Dman

I think this move is best for both parties. Colome needs a fresh start and he can't get that with the Twins. If he stayed any little bumps and the fans would be all over him. Honestly I think he can rebound from last year but I am happy he is not going to be on next years Twins team.

Happy for Eddie and Ehire. That Braves team was the second to last team I had for winning the WS. I only had Chicago's chances as lower. Hard to believe almost every deadline move they made worked out with guys having bad years. Just mind boggling really that plus the tough injuries they faced just blows my mind that they won it all. Houston just didn't have the pitching to get it done in the end. They didn't hit consistently enough either. Happy for Atlanta but have to admit I didn't see it coming.

I agree with you especially on Strotman. I got to watch him on MiLB a couple of times and his delivery really looks smooth. He was a little too hittable last year but he looks good out there. He has the pitches to be a starter the Twins just need to get him over the hump with missing more bats and they could really have something. I like his chances next year and like you will be disappointed if he duplicates his past season. He needs be better next year and I believe he will breakout. Sabato is a good breakout candidate as well. Guys that control the strike zone and take their walks generally tend to have good odds of making it. If he can just make more contact I will be able to get behind him. He is not a player that can put his bat on almost anything and make contact like Miranda or Rosario. I also worry about Sabato and breaking balls but he was soo bad to start the year last year there is almost no to go but up. A breakout would bring a sigh of relief for that pick but I am not holding my breath it will happen given the flaws I have seen.

I had the Braves out of the playoffs and even if in doing nothing mainly because I didn't think they had the pitching to win a world series.. Baseball is crazy game the 87 Twins were another team that shouldn't have but did win a WS. It is fun when teams come out of nowhere and get hot and just get it done. It is what makes baseball so much fun.

No way to know how things will end with Eddie but if the tiger doesn't change his stripes then I have to believe it ends with a massive Eddie mistake at some point and slump to follow. I wish him nothing but the best but I think his flaws are his flaws and strengths are his strengths. The past two years he hasn't been that good so it seems like the shooting star that he is, is likely to fade out at any point now. Hopefully he keeps his hot streak going through the WS.

Very happy for Eddie one of the most fun players to watch as he plays with so much emotion. He does have a tendency to focus in clutch situations. That being said someone forgot to tell the Dodgers you don't need to throw strikes to get Eddiie out. Just go low and away then with two strikes go low and very away and usually an easy swing and miss out. Pitching him inside is dangerous and anything close to straight also dangerous. At any rate good for Eddie. With the past tough two years he deserves some good karma. I hope he keeps the hot streak going as I don't want to see the Dodgers in the WS anyway. Go Eddie.

Whether they are freak or not I do worry about how injury prone Buxton has been. Literally not being able to complete a full season he is the ultimate risk. That being said when he plays he is a true difference maker. He is the ultimate offensive threat as you don't want to walk him as that likely turns into a double. You don't want to give him too many good pitches or he will likely just hit one over the fence. With his speed pitchers are almost forced to pitch to him so I think his offensive talent remains elite. He is most likely an MVP candidate every\any year he can play near a full season. I don't think his talent is really replaceable as he is kind of a unicorn type player. I think the Twins should think long and hard about that extension. I think they have to take the risk and sign him. He is the only elite offensive\defensive talent they have on this team. Losing him would really set them back IMO.

I guess you get more moving Polanco but looking at the numbers it seems almost better to trade Arraez rather than Polanco. Polanco has a known cost for the next 4 years and looks to be more than worth the investment. He has power which is a skill that has been very important to this organization. He is a top producer who is a borderline all star player. I just don't think this is the kind of player you give up and get better by moving. He is the exact type of player any team would be happy to fall into as he looks like a plus defender at his position. Has some speed. Has power and some OnBase skills. His K rate is good too. He is the wrong player to trade at the wrong time. You could trade him two years from now and still get a haul. If you want a guy to trade go with the guy with the shaky Knee's who has no power and isn't all that fast. Who likely can be replaced by Miranda or Martin. Heck if Gordon ups his game a little he might not be far off of Arraez's numbers. I just don't think Polanco is the right player to trade at this time.

They maybe didn't have to make the move this week but I think the strategy was that maybe if they could get him past the few bottom teams he might slip through. None of the playoff teams were likely going to take him so that eliminates almost 10 teams. It was a long shot but one they must have felt they needed to take if he likely wasn't going to be ready for 2022. I don't love the move in a vacuum but as others have said let's wait and see how they fill out the 40 man before getting too upset.

I always liked Colina's potential but that is what it always was just potential. His fastball was hard but always came in pretty straight and he also had trouble controlling it. His MLB debut although only .1 inning (SSS Alert) appeared to indicate his stuff in its current form wouldn't play at the MLB level. Obviously some tweaks can change that but he didn't have the look of an elite arm to me. It is unfortunate he was hurt this year and we never got to see if he could turn the corner or not. I kind of feel he is a bit Graterol like with the straight 100 MPH fastball that can be hit and maybe not getting quite the results you might hope. Factor in the arm injury history and it makes things even more murky. I think this comes down to 40 man space and protecting some players with better long term potential. We saw this year how small the 40 man can feel when you have guys on it that cannot help at the MLB level they are dead weight on there. I am looking at Duran, Balazovich, Colina, and Chalmers who was on there for a while until he wasn't. That was 4 guys effectively turning the 40 man into a 36 man. If Ober hadn't made it it would have been a 35 man. There just isn't a ton of room for wasted space on there so guys that get added need to be close to ready and be able to contribute or it hurts the teams ability to maneuver without losing players in the process. If we could reasonably keep Colina without having him on the 40 man I would be all for it. His plus to plus plus slider with his 100 mph fastball makes him a virtual shoe in for the bullpen at some point it seems like just a matter of time. The only thing that could hold him back is if his arm fails him. If this FO is going to take a risk on a player they seem to be willing to sacrifice relievers as losing those types of players seems to hurt less. I take it this is the same calculated risk to open up 40 man space.

Yeah I have to say I was stunned by the sheer volume of injury to the minor league pitching staff. They ended up needing to grab guys from Independent leagues just to keep things going this year. The Twins do seem to be getting their guys to move up a few ticks on the fastball but at what cost is anyone's best guess. I think the fact that hitters are generally trying to take pitchers and especially starters deep into counts and pitchers needing max effort on so many pitches leads to pitchers reaching their pitch counts earlier and possibly with max effort putting more strain on the arm. At the MLB level there is so little margin for error and pitching at those levels puts incredible stress on the arm. I don't see things changing anytime soon though.

I get what the OP is saying in that this group of hitters doesn't seem to have the star power of the Sano, Buxton, Kepler, Polanco etc group. Still Miranda and Martin could be a new M&M connection. Julien and Steer look like bat first players and Steer could be a plus defender at 2nd. Severino started slow but finished with a 900 OPS in High A. When Wallner was healthy he looked good at the plate his peripherals are horrible but he still could be good to great. We don't know what Lewis's bat will be like when he gets back but if it is just average with his other skills he can still be a star player. I think that is pretty good for star talent coming up and that doesn't include the younger guys who could develop in Cavaco, Urbina, Rodriquez, Rosario, Miller etc. They pick high in the draft again so there will be even more talent to add soon enough. I don't think the cupboard is bare. Maybe not as many guys with elite All Star level skills as some systems but not bottom level either. I do agree with the piece on the pitching side. If they can keep their arms healthy things have never looked better for the arms we have down on the farm. Those guys still need to make the jump to MLB and that is no easy task but the depth is good right now and should continue to come in waves.

Not gonna lie this was a tough season to watch the Twins. Being out of it almost from the very beginning of the season just sucked. To be honest I am kind of glad the year is over. Be good to have a fresh start next year. Nice to get the win and not lose 90 games but still being last in a bad division hurts as well. It will be interesting to see what this team does to try to solve their pitching woes. Anyway glad this year is behind us as I am more than ready to move on.

I have been high on Moran for what seems like forever especially because of his K rate. And yet for as good as his K rate has been he also can have control problems. Still if he can fix the control problems and keep the contact down he looks like an elite option from the pen. I was very impressed with what Gore was able to do this year. I really though he might be good early and then tumble. I don't know much about his stuff but thought it was more average than elite but maybe someone knows more. Still he remained consistent all year and was called upon in important game situations. Starting to think there might be something there.

Those are two good looking hitters in Rosario and Rodriguez. I just wonder when an up the middle player (SS) will win this award? Still happy to see some young guys hitting well as they are important to fill out affiliates with an extra infusion of talent.

Heck of a year for Varland. When they drafted him I never saw him as a starter just strictly a reliever. His numbers at Concordia didn't exactly jump off the page as dominant and his first taste of pro ball was short and nothing special. He didn't let 2020 go to waste though and worked hard to refine his stuff and capture this award. Have to say I didn't see him being even close to this dominant especially his first year in pro ball. Happy the Twins found this guy and hope he continues to improve as he moves up. You just can't pitch much better than he did this year. He has to be happy with his season. Thanks Louie for being fun to watch every time out this year in a year where lot's of pitchers went down. I hope your hard work leads to your dream of playing MLB.

He might have increased his trade value but he also looks like a decent replacement for Cruz and he can sub in at 1st base as needed. He can probably handle third as well on occasion if he DH's more. I just don't see the Twins trading him though. He has the power that they love and at times you can see pitchers don't like facing him in tough situations. I think they give him one more year to see if he can move that K rate down a bit more and see if he stays in that 800 to 900 OPS range he was starting to find halfway through the season. Those types of hitters don't grow on tree's. it has taken longer than hoped but it looks like Sano might be "getting there" as a hitter.

I think he gets taken in rule V though. Detroit already had success with Baddoo why not try for one of the best mashers in the minors? Yeah the K rate is ugly especially for minor league ball still I don't think that stops teams like the Orioles, Pittsburgh etc from trying out a guy who can hit HR's with the best of them. It looks like he is always going to be hitting around a 900 OPS the only question is if he can make that translate to MLB. I think a few teams give him a shot in rule V next year. I know I would.

That is pretty much my feeling as well. I was going to maybe even bump Stashak from the 40 man but seeing that 15 K9 this year made me think otherwise. There are some tough decisions to be made especially on the pitching side so he might not make it but even though the WHIP and ERA were bad this year mainly due to control problems he could break out next year if healthy. Would hate to see that happen if ends up on another team. Hard to know how to rate guys you haven't seen all year in Thorpe, and Smeltzer but from what I have seen I don't think they offer enough upside to keep on the 40 man. I think the same holds true for Barnes. I would hope we have better arms to save for the 40 man than those three but again will have to wait and see. They just traded for Gant so they are not going to get rid of him right away and he has some intriguing stuff. They just paid Dobnak so again unlikely to get rid of him right away. I go back and forth on Jax but I do like him. If he could just get his stuff to play up just a little more he would be a great 5th starter. He will be a borderline add IMO. Like I said tough decision's to make and I would guess they lose a pen arm or two that they wish they could have kept but that is the way things work.

I didn't follow the minors that much back then. I thought I read a Tribune article that said his Dad was upset the Twins weren't calling him up and he had a point given Meinkewitz's bad bat. In the end he made it and made it big. Happy to root for him as a Twin. Joe Mauer will likely make the hall of fame but Justin Morneau was the heart and soul of that team hitting in the 4 spot. When they needed a HR or bug hit it seemed like more often than Morneau delivered. He was my favorite Twin after Hunter left. He played the game hard giving his all to win and it cost him with those concussions. Still I remember him as a dangerous hitter that pitchers were very careful with. I wish we had more guys like him. I like his announcing style not that he has perfect voice for it but his knowledge and understanding of the underlying "moments" during games really stand out to me and I enjoy his commentary. I hope they keep him in the booth.

Yeah at one time I thought the Twins might just trade or DFA him. When he dipped down into the 600 OPS range it was getting hard to see him being a part of the future but right now he looks like a very versatile 10th man. He has the speed to play center, right and left field. He can play short maybe not as well as the Twins would like but he can play there and he can play 2nd and third. He can play virtually any position except catcher and likely be around an average defender there. Heck if you need him to pitch he can probably do that as well as I believe he pitched in HS. With the recent pop in the hit tool and general good contact he makes he could develop into an Arraez light bat who runs better and has position flexibility. He needs to keep hitting but if he can hang in the 700 OPS range and play anywhere on the field there is a ton of value there. Personally I think he replaces the Turtle next year on the 40 man but we will see.

I like your focus on the top 100 players. They generally have the greatest chance to make it and even a good chunk on the top 100 won't ever make it to MLB. The grading is pretty harsh IMO but to your point they don't have a single drafted player that has been a true difference maker to this point. You could argue Jeffers but he is more average to below than above. That being said the grade assumptions are very premature at this point. There is plenty of time for those picks to work out as you stated so no need to panic just yet. Like you I have not been enamored with many of their choices in the top few rounds. They almost seem to have better luck in the later rounds. The thing with the baseball draft though is that the guys after about the top 20 all start to run pretty close to the same so it seems entirely subjective which player to take as this guy might run .001 faster than the next guy. This guy looks stiff at the plate or always plays with red sox on. I think the data shows us that after the first 20 to 30 picks it is pretty much take guys you like before they are gone. There is some grading but if you watched the draft this year teams were taking guys not even on BA's or MLB.coms draft boards. It isn't just the Twins it is all teams. Like I said you have the right idea to focus on the top 100 as those are the most important picks and missing on those hurts the most, but in the end we all know that any one draft of 600 or more players will only likely return 60 that make much of a difference at the MLB level. The failure level is like 80 to 90 percent so a good chunk of these picks really don't matter too much anyway. I don't follow your logic in the Drafting being separate from player development. You are drafting players based on a skill you think you can develop especially when it comes to pitchers. They are intertwined and that is why they are often spoken of together as drafting and player development. A 10th round draft pick developed to be better than a 1st round pick is still a good draft pick that player just exceeded expectations. Still a good pick though in fact that pick could be considered a superior draft pick to the first round as your draft team found the proverbial diamond in the rough. Still your point remains that to this point this FO has not drafted well. We do need to give them a few more years though IMO.

Yeah I totally agree with your take. Even at the beginning of the season I told myself that rotation maybe doesn't look world series bound but it looks solid and there is some depth behind it. This FO had built solid pens the past two season's and while I didn't like some of the arms for the pen who was I to doubt them since they had done well the past couple of years. The bats are what killed us in the playoffs but the offense was top 10 I believe the past two years and with a healthy Donaldson and Buxton had a chance to be even better IMO. It all looked good on paper but was a disaster for a variety of reasons the first two months of the season. But yes I agree with you that you just cannot plan for the kind of depth they needed this year no team can and even teams that took ultra proactive steps in the offseason (I'm looking at you AJ Preller and San Diego) can and are having a disappointing season. The Trever Bauer decision hurt the Dodgers as well and they had to dig into the farm to get Scherzer for their run this year. Strange things happen in a baseball season and you cannot predict every thing will go your way. Even the best laid plans can go up in smoke.

Yeah I am with you on the players. They have to perform and for whatever reason our guys did not perform well early. I don't think coaches can be responsible for dropped balls or poor at bats. Players have to make plays. Coaches prepare players for other teams tendencies and generally try to use statistical data to their benefit that is all they really do IMO. They also can use statistical data to improve player performance by using trackman data etc. but have to be careful about changing things mid season. If a player is slumping for long periods of time and or making the same mistakes then maybe the position coach works with the guy to figure out another approach but you generally don't mess with a swing that a guy has had his entire career mid season unless absolutely necessary. There's only so much coaches can do at some point the player either performs or he doesn't. If you don't think that is true why is it that good coaches in the minors only see a few players succeed each year? Is it all coaching or the skill certain players develop? The players that perform well move up those that don't, don't no matter how good the coaching is. The FO did take some risks especially on the pitching side IMO. Happ at 38 is pretty past a pitchers prime so regression was due at any time. Maeda had never successfully pitched for a full season in the rotation always breaking down toward the end and ending up in the pen. Depending on him seemed risky. Pineda hadn't pitched a full season in while again risky. Dobnak had had moments at the MLB level but was far from a sure thing and they identified that and brought in Shoemaker who hadn't performed well supposedly because of injury but a low risk flyer they could dump and ultimately did. The only stalwart they had was Berrios who himself usually had one good half season and one bad at least until this year. So yeah they could have done more and taken less risk on the pitching side. Even us arm chair GM's could see that. Still I agree with your premise this is on the players more than management. The FO expected these players to perform well and they just didn't for whatever reasons. Players have plenty of motivation to perform well as the money they make can set them up for life. They are human though and get in funks and slumps, panic and hurry throws etc. Coaching only takes them so far. Even the best players make mistakes out there it is part of the game.

I have been as down on Sabato as anyone but am happy to see that 1.015 OPS at High A. I think he still has a chance to be what he was supposed to be which is Rooker Part 2 with hopefully a better eye and slightly better contact skills. I know this FO is heavy into hard hit rate and OPS at the expense of batting average but we haven't seen that translate particularly well so far IMO. I think Gunnarthor makes a good point though. I think it is better to find players with good to great hit tools and decent speed and help them gain power as they move up. Lumbering players with great hard hit rates just are not as useful IMO. Fine to have a few of those guys but this system has too many.