Trov

Prato and Funderburk not being on 40 man is an issue for them to help. There are a couple of people that could get put on 60 day, but we have others nearing read to come off the 60 day which complicates things. Prato has a SSS power surge. Outside of his 45 games in AAA he has never hit at the level he has shown there. He has always been good walk to k rate, and can play many positions so that is helpful. I could see him come in if there is a major injury, but absent that I do not see it happening. Funderburk is less likely unless there are some big injures in the pen as well.

We have some young guys that hopefully will continue to perform for years to come. I do always have caution because sometimes the rookie year is the best because pitchers adjust and the player does not. For the top prospect guys you expect the adjustments, but does not always happen.

If the next go round a team runs on us without any risk or close plays then I will begin to get concerned, but adjustments by the pitcher can, and need to be made. This is first time Dallas has pitched at MLB level with new rules, and yes he had them in minors too, but he still only had 7 games, and who knows how teams were looking at games in minors, he did not give up many runners I believe.

The question is, can they do better with someone else for a price they are willing to pay? My guess they are almost done with Larnach as a viable MLB option, and will be looking to shop him, but may roll with him. Wallner is clearly looking like a guy that will get a corner spot. Now, part of it may come down to how many of our many infield guys learn to play more OF. Right now going into next year we have more expected MLB level starting infielders than places to play them. Lewis, Lee, Julien, AK, CC, and Polanco. If Buck needs to play DH next year too, then we have 2 guys that need to find at bats elsewhere. There is also others on our roster that can take up at bats in OF. So despite his recent hot streak, I think they will move on from Kepler, but you never know.

Going into the break the Twins were not looking good, and injuries were mounting, offense was terrible and pitching was faltering a little. The sky was falling again as Cleveland took the lead in the division and we had visions of last year. There was hope due to fact we were going to be facing one of the easiest schedules in the league, and Cleveland was facing one of toughest. We broke out of the second half gate looking great, taking 5 of 7 on road trip, then sweeping the south siders. All was great, we were winning and back in first. The trade deadline was approaching and the talks were on little tweaks or selling off some of pitching to rebuild the farm system. Adding 1 arm to pen and a right handed hitting OF was talked about. Then we lose 5 in row, including being swept by the last place Royals, which started a 7 game win streak for the Royals. The sky was falling again and the deadline was right there. Many wanted to buy hard, but nothing was done, and all the talk was the season is over, the FO, manager need to go. Buck is on the IL, we have no offense and pitching is failing even more. We followed that losing streak with winning 6 of 7 and on current 5 game winning streak. 3 of the wins against an above .500 team, for now, but been really bad. We are are putting up a few big run games, but still winning low scoring games. We are getting some guys healthy, and Lewis is set to come back in coming weeks. Buck is still out, and will be for a few weeks, but Kepler is hitting like MVP, Wallner is not hitting like a rookie and driving HR like we thought Gallo would. Julien is working at-bats like a vet. Pagan, despite his recent blown hold, has been looking much better. Starters, outside of Ryan going on IL have been doing their thing. I am not predicting we will go crazy and start winning a ton, and win a playoff series, but we only have 14 games left against teams that are currently above .500, and 3 of them are the Rays who have been one of worst teams since July. Sure, we may lay some eggs like we have been known to do, but there is a good chance now that we get to feast on the bad teams, we can make up some games and finish close to where many thought we would, running away with a division making playoffs easy. If we finish the season as many expected, winning division easy, and can win a playoff series, will that change your mind about the deadline, or how the team was built? For much of the year we have talked about how we have underplayed expectations, and I agree we have, mainly due to weak offense. However, at the end of the year we will see if the team did what was expected. Yes, some will say we are not built for playoffs, but I disagree. We have 4 guys that all have shown they can go 6 to 7 innings of low run ball. We have at least 2 pen guys that can shut the door, and really when healthy a good lefty that can shut the door, and a few other guys that can hold their own. What would be holding us back is our offense, but the young guys have started to step up, and if all healthy we have 4 young guys in Lewis, Julien, Wallner, and AK that could do damage. Throw in a hot Kepler, healthy Polanco, and healthy Buck, that is 7 hitters that could be good. CC is fielding well, but hitting terrible, but he still can come up with some hits, we could slot him down to like 8. The point is, we may end the season right where we thought, maybe just not the way we wanted. The real question will be, how do we do in the playoffs, if we get swept again, then it is a failure, but if we get hot and win a series I think people will revisit their thoughts on the season. Coming out of the gates everyone was singing the Rays' praises, but now if they do not turn things around, they may not even make playoffs. We play 162 for a reason.

Jenkins is super hyped, even more than Lee was last year. I know he is high school kid, so I wonder how aggressive the FO will be with him. The FO has shown willingness to move guys quickly. I wonder if they move him out of the developmental league if he keeps raking there and move to low A by season end. My guess he starts low A next year with a quick jump to high A if he shows he can hit low A. I am not expecting him to make a super climb, and not overblowing his three games, but hype on him around the league is high, I just hope everyone is right. I am fully expecting a few on here to call for him to get called up for Gallo soon haha

Gallo should have no spot on this roster. Sure once in a very great while he hits a HR. But overall he has negative value and there has to be someone out there that can at least do something of value. The fact that he strikes out nearly half the time, and you cannot count on him doing anything when he does put the ball in play other than a possible HR. We have pinch hit for him in 1 run games with runner on 3rd and less than 2 outs because we know he is likely to strike out and almost never likely to hit a single.

If it is waiver claim, then you go reverse win percentage on who gets priority on claim, there is no more revokable waivers like before where you can work out a trade, this is straight up release. Meaning if no one claims him, then he is FA to sign with whoever, or we can put in a claim and assuming no one with a worse record did then we get him.

I am all for letting Gallo go. He started off hot and it was looking like maybe he would be a huge steal, but he has cooled off a ton and now pretty worthless. His defense is not elite anymore either. I think when our injured guys come back, Gallo gets the DFA.

The links for Austin Martin always seem to be wrong links. His name is too common a baseball name it would seem.

I would disagree with just looking at xBA as a standard of luck. I personally would say any weak contact that were not clearly intended to be so, a bunt, or a guy looking to hit the ball to a particular spot in the field is mostly luck. Yes, Dallas got lucky on the liner right at the 3rd baseman with bases loaded, but I would not say the first double play was lucky. I would say the couple of little looping line drives were more luck. I am not a fan of Keuchel and am not expecting much from him. However, if he can be on a good run for a couple of weeks, luck or otherwise, I am fine with it. I doubt he will be expected to help us in playoffs, barring injuries and would most likely not make roster, unless he puts up crazy performance last 2 months here. So if he can luck his way through next 2 months I am fine with it, but he is still just a 5th starter and would not start a playoff game.

He does need to develop a third pitch, but I also believe he needs to move the fastball around more. He too often relies on throwing it high in the zone, and throws the split down in the zone. The problem is that if every fast ball is up, and every off speed is down, then he is telling the hitter what is coming simply by location. They see a pitch up, they know it is fastball and a pitch down is off-speed. Maybe trying to mix in fastballs down at the knees will lead to more guys chasing the off-speed, because they are taking called strikes at knees.

A couple of things. One, the FO does not play the games, they put together a roster, and farm system in hopes they players produce. Yes, they have made some bad moves and trades, just like every FO does. They have also made some very good trades and moves. The fact that all our right handed hitters cannot hit lefties this year is not the FO fault. The fact that Buxton's knees will not allow him to play outfield is not their fault, and they brought in a good defender to deal with that, so we did not rely on Celestino or Gordon as starting CF. Yes, we signed Gallo for 11 mil and passed on Bellinger, assuming we could have got him near what Cubs paid, but there is no guarantee Bellinger does with us what he did with Cubs. Two, the holes that were talked about coming into the season, the righter says were not addressed, but the main hole people talked about was starting pitching, and pitching generally, but yet we have one of the best pitching staffs in the league overall. People were concerned about lack of right handed hitting OF, because of our terrible hitting against lefties, but even our right handed hitting players are not hitting lefties. The writer is upset we did not make moves at the deadline, but moves cost prospects. We could have brought in some rentals, but what would they have cost? If we would have traded away Lewis, Lee, E-Rod, and others at the deadline for a couple of rentals, my guess the writer would be tearing that move.

Severino numbers are very close to CES numbers at nearly same age and level. CES struck out a little less but ratio has been about the same. Similar power levels too. What is funny is CES was a college guy that started hitting HR, Severino did not start hitting HR until age 22 season. If Severino was drafted out of college same year as CES we would be singing Severino praises like may have for CES. They both have huge issues with their game, like bad defense and a lot of swing and miss, but people fell in love with CES power. CES is struggling at MLB level so far, and I think some expect him and possibly Severino to be the dreaded AAAA player. Unless Severino can drop the K's he will be a fringe MLB player.

There is also the possibilities of trades for areas of need as well. Martin has shown ability to play OF, and Lewis could do it too if needed, despite the freak injury he got.

I am hoping this is just a painful learning experience for Ryan. He is serving up meatballs left and right. Yesterday it was also with plenty of runners on for a couple. The issue is he is not missing as many bats as he did early in year. He is clearly missing in the zone, and the ones just on the edge hitters are either fouling off or staying off getting the ball called. Joe really needs to develop a good secondary pitch. Early in the year they were working, but the league has adjusted, he needs to adjust again. I still have faith in Joe, but right now hitters are just teeing off on the fast ball in all counts. They have no respect for any off-speed pitch, and Joe is not locating his fastball down. The problem is his go to is fastball up, which has worked, but since his fastball down is not locating at the knees, if the pitch starts low, the hitter assumes it is a breaking ball and adjusts. Until he can mix up the location, and do it well, with the fastball he will continue to struggle.

Without knowing what the trade discussions were, it is hard to really say if the FO did the right thing or not. I feel like the roster is at a bit of a crossroads. Our vets have not been hitting like we need, and the young guys have shown flashes, but the team is not always willing to count on them. Also, the young guys have had some injuries putting us in the, what will they be when they return. For the fans that wanted a huge splash it was going to cost big prospects, and I feel the FO did not want to give up any big names, hoping those names, at least on the offense will be up helping the team in the next year or two. Larnach was being floated, and will most likely again in the off-season, but he has very little trade value in my opinion. The likes of Lewis, Lee, and E-Rod were really the only names that were going to net a big return. When you need to build a team for not just 1 year but years to come, it is hard to justify giving up on those guys for a 1 or 2 year rental that could or could not push us over the top. I think mainly is we should make the playoffs with no one else trying in our division, and actively selling. As long as you make the playoffs you have a chance. Then the question is, was there a trade out there that would make us feel that much better about winning in playoffs? Most likely not, unless Buck and company start hitting better. Our team is far from a top competitor, but sometimes it just takes the team being hot and having guys have great runs. We have the potential pitching to keep us in games, if we can get some timely hitting we could have a chance to win in the playoffs. I am not expecting it, but if our pitching is hot, we just need a few timely hits.

As I always say, if the deal is good enough then do it. I would be willing to part with either if the return is worth it. I am not saying we should sell, but we could handle losing one of our starters right now. Who would have thought this would be the case coming into the year? But, the deal needs to make sense, preferring to get back younger pitching that should be ready in a year or two, and not just more bats. We have plenty of possible bats right now, but pitching prospects have been light lately, mainly due to injuries. I do not what is offered out there, but I would also look to deal them to NL team than an AL competitor right now. Nothing would be worse than if we make the playoffs and lose a game to a guy we traded away.

I wish the writer would have suggested who we would need to give up to make those deals. I am not willing to gut our whole farm system to get a few rental guys to maybe push us a little bit better. We have a core that should be good, for whatever reason we have had issues putting it all together. But giving up any depth and the long term future when we still will not be favored to win anything will be a bad move in my opinion.

I would agree, that teams themselves do not fully, but I do think it gives them ideas of who to look more into, and why are they ranked where they are. Also, they have fans that look at the lists, and if you deal for a prospect that people talking about the trade say team got a good return, it makes fans feel better about the trade, even if it turns out to not work. However, if the reports are your team got hosed, and it turns out to be right, then reason for FO to get fired. So if you go way off the prospects lists, as they are put together by several scouting groups, unless you hit big on the move, people will question it. I remember when Twins traded Santana to Mets, we did not ask for their top ranked prospect and many national sports news people talked about how we were fools not to include him, but included Gomez instead, as they were both outfielders. I do not remember the number one prospect name, mainly because he never made a thing for himself, and Gomez was by far the better player in the long run. However, if it was other way around where we took the top prospect and left Gomez, the talk would have been we got a bad trade, but unless it leaked we had a chance for Gomez, no one would have said a thing about getting it wrong with Mets, only that we should have made traded with Red Sox or Yankees, as both packages would have been better. Should teams make decisions based just on how fans will take it, no. However, fans pay the bills and if you get them too upset jobs get lost.

I do not know how bad his defense is, but he has played 3rd base and 2nd base mostly and his fielding percentage is not great. I do not know the good cut offs for range factor. He may be servable, but he does strike me similar to CES when looking at their minor league numbers, but really have never looked much into them together. I do find it interesting that CES was rising up lists last year, being second year removed from college and hit 32 HR in a full season, across 2 leagues and 3 teams. Then hit 20 in AAA this year. Serverino at same age season, had very similar season at the plate. The main difference is Serverino had not shown that power ever, where CES showed it in college. Not saying either will be superstars at majors, there is still a reason neither were top prospects, but CES did climb to 4th in Reds listing. So far not a strong start to career, but very SSS.

With the trade deadline coming up and Twins looking as buyers, and maybe dealing from depth of starting pitching or corner outfield guys, and after recent moves last year, our system is getting a little thin. One name that is not coming up a ton, and in part because he dropped a bit on our prospects lists is Yunior Severino over the years, and never was super high. Topping out in 2019 at 13 in MLB list, when we first signed him after the Braves had to give him up. He just dropped from there and seemed like a lost cause prospect. Then came this year, where at 23, will be 24 at end of season, he is playing AA, still 1.5 years under the average age. He has broken out in a huge way. Really, not on a bad time line age wise, only he was signed as a teenager. If he was a college kid he would be 1 or 2 years removed from college. The TD crew has him ranked 17th now, but his numbers are very good. A little high on K rate, and defense seems not all that great, but not too far off what CES was doing last year. Clearly there is a reason he is ranked as low as he has been, similar to CES, who was not ranked high on our list because of high K rate, and poor defense. Not comparing the two other than why neither were super high level ranked prospects. CES is same age about as Severino. The last 2 years Severino has shown power that he did not do. Last year Severino hit 19 HR in 83 across 2 leagues, this year he has 24 in 81 games. So this HR output is not out of line with what he showed last year, but he has more HR just this year than he did from age 17 to 21 seasons, keeping in mind 1 was 2020 with no games. He has not played full seasons either. Could he be breaking out now that he has his man muscles? Is he worth holding onto as a possible future bat? Does he have value to be traded or will we need to keep him another year. I still see him ranking well below many guys in our line up for next couple of years, barring injuries, trades, or complete drop offs in production. Personally, I think we should be excited, hold onto him for another year, see what we have when he moves up to AAA next year. He is still young enough that he could make MLB debut at 24 next year, which is plenty young, or he could put up big enough numbers in AAA that we look to trade from depth of infield guys. Keep in mind, our starting 4 infielders should be locked with Lee knocking on door next year. I think too many teams would not have a ton of interest in Severino right now, only because he is not high on ranked lists right now, but I have to imagine he will climb them up a bit next year if he can play a full year, and continue to put up the numbers he has shown.

I would agree stocking up on the pen would be best way to go. We need to hope the offense comes around overall, swapping Wallner for Gallo would help the offense but hurt defense some. We need to hope Buck can get back to his norm and CC stays hot, Lewis and/or Polanco can fill the 3rd base hole. The rest just stay hot. If we can get more from what we have, adding 1 or 2 more high leverage arms in the pen would cut the games down to hoping we can lock down any game after the 6th. I do not see really an upgrade at starting pitching that would be enough of upgrade for what it would cost prospect wise. I also would not want to trade any of the top few prospects. Lee, Lewis(not technically prospect anymore) E-Rod, are all too valuable right now for our future to sell them for this year. I think barring injuries we should make playoffs, then it is just about hoping our pitching holds and we can get some offense. If Buck gets hot in playoffs he can carry a team.

No. He is not on 40 man, he is 29 years old, and has only had short runs of success at MLB over his career. He appears to be the AAAA player, good for AAA but below average for MLB. Why would we DFA someone, keeping in mind we need to bring Gordon of the 60 day DL, for a guy that that will not be on team after season. He would be added to our many left handed hitting OF. He was brought in as AAA depth that is about it. I wonder why he chose Twins organization being he is like 7th on left handed hitting outfield depth.

Of course if you can add better pen arms that is always a possible upgrade, but our farm system is thinning out, and unless current MLB rostered players are included in trades some will be DFA/released for anyone you bring in. I would not get mad at another high leverage guy, preferred left handed, to throw out there in late innings, but pen is not our biggest issue. Hitting left handed pitching is biggest issue, but is it as big of an issue we may think? Looking at the other likely playoff matchups only 2 teams, Boston and Yankees, currently have more than 1 left handed starter that would likely start in playoffs. Every other team has 1 or 0 left handed starters that fall into top 4 starters really. Of course some teams may make a change if they face Twins. My point is, do we make a trade for a guy to simply play 1 game in the playoffs, or pinch hit a few times, because they are slightly better against lefties? Keeping in mind it is hard for many to just play part time against lefties and sit rest of time. I am not saying we should pass on possible upgrades, but do not overpay for what you are hoping is like at most 10 at bats per round of playoffs. Yes, if those at bats would be the difference makers then it would make sense, but for all we know they would have little impact. Keep in mind Lewis should be coming back, and CC is heating up. They could make the difference as well.