terrydactyls

There have been several comments urging the front office to add players through free agency. So I went to Spotrak.com and found the 2019 list of free agents as of today. I sorted the position players by OPS and the pitchers by Wins/Saves. Here are the top players by position (age is in parentheses). For position players, I've listed those near or above .800 (plus Mauer). For starting pitchers, I chose 6 wins or more and for relief pitchers, I chose 10 saves or more. POSITION PLAYERS 1B Matt Adams (30) .889 1B Joe Mauer (36) .726 2B Daniel Descalso (32) .849 2B Jed Lowrie (35) .820 2B Asdrubal Cabrera (35) .790 3B Mark Reynolds (35) .909 3B Eduardo Escobar (30) .847 SS Manny Machado (26) .935 LF Steven Pearce (36) .992 LF Michael Brantley (32) .805 CF AJ Pollack (31) .916 CF Bryce Harper (26) .869 RF Nick Markakis (35) .867 RF Lonnie Chisenhall (30).846 RF Carlos Gonzalez (33) .845 C Yasmani Grandal (30) .862 C Wilson Ramos (31) .834 DH Nelson Cruz (38) .903 DH Evan Gattis (32) .808 STARTING PITCHERS SP Charlie Morton (35) 12 SP JA Happ(36) 11 SP Dallas Keuchel (31) 9 SP Patrick Corbin (30) 8 SP Lance Lynn (32) 7 SP CC Sabathia (38) 6 SP Anibal Sanchez (35) 6 SP Yoyani Gallardo (33) 6 SP Tyson Ross (32) 6 SP Gio Gonzalez (33) 6 SP Brandon McCarthy (35) 6 RELIEF PITCHERS RP Craig Kimbral (31) 33 RP Cody Allen (30) 21 RP Bud Norris (34) 20 RP Jeurys Familia (29) 17 RP Sergio Romo (36) 13 RP Brad Brach (33) 11 RP Brad Ziegler (39) 10 This is not a very impressive list from which to choose from. My bet is that the Dodgers lock up Machado before he hits the open market. That leaves Harper as the only real "game changer" and from what I've read about his attitude, I'm not sure I want the Twins going after him. ***I had this in a nice table format before I hit Post. I don't know what happened. *** And now it looks nice. Go Figure.

Isn't there also some rule that if a QB is running outside the pocket, he is then considered a running back? Can he be tackled normally at this point? Or does the defender have to ask the nearest official how much body weight he can use before initiating a tackle? How stupid. I guess Lawrence Taylor should have been suspended for life when he broke Joe Thiessman's leg.

"P train Morrison I a problem?" What the heck does that mean? "DAF Morrison?" Did you mean "DFA?" Please take a moment before posting to read your comments to see if they make any sense.

Here are the totals for the 14 pitchers listed above. IP: 338.7 ERA: 1.86 WHIP: 1.01 K/9: 8.00 Those are some pretty impressive numbers. And no Brustar Graterol or Fernando Romero.

Thoughts from the North Woods of Maine.... DFA five guys right now: Belisle, Rodney, Wilson, Morrison, and Grossman. Replace them with Nick Anderson, Alan Busenitz, Willians Astudillo, Zander Weil, and LaMonte Wade. Plug them in and see what they can do during August. Promote Trevor May and Matt Magill to be the co-Closers. At the September roster expansion add Tyler Duffy, Jake Reed, Fernando Romero, Stephen Gonsalves, John Curtiss, Aaron Slegers, Kohl Stewart, and Zack Littell to the pitching staff (and use them) and add Gregorio Petit, Nick Gordon, Mitchell Kranson, Brent Rooker and Luis Arraez to the bench and use them as much as possible. Let's see what the farm system really has.

Just over an hour left so here is my prediction. Dozier is traded to the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters for 300 pounds of Ahi-grade tuna and the rights to a "to be named" player.

There is a possibility (maybe remote but still possible) that the 2019 starting pitchers are Berrios, Gibson, Gonsalves, Romero, and Thorpe. And if this lineup has any chance of becoming a reality, I would like to see it happen this year at the September expansion time. And add Curtiss, Jay, Anderson, and Bard to the bullpen to see if they will be part of the 2019 bullpen.

If the Twins can also dump Dozier, Lynn, Reed, and Rodney for a couple more prospects, Realmuto becomes a serious target. We seem to be accumulating a lot of outfielders so I hope that is what Miami is looking for.

Can we trade Molitor for a manager who will use the entire bullpen? Why have Magill on the team if you won't use him? For that matter, why have Belisle on the team at all? This season is dead so bring up some young arms and give them an extended tryout.

A "chance?" Three prospects for a pending for a pending free agent who is currently playing far above his historical average is exactly what the front office should be doing. I hope they can do the same with Dozier.

Do you really feel sorry for someone who "only" gets offered $40 to $50 million dollars for just three years of playing a game?

I would like to approach this from a completely dfferent perspective. If both Mets' pitchers get traded to contenders, maybe that would drive up the trade value of Lynn, Odorizzi, Santana, and Gibson. Teams competing against the teams that acquire DeGrom and Syndegaard may become more desparate to acquire more starting pitching. And before the villagers take up their pitchforks and storm the front office, let's see what happens in the next month.

Are all the "we can still win the division" people now willing to hang up a For Sale sign? Build for the future. DFA Pressley and Wilson, trade (if possible) Belisle and Grossman. And get what you can for Dozier, Santana, Lynn, Odorizzi, Duke, Reed, and Rodney. If Mauer would like to try for a ring, trade him too. And if someone makes a great offer for Escobar, think about it long and hard. I'm sure I have forgotten other useless pieces, but this would be a good start in building towards 2019/2020. Boy, do I feel better now.....

Did we get a new front office? Your comment is based on logic, not past performance by our management.

I thought the premise of this thread was: when Dozier is traded, what should be done to fill the void? It's devolved into a squabble of who is better: Escobar or Dozier? And that has been already battled over many times. How about returning to the original topic? thanks.

1.) Where are you from? Twin Cities until 35. Then Washington D.C. for 11 years; Austin, TX for 21 years. Retired in 2014 and got out of the heat as fast as I could. I know live outside Portland, Maine – Red Sox and Patriot country – BARF!!!!! 2.) Age Range? Physically: 71 Attitude: 10 to 12 3.) What brought you to Twins Daily? Looking for any information I could find about the Twins and stumbled on it. 4.) Highest level of baseball/softball played? Over-40 league for baseball when I was 58. Softball until 60. A college hockey teammate of mine tried to talk me into trying out for the college varsity team. I still remember his argument: “Terry, you were blessed with the skills of a professional athlete, but cursed with the body of a professional baker.” 5.) Favorite Twins Player, and favorite underappreciated Twins player, and if you want, favorite current Twins player? Favorite: Harmon Killebrew (see comment in question 4). Underappreciated: Vic Power. Current Favorite: Eduardo Escobar because he is always smiling. 6.) Favorite non-Twins Daily site/authors? None 7.) Favorite Twitter follows? I don’t do the Tweetie thing. 8.) Other interests outside of baseball. I play hockey twice a week, golf when I can, scuba dive, and take lots of naps. 9.) Favorite part of Twins Daily? The minor league reports (especially when the Twins are doing poorly) . 10.) Tell us what we can do better. Convince commenters to review their submittals. Sometimes the spelling and grammar are so bad I can’t figure out what they are trying to say. And I taught 7th grade for a while so I know what bad writing looks like. 11.) Have you been to any of the Twins Daily "events?" Have you had any in Maine?? If not, then no.

Third round. 104th pick.

How about Jose Altuve?

A lot of people (or a few people with multiple comments) have remarked on Garver's lack of hitting and bad defense. I just took a quick look at MLB.com at hitting statistics for MLB catchers. Garver has the 7th highest batting average in all of major league baseball for catchers with at least 150 official plate appearances. He should be playing nearly all the remaining games to see if his defense can improve. It never will sitting on the bench. This year is lost so start working on 2019.

If Morrison continues to bunt against the shift, he may get his average above the Mendoza line and become trade material.

1. Play Garver as often as he can physically get behind the plate for the remainder of 2018. If he provs that he cannot be the primary catcher in 2019, then go into the off season with acquiring a tier 1 catcher as the top priority. 2. Bring up as many bullpen arms as possible and use them to see if they are viable next year. 3. Extend Rosario and Berrios for whatever it costs. 4. Extend Buxton if he can be signed reasonably. 5. DFA Grossman, Wilson, and Belisle this afternoon. 6. Start thinking about who will replace Molitor this off season. 7. Lower beer prices (oops, got carried away).

I guess that means Cave will be sent down today and Grossman will be in the starting lineup until a 40-year old journeyman outfielder can be signed (and probably Rooker DFA'd).

I just want to see if either are worth hanging on to for 2019. Not bad mouthing Rogers, just making room.

Matt Belisle DFA Taylor Rogers Demote to AAA Bobby Wilson DFA Robbie Grossman DFA Jorge Polanco Activate Lamonte Wade Promote to Twins John Curtiss Promote to Twins Todd Van Steensel Promote to Twins

If you look at the picture of Rooker that leads this article, you will see why he will never make it with the Twins. It is clearly evident that he is watching the ball all the way until contact is made with the bat. Contrast that with the picture of our 2017 All Star, Sano, from an article about a week back. Sano's helmet is flying off and his head is looking towards the left field bleachers anticipating where the ball will go. Thats the Twins Way. Come on, Rooker, get with the program.