Trov

Matz would be interesting to ask about. Unless Mets plan to move him to pen, he could be a buy low guy. It may depend on how many others are inquiring. Ray I do not think will cost all that much, again depending on who is calling. I again would be willing to take a waiver on him, he has been decent.

Clearly, if the Twins want to improve they will need to trade, but for whom and giving up who. We will never know what was offered to the players that signed elsewhere, the reports were they were competitive, but another year of other FA signing elsewhere. I have never been a build your team via FA, because it really is not the way to build a team, but they are supposed to supplement your team. If a trade is not done, then here is to hoping the young rookies can step up and preform well. I hope they go out and sign Donaldson and trade for a starter.

If the price is right I would not mind Didi or Donaldson at 3B. I really think upgrading defense will help the most. We hit a ton last year, but when Buxton was out our defense was not strong at all. Even worse second half I recall, have not look at numbers to back that up though.

For Mad Bum there are two big questions the front office will need to answer. First, is he the type of pitcher that will adjust late in career to drop in velocity? As all pitchers lose velocity as they age, and some make adjustments and pitch very late into 30's even early 40's, others barely make mid 30's. If you think he can adjust and "reinvent" himself as he ages, picking up new off speed knowing how to hit all zones and not just try to over power then he will be fine. If he is one that relies on velocity and will not adjust then stay away. The second question, is what kind of veteran club house guy is he? Many had credited Cruz with more than just being a good hitter, but a good club house guy that helped Sano and other hitters and is overall good guy to have on team. Part of spending on plus 30 players is can they help young guys and will they be good for club house. In my opinion, baseball is the by far the most important sport to look at team chemistry. You spend every day, except for all-star break and a couple of scattered off days, with mostly the same 25 teammates, plus coaches and club house guys, for nearly 9 months. It is hard to be with people that much you do not get along with. If the Twins front office believe the answer to both questions is yes, give him 4 or 5 years at 20 to 25 mil. I trust Falvene and their "nerds" to know a ton about all these pitchers and will make a good choice. Unlike old guard, this group looks at everything and does not care what fan's opinions are, because wins is what matters and if you are winning tickets will be sold.

What confuses me, is you are trying to sell us on having "bullpen games" but then want money spent on having five man rotation. This seems to be counter to your own argument to have five man rotation. To me, if you want bullpen games you do this because you do not have five starting pitchers, and the five you listed could all be decent pitchers that would give hopefully 6 innings a start, Odo, only one that would more likely be 5. Improving bullpen is always good idea, but this just improves bullpen and starters, not embarrassing the bullpening as the article talks about.

Overall I like the idea. However, of the SS listed for trade I am not sure any of them would be available for what Twins would be willing to give up. SS is most expensive position, and to get a hitter and top fielder at that spot you have to pay big for it. No way would Cleveland give up Lindor, to division rival, for less than Lewis, Kiroloff, and a top pitching prospect, whoever they want, that is minimum, in my mind. Then we will have to pay him big in couple years. Story, could be got for less, but I am always skeptical of any Coors field numbers without lookings at his home road splits. Just looking them up, they are not good, his average is .301 home, .250 road, his OBP is .368 home .313 road, and OPS is .998 to .756 road. He clearly gets a boost from Coors field. Ahmed is just not good offensively, so as long as you are okay with major drop off in offense, for the defense, and maybe we are, but he is aging as well, and may have drop off in range going into year 30 season. FA José Iglesias is also going into age 30 season and has poor offense. Not saying the Twins should not look into things, but the only guy on the list that I would be super sold on would cost so much in prospects that the Twins would need to be going all in and be ready for some bare cupboards down the road.

I have a love hate relationship with Eddie. He can come up big in big situations but his fielding is dropping, and he plays a very replaceable position. That being said, I doubt he has much value this day in age for trade. All the numbers being sited here every front office has, or should have. I would not be upset with a trade or keeping him, but if the FO thinks our OF prospects can match production and the money saved would bring in better pitching then trade or non-tender him. I do not think many teams would give up much for him. I know if I was on a different team looking to trade for him I would not be chomping at the bit to get him.

If I had to pick between the two, as the question that is posed asked, I would go Bumgarner. I get Wheeler may have the "upside" but pitchers like Bumgarner do not come around often. He made it as a young man and excelled. He hit some bumps in the road and came back swinging. He is a gamer that will give you everything he has when needed. I believe that as he loses velocity as he ages, he will know how to get the most out of what he has. Wheeler on the other had I am not sold he will know how to pitch when his velocity fails him. I could be wrong, but for aging pithcers, knowing how to work with what you have is important and believe Bumgarner is more likely to do that over Wheeler.

The money should not be an issue, the question is if the team is better with or without him. The thumb issue is the big question, if you asked this at all star break you say for sure you bring him back, but his second half was not good at all. I think the Twins will have to see what other options would be out there before they make the call.

I am not certain Strasburg turns down 4 years $100. In the recent years of FA for pitchers, how many pitchers have got much more? Only a few pitchers are making more than $25M per season. Many pitchers over last couple off seasons were thinking they would get that, and did not. Yes, Strasburg is coming off very good year, most innings pitched his whole career and strike out/ walk rates are the same. It will be interesting to see what he decides, but how much more than $25M a year over 4 will he be asking for? Kershaw is getting $31M a year over next two, would he ask for 4 years $120, and will he get it? The main thing going for him compared to Keuchel and Arrieta, both guys last two years hoping for huge pay day but did not get it, is Strasburg numbers have remained strong and he finally played full year.

What find most interesting about Lewis in Fall ball is that he seemed to play everywhere but SS. Is this by Twins input or how much is that just manager of the team? His bat seems to play, and if you can hit they will find a place to play defense. I know his numbers during season were down, but I would not be surprised at speed Twins are moving prospects under Falvien, versus or old leaders, Lewis may be making an appearance next season at some position.

I love that Dobnak is starting, it shows Rocco actually cares about advanced states. Many managers would send Odo out saying he is our second best starter right now, but being a fly ball pitcher in the little league size field that is Yankee stadium means bad news for someone like him. Hopefully Dobnak can throw strikes and keep the ball in the park. I posted in game one recap, about usage of bullpen. I am not upset with how it was used in game 1, game 5 yeah bad calls, but this is a 5 game series and if you burn all your top arms in game 1 then you will have to go back up arms game 2, so either way they are coming in. Why not save top arms for game you are leading, hopefully. I am not saying you should give in on game 1, but one way or other all the arms will be used, it just comes down to when.

I personally am not upset at Rocco choices, if it was game 5 yeah I would have issues, but not game one. I was little surprised with Arraez starting and not Schoop, but do not feel that lost the game. This game came down to 3 or 4 at bats, and they all did not go Twins way. Rosario with 2 on 2 out, he lined out to center. Both Torres at bats with bases loaded. An error and ball off the glove created 5 runs. Not saying Sano should have made the play, but if he had made the play on the double, and Cron does not let the ball right past him, that may have been 5 runs less, and Gibson never comes in to walk bases loaded and give up double. Mistakes are magnified in playoffs, but really game was a lot closer than final score would appear. However, poor fielding and failing to get 2 out hits will not win games.

I really like how you showed the importance of more numbers to really show his potential value. I will agree, Arraez needs to increase hard contact percent to really become a super star. Many people, who expect regression, point out low hard contact rate compared to very high BABIP, and may would say not sustainable. However, when you point he hardly strikes out or chases bad pitches, and he puts the ball in play a ton, it shows he can sustain the average, in my opinion. I believe many of his not hard hit ball hits may be by design, and not just luck. What do I mean by that? Someone with strike zone and bat control like he has can look at how they are defending him and will put ball where they are leaving holes, combined with pitches. I believe that he looks at defense and then will look for a zone to try to hit the ball there. That is why he takes some pitches down the pipe because he was looking for a different pitch to hit. You can almost see it on his face when he takes one of those like he should have looked for it and drove it. From the little I have seen of him I think Mr. Arraez will start to learn much more how he is being pitched and make adjustments and drive some of the meat balls. Even if he does not and manages to be on OBP of .400 with solid at bats, I will take that. Time will tell how he develops but I expect big things from him.

To me the fact Wade is not on roster says Kepler must be 100% or very close to it. We really do not have much in way of CF depth if Kepler is not 100%. Cave can play it and so can Eddie but both at subpar level, not that Kepler is amazing but he is better than both of them. I would have preferred Wade over Schoop to provide depth to OF, pinch running possibly, and good late game AB if needed. Schoop can provide some pop and decent defense at 2nd when there, but he is about as non-clutch as a player can be.

I 100 percent agree that when Gardy led the team they rolled over against the Yankees and just let the Yankees have their way with the Twins. I do not expect the same under Rocco. Rocco does things like look at stats against players, not just say well he is our guy. Anyone could have managed the Twins like Gardy did, he went on auto and gave no thought at all. Rocco and his team they change things based on data. I was not blaming the umpire for the Twins short comings over the years. I was pointing out fact that things like that will not be a factor anymore either, and they compounded the inept managing of Gardy. The majority of my post was about how the history of the matchups do not have any bearing on this matchup. Other than the few players from the wild-card game couple years ago, who was on the team last time Twins played in a full post season series? Single game play in is not same as best of 5.

The series will be interesting, as both teams have made a few changes since last meeting. I hope the new bullpen for the Twins can get it done, else there will be a lot of late game blow ups that piss me off. At least with instant replay the umps can only give the Yankees so much of an advantage, no calling a ball that is fair by 3 feet foul, or at least it will not stand up to a challenge. I think Rocco will not make the mistakes Gardy always did. There were too many to list, but at least from what I have seen from Rocco he will let his players do what they do. I agree that what happened years ago has no impact on this series. I know national people are big on Yankees, but many are big on Twins too. ESPN have us ranked forth in power rankings for the season. I believe the series will come down to 2 main areas, fielding and hitting with runners in scoring position. If either team gives the other too many extra outs the long ball will catch up to them. Also, if one team leaves runners on base when they have chances, again the other team long ball will catch up to them.

Do the MLB teams have input on where they want players to play? Meaning fact Lewis is in CF is that with input, and/or approval of Twins? I believe there was talk of transition to CF one day, just wondering if that was Twins request, or manager believes different player is better at SS and wants Lewis bat in lineup.

As I am annoyed with not only not running the ball hard out of box, but also trying to go to third after not running hard out of box and making third out at third, something that should never happen, Eddie is who he is. The Twins have preached that all year for players to be them. They are adults and hopefully he will learn from it. He is not a child that needs a time out, he knows he cost the team, and hopefully he learns from it moving forward. I am not surprised he got the start the next day, not because we are short on options, but at this level, what does sitting a guy for a game really teach them they do not already know? If you do not like it, cut him and move on to someone that will hustle 100% of the time, else live with some of his bone head plays.

Great read, on Reed. To me it shows that he is the type of person needed in organizations. He has been stuck in AAA while others have jumped him, and instead of being upset about it, at least showing that he is upset, he gives back to the community he calls home for now. Just like Harmon, and a bit of an aside, my Grandmother personally knew him and would tell amazing stories about him. The best one I remember hearing about Harmon, was that he would sign autographs for every person that waited for him, and when asked why, his response was because without the fans I would not be here to sign autographs and if they will wait for me, the least I can do is sign for them. He also made Twins players change their signature so fans knew who signed their ball, and again because in his mind that may be a huge thing in their lives to get that signature, so why not take a few more seconds and let them be able to read who signed it. Mr. Jake Reed, Harmon would be proud that he is in the Twins organization.

If pen can keep pitching like they have, at least top pen pitchers that is, we should get 2 of 3. For whatever reason the Twins have struggled at home most of the season. Not sure why that is, but hopefully they can turn it around soon. We had big wins in Cleveland, lets not lay an egg against Chicago.

He is not Yelich nor will he be. He is doing very well, and the upside is still there. Part of Yelich power came from changing home parks too. It is possible Max learns to hit balls to all fields more often, but that is something he needs to plan to do. There still not too many OF I would take over Max though. If he could just learn to equal his splits, he always seems to hit one side much better than the other at any given time. Saw other night over last 30 games he is .400 against LH, but only .100 against RH.

I find it interesting the Twins have played 8 more games against teams with above .500 record. The remaining schedules have Cleveland only playing 3 more games against above .500 teams, that Twins do not play as well. Cleveland plays 3 games against Philly. So why the 5 game difference by end of season, who did we play Cleveland did not, or is that stat based on where they were when played them? I do not take much stock in that stat anyways though. The reason is logic would dictate no team has huge success against above .500 teams, because if team A is crushing those teams, then the other teams are less likely they will be above .500 by end of season. Now the Cleveland stat that they crushed 3 teams and have losing record overall against all others is very telling to me. Those are three of worst teams in league. Sure Twins feasted on bottom feeders overall too, but have held own against top teams, even most losses have been close games, from what I remember.

The big question that needs to be answered, will Buxton be healthy enough to swing a bat? He should still make roster for late inning defense and running situations, but if he cannot swing a bat you need five OF in case they go into extras and his spot comes up. If he cannot swing, and he does come up to hit, he will have to bunt and hope to get on, or just stand up there and hope pitcher cannot throw 3 strikes.

After next 9 games we will know much more about where we will fall into playoff picture. I think we will win division, unless Cleveland can take 5 of remaining 6 or all 6, against us. I think we will be road team, but looking at our record that may be a good thing. It really does not matter who we play, most likely if we want to get the ship we will need to beat both Houston and New York. We can beat either, and both have dealt with injuries all year on and off. New York has major pitching problems, but our pitchers did nothing to stop their lineup either. Should be a fun October.