Trov

I would hope they only take Lackey if they think his bat will translate to the MLB. Reports are he is athletic, and has played some third in college as well. If he has a bat, he could stick at catcher or move off it for other position if Tait is also good to go. Worst case, you look to trade one of them, catchers that can hit are hard to come by, so if you have a couple that is not a bad thing. Just do not trade one for a washed up closer on a rental deal, ala Billy Smith.

Wallner may still have a chance if he figures things out in AAA. He still has light tower power, if he can hit the ball, but clearly he needs to adjust. SWR, I think will be shifted to the long relief type roll and give Matthews another start. I would not DFA SWR yet, simply because we have a lot of injuries to our starters as is. Sure, he may be the worse of them, but if maybe he can get some innings in the pen and a spot start here or there that could be good.

I get he may have became a poor hitter because of a hit by pitch in the head. He would not be the first, nor the last that a hit by pitch in head derailed a career. However, the facts are he has not been a good hitter since then. He had some ups and downs before then too. He was good his rookie year, then bad 2023, yes injuries may have been a big factor, and he looked like he bounced back in 2024 before the hit by pitch. However, you can still say he is not been a good hitter lately. It may be due to head injury it may not. Just like Chuck Knobloch was a good defensive second base man, until he was not. He stopped being able to make the throws from 2nd to 1st, he was in his head. He was then not a good fielder. He quickly became not a good hitter. Injuries may cause a player to become a bad hitter or fielder, but it does not change the fact that they then became a bad hitter or fielder.

I am wondering if the team will make a move brining Arcia up? He is hitting well in AAA, and still considered a strong defender at SS. If he can hit even close to average at SS he could provide value, moving Lee off SS and showcasing Arcia for possible trade, if he hits. Not saying they should, but based on his numbers, .954 OPS might justify some MLB playing time soon.

I am a firm believer that you do not need to light up the radar gun if you know how to mix speeds and locations, with movement. High velo makes up for poor location, sequencing and mixing speeds. It helps, but you can still get the job done without a mid-90's fastball. Right now the change up is working well for Ober, I strongly believe that a great change up can carry a pitcher. Sure, their will be times they give up long balls, but if you are worrying about the change up that is 10MPH slower than the fastball, that fastball sure seems real fast when it comes. When you burn the edges of the zone, even better. Pitching has always been about keeping hitters off balanced. Change in speed and location does that.

The kid is still young enough to become a true prospect. He is same age as college guys being drafted this year, so no worries on age. If he can continue to stay healthy and show the bat as he has he will fly up prospect lists this year.

It would be great to see if Wallner can find anything in his swing again, but at his age there is really no reason to keep giving him chances. We have too much replacements for him that are younger. I remember just a few years ago when we thought our future was Lewis, Wallner, Julien, and even possibly Miranda. WOW how wrong we all were. It shows you cannot count on prospects to always produce, and their early career numbers may be a mirage as pitchers adjust to the hitters, the hitters need to adjust to the pitchers, or they are doomed.

Both of them are injured at this point, but even if they were not, Roden is not a prospect in my mind, one he does not qualify for lists due to service time, and his age puts him outside that as well. If you called up both will you plan to play both? Would Roden play left and E-Rod right? Martin sits on the pine? What about Larnach is he benched too, or is he DH? Roden could replace Outman when healthy and fill a similar roll, but as I said Outman will not be replaced by a prospect. His roll, will be replaced by someone like Roden, or they will drop his roll and use a late inning pinch hitter. The main issue with that is we lack reliable hitters too on our bench.

Sabato is someone that could get a chance if they pull the plug on Clemons or Bell as 1st base/DH option. My guess they will give each long run but I think if the season goes pear shaped, you should give Sabato a shot and see if he can do anything. He will be unlikely to get a second contract based on his age, but you never know he could be a Nelson Cruz type guy that did not get full season at MLB until age 28 season. I doubt he is that, but if you can be a power hitter with the DH you can play late into 30's. I am not saying Sabato will be that, but to give up fully on him may be premature. Remember Brent Rooker put together 3 strong seasons as a DH starting at age 28.

Both Lewis and Wallner have an option year left. Both could get sent down to see if they can figure out the swing. Wallner, I am wondering how much that shot to ribs early in the year affect him. Sadly, he has not bounced back in any way. Should he get hot he can carry and offense, but he is running out of runway this year. Lucky for him E-Rod is hurt right now else he would have been knocking on the door.

I think Clemons could mostly fill the Outman roll, and agree when healthy E-Rod could come up play RF for Wallner, and let Wallner DH against right handed guys. However, that still means the prospect is not replacing Outman's roll, he may replace his spot on the roster, but not his roll.

I am not saying I agree with the roll Outman is playing, just pointing out it is his roll and not replaced by a prospect. If you take him off for a platoon outfield option/pinch hitter, who you bringing up. Most likely it would need to be Gonzales, as E-Rod, Jenkins, Roden(if they get healthy) are all left handed hitting, so cannot platoon with anyone we have. Based on what he is doing in AAA he has not earned a spot. Feldko would be the other one, and he would make some sense if that is what they wanted. Feldko is not a prospect really, so my stance still is that a prospect would not be replacing Outman.

Who would you use to replace him with? Who do you want to sit on the end of the bench to pinch run and play defense at end of games instead of him? If you want a prospect called up for Outman, than you really want Wallner, Larnch, Martin, or Buck's time to get cut down. Possibly Bell as well since he mostly DH's and any of them could DH or give a prospect chance to DH. Point is, you are not replacing Outman in the lineup, you are replacing someone else, or just asking the prospect to sit on bench and not get chance to hit. It is not about Outman, his roll is limited.

When James Outman made the 26 man roster, over Rodan people were a little shocked. Rodan clearly had more upside. Outman had a good rookie year, but outside that has been below replacement level player. We have so many outfield prospects down in the minors, if you include Rodan, we have 4 or 5 in AAA, but 3 are hurt right now. Outman has been downright terrible at the plate the year. He has 4 hits in 33 AB, and an OPS+ of -2. I really did not know it could go negative. So why do I say a prospect will not replace him? It is simple, the roll he is filling will not be filled by a prospect. He is a pinch runner and defensive replacement late in games. He is not amazing at either, in my opinion, but he is better defender than the starting corner guys, and he is 4 for 4 on stolen bases. All that being said, because of his very limited roll, you will not send him down for a prospect to take his roll. If you call up any of the outfielders from AAA it will be to get them to actually start and play regular time. Outman is worse than most likely any of them as a hitter. But that is not why he is up at MLB level. Now, it is very possible that Outman gets DFA for one of the prospects if they want to move Wallner into bench roll, but Wallner does not fill the same holes that Outman does. Outman may be less valuable than Henry Rowengartner at the plate, but that is not why he is up at MLB level. He is here for the very limited roll he is filling. You do not waste prospects times on that roll. Teams can build a 26 man roster with the best 13 hitters, or they can have 1 guy that is just simply there to help with defense or running at end of games. It used to be when rosters were 25 men, you never had a guy like that, well at least when teams moved to 12 or 13 man pitching staffs in early 2000s. We did have Chip Hale in early 90's, specifically in 1996, his sole roll was to pinch hit. He had 3 games where he started, but played in 85 games, getting 98 plate appearances. I always thought it was crazy for an AL team to have a pinch hitting specialist, but that is what he was. Point is, you do not take the last guy on the bench, the guy that you use for just very limited things, and swap him for a prospect. You do not call up prospects to sit on bench and never play. If any prospect comes up, odds are it will be at expense of Wallner at this point, and Outman will continue to do what he is doing. Sitting until inning 7+ to run or play defense for someone.

Okay, so I get we are in last place, 5 games below .500, but to say this is quickly becoming a lost season is a little pessimistic. We are 2.5 games out of first place, and 1.5 out of a wild card. One hot week we will be in first place in our very weak division. The season is far from lost. Do I have much hope with the bullpen no, and our free agents have been negative impacts, injuries to our top prospects in AAA have soured hope they would come up and provide offense help. However, the season is still not lost. Check back in June maybe the story will be different.

Yeah he reminds me of his uncle for sure. The swing looks a ton like Delmon, and neither Delmon or Demitri could field. However, if the kid learns to make solid contact he will have a place in the league. He has had a hot stretch, but that K-Rate is beyond terrible, over 50% right now.

It is SSS of this season, but Yasser, sure has had a 180 from last year for him. He was terrible in low A all year. This year though he has increase his walk rate, increased his power, and just overall hitting. His K-rate is the same at about 25%, but clearly he is making better contact when he does get hits, and walking at a slightly higher clip, but he must be making just a lot more solid contact. He has speed clearly, if he can get on base that will be huge, he will not need to hit a ton of HR. He has been in the organization a long time, but still only 21 and could move up to High A soon. If he keeps up his pace he will fly up the prospect list.

As the article pointed out, Lewis is not out of options, he has 2 option years left. He very well could be sent down this year, and with how Lee is hitting right now, and Culpepper is hitting in AAA that move may come sooner than later. It is sad to see how far he has fallen from his huge 2023 year, in just 58 games when we were talking about corner stone for years and signing him to a long term deal. Now going into his arb years his value is negative. That is why you can never draft too many SS and hopefully Culpepper can come up, swing Lee over to 3rd.

It is an interesting theory that one less day of rest, but also less pitches, could produce better overall results, and more innings overall. Part of my question is that just for development, or are they looking to use this as MLB level? Over the years teams have done different things with the 162 game setting and off days. Do they keep their pitcher on normal rest and use 4 starters when there is an off day or just give them the extra day and keep with 5. If you stuck with 5 all season they would get 32 starts each with top couple getting 33. In recent years 5 to 6 innings have been average across the league on starting pitching. Top guys slightly more, bottom guys slightly less. We used to say 200 innings was a good bench mark for a solid starter. If a starter pitched in 33 games, and pitched over 200 innings, that would be 6 innings per start about. If that is top of the limits, understanding there is the few times they will go 7, 8, or very rare 9 innings. How much of a decrease will we expect per game innings wise, if we did 4 day rotation? Would it be 20%, my guess we should not suspect that else the math says it will be equal, so we need to assume they are going to say between 10 to 15% decrease in pitches/innings. That would mean somewhere between 5 to 5.5 innings. If they are closer to the five, we are at a wash, why? At the end of the season we are looking at 200 innings still, just spread over 40 games than over 32 games. Maybe they think it will increase results in those innings. The assumption then is that they will face the order only 2 times generally, and hopefully will still have decent enough stuff over the innings they are doing that, on the limited rest, and although you are getting similar innings, they will generally be more effective innings. This will be fine, if you can do this with multiple pitchers, to basically piggy back. You get the 4 to 5 innings from the starter, and the 4 innings from the piggy back guy. Then they both get their 4 days off. You then need basically 8 pitchers to do this effectively normally. Leaving then 5 other pen guys. The guys that will come in late in games as special guys. This could work, only if you stick with the plan through the whole season and you say these 8 pitchers will stay on this rotation. Then you only use the other 5 guys when the plan goes off the rails. You cannot mess with it. It will be interesting to see if they think it is workable. The big issue will be injuries though.

That whiff rate is just not sustainable. You cannot swing and miss 40% of the time at AA and expect to have any chance of making majors. Something will have to change.

We are one month into the season. Brooks Lee has been hitting better, but still not a good defender at SS, most likely needs to get moved to either 2nd or 3rd long term. Culpepper down in AAA is holding his own, but not crushing. However, if he is a better defender than Lee. With Keaschall struggling hitting, and having options I could see maybe sending him down for Culpepper and shifting Lee over to 2nd if Keaschall does not improve soon. In terms of OF, Wallner continues to struggle this year. He is negative value right now. He has struggled like this in past and bounced back, but he is not doing anything right now. Meanwhile, E-Rod is crushing in AAA. I could see Wallner getting sent down as he still has an option for E-Rod if this continues.

The article highlights what is a frustration I have had with player development for years. In particular for hitters. You draft or trade for a player because of something you like about them. Then you go ahead and tell them we want to change everything that has made you successful, because there might be a better way to go. As pointed out, Buck was coached different ways and despite cursing the minors when he got up to MLB level they kept changing his swing and he was in his head so much all the time. When he finally said enough, I am going to do me, he took off. Martin similar, we traded for him, and right away said all that stuff that made you the top 5 pick scrap that, we want you to become more aggressive at the plate, and try to be more of a HR hitter. He was the good player and said okay lets try it your way coaches, and it failed. When he was on his last chance, he said I am going to do what I know, and he is showing his way that he did all his life, maybe is working for him. Lee, he is a little different story, as I do not think the Twins did much to tinker with him, but he has needed to make some adjustments over the years. I feel like sometimes coaches feel like they need to get a player to make adjustments before we learn if it is needed. You see issues that may get exploited and then say we need to fix this issue that will be an issue in future. Only, it may not be an issue in the future, and you create bigger problems

I like the write up talking about how trades are more than a simple comparison of numbers by the players, but context in those trades are important too. Of course when Gil had his good year or so, fans were upset the deal was made, but the years he spent in the minors the Twins got some value out of the deal and the Yankees got none. If Gil bounces back and show he can be a good starter again, it does not mean the deal was bad for the Twins. We have no clue if Gil would have ended up doing the same for the Twins either. One old deal that people bring up, that really highlights the context of the trade idea is John Smoltz for Doyle Alexander trade in 1987. Detroit sent Smoltz to Atlanta for Alexander. Alexander was amazing for Detroit going 9-0 with 1.53 ERA. Smoltz went on to HOF and helped the Braves dominate the 90's in the NL. At the time Smoltz was not a top rated pitcher had been a 22nd round pick out of high school and really not dominating the minors when he was traded by Detroit. At the time many thought Atlanta blew the deal, but history says Detroit got fleeced. However, Detroit got what they wanted help to win the division, only to lose to the Twins in the playoffs. We do not know if Smoltz would have developed the same way with Detroit though than with Atlanta.

E-rod is looking like he will be the first called up from the OF down there. He is on the 40 man, and doing his thing in AAA. He has an OPS .945. He is getting on-base at high clip, hitting for power. I hope he keeps it up to try to force a move. But first OF that goes down with injury E-Rod will come up I am sure.

This happens to all players that were once considered great defender, people think they are always a great defender and do not look at the fact that they lose defense as they get older. We also see some of the great catches, HR robbed or diving or wall crashing catches, we forget the little "routine" catch of a could be single is more common chance to make the difference. He still is the best CF we have on the roster, but assuming Jenkins can defend CF better, he should take it over and move Buck to a corner spot in the future.