him throughout the season.

So what happened, didn't hit him and called a strike on challenge?

I think it’s in regards of the torturous battle. Whether cancer or mental diagnosis the last few months based on her statements weren’t easy, prayers for the family. Rest easy brother.

My worry is we just traded away our best power option in Amick.

The only one hoping this was Tom.

I've always felt this core especially positional players was 2 years away. Why we think this is new information is bizarre. The Larnach, Lewis, Wallner were clearly not going to cut it.

He gets a gold star for creating a functional bullpen out of glue and duct tape. We traded our top 5 relievers. We preceeded to spend a whopping $2 million on Rogers and 500k of international money on Banda. Later we traded, Agbayani and Amick for Minter - Amick has considerable strike out concerns but continues to rake even at AAA, that one might hurt a little. Hoffman for Dasan Hill. This was a significant trade. Hoffman is starting to find his control since coming over and has elite potential. Otherwise cash or minor prospects for Gomez, Nance, Acton and Orze. Even still for zero money invested and a young volatile arm and a bat that’s best outcome is Joey Gallo light. In return for the bullpen we traded we have - Bradley, Abel, Tait, Rojas, Roden and Horn. Now we really need to spend a little more on the bullpen and continuing to develop younger arms. Morris is struggling to end the season either wearing out or tipping pitches. Adding 1 more elite arm to Hoffman and Gomez would leave us in a really good situation for next year.

For where the class is now and after trading the majority of the 21 class - we really needed this class to pan out. Lee still has some upside but the ceiling isn't massive. He will be solid player and at best an All Star 1-2 times during his career. Ultimately i would take that. Priellip and Matthews have upside and historical performance that they can be mid to high end starters with a little reliever risk with Matthews. Morris looked marvelous up until the trade deadline and has struggled since. I hope he just wore down but my bigger concern is he was tipping pitches again. Ross and Schobel may give you a little bit of utility play but I am not expecting a lot.

After Pablo was injured, top 1/3 rotation? Where? I was seeing middle to back of the pack. Ryan, Ober, Bradley have all had pretty good seasons. Kremer has been at least a solid 3-4 while he has been here. I see no where for the season where they think our starters have been a bottom 5 staff. We added to significant assets to the bullpen - Hoffman and then to a lesser extent and shorter time frame, Minter. Now the last month Morris is falling back to reality (or tipping pitches) and statistically Minter is coming back down - but we are also utilizing him a lot more than he has been used in the past. Bullpen as currently constructed I would say is in the 18-22 but that is just purely guessing at this point. I really think you are over estimated what this team was. For pitching staff - starters were a strength after injuries middle of the pack. That seems about right. Relief pitchers - worse in the league - now in the 18-23 range. Hitters - below average. To start the season the hitters outperformed with runs scored, bullpen struggled early, starters have been fairly consistent. Middle of the season hitters went on a tear scoring runs, Bullpen seemed to greatly outperform. Starting pitching was holding their own. To end the season with a tougher schedule, all 3 phases are underperforming in my opinion for the talent. Granted some injuries.

I am reading more that the lottery may be scrapped or changed. Draft odds continue to go up with current set up. #1 pick 4.5% Top 6. 40%