ShouldaCouldaWoulda

Thinking LF'ers, that are left-handed, with similar batting profile, and with similar build and physical profiles; I am optimistically thinking Zobrist and Yelich? That is the best current profiles I can come up with that match the above and had similar AA stats. I would include maybe a David Peralta, but his path was clearly different. These are my realistic high-end comparisons, especially with how Target Field represses LH power.

Yeah, I noticed the absurd amount of doubles and triples. I also remember the insane amount of triples that Buxton hit in AA this year. Is there anything about the park(s) they play in that would inflate this? Kepler and Buxton's SLG% does seem highly inflated upon their triples, and not HR power. On another note, I like to take it down a notch when getting excited about our young players. I like to think of realistic middle ground comps for them, in terms of bat/power/fielding/speed. What do we honestly think Kepler's comps are now, and if he hits his "average safe" ceiling? Is a corner OF with little power all that valuable, especially with Rosario, Hicks, and Buxton give you similar profiles of decent, but not great bats, very little power, good speed, and good defense? Lets here some realistic corner OF comps? Not separate bat, and separate in the field.

I put all the veterans on waivers, even Dozier. You never know what he could bring in return, and there is actually a viable replacement at his position. Not saying I want him traded, but it is not like he is a franchise player or all that young. You have to see what he could get, and just maybe we sell high and win a trade again.

Kepler. But, still in all honestly Arcia is needed and would be more useful. But, you are damn right that he would give us much to complain about. We don't really have any imperfect players in our system. Lots of young talent, but almost ALL of them are extremely flawed in one or two areas with the bat, and or, in the field.

man, it would suck to have Arcia to hit in this situation.

Calling out Mauer and staff for him floundering of late and still batting 3rd. Never saw that coming.

I bet the Twins take it really slow with Buxton. If they are still in the hunt in 3 weeks he will be up, otherwise they probably keep him down with some sort of developmental excuse, and then try to keep him the minors until May or June next year too. They will be buying time for now, in order to decide to delay some more clock or use him in a contention run. Of course, I am mostly being sarcastic with that approach, but sadly I would not be surprised if it was spot on.

I am not even kidding when I say that it is not any guarantee that Twins won't be in the AL Central cellar again this season. It isn't probable, but it is certainly plausible. The way we are currently playing, along with the other teams rosters, it really is something that could happen. Fangraphs projects the Twins to have the worst winning% the rest of the season.

Well, if Berrios is not in the rotation to begin the season there should be an uproar. He should be in the rotation or pen by now.

They just traded for Hector Olivera, who will be playing 3b for them in a week or two once he's healthy.

I do personally agree with you in that I think it's possible that Sano may end up in the same discussion as Bryant with the bat in the near and distant future, but simply looking at their bodies, Bryant should age better, and he plays good defense and will stick at 3B, where Sano may never play 3B, and if he does it won't be near the level that Bryant does. Then, if Bryant keeps his baselining ability, its just another reason he is better overall. On paying an aging Lester and someone like Heyward, that really isn't a big deal for teams like the Cubs, especially if they have other young cheap players contributing. Lester will likely be valuable for at least 2-4 years though. No, the Twins can't do that, nor should they, but its part of the reason the Cubs are currently better than us, and have a better chance of succeeding in the future. They can buy talent to help with their young team, and if those expensive guys fail, it won't cripple them the way it would the Twins. Consider we will have Mauer blocking talented bats at 1B for years, and taking up a good chunk of money. I love the Twins, and our young talent, I just personally feel that we are currently and in the future a step or two behind the Cubs and Astros. Better question....Pick one and trade one: Buxton and Sano?

I don't think there is a GM in the league who'd take Sano over Bryant, without getting fired. Same goers for either Arcia and Keppler over either Schwarber or Soler. Even if Schwarber were moved to LF permanently, he is still better than both Arcia, Keppler, and Rossario....and I think any FO or prospect guru would take Soler and Schwarber. Buxton over Almora of course, but lets be honest, The Cubs can trade for a buy a good CF in FA. My call is that they will either get Heyward in the offseason and convert him to CF, or convert either Castro or Baez to CF in the offseason. And, Rizzo is 25, and Dozier is 28. We were talking about young talent I thought. Nor do the Cubs need SP in their minors. They can buy and trade for that, and have.

Yeah, he hits for power, has a good OBP, steals basses, and has played phenomenal defense. The base stealing and defense were a nice surprise. Just makes his overall future value even better. Basically Sano with speed and good defense.

Well, I think there a several reasons for not talking about the Twins as much as the Cubs or Astros. The biggest one is that the Cubs and Astros are actually better overall teams, and their wins are backed up with numbers that supported their success. They both had and have much better rotations, and better bullpens. Both lineups are light years better than the Twins. As far as young talent goes, yes the Twins have good young talent, but the only real difference maker young guy has been Sano, and Buxton is a "hold" right now. After Buxton and Sano, we don't haven any MLB future stars in my opinion. The Cubs have Bryant, Schwarber, Russell, Baez, and Soler who are all 23 or younger and legitimate beasts and possible future stars. Rizzo is a star and is only 25, but is a beast already. They also have Castro who is faltering, but still has the potential to be great and has been good already in years past. After Sano and Buxton, you can't put Rosario, Keppler, Hicks, Pinto, Arcia, ABW, Polanco, Santana, and Vargas in the same conversation as Rizzo, Bryant, Schwarber, Russell, Soler, Baez, and Castro. Do we have a Lester or Arrieta? And, Hammel and Hendricks are both really good too. I could do the same thing with the the Astros young stud hitters compared to ours and their starting rotation, but I don't think its necessary. We aren't currently as good as those teams in either hitting or picking, and they have more actually MLB possible future difference making stars than we do. Rosario is good and young, but he will never be a top half of the league corner OF. He might do it for a stretch here or their with an inflated BAIP, but he just isn't that great. For instance, he is currently outperforming Soler for the Cubs, but I don't think any GM in the league would choose Rosario over Soler.

I am not simply going off of May being dominant lately and Jepsen looking bad in his first outing. I am also going with they way they have spoken about May, as well as the way they used him in the extra innings loss. In that tied game they had the whole pen available. In a tied 9th inning they went with their best option in Perkins, which is what several teams do in that situation. If you are still tied in the 10th inning and you feel you have to use your best options in those situations, and Perkins was already used? You likely go next best option. They used May in that situation, then Jepsen.

Rest of the season winning% projections from Fangraphs....WORST in the entire AL at .450. http://www.fangraphs.com/coolstandings.aspx?type=2&lg=div&date=current I was fine with the Twins not making any major moves at the deadline, as long as they were going to maximize their current options within the system. I assumed that would be the plan. Cut off the weakest links on the bench and bullpen. That starts with what I personally feel is an obvious Arcia up and Robinson out, and Berrios up to the pen (limits his innings, helps the MLB club which is most important, and gets his feet wet for starting in MLB next year) and get rid of Boyer and or Fien. What would a platoon of Hicks and Arcia look like offensively? Sano and Plouffe could also get breaks vs RH's and have Arcia DH those games, so that Hicks still gets to play more often. There is other ways to get Acria's bat in the lineup vs RH's, but platooning with Hicks often (NOT always), and simply resting Plouffe or Sano will get Acrica several days in the lineup, without really effecting Hicks, Plouffe, or Sano. I am ok with Berrios starting in AAA for a few more starts to get experience, I guess. But, I want pitching for the Twins ASAP, and I don't care if its in the bullpen or rotation. Just am guessing that he will have some sort of inning limit, so putting him in the pen would solve that. There really isn't anything to lose by doing this. If he fails, big deal. Berrios has clearly displayed excellent makeup and attitude. Failure won't ruin him. And, if he does falter with the Twins, well, its either we fail with him or fail the way we have. Obviously the upside reward is much much greater and more likely. Perkins, May, Jepsen, and Berrios at the end of games sound good? What if Meyer somehow figures it out in September up here? I am fine with either May or Berrios going to the rotation, but the Twins seem committed to giving veterans and higher priced guys with little upside those opportunities.

I am pretty sure May is the 8th inning guy and Jepsen the 7th inning guy. We just haven't had the opportunity to see this yet.

Seems like the investment in as much technology and data as possible at ALL levels would be worth it, and save us money in the long run.

My fear is that Pelfrey has lengthened his rope even longer with this good start, and that it will keep Berrios from being promoted sooner. It seems like when any pitcher has a good start or hitter a good week or two, that it takes like double or triple the amount of bad play for them to be considered to be removed for glaringly better options. I was happy with Pelfrey's start today, but I fear this only ensures that we stick by him, even if he throws up 2-4 stinker starts in a row. This seems to have always plagued the Twins...leaving guys in way to long, due to any sort of previous stretch of success, even if it is clearly not likely to continue.

Has the FO made any comments the past week about Palfrey? Just curious if they have been called out on him still being in the rotation, and what their reaction was/would be. I never thought keeping him in the rotation was to hope he builds trade value, as no team is that dumb. Why would a team in contention be trying to trade a SP, unless they didn't think he was very good. He had no trade value, and was not going to gain any. There is no longer any reason at all to still have Palfrey in the rotation. Get him out if we are serious about a playoff push. Bring up Berrios to the rotation, or Berrios to the pen and May back to the rotation. Palfrey can be long relief. Palfrey doesn't even have a good skill set for 7th or 8th inning work, as he has the lowest k/9 of any qualified SP in the MLB. Again, just curious if they have been called out on this or have made any comments on Pelfrey being his normal self the past month.

I would not think that TR "overvalues" RP's by any means, but he MAY undervalue what skills and #'s are actually important in RP's. If this trade was for Jepsen of 2014 I'd be very excited, but he is not the same pitcher and his velocity is down...and yes, that does matter. His K% has likely been directly effected by that.

Oh, and Hu probably never becomes much of a MLB player, based on just mere odds and time taking its tole. I will be fine with this in mind, and......if and only if, they bring up Berrios like within a few weeks in ANY role, get Pelfrey out of the rotation. Also, would completely forget about all of this if Jepsen stays at his current level, they make these roster changes, and if Meyer figures it out in the bullpen by September. Just trying to be positive, as the higher ups on this board seem to get snarky at any complaining or negativity, no matter how obvious and warranted it may be.

On the surface, I am disappointed and feel this is about what would be done. I mentioned earlier that I was fine with the Twins standing pat and not trading, but if they were going to go after a RP...make sure he has a k/9 north of 8. Well, that didn't go well. On the optimistic side; He throws 94.5 mph, his ERA is fine, has a higher K% than our other setup options, has shown success in the past, and will also be here next year. On the negative; ERA is not a big deal in the bullpen as peripherals are a much much bigger tell, his velocity is down, so expecting his K% to rise back to last seasons is not likely, his FIP and xFIP are in the 4's, looks like a 6th or 7th inning guy on a decent team, which is fine if that is where we would pitch him, we gave up a good prospect. I will end with one more positive. Though his velocity being down will likely keep him from returning to any previous form, there is one positive possibility I see........all of his pitches are in the positive/100 pitches on Fangraphs, but his Change is a -3.99! So, maybe his former pitching coach saw something he thinks he can fix with his Change up here. Now, he only throws the Change about 7% of the time, so this probably won't do much, but looking for one last morsel of hope. Bottom line, yes he is an improvement upon what we have. However, not the type of addition that deserve any sort of confidence building in the FO or bullpen. This does make our team better, but not by much, and we were looking for something better than this. Lets hope he can pick up his K% or rely on lucky ERA, so the overly loyal can spout out that "he's getting the job done." Kinda like Fein last night...didn't give up any runs, but it didn't look pretty at all and was lucky nothing dropped in for hits.

Rossario has been nice, but I just get this very strong feeling that he is simply this years version of Danny Santana. High BAIP, doesn't walk, not much power, and decent OF defense. He is probably playing at the highest level he ever will in his career.

I can't imagine any legitimate defense for running Palfrey out there for another start. I know some have stated that he was still being used as a SP because the Twins were hoping to build his trade value. But, do you really think another team believes him to be a big league valuable SP? I mean, most us Twins fans didn't even buy his ride of success, and have been wishing for him to be out out of the rotation for quiet some time. If the majority (I would hope) think that way, why would any front office want Pelfrey? If the Twins think they were being smart, well their game theory skill are not very good, and they are wasting spots and doing this wrong. Someone in another thread used a line something like that the Twins seem to "be extremely slow to make the extremely obvious moves." This is true here.