zwiefz

Believe it or not, I do have a Jeff Reboulet memory(although not a playing related one). During one post-game I saw him being interviewed(no idea why). This was sometime in the middle of the Michael Jordan/I Wanna Be Like Mike hysteria. Reboulet was wearing a shirt that said, "Forget Mike, I Wanna Be Like Puck". Man, I wanted that shirt bad. I searched and searched but never found one.

On radio broadcast Gladden was bashing the Blue Jays(rightfully so) for falling into the analytical trap and taking Berrios out too early. I'm glad it didn't end up making a difference, but I felt the same way about taking out Wallner so early for Castro. An earlier post talked about Julien, Lewis, and Wallner making such a huge difference in the second half of the season. Couldn't agree more, which is why I have one nit to pick......... Hindsight is 20/20(especially since Castro hit into a double play), but I was really looking forward to seeing Wallner hit with bases loaded and no outs. If he had connected for an extra base hit the place would have gone nuts. If he hit one out for a grand slam the stadium may well have imploded :)

Any word on Kuechel decision? Depending on if his AAA numbers are a mirage that could be a big add to roster?(or absolutely nothing)

Not interested at this point. Before we write him in on Cy Young ballots, go back and look at 2019. I am not a stat head, but when I read this article I seemed to remember similar thoughts(OMG, how did we land this guy so cheap???) early in the year before him ending up in the bullpen. A very brief look at his numbers showed that in his first 8 starts for the Twins(after getting inserted in rotation) he gave up 1.5 runs per game started through May 30. After May 30 he had 21 more appearances(some were bullpen I believe) and averaged 3.5 runs per start/appearance with some absolute clunkers in there. So he has had 'hot' stretches early in the year before. If he is still doing this at the trade deadline, then maybe. Way too early to see if he is an upgrade or a mirage. Besides, the entire rotation is such a shambles right now that not sure if even 1 great pitcher would make a difference over the long haul.

Baddoo was optioned to the minors yesterday. A year ago at this time the sky was falling in Twins Territory because they had let another future MVP get away for nothing. No real point to this thread.......just one more in a never ending string of examples of 'small sample size', rushing to judgement(good and bad), players needing different lengths of time to really adjust/counter adjust to the major leagues, etc. At least it gives us all a reminder to 'take a breath' as we evaluate the performances of all these new/young players early in the season.

I think one thing that also influenced the decision to move on from Donaldson has been the emergence of Miranda. Two years ago the Twins had no 'elite' prospects at 3rd base. Now they do. Urshela is insurance at short or 3rd if they can't land someone like Story or Miranda doesn't do well. If they do, then Urshela is a utility guy. It's a huge if, but IF they did use the money saved from Donaldson to sign Story to a long term deal then that would make Lewis(and Martin to a lesser extent in my opinion) and maybe even Arraez(with Urshela/Gordon as utility) trade chips for pitching. Sanchez platoons better(offensively) with Jeffers than Garver and since he can also DH(maybe 1st base) you have the bench space to find a true backup catcher. Long story short-I can see several possible plans. And no, Falvey saying he doesn't "know" what will happen doesn't make him an idiot. It makes him a realist.

Bob Nightengale says Twins expected to sign Colome. Interesting, he also says signing as a closer. Interesting to see what happens with Rogers role.

I generally hate blaming poor performance on coaches(and I'm not doing it in this case). But I can't help but wonder if some(certainly not all) of the poor offensive performances this year are in any part due to losing James Rowson to Miami and replacing him with Edgar Varela. Have any of you stat heads/video analysts out there noticed anything or is this simply a case of everyone not named Cruz having an offensive slump at the same time? At the very least you would have thought by now you would see more signs of improvement.

I can't see the games being rescheduled. Too many variables go into making schedules, namely stadium usage and other large events in played in cities. If they did rearrange the schedule, I can't imagine the nightmare that would ensue refunding every ticket, hotel room, etc that has already been purchased and then having to resell them again with the new schedule.

Glad he wants to be a starter and has confidence in himself. But what happens when the postseason rotation shrinks to 3? If healthy and pitching as expected Berrios, Odo, Pineda and Hill all could be better than him. So long as they let him make his 30 starts/get his incentives in the regular season will he be happy with going back to the bullpen?

MLBtraderumors has links to two reports that Twins are also sending a low level prospect to Dodgers. One specifies it is an outfielder.

Bunch of random thoughts: 1)Yes, the Twins said they were starting Graterol out in bullpen. But everything I remember seeing said that was because he didn't have anything more to prove in the minors, but also had never had his innings pushed to the point where he could be a year long starter. Don't remember anyone every saying he would NEVER be a starter publicly. The medical records may say it, but the Red Sox would never have known that. Starters are more valuable than relievers, even if it would have taken him a year or two to get stretched out to that point. 2)Of course Boras would say that he is healthy enough to start, Starters get more money than relievers. What else would an agent say? 3)If I were in charge I would still see if the Dodgers wanted to do a straight up swap of their own. Last year they used Maeda primarily as a reliever(for multiple reasons it appears). They clearly don't see him as a starter. But if they trade him they have an opening in the bullpen. So Graterol would be a cheaper, higher ceiling option. Regardless of the Red Sox, a trade between LA and MN still makes sense to me, both are trading from areas of strength to address areas of relative weakness.

Probably reading too much into things, but..... In Nightengale's tweet he is "citing sources from multiple teams". I know that multiple strictly just means more than 1. But if he were referring to just sources from the Dodgers and Red Sox he would have referred to it as 'both teams'(especially as much as the Twins have been portrayed as a third wheel in this deal). So to me it seems like he still believes there are three teams. And if it were a different third team than Minnesota that his sources identified you think he would be saying so in order to claim the scoop. So that means the Twins are still in on this trade, right?

Hill counts on the 40 man roster until spring training at which point he can be placed on the 60 day IL. I believe that if a player is placed on waivers(say Harper) they no longer count towards the 40 man roster since they will be removed one way or another. However, until the results of the waiver process are completed(were they claimed? did they clear and get reassigned to the minors?) nothing will be announced.

Both Hill and Bailey are listed on roster on MLB.com. But I also count 41 names on their roster. So take that for what it is worth.