Major League Ready

I was watching thinking the same exact thing. Could not believe they passed on Carroll who had 70 grade speed and a 60 hit tool. I have been bitching about it for 4 years.

I think Castro's spot is the most secure of any bench/role players. However, he and Gordon could certainly co-exist. Salano and MAT are free agents and I don't see either one being retained. They have Castro / Martin / Gordon and Kiersey Jr as CF back-ups and several replacements for Solano. IDK how this plays out between all these prospects but we should have great depth for the next several years.

I don't understand the continued call for him a 1B because he really does have terrible hands and foot work. Severino has become the guy I am hoping they can teach to play 1B but IDK that he has the right tools either. My thought is he becomes more useful if he can cover 1B/3B/DH.

Farmer is an ARB 3? So, they could non-tender him but he has trade value. I think there is at least a 50% chance they keep him. I just don't think it's a lock. Maybe he is in the eyes of the FO but the guys at AAA are making noise. I think Lee will figure it out as well. I am not on the "rookie of year" level bus. He has been very good, not elite. He will be competing against higher ranked / more accomplished prospects. Polanco has been one of my favorite twins but I think he gets traded if they get a reasonable offer. He does not look good at 3B and he is not taking 2B back from Julien.

I am not inclined to call Lee or Farmer Locks. Lee will need to be very impressive at AAA given there are only 39 games remaining and he is started out very poorly. There is just no need to be in a hurry given the number of options. I think the odds are actually low that Lee breaks camp if Lewis remains at 3B. Farmer has been a good bench player but some of the guys waiting in the wings have more upside and they are cheaper. A lot will depend on if Prato or Severino get some playing time at the ML level.

Can't wait to see how it shakes out will all these position players over the remainder of this year and then how the roster is constructed next year. Lewis has a full-time spot for sure. How will this shake out for the rest. Could Prato or Severino get a shot before Lee? Where do Prato and Severino play defensively? The lynchpin is where they play Lewis. If ends up in the OF two-thirds of the time he plays, that opens up 3rd base for a competition between Miranda / Lee / Prato and Severino. So, what does that do to the bench next year. I see some combination of Castro / Gordon / Prato / Martin / Larnach / Miranda / Severino and perhaps Kiersey. It may not be a certainty they bring Farmer back with all these options. Somebody needs to learn to play 1B.

90+ percent chance they pick-up Kepler's option unless he really falls off the rest of the way. 80+ percent chance he is a Minnesota Twin in 24. We just don't have much depth. Polanco is a different story. 2;1 he is not a Minnesota Twin. We have enough options that it's not a huge risk letting him go. I think there is a good chance they exercise the option because there is decent chance he has trade value. The 2nd year option reduces risk so I can see him bringing something back. I hope he is good the rest of the season and gets us a nice prospect. A AA RH hitting OFer or a catcher would be great. We can feel pretty good about the future INF with Kirilloff / Julien / Correa / Lee / Castro / Farmer and maybe Miranda / Prato or Severino. I hope Lewis ends up in the OF but who knows things could change where it makes sense to have him in the IF.

I would have to think any complaining in this scenario would be from a small minority. Who's going to complain about a dominant 2nd half and a playoff series win, especially the way things looked 6 weeks ago? Perhaps the better question would be would you prefer; A) They dominate the rest of the way with returning players leading the way with a playoff series loss or B) would you prefer they play 500 ball without substantial progress from the players that will be here next year but they win a playoff series?

Lewis to the OF would significantly change the roster. Lee goes to 3B, Julien to 2B. That could be the future. Larnach is either a bench player or could be traded alone or with another prospect for a RH OFer. I doubt Julien is going anywhere. He makes a great 2B/DH if others like Prato/Severino/ Martin force their way onto the ML roster. They also have $50M in expiring contracts (assuming Kepler's option is picked-up) so the money is there for a free agent.

Welcome to Major League baseball. IF you develop players, you are successful. That's the way it works. The absolute necessity of developing players increases as revenue decreases in comparison to the top teams and history strongly suggests even the top revenue teams are dependent upon developing talent. To sit here and argue against requires an absolute refusal to recognize what is actually going on with this team and around league.

Limiting Gallo's ABs has helped as well. Wallner is getting a lot of those ABs and he has been great. Can't wait for Lewis to get back. Hopefully, his rehab goes well and we see him soon.

You act as if I said bringing up AAA players is a guarantee. That is so obviously foolish the possibility of failure does not need to be stated. What I said was that the highest performing members of this team are still in the infancy / developmental stages of their careers. Yet, you continue to write off the best and most sustainable source of improvement. Had we followed your strategy this team would be horrible. BTW .... These examples go far beyond the twins. The Astros / Dodgers / Rays continue to be good because they continue to add talent from their system. Baltimore is one of the best teams in the league building almost completely from within. The need to build from withing is something that is universally accepted across every team and the members of baseball media. Your position is in the extreme minority.

Julien, Wallner, and Lewis are all very inexperienced. Kirilloff because of injury is still in the proving stage and Jeffers was a young player many had written off. Actually, there are at least 8 veteran players getting a lot of playing time. Buxton, Gallo, and Vasquez count to. I thought we were talking about which players are performing over the past couple months. The top 5 performing players by wRC+ are Wallner / Julien / Jeffers / Lewis and Kirilloff. Vasquez is 17th, Correais 15th, MAT is 14th, Gallo 11th, Buxton 10th and Polanco 9th. Like I said, you are just ignoring whatever does not fit your narrative.

I like guys that are good defensively too but you put an enormous amount of weight on defense. What is the saying ... teams will find a position for guys that hit like Julien. You have been saying this since spring training or before, yet Julien has unseated Polanco at 2B. You said the same thing about Wallner. Yet, they are having an impact and taking over for veterans with inferior offensive skills. I think you are ignoring what is actually happening. The young guys have absolutely taken over this team. The production is not even close.

Polanco has essentially already been replaced by Julien. 3B will be taken by either Lee or Lewis or Miranda could even make a comeback. Severino / Prato and Schobel are also candidates. Hopefully, he pulls it together this last couple of months and has trade value this off-season. Kepler could be replaced by a combination of Wallner / Lewis and Larnach. It's also possible they opt out and pursue a RH free agent but the market looks lean next year. If they put Wallner in RF, Lewis / Larnach / Prato /Kiersey jr. or Martin could be used in LF.

True and moving Lewis primarily to the OF would really change the balance. I hope that's the way it goes. Martin and Prato need to prove they are candidates to be everyday players and Prato has very little experience in the OF. That experiment needs to be validated before we can call him an OF or super utility prospect. I was hoping they would give him more time in LF the last few weeks given our need at the ML level.

Bring in Williams for 2-3 weeks while giving Garlick / Prato and/or Severino reps at 1B in AAA. Give one of those guys a chance if Williams is not cutting it. Garlick's been good the past couple months and the versatility would add value to Severino/Prato. At least we don't have to watch Gallo whiff.

We have a lot more IF depth than OF depth which makes me think Polanco is more likely than Kepler to gone. IDK if I would make an even money bet Kepler is gone next year, especially if he plays anywhere near the way he has for the last couple months for the rest of the year. INFers that are close / have potential to compete for 2B/3B. (Lewis/Lee/Prato/Severino/Martin/Miranda and maybe Schobel) There are a lot of options that could force Polanco out. Assuming Walner becomes the one of the everyday OFers, only Larnach is really knocking at the door.

Their success speaks for itself. The relative impact of trading for prospects vs trading for established players is crystal clear if you examine the facts as I have. Trading long-term assets for short-term assets is not sustainable. The practices of Oakland / Cleveland and Tampa are proof. Go ahead and ignore the facts that don't support your opinion if it makes you feel better.

It's hard to imagine Williams could we worse than Gallo at this point. He has been brutal for a couple months now. I would say give Prato a few starts at 1B in AAA. He is 5'9 so not ideal but they need some of the dead weight off the roster. How about giving Severino a few starts at 1B in St. Paul?

It's been about 8 weeks. Since 6/20 his wRC+ is 152. He has been pretty consistent too. His wRC+ is also 152 for the last 4 weeks.

I think Gallo is still here because we have no depth a 1B. If we let him go, what do we do if Solano gets hurt? CJ Cron would have looked pretty good on this roster. What will they do if/when Kirilloff gets healthy? The roster management is going to be interesting the rest of the way.

The failure has been the offense. As a group, I think it would be fair to say in general we were confident in Correa / Buxton / Polanco Miranda and Vasquez. Some criticized the Arraez trade. It appears the FO felt they could get equal offense from some combination of Polanco and Julien. The team is definitely better with Julien and Lopez vs Arraez alone. There was a lot of Criticism of Jeffers and some wanted him moved. When they realized Buxton could not play the field they got MAT who has been pretty good. Remember the calls for Nick Gordon to get more time or start? How many people were betting Kirilloff was washed up? We wanted Kepler gone. He has been quite good. We were right about Gallo. That's the one they got wrong and we got right. Where do we stand now that we are two-thirds of the way through the season. How have position players performed over the past 2 months? The stats below are the last two months for position players. The problem is clearly Miranda / Buxton / Polanco / Vasquez and Correa, probably in that order. All players that in general were endorsed here. They believed they could build the rest of the team from existing options and that has gone very well. They did a very good job putting together a starting pitching staff we can quibble about the BP. It seems a bit hypocritical to distrust them because they believed in the same players we did? Edouard Julien 164 Ryan Jeffers 161 Royce Lewis 149 Matt Wallner 142 Max Kepler 135 Donovan Solano 130 Trevor Larnach 104 Michael A. Taylor 103 Alex Kirilloff 102 Willi Castro 89 Kyle Farmer 89 Carlos Correa 87 Byron Buxton 76 Joey Gallo 68 Christian Vazquez 57 Jorge Polanco 46 Jose Miranda -57

Do you suspect the management of other teams in similar positions like Cleveland and Seattle are incompetent or is it possible they weighed the short-term benefits against the long-term cost and came to a different conclusion than you have? When considering this question see 2022 Minnesota twins. IDK about you but I think adding CES's bat right now would be pretty ideal and Cano in our BP would look pretty good too not to mention the possibility one or two of the other prospects that were moved could turn out to be something. All of it was ill-advised because it would not have mattered if Mahle and Lopez would have produced as we hoped. Perhaps they learned something last year.

There is an alternative view. Perhaps they felt they could insert Julien and get the same level of offense. YTD Arraez has an OPS of .890 and a wRC+ of 145. Julien has the exact same wRC+ and an OPS of .881. One could argue they are getting the same level of offense and added a very good pitcher. No doubt it is not quite that simple but I don't think they looked at it as being willing to give up offense for pitching. They had a plethora of options at 2B/DH and you can never have enough front-line pitching.