Cris E

Wow does this make me feel old. Not because I watched him play, but because I recall his first games in the booth so clearly. His first spring they had him down behind the plate at the Dome for a game because the booth was too full of guests. They cut to him abruptly for insight on a pitch and all he could come up with was "Well it was a breaking ball I guess." Not entirely fair, but not all that useful either. He's much better now, but it took years to rise from Terrible to Not Distracting. Congrats Dan, you've come a long, long way.

Oh I hope he's out of options with a deep propensity for Three True Outcomes hitting and a major hole in his swing. Or would it be better to have a guy with one good year in 2022 who is just one tweak away from being Seth Brown? Maybe an injury project who merely needs ABs to regain his prospect polish? Oh, such choices.

Amen. It's easy to find excellent defense, but pairing it with offense is hard. Teams usually have to strike some balance between "enough" defense and "enough" offense. Lee is just like everyone else, somewhere between Marek Houston and Josh Bell as a SS: he fields well enough if he hits well enough. But there are huge swathes of unplayable SS between Josh and Marek, so it's good that Lee continues honing his skills to stay relevant. It sounds like he knows his hitting will keep him ahead of Gray and Kreidler, and it sounds like he's ignoring Culpepper and focusing on his own game since there's nothing he can do about the guys behind him. Sound approach, and best of luck to him, we could use a better SS in 2026.

Let him see high quality breaking stuff in St Paul, let him fail a little and recover, and then bring him up. No sense making that readjustment period harder than necessary. And there's always the chance that he doesn't adjust and he get dismantled in AAA. Let the process work, our SS is not the last piece of a championship team.

Completely unrelated to the topic at hand, I expect the owners to introduce a rabbit ball if any time is missed for the new CBA. Nothing polishes up the old fan interest like 60+ HR and a bunch of guys hitting .350.

This org has been watching service time since before many of this generation of 30-something GMs was born. He'll be up in June when the Super Two date passes.

This sort of article needs to be clear about cut-downs and how many minor leaguers are on hand at any point, similar to the WBC mention in CF. It's fun to see ERod and Jenkins and Rucker(?) but they are starting to disappear this week as things start to get real. I think they know what they have in a lot of guys, so playing time reflects either things a guy wants to work on (eg Lee at SS) or questions they want to answer. Can Bell or Wagaman really play 1B? Who can back up at 2B and 3B? Which of these OF can cover what spots? They need enough info to decide what spots they still have to fill and which spots to create thru trades and cuts, but Larnach in RF might just be about staging him for a sale. The amount of time Clemens is spending at 2B almost looks like he's being shown off. Hey, how about Clemens and Larnach to the Angels for the desiccated remains of Kirby Yates and whatever money and kids make the GMs happy? Money would be a wash, we get some closer-y vibes and clear the roster a bit. They have holes at 2B and LF is no great shakes. Everyone is happy.

He's built like a young RH Tony Gwynn, a touch thick through the thighs and belt, and and his stats are just a bit more powerful; Gwynn only hit .330 - .340 in the PCL before coming up. So let Gabby hit in St Paul to prove it's real and manipulate the service time and possibly fix the roster a bit, then get him up and let him play. See if he can hit, let him play as much D as he can, hope he has a fine career and doesn't get too big to stay healthy. This modern fixation on being the perfect player doesn't allow room for individual skills to stand out. He'll almost certainly never hit like Tony Gwynn, but if he's an average bat then he's as good as Larnach already. He's probably nearly as good as he's going to get so you may as well play him. EDIT: Erod and Jenkins are different in that they have higher ceilings and worse health records, so they both have more growing to do and more durability to show.

Mea culpa, I completely forgot about him. He's better than the glove-only guys but not a real solution. I'm not sure if he's any better than Clemens. Stay well, Mr Lewis.

Austin has not played 3B since 4 games his senior year in college, in 2020. I think he'd be surprised even if you aren't. I believe the plan mostly consists of saying rosaries morning, noon and night for Lewis. Then come the utility guys. Clemens has played a couple dozen games over there at the MLB level so he is probably the long-term replacement. I can't believe Shelton hasn't put him over there more often this spring.

He's only a backup, so sure. His primary position is on the 60 Day.

Good one, professional writer. You are both funny and insightful. I am chastened. Sorry for reading your stuff, won't happen again.

Um, 27.1 IP in St Paul matches up with 28 K and 23 BB. You need to calm down and read your data more closely. Good young pitcher, but 27.1 IP is only 82 outs, so 90 strikeouts would be something.

If you think the depth is bad at the MLB level, last year the following guys made starts at 3B for the St Paul Saints. Their current location is included. Jose Miranda 69 games Padres minors Armando Alvarez 25 games Mexican league Jonah Bride 19 games Texas minors Tanner Schobel 14 games Twins AA Yunior Severino 10 games Mexican league Will Holland 7 games Free agent Anthony Prato 6 games Free agent Jefferson Morales (2 games, Mexico), Jair Camargo (2 games, Atlanta), Dalton Shuffield (1 game, retired) plus Royce Lewis and Brooks Lee. So Tanner Schobel is our depth from AAA last season. Gio Urshela was signed for a real reason, and it should be frightening.

Eeyore wants to see clouds so he's counting it his way. Logic can just go back to hotel while gritty realism is in the room.

He's not like Julien though, because he runs, which is exciting and invigorating to an offense. But otherwise your point stands.

A flawed man, a sad tale. Not sure if everyone recalls his early role in the PED mess of the early 2010s. He was a centerpiece of the big Sports Illustrated cover story on steroids back in 2012. https://www.si.com/more-sports/2012/05/29/baseball-steroids

He looks higher effort than Preilip in that clip above, much more arm and less lower body in his delivery. I don't want to say that never works, but to me that kind of says reliever more than 100+ pitch outings. Whatever, it'll be fun to watch him move up. I looooove a good changeup.

I don't even think OPS is a good way to evaluate everyone. If a guy does a couple important things really well then you take him as he is. For example, last year the MLB average was .245/.315/.404 (BA/OBP/SLG), so if a top defensive SS with some baserunning chops hit .230/.350/.300 (OPS+ around 75) he'd be fine in my book but utterly excoriated by most folks. (Only six guys in MLB qualified for the batting title and slugged under .350, and only five were at or below .650 OPS, but only 38 had OBP at or above .350.) Catchers are in the same special defensive category as far as I'm concerned.

My weekly dose of unbridled optimism says that Keaschall had his sophomore season when he came back at the end of last year and picked things back up without missing a step. There's utterly no basis for that, but it's a sunny morning and I'm enjoying my coffee so here we go. More realistically, he may regress but his style is pretty controlled and features enough speed that a few bunts or singles the other way could get him going if he ever bogs down. I expect his D at 2B to get a little better with more time throwing after the TJ. Julien and Polanco both got better after spending some time on their glovework too, so it can happen. I would also expect the team to be very patient with him there since the line is deep in LF and there's not really another viable middle infielder that'll let Lee come over from SS or replace Luke at 2B. This could be another place to direct Winokur if he starts hitting and the SS thing is not working out for him.

It's always a good idea to get a good player under a cheap contract whenever possible. It's also a good idea to get as big a contract as you can since you never know when your arm will explode and your career will end. 32 years old is not old for pitchers in MLB, especially guys who know how to pitch and are not making it on mindless velocity. His numbers may have gone down two years ago, but that's because he was in the CY conversation three years ago and was injured the past two seasons. Get a deal that puts money in his pocket, protects the team from him missing too much time and both can succeed. @DocBauer has it right when he calls for expensive performance bonuses for IP or starts so he can make bank when he can take the ball and he doesn't cost a fortune when he can't Stepping back, I think there will be a minimum number of missed games due to the CBA. I also expect way more revenue sharing, a floor and a change in the luxury tax rates to make an effective ceiling for most situations (eg doubling current rates and adding more tiers in larger steps.) They'll buy off the players with expansion jobs and they'll buy off the rich owners by giving them the expansion money. What that would mean is teams like the Twins will need to sign contracts like this or a Ryan extension to hit the numbers by 2029. Of course I could be wrong, which is why this deal won't get done until next year. Well, it won't unless Pablo takes complete bath on this or accepts a deal like @DocBauerproposed with a low base plus a bunch of performance clauses.

These things usually go two ways: he inches back towards his usual form or it turns out to be an injury and he's on the 60 day. Let's revisit in a couple weeks.

You misunderstood my post: I was hoping that Lewis figures out how to stay on the field. And that is something that can be picked up and improved on. Buxton had a better year last year, Molitor played much more after 30 than before, You learn how to prepare differently, how to protect yourself better, and you're less likely to try doing way more than you're capable of. But if Lewis can't stay out there for 100 games then they'll be needing another 3B and they really don't have one.

I think Winokur is the next Twins 3B in the event that Lewis never does play 120 games in a season. I mean he might figure things out and become a fixture over there, but they need a solution in case he doesn't. And right now this organization is echoing, hollow, empty at 3B. How empty? Gio Urshela empty.

Be fair: most middle money teams try to wring the most possible out of prospects before casting them aside. The reason TAM and MIL stand out for trading away prospects is that it isn't common at all in their income bracket. Zoll may just be "Conventional" rather than "Falvey". OTOH conventional may not be what this org needs right now. There's enough talent laying around, both on the 26 man and the 40 man, that a quicker turn around might serve better than sending everyone away for a couple years and waiting on the 20 year olds.