Trov

The robo umps at AAA makes me think they will be going to that at MLB sooner than later. The challenge system in A ball seems interesting. I wonder how quickly you would need to decide, and if teams will have their own access to a system to get an idea or if it will just be guess. It would add to strategy of when to use them. For example, would you use them on a 2-0 count when a strike is called but it is important at-bat? Do you use on a 3-0 count when the "auto" strike is called, with 2 outs and no one on, just to prove a point? Would you use more as a pitching team, or a hitting team, or would it be very specific to the situation. I mean of course there are clear cases on a 3-2 count that leads to a bases loaded walk, if it is close you use it, or last outs of games on called third strike or walks that could be last out of game. I am interested to see how that plays out, even though, I am much more of a fan of the overall robo umps. I am a fan of the pitch counts as well. It will also lead to gaming the system, having pitchers wait to last second to throw when runner on maybe waiting to throw over at that last second, or quick pitching when all throw over is done. No more long set motions by pitchers.

As long as everyone stays healthy they can have one of the best defenses in the league. Not only having 2 platinum glove winners, Kepler is above average, Arraez I believe had good numbers at 3rd and expect he will get most of the innings there when healthy. LF and 1b will be biggest holes overall.

He is saying all the right things. Maybe he opts out after year one to cash in on hoping for a 8 to 10 year deal, something Twins will never do. Maybe he stays a second year if he likes the team, or they work out a new deal that he likes and Twins will too. Some guys will just want all the money, but when you are talking about already having crazy life changing money, sometimes you can forgo some extra life changing money for having other things in your life. Maybe he likes MN so much he will not feel like he needs to leave, maybe not.

As for the ghost runner, I have no issue with it, but agree it should be after the 10th. It does provide shorter extra inning games and less overuse of pitchers because of it. If they want to add excitement to extra inning games say after the 12th, under normal rules, if no team has won, we go to a HR derby style, similar to shootouts in NHL. You pick 3 players to get 5 total pitches each. Not swings but pitches. The team pitches to themselves like in a HR derby. Most HR between the 3 guys win. To make it more interesting, each player on the active roster, must participate before you can repeat. For example, say first time this happens Twins pick Buck, Sano, and Correa to hit, and have pitchers x to throw to them, then none of them can do it again until every other player has done it once. Similar to runner, many will not like it, but I think many fans will enjoy it. You know the game will not go on forever, and fans in the OF will have that much more of a chance leaving with a ball. It will not take long. Sure it is not real baseball, but neither is the runner on 2nd. In terms of the 7 inning double header rule, I hated it.

Much of the reason he missed pitches in the zone is he was missing on velocity. Will the loss of weight help that? Maybe. If the reduced weight will get him moving faster on his swing to catch up to the high velo. Maybe the issue was he just cannot hit high velo, but who knows. We will see what he does. I am not saying we should expect a huge bounce back, but he has shown stretches in his career of huge numbers.

Actually, his biggest issue is not catching up to fastballs. His chase rate is pretty good, but his whiff rate is bad.

You are higher on Caveco than Lewis, because Lewis has not shown he can hit? Caveco in his first full year had OPS of .598 with a k rate of 35%. Lewis first full season had OPS of .803 with a K rate of 16%. Caveco also only played rookie and low A, where Lewis did low A and high A. Yes, last season Lewis played his numbers were lower, OPS of .661 and K rate of 22%, but also was against higher league and he won MVP of fall league. You may not be high on Lewis, but to say you are not high on him because he has not shown he can hit, but then say you are high on Caveco, who has shown he is much worse hitter so far. Lower power, higher strike outs, lower walks. Could Caveco become better, sure anything is possible, but right now there is no way Caveco is considered a better possible hitter than Lewis.

Oakland is clearly tearing down the roster. Anyone that has value and still 1 to 2 years of team control are getting traded. Unless they shock people it is unlikely Oakland will be competing in next 2 years. Why would they want a guy like Arraez in a trade as the headliner? By time they are going to compete again Arraez will be on the trading block. I see no way that Arraez is the piece Oakland is trying to get from Twins. They want either Lewis or Martin most likely and one of the top starting prospects. Most likely a third lower tier prospect as well. I would shocked if we make a deal with Oakland and Arraez is part of it, not that we would not deal him, but because he does not fit Oakland time table right now.

This is not some major move. He may never actually pitch for us because we may remove him from 40 man and he gets claimed. If he does stay he may be a pen guy in and out throughout the year and maybe into next year. He is a flier move that may help us for a couple years that is all.

In terms of the question of the contract talks, the rumor I heard was Correa was the one reaching out to teams on this contract. I read it was offered to Houston and they did not want to agree to it. For the Twins side, they were under the impression Story was not going to take their offer, whatever it was, so they gave Correa a call to see what he was looking for. When that offer was an option they jumped on it. I think it is a win win deal. I know most say well it is only a 1 year deal and we are back needing a SS next year. Most likely yes, but you deal with that at most positions every year. Personally, I am a fan of shorter deals giving you flexibility. If we are not doing well this year, Correa can be traded, he has limited no trade is my understanding, and most teams will be willing to take him on with this contract. If we are competing and doing well even if he walks so be it, we got a good year out of it.

This FO has always shown they are willing to make moves, but also never married to an idea. I like the difference in FO than what we had for the 10 years prior. I did like Terry Ryan and feel he did a good job when he first started, but he failed to change with the times. Bill Smith did a good job of signing some young guys and some decent drafting in his days, but was terrible at trades. It is still too early to tell how the FO is doing drafting, but in next year or two we will see if they made some good drafts or not. Just like all FO there will be some misses and some hits no one expected. What I like is that despite Donaldson being okay, they felt he was not going to give them what they wanted moving forward. Maybe we could have signed a FA SS with Donaldson on the books, but it frees up 3rd base where we have now 3 possible guys to fill in. Donaldson was fading quickly too. He stayed healthy and put up decent offense, but his defense was fading and he was quickly going to be a 1st base DH guy. He could not run at all anymore. I hated seeing him hit in the 2 hole with Buck in the 3, because if Donaldson was on base Buck was limited to what he could on the bases. Yes Donaldson had more power than who most likely will replace him over the year, but I think we will most likely have an upgraded team. Really, we have not given up anything that hurts our near future either. Hopefully we bring in at least 1 more starter, but even if Correa walks after this year, we can pivot to the FA SS next year or use one of our internal prospects if they are ready. We filled a hole for this year without handcuffing us in the future. That was my biggest worry about a long term deal with Story. I was concerned he would come no where near producing what we wanted after the first year or two and we would be stuck paying him way too much to play second base putting up subpar offense. Maybe I will be wrong on him, but I bet Story does not opt out his last couple years of his contract and Boston will be regretting his contract.

I do not think even signing Cueto will mean they are out on possible trade. However, being trade has not happened yet, I think they plan to wait it out. The fact they pivoted quickly with Correa when story was not agreeing, shows the FO will change it up fast if needed. I wonder if Oakland is just saying we can wait it out until maybe more teams get in the mix.

For all we know the FO has floated those names around to those teams, but the teams are not agreeing. Just because you think it is a good win win offer, does not mean the other teams GM's agree.

I think the back issues are exactly why we were able to sign him. We signed Buxton because of his injury history so his asking price was so much lower than could have been. Correa was looking for the biggest deal of the off-season. I think teams were worried that his back injury would continue to be an issue into his 30's so were less willing to give him a 10 year 300 mil deal like he wanted. He is mostly betting on himself here that he can show he will stay healthy for a second season and then a team will be more willing to take that long term risk. If it acts up again, then he has a couple more years to make good money and prove he can get another deal at 30. It would not be for record setting money at that point.

I think analytics in all sports has made changes to the game, that older fans normally never like. Baseball has changed over time even without analytics. For example, they have gone from 3 man rotation, to 4 man rotation to 5 man rotation, to openers. They adopted pitch counts as reason to pull starter, and now even trips through order. They adopted DH first in AL now both leagues. They added free agency. All these affected some fans. Where I get annoyed is the fans that have decided analytics is the 100% way to judge a game, without taking games into context. They forget this is past data over tons of situations but forget each situation is its own. For example, analytics has decided bunting, or generally playing for a single run is a bad move, and stealing risk reward is not normally there. However, if the stolen base is almost assured, why not do it? The risk is super low even though the difference of scoring is not huge, it is better. Similar with bunting, if the situation is right playing for a single run can be good, but because some teams never even practice doing it, they do not do well anymore when asked to do it. Additionally, the hit and run play has been all but removed from the game, because of analytics. This has led to more shifting in my opinion, which some fans hate. Back in the day, players could hit the other way with regularity, and would do hit and runs because of that ability, opening the giant hole that now defense just make without the runner going. Well, because the risk of not getting a hit on the hit and run and having an out happen, teams just stopped doing it, and stopped working on hitting to other side. Now, the hitters do not know how to find the giant hole, or analytics have told them, maybe hitting a double or HR is better than a for sure single. It has sure changed hitters approaches and the way game is managed. I just wish the fans that followed the stats understood they do not make predictions of future outcomes, but only tell a story that maybe the traditional stats are not telling. They dive deeper, but they do not predict future success or failure.

I wonder if there had not been the lockout if he would have met with team docs well before spring to determine best route. It may have been bothering him all winter, but most likely he could not on his own just decide to get surgery outside of team docs giving input without risk of voiding his contract. I would assume there is something in all contracts that the team at least needs to give input on surgery decisions.

I voted A+. I get that it is most likely a 1 year deal, and only way it is more than 1 is either he has injury that cost him a lot of time, maybe even carry into next year, or two he has a huge decline similar to what Lindor had last year, which really was not a huge decline from the year prior, but was big decline from 2017 to 2019. Why I gave it a huge grade was our options were getting very limited, we did not have an internal good option for the season if we wanted to compete at all. We may have someone internal or new options in FA next year if Correa ops out. The main thing was Story was not agreeing to what we wanted so we made the call to Correa to see what he was looking for. We did not assume he was not coming here, and we knew Story was unlikely to come here, for what we were willing to risk. So they pivoted and got the best FA on the market, although it may be for only 1 year, they avoided a long term deal to Story that I believe Red Sox will not be happy with the production they get from him the last 2 to 3 years of that deal.

One thing Sanchez will learn is if he gets off to hot start the Twins fans will love him and even if he fades they will look at the hot start as what might be. If he gets off to slow start fans will get on him for his lack of offense. I am not sold on him as a DH or backup catcher, but he has shown he may be something and will trust our coaches to help him get back to what he was.

I just wonder what Oakland is seeking. They still have two pitchers they are most likely trading. I think what they may be asking in return is based on when they think their timetable will be. Just looking at their prospect lists, they seem to light on OF prospects, but do they have much interest in what we have there? My guess is they really do not want much of our MLB or near MLB OF guys, and I am think the discussion will be for either Lewis or Martin and a pitching prospect. We clearly are looking to win now with current moves, do we give up that, or can we get Oakland to accept younger hitting prospects and one of our more ready pitching prospects?

If you are expecting any DH on this team to produce like Cruz did then you will be disappointed. As long as we can get some production from the DH I am good, I am not asking for Cruz number from last couple of years with both the power and the average. I am not sold on Sanchez, but I am willing to give him a shot with new place to play and new coaching staff in his ear, maybe that will help him. With hitting being a very mental game, sometimes just a change will do. We have plenty of bat first guys we can rotate in if Sanchez fails. Many struggled last year, but hopefully they took the offseason to work on those issues.

Was not on computer yesterday, but when I woke up and checked phone to see the deal I was shocked. I kept checking to see the Story deal happen, but I am much happier with this deal. Sure, odds are it is a 1 year deal unless Correa has down year or injury year. However, it gives us the best player in FA this year, something no one ever thought they would say about Twins. Also, who knows, maybe just maybe he will like it hear and fine with earning 35 mil for a couple more years before testing FA again. I doubt that as he wanted something better than what Seager earned. If both he and Buxton can stay healthy, there is little reason we should not make playoffs. I have doubt that Buxton will, but Correa did last year. I know many will say but we still need pitching, which maybe we do, or maybe even if we do not make a trade the young guys will get it done. With this signing, we basically traded Garver and Donaldson for Correa, for at least 1 year, and I am okay with that. I fully expect a trade with Oakland in coming days, just not sure who they will be giving up.

I bet if the Yankees thought they could get Correa for this kind of deal they would have done that and not traded with Twins.

Didn't he get his first injury from running to first base, the hip injury? Maybe it started somewhere else, but from what I remember was he ran to first and was taken out of game, missed 6 weeks. Then he had the wrist. Although many of his injuries have been "bad luck" many have been from just general play. Some have been from foul balls of foot, or hit by pitches, and some have been by running into walls or on dives, but not all. Don't get me wrong I like Buxton and hope he can play a full year, I just have no faith that he will, since he never has.

Baseball is a very mental game, and maybe that was affecting Sanchez. Also, maybe being full time catcher so long started to wear on him too. Maybe getting some DH at bats will help him. However, his huge K rate is an issue. I did look up the home road split of Sanchez and was expecting a bigger split being Yankee Stadium is very hitter friendly overall. The way I see it, no way will he be worse than we expect, so if he can offer much of anything that is just a bonus.

I have not been an advocate for Story signing here, but if the deal is limited to 4 seasons, maybe with a 5th year option, I would be open to it. I mainly have argued that you will not get the offense he has produced over his career because of the splits. Will he be terrible on offense, most likely not, but you should not pay him like he is an elite offensive SS, when all signs show he is not elite away from Denver. Maybe he will adjust and do well. The writer uses LeMahieu as a recent example, but fails to point out that Yankee stadium is very hitter friendly, and other than last year, his home road was still very skewed to be good home numbers. I have been low on Story not just for the splits, but also he is nearing 30, coming off of elbow injury, which will both greatly lower his defense over the coming years. Many teams think he should not even stay at SS, rumors are most offers are for him moving positions. I am not saying Story does not and will not add some value, but I am concerned too long of a contract we will be looking to dump him in a year or two like we did Donaldson because of regression. If you knew his bat would be elite you can put up with regression in defense and still pay top dollar, but it is not expected he will hit to the overall numbers he has over his career. I never said the man would be subpar at the bat, but he is likely to hit at same level as Polonco did during his down offensive time at SS. My comments against Story has mainly been to tamper expectations of fans that looked at his overall numbers and think that is who would be coming to Twins, when he will not hit at that level, and will regress quickly on defense as well. Anything beyond 4 years Twins will regret by end of the deal.