Dman

Yep Minnesota didn't even get a chance to claim him as Cleveland needs outfield help as well. Looks like the 4th team in line grabbed him so he didn't make it very far.

I agree that the FO and staff have a lot more knowledge about Funderburk than the few stats we get to look at and even stats often times are not predictive level to level because players have to be able to adjust and not all of them can. Still I question just how much they know when they let go of guys like Coulombe, Hamilton, Hoffman who are doing very well for other teams. They have been right about several other relievers they let go most notably Sisk who has been terrible at AAA this year. Still if they "really know" what will make a guy successful at the MLB level they wouldn't have let those 3 guys walk this year without trying to roster them. I get all three of the names I mentioned did not have options left and the Twins wanted to have more flexibility to bring guys up and down and they also needed to work in some of those young arms taking up 40 man space but it seems like they miscalculated there. Moran was supposed to be good and he still has the same control problems he always had. Sands was supposed to be a long man but he has given up a lot of hard contact at the MLB level and it seems they don't trust him in any role other than mop up. They tried Ortega with mixed results. Winder had been a disaster until recently. Henriquez can't even get AAA hitters out and loves to give up homers. So those things make me wonder about the FO decision making when it comes to pen arms. Do they know what they are doing? or are they essentially guessing like the rest of us?

Doesn't he have to make it to Minnesota first? I mean he would be a good fit for KC or Detroit as well. Seems unlikely to make it to the Twins and if he does then other teams must feel he is cooked. Hard to believe Oakland of all teams gave up on him. Something doesn't smell right to me. He also does look like platoon only bat as his current OPS is .650. I like him better than Luplow but he has to make it to our turn to claim first.

Agree SSS makes it almost impossible to predict relievers. He doesn't have a big fastball but lot's of lefties don't. If you go back to 2022 though he was a starter and his line wasn't all that different from Varland's except Louie had a much better K rate. While in the pen Funderburk has increased his K rate. His numbers feel almost the same throughout his minor league career so I have a bit more faith than most about him. To be honest he might not be that different from Sands and he got his shot. Same with Ortega. He isn't getting any younger why wait until he turns into Ian Hamilton who would be our Bullpen ace if we had given him a chance. Hamilton has a 1.67 ERA and 1.19 WHIP at the MLB level for the Yankee's this year and he never really got a chance in MN. If Funderburk stinks then waive him because he isn't going to be any better than he is right now as like I said earlier his numbers have been good but static.

He could stand to not walk as many guys but his WHIP is still barely over 1.00 at AAA. Guys there can't touch his stuff so they aren't getting hits off of him. Also his FIP and x FIP disagree with your premise as they have him predicted at an ERA of around 3.00. Maybe his stuff doesn't play as well at the MLB level hard to say with any pitcher but his profile sure makes him look like a 40 candidate to me.

Schuffield wasn't great in A ball to start this year but I think his numbers were down due to injury, can't confirm that though. All I know is they threw him to wolves in AAA his draft year and he thrived against the really good pitching there. given his numbers there was really no reason to push him all the way down to A ball other than he got squeezed out by other players who had been in the system longer there. At any rate he is back at AA and proving once again he is a force with the bat. Fajardo can hit but just lacks real power so really good to see him with a HR last night. If he can gain more extra base pop he has the batting average to get it done his K rate is in a good place and while he could walk more since he has such good contact skills his line still looks solid to me. Twins sure have a ton a good utility bats in the system.

Really happy for Keuchel to come out and only give up one run. A bit much traffic on the bases for me, but I will take those results any day of the week. My only hope with him on the mound was to keep it close enough to give the offense a chance once Gallen was out of the game and he did just that. Couldn't have asked for more especially given his stuff in this game. Like everyone else it is nice to see Kepler emerging as a key bat in the lineup and getting key hits in games. For all the angst I have had with him he leads the team in Home Runs and plays good D in right. He has been on hot streaks before though so not buying into the SSS just yet, but needed to give him props as he has earned it. I have never liked Wallner's K rate but the kid can hit and hit the ball hard. I still have my concerns that he see's fewer fastball's as teams start to realize the damage he can cause but right now he and Jullien are doing pretty much the same things they did at AAA at the MLB level. Hopefully that remains their standard of performance. Great game with beautiful ending. Nice to have Cleveland lose late and the Twins win late for a change as it seems like the opposite was happening earlier in the year. Need to keep things rolling in Detroit as they have had our number this year and there are two lefties to conquer.

A game like that will shut me up for a bit. Everything clicked except Moran who seems like a good candidate for AAA. Really nice to see Maeda control that game and what a game for Jeffers, wow! Correa has the worst OPS in the lineup put him where he belongs in the 7, 8 or 9 spot. I wish we could send him to AAA. He had a big single which was nice to see but dropping him in the order would be even nicer. Even Gallo has a higher OPS than Correa. At any rate was nice to see us batter some other teams pitcher for a change and a big thank you to the White Sox for taking down Cleveland.

Nice article! Pretty much sums up my feelings on the bullpen from the start of the year to the deadline. I will say it looked like they were going to be able to stash Coulombe until the Orioles came calling. Hoffman was a dice role but it seemed like a lot of people on this forum had him penciled in to make the team. If I had to half defend the FO it would be that they must have believed Moran was ready after he put up decent numbers the year before. They felt Sands might be ready to turn the corner and probably thought they had Winder to back him up, but Winder started the year hurt and took half the year to get going. They had a lot of young arms that they needed to not be 40 man wasters. I guess they thought they might be able to rely on the young guys, but like most things with this FO whatever they choose it seems to be the wrong decision. If they would have kept Hoffman and Coulombe they would have likely been been ineffective or injured. They rely on vets and fail, rely on the young guys and fail. It just seems to work that way more often than not these days.

I kind of always thought of Luplow as an easy out. Hoping they are just trying to stash him at AAA and see if he blossoms like lot's of our hitters have done there this year. His splits aren't encouraging for hitting lefties.

This doesn't feel like Satire to me. It is way too close to the truth. Fun take. Thanks!

After last night I checked the stats for the Midwest league and it was interesting to see three Kernals at the top for OPS. So they have\had the top three bats in the league and 4 of the top 9 and that doesn't include Cossetti and Ortega who don't qualify. Cedar Rapids is stacked this year. I was surprised they didn't move Rosario and or Rodriguez up but I guess they are setting up Cedar Rapids for the playoffs and being they are both young will just wait until next year to promote them.

Generally if going make believe you would use shoulder or tired arm that is almost impossible to refute. Groin isn't typically the go to for a "made up" injury but anything is possible I guess.

The baseball gods don't seem to like this FO for some reason. They inherited a dynamic player in Buxton who is hurt so much he has been relegated to DH. They inherited Kirilloff who is hurt all the time as well. They Drafted Lewis number 1 in their first draft and he has been injured more than healthy in his career so far. They took Larnach and he is injured alot and apparently can't hit breaking balls. They went against consensus and picked Cavaco instead of Carroll which turned into a massive blunder as they got nothing instead of an all star caliber player. 2020 they went against consensus again to pick a first basemen\DH with not great athleticism in the first round and Sabato turned into another wasted pick. They have a really nice draft in 2021 and they trade most of it away to get a reliever that tanked almost instantly. They did get Gray but lost Petty there number pick in the draft to get him. It doesn't seem to matter what this FO does it just seems like it turns out badly in the end. They trade Berrios for two almost can't miss prospects who haven't performed since we got them. They trade for Mahle and give up Steer who is hitting better than anyone on the team not named Jullien and Mahle falls apart and gets injured right away. You can't make this stuff up. It appears good to start but it all just falls apart. For as much as I am complaining I was onboard with most all the FO moves. I wanted them to find a decent starter and fight for the division last year and they did and although the price was high I was happy about it. I wanted them to find an elite reliever they went and got the guy who played in the All Star game and I thought that was a great move at the time again even though the price was high it was supposed to give them a one, two punch for the stretch and beyond. I wanted them to resign Buxton and felt he had at least 3 decent years in the outfield in him and then maybe part time in the field. he didn't even make it one full year. I was hoping beyond hope they would sign Correa and they did and he ends up worse than anything I could dream up. I thought Miranda was a star bat and they should not trade him and he was crazy bad to start the year. So I guess I should fire myself as I liked most all the moves but very few worked out well. I guess sometimes life is like that. You do everything you can to make good decisions and you fail. The White Sox should have been a better team than they are and they have stunk for the most part. KC can't seem to find the pitching they need. Detroit has drafted poorly and not gotten good value in trades. Am I unhappy with the way things have worked out? Yes I am. What would I have done differently I don't know. Sometimes good players get injured and never reach their potential. Sometime good players regress at inopportune times. Sometime what seems like a good deal isn't a good deal. You can't control everything and I guess that is what makes the sport so darn interesting, but when your team is the one with the bad luck it sucks. This team just can't seem to pull together at the same time to create wins and blows games that were winnable far too often. Some how they are still in first place so maybe I shouldn't be complaining for as bad as the Twins are the other four teams in our division are even worse. Is it all the FO? I don't know. I think they should take some heat for the bullpen as they didn't do anything to shore up a weakness almost everyone believed was there except them. They did go out and get a ton of depth and managed to sign Correa something no other Twins FO was ever able to do. I feel like the now decimated 2021 was good one and I think 2022 and 2023 are going to be good ones as well. It seems like given the talent this team should just be better than it is but here we are. No I don't think they are in danger of losing their jobs. Joe Pohlad has a good relationship with them and I believe he will stand by them and the decisions they have made. Still it is a business and they need to perform. Seeing the Reds, Orioles and Snakes with very successful rebuilds in a fairly short amount of time does make me see red. Still I guess we wait and see how things turn out. They certainly aren't in a good spot right now.

Yep get that his season stats are not good. July though he has a 3.15 ERA and 1.00 WHIP. He has been turning things around as of late.

Congrats to Kuechel on making it back now he just needs to work on staying there. I guess he can't do much worse than giving up 7 runs like Ryan did. It is a risky move but if they were ever going to use the chip they gained it needed to be now or never. I have no idea how Kuechel will do as MLB is so different from AAA. I just hope he is effective enough to get us some wins. If not they can probably go back to Varland and if he isn't ready they could probably try Dobnak in that role as well. Not sure how severe this groin injury is but let's hope it isn't Ober like as I think it took him months to come back from his.

Jenkins with a nice debut just happy to see him playing. Hoping he hits his way to A ball this year. Winokur actually took a walk so that was good to see. He is hitting pretty darn well in a tough league for High School aged bats. Nice to see is isn't so aggressive that he can't take a walk. Really hoping his bat is for real. Good to have Lee in AAA just one step away from the Twins team. Pretty cool he got that far in his first pro year and honestly I think if the Twins were more desperate for infield spots he could play at the MLB level. Dobnak has really been coming on strong this past month. He might find his way back to the Twins yet.

Have to say I am surprised that Scherff has been that good. Always seems to put men on when I am watching him. That walk rate will never fly at the MLB level so hopefully he can figure that out but it was a great month for Alex. I really like what Funderburk has done the last two years. Time to give the guy a shot he has earned it. He isn't getting any younger and can't pitch much better. He either has it or won't have it at the MLB level. Might as well find out since we have a crappy pen anyway.

We will see how AAA goes but I think they could promote him to the MLB club this year if they wanted to. Probably tough to find room for him though unless there are more injuries. I had my issues with his ability to generate power but never with his approach. He had some bad BABIP luck in the first half but since he started hitting the ball harder it seems like more balls are dropping in. All of his numbers look solid and I think he will translate well to MLB when the time comes. Glad they moved him to AAA so he can see more pitchers that are closer to MLB. I expect his numbers to remain pretty much the same as his approach is solid and results should be as well.

I guess it depends on what you value as a hitter. Walk and K rates tend to lead to better transitions to the MLB level than just OPS. Guys with high K rates can be vulnerable at the MLB level. Cossetti's walk and K rate are nearly identical and there is a lot of value in that. Not sure where you are getting your numbers from but Cossetti has a .925 OPS at high A and .994 OPS overall. Not going to argue too hard about Camargo though. His early numbers are bringing his total line down. For as much as I am concerned about his K rate he hit .300 in May with a .900 OPS and .300 in June with a 1.000 OPS. All at AAA. Camargo is doing well with the bat but with a 35% K rate odds are that doesn't translate well to MLB. He also has low walk numbers. so he doesn't control the zone and doesn't have great contact skills or he wouldn't K 35% of the time. I like Cossetti's chances of being a difference maker better. can agree that age doesn't really matter all that much at catcher but why hold the likely best player back instead of trying to get him to help the MLB team as soon as possible.

Rosario is tied for first in the league with 16 HR's and is first in OPS. Quite the year for that young man especially since he struggled so much the year before. I think part of his success this season is his better plate discipline. He has almost doubled his walk rate from last year and dropped his K rate 5%. He could still stand to drop the K rate just a tad more but he is under the dreaded 30% range. He leads the league after more than half the season he deserves to move up. With the 2 HR's Rodriguez moves into the top 5 in OPS for the Midwest league. Take out his horrible start to the year and he likely would be in Rosario's spot. Schobel still qualifies and is in the number 2 spot for OPS so the Twins have 3 top of the league bats in high A this year. Both Rodrigues and Rosario are young for their level so those look like elite bats to me. Ohl is one of my favorite pitcher's because of his aggressive style. This guy does not like to walk anybody but probably needs to stay more out of the zone to keep batters guessing more. Wasn't sure if his control artist repertoire would work as he moves up but he looks like he is doing just fine so far. Hoping he comes up with enough stuff to make it as a 5th starter type. I am generally down on Sands but striking out the side in the 9th is impressive and his stats at AAA are really, really good. Just needs that carry over the MLB level. And yet for as good as Sands has been Funderburk has been better as his FiP and xFIP match his results better than Sands. Also Funderburk is a much needed lefty arm. I think the Twins should add him to the 40 man.

Happy to see Brooks Lee in the top 2 this month. He has been on fire and you have to love that 16% K rate. Pretty rare for someone to have a K rate that low. His BABIP of .330 is pretty normal especially since he doesn't K that much. Batting average of .290 on the year is right in range to move up. For as much as I complain about his power he has a .478 slugging percentage. So he is not devoid of power and he is hitting double digit home runs and leads his league in doubles on the season as well. His all around line leads me to believe he is ready whenever the Twins want him to be ready. If you add up all his numbers on the season (AA and AAA) Prato looks like a nothing burger. If you look at just his AAA numbers you have to say this guy looks like a future All Star. In AAA he has more walks than K's. His walk rate is approaching 20% which is elite and keeping the K rate under 20% is elite as well. He has an elite batting average average of .336 and to top it off elite slugging at .647. The only issue is his high BABIP of .384 and that he has only done this for a month and a half. If he can maintain those numbers or even be in range of those numbers the rest of the year then the Twins might have found their version of Whit Merrifield. That is a lot of if's but that is how good Anthony Prato has been the last month and a half. The Twins should move Cossetti to AA yet this year as his well rounded batting profile makes him the best catching prospect in the system at least IMO. There isn't a red flag in his batting numbers and they are very similar to Lee's line. I heard somewhere that his defense is solid and if they move him to AA where his age is more appropriate to level he actually could have prospect status. I like Cardenas and the always under rated Morales but I think Cossetti just has skills that they don't. I like him better than Winkel and in the end I like him better than Camargo because the batting line is so balanced. To be honest I thought Keirsey was a bust and was never gonna get there with the bat. I guess the joke is on me as he looks really good at the plate this year. The walk rate could be higher but other than that he looks really solid at the plate this year. He is an aggressive hitter and he plays really good defense and he has stolen 30 bases this year. Another late bloomer and if the numbers hold he would be a nice 4th outfielder option at the MLB level. Likely better than Gordon all the way around but until they promote him to AAA we won't know if that bat plays at higher levels. Dameury Pena is hitting .400 on the year so far and his .465 batting average for the month is just mind boggling. The Twins might have another Arraez in the system. A nobody who can just hit everything thrown his way. I am going to be keeping my eye on that kid. He is very impressive out of the gate,

I don't understand how Severino Sustains a high batting average and incredible slugging with so many K's and what seems to defy all odds high BABIP of .378. I have been waiting for his BABIP to drop all year and it has stayed around that .370 mark most of the year. I know there is a correlation with hard hit rate and BABIP. The theory goes the harder you hit the ball the harder it is for fielder's to make a play on the ball. I believe it is why the Twins always seemed to go for players that hit the ball hard. Still that seems like an incredibly high rate to me. I will say that while he is an aggressive hitter his plate discipline isn't bad as he has a near 10% walk rate. Also he is hitting .290 on the year which is a very good batting average for a guy who K's as much as he does. And then there is the thing teams fall in love with Slugging and his .567 mark is in elite territory. Like I said earlier on average given the warts his numbers shouldn't be sustainable but here we are his BABIP's have generally been high since A ball so I guess I have to concede he might be an elite hitter. Congrats to Severino who isn't even on the top 30 prospect list but is probably better with the bat than most hitters in the top 30.

Yeah people need to read the MLB bio. His walk and K rates were virtually identical at High A and he still has had good ratio's all the way up to AAA. He averaged a 1.000 OPS his first full pro season. Not many, if any players do that for a full season let alone their first full pro season. While his AAA numbers this year aren't as good they aren't bad either. Just not elite. Still his hitting profile looks really strong it is a Brooks Lee profile as he doesn't have a ton of power but he can still hit some. At any rate with good contact skills and eye at the plate this is a good pickup for the Guardians.

I have wondered the same thing. Can Rosario, Rodriguez, Severino really make a 26 man roster? It is a real big step to MLB and they have to stick on the 26 man. Maybe an Oakland or rebuilding team would take them? Hard to say but it sure stunk when they lost Baddoo and Wells. Severino is not even on the top 30 Twins prospects but the power he brings seems like it would be hard to pass up. Rosario is young and the plate discipline needs more time but there could be a special bat in there if things work out. No question on Rodriguez and his power but after watching him live he looks like he would be over powered by MLB pitching. Still his knowledge of the zone and ability to take walks is impressive. A little more refinement and he could be a special player as well. The further they are away level wise the harder it is to see them making a 26 man roster so you might be right. The hard part about not adding them is that KC who is our division might grab them.