Dman

Soto was the story for me. No hits allowed for four innings. He put the ball all over the zone and I was surprised how little he appeared to use his fastball and how good to great his secondaries were. Kid is only 18 so I thought for sure they would keep his innings down and start him in the FCL short season league. I also thought they might work on his secondaries before short season ball to refine them, but when you can dominate an A ball game like that I can see why he started at A ball. Watching on MiLB TV the ball just seems to come out so effortlessly and the hitters really struggled to hit him. He did get a bit lucky with balls in play as a couple of them were scorched but right at guys. Still no one recorded a hit against him for 4 innings. At 18, in that league that is beyond impressive to me. Still work to do, but Wow what a performance. Emmanual Rodrigue is beyond hot right now. K rate is still up there but so is the walk rate (both at about 30%). The BABIP is over.500 so this isn't gonna last at least not at these insane numbers. Still it is getting harder to not acknowledge that his approach is working and likely will the whole way up. Can someone on TD tell me\us more about free agent acquisition Poncho Ruiz? On MiLB TV he looked liked he did a real nice job covering the plate and had a 4 for 5 night. Too early to say much about the numbers, but I just liked how he looked at the dish and his results impressed me as well. I assume he was an after the draft pick? Some good prospect watching Saturday.

Man SWR really had everything working today. He was hitting those corners and his Changeup is a difference maker when he is throwing enough strikes. You can't pitch much better than he did today and going 6 innings after the 1st game went extra's was huge. I was disappointed with Sands last year and was pretty vocal about it. He is off to an impressive start this year. I think I saw he had his fastball around 97mph today on at least one pitch. So nice to see the pen arms stepping up and not giving away so many games like last year. If the offense can get things goin the Twins can play with anyone this year.

Nice to see Keaschall getting hot at the plate. Was wondering if that injury was going to linger. He is a big part of that lineup so getting him going is important. Now we just need Jay Harry to heat up especially if De Adrade is going to be down for a while.

Kind of wondering if Langenburg is going to take the Pearson Ohl track all the way up. He gives up hits and some runs, but refuses to walk anyone. Just attack, attack, attack the zone. Rough night for sure, but hopefully he refines his stuff and gets better along the way. Definitely surprised about Stoffal. He was supposed to have a really good change up and fell some due to injury. Maybe the finger was just too much to overcome or wasn't coming back the way he wanted? or he just didn't see a future for himself there? Wonder what happened as you don't generally see many of these players give up on their dream that easily. Must be something fairly big. Obviously I wish him the best going forward. Still waiting for those St. Paul hitters to get going, but it is cold up north in April. Seems like they are missing a spark plug at AAA this year.

With the bats struggling at CR to start the season things were starting to look ugly. They had two games worth of hits last night so that was good to see. I have been watching Cespedes for a while now and was starting to think the bat just wasn't there. It looks like he has been working hard as his batting average of .636 is higher than a good chunk of the teams OPS right now. I know it is super small sample size and just the beginning of the season, but man that is one hot start. Also nice to see that HR as his slugging has been a weak spot for him as well. I hope he has found what he needs to be a great hitter. His team and the system could use it. Nice to see Matthews looking even better than last year with the velocity up and raining K's. Also nice to see the pen close the door on this game. If the bats can heat up this should be another really good Kernel's team this year.

Very. very nice writeup!! Thanks! They have all been close games but the Muscles have found ways to win. Doncon and Chourio have led the way, but most of the rest of the team hasn't done much at the plate. Feels like the bats are slow to come around in all the affiliates this year. If Rodriguez can keep the K rate down I wonder if he gets called up this year. He has the eye, he has the power, his body is filled out. He could be an option if he can keep things rolling IMO. If he has a strong April, May would be nice to see them move him up. Need a few more games but Henriquez has been keeping the ball in the park and striking guys out. I haven't had a chance to watch him, but if he keeps this up he looks like a 40 man add at some point. April is always a tough month to judge performance because the weather seems to play into things and just being cold all the time is tough as well.

Hopefully I am wrong about them the rest of the way. 🙂

I think teams are catching up to Jullien's approach. They are coming in for strike three more on the edges than ever before. The one game I watched they weren't going to let him walk and instead threw him inside right on the edge and even low and down the middle for strike three calls. I know he likes to wait for those balls middle middle or a little higher, but I think he just needs to swing at strikes. He likes to make pitchers execute and maybe he finds his way back to more walks or sets himself up for HR's using reverse psychology hard to say as it is a long season. He has done the job of forcing pitchers to stay in the zone now he needs to start swinging.

Too early to say too much about anything, but nice to see lot's of players off to good starts. Hopefully things click for the outfielders as could use more depth there. The pen looks like a weakness at all the affiliates this year except maybe Fort Myers as we just haven't seen most of those guys yet. Starting pitching looks like a strength, but will have to wait and see how it all shakes out.

The Cedar Rapids rotation is stacked so for John Klein to make that Rotation must mean he is pretty darn good, He had a slow start last year but made it through three levels. He had a solid K9, but he didn't look like anything special to me last year and I was surprised by him making the starting 6 this year. It looks like he wasn't drafted. Hoping someone on TD has the low Down on him (i.e. what he throws, how hard he throws etc..)? He is off to a good start this year, I know these are SSSS's, but nice to see Chourio off to a hot start and if his eye at the plate is improved he looks like he will be a tough out, I am hoping he is a special bat so hopefully he keeps it up. I am going to echo what others are saying about AA. The first four in that lineup are Rodriguez whose arms look as big as my legs and was top 5 in OPS and HR's last year. Then Schobel with a well rounded bat who led his league in HR's and OPS until he was promoted to AA last year. Then Cossetti who had a great year last year followed by Rosario the MVP of his league last year betting cleanup. After that there is still Ross who has good power, Cardenas who is a tough out that lacks power and several other hitters who are just a tick below that level. The one thing holding that team back might be the pen, but the offense should be there if those guys stay healthy. Was also impressed with Adams first outing. I had him as a reliever after a not great year last year, but it looks like he is ready to prove me wrong this year. Granted the Twins top three prospects are lefties but after that the rest of the top 30 is righty dominated. So they might want draft some lefty hitters this year. Should be a fun year to prospect watch.

You typically have great insight. I will keep my eye on him as well.

Kiersey is a good pick for AAA, but I like Fajardo as well. Kiersey can stay in center though so I like what he brings a tick better. AA my pick would be Cossetti. He had a solid batting line last year and I think there is enough power in that bat for him to find an everyday spot even if he can't stay at catcher. He is older and has to make that tough jump at AA, but he is a well rounded hitter and I think he will have a good year this year. McCusker would be second choice for me. Typical high K guy with loads of power. An all or nothing guy. We'll see what he can do, but I like Cossetti better, High A I would go with Jay Harry. A contact bat without much power which goes against the Twins MO, but he is a pesky hitter and got no love last year. Hoping he is a fast mover, but we will see, At A ball you could pick a lot of guys, but I am going to go way out on a limb and go with Paulshawn Pasqualotto. He has some nasty stuff just not sure if the fastball plays well enough. We'll see what happens his first full year. Don't know a ton about a lot of players at his level yet. Also interested in Doncon since he replaced one of my favorite players. Those would be my picks.

Yeah I think they start him slow. I was actually surprised they are starting him at Fort Meyers. I thought they would work more on developing pitches and pitch him in the short season FCL. That tells me they must believe he can handle a fair number of innings this year. I wouldn't be surprised to see him used out of the pen given the number of starters they have at Low A. He is still just 18 years old. I would be surprised if he got much more than 60 innings this year. At any rate the first is more about just getting experience for a guy this young so inning's don't concern me that much. Let's just hope his arm stays healthy and he develops a three pitch mix.

That was a great recap. Thanks! I was down on Kirilloff this offseason, but am happy to see him off to a hot start. Really nice to see Correa taking those walks and not swinging so much outside the zone. The slugging is a bit low right now, but once team realize they can't get him to chase as much there will be good pitches to hit Buxton has been solid. Just hoping he stays healthy. Nice to see the win and hopefully the offense can keep things going against Cleveland.

Lot's of things to like and he looks comfortable at the plate against most any pitcher. Nice to see that Home Run early because if he can tap into a bit more power he would profile well in a corner spot. This is a big year for him and I hope it turns out well.

He looked really good this spring until they had him pitching against teams MLB lineups. Then the results weren't as good. I sure hope they found something that can help him turn the corner. Always looking for good pen arms.

Sure the DH spot would have worked and he could still split time with Jullien in a platoon against lefties as well. He is a good tough veteran hitter and pretty clutch to boot. Still I guess I believe his production can be replaced with other players. Santana is a veteran bat as well with a solid eye at the plate. His OPS is going to be lower than Polanco but he plays good defense and he bats from both sides as well. Sure your losing ground with the bat there but other players should help make up for it. I don't agree with this piece that the Twins didn't see DeSclafani as a real piece in the trade. Like me they might not have expected him to stay healthy the whole season but they had to believe he would be there to help especially to start the season. The headliner was Topa though. He isn't going to have 2.61 ERA this year as his FIP and xFIP have him a full run up and maybe more unless his HR suppression stays the same. Still the Twins needed pen arms and we'll see if he is a one year wonder or not. Also not thrilled with Gonzalez. He has a good contact swing but that generally only takes you so far. Without plate discipline it is very hard to stick at the MLB level. His exit velocities aren't great either. Not saying he can't make it but for a near top 100 prospect it seems like a pretty big gamble IMO. I like Bowen, but as of this moment he is a two pitch pitcher in A ball. Not saying he can't improve, but again maybe a very nice lotto ticket not a sure thing by any means. DeSclafani was supposed to bridge the gap for present value and we now know that won't be happening. So it definitely tarnishes the trade some IMO as the present value is now diminished. Still I think the return is strong enough to make it worth it. Polanco's value just isn't that high. IMO this team has too many flaws for Polanco to have made much of a difference this year. The FO seems determined to follow the Cleveland blueprint and rotate the young starters into the rotation this year. IMO that had to be the plan from the beginning as they made no starting pitching moves of consequence. Relying on DeSclafani was no solid plan. They wanted Varland in that 5th spot and must have faith in SWR, Headrick and Festa to cover. They don't want to spend big money on starting pitching so I believe their plan is to develop it. They buffered that decision by beefing up the pen. Hopefully this doesn't work out like last years depending on the young guys for the pen (Sands, Winder, Henriquez, Moran, Balazovich). That gamble almost sunk the team last year. There is enough risk taken that I don't think Polanco would have changed the trajectory. This is going to be a live or die on the young starting pitching deal IMO.

Yeah I think Jackson and Hoffman work for me not as sure about Coulombe and Duarte. Look I am not a huge fan of the return but if they had a mostly healthy infield with Lewis entrenched at third, Correa at short and Jullien at 2nd you could be looking at sitting a 10M dollar player on the bench most days. Sure you can shuttle Jullien to 1st and move Kirilloff to left some days but then your sending Wallner down or Kirilloff and all those hitters had OPS's higher than Polanco last year. All of them are younger and cheaper than Polanco. OK worst case scenario Royce gets hurt the second game of the season and yeah there would be room for Polanco. Still Castro and his .750 OPS isn't that far off the mark and he can steal bases and play better defense than Polanco as well. I can live with that for a month or two. Farmer is also there to bridge the gap for injuries, would I prefer Polo? sure but I don't think a guy that wasn't going to be a likely starter if all the guys are healthy was a guy they absolutely needed to hang onto and don't forget Polanco comes with injury concerns himself. He might not last the season either. IMO the front office looked at the numbers and got the best deal they could for Polanco. As mentioned above they have guys in place that were as good as he was offensively already plugged in for less and most all them offer more defensively. As good as he is with his age and injury history he wasn't going to fetch a difference maker and he didn't. Even with the early injury to Lewis they have coverage and Lee will be looking for a spot once healthy as well. I just think the Polanco angle is over blown.

I don't think there were many if anyone on the board that felt DeSclafani was a solid option. I did my best to talk myself into being OK even if he could pitch well for just the first two months it felt like it could be a win. Turns out as most expected he won't even pitch at all this year. I get your point about crying poor and now it looks like you spent 5M on two suspect prospects and a one year wonder reliever who is likely going to regress from last year and even he is hurt to start the year. The optics are bad right now. I am just not as ready as others to call it a terrible move just yet. Unless Polanco is hurt the Mariners are likely to get the better end of this trade this year and maybe even next year as well, but if Topa can be effective and one of the two prospects helps by making it or being trade bait there is potential for this to work out well for the Twins too.

Yeah I get that but what would it have cost them in the FA market to get an arm like Topa? He is likely worth more than 1.25 if you don't make the trade.

I don't completely disagree. There are a lot of ways to spend 10M. I don't think the Twins felt that the 4 or 5 Million they spent was just on the prospects. More likely they felt it might take 3 to 6M or more to find a reliever that put up Topa's number's just look at what Pagan got in FA(8M). Have to believe they thought they could get something out of Desclafani as well but that turned out to be a big miss. So far Topa is just a one year wonder so can't say 'd bank on him being "that" good again, but I don't think you can park all that money on the prospects in that trade either.

That is true. They could have invested that money to get a better starting pitcher. The problem seemed to be they only wanted a one year deal as 2025 appears to possibley be a bit of a money crunch and they seem concerned about what the TV dollars will be. Still I like Topa and the prospects better than potentially nothing. Fangraphs gave it a good grade not that that means anything, but if the players they got do work out it could help the team now and in the future. Grades "I’m giving the Mariners a standalone C- but a contingent B+. They traded a lot to get Polanco — the going rate for prospects like Gonzalez and Bowen is a bit higher than this — but they didn’t have much of a choice because their trade-spree offseason had left them too light on offense. They badly needed a first-division regular, and they didn’t give up any 2024 equity to get one. Will this trade hurt them down the line? I mean, maybe. But I think they’re right to live for the now, even if the cost is a little eye-watering. The Twins just get a straight A. They were in the position of not getting that much marginal value out of Polanco because they just so happened to have a pile of viable second basemen waiting behind him. They also needed pitching depth, far more so than your average playoff contender. The obvious move was to deal Polanco for pitching help or salary relief, and they did both. Getting two interesting prospects in the mix is a huge bonus. 10/10, would trade again."

They needed to recalibrate the roster to accommodate Lee at some point. Unfortunately he is injured right now, but as this spring showed they were always most likely going to need to make room for Lee and unless there was an injury it was always going to be hard to work Lee in anyway. Jullien has 2nd base filled already with production likely equal or greater than Polanco. SSS but Polanco isn't lighting it up right now as he 1 for 14 or something like that. I like Polanco, but he needed to be moved.

I had the Brewers as possible buyers until they made other moves. I can't think of any other teams all that interested in Polanco other than the Mariners. Both teams got some addition by subtraction accomplished. The Mariners freed up a roster spot and some money to accommodate Polanco by moving DeSclafani and Topa. The Twins were in need and had room for a starter and reliever and the extra money from moving Polanco allowed them to buy another bat or two (Santana, Margot). I agree with you. It was the M's or bust and to get a couple of solid future pieces along with Topa and taking on DeSclafani seemed a pretty good deal to me. Most experts had the Twins on top in that trade with or without DeSclafani.

Yeah I think they all have question marks and non of them really dominated their league last year either. They all definitely showed flashes but consistency was a problem. Of the names mentioned and I know I will get killed for this, but I think Dobnak makes some sense as he keeps the ball on the ground and in the park. That being said hitters foul so much of his stuff off he gets in long counts and can be lucky to make it 5 innings. Also since he can't miss bats even when he gets weak contact balls fall through for hits. If he could find an out pitch he could be a strong 5th starter. I might regret saying this, but I am on the SWR train. I have seen him give up very loud contact, but he has a good mix and when he has control that changeup is a difference maker. Still the consistency just hasn't been there and his fastball is\was very hittable last year. He has some good stuff though and it all would work better if the fastball plays better. Headrick has some mean stuff, but at times can't find the strike zone and then bam, gives up the Home Run. I just struggle to trust him more than an inning or two, but the K rate seems to be there when he is on. He certainly is an option for the 5th starter type role, but I don't trust him inning to inning. I agree with the OP's assessment of Festa. I think he is better than all of the above names when he can throw strikes, but walking guys at the MLB level is trouble and Festa wears down easier than most as well. I don't think he would be good as an early option, but maybe the Twins think otherwise. It's not a group of arms that I feel you can bank on, but any of them could emerge to get the job done. There's just more question marks than you would like IMO.