Major League Ready

I am somewhat on the fence. The reason I am on the fence is because the they have considerably outperformed projections and have a great track win percentage in one run games. They have also completely turned the defense around with the basically the same cast of players. So, to say he costs them more games than he earns them is a very suspect conclusion. The facts certainly do not support this conclusion.

Sano had demonstrated he is capable of recognizing pitching and practicing good plate discipline. Lately he looks like Rosario did last year and the first 60 or 70 games this season. ML pitchers wont throw you anything good if you are willing to swing at stuff off the plate. They fear Sano enough to try to get him to chase in every at AB. Lately he has done opposing pitchers a favor and swung at a lot of junk. It is very obvious the scouting report is breaking balls off the plate. Rosario finally got sick of looking pitchers making him look bad. Hopefully Sano will become more consistent in terms of plate discipline because opposing pitchers are always going to try to get him to bite. He could also develop a 2 strike approach. It gets frustrating watching him swing for the fence on tough pitches with a couple runners in scoring position.

Very good location on his fastball which is encouraging. He will need to have much better command of his breaking ball. From the little we saw of him last night, I think he will need a good change-up to be effective at the MLB level and he did not show that last night.

Maybe they felt sorry for us after trading Hicks for Murphy.

I really enjoy watching him pitch. It's nice to see someone throw it right where they intend to most of the time. Let's see how he looks at the end of the year. A 1 year contract would be just fine with me if he looks anything like he did last night.

Yes ... Let the auditions begin. It will serve the future and give us something interesting to watch the the remainder of the season.

You hit this one dead center. We don't get a lot of detail about what has been done in terms of changing practices and process but there was enough reported to make me believe this organiation was a mess. I think we all have the seen this present itself in the form of poor player development and even player health. My guess based on various comment Falvey made in interviews is they have done a lot to improve this team long-term. It just is not in the form of turning over players.

You need to take a look at how the vast majority of contenders were built, especially the teams outside the top 10 in revenue. Oakland has by far the best record in the past 30 years and they traded more good and great players than any other team. Tampa has managed to stay competitive in the East with a similar approach to Oakland. Kansas City accumulated alot of draft picks by being bad for a very long time but one could argue the trade that got them Cain and Escobar was crucial to their success. Houston did a brilliant job. They sold off every veteran they had. Their payroll was something like $30M and they were the most profitable team in all of baseball when they were at the bottom. The cubs sold off significant veterans right before their run. Part of which netted Russel. If we keep Santana, we will likely to remain a decent team but certainly not a contender until all of the pieces needed to improve our pitching staff are in place as mentioned earlier in this thread. Santana will be gone by then. So, the question is .... Do we want to remain in the race in 2018-19 with little chance of being a serious contender or do we want to add a couple pieces that have the potential to help us become true contenders. One "Santana type" FA in 2018 or 2019 plus all of the prospects we have now plus adding a couple by selling should lead to a strong contender for an extended period of time. I would much rather be patient for a year or two and develop a team that can contend for a decade than to trade off any significant assets in order to be a fringe contender at best for the next couple years.

It seemed like the cubs payed plenty for Quintana but I guess there are a lot more quality players available this year as opposed to last year, especially SP. Regardless this team is simply should not be positioned as buyers with the number of holes this team has and the number of assets that are still getting established at the MLB level as well as Gordon, Gonsalves, Romero, Chagois, Burdi, Hildenberger, Reed, Curtiss, and a few others getting close.

Mike, you are far better than such a parochial point of view. You know all too well that the SP we need was not available last winter. Bullpen arms brought a premium in both price and years which does not makes sense for a 100 loss team with all of the great BP arms we have on the horizon The next alternative is to buy in July. You also are acutely aware that "going and getting" players at the deadline is a sellers market and very likely to cost the team in terms of overall talent in the long-run. Buying high is very rarely a good idea and this team is not remotely close enough to justify the premium required to accelerate the addition of talent necessary to compete. We could gut the farm system and perhaps make the playoffs the next couple years but we would not be true contenders against the likes of Houston and LA. The price would be sucking for the next decade. No Thanks! Sell Santana for a SP who will be as good or better during the next several years while our young players are coming into their prime. Yes, it could be another Alex Meyer situation but it could also be a Jake Arietta situation. Add a Santana type FA this winter or even after the 2018 season which at the moment looks like one of the best FA crops in a long time. It would be nice to have the budget to go big in a year where the supply is much better. Get Garver up here. Gonsalves and Romero might not be quite ready yet but get them up here as soon as they are ready. Start auditioning all these bullpen arms that are close to ready. Trade Dozier, Kintzler, and anyone else not named Berrios, Sano, Kepler, Buxton, Gordon, Gonsalves, Romero or Lewis if the offer is right. I am not sure what happens in 2018 but it should be entertaining and we should be in great shape by 2019 and be able to sustain it for a decade.

Bourne and Bauer had nothing to do with the success of the 2013 Indians. Bauer pitched 17 innings and Bourne was terrible. He was a terrible acquisition in general. Swisher was ok in 2013 and bad the next 2 years so he was not an example of building for success. They were good because Masterson and Jiminez had career years. They picked up Kazmir who was good. Kluber made incredible improvement and Zach McAlister was a player to be name later who worked out very nicely. That’s a lot of things going right for a pitching staff. The Twins need a little of that good fortune. I guess the equivalent would be if Gonsalves and Romero reach their ceiling and May comes back to pitch well. Sign me up for that scenario please.

Very good point but at the same time competent management utilizes odds and probabilities to guide their decision making process. Bob did a great job with those facts of illustrating that this team really is not a contender, They are simply in a very weak division. Of course, run differential is just a quantification of what we all know to be true about this team. We have a well below average SP staff and a bullpen with significant holes. We have an average offense and above average defense. We don't really need run differential to understand these are not the characteristics of a contender and making the playoffs is not very probable. Winning a series is real long shot. Mortgaging the future would be by definition incompetent on the part of management. Therefore, if anyone is angry that the Twins are not mortgaging the future, they are made that our new management is not acting in an incompetent manner.

A back of the rotation (4/5) type started does absolutely nothing for the team's post season chances. A solid 3 type starter would help a little in getting us to the playoffs but are chances of getting to a playoff series is still probably 2:1 against even with the addition of a solid 3. The cost of that solid 3 would be far more than a 15ish type prospect. I am never really sure what these additions costs but I would guess from our system, we would be talking about one player from our top 2 or 3 and two others. One of them probably 10-13. I thought the Indians would be well ahead in the division and the F/O would not feel the need to pretend like we are contenders in order to satisfy the fan base. There are still plenty of holes on this team and our young core certainly does not look like they are ready just yet. I sure hope they don't walk away from a Santana trade if a great opportunity to improve the team long-term is presented at the deadline. I also don't see enough impact players in the system that are not still 2-3 years away.

How much time are they giving Garver in the outfield and how is his defense? If he is serviceable as a 4th outfielder, he would be a nice addition next year as back-up catcher / OFer and RH bat of the bench. Might even consider trading Grossman at the deadline if we received a decent offer.

I did not bother to hit like because "like" is not adequate". The view we should buy because we are in contention is a very parochial point of view. Look at the various predictions of the odds of the Twins winning the division of for that matter a wildcard, keeping in mind that winning the wild card means a 50/50 shot at a playoff series. Then, even if we made the playoffs, this team is not a threat to go deep in the playoffs. Therefore mortgaging or even missing the opportunity to add the pieces we need to be a contender is foolish. If they can get a premium for Santana, Dozier or Kintzler, I hope these guys have the stones to do whats right to actually build a contender instead of the pretender we have now. Pay the money to replace ES with free agent that will be here as this team develops into a true contender.

Arizona had just signed a monster TV contract. You are not trying to be realistic if you are going to use that as a comparison. If the Twins sign a billion dollar TV contract, our expectations should change. Johnson was 35 and Clemens 34. Decent examples but they are not representative of the types of players (Ace in their prime) being discussed here. I doubt the participants here would be thrilled with a 35 y/o free agent regardless of who it might be. Scherzer is the best example but you are comparing revenue when the Twins revenue peak. Average revenue for the past decade significantly favors the Nationals. This is still a reasonable example but the revenue advantage and the fact the team was in the middle of their window of opportunity decreases the rigor of Scherzer in terms of comparisons to the Twins. Basically, there is one fairly decent example (Scherzer) in the past 20 years that could be called an Ace SP in their prime signed by by a team with a similar revenue profile. Can we agree the type of free agent signing is a rarity among teams with the Twins revenue profile?

It has more to do with economics than who's in charge. Name the Ace pitchers have been acquired in free agency in the last 20 years by teams outside the top 10 in revenue? I don't think you can come up with 3 in the past 20 years that posters here would agree were an "ace". I am not sure if you can come up with one. Sanchez is the only one I can think of off the top of my head but there are probably better examples I am not remembering. This is not complicated. There are teams with 50M, 100M, even 200M more in revenue. To expect them to outbid those teams is simply misguided enthusiasm. While we are all guilty of misguided enthusiasm as fans but I am still surprised that this simple fact is ignored. This team will never be a true contender until the farm system produces pitching adequate to contend. The bullpen arms appear to be on the verge. We really needed to get a top flight SP prospect for Dozier and unfortunately the market did not provide that opportunity. What I really like about Falvey and Lavine is they have said they will take an approach that can build a long-term winner. Hopefully, we can sell high on ES. We obviously can acquire a FA of his caliber in FA. If that FA is 28-30 that move alone would be much better long-term. If they can get a prospect that becomes an equivalent SP, we are waaaaay better off over the next decade. The cost to accelerate contention is generally quite high. The 2018 rotation would be Berrios / FA acquisition / Mejia and 2 spots filled between May / Gonsalves / Romero / Gibson and the prospect acquired for Santana. There are also a number of bullpen arms that should be ready in 2018. Plus, there is still a chance we can get something for Dozier & Kintzler. I would trade Rosario if possible.

A couple years ago I was curious and took the top 20 International signings of all time and documented their status/performance. I posted that document here. The results were very poor. Its hard to draw a conclusion from a group of 20 but I came away thinking I would very rarely consider the top dollar International prospects. It looked to me like a much better strategy was to take (4) $1M prospects instead of (1) $4M prospect.

Callis followed-up with this article. While they might not have pleased everyone here, it's sure nice to see some of this stature loving what our organization is doing. I think if we can just have some of our pitching prospects (SP & RP) workout, we could have an extended run of very good to great teams. http://m.mlb.com/news/article/236553468/twins-used-no-1-pick-to-have-best-2017-draft/

I think McKay wanted a hot being a two-way player and Tampa promised that opportunity which lead to him declining the Twins offer. We know about assumptions but this one does not seem to far fetched. I wish they would have let him take a shot at it. If it works out, he is a tremendous asset. If not, you would think that would be clear to McKay as well and he accepts focusing on pitching. I know its not done but that does not mean it can't be done. Mauer only has one year left. Hughes and Perkins are also coming off the payroll. They can afford a FA starter but we need to be realistic. SPs are in short supply and we probably can't outbid the big markets for the very elite but I do think a Santana type FA can be acquired. Let's hope they can come up with a good FA because we have nothing proven behind Santana and his contract is done the end of 2018. I guess we should add his contract to the contracts coming off the books.

It seems a fair assumption they believed Leach would be taken before 76. They seemed to have executed their strategy quite well. They got a guy presumed to be gone at 76 and by taking Lewis were able to draft Enlow how looks like a darn good prospect. Yet, people are complaining about how they went about. How do you complain with a fraction of the information, especially when it all worked out quite well? It cracks me up when people think they are just being cheap. How hard is it to figure out that they have a pool of X dollars and they are trying to get the most value out of those dollars. Geeez. Levine has been clear about this leading up to the draft. It's not just about the first pick. When people like Callis praise the Twins draft, the detractors should consider perhaps they are not being realistic or don't fully understand the challenges of this process.

Did you see his face when he was selected. He was selected lower than he expected and as a 1B. He looked like he was not happy with the way it played out. .

> Yankees strongly disagree with you. (see 2016) > Astro's traded every veteran player they had of value while building their system. Seems to have worked out for them. > Detroit would not agree. They took the opportunity to get a nice return for Price > Billy Bean definitely strongly disagrees. Over the past 20 years, Oakland has the best record of any team in the bottom two-thirds of the league in terms of revenue. Beane traded some very good players at the height of their value. This team might win the division but so what. This team is not a contender. Weak starting SP and a very suspect bullpen. I hope the FO does not take a short-term approach because we have sucked for so long. No way to we compete in the playoffs this year even if we get there so keeping Santana would be all about 2018. I would much rather have a couple of high upside prospects to add to our system. Those kinds of moves keep you in contention for a long time. This team will be a contender but not until we go through the process of bringing all of the SP prospects and BP prospects through the system. It would also be a huge boost if we go get a FA SP in 2018 or even 2019. If they go get a FA + Berrios + Mejia, Wright? + Gonsalves + Romero + Thorp and a couple others should produce a rotation that can contend. With all of the power arms in the system we should be able to build one heck of a BP.

It tells them that the FO is not living in a fantasy world and understands this is not a contender and that you are trying to build a contender. It's says this front office is not going to settle for a pretender because it will put a reasonable number of butts in seats. It tells them you are willing to give up a couple wins this year and next to build a team that can contend for the next decade. It tells them that you realize until this young core gets some experience they are not going to be real contenders (see KC). It tells them that the FO realizes they need to acquire more top of the rotation talent if this team is going to be a true contender. Man, I hope someone wants Santana bad enough to trade a couple of good SP prospects for him.

I would love to read those headlines because it would mean had excelled.