Hawkeye Bean Counter

The bats although statistically not showing it do seem to be better. The last 5-6 games show even more improvement. The question is it due to poor relief pitching by Texas. The ball also seemed to be flying out. I do think a couple of the young players specifically Lewis and Wallner are seeming to be a bit more clutch than our vets have been during the season other than Jeffers. I hope the offense continues to improve.

We fully have to acknowledge how good of a hitter Luis Arraez is, we also have to fully acknowledge that Luis really struggles down the stretch of a season. This has occurred multiple seasons, and I think it is primarily due to physically wearing down. The work outs help early in the season, but later in the year he is no longer able to make the quality contact he was making earlier in the season. This August has been worse than normal, as awesome as the first 2 months were, that is how bad august has been. Split G GS PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS TB GDP HBP SH SF IBB ROE BAbip tOPS+ sOPS+ April/March 25 23 102 89 12 39 5 1 1 11 1 1 11 5 .438 .500 .551 1.051 49 2 1 0 1 3 0 .452 150 192 May 26 25 108 100 7 33 6 0 0 9 0 1 7 5 .330 .380 .390 .770 39 8 1 0 0 2 1 .347 84 113 June 26 26 116 106 17 43 5 0 2 19 0 0 7 7 .406 .448 .509 .958 54 2 2 0 1 3 1 .418 127 165 July 24 23 104 96 7 34 8 1 0 12 0 0 6 7 .354 .388 .458 .847 44 1 0 1 1 0 0 .378 101 130 August 24 23 98 97 11 22 3 1 2 7 1 0 1 7 .227 .235 .340 .575 33 2 0 0 0 0 0 .227 36 53

Unless Kiriloff is 100% healthy do we really anticipate cutting Gallo?

Wow, Paddack throwing 95 mph. Hope the control is there.

For all we know Jeffers may have done something they didn't like in the first 3 innings, and they would rather get to the batter after him. It also set up a force out at home. Who knows what they were thinking, but sure looked intentional to me.

This trade was good for both teams, leaning towards Minnesota because Maeda is a SP. Maeda at his best has been better than Graterol at his best. The Twins still have a slight chance at getting a 1st round pick for Maeda as compensation if they give him a qualifying offer and he signs elsewhere for more than 50 million. it not a high probability, but if he continues to have a strong fall and postseason, and with Ohtani's injury (taking another good arm out of the equation) there is a chance. I am really curious to see what happens this offseason. Padres and Mets likely licking their wounds from the last couple of years. Will other teams step up this year or will free agents find it more difficult to get deals this offseason.

Martin has had a hot month and he looks strong. I am fine with letting him continue to gain confidence with his new approach. I do think he would/will be good at the MLB level but waiting til next year would be okay in my mind. Martin has plenty of whiplash between trying to change his approach and multiple injuries. Letting him settle in at AAA for another month may be just what he needs. We are so lucky he didn't need tommy john.

The 6 man rotation is absurd to me. We do not win the game the other day without Keuchel coming out of the pen. No ifs and or buts. If a pitcher needs and off day we can swap Keuchel in there. Giving out big dogs one start off in the coming month is more useful that creating a 6 man rotation.

2 more walks for Martin and a steal .346/.479/.618 slash line for August. A couple more weeks and we may see him or Stevenson called up.

who is even going to give him a 1 year deal? Only makes since on a 2-4 year deal.

We keep hearing why didn't they try . . . who is to say they didn't try? Whose to say the cost for the Twins would have been higher than either deals completed or not completed for a variety of reasons. We all admit its a flawed team, no reason to dump a bunch of resources on this year. However they can still catch lightning in a bottle. The arm talent is there. For the playoffs you can move 1-2 arms from starts to relief corps. If Ryan comes back strong Maeda is the obvious pick to move. He has fizzled enough that likely won't get any compensation for him. They can move another arm, as well as add someone like Funderburk. This season was successful as an organization for a couple reasons. You have found and locked in an Ace. Yes it cost Arraez, but it was well worth the cost. You are starting to have more younger bats coming up and we will watch to see the cream rise to the top. Some will fail, some will exceed. You need more options, and that is the one thing the Twins have. They have tons of options, even if not highly rated. Correa has had a tougher season but I still like the contract and think he will be a great player A for the rest of the season B for rest of his contract. I think he just needs a little more protection. I do think we need to let our best bats hit, and avoid the platoon as much as we are. Oh well still looking forward towards the post season, and still keeping and eye on the Tigers. We are building a foundation. I really think we will have a very solid team for the next 3-5 years and at that time they may begin to put more resources into the bullpen as a final touch.

And that is why you don't spend 500 mil plus on a pitcher even if its Ohtani.

First off, Martin continues to solidfy that he is going to be in the MLB next year if not this year. As to Jenkins, that is great, slightly disappointed his buddy Winokur isn't joining him. Likely only 1 spot for the 2 of them and Jenkins has a little better bat to ball skills.

still not sure why Stevenson gets no love

I do think you have to be more willing to swing at the first pitch. It is often the best pitch you will see the entire at bat. The spray chart isn't much different than last year, other than there are less outs at 2nd base area due to less shifts giving him some benefit. That is obviously helping some. When his OBP is around .340 and his slugging is in the .500 range or better, he is an excellent player.

Isola is the backup catcher in AA. Camargo is the primary catcher in AAA. Williams is backup catcher in AAA. Banuelos is the primary catcher in AA. Winkel is a backup in AA. Cardenas is the primary catcher in A+ ball then the backup is Cossetti. Nate Baez in A Ball is another to keep your eye on. I think if MLB goes to the electronic strike zone you will see more bat first catchers - or at least catchers with a strong arm to stop stealing as pitch framing is no longer necessary. We have ample players who can be back up catchers in the league. When you look at the stats we may have the most stacked offensive catching staff of any other organization. These teams are often being led by the catchers, and we have spent minimal resources. I don't know what they are doing but they are doing well with these players.

Walker, Keaschall, Winokur and Harry all having a pretty strong start to their professional careers. How about the entire starting staff at A+ ball absolutely on fire. Just need better relief. Ohl is also doing very well in AA Martin or Stevenson could provide a spark at Center for the Twins. Would be giving up some defense for offense. As to the pitching in AAA, not sure anyone is really there to provide a boost for the end of the season run other than Funderburk. The minors have been fun to follow this year. We seem to find the bats from all over the draft and the bat first catchers seem to be really hitting, even if they don't seem to stay at the catcher position.

Ranking the farm system is so difficult. This ranking says 19, Law says 11 - and I wouldn't be surprised at all if the players end up being in the 5-8 range. The A and A+ ball club seem to do a really good job at developing players and in the fact the organization seems to be doing a really good job drafting. In the most recent draft all 4 bats are either performing or over performing expectations. The Twins are slow playing the pitchers as usual but I am really looking forward to next year to see how high of a ceiling some of the pitchers have. I am really high on the 2022 and 2023 draft classes. I actually like the core of batters Detroit is putting together, the pitching side, will take a bit of a hit losing Rodriguez. The White Sox got some good players in trades but their entire org seems like a big mess. Cleveland is the only organization that looks like they will be able to compete for the next 5 years. However, it seems we are getting closer and closer to a realignment and the continued underperformance of the Central is one of the key reasons why.

After 3 starts the Keuchel experiment is working out great - Allowing Ryan to get healthy and rejuvenated. Well worth it. Keuchel will likely get crushed again in the future with a tighter strike zone, but for the day and 3 starts going 2-1, that is everything we could have expected along with getting into the 7th inning.

Its a little more difficult than just that, I think it is much more difficult to manage a 6 man pitching staff especially with paying for Ohtani. You will be effectively paying for 2 elite players in 1 (50 mil -100 mil a year) - Then have 6 pitchers - and trying to keep them healthy. If Ohtani is your ace, you need to then be paying for another ace and regular 5 man pitching staff, and then have depth on top. Instead of like the Twins needing 7-8 SP for depth for injuries ect, you are looking at 9 or more. Even in that scenario you are likely throwing out more subpar players into the rotation - then taxing the bullpen. I believe Ohtani as much as lacking finding hitters, has been the primary issue for the angels not making the post season. You have the money issue, but then you throw in trying to build a pitching staff. It looks better on paper than actual results. Now as stated, I do think a smaller market team could more easily fit Ohtani into the budget, avoid the luxury tax ect. The issue likely is he wants to stay on the west coast.

Ohtani isn't worth it, unless you just want to make him a hitter only or a pitcher only, which he won't do. The issue is the tax on the pitching staff with a 6 day pitching staff it is much more difficult to build a pitching staff that has enough quality to avoid taxing the bullpen. With spending bucco money on 1 player, you will have less resources to spend on other quality pitchers. This will result often in 3-4 below average pitchers likely at the end of the rotation, killing your bullpen. Our starters have held up their end of the bargin this year. I can recognize Ohtani's greatness, but he currently causes more issues roster management wise than he is worth - which is odd as you get a hitter and pitcher in 1 player.

I am all about investigating to find out the truth then going from there. However, based on looking at things - this is leaning more towards a significant issue. It obviously appears to be a minor if the task force is picking it up. So at this time the age does not appear to be in dispute, and possibly a second girl. I do think he doesn't get the death penalty if he was entrapped and told she was older, however, there is a large spectrum on that and at this point it and there isn't enough information to even speculate on that. I am leaning much more to we just saw his last game played.

You leave Kenta Maeda where he is. He is currently one of our top 3 pitchers. You add in the fact, the odds he gets a qualifying offer, and rejects an offer are increasing with each quality start and its not something that is just wishful thinking. On many Lists he is in the top 30 currently. He is 25 on the current list I saw, and the pitchers ahead of him are Paxton, Giolito, Montgomery, Flaherty, Rodriguez, Stroman then Gray. 23. Kenta Maeda, RHP, Twins Age: 35 HT: 6-1 WT: 185 2023 WAR: 0.7 Career WAR: 8.2 Contract status: $3.125 million in 2023 Maeda is healthy and holding his own, posting a 4.22 ERA in 12 starts, with 72 strikeouts in 59 2/3 innings. He missed about two months earlier this year with a triceps strain. The veteran righty has yielded two runs or fewer in each of his past four starts. If he keeps it up, he too could get a qualifying offer in November.

I am not so sure a Jenkins, Lee, Rodriguez, Soto, Raya, Preilipp, Winokur, Martin, Festa is that far off. The depth is where this current iteration shines they are not well known yet but Morris, Matthews, Lewis Culpepper from 2022 and Hall, Questad, Stoffal, Dougherty, Dun, Langenberg, Paqualotto, Lee, Hamilton, Bragg, Silvas, Bengard from 2023 - I think you have the potentially 1 of those pitchers end up as a #2 pitcher or higher and possibly 2 others as mid level pitchers or higher. A through AA is going to be absolutely stacked on the pitching side next year and will be an absolute grinder and competition to get promoted.

If he got traded for a potential #1 that signed an extension with us, it was worth it. Arraez is a wonderful player. He is not perfect and if he could figure out a way to maintain his performance throughout the year without wearing down, he is a downright beast. I still stand by mid summer let him take 4-6 weeks off to re-fresh and re-start his workout routine then come back for the home stretch.