Major League Ready

Do we really need to talk about how many guys are passed over and end up being good or even great players? Johan Santana was a rule 5 guy. How about Nick Anderson who we released and on and on and on. The real point here is how often are teams willing to give up a year in a players prime for 3 weeks in their rookie season. Bellinger who was sent to AAA just long enough to get an extra year of service. He also had an OPS of 872 the year before he debuted so I fail to see how Bellinger is an example that supports your position. Conforto was brought up in the middle of the season. While he is an example with some relevance in terms of players promoted aggressively. His path does not refute the primary point of emphasis here which is promoting a guy to start the season and losing a year of control. To do that in this specific case would be grossly incompetent. I was not cheering for the team to burn a year of control no matter how well Kirilloff performed. A year in exchange for 3 weeks is horrendous asset management. It's short sighted / fanatical thinking. How much difference could 3 weeks make and let's not forget Rooker earned the job with his Milb performance. Do we want to send the message to our prospects that their efforts and success will ignored in favor of promoting more highly touted prospect even if they have not proven themselves to the same degree as a lower ranked prospect?

I do agree the playoff stats should be considered. Having said this ... Can you name other corner OFers that skipped AAA after putting up an OPS of 800 or less? Did we learn from nothing from rushing Buxton? I would want to see concrete examples of players with a similar performance record in the minors that have been well above average players at the MLB level. If they don't exist, why is there a debate? Demonstrate that it has been done, preferably more than once.

As you know, wRC+ is a relative measure. It's relative to all other players in the league. The first problem in this case is that most AA players are never going to make it to MLB. Therefore, wRC+ has some flaws as a measure. We are not comparing to a group of eventual MLB players. We also need to account for position. Corner OFers have the 2nd highest OPS. Therefore, we would expect them to have a wRC+ significantly above 100. Having said all this ... I was aware of the points you made and they have merit. I was really just making a point that he was so bad this spring that I would have taken Garlick over him to start the season. Chpettit19 and others have outlined the numerous reasons for not bringing a guy up that is not ready. I am also not willing to go out of my way to burn an extra year of service time. It's really short-sighted to bring up a guy that is probably a liability at this point only to burn a year of control when he will probably be a great player. Can you think of an example where a corner OFer skipped AAA and went to MLB after producing a 759 OPS at AA? Jiminez had a 925 OPS at AA. Aaron Judge had an OPS 100 pts higher in AA and he was sent to AAA for 90 games.

Kirilloff is not even 2nd after Rooker for me. Garlick has been the best hitter in ST. Granted it's spring training. He also had 100 pt higher OPS at the MLB level in 2019 compared the Kirilloff numbers at AA. Garlick's AAA OPS was over 1,000. His history suggests he is better prepared to play at the MLB level. We are supposed to bring guys up when they are ready to contribute not because fans are anxious to see them. What happened to let's take the best 26 players north? Kirilloff probably ends up being better than Garlick at some point but he certainly is not at the moment.

So, what player(s) would you have not signed to make up for the $10M not spent on Rosario? Given the inevitable reduction in revenue, the Twins spent quite a bit more than could have been reasonably expected. It seems like you anger is a product of not understanding that a $30M (estimate) reduction in revenue will result in less spending. You can divvy up the dollars however you like but the $10M (estimate) they didn’t pay Rosario was invested in free agents. We can debate how they money was spent the money. However, debating they should have spent as much as they did last year would require a failure to understand that the amount of money coming in determines the amount that can go out.

A trade would be ideal. Short of that happening, I am not worried about loosing Smeltzer if they believe in "the Law".

You are changing the scenario. In Cody's proposed roster, Astudillo is a 2nd back-up. If Simmons goes down, Polanco goes to SS, Arraez to 2B, NO Astudillo. If Polanco or Donaldson goes down, Arraez takes his place, NO Astudillo. Astudillo is there if your backup goes down too. Now, would I still keep Riddle instead of Astudillo? Probably. I don't really see the need for 3 catchers.

Polanco is the backup SS. Who would you rather have ... Riddle at SS and Polanco at 2B or Polanco at SS and Arraez at 2B? As proposed, Astudillo is a 2nd backup to every other infield position except SS. This is only good until one of Simmons or Polanco goes down for more than a game at which point they bring someone up. This is the beauty of AAA being in St. Paul.

Law is out of options. No way he makes it through waivers. Therefore, Law starting the season at the ML level gives us more depth. He gets replaced if he stumbles. It's obvious the pitching acquisitions and roster construction were designed for depth this year which is understandable after a 60 game season last year. Cody's inclusion of Law makes sense. I would be quite happy to see him continue to pitch relatively close to the way he has in ST.

I would be trading Smeltzer in the next few days for a lottery ticket or a dozen baseballs because when the final cuts are made I would take Law over Smeltzer. I hate to say it but it's not because of great confidence in Law but I have no confidence Smeltzer is going to contribute. Great story and I wish him well but his spot on the 40 man needs to be realloctaed.

If you change predict to bet, I am not betting against you. I would like to see them trade some of this OF depth but that might have to wait until the trade deadline. Who knows ... an opportunity could arise if the right contender has injuries early in the season.

I would assume because their primary goal is getting guys ready for the season at this point. Giving ABs to someone that is not going to be on the opening day roster does not facilitate that goal.

Just a thought ... I would compare him to players he is actually competing with for a job. Not sure what the fact there are guys performing even worse has to do with selecting between the candidates for corner OF spots. I understand the positioning ... It would not make sense to acknowledge how much better the players competing for this position have performed when you want Kirilloff regardless of how he has performed.

Garver / Rooker or even Cruz could play 1st for a couple days. If it's longer, call someone up. Didn't kepler play some 1st in the Minors?

No. Saying he should start the season because he started one game is silly especially while ignoring his competition for this position were not available for that game. Ignoring that Rooker and Garlick are much more proven is silly. Suggesting a player that has never produced above A+ should start day 1 is silly when you have multiple options that are proven at AAA and in Garlick's case proven at the MLB level. Wasting a year of control on a player that is not ready when you have good options is not silly, it would be massive incompetence and I would lose a whole lot of confidence in this FO if they even considered Kirilloff at this point. The clinging to the fact he started a playoff game while ignoring absolutely everything else. including the fact he has sucked this spring is fanaticism at it's finest. You can't make a case based on performance so you are clinging to the fact he started ONE game when Rooker was hurt and Garlick / Broxton were not on the team.

I seriously doubt anyone in the Twins organizations viewed it as Kirilloff’s to lose. Rooker and Garlick are the more proven prospects and it’s not particularly close. The more appropriate speculation was could Kirilloff demonstrate during ST that he would be the most productive player from day 1 of the season. My guess is that they would have considered Kirilloff if he had performed like Garlick or Rooker especially if Rooker and Garlick performed like Kirilloff has performed. It would have been an interesting decision had they all performed like Garlick or all performed like Kirilloff. However, unless there is absolutely no such thing as competition for jobs in spring training, Kirilloff is not starting the season with the big league club.

Why would you be irritated? Do you think revenue won’t go down this year or do you think spending is not driven by revenue? Would you spend the same amount if you lost a significant portion of your income? Just a little common sense and you will find there is no reason to be irritated. You could instead be happy that we were able to fill the free agent losses with good replacements in spite of the anticipated revenue losses.

I am with you on Shoemaker. If Dobnak continues to look this good, I think he gets the 5th spot and Shoemaker works out of the BP. Let's hope that's the way it goes because the long-term implications are better if Dobnak is too good to keep out of the rotation.

Law is the only one of the group mentioned who is out of options. That's a tie breaker for making the team. It would be great if he continues to impress and sticks around for a few years. About time we pick some up that way instead of giving them away. Half of Tampa Bay's BP last year was players we let go.

Sano gets no respect. Sure Abreu was phenomenal during last year's 60 game season. Let's not forget that just two years ago Sano's wRC+ was 20 pts higher than Abreu and Abreu is at the age where he will likely start to decline. Just saying that portraying it as a landslide ignores that Sano has already had 2 seasons that were better than Abreu. Sano is also in his prime and Abreu is 34. Would I bet on Sano over Abreu? Heck no but I would not be shocked if Sano bounced back to 2019 form.

IF Dobnak can put hitters away .... He will goes as deep as any other starter we have. I don't have statistics to support this but it sure seems like he gets into a lot of long battles after getting ahead of a hitter. Of course, some of those guys get on and a 4 or 5 pitch AB turns into 8-10 pitches plus he has to face an extra hitter. I think a dominant out pitch makes Dobnak a different SP. They could use Shoemaker and Thorpe as long relievers or stack them if one of the other SPs goes down with an injury. Their depth could be a big deal after a 2020 seasons when innings were a fraction of normal.

From MLB Rumors ... More from the relief pitching beat… Tyler Clippard didn’t retire any of seven batters faced during yesterday’s outing, and the Diamondbacks said the veteran reliever was suffering from right shoulder discomfort. “He just felt the discomfort as the inning was building,” manager Torey Lovullo told MLB.com’s Steve Gilbert and other reporters, adding that more will be known about Clippard’s condition after examinations from team trainers. Clippard signed a one-year deal worth $2.25MM in guaranteed money last month, and is expected to work as a setup man behind Joakim Soria or perhaps grab some save opportunities himself. [uPDATE: Clippard is getting an MRI on his shoulder, The Athletic’s Zach Buchanan tweets.]

That's it ... A lot of projections only list Maeda's base salary. With Maeda at $9M it comes out to $129M.

We will move up in extension once Bailey Ober arrives.

I am starting to believe this tweak has given Dobnak a plus pitch. We have all seen Dobnak’s inability to put guys away hurt him so it’s not hard to imagine this having a dramatic effect on Dobnak’s position in the rotation. If this turns him into a solid 3 or potentially a 2, I am not putting him in the pen so that Shoemaker has a spot. Shoemaker is 1yr $2M dollar guy. We would get plenty use out of him pitching 2-3 innings out of the pen. Six quality SPs and a handful of good prospects knocking at the door. Is this really the MN Twins?