mikelink45

Wow - I have been fascinated by the overtly optimistic essays about this perfect team and its perfect lineup and its perfect front office. Now I see a time traveler comparing the team with the 1927 Yankees. I hope you realize were not playing with the most juiced ball in history. The Yankees won 110 games and they only played 154. They won the World Series in four straight games. They finished 19 games ahead of all other AL teams - no divisions. Yes they only hit 158 HRs. The next best AL team hit 56 - that is a difference of 102. In 2019 we beat the Yankees by 1 HR. Whatever you are on must be really good, but not as good at the 1927 Yankees.

I am for the Twins prospects - Chacin and Wisler may be nice guys, but I hope they are beat out and we get young arms into our staff to build for the future.

See my post about Pete Reiser in the other Buxton article. I am sorry to say that some players are more prone to injury than others - physical, playing style, or some galactic convergence - and to say that they are more likely to be injured than others is not a pejorative. Reiser is just one example of players who saw their careers reduced by injuries while other players go on for what seems like an impossible career - see Nolan Ryan's arm.

Because his game is speed we are starting to see the combination of injuries and age challenging his potential. I have no answer, but I need to see more than a few glimpses of potential before I buy into Buxton the star (let alone superstar). You might want to check out an earlier fence crasher - Pete Reiser https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/92638bc5 Pete was a better hitter than Buxton, but "All attention turned to number 27, who lay on the field motionless, facing the sky, his shoulder separated and blood trickling from his ears. When Durocher reached him, the manager started to cry. Pete was carried off on a stretcher and woke up the next morning in the hospital with a fractured skull and a brain injury." What Buxton has going for him is both better medical attention and better team awareness. "Alas, in the heat of the moment, Pete Reiser just never could pull up and play it off the wall. Every fly ball was his to catch, and catch them all he would—or kill himself trying."

A nice 4th or 5th OF is a nice bonus, but they are like the second string QB. They always look good until they are forced to start and face all the pitchers and all the situations. With our prospects lining up I would look for a nice trade with Cave going to a team in need - like the Marlins. But I keep Eddie until Kiriloff takes over for him (and then we will complain that Kiriloff is not a good fielder).

I still dream of the four man rotation. Give me a 154 game season again. Oh well, that is as big a dream as an effective six man rotation. Teams can't get really good five man rotations, good luck on six.

I am looking forward to Duran and Balazovic in the rotation more than Maeda, Hill and Bailey. I see Cleveland and LA dipping into their prospect list (Plutko, Beuhler, Clevinger, Civale) and I like that. The Twins are finally getting to that position and I hope we do not trade any more of our high end young arms. Which does not mean I will not route for the Twins new acquisitions.

So much for the debate

As we enjoy the new free agents and trades and speculate about the new season we have to also know that the new season comes with one overwhelming story - the Astros and their sign stealing. I cannot solve or resolve this issue although this does give the Twins some hope that this really good team might stumble and present one less obstacle to our own World Series hopes. I do have to admit that going from video and computer to banging a garbage can presents a really hilarious combination. Should the Astros relinquish their title? If it were the tour de France they would - ask Lance Armstrong. If it were the Olympics they might take back the records - ask Jim Thorpe (if you have psychic powers). If it is the NCAA you can ask Louisville (2013) about its basketball record, the UCLA women's softball team (1995), USC football (2004), Marion Jones Olympics (2000), Ben Johnson Olympics (1988), or Mohammed Ali boxing championship (1967). Baseball has a huge rule book and almost everything has been violated. While Jim Perry put up great records for the Twins and he has made our team hall of fame, his brother Gaylord made the MLB HOF despite his admittance and jokes about spitballs. McGuire, Bonds, Sosa, and Clemens have been judged by HOF voters to not make it - yet, but their records still stand? Why. If they cheated their records should not stand either. But they will - lets see Rose has the most hits, but is not eligible for the HOF, Bonds has the most HRs but is not in the HOF. We have some funny standards in MLB. Only the Black Sox have had their title removed - so why not the Astros? Will Beltran still get HOF votes - Jackson, Cicotte and others from his team did not? We now know that the HR heard around the world - the most famous playoff HR was actually tainted by having someone tip off Thomson and Ralph Branca has had to wear the goat crown ever since (not the new G.O.A.T). In an interview after we learned about this infraction this was a pertinent. AMOS: So they cheated? Mr. PRAGER: Yes, they did. Baseball has a sort of strange relationship with the stealing of signs. When you're standing on second base and you're peering in and stealing the sign with the naked eye, baseball not only allows that, it applauds that. But when, on the other hand, you use a telescope, they don't feel that that's appropriate. The full interview can be found here - it is very appropriate for this season. https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6186829 Of course this is not a full measure of cheating, stealing signs, cutting up or doctoring the ball and the Twins have not been immune - check out Joe Niekro Of course Joe was a former ASTRO!

I respect your perspective and I enjoyed your discussion.

I agree with your premise - grading the effort is worthwhile.

We can grade the effort, not the results - not yet. We can have great expectations and most of us do, but expectations are not the same as performance.

I actually see him as number 1. For all the medical buzz - none of which we know - the Twins were willing to bring him up at age of 20. They might not see him as a starter at this age - most young pitchers are still being stretched out at that age - just read Balazovic and Duran's essays. The Dodgers are a smart team. They would not give up a four year - team friendly contract for a starting pitcher if they were scared like Boston. Boston was not scared by the medical, they were scared of their fans reaction to the overall trade. Graterol was worth a lot in this trade and in the opinion of two very good teams. I expect that he will start in the BP, get some spot starts and grow into a pitcher we will regret not having. I hope Balazovic gets the same quick call up and replaces Graterol in our hopes for the future. But I see to many comments that reduce the value of those we lose just as we have too many that increase the value of what we get. Time will tell, but right now Graterol has great potential and is already showing it in MLB and Maeda fills a role we need and we hope to see him provide the quality we expect.

I have said this in other grading posts - you cannot grade until the end of the season. At this point we can look at effort and we can look at potential, but the grade comes next fall when we hopefully win the division and some games in the post season. Right now it is all bells and whistles, hopes and wishes.

I have not seen anything that excites me about Thorpe and that is why we have been cluttering up the rubber with players like Chacin. I would love to have Thorpe make the move, but I think he really lost his chance last year when Dobnak passed him.

Why are we stuck with the old paradigm - too young, give him innings in all the minor leagues (even baseball does not really believe in it and they are trying to get rid of a big chunk of minor leagues. Rafeal Devers, Juan Soto, Ronald Acuna are just some of the young players that are being pushed to the majors. Even Graterol is a good example. I have no idea if Balazovic has that talent, but this baseball reference page https://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/Youngest_leagues.shtml is enough for me to say - get them up before their arms fall off, not after.

The Cruz extension should be one year and only after we see how he does this year, or we can be creative and sign him as a playing coach since we value his locker room presence. Based on the Athletic article about Beltran yesterday, we seem to have gotten the much better locker room leader. Both were strong leaders, but Beltran took their train off the rails.

I would love to see him in MLB before the end of the year. Real talent rises quickly.

Fun, but of course it is just fodder for all of us who are so anxious for a real baseball to appear again.

No - it hurts my old man's soul to see the game water down their playoffs like the NBA and NHL. We do not need more teams in the playoffs. I am happier with three division winners and one wild card. Check out this NBA summary for early round playoffs. https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2019/04/nba-playoff-ratings-down-first-round/

I keep seeing these articles and wonder if we are trying to talk ourselves into a great trade. Only time will tell. It was a worthwhile trade, but to say that giving up a good draft position and Luke Raley for money and a 20 year old catcher makes no sense to me. Graterol by himself for Maeda was a good trade, the extra trimmings does not make this better. Give me Maeda and the draft choice and we can sacrifice Graterol. Raley will be DFA'd soon so his part does not mean anything except to him and this is not the team he wants to end up with - he needs a break.

Forget the teams - who knows who wins or loses until after the year, or longer. Did the Twins win the Kurt Suzuki trade? The Aaron Hicks Trade? The John Ryan Murphy trade? The Wilson Ramos trade? The first year is not enough to judge (although potentially the Betts trade is for a one year player). Injuries, slumps, high expectations all play into the team win or loss, but the players factors are not the same as the team. As I look at benefits to individual players I see a different pattern of potential winners and losers. Mookie Betts - he wins. He would have won if the trade had not happened because he is going to get a Trout like contract and now he has a west coast audition to go with his East Coast play. Yet, the teams have not figured out that one great player does not elevate the team - this is not the NBA - and Mike Trout has never been in a WS. Trout, Harper, Betts - all far over paid, so yes, he wins, but the Dodgers will win the west (they won without him last year and the year before and would have won without him this year). Will the Dodgers win the World Series - they will if their pitchers lead them or if Mookie Betts has a crazy year like Bobby Richardson of the Yankees, or Dusty Rhodes of the Giants, or Scott Podsednik of the White Sox, or Jim Leyritz of the Yankees, or Kurt Bevacqua of the Padres, or Brian Doyle of the Yankees? Those are not memorable names or players yet they were the biggest reason for their teams success. Notice it is not Mantle or other big names on this list and history is filled with even more obscure names. So will Mookie win them a world series? No, but he might be on the team that does win and if he does that big contract is waiting. Graterol - he wins - the Dodgers Bullpen is aging and Jansen is not as good as he once was so Graterol jumps into a great position if he stays in the pen. The Dodgers have lots of successful arms and seem to know how to use them. If he moves to SP he will succeed there too with good fielding and good hitting all around him. Much better than Red Sox - no green monster, a deteriorating team, and a questionable staff. Kenta Maeda wins - with the Dodgers he is in the bullpen after they got Price and they have so many ready arms he is expendable. With the Twins he is expected to win the World Series! Yes he is now our #3 pitcher until Pineda returns and then he is number four and after free agency calls Odorizzi he will rise again next year. Luke Raley loses - if he thinks he was blocked by the Twins prospects and starters he is now back in the Dodger prospect factory and will lose more until he is traded again. Connor Wong - wins - they say that the Red Sox need catchers - he will find a place on the catcher bench. Jair Carmargo - loses - the Twins have Garver, Rortvedt, Jeffers - young and versatile. But hey every team needs a catcher in the minors. His only hope is another trade. Jeter Downs - not sure - probably a win. He has a good name for a shortstop. Bogaerts will eventually move from SS and probably not that far in the future and Jonathan Arauz does not have dazzling Milb stats so Downs moves into the number two position. With the Dodgers his window was not open. Alex Verdugo - wins - he has shown that he has talent. Expectations in Boston are not that he will replace Betts, but he will start and he could like the monster. And now he does not have Luke Raley looking over his shoulder! I think he will thrive. David Price - wins - yes he is a salary dump, but he now moves into the Dodger rotation replacing Ryu and Maeda. He is with Walker and Kershaw - not bad and his expectations are less. There are no DHs, there is good fielding. What is lacking is a great pen, but hey, they got Graterol out there now. I think he might become a star again if health allows.