Trov

Baseball reference does not have yesterdays game log in yet. However, going into that game, Pagan numbers are not great, but not as bad as some may think. Griffin Jax has similar, if not worse numbers than Pagan, but I do not see people calling for DFA Jax. I am not saying I want Pagan pitching over Jax, but the numbers are similar. Jax had a FIP of 2.55, going into yesterday. Pagan had FIP of 2.03. Yes, he had a very bad outing yesterday, giving up a bases loaded walk, and his first HR of season, but he was out there because pen was taxed, Gray had a short start, and lets not forget we had bases loaded 0 out, and did nothing with it. The loss is not just on Pagan. If you want to be objective on numbers, maybe Jax should be looked at being sent down as well, if you want to get rid of Pagan. Guys will have bad outings, and Pagan has had more than his fair share, but he generally is being asked to fill not high leverage roll, but had to yesterday because of heavy pen use the two prior days.

If nothing else he is shown he could be used as a trade chip. Not saying they should trade him, but he is showing he may be MLB prospect again.

This is not an update on prospects we let go or traded away, but a question on what are your thoughts on having prospects we drafted that got traded, or taken in rule 5 draft or other means. One view is the one that got away view and what if we still had them and how dare the FO not know what they had. However, the other side of the coin, is look at how good they were at identifying talent in the draft or international signings. I know sometimes it may be for what was traded and if it was worth the lost future value, but what if you traded away a top prospect that tanked at MLB level, do you feel better we maxed the price or worse we tanked the pick? I am always on the fence on how I feel when I see guys we had doing well elsewhere. I know roster dynamics are more complicated that just who we let go or traded, as much more decisions go into it, like who else is in the pipe, what other replacement options do we have. Personally, if our FO is continuing to get prospects to develop, that is a plus, even if we trade them away. Unless it starts to turn where we start trading away prospects for bad returns, and starting keeping prospects that never pan out.

The main question that needs to be asked, is what vazquez gives you behind the plate, defense and game calling wise, is it worth the difference in offense? Maybe for games with Gray Jeffers should always catch, because Gray calls his own. Maybe for games where the starter relies more on the catcher to guide them along Vazquez has more to offer.

Ryan has shown he can get out lineups now. If he has 2 pitches that rate out top 50 in all of baseball that is crazy good. Yes, neither are top 10, but considering there are hundreds of pitchers that throw an average of 3 pitches per, there are thousands of pitches to grade. I am no expert on pitchers, but the fact he continues to get it done, against people saying he will eventually fall flat and get moved to pen just shows he is willing to prove everyone wrong. Am I willing to say he is our "ace" no, but every time he takes the ball I fell like we will have a chance, no matter who we are facing.

I would send him down for Farmer when Farmer is ready. There is no reason to keep putting him out there to stumble around at 3rd and not hitting any power.

I expect Miranda to get sent down, to allow him to keep getting regular at-bats. He has options. Castro would have to pass waivers, which he very while might, but in reality, he would only be holding spot until Lewis is ready to come up, baring other injuries to people.

Exciting time in the minors. E-Rod hopefully back for long stint, and Lewis making rehab run. Hopefully Lewis will be ready to get to MLB level, take over 3rd and hit the ground running as soon as he can get of the 60 day list. This will be his spring training.

If you actually look, the zone is set as to how they are when in their hitting stance, mostly. So yes, when they are standing with straight legs it looks like the top is at the belt, but when they crouch and stride, it is much closer to the actual rule book zone. The ABS system is a work in progress and MLB has stated as such. They have tinkered with it in the minors to try and get the best they can. The ABS is coming and will start with the challenge system.

I believe this will be the first the way MLB gets to "robo" umps. I like having the full system in the minor, hopefully training the umpires. I would hope they are testing their own calls with what the machine tells them. The challenge system will be next up for MLB, no way will they go full robo right away because it will be too much for fans. The challenge system will add to some things. Last I read MLB is still trying to figure out how to set the zone for the system as well.

Replace on the roster or replace in the lineup? If we are just talking about roster there are a few options. First, assuming Farmer takes Castro place, then we have really a few options for AK. The 2 easiest will be Larnach or Miranda as both could be optioned down without passing waivers or anything. If you are worried about losing others. Larnach would be the most logical as they play similar positions, AK can play OF or 1B, but Gallo could do OF if AK is at 1B. Miranda's spot can be taken by Farmer, but then in the lineup we juggle Larnach, Gallo, Kepler, and AK, with 1 always on the bench. This assumes Buck stays as DH. For those thinking DFA Salano, similar situation as Miranda, we still need to find spot in line up. In my opinion, if they plan to bench Larnach, if AK is on roster, you should just option him to AAA and let him play there. We will have other roster moves when Lewis comes of IL to worry about as well.

I agree with the possibility of sending down Miranda for a bit. He is not hitting much at all, and has been chasing some bad pitches up in zone over and over. Larnach has been struggling as well. However, the one issue with sending down Miranda is AK will still have to take a spot in the line up between Larnach, Gallo, or Kepler, assuming Buck will not move back to CF any time soon. Really, they all are left handed hitters playing similar positions in varying level of defense. One of them gets the Pine if all 4 are on the team, unless Twins try to move Gallo back to 3rd where he came up playing, but has not played there for years. If they go that route, then I would assume mostly Kepler gets to sit, depending on how he is hitting, because they will want Larnach to get regular at bats for most part. So overall, I think Larnach will get sent down if he continues to struggle and AK shows he is healthy and can play each game without issue. We can still option Miranda for Farmer when he ready, or at minimum when Lewis comes back from his IL rehab. I just do not see a point of having AK Larnach, Gallo, and Kepler all on MLB roster and all being healthy, if Buck is going to stay at DH, because one of the 4 have to sit every game. Maybe you rotate them around to help make up for that.

I have no concerns when Jax comes in. Every pitcher will have a bad outing, so even his couple do not worry me. I think our back end of pen can be very strong this year. I would prefer one more lefty to upgrade for end of pen, or to use in addition to who we have, but we have 3 strong RH options including Jax.

I bet Larnach gets optioned down when AK ready to come up. Really they are interchangeable pieces. Since Larnach still has option year left he will get sent down if he does not get on hot streak soon. He has always been a streaky hitter, but we need at least him or AK to reach what he hoped.

Speculating on what we could have got in other trades is hard to evaluate. Would Miami have made same trade for Lopez, we will never know. Would we have found some other pitcher out there available, maybe, would they have done any better, who knows. Look what happened with other trade target every one seemed to have targeted on here. Montas. He failed bad in New York and now out the year for them. Maybe we could have traded for him, and be in same situation.

I would point out CES has played 6 games, so if he goes 0-4 a couple of games he will be well below .300 he does it 3 games may be below .200. Not saying he will, but pointing a batting average after 6 games is very SSS. He also was still our like 5 ranked infield prospect, so likely we would have been looking to move him at some point. I also hear he cannot play much defense.

I wrote a forum on Rooker last week too. He is off to hot start, will it carry over and is he going to be this good all year, doubtful, but he is showing he is a MLB player, not just a AAAA. However, he would have been DFA last year and good chance someone would have picked him up.

My wife is Pirates fan, and I watched the game. First, when I heard he was called up, I said I think he was on Twins for like 2 games never got in and the big story about how long he was in minors. Rocco never felt like he could even give him 1 at bat, I was upset then about it. Pirates, a first place team, called him up for a player on bereavement. They did not get him in a game at first, and the player even came back, but they left Maggi on the roster and gave him a pinch hit appearance. Their field reporter talked to his parents and his dad was basically crying after the at-bat. The ump even understood the situation and held off the pitch clock when he first stepped in, because he got standing ovation. It was a very emotional interview with him after the game too. Good for him, even if he never gets another at bat, he will get to say he played in a major league game.

One thing that I heard a sports talk person say is that rosin is legal, but the rule also says too much rosin is not. They went on to say that there is no clear standard and up to each umpire. This is a problem, because each pitcher may do same thing a bunch of times, then runs into the ump that says you are too sticky, when every other ump said you good. I can say Max is the type that will take every rule to the extreme if it works in his advantage. He basically said he would be doing that with the pitch clock and did testing of the rule during spring. So he may have very well just used rosin, but if he knew he could get extra sticky using rosin, that can be a violation of the rule as well is my understanding.

I mention this exact point every time I read people on here complaining about how we lost some player. It was brought up a ton when Baddoo was let go in rule 5. Some times fans forget we cannot keep every player, and at some point we need to decide who to pick. I will also point out, we never know if a player would have had similar development path with Twins or after Twins. I brought up this fact with some of the players we dealt to Reds last year. Many were saying Steer and ECS will be good, and maybe they will, but we had so many that were of similar roll all ranked higher than them in our prospect rankings. So you always have to look at not only who we let go, and who filled the spaces the same player would have. I also agree in Rookers case we would not have kept him on 40 man last year most likely either. I still wish him well, but do not expect his hot start to carry all year, but it should be something he can show he has value for someone.

We love to look at how former prospects are doing for other teams, mainly to see if we got it right or wrong on letting them go. One could argue it would be did we get it right or wrong to originally draft them as well. One of the stories on past Twins that are doing well this year is Brent Rooker. He was touted in our ranking as a guy that would hit, not much of fielder but we were hoping would be a middle of line up bat for many years. He debuted in 2020 getting 7 games in the short year, but injury took him out for much of it. He did well in the 7 games so hopes were still high. 2021 he got a much longer run that did not go well. His AAA numbers were good, not great, and there was worries about the K rate, but the power was there. At MLB level it was nothing short of terrible. With a slugging under .400 in over 200 PA, striking out 70 times only walking 15. There was still hope he would figure it out, but we shipped him out last year, as a throw in the trade to SD. He only played 2 MLB games for SD, but his AAA numbers again were good. Eventually he went to KC and AAA numbers were good there too, but short stint at MLB level was not good again. Looking like he was going to settle in as a AAAA player, the good to great in AAA but subpar in MLB. He found his way to Oakland this year, a team that appears to have been adopting a real Major League plan of being so bad the fan base packs the bags for them to move to Vegas. Oakland might be the worst team to be assembled. However, they have 1 really bright spot on offense, that Brent Rooker. He is getting regular at bats, splitting DH and corner OF. He is off to a blazing start. Not only has he hit 7 HR, but more important for him, he has only struck out 13 times in 72 PA, with 12 walks. Unlike every other time where he struck out at over 33% rate he is at a much lower 18% rate, with nearly 1 to 1 k to walk ratio, where every other stint was significantly worse. The question is, has he figured something out in Oakland, just got recent chance for a team appearing to actively trying to lose, and he is doing his best Pedro Serrano impersonation after telling off Jobu? Is it just a SSS and he will come back to earth after teams adjust to him? I hope for him it is the former and he will continue to hit well, never wish any player ill will, unless they chose to go to Yankees. I bet A's will look to flip him midseason for a team looking for a RH bat, like the Twins might be at deadline. I mean we keep giving Garlick runs with the team for that exact reason. Rooker is hitting RHP better than LHP, but still doing well against both, hard not too when you have an OPS of 1.112 with OPS+ of 215. Similar to Gallo, I do not expect this to last all year, but good for Rooker to start off hot and hopefully for him will get to stay up at MLB level all year. I mean only reason Oakland will send him down is because he helps them win too many games.

This KC offense is just terrible. If we do not win at least 3 of the 4 we need to be kicking ourselves. We now have our top 3 pitchers and I would hope the starters do not give up more than 1 or 2 each game. Our offense is starting to click a little better too, so I am hoping to bring out some brooms Sunday.

Kepler will most likely play out this season, unless a team really wants him at trade deadline. They will not just cut him, but if AK comes up and hits well, Larnach continues to hit and so does Gallo, there just is no room for Kepler in the regular line up, but he is fine enough should anyone struggle or get hurt.

I could be wrong, but it was technically a combo of cutting out some of his bone in his forearm, and taking out some cartilage in his wrist. All reports after it was completed is that it was a wrist surgery. The ulna connects to wrist bones. I do not know where the section of the bone was removed if closer to elbow, wrist, or mid-forearm. That being said, I think the fact that even the team released the surgery was referred to as a wrist surgery, I think it is safe for reporters here to refer it as such.

For me a few take aways from the game. First, Maeda may have made his last start for the Twins barring injury to others. He is expected to go back on IL with elbow issues. Reports I read say they think more muscle issue than ligament but still not goo d for a guy coming back from TJ surgery. Even if he is healthy later in season, he has not impressed at all, and feel like he needs to settle into pen and give one of the many young guys that could fill the 5th starter roll. Two, Headrick did a good job. Maybe the Yankees were not trying all that hard but going 5 innings 8k 2 walks and 2 runs allowed is still a good outing. His reward is to get sent down to call up the next sacrificial arm. With Maeda going on IL most likely, we will see Ober and guessing Sands come up. Ober will take starter roll and Sands will get the long relief guy until he has to step in and throw 70 plus pitches in relief then he will get sent down again for SWR or Headrick again. I know players hate when teams treat pitchers this way, but the CBA allows for as many ups and downs in a season so Twins will continue to rotate a long relief guy in so they do not need to burn their top arms during a blow out loss. Third, the offense seems to be heating up overall. Yes, there is still a long way to go, but we are scoring runs at higher clip even with Buck and Polanco sitting. We have good depth on this team, and will be getting even better in coming weeks.