Trov

I like that you went over the 5 year period and not just recent as some want to. For some reason in sports people always do the, what have you done for me lately thing. When it comes to FO in baseball looking at single trades or FA signings you will find flops always, and you hope you will find steals. Now, if it is a long run of flops and no steals then you have issues. I mean we signed Lance Lynn, who was out of shape and not ready to pitch and really was upset to not getting paid. We let him go after he did terrible, then he goes to a hitters ballpark tears it up and now getting paid. Were the FO wrong on that signing because he did bad for us, or were they right to see the talent? Was the coaching staff wrong in how they used him and coached him? People will point to 40 man roster decisions that went wrong, at least so far, but give little credit when they snatch up someone that panned out too. The fact that the FO did a full tear down of things I am not upset at the overall product, this year was not good, but I still feel good for the future.

While I do not agree Simmons was as bad as a signing as some paint him, I agree there is no need to bring him back, and I recently read the Yankees looked to bring him in during trade deadline. Not sure what was offered, but just about anything would have been worth it to give others a chance to show what they could maybe do on defense. In terms of Cruz, I would not be upset if he returns, I doubt he does as many guys can fill DH next year. If team thinks Cruz still can get it done and they do not want others to DH I will not be upset, but not asking to bring him back.

Velo can make up for being a poor pitcher, but the best pitchers of all time had location, and an ability to change speeds. If you mix up location and speeds with some movement that will be better than just speed alone. The guys you mentioned about being traded away or let go all are pen guys, not starters as well. They drafted a guy because he threw 100. I am not saying stay away from velo, but brining in a guy that throws heat only is not always a success story either.

For the same reason we have interest in trading Garver and keeping Jeffers other teams would have interest in Jeffers over Garver. The main plus about Garver, is he will never be a very high cost guy because by time he is FA he will be past prime, but that is also a problem as he is not a 6 year option either for a team, he is a bridge to the future, but not the future. Only teams that are on the verge of doing things that need a catcher will want to give up much of anything for Garver.

I think they did it right after the season in hopes he would pass through. My understanding is they need to get back down to 40 by the winter meetings and can no longer use the 60 day DL, which they had a lot on it. They also need to put guys they need to protect from the rule 5 draft as well. As of writing this comment I see 42 on the 40 man with 8 on 60 day DL. The only player listed from the article as other DFA is Danny Coulombe, the others were DFA already. Are there others above him that could have been DFA sure, but needing to get below the 40 to have room for others that need to be added for rule 5 draft purpose. I know of at least 4 that need to be added, Lewis, Sands, Widner and Miranda, plus others they may want to add. So they still need to find 6 more guys to DFA to make room for the 60 day IL guys and the new additions. That means hard decisions needed to be made, and the recent second surgery for Colina and right after the season reduces the amount of teams that was going to take a shot. None of the playoff teams were going to put in a claim as they still have playoffs to deal with. Every team is in a similar situation as the Twins, needing to DFA players for the coming year. I bet we see Colina on the waiver wire again during the off-season as TX tries to sneak him through much like Twins did.

I would give him around a C+. I think early in the year he fell into the these are our guys thing putting Colome out there again and again for too many blown saves, but Rodgers blew some early too. Really early on no bullpen guy had it going. I less had an issue early on when some guys were failing because you do not expect them to be so bad because they had track records. Where I had more of an issue is later in the year when the season was a loss and he did not give some guys a chance to see what they could be long term. Maybe that was mandate from FO or Rocci showing he will continue to try and win and use the best team possible but I would have liked to see Gordon get a little more time at SS just to see if the team is right that he cannot play there. Some times I feel teams create a self fulfilling prophecy. They believe a player cannot do something, so they never give them a chance to do it over time and the few chances they get if the player does not excel right away the team just says, "see they will fail." In a lost season, I like to give guys a shot to see if they can do something, because there is little to lose if they fail, other then they may learn to do it better later on.

The lack of depth on the offensive side of things is concerning. Of course we do not need much in the next year or two, but after that there will start to be holes that need to be filled. I know pitching was a big need for long time to have depth there, but my worry is we will be too much like Cleveland minors that keep pumping out pitching but no offense at all. Some of our bat only guys have not shown their bat carries into pro ball as much.

9 guys on 60-day DL seems to be high, not sure how many could have stayed off it and the team just said ehh lets put them on 60 day to bring someone else in. Either way that is a lot of DFA's that have to happen.

To compare the two is a poor comparison. Ortiz was not a top prospect that played elite defense and at times was possible MVP if could just stay healthy. Health was something that kept Ortiz back, but Buxton will be snatched up in a heart beat if he is not resigned. Ortiz was a bench player when the Red Sox signed him to a low paying contract. It took an injury to their starter to give him a shot and he ran with that. I did not read the article, but the only comparison I can see is that if Buxton leaves he could have a few great seasons with another team if he can stay on the field, but what led to the non-signing is not the same. Yes, Twins made huge mistake of letting Ortiz go, but he may not have become what he did in Boston if he stayed with Twins as well. Buxton if he stays healthy can be a top player in this league for a few years. Everyone knows that. I think Buck will continue to turn down offers unless the bank is broken for him. He will test FA to see if a team will bet on him staying healthy. There may be some teams willing to take that bet knowing he is a bonus and not some to count on. Mid to small market teams cannot plan to pay huge sums to someone that may not play much. Teams like Dodgers, Yankees, Red Sox can pay him large sums and if he only plays 50% of games they are not hurt by it.

What do you decide is a major city? I would argue only low A and some high A are small enough that a rent you propose is reasonable. I live in a city of 28K, is that a major city? The rent in my city is more than it is to buy. The average rent for a 1 bedroom is nearly $800 a month. Throw in utilities and you are paying over $900 month for a 1 bedroom. That is without a car, car insurance, phone, internet, food. When I looked for apartments in small towns in south MN about 5 years ago the average rent for 1 bedroom apartment was still $600 a month that was in towns of like 2K people and no minor leagues. Every AAA team is in a semi large city that I know of. Most AA are in semi large cities. If you are finding $300 in most of those cities for a 1 bedroom, I would not want to see what it looks like. 10 years ago in Harrisburg PA I had tiny 1 bedroom with furniture for over $600, I am sure it is will above that now. Harrisburg has a AA team. I bet you did not include furniture in your calculations, as how often the player moves the logistics of moving furniture each time would be even greater cost, or you would have to pay for storage. So most likely you need to find furnished or rent, or just sleep on a blow up bed with fold out chairs and folding tables.

This needed to happen years ago. I cannot comment on his call percentages, but in my opinion he was a terrible ump because he wanted the spot light on him. He would go out of his way to eject people. I do not care he was a crew chief, he would walk across the field while someone has having a normal conversation with another ump just to eject the person. I do not think a series went by with Gardy that he was not ejected at least 1 time when Joe was in town. Joe would love to make the big call that got noticed and had no issues pulling a quick ejection even approaching players and coaches to either get the argument going or keep it going.

One your math does not take into account the agent percentage for that signing bonus normally 10 to 15 percent. Also, the pay of $500 to $700 a week is only during the season. Then most players are expected to work out at the spring training facilities, not work during their off-season to have a living wage. Also, not all the late round picks are college grads, which very few of them get full rides to play baseball, so they most likely have student loans if they did play in college and some are high school players that could not get into college or chose not too because they did not get a scholarship to play. If they did go to college they could not work during time in college because NCAA does not allow players to work and earn money, until recently. The point I am making is that if half the players about need to choose between living in poverty to maybe make their dream come true, should the MLB increase the pay to allow those players to not live in poverty? Should the players not be exploited to try and make their dream come true to field so many teams? Maybe we should cut to 2 minor league teams per team so those 30th round picks that need to live in poverty can just accept they will not make it.

What I was saying is that they cannot pay more to minor league guys even if they wanted too, unless the full league chose to. A team could not say we are going to increase the pay, but they can increase the other things like paying for apartments. Also, the higher pay is not about better performance but to help keep the minor league alive and keep the players to not have as many mental health issues.

Pay for players in minors are equal across the board, only signing bonuses are different. In regards to the giving apartments or the like teams can do that, but being most players are locked into what ever team drafted them, or signed them originally for 7 years or until released, they have little say as to what team they are on. Only 16 year-old international players will have a say and my guess they will not look much into the perks in the minors when they decide what MLB team they sign with. Drafted players could say no and go back into draft for next time around, but that is the little power they would have.

First, bonuses are discussed and some do very well with the bonus, but they are limited. You point out that at least half got 90K signing bonus. Okay, that is for 1 time only, and they are taxed on that, having agent fees taken out as well. Many players spend several years in the minors. So how far are you expecting the 50 to 60K after taxes and fees go? How many years will it be there? Also what about the 10 guys that got 10K or less, can you play the games without them? Yes, some guys are fine because they get huge sums up front and can be good with it. But they make up only a few members of the team. The point is that half the team is struggling to get by and you need them to play or decrease the number of teams. In terms of the rent, yes rent is cheaper in may of the smaller towns. However, based on the movement of players and limited time they play in that city, it is hard for them to find rooms to rent. Most apartments want longer leases, and the players will not want to have a 12 month lease when they are only going to be there for about 5 months out of the year, at most. The apartment issue was addressed in the article. It talks about how when a player gets moved up or down then the rest of the roommates are scrambling to find their rent too, unless they can get the replacement player take the space, but what if that replacement player is one that got the huge bonus and does not need to share?

One of the things in the article that was pointed out is that many players cannot get normal leased apartments. Specifically because they do not know how long they will be there. When you may be at a city for maybe a month or two, no place will rent at those prices for only knowing it is rented a month or two. Most apartments require full year leases. Why would a player pay a full year lease when they are only there at most a few months during the summer, because most likely they will be expected to go back to training facility or back overseas during winter months. The article address their ability to rent short term.

First, this is not an either or, the answer could be neither. Over the last few years there has been a lot of talk of how badly the minor league players have been treated. I read a good article on ESPN last night that brought up some interesting things. One thing is that there is no uniform way for minor league players to be treated, other than pay. The pay is not much, even though it went up lately. There are still stories of players living in cars, or packing motel rooms, or players spending more on rent then they make to play so needing families to help pay their rent. In my opinion, players should have to basically just survive to play in the minor leagues. Yes, should they make the majors they may earn life changing money, but the amount of players that play for years earning little money and may end up leaving baseball in great debt is crazy. As the major league teams make more and more money that does not trickle down to the minors, but why not? In the article I referenced it was referenced to another article that for each team to pay every minor league player 50K a year, it would increase cost by about 3 to 4 million over the year. For a team worth a billion dollars, that not much. Even if MLB wanted pay to the same, giving furnished apartments would be about 1.5 million per team. This at minimum makes sense for the amount of moving between teams up and down, players are always left scrambling to find a place to sleep. If teams would just get apartments for the players to live in that would be one less worry, and then they could save their money and not spend it all on rent. MLB could also give stipends for food for the players too. The fact is to make the lives for minor league players just a little bit better would not be hard. Now, should the fans help force this change by letting the MLB teams know they want that change? Maybe, because if players stop willing to play minor league ball it will hurt the MLB product in the long run. Should the MLB players demand more money gets put to the minors? Maybe, but would it come at the cost of paying the players? I bet the players would balk at that but, with 26 man rosters, if you took at least the 1.5 million from player pay, That is nearly 60K per player over the year. Some players have already donated money last year to minor league players, and Houston has already got furnished apartments for players. Other teams have done small things to try and make the life for a minor leaguer a little bit better. However, the MLB teams still dump millions into prospects that never make the majors while letting the rest of their workforce struggle with finances and mental health issues from it. There are several areas the MLB teams could pull from to get the money to either pay more or get apartments. It would hard to ask any single player, or employee to shoulder the full amount, but taking small amounts from many sources is reasonable. Maybe taking money from the luxury tax fees could help, it would not cover full bill for all teams. I do not know all the finances of MLB teams, but am certain they could find a way to increase money going to minor leagues by a few million to either pay a living wage, or give room and board for players. Without minor league players moving on up to majors the major league product would struggle.

I would look to bring him back. He may not be a top end guy, but he is above replacement value. I also feel you need at least 1 or 2 vets in the rotation over the long season. I do hope we have a bit more of a youth movement in the starting pitching, but bringing him back would be fine by me.

I am worried to make moves expecting Miranda to just come in and be MLB guy for years to come. He put up huge numbers this year and should get a shot next year, but to just slot him in can blow up in your face. I am never a fan of moving established guys that can at least produce at MLB level for unproven guys that may not produce. That being said, if Donaldson can be moved for some value I am for it, but if not I would look to move or dump Sano. That would free up a spot for a few guys to play. Even if you keep both, not having a set DH like Cruz you can use that to rotate guys around.

How many teams have a SS that is a good fielder and hitter? There are very few SS that are considered top fielder and top hitter, so you could say most teams FO have failed if that is a bench mark for success. Most teams have to decide if the bat makes up for the glove or vice versa. This is similar to Catchers, very few are great on defense and good at the plate, and teams have to decide if they are good enough on one side to make up for deficit on the other.

Catcher as always been a defense first position. If you get a catcher that can hit and play good defense that is a bonus. I would prefer not going with both Garver and Jeffers platoon as they do not make a good platoon. If you want one to be regular guy and other to be backup getting a game or two a week fine. If you want more of a normal split I would look to have Rortvedt as the second guy. I would be open to trading either Garver or Jeffers for the right deal as long as you have a planned backup guy to come in when someone goes down with injury.

The award is not about best prospect, but about the best numbers overall. The award is not saying Varland is the best pitching prospect but stating he put up the best pitching over the year. The fact he is older than others does raise the fact he is not a top prospect, as prospect rankings take age and projection into account. Maybe Varland climbs system quickly next year, or maybe he just sits in the minors, only time will tell. I do not think anyone is suggesting he should be number 1 pitching prospect for team, but he is a name that was not high on prospect list but may be rising now that he actually got a full season of pro ball.

Tanking in baseball makes no sense. In football, basketball, or hockey it makes some sense. There are several reasons it makes no sense. One, no one player will mean the difference between a winning team or not in baseball. In other sports one generational player can make the whole difference at times. Football a HOF QB can carry a team. In basketball the best player can carry a team. Baseball the best player, i.e. Mike Trout, who was not a number 1 pick, will not mean the team will be playoff bound for years. Second, there is never a guarantee the number 1 pick will be best, or even make the majors. Sometimes the best guy in the draft is much later in the 1st round or not even in first round. Look at Mark Appel, he was drafted 8th, possibly could have been 1st, did not sign then went 1st and never made the majors. Many other top draft picks never make the majors too. Even when they are the best in the draft it does not mean they will make all the difference. To me, I want to see what every guy has and never make moves that lead to losing. I do not like teaching players losing is fine in baseball. I also feel there are things to be learned by trying to win the whole season regardless of standings. In other sports I do feel there is benefit to drafting best player because you normally have a better idea of what they will offer for years to come, baseball not so much.

As exciting as his breakout is, I am not expecting him to come up next year and be a force. If he does great, but do not expect it. I have a feeling a youth movement in the next season is coming and it may a boom or bust kind of thing. I could see Miranda, Lewis, Martin, Kiriloff, Larnach, all having major rolls in next two years. Not to mention several starting pitchers having major innings. I think if that is the plan just go all in with it next year. It may be a rough next year if they do, but it will also give them all some good experience than just trickling them in.

If the NL does adopt the DH as many expect, then he may have some value in the trade market. No team will want to bring him in to play 1B. He is not elite enough of a hitter to make up for his defense. For teams that have never had a DH there may be teams willing to go out and take someone like Sano. That being said, he value is still not that high to expect much in return. He will not get a MLB ready top guy. Most likely if he is dealt it will be for either a lower level prospect, or for someone in a similar situation, position of possible depth and a change of home may make a difference. Overall, I do not think Sano is going anywhere unless a team really feels they can unlock him and get the player everyone wish he would become. At this point he is who he is, he will strike out a ton, hit monster HR, and when hot he can carry a team for a few weeks, but when not he will be a very feared number 8 hitter.