Major League Ready

He could be very important to this team. If you don't care about that, we made a $4M investment followed by several years of development. Plus, we don't even know the facts. So, before we flush Sano, let's find out the facts and try to assist him IF HE DEMONSTRATES A WILLINGNESS to get it together.

This is how Twins position players ranked by OPS for the 2nd half off the season (After 6/30) Grossman ----- .852 Garver --------- .823 Cave ----------- .815 Polanco -------- .773 Kepler --------- .756 Mauer --------- .729 Forsythe ------ .648 Rosario ------- .642 Rosario's plate disciple is not existent at times and teams adjusted how they pitch to him. I had a man crush on this guy ever since I watched him in the Arizona Fall Championship but I am tired of watching his horrible ABs. Will he develop the discipline necessary to be a top player? I don't know and I am not sure we would get a big return for him because Al teams have learned how to nullify him.

The comments sure are in stark contrast to the outrage when a couple local writers questioned his character.

If you look at how ALL of the teams outside the top 10 in revenue acquired an "Ace" it was almost exclusively a trade when the player was still a prospect or developed them internally. (see Cleveland) I posted the last 20 years of FAs a year or two ago in this site. The only semi-reasonable comparison is Scherzer and the Nats incremental revenue over the Twins covers his salary. Some like to use Grienke as an example but they had just signed a $1.5 BILLION TV contract so unless the Twins triple their TV revenue it's hardly a reasonable comparison. If somehow they got it done, great but it's not a reasonable to expect it I simply don't agree that signing a "2" is pointless. This team would be considerably better adding a legit #2. The only other way to get an ace would be to pay a kings randsom to a rebuilding team. It would expect it would take something like Kirilloff plus Romero or Graterol + Gonsalves or Stewart + Wade or Blankenhorn. To go all-in given the state of team would be absolute incompetence. I am all for adding legit #2 through free agency. If they could get this done plus a couple BP arms through FA or trade it would be a good off-season. We also need a good middle infielder and the FA options are not good but Iglesias is a decent FA add or perhaps they can get a decent middle infielder by trading depth without giving up Kirilloff / Lewis or Romero / Lewis. A #2 + two good BP arms and a middle infielder would have me a great off-season and we would be positioned to have a realistic chance of winning the division.

I am pretty sure 56 is 8 more than 48. Granted, it's convenient to have more information now but projecting Cleveland's performance was part of that equation. That pitching staff with a 1-4 of Rameriz, Lindor, Brantley, and Encarcion projected to perform better than they had to date. I would expect the Twins to have factored this into their decisions. There is simply no way to get around the fact that Cleveland's team projected to do significantly better than the Twins with all of the original roster in place much less make up 8 games. I butchered the math earlier. They would have needed to go 42-24.

You are refusing to look at this objectively. The Indians are on pace to win 91 games. The Twins would have had to have gone 52-14 to catch the Indians. Are you really suggesting it is reasonable to think a team with a winning percentage of .462 was going to win at a .788 pace had they kept the players you mentioned? Cleveland’s 4th best SP has equal or perhaps even better stats than our best SP. Brantley's stats are better than our best offensive player. Their two best position players are significantly better than any of the Twin’s position players. Please explain how Cleveland is not good relative to the Twins. I would love to see what I am missing.

The first problem with this thought process is that you have a faulty assumption. Your assessment is based the assumption Santana would be back AND effective. He was not effective when he was back and in the end he could not overcome his injury. You better know he will be back and effective before you forgo adding a dozen prospects. However, let’s just say the best case scenario you laid out came together. How would the Twins have stacked up against the Indians? In other words, what were the chances of playing at a win rate to overcome a 10 game deficit with 56 games to play? They have two players (Rameriz and Lindor) that are legit MVP candidates. They are better defensively than the Twins counterparts and Faaaaaar better offensively with an OPS of .967 and .881 respectively. Even their 3rd best hitter (Brantley is better than our best offensive player (Rosario). 831 vs 800 OPS. What about starting pitching. Again, their 4th best guy is pretty equivalent to our best guy. Their two best SPs are among the very best in baseball. HUGE advantage Cleveland. I respect a never quit approach but where management decision making is concerned, not selling would have been gross incompetence IMO. Even under the best case scenario you applied, the Twins were very unlikely to keep pace much less make up 10 games. If the Indians only play 500 ball the rest of the way, the end up with 91 wins. The Twins would have needed to go 52-14 to tie the Indians. That’s assuming they play 500 ball. More likely, they would have to have gone at least 54-12 (.818) If you look at the decision to sell based on these facts and determine the opportunity cost ( a dozen prospects) would have been justified, we definitely disagree. If you look at these facts, any competent GM would evaluate this type of decision far differently than you have.

Reading between the lines, there are some people who just can’t accept that the Twins were sellers or as they see it gave up on the season. Ironically, most of those same people are complaining the 40 man is in horrible shape. Yet, somehow they look at a very poorly performing team with very little in the high minors and deplore the very actions required to rectify the situation. The disdain for “giving up” is an opportunity to portray everything they do in the worst possible light. Granted there are a couple things that were not handled ideally but to rant about the arrogant whiz kids auditioning for a gig in a larger market does not suggest an objective point of view. Teams selling off free agents in a lost season is baseball management 101. You can’t rant about how bad the team is positioned and at the same time ridicule the FO for selling. An Executive’s role and responsibilities are long-term in nature. Short-term focused fans are going to have a problem with a F/O looking to build sustainable systems, processes and practices. I want to watch a better brand of baseball year after year and short-term thinking is death of sustained performance.

It's possible to do both but you have to communicate on a personal level. This might be a silly example but the conversation between Billy Beane and David Justice in Money Ball comes to mind. I have no idea If this was an accurate potrayal but this is a good example. You can't have a relationship with the players if you completely delegate communication. Players are treating this as a business and they will accept the F/O doing the same if leadership takes time on occasion to explain why they want a given action and how it will benefit the individual.

Anyone that thinks that short-term has no business in a director position. Your example (IMO) has nothing to do with the original poster's position calling for decisions to be made based on sound business principals as opposed to emotion. Terminating sales people because they had one bad month would be the definition of incompetence and ironically an example of an emotional decision. If that director is making sound business decisions as suggested by the previous poster, termination or retention is based on ability. effort, competence, professionalism, track record, etc, as well as the cost associated with said sales person vs production.

I would like to know too but they are not going to broadcast the strategies they hope will give the team a competitive advantage. We will need to read between the lines. The people they brought on does imply some very specific things about their assessment of past practices, what needed to be done, and even what they are doing about it. These are people that have demonstrated thought leadership. They will bring with them practices that will be implemented here. This is probably the most crucial aspect of anything that has gone on in the last couple years. Of course, the impact of these actions will never be black and white and it will take a couple more years before we can judge the effect. This is never going to be accepted by the masses who demand immediate change.

230 would not be so bad. The league has learned how to pitch him and he is going to have a tough time getting above the Mendoza line if he does not figure it out. There would be little or at least much less made of this if there was no a year of control hanging in the balance. The team has given him a great deal of time at the ML league level (service time) while he has been completely inept at the plate. I can appreciate the extra year could cost Byron several million dollars, assuming he gets it together. However, he was also promoted rapidly and kept at the ML level while batting exceptionally poorly so he should consider that service time was increased to his benefit.

Which is why he chose to go to SF. His father was interviewed on MLB Radio and said the Twins wanted to sign him when he became a minor league free agent but Derek felt he had fewer young SPs to compete with in SF. Perhaps there is something I am not aware of with MiLB free agents but this was not a case of the Twins be unwilling to put him on the 40 man. I am missing something because numerous people have made it sound like the twins had "control" of this situation?

Apparently you have not seen him play defense or you don't value defense. He can hit 200 hundred and still be an asset. He was a 3.5 WAR player last year. Granted, his overall value is diminished if he continues to struggle this badly at the plate but we don't need to repeat the Carlos Gomez mistake. There have been plenty of guys that took 1500+ and Buxton is still a little shy of 1,000 ABs.

Both sides have made compelling points in this debate. I don't see the FO giving up the year of control but it would be hard to justify if he rakes the remainder of the month. I would consider going to Buxton and his agent and offering to buyout his arbitration years while adding an option year or two with the stipulation he is brought back this year. Of course, there are other potential terms that fit into a similar scenario. It accomplishes the goal of extending control while avoiding the potential pitfalls listed within this thread. The question would become should the Twins take this chance. There is obviously some risk because he looked dreadful at the plate. Having said this, the Twins need to be creative in retaining talent so maybe this is a risk that makes sense.

You would not need to worry about him staying in shape or giving 100% because he signed a guaranteed deal. Very intriguing idea. I am just don't think he sells (so to speak) when his stock is so low.

He is still just shy of 5 walks per 9. It's great to see this coming around but it is a bit early to proclaim he now has the command necessary at the ML level because the last handful of starts have been better. Sure, it would be entertaining for us all to see him but is it best for his development. If in fact they are seeing great strides in his command right now, I have no problem with them keeping him at AAA until their season is done if the coaching staff believes he is going through a critical stage in commanding his pitches. We are all clamoring for better development. Maybe that's happening with Gonsalves.

I would rather get Mejia back in the rotation at this point. It's time we figure out if he is going to be part of the rotation for the next few years.

So as opposed to doing what you admit here might have been smart you would have preferred them to be dumb and NOT do what's necessary to improve the team's chances to be better in the future? Leaders do what is necessary even when it's not popular with a few people who do not understand the best thing to do for the organization. Giving up is very different than recognizing your team has had numerous injuries and the players that are not injured are under performing. If we do a position by position comparison of the teams that are contention, it requires one to stick their head very deep in the sand to understand that this team's is simply not a contender. Please feel free to prove me wrong with evidence this team is even close in a position by position comparison. The old front office was often not willing to realize they did not have the talent to compete in meaningful way and they built pretenders instead of contenders. We had little chance in the playoffs last year and far less this year. Thank god the new regime looked at a 10% chance of getting to the playoffs and a 90% chance of getting our #ss kicked in the playoffs and decided it made sense to pick-up a dozen prospects instead. You say shameful, I say a demonstration of leadership and decision making that improves the chances for sustained performance.

Anything is possible. However, Stewart got a $4.5M signing bonus so I doubt the organization feels they owe Stewart for his loyalty.Plus, the paycheck at the ML minimum is not going to be much when compared to his initial bonus. I am sure we could come up with good examples of guys who got a shot because the team felt they owed it to the player but I would not think they fit Stewart's profile.

How knows? Maybe they might have a lot of confidence in Thorpe and believe he will be here in 2019 via a promotion to AAA to start the season and then a promotion in the likely event someone is hurt or ineffective. Where with Stewart, they are auditioning him for a 40 man spot. Nothing more than a guess but there are scenarios which could make sense for Stewart instead of Thorpe right now.

Exactly!

Well, you attacked / insulted an entire group of media and executives who "think they are smart" when in fact you did not know the situation or bother to check. All you would have had to do was check the players profile (below). Instead, you assume a lot of people are just stupid. May 28, 2018 San Francisco Giants selected the contract of RHP Dereck Rodriguez from Sacramento River Cats. April 3, 2018 RHP Dereck Rodriguez assigned to Sacramento River Cats from Richmond Flying Squirrels. March 23, 2018 RHP Dereck Rodriguez assigned to Richmond Flying Squirrels from Sacramento River Cats. January 25, 2018 RHP Dereck Rodriguez assigned to Sacramento River Cats. November 15, 2017 San Francisco Giants signed free agent RHP Dereck Rodriguez to a minor league contract and invited him to spring training. November 6, 2017 RHP Dereck Rodriguez elected free agency. June 23, 2017 RHP Dereck Rodriguez assigned to Chattanooga Lookouts from Fort Myers Miracle.

Yah, what do those supposed professional journalists know and execs know. They don't have more information than us and they don't actually see the prospects live. They are not privy to the plans and work being done with these prospects. Oh wait, maybe they do have more information and access. Well, those qualifications they have to get those jobs, meaningless. Yep, they pay these execs a million plus a year "because they think they are so smart". Has nothing to do with education, experience, and having demonstrated managerial / leadership abilities. Anyone can do this job. That's why it pays a million+/year. You know that's not what they taught in economics courses I took but it must be true based on the things I see here. The same things were said about Berrios. There were people here who insisted we had to have him for the playoff push in a couple years ago and that he would probably be our best SP. Obviously, he was NOT ready but I guess its easy to ignore these examples when you are not the person held accountable for the decisions. Chargois was a mistake. They tried to sign Rodriquez according to the interview I heard with his father. Derek just decided to go to SanDiego. So, it had nothing to do with what they did not see..

I don't see Kershaw's AAV going up much. He is at $35M/yr. I assumed his play would be to secure more years at roughly the same AAV. That would be smart on his part if he could add 2-3 years because the market has gone away from paying big in the post prime years. He will be 33 following his last year under his current contract. Edited: I just looked at their payroll. Ryu and Kemp are both free agents as well. I would assume they go hard in on Ryu but use the 21.75M reduction from Kemp to fund other payroll needs. The key cost increase will probably be in arbitration cases but those are deep pockets. If they do sign Grandal, I would like to find a way to trade for one of their two highly ranked catching prospects. That might take a 3rd team but that would be a great acquisition.