bjorks

don't disagree it could be 1.5 years, but there's not going to be a sea...

We need a lefty, OF bat so I'm hoping Booth or Curiel! Living in the desert, I've been lucky to see Cholowsky since his SO or JR year. I definitely think fatigue has set in with him. His "down year" was still better than 95% of the college SSs. The baseball draft is the hardest of them all and it's been interesting to see once the experts started to poke their holes, others did too. Cholowsky may or may not be a HoF'er, All Star, or a bust, but he''s arguably been the top college SS for almost 2 years and his "crater" was nothing like Lebron's for example. IF he somehow falls to 3, would it shock me the Giants scare the Twins off by offering a record bonus? No, but if the Twins have a chance they'd be absolute fools to take anyone other than Cholowsky and I'm in the camp you take pitching every time if you have a Top 5'ish pick. He's got a shot to be in the majors in 3 > years. If this scenario happens it will be fun to see what they do with Houston/Lee. In 3 years you could have Cholowsky and Houston on the left and Culpepper and Clemens on the right. I say Clemens to get people riled up!

The Twins...Kings of the Platoon Outfield. Need a bench bat and capable CF? Call the Twins! they've even put Kody Clemens in CF. Need a lefty bench bat that that'll be anywhere from 90-100 wRC+? Call the Twins! Do you value pinch runners with a good glove who flirt with the Mendoza Line? Call the Twins! Don't forget the annual Pohlad Summer Sales Event! Looking for AAAA "Organizational Depth"? We got'em! "We can't turn any of them into a 1B, am I right? Everyone must go!" T. Pohlad

To that point as well, I ask this question frequently "How much of a difference is there between a 4 year old and a 2 year old"? What I ponder about Tait is if the convo is already about if he'll stick behind the plate. Regardless if it's ability or he's too talented offensively, why not move him now and be done with it especially if Lackey is the favorite to come home in 3rd place.

What do you expect Tom or whichever Pohlad is running the team? "We're not going to be very competitive this so we're going to go full rebuild and gather assets," or maybe "Despite bing 1.5 games back in the WC and in a bad division, we just can't compete so we're going to sell off this year again." If that's the expectation, the Twins wouldn't draw a million fans this year and the grief they get would go triple. We want them to say the things the fans want to hear, but there's strategy to this as they still need to sell tickets to increase team revenues. With that being said #SELLTHETEAM! I looked it up and a full page ad in the Startribune isn't awful. If they sell at the deadline I may ask for donations to take out ads in the Trib/PP on behalf of fans calling for them to sell

Many reports have stated Emerson has the highest ceiling, Witt'esqe as mentioned. Would Burress (other), sign for less and/or who are they targeting with their next pick they think they're gonna have to overpay? It would be very interesting if Roch doesn't go 1:1. I think Tampa really wants Emerson, but they need a stopgap to Flewelling. But to get someone like Roch takes some luck and Minnesota sports teams other than the '26 Wild aren't allowed to have luck, but Vahn is a nice consolation price.

I'll preface by saying I love players like Clemens, the guy on your favorite team you want to cheer for and see do well. Also, I grew up in rural MN, but live in Scottsdale. I grew up believing plenty of the girls I grew up with were at a minimum 8s and then I got to Scottsdale and those 8s were (maybe) 4s. Clemens is a MN 8 due to the lack of options and overall mediocracy of the team.

Some of the comments are biased partly because Varland is having another solid year and he's a hometown kid. But consider the following; 1) Prior to deadline, Rojas was #3 pitching prospect behind Yesavage and many had him #2 with Tiedemann coming of TJ. He was on the borderline of most of the Top 100 lists from last summer; 2) He pitched at 4 levels in 25 and the Twins are the ones who have put this pitch count (>60) on him. Point being he's been up-and-down with his control, but he's also consistently been younger than the batters he's facing in the minors. He was fast tracked through the minors; 3) In the Twins case last year, you trade relievers for starters (with potential/helium) 10-out-10. Is anyone crying about trading Jax anymore for arguably our best SP for the first 1/4 of the season? Nobody wants to give Rojas a chance to adjust to a new team/city/league (minors and majors). The Varland/France trade is what it is, but saying the trade was bad or he's unproven to be a starter is short sighted thinking.

Jose Miran-duh

As a fan, the problem is this is not fantasy baseball. Pitchers/Agents have to agree to make the move from a starter to a reliever and once someone has (reverse) shifted from reliever to starter there isn't very many willing to make that change back to the pen - (I always liked Littell), but he's not making the move to the pen when there's (arguably) 29 other teams who would pay for him to eat up innings as a 4/5. I doubt Raya and his agent are thrilled his (maybe) only path to the bigs is as a career reliever and I would bet Tom Pohlad's salary Prielipp and his agent want to move to the pen without assurances he gets a crack post lockout to prove he can start. Same goes for Festa/SIM/Mathews/Abel/Bradley. Bailey Ober's agent would demand a trade if they asked him to go to the pen with the exception it was a short term "thing" and even then. IMHO there's a lot of teams who would role with SIM as a #5. As a #4 I don't like him, but between Mathews/Abel/Bradley one of those needs to show up (not putting Festa in there due to injury) and prove they can be a CONSISTENT #4. We'll have to wait and see how much trust DS has in SIM getting through the lineup more than 3x's, but would anyone be opposed to using Prielipp/Abel as an opener every 5th day and letting them go 2-3-4, especially if they're going to limit them (potentially) in St. Paul anyway? I'd rather have a blowup inning early with a chance to claw back then a bullpen that gives it up with 3 outs or less to comeback. SIM has proven he's a slightly better than average 4-5 inning guy. Maybe the closer role can be fixed with an opener of more than an inning.

Whatever happened to the narrative Matthew’s throws too many strikes or is too much in the zone?

Mickey Gasper right now...

Forearm strain…doesn’t that typically lead to TJ? If so, Lopez is no longer an asset to trade

We’ve all reached levels of delusion based on some of the ideas floated around. Keaschall and Ryan are the only guys I’d consider to extend and one is probably out the door. The problem as some have said about Ober is if he doesn’t bounce back, who are you bidding against when he’s in his mid 30s and his numbers are similar to Kyle Hendricks? Extending Royce when he has proved he can play even 50% of a season? Extend Jeffers? Come on people… the truth is if the reports the Pohlad’s have a significant cash flow problem are true and they won’t spend any more “family money” signing extensions isn’t going to happen and I doubt any potential new owner (unless they’re going to keep Falvey) is going to want the outgoing FO to spend money on guys they (or new FO) even want.

If they were going to go all in, this is maybe my favorite move. Rojas is/could be an exceptional #2 or a dominant reliever. He has rocketed up their system and there’s room still. I would guess his profile at this age is much better than what Mr. Varland’s was. Rodan could be a slightly better version of the best version of Jake Cave we hardly knew ye… I have visions of Varland and France storming into Falvey’s office and saying “F-it, we want out, too!” And threatening to kick his a$$ if he left them here. I think Rojas has a higher ceiling/floor than Abel. #Preposterous