Trov

This is a Buck call. He said no to being traded mid-season. It is possible he will change his mind during off-season when you have more time to plan and work out deals with teams and not just go by the quick decision. Reports are he intends to build his dream home back in GA, which makes it easier for him to go to different teams as his long term plans is return there either way. I am sure after this season his trade value is as high as it has been in years, and I am sure the Twins would love to cash in, go more with the youth movement they are doing. However, Buck holds all the cards, so it is up to him.

I personally wish it was all calls, but I get why they did it this way. Then you ease it into the game, and players need to think about when to use the challenge. The clear wrong calls will get challenged all the time, but the boarder ones will be a lot more of a question I expect the catcher or hitters will be instructed to hold off until big situations. Ones that would end an inning when runners are in scoring position, or ones that would have ended an inning when runners in scoring position, or clearly ending the game. You should not see a player challenge a 0-0 count call leading off an inning, unless it was way off. However, an 0-2 count with runner on 2nd or 3rd and 2 outs, later in game in close game, if a boarder line pitch called ball may be worth challenging, but not early in game. It will be fun to see it play out.

Simply to ease it into the game. Many players, and umpires were against it, and some fans. It will become full time in the future, but you need to ease it in.

I need to disagree about Fedko being the most ready to challenge for a spot next year. Personally, I think Jenkins will be top to challenge, as he can play any OF spot, has most upside. The only reason he will be held back is his injury history and that they may want to manage his service time for an extra year of control. Beyond that, I think Gonzales, on the list mentioned, has the next best shot to break camp, but I doubt that will happen. Cullpepper is next on my list as someone who has a shot, mainly because SS is thin position for us right now. Then I would put Fedko because he is older and AAA. The issue with him is he has no prospect status until this break out year. Maybe he has legit power, maybe he does not. I would not over react to his current season. We have seen it with many in his position late round or undrafted college kids that have some break out year in mid-20's and we clamor for him to get a shot. Only to see why they were held back. Kersey and McCusker are two recent names. There is a reason Fedko was never on a top prospect list, was drafted 12th round, just as the other guys similar in his position has lingered in minors with brief chances at bigs only to fail quickly. Is it possible he is an exception and comes out of no where and suddenly found a power stroke that was never there before? Sure, but it is also possible this is his peak. The best thing he has going is that his k to walk ratio is good for the power breakout he showed.

I would move Clemons to the not likely area, or the bubble. This was by far a career year for him. In addition he was super streaky, April he was unplayable and DFA to us. May he was crazy hot, then June he was unplayable. July he had a few hot stretches. August he was unplayable, and Sept he got on a couple of hot stretches again. Overall he is replacement level guy, and outside of a career year in power, in big spots I would agree, he was an end of the lineup hope he can do something bat. He can be replaced by Martin, or others.

I am sure he was worried about pulling his hamstring again early when he came back. I think that affected not only his running but his hitting as well. If you do not have your legs hitting you have nothing.

It is not just about the Twins bringing him back, but they have to deal with the players union for intentionally not playing a guy. It was not a service time issue, but a numbers issue. If the Twins do not play a healthy player the union would have a fit, because Lopez will be looking for another contract and if they tried to use well look at how low your numbers were in 2025 season, they union would be like well you did not play him. Also, not sure if there are incentives in his contract he could have tried to reach.

What it does is make him relevant going forward either on our team or as part of a trade. He would not net anything huge, but being he has shown he can get on base and has some speed. Some teams will value this. The Twins have so many options at the corner OF, and 2nd. I personally expect he will stay with Twins and they will DFA/non-tender Clemons. They play the same position, basically utility guy, but Clemons showed some power from time to time, but outside of that he was negative hitter.

In terms of the pitchers taken in the trade deadline, you need to give them time in the organization. This winter and spring will be a big sign on if they can adjust. We are hoping that when the Twins coaches have time to work with them they will make that extra step.

I know the article was about Rocco and his ranking, but I want to comment on Gardy. He was overrated as a manager and should have been fired sooner than he was. He was not bad when he first came into the league, but was way to old school and the game passed him by very quickly. I feel he was the "by the book" guy and just about anyone could have filled in for him and had similar success. I say this for a few reasons. First, in playoff series he clearly had no way to manage a single game, he never wanted to "over manage" like some get accused of these days. Sure, there are times managers these days go too extreme the other way, like Rocco might, but Gardy would be overly stubborn the other way. He also contradicted himself on decisions plenty of times. A few examples, in a playoff game, where the Twins had a chance to go up 2-0 against the Yankees in the 2004 series. He decided to start rookie Jason Kubel at DH, which I liked Kubel, nothing wrong with playing him. However, he looked way over matched all game. We tied it up in the 8th against Rivera and with 1 out runners on 2nd and 3rd, just needing a fly ball to tie it Kubel came up. We had Lew Ford on the bench, who had his best year of his career by far that year. Gardy stayed with Kubel because of the lefty matchup, but Rivera has better career numbers against lefties. However, by the book Gardy says you have a lefty hit against righty when you can despite the long know career reverse splits for Rivera. Kubel strikes out and then Guzman grounds out ending the inning. Going forward in game, Nathan pitches the 10th, 11th, and rookie Jesse Crain, who was having a good rookie year was warmed up to come in if game was tied. But we took the lead, and Gardy left Nathan for a 3rd inning, something he had not done all year. Nathan was cooked and gave up the lead after walking 2 of the first 3 batters and ground rule double after that. Then new pitcher gave up sac fly and we lose game. After the game, Gardy says after they took the lead he was not going to put the rookie in that situation trying to get a save, but he had no problem leaving a rookie in trying to hit off the best closer of all time with a reverse split issue, when all you needed was to put ball in play. There are many other examples I could give, like when he would bring in his "8th inning guy" to pitch when the hitter he was facing had a history of destroying him, only to have it happen again, and he would say well he is our 8th inning guy. He would never look at advanced stats or think outside the box. He was fine getting wins in regular season, but I feel he did not do anything special, he was just the guy there, and he would never think of how can he do better and just say well lets play by the book. Maybe, playing by the book was the right move at the time, but when he would need to make hard choices in short series he would cave.

This is how the game always goes for players. Hitters come up and if they crush right off the bat pitchers start to try something new. Then the hitter needs to adjust to them, and so on it goes. We have seen it with a lot of hitters in their rookie years crush, only to struggle the second year, it is because pitchers and scouts had all winter to figure out how to pitch to them. Lets hope he makes the adjustments.

The question of are they hurt or injured for baseball sometimes is a very fine line. In baseball, being hurt can affect you so much more than being injured. Little pains here or there that you can "play through" really can affect your output so much more. When fractions of inches on your swing can mean the difference between a hit and an out, little things can add up to big issues. I am not saying injuries had a huge impact, but when a couple of your guys you are really counting on have soft tissue issues can have long term effects.

I wrote that this offseason will be telling on what the FO thinks of Martin and not being a power hitter going forward. For years the FO clearly sought the 3 true outcome guys and wanted more pop from everyone, if they could get it. It does seem like they may be looking for some better base running guys that can steal and get on base. I have always been one you need a balanced line up, not to many pure HR guys and not too many just .OBP guys.

I would agree that Wallner has more value between him and Larnach, but neither will have much value in my opinion. Waller has the 'if he only could' thought. If he only could not get overpowered by high fastballs, or if he only could not look lost against lefties, which this year he actually has, but he has been worse generally against righties. I could see them looking to trade Wallner and have him get on some hot streaks and reading all the comments on here about how terrible it was to let him go, see Spencer Steer and CES comments from past. However, I think at this point Wallner will not develop more than he has, he is 27 now, will be 28 all of next season. This means he is already on the wrong side of the prime years. Yes, someone who has his power can have a longer career, but he has shown that he is like Plouffe. He can hit HR when they do not really matter, when pitchers are not really trying to get him out. Put guys on base and the pitcher is more dialed in to get him out and he fails. However, when you have back end pen guys, or position players throwing to him he crushes like it is a slow pitch softball game. Personally, I think it is time to move on from both guys, let Jenkins, E-Rod, Gonzales and others get their shots.

Why LF, and not RF? He has a cannon still, I think shifting to RF he would have more value there.

SWR is the only one on that list that I keep on 40 man over the offseason, unless there are other moves that get made. Miranda has fallen way off depth, Julien has fallen off and not shown any growth, Outman is just a no. Clemons showed a flash, but outside of that he is a no. He is the only one worth maybe keeping.

2nd base is always one of those interesting positions. When you have a great defender there it is nice, but normally the 2nd basemen are the guys that could not cut it at SS and lack the arm for third. However, rarely do you have a guy that is elite hitter and defender, at any position, but how often will you have an elite defender at 2nd, that can hit well too. Most of the time, if they are elite at 2nd they can defend SS. Then you need to decide how much value does an elite 2nd baseman add versus having an average to below average, which is subjective because if all the teams have poor defenders at 2nd are they below average? 2nd base has become similar to how 1st was looked at before, you can try to hide the weak defenders there if they have a bat.

The Philly trade discussed you need to consider what the team has already. Specifically, the article suggests Aidan Miller was floated for the Twins, they rejected for Tait and Abel. Well, at the time Miller was doing terrible in AA, because with his August numbers his overall was .259/.382/.427, which for a full year of a decent defending SS is good, but when he has the August mentioned his numbers were much worse. Scouting reports are he will come off SS and play 3rd or 2nd, making his bat more needed. Then you see we have Culpepper, similar age, performing overall better at AA and despite initial thoughts of him moving off SS rumors are he is doing fine there. So bringing in Miller may have added a possible bat, but he would have slotted into the same spots as Lewis, Lee, Keashall, Culpepper, and we just drafted a SS in Houston. On the flip side, Tait is a top prospect, years away, but is a possible catcher, of which we have no top prospects, and a pitcher, that you can never have too many to fill in. Miller may have value but in the Twins system he would have less value because of so many other possible guys that can cover the same areas he would do.

This is just a we need to write something article. Most rankings had him top 5, when you are up there the difference is minimal, also it does not mean anything as to which player will be the true better MLB player. In terms of the drop in fangraphs, they may rank power as a more important tool, as some do, than other tools and will take people with more proven power. The kid looks the part and I fully expect he will be at MLB level early next year. I am hoping we can agree to a 7 year deal so they will not delay in calling him up, but if they do not, I expect he will be a late April call up, to get that extra year of arb to get 7 years of control.

I hope we can get Jenkins to sign a 7 year deal so we can avoid the having him sit for like 2 weeks in AAA while he "gets more experience" next year.

If Clemens is part of our plans going forward to be a regular anything, we can just give up on the next season too. He had that quick flash when he came over and helped us win some games, but since he has been who he is. His May and July were good, but outside of those months he has been below replacement. If they have plans to keep him next year and use him I have no faith in our team next year.

None of these guys should be really listed as a top prospect at this point. Rosario was, but he has got passed by and really has little room in the Twins pecking order. Sure, if they make some moves or injuries he could get his chance, but I have a feeling he will be left up to rule 5. Fedko is older breaking out, and not saying he could not contribute to a team at his age, but I am not getting too excited on a guy that breaks out in AAA at age 26. Pareda is 29, no a prospect. Jimenez could climb lists, but he is 19 and not touted, but he at least has chance to become a top prospect.

I am no doctor, but I have taken some classes years ago in college on athletic performance. One thing that people actually do not pay much attention to, unless you work in the field, is how lower body will actually help the upper body. I do agree, though the increase in the velo of pitcher does lead to much more injuries. The injuries are up not due to pitch clocks, like the union wants to argue, but due to put so much more stress on arms than normal. The pitchers need to decide is performance better than long term health? Yes, there are guys that are not normal humans like Nolan Ryan, he was a super human which is why he could pitch with the velo he did and the number of throws he did. He should be the model. I still believe if you can locate well, have good movement, you do not need 95 plus on your fastball to win. But teams will not want to even look at a guy that tops out at 90 anymore.

I personally think fans just got over the season after the trade deadline, and the team has just tanked. They are not playing fun baseball to watch. To me, it is not just about wins and losses, but is the team entertaining to watch. Do they just strike out a ton, leave a ton of guys on base, never steal, have poor defense? If that is the team you put out, why are you going to watch? One other thing that hurts is the push of the WNBA and having the team in that league, some fans will not take their time and money to watch them over the Twins.

This article, and the comments really just highlight how hard it is to quantify bad defense. For years, fans looked at errors as a metric, but we know that is not a good way to measure defense anymore. Fans also used the eye test of great "looking" plays but the eye test on great looking plays could fail, as with some OF they take a bad route and make a diving catching did they make a great play? NO, but they made it look pretty. A good defender may have made the play outright. Gold gloves was a terrible way too as top offense guys managed to win gold gloves, like Raffy Palmero winning a gold glove at 1st when he DHed most of the year. The voters, that being managers never cared and would vote for names they knew. Pitchers would win it over and over because they were known. One commentor mentioned Jeter, who I agree was one of the most overrated defenders at SS in his time. He was a decent defender early in career, and then he rode that out for long time and would keep winning gold golves because his offense. He even won a "catch" of the year when he caught a foul ball, then instead of sliding to stop, he decided he would jump into the stands, after he caught the ball. He makes that catch anywhere else on field he gets a good running catch. However, the lore of Jeter was he dove into the stands to make the catch, like he did a head first dive and caught the ball in the air. Maybe the way he ran for it he really could not have stopped before hitting the wall, but the lore was he dove into stands to make the catch, it would have been a fair ball if he does not catch it. The point is, we will never have a perfect way to judge defenders. And if you can hit teams will put up with your terrible defense anyways.