Ben Noble

And we have plenty of good prospects in the pipeline to trade. Boston definitely isn't getting rid of Price as a straight salary dump, but I think the Twins have the prospect capital and budget space to acquire him, sign a top FA pitcher and still keep the top end of the farm system in good shape.

Not gonna lie, totally unintentional! Hoping for plenty of clean innings from him, though...

Love Dyson's K/BB and WHIP this year, and he's kept it in the park. Probably his best season to date, and I want a hot hand if we're nabbing a reliever at the deadline. Plus he's controlled through 2020. Bonus that we didn't give up anybody in the top 30, and I think Davis would've had to have been protected this fall. Still wanted more, but I like this trade in vacuum.

Did we come out of spring training with more injured pitchers than usual?

When I dug into Duran after we acquired him, this article is what really started to pique my interest in him as a prospect. The gist of the article is that he started having success last season when he began fully buying into coaching and the process of transforming himself into a pitcher, rather than just a thrower. And that's a huge development for me when it comes to pitching prospects.

Michael Reed, OF claimed off waivers early in the offseason.

Great debut article, welcome!

You've got 13 players listed there. And I have zero interest in kicking off the 2019 season with Sano relegated to platoon duty vs lefty starters.

Wow, great video commentary, Tom! Sorry, but I've gotta steal "looks like that kid just saw a ghost" next season, that's an instant classic.

Those two names are Robbie Grossman and Blaine Boyer, right?

It seems like they've hired the right staff to put Reed in a position to bounce back, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it'll happen. I'm good as long as he doesn't have major surgery a week before pitchers and catchers report.

Target Field already does have designated lines for people without bags to check, at least at Gate 34, and has for as long as I can remember. They're not particularly well marked, but there's two of them to the far right as you're facing the gate. Let's call them express lines. I think what slows things down is that there are far, far more lines that do check bags than there are express lines, and I'd guess maybe one in six people that go through the express lines still have bags to check. Target Field personnel don't often ask them to exit the express lines, and a collective moan always goes up when the line grinds to a halt for a bag check. Tom's idea of entire express gates is fantastic. It would also really help if Target Field personnel did a better job of directing people with bags away from the express lines before they even get in line, because I totally get not wanting to kick someone to the back of a line after they've made it all the way up to the front.

When we made the series of trades leading up to the deadline this year, I started digging into the prospects those trades brought in, and Duran stood out to me. The more I dug into him, the more I liked. These quotes in particular from his Kane County pitching coach piqued my interest: “He’s learning how to pitch. He hasn’t done it in every start, but I’ve seen him be able to make adjustments on his own. I’ve seen him make quality pitches in locations where I’ve told him he needs to throw them in certain counts.”“Slow down. Gradually work your way up and find command of your pitches. Find the command of pitches at different velocities. Once you find it and you’re comfortable, you can turn it up. I feel like he’s finally understood what I’m talking about.”Another quote from Duran himself via translator: “I work from 92-95, but when I know the hitter gets comfortable at the plate, that’s when I go 98 and keep him off balance. The experience helps a lot. I’m more mature. I go out there with a purpose and a plan. That helps a lot.” So I dug deep across the internets and found plenty of little bits and pieces to support the notion that Duran was evolving from a thrower to a pitcher. Weird little things like reading through the twitter accounts of other Kane County personnel that might have only mentioned Duran by his uniform number. From there, I dug up as much video as I could find, and there's a lot out there if you have the time and inclination to hunt it down. Could definitely be confirmation bias on my part, but it looked to me that they were playing around a lot from start to start with his pitch sequencing: setting up the breaking ball with the hard heat in one start, using the breaking ball early in the count the next start. I honestly can't tell you if his breaking ball is a slider, curve or some sort of slurve, but it looked to play up a lot this year compared to video I found from pre-2018. For what it's worth, if you want to dig up some video on your own, a quick indicator of when the footage was shot is that I'm pretty sure he grew a goatee this year. Maybe facial hair gave him the super power of maturity? Full disclosure: my first legit writing job involved, in part, evaluating high school athletes for a well-known publication. That was over 15 years ago and I was at the bottom of the totem pole, and by no means do I think that gives me any sort of expertise whatsoever, not in the slightest. But that job definitely instilled biases in me that I still look for when researching prospects, and Duran checks all of my highly biased (and possibly antiquated) boxes. I expect Duran and, for that matter, Graterol to top out as late-inning relievers, that's just the nature of pitching prospects. Duran very well might be exposed upon moving up a level, never find consistency, never develop his changeup, etc. But I feel like he developed more in 2018 than the raw numbers would indicate upon first look, and that he's put himself in a position to potentially make a big jump in 2019.

I appreciate the thoughtful response and hearing your reasoning. FWIW, I think his breaking ball has surpassed his fastball at this point in both present quality and future projection. Greater consistency and the continued development of his change up will both be crucial.

I'm sorry, but have either of you dug into Duran at all or, no offense, are you just more or less guessing? Reports are that he was sitting in the high 90s before working with Kane County coaches in the first half of last year to trade in some of that heat for better control. He's now sitting in the mid 90s, but with much improved control of his fastball and command of his secondary pitches, and can still reach back to hit 98 with good movement when necessary. From what I understand, his biggest hurdle is consistently knowing when to dial it up and when to dial it back, but consistency is usually the last hurdle for a starting pitching prospect, often not happening until they're pitching in MLB. I know that all games count, but go back and look at his individual starts last year: he had a few that were utterly dominating and a couple that really skewed his numbers negatively. As an illustration, Duran started against Quad Cities at the end of June and gave up 8 runs without recording an out. One month later, he faced Quad Cities again and didn't give up a hit over 7 innings. His size and velocity have always been tantalizing, but Duran made the transition from thrower to pitcher last year, and showed himself able and willing to make adjustments. It was his first year learning to actually pitch, and he improved as the summer wore on. For me, that's huge. Sure, some guys like Sickels will miss on him...but I think Sickels was also one of the guys who kept repeating the same tired bs that Thorpe is injury prone because he had mono. The national guys do a great job covering a ton of players, and hats off to them, but they also have a tendency to show up to the party late on guys that make midseason adjustments. I think he's easily top 10 now, and a repeat performance in 2019 has him finishing the season in AA and a top 100 prospect in baseball.

Agreed completely on the concept. But not sure if I want to trade too much/too high quality of the redundant talent for relief pitching.

I get what you're saying, but I think signing a bat-only DH is cheapskate thinking. Can't speak for others, but I want a player that can hit for power and gets on base AND can play the field. That player will not come cheap.

Exactly. And we should also see if Sano can play shortstop decently. I mean, we don't know that he can't. Was Sano moved off of SS because of JJ Hardy?

I could be misunderstanding you, but I think you might have this backwards. Just to be clear, Rosario didn't come into the Twins system as a 2B. Rosario was drafted as an outfielder and the Twins tried converting him to 2B after a couple of years in the minors -- I believe due to a perceived glut of outfielders in the system -- but moved him back to OF. As a side note, I saw Rosario play 2B for Beloit...back when they were a Twins affiliate...in a game where Sano stole home on a double steal. So do we know that Rosario can't play the infield? I guess not, but it's been a long time since Rosario last got regular reps at the keystone.

Worked out pretty darn well the last time the Twins hired a manager in his 30s...

Exactly, and that's why I wouldn't move him this winter. Kepler's bat is meh for me in RF but it plays up in CF if Buxton doesn't produce...and that's not that big of an 'if' at this point.

I think it's worth noting that there have been no reports that Sano appeared inebriated, even in the report where an anonymous source claimed that Sano stepped on the officer's leg and fired a gun into the air.

Damnit

Well, I did...you did, too, apparently And that's what I would assume, too, re: options. Same would go for a DL stint, I'd imagine.

Fine, whatever, I've had enough of your fancy, big city baseball lawyering.