Dman

Technically Lewis doesn't have to come real close to Correa's numbers because by removing Correa you have 35M to spend to add more WAR. Rodon might be a possible get or some other stud pitcher that is willing go short term high AAV. Pitching is what the team needs, if Royce can just be better than average it would\could still be a win IMO.

I don't think most people are saying Correa is a flop just that he isn't creating the value his 35 million dollar salary reflects. Would you pay Nick Gordon 35M per year his OPS is almost the same as Correa's right now and Miranda's is higher. If you are making that kind of money you need to perform to be worth it. He hasn't performed to close to an All Star level and his salary says that is how he should be performing. That is the issue, not that he is a poor player he just isn't living up to contract he signed at least IMO.

All the numbers look real good for Rooker at AAA but San Diego didn't give him many chances. I guess I can see maybe not playing him in the outfield but still with the 1.000 at AAA. a good walk rate. average and Slugging you would think he should be a cinch to make it a the MLB level. I guess we will see.

I have no idea why Rod Carew was given as an example as it isn't really related to Correa at all but that was example given. Still if Rod Carew was putting up a .725 OPS as the poster stated no one in MLB would be wanting to pay him 35M per year. I mean Nick Gordon has a better OPS than that. If that was your standard you would need to pay nearly every player on your team 35M. The point I was trying to make is "value". I think given what Correa has given so far (and I stated he has time to correct the numbers) the Twins can get greater value with the 35M than what they are getting right now paying Correa 35M per year.

Nice to see them getting some of the drafted bats started. Would be nice if they would get the catchers going as Cardenes could stand to be moved up to high A as well. Will be interesting to see if anyone starts out hot. Most players struggle to adjust in their draft year but there are always a few that show well right out of the gate.

Happy to see they moved Lee aggressively up to high A. Being one of the best college bats and solid defender it makes sense to challenge him right away. He likely just needs to get used to the more refined pro pitching he is going to see moving forward. Finally they moved Louie up to AAA. He has been very consistent. Would still be nice to see fewer hits and a few more K's. Hopefully a little more refinement and he can be an answer at the MLB level. I am a bit surprised he has been able to stick as a starter as I had him pegged for the pen. I really like the Minnesota kid and am Happy he is doing so well.

Yep they had their chance in the 9th and ultimately the 10th and decided not to take it. Still the play that won the game shouldn't have won the game so there's that.

The problem for me is he wants to be paid for providing elite production so when he doesn't give you that then maybe it is better to spread that money around to improve WAR in other areas. Maybe he will be elite again next year hard to say but if Lewis can come in and get even close to those numbers and the 35 MIL can buy you 4 more WAR somewhere else I think you do that instead. If he wants to be paid like an All-Star he needs to produce like one. Right now Bogarts has more than double Correa;s WAR. If it stays that way he looks like the more consistent player and more likely to get the big payday. Correa is asking to be treated like an elite player so he needs to produce like one year in and year out or settle for a smaller AAV contract.

Yeah he really needs to up his game at the plate or he will never get what he wants on the market. He will need another prove it year. He still has time to turn this around but he better get it together soon if he wants that big contract. His defense is down from last year, offense down from last year. If things stay the same I think there is a good chance he is a Twin again next year.

Rod Carew wasn't costing\asking for 35M per year.

I don't think anyone is saying he is bad or a poor player but this is a guy running around looking to be paid like an elite player and right now his replacement in Houston has more WAR than he does. If Lewis can do something similar I would love to put that 35 million to better use.

To be honest unless that throw was going to make about a 3-5 second difference I think the call would have been the same. As best I can tell MLB's issue is that Sanchez setup in foul territory early in. That is the only way I can see how they could call it blocking because as the throw comes in he moves more out of foul territory and they still called blocking and ruled the runner safe even after he caught the ball ahead of the runner sliding in. He was blocking the plate without the ball if you look early on in the clip. So even if the throw was one double clutch away the runner still would have been ruled safe otherwise this whole charade falls apart because he was out of foul territory when he caught the ball and they still called him safe. The blocking action happened long before the ball got there at least IMO. If that is the rule I sure hope they apply it to everyone now because it is goofy to me that positioning long before the play at the plate should make a difference even if the runner was going to be out no matter what. At least then other teams can feel our pain. Then again New York would never have the guts to call that against the Yankee's. Chicken **** is right Rocco.

I really do love Correa's leadership and supportive presence but I am down on his bat so far this year. For all the playoff clutch stats he hasn't looked that clutch to me this season. Seems like he is K'ing in the clutch more than getting on base. I much prefer Arraez and Miranda and possibly even Gordon being up as opposed to Correa right now. Honestly if this is his level of production I would prefer Lewis in that spot. I don't think Lewis's production would be much worse and he is much, much cheaper. Correa has a couple more months to impress but time is running out. If he wants that mega contract he needs to prove he still has "it". Right now I don't see "it".

MLB's quibble seems to be that Sanchez didn't get over (out of foul territory) soon enough and I assume even in that clip they view him not giving enough room to the runner. I guess I don't understand how soon you have to be in possession of the ball before they consider it just blocking and not catching it and blocking which is legal to do, but they get a lot of leeway to interpret something in the rules only they know. "•The catcher may not block the pathway of a runner attempting to score unless he has possession of the ball. If the catcher blocks the runner before he has the ball, the umpire may call the runner safe." In this scenario though Merrifield is out regardless of where Sanchez's feet are exactly because the ball beats the runner so blocking or no blocking it shouldn't really matter he was going to be out no matter what which is why this rule makes no sense. Instead of an obvious out he gets called safe based on some early subjective positioning of the catcher before the play is even over? Doesn't make sense. To add insult to injury to New York's decision the player freely admits he was trying to run into Sanchez and didn't even attempt to slide to an open side of the plate (real nice guy hoping to hurt another player, we need more of these Ty Cobb type spikes up players or wait wasn't this rule supposed to get rid of those guys?) as he knew he was out and hoped for a reversal. This goes completely against the spirit of the rule and its ability to protect both players. New York should have taken that into consideration in this case as well. The runner made no attempt to slide to the open side of the plate, None. While I guess this could be considered blocking according to the league there are tons of these plays that could be blocking and never get called so unless there is some consistency on this issue there are going to upset teams and fans over obvious outs.

So given what MLB said about this their quibble appears to be that Sanchez set up in foul territory without the ball. Even though by the time the runner got to the plate he left a very clear lane for the runner until he had the ball where he then came back over the plate. So unless the rule reads a catcher cannot setup in foul territory at all with a runner on third I guess I don't get their logic. The replay clearly shows he left a lane at the end when he caught the ball and then when he had the ball he stayed in front of the plate. The runner made no effort to move the side but directly initiated contact and that is how they want to call it? They are essentially negating the rule they put in place to protect the players. Even the runner acknowledges he TRIED to initiate contact since he knew he was out to try and get the call. New York messed this up. Rocco is right this was just an embarrassment on a lot of levels. They should have let the call stand like they have on 99.9 percent of these this year.

Ill intent or not New York umpires always find a way to screw the Twins. It is just in their nature. I have looked at the replay a lot and it seems to me that Sanchez does everything he can to not block the plate until he has the ball and he has the ball before the runner is at the plate so New York please explain the the absolute certainty that this met the rules of overturning with incontrovertible evidence. It can't be done. They totally effed this one up. Someone is going to have some explaining to do. I mean how do the umps on the field get it right and New York gets it wrong? I don't understand how they make that call? I am with Rocco on this one it is just plain embarrassing. Replay was supposed to fix stuff like this not not make it worse. Bad day for baseball today IMO.

Yeah I was a huge, huge doubter. I had already predicted he would be off the roster by the end of this year. So I guess I get to eat crow for a while. Congrats to Gordon for proving so many of us wrong. I think Doc had mentioned this before that if Gordon could ever get healthy for a long stretch he would look different. I guess he was right.,

I have six players Canterino, SWR, Varland, Wallner, Jullien, Palacios as pretty much must adds. Then I have at least 5 Guys they need to decide if they will be taken or not in Isola, Headrick, Severino, Urbina, Lawyerson. Since Isola is a catcher with a good hit tool there seems a decent chance he would be taken. Since Headrick is a Lefty with decent velocity, solid WHIP and above average K rate there is good chance he might be taken to be a pen arm as well. I think it will depend on how Severino does at AA before we know if he needs to be added but his eye at the plate has improved and his contact and power are very, very good so he could end up as Baddoo v2 or maybe skipped like Mirnada hard to say right now. Urbina is pretty young and hasn't played above A ball. Seems unlikely to be picked unless a team can waste a MLB roster spot all year as I doubt he is ready for MLB ball just yet. Lawyerson has pretty much been a shut down reliever at AA. Whether or not he truly has the stuff for the MLB again is hard to say but wouldn't be surprised if a team checked him out to see if he might stick. There are a lot of reliever arms Sisk being another one that could be taken so this a tough. tough year for adds IMO. Twins are likely gonna lose some guys in rule V this year.

Yeah sorry, I don't always love the MLB.com one as they seem slow to update or see how players have improved.

Unless the wheels really fall off I can't see the Twins moving on from Pagan. He is getting swinging strikes and they have to see that Colume came back to normal this year so with another year left I think they want to hang onto him even if they need to use him in lower leverage situations right now. I am guessing releasing Duffey was hard but I think several people noticed he just didn't seem to have that magic anymore. Even though he had a successful stretch a lot of those balls were hit hard just at someone. Like many have said I think he can have a resurgence but this team just can't wait on him any longer and they weren't going to resign him in the offseason anyway so not much to lose other than two months of a reliever you were trying to hide in the back of the pen. I think it is best for this year and next as well. Even if they don't get much better results from Sands or Moran they are getting valuable experience and should get better as time goes on. They also have a chance to be better than Duffey as well.

Nice summary! Wish I could write like you. I always appreciate what you have to say.

I guess the best memories I have for Duffey were the 2019 season. He was a big part of a pretty good bullpen that year. He had stretches where he looked unhittable K'ing the side in order. He seemed fearless that year just going after hitters. I wish that was the same kind of pitcher he could have been this year.

I was little concerned about him last year but the optimist in me had him shaking that off and doing better this year. I never could have imagined my favorite arm would have 10.75 ERA. I thought he had decent velocity, decent movement but maybe I was wrong. I just don't understand how he could 10.75 bad. I could maybe have worked my way to 4.75 or 5.25 but even those numbers would have been disappointing. 10.75 just blows my mind.

All Drafts and prospect lists\acquisitions are crap shoots to some degree. So many things can happen from A ball to the major leagues and only a small percentage of guys drafted something like 5% even make it. So yeah you are not wrong a lot of them won't make it but looking at the talent that is there, it is a stronger list than the pitching side IMO. They also just drafted maybe the best college hitter in the draft and several other high contact bats. Odds are a couple of those guys work out. The Twins have a strong young hitting core at the MLB level and guys with good skills behind it. I think they are OK on that side of things.

You forgot a few big names like Rodriguez and Jullien and they just traded Steer, CES and two good left handed pitchers which would have changed this list considerably. To your point I don't think they have built a top 10 Farm since they have been here mainly because top picks like Rooker, Sabato and Cavaco didn't work out well and they missed on the international FA like Javier and others. I think the larger point to make is that they haven't really produced much for starting pitchers which is what they were brought in to do. Cleveland has continued to be far more successful than Falvine on the pitching side but then again they have taken risks taking pitchers early and late in several drafts. While the Twins drafts have been balanced they just haven't found enough viable arms. Things looked like maybe they were going to turn this year and with Ryan, Ober Winder set to play key roles things were looking better for the FO but Ober doesn't look like he will ever make it a full season as a starter and given Winders shoulder it doesn't look good for him either. Everyone else has pretty much imploded on the farm. Things could change next year for Balazovich, Henriquez, Canterino, Sands, Enlow but it doesn't look good at this point. Losing Povich and Hajjar leaves the only potential fast mover as Prielipp from this years draft and we don't really know how durable he will end up being either. This team is going to be in a tough spot if they can't draft and develop more guys like Joe Ryan. Constantly trading away your farm for 1.5 years of a pitcher is not a great strategy moving forward. Not sure how they are going to get out of this mess but hopefully this years draft is a really good one and they need to replenish the pitching pipeline next year or there won't be much of one. I still like this FO for the most part but if they want to keep their jobs long term I think they are going to have to do better than they have been.