Trov

I believe it really will come down to health and progression of the young guys. We all know Buck will miss half the season, but beyond him, if some guys can avoid long stints on shelf, mainly in pitching area, we should be better. One issue was also the little injuries that took away some production from the offense. It is a big if, but if we can get some big strides from the younger guys that will help a ton. However, until I see it, I will not assume much of a difference.

There is a difference between spending money to spend, and spending it smart. Look at the Padres, they went out and signed a terrible contract for Eric Hosmer, when they started spending. Everyone said it was a huge overpay, and then it became a big issue where they traded him off just to get the money off the books, but still paying him. The Twins reportedly tried to sign CC to more per year than any other team, but yet fans are harping on us being cheap. Should we just go sign anyone for 27 mil because we were willing to spend it on CC? No, because if you spend huge on a bad player, you set a floor for the good players when they are FA. Fans were upset we did not pivot and spend huge on Swanson, but I have a feeling he will regress a lot back to his norm and be a huge overpay, and over the next few years he SS will point to his deal and what he is doing in comparison on why they need to get paid more than him. The Twins can increase their payroll, but that does not mean it will make them a better team. Reports are we were in on some top guys, but they chose to sign elsewhere. For CC we were willing to pay more per year than any other team, just not willing to sign him into his 40's. Now the first team backed out, and the second is looking to get a different deal.

I am surprised a team has not taken a flier on him for DH. He cannot field, but when healthy he can hit and when hot carry a team for while. The problem is when he is off he is so bad that he is below replacement. However, I am sure a team will give him a shot.

I do not think the FO is trying to change how players play. I do not think they are trying to just get slow big hitting guys. They did have a stretch of drafting bat first limited defense guys, but they also drafted big time athletes as well. They had a few of the Walner, Sabato, Larnach, Rooker, but they also drafted athletic SS types that are not huge power guys. Buck finally took off when he went up there looking to drive every ball over the fence. It was prior when he was being coached to hit ball on ground and use speed that he struggled. I think in part the FO is looking for power guys, because we really do not have any clear big power guys. Not every one will make it, so you need to draft many.

I have long said corner OF have little trade value. Unless they are elite defender and hitter, or super elite at either, they have little value. The reason why is they are easy to replace. I mean we have so many guys that are close to what Kepler can do we are looking to trade him. I also do not understand why so many people think with the new semi-anti-shift rules will suddenly make Kepler that much better of a hitter. I could be wrong, but I do not recall Kepler being robbed from the shift all that often. Also, if you believe in what Glenn Perkins said during the season, that BABIP across the league has basically been the same before teams shifted and after they shifted. If we keep Kepler, I hope I am wrong and he increases his numbers, but they will only be an increase of singles. It is not like he will suddenly start hitting more HR or extra base hits. The shift did not prevent that. Maybe, he got too much in his head trying to avoid the shift over last few years that it hurt his power, but I doubt that. I bet if you look back over a full season, Kepler may have lost 10 to 20 hits at most from the shift, but he also got a few hits because of the shift. Also, the only difference is a matter of a few feet the fielders will have to move. The SS can play an inch to the left of second, and can move the second the pitch is thrown. The 2nd baseman can still play way in the hole toward 1st, just have to play on the dirt. The only hits that will come from this are the liners over the 2nd baseman head that would have been caught with the depth before, or the ground balls that due to the deeper play the 2nd baseman was able cut off. Kepler will not suddenly start hitting over .300 with much higher power. He may see an uptick, but I think people are expecting way too much of an increase, if anything.

As an upgrade from Garlick I am for it, but I am not for trading away any high level prospect for him. As pointed out he has not been elite since juiced ball year. His defense is getting worse. Will he be that much better than who we can put out there now? If not, why give up prospects that could be used for other trades, or possibly be better overall? He just seems way to low in value right now to pay big for him.

What I find interesting is how fans were upset with Twins not offering more for Correa and letting him go, but now both teams that he has agreed to have balked after seeing the medicals. I wonder if the Twins knew the medicals, and said this is our bottom line we are willing to put risk in. Then when teams balked they wanted to have a second look. I mean Borras now seems to be wanting someone to buy a house, without doing an inspection first. Borras last off season said one of his clients, Conforto, would be ready to go by May, but he never signed with a team. I do not trust Dr. Borras, and his medical opinions. What concerns me more, is that either we did not do a good physical last year, being we want to see what other teams are seeing now.

If the Sox did this, their fan base would riot. I would do it in a heartbeat if I was the Twins, depending on who the 3rd name is, but not too many are cut off on that, as long as Devers is signing a long term deal with us. Not doing it for a season most likely.

Joe 100% should get in the hall for sure. If the medical issues would have knocked him out of baseball no one would have a question, as he is the best overall hitting catcher in terms of OBP and average to ever play. His career behind the plate was cut short thanks to concussions, and then his overall numbers took a bit of hit when he moved off of catcher. If you look at just his numbers at catcher he is a HOF for sure. Had he wanted to play a few more years to rack of some more counting numbers he could have, but chose not too. I was never a huge Joe fan, for various reasons, but he is a HOF no doubt. However, I believe Satana was a HOF as well, and he fell of first ballot, mainly because voters right now are looking at total counting numbers and not how they compared to their counter parts when healthy. However, when injuries cuts a guy career short in the past when putting up HOF numbers until the injury, those players have got in. Puckett and Koufax are the main two that come to my mind. Puckett and Joe have very similar numbers, but Joe played 3 more seasons, but only like 60 more career games over those 3 years, so Joe spent much more time on IL than Puckett did. Puckett got in because of health cutting his career short, projecting that he would have got 3 to 5 more seasons and would have cracked 3,000 hits. Likely would have happened in that era. Joe retired same age, doubtful he would have cracked 3,000 hits, mainly he walked so many more times than Puckett. Not saying Puckett is not HOF, but if he is, Joe for sure is, as he did it at a position that offense is normally secondary.

I have to wonder what kind of physical, or why our doctors may have had different thoughts after last year? I mean we still did one, and I get the contract lengths very different, but we were still willing to offer 10 year deal, and did something change in the year, or did our doctors not see what two team doctors have, or did they just have different opinion? Rumors are we wanted a closer look as well before jumping in.

If two teams backed out of huge contracts after agreeing and having physicals, I would not be standing by a 10 year deal. I mean neither the Giants or the Mets are really expecting much from CC at end of contracts, so they must have been much more concerned about the mid years. Why would we swoop in and ignore what 2 teams have had issues with?

I read an article when approached after the Giants backed out, the Twins as well said they would want to look deeper at the medicals. My guess, not being a doctor, is that the old injury may lead to possible greater regression as he ages, but at this point not as big of risk. Just my speculation.

First off, I loved Radke and he was underrated by national people in my opinion. He did not put up the flashy numbers but he was good at what he did. I was simply saying he was not regarded as a top guy by many. Also, he was drafted and debuted well before the 2000's which was part of my other point.

Thanks for putting in the work. I fully agree with the point you are making. Fans get upset we are not marching out top talent year and year out from draft and signings, but they are not looking at how other teams are doing. If you are making the best out of the crap you have, you are doing actually well. If you got the best pitcher out of a group, then even if they are not great, you still did better than everyone else in the same circumstances.

I am not defending what Puckett was accused of, and would not be upset if his statue was removed for those things. However, the issues with Puckett did not come out during his playing career like Bauer did. I would remind you Puckett had a trial and was acquitted of what he was charged with.

Lindor was traded in offseason because they knew they would not sign him. Clevinger was traded during 2020 season where his FIP at the time was a 5.66, so the worst FIP on his team by far at the time. Most like would not have started a playoff game that year. In 2019, Bauer may not have been the number 1 at the time of trade, but he was the number 1 going into the season, as he had the best overall numbers in 2018. He was around 2nd or 3rd in 2019 at the time he was traded. He would have been an expected playoff starter. He also had another year of control so could have been traded in off season. Also, Kluber did not pitch in 2019, so not sure why you say Cleveland had him as he did not throw a pitch. Who cares how many Cy Young's he won in past if he did not pitch the year Bauer was traded? Finally, as I said Bauer was always in the press, in the manager dog house for doing things like throwing a ball into stands when pulled from the game. Making other comments about all kinds of things. The trade of Lindor and Clevinger are not the same, as one was off-season, and the other was the worst starter on the team at the time of trade.

It is a big no for me Dog. I am all for second chances in life, but he has always been someone that rub people the wrong way. What he was accused of is terrible, and he will do it again most likely, and it was likely not the first and only time, assuming he did what accused of. He is not someone teammates have ever liked, I mean a playoff team traded him away when he was supposed to be their number 1. There is more than just they needed a bat, and had pitching depth. It was we do not want this guy around anymore.

Okay, you were making so decent points until you got to your last paragraph about the 2000's pitching pipeline. First, Radke was never regarded as a top prospect, top guy, even when Twins were winning, and when he was our number 1, many said he would be a 3 on at top playoff team at best. Liriano, we traded for, so we did not draft and develop, he was in our system 1 year before making debut, and he was a flash in a pan situation, never lived up to hype. Garza was okay for us, but we traded away and was better away from us. Milton we traded for, never pitched in minors, and was not anything amazing never had ERA below 4, Silva we also traded for, no minor league games with us, and he was a 4 or 5 starter at best as well. Slowey, had 1 okay year with us, other than that another 4 or 5 starter at best. Baker was another okay middle of rotation guy. You attack all our current guys Ryan, Ober, Varland, SWR, for not being Santana basically, but back it up by touting guys that were at the same level or worse. You say they may be as good as Blackburn or worse, but Milton, Silva, Slowly, Baker, ect, are all very much in the same boat. I am not saying this group will be amazing, but how can you say the "pipeline" from 2000's was anything great? Radke was before 2000's and Santana was only success, again not signed by us originally, but we did teach him the change up. Outside of that we had almost no draft success or early trade successes and the names you list are no where near top guys, which was always our problem.

It really does not look much different than what we ran out there last year, minus CC. If guys that were hurt can play this year, I would say it is actually an upgrade to what we did last year.

I am open to bringing in Lopez for the right price, but it is not like he is the best pitcher in baseball and may not be the best on the roster if we did trade for him. He also has only 1 time pitched a full year, last year. Before last year he pitched 20 and 21 games in full seasons, 2020 he pitched 11 games. His numbers are good, but not great. In my opinion, if you are looking to bring in a starter, they need to be clearly better than the top guys we have, else you are just pushing back other guys that we should give a shot to.

People just pay attention to the money being paid and not the money taken home when they see the numbers. Some players will look at those things, how taxes factor in, one reason many people say Texas teams have advantages because no state taxes. It would not be responsible for someone to not factor those things in. However, it is also possible that having the record contracts regardless of where it is has importance. I do agree if you factor in all the aspects Correa left actual money on the table to leave for other offers.

I do not blame the Twins for not upping the offer after what played out. I do not trust a thing Borras ever has to say. He has always tried to downplay injuries for his clients in the media. He will always say the medical concern should be no concern. Only to then have major injury pop up for his client. I am not saying Correa will suddenly have some career ending injury, but if true the Twins wanted to see what the issue the Giants had was, I see no issue there. I work with people making deals all the time, and I believe in transparency in deals, never hiding information. That is just me.

Baseball has always prided themselves on their HOF on being so exclusive. Unlike other sports that tend to have many players each year, I think football has like 5 or 6 and basketball always have a few. Where baseball will have years no one gets in. The way they get in is by vote of baseball writers. They get all people on the ballot and can vote at most for 10, but do not need to vote for 1. What I find crazy is when some of the guys that are on the boarder, but miss out, and then some voters will give a vote to guys that have no reason getting a vote. Some voters put too much into character clause, but yet Ty Cobb is still in, but Curt Schilling gets dinged because of his politics. Some guys who retired due to injury, Puckett and Koufax, get benefit of doubt they would have put up normal HOF numbers, but guys like Santana who tried to play through injuries and had poor end of career get dinged. Really, if you compare Santana and Koufax their numbers very similar. Santana has higher career WAR in less games pitched. The difference is Koufax retired at peak 5 year stretch, Santana tried to come back from injury and looked bad his last year. I have huge issues with HOF for things like this. Had Santana retired after his age 31 season would he have got benefit like Koufax did? If Koufax, who was best pitcher for 5 years, similar to Santana who was one of best for 5 or 6 seasons, had pitched beyond his injury trying to come back, does he miss HOF? Puckett gets in to HOF because he was one of best of his time, had to retire due to health. Mauer, who has put up very similar numbers, if not better than Puckett, and at catcher most of his career, should be a shoe in for HOF, but he had several years by end of career that people will look at and go against him. It was mostly health related issues, but voters will not care.

The deal with the Mets still pending their physical. This was a crazy situation. The day that SF was set to announcing the signing it gets postponed, only to have over the night Mets swoop in. It makes me wonder how everything went. Did Borras reach out to Mets, did Mets reach out to him? Did Borras reach out to Twins, did Twins try to reach out? Personally, knowing what is talked about Borras, he most likely reached out to Mets and not the Twins. Borras has dealt with injured guys before and he always downplays things. I am surprised SF found something that Twins would not have known about, and they were willing to give 10 years. The Twins if offered a chance could have matched the Mets number for sure, the question is where they given that chance and declined. I for one would not have been happy to see Twins swoop in like Mets did, unless the Giants gave the okay. Maybe they did give the okay. I am sure more will come out in next day or two.

I get the study, but as you point out Arraez is an outlier, and shows bit of the flaw in the exit velo versus overall output. A guy like Arraez may not crush the ball, but he generally hits line drives, which in my opinion, is better metric as to what kind of a hitter they will be. If a hitter can hit line drives, one it will generally be hard enough to get hits. Now, the harder you hit them the more likely they will be for extra bases, which is where the wRC really measures success. The main issue I have, is guys like Sano and Gallo have high hard hit rates, but also strike out at crazy high rates as well. I do not care about strike outs in certain situations, as there is no difference in a K when no one is on base versus a weak fly or ground out. However, there are times where strike outs are just killers.