Jump to content
If free agency is too rich for your blood, click here for the 35 players most likely to be traded this offseason. ×
Twins Daily
  • Create Account

Dman

Old-Timey Member
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    6,117

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    24

 Content Type 

Profiles

Minnesota Twins News, Rumors & Analysis

Minnesota Twins Videos

2026 Minnesota Twins Top Prospect Rankings

2022 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks & Signing Bonuses

Minnesota Twins Trade & Free Agent Rumors

Minnesota Twins Fan Guides & Resources

2023 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks & Signing Bonuses

The Minnesota Twins Players Project

2024 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks & Signing Bonuses

2025 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks & Signing Bonuses

2026 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks & Signing Bonuses

Forums

Blogs

Events

Store

Downloads

Gallery

Everything posted by Dman

  1. Dman
    FWIW I did read something the other day that Lewis did prefer playing on the dirt so if he isn't comfortable out there )especially after the crash into the wall) in the outfield then maybe the Twins will keep him on the dirt. It is all speculation at this point and there are lots of ways to work him into the infield as well. If he isn't going to be a real option in the outfield though the Twins are going to need another right handed bat out there at some point.
  2. Dman
    Lewis isn't back until maybe the deadline. He isn't really viable until next year IMO. Gallo is in a one year deal. If stinks again they won't resign him. If he is really good they will get outbid for him. Kepler might be a good defender but his bat is pretty bad. There is a solid chance he isn't even on the team in a few months. They need a right handed bat in the outfield and there really isn't one coming up anytime soon. I think it will be Lewis in the end.
  3. Dman
    I don't know why you want to put Lewis in Left as that is a position reserved for slower footed outfielders with average arms and a power hitting profile. It makes more sense to put him in right. I mean they are talking about putting Farmer in left and they had even thrown Arraez out there. It is where teams generally throw their weakest outfield defenders. As far as third they just had the slow footed Urshela playing third all year last year. Even Donaldson wasn't a speedster and they had him playing third and paid him good money to do so. Both of those players were deemed good defenders without great speed at third. Left and third are both positions where teams often sacrifice some defense for offense. Unless the defense is really bad thinking Sano. Would Royce be good at third you bet. You will get no argument from me there. Lewis just happens to be one of the few players that can be a likely above average defender in the outfield as well as the infield. With a heavy lefty lineup put him in spots to replace a lefty bat. There are lot's of lefty bats in the outfield right now. We'll see maybe the Twins will love him at third and play him there all the time I just think he is more versatile than that is all. If he didn't make it at short lot's of pundits\scouts profiled Lewis to play center but with Buxton there he wouldn't be able to play there all the time. So right seems like a decent spot as well IMO.
  4. Dman
    Sure range is nice to have at every position but is often sacrificed for offense. My thinking with Lewis would be this. Am I getting more from his offense\defense replacing Miranda at third or more replacing Larnach or Wallner or Kepler in the outfield who don't hit lefties all that well and Wallner\Larnach who don't run all that with Lewis? I think Lewis would have a greater offensive and defensive value in the outfield. I don't know about you but a lot the balls hit to third are hard hit smashes which doesn't require much range. There are always a few dribblers where it nice to have a guy that can move get to them where range would help considerably but in general there is a reason why a lot of teams are fine putting a slower footed slugger at third if they can provide the needed offense. I don't really have a strong preference for where they play Lewis (although with all the lefty outfielders he works well there) but to me it would make sense to put him where he can help the team most. Take out the weakest link and insert Lewis.
  5. Dman
    Unless the Twins feel payroll would be an issue as it stands they have the 40 man room to keep Kepler. When they put Canterino, Paddack, and Lewis on the IL they will have three 40 man spots open up so they can get a 1st baseman and a couple of relievers if they want to. I don't think they should just give Kepler away as they are an injury or two away from needing him and they had lots of injuries last year. I think they would likely gain better leverage if another team has injuries and needs Max and is willing to overpay to get a deal done. Things could change or open up once teams IL spots open up so I wouldn't say Max is safe just yet. But I like that the Twins are wiling to be patient and see alternate scenario's for Kepler.
  6. Dman
    Sure I think he is fine in left as well but if you want to maximize all of Lewis skills to the max then Short, center and Right take advantage of his plus speed, plus arm, and defense. You start to minimize those skills when you put him in left as that position doesn't require the arm that right does, at third doesn't utilize his speed or second doesn't utilize his arm. Not saying he has to be utilized to the max but those are the places I would play him first. He literally is talented enough to play any position but catcher, but I think you would want to maximize his talent when you can unless of course you have a better option somewhere or you want him to sub for a position where his defense makes a larger difference. It probably would make sense to give him a primary position but I think we are always going to need Buxton insurance so he likely will need to play some centerfield. He can sub for Correa as well. If his bat is as good as I think it is going to be he is someone they are going to want in lineup no matter what. He just happens to be talented enough to play wherever they need him defensively.
  7. Dman
  8. Dman
    I would put in him right field and use him in center to cover for Buxton.
  9. Dman
    For sure I just think they will use him in the outfield as a right handed bat there. He could move back if Correa needs to move off. Hopefully they will have someone else ready by then though.
  10. Dman
    I think Lee can play short at least early on. He just projects as an average or slightly below average defender there even now so likely not a long term home there. Salas is big, If he gets much bigger he is going to be Miranda size. I haven't seen him play much so hard to say if can stick but I tend to agree with scouts that his body projection is going to move him off there at some point. Martin does not have the arm for short and makes way too many errors there. So Yeah I don't see it. Luckily we have Correa the next four years and some really interesting Shortstops at the lower levels in Miller, Ross, Pena, Ortiz and maybe Daniel as well as one of their top international picks in Chivilli. So hopefully some guys who can stick at short down the road.
  11. Dman
    All he needs to do is hit and that air might over inflate him.
  12. Dman
    Yeah we pretty much dead on agree. We seem to have a different understanding of the OP "sustainability" it looks like. I don't think we can trade top prospect for pitchers every year long term (i.e. not sustainable). Need that farm to give us some pitching. I think once greater balance is established they can trade more often than not from strength to get the deals they need. I am never opposed to trading from surplus to fill a hole but we have a fair number of assets tied up in starting pitching right now and it would be nice to see that slow down. I like this FO and we all mercilessly berate them for any move that doesn't work out (myself included at times). Not all moves work out for any team. They set this team up to have a chance. Hopefully they perform well. Thanks for the exchange of ideas.
  13. Dman
    I guess it depends on your view of this team. Are you projecting them out to be winners (in the playoff hunt) every year or win one year lose the next? Because they made those trades in losing years. So to maintain that kind of balance you would have to contemplate them losing almost as much as winning IMO. Most teams in contention for the playoffs wouldn't be trading a Jose Berrios at the deadline for prospects. My line of thinking is that with these moves for pitching that they are planning on winning and that this would be a long term winning strategy and if that is the case I don't see much in prospects coming back. By employing their current trade for a starter strategy and sustaining it they would be doing the opposite of an Oakland, Tampa, Cleveland who generally sell the last few years of vets for prospects. They wouldn't be bringing prospects back but continuously trading them at least if they are winning. I think what they are doing is fine short term but as the OP said I don't think it is sustainable if building a winning team year in and year out.
  14. Dman
    For me he is really tough to slot. I would have him anywhere from 4 to 8. It is hard for me to compare pitchers to position players. If you just skip pitchers I would have him at number 4 because I think he can be a solid defender, he has a good eye at the plate, can hit and hopefully hit for power. He was a bit down with the bat at High A so it makes one wonder a bit about the hit tool but he is also only 19 and already at high A so that is a plus as well. If the bat breaks out he is a top 5 prospect for sure whether he sticks at short or not for me. If the bat stalls then he drops. Man he is big for 19 years old.. Happy to have a player with his upside to watch at High A, which will need all the good players they can get.
  15. Dman
    Yeah I agree there is always more to look at in win now trade moves than just straight up production value over the years. When your team is a playoff team and you need to strengthen it now, not using a minor league asset that is far off to get something you need now could be the difference between making it to the next playoff game or world series. You are willing to lose deals like that to make your strong team stronger short term. If\when it doesn't work out it hurts but if the move helps the team win it is worth losing potential future value IMO and too your point there is no way to immediately know if the future asset will work out either. So the value is hard to define as it could end up a lose\lose or win\win or something in between. So there is more to trade "value" than meets the eye IMO.
  16. Dman
    I agree for the short term but the last pitcher Lopez cost them Arraez and often times teams want two top 100 prospects for a year and a half of control at the deadline. You can't stack up deals like that for long. Top players are eventually going to be needed to pull deals off. So to the OP's point it isn't sustainable long term. For examples of what happens when you continue to trade your farm away follow Dombroski. It caught up to the Tigers and Red Sox eventually. Look at what the White Sox had to do at the Deadline in 2021. They literally had to trade a MLB player off of their roster to get another closer because their farm couldn't get the deal done. Twins are OK for now but eventually this philosophy will create a barren Farm system.
  17. Dman
    I wanted the Twins to draft Prielipp but the Twins were in a bit of tough spot picking at number 8 where the top hitters were projected. My thoughts at the time on Prielipp were that he had an elite slider with solid FB and Changeup. So he had the pitches to be elite. He had TJ surgery out of the way already so he could be a fairly fast mover with a bit less risk to reinjure the arm. I was tempted to say the Twins should take him at number 8. Still you never know with TJ surgery and it looks like most all teams backed off on their projections for him. Have to assume the industry felt he would more than likely end up a bullpen arm or he would have been taken sooner. Even as a bullpen arm he has a very high ceiling so he was a great pick for the second round IMO. If, and I know these are always big ifs, he returns to form, that 2022 draft will go down as one of the best ever. There is a long way to go but I love that he is a lefty with that crazy good slider. Hoping he does fulfill that ace potential he seems to have.
  18. Dman
    Most of this board keeps saying the FO should be aggressive going after difference making players and they went and got Correa, Gray, Mahle, Paddack, Lopez and Lopez in the past year or so to make this team stronger. We all say lot's of prospects don't work out and we have seen lot's of them not work out. We had a surplus of middle infielders to use as trade bait and with those assets and the top of their 2021 draft the FO obtained potentially the best starting 5 in a very long time. They decided the time to go for it was last year with the Correa signing and they bet half the farm to try and make something happen. The window on Kepler, Polanco, Sano is\was closing fast and wave two of at least hitting prospects is here. So we wanted them to do this and it seems like they are trying to move this team over the hump they haven't been able to get over. Will it be enough hard to say. To the OP's point is it sustainable? That is an easy NO. You can't keep trading the best of your young controllable assets for long without setting the team back unless you are willing to hang with the big boys payroll in the 250M range. With most of these pitcher deals they also gave themselves a short two to three year window so they need some of those minor league pitchers to work out quickly or it is going to be very hard to compete even in the easy central. I hope they have a good year or they could be painting themselves into a corner.
  19. Dman
    I was thinking there might be wink, wink agreement to sign him once roster spots open up or maybe another team has an under the table agreement with him but I have to believe once teams have roster spots available he won't be around long.
  20. Dman
    I really liked Devin and thought he pitched well last year. At the MLB level he worked to a 3.70 ERA and 1.22 WHIP. Those are nice numbers but his K rate was really, really low. I am guessing that is why the Twins were able to get him through waivers, as most teams felt they had something better on their 40 than Smeltzer. While I am happy he found a team in Miami to take him in, it is really going to be tough to break in to that rotation unless they have several injuries. Still, good for him. I will always root for him and enjoyed watching him pitch for the Twins.
  21. Dman
    Yeah so far it looks like you are right. Unless the Twins get an offer they feel is too good to pass up they plan to hang onto Kepler for depth. I don't think there are many more moves for the Twins until the roster spots open up. I do wonder though that when those 3, 40 man spots free up and they grab a reliever or two if there won't be more pressure to move Kepler's salary. I would expect more signings and possibly more trades once those roster spots open up. I think keeping Kepler strictly depends on how high of a payroll the Twins are comfortable staying at this year.
  22. Dman
    You beat me to it but what you said pretty much sums up my feelings. Need to give him a good hard look so at least half the season as a starter and see if he rights the ship or least shows he has what is needed to remain a starter. For the most part his arm has been pretty durable but he needs the stuff to get guys out and stop giving up so many HR's. Going to be interesting who starts at AAA with Varland, SWR, Ober, Winder and Rodriguez as likely starters there. Balazovich makes 6 starting pitchers at AAA so they can take their time and or put him in a variety of roles if they want to. I want to believe he will rebound but it has been two years of pretty average stuff so far from confident things will change. Hopefully with a motivated offseason he takes his stuff to a new level.
  23. Dman
    Always love your analysis. Thanks!
  24. Dman
    I guess mainly because a significant number (probably majority) of pitchers spend some time on the IL during the season. I think every Twins pitcher last year except maybe Bundy missed starts for some issue or another. It kind of goes with the territory and I think it is why the Twins and a lot of other teams don't like to do long term deals for pitchers. Sure the odds of Lopez missing more time than Arraez are more likely than the other way around but the Twins needed more pitching depth so here we are. In a perfect world the Twins wouldn't be in a position where a trade like this makes sense.
  25. Dman

    Helman

    Dman commented on Paul Walerius's blog entry in Paul Walerius

    If you really want to know about Helman you will have to hope Seth responds. The main issue I see is Helman doesn't have any plus tools not one. His best tools are average at best per MLB.com . Still he is an over achiever and if he ups his power and finds a way to OPS in the high 800's to 900's he will get his chance. If not with the Twins then elsewhere. He just needs to distinguish himself and the best way would be with the bat. Also the Twins are loaded with talented infielders and with Correa and Polanco blocking 2nd and short and Miranda third for now there isn't a place for Helman to break in. I think he is a good player and there is a reason he made the top 30 prospects but making it to the big leagues is hard. He has a lot of competition. Hopefully he continues to hit and hit with power and he will get this chance.
×
×
  • Create New...