gunnarthor

Honestly, outside of Kiriloff, none of these guys has to be kept. None were/are highly regarded prospects. Some are getting pretty long in the tooth. I suspect there will be many comparable arms looking for jobs in the offseason. None of these guys should be a priority. The FO has to fix the bullpen and a few of these guys might fit into their plan (scary thought) but I would be surprised if we kept more than two of them, counting Kiriloff.

I guess I don't really understand the argument for short. The Twins need pitching. They have no real starters for next year. Barnes, Jax and Ober have combined for 24 starts and about 0 WAR. Ryan is still in AAA. Maeda's injured. Not one pitcher we can count on for next year. The Twins farm system isn't really helping on the pitching side but we should be able to create enough offense even without adding any impact bats plus we have some top prospects who are 1) supposed to be close to the majors 2) who might be able to play short. The only way to fix the rotation is in free agency so the Twins should spend 95% of the FA budget on the pitching side and then they can worry about SS.

It's also so very Twins that they'll move themselves from a top 5 pick to out of the top 10.

The Twins aren't going to release Rooker. He's a first round pick of this FO with options left and immense power. Gordon will be released.

This isn't a .500 team but there are some reasons for optimism - especially offensively - for next year. I think the pitching we're seeing is a bit of smoke and mirrors but I hope I'm wrong. I'd be really worried if the FO looks at this team and says "well, we started bad but the team that finished the year was basically a .500 team and that team just needs a few small moves to make it a 90+ win team."

First amendment has nothing to do with his future with the Twins.

Obviously we won't know until the moves are planned out but if we do, as I expect, and go with a rotation of something like: Maeda, resign Pineda, sign someone in the Alex Cobb FA bucket, Jax, Ryan fronting our rotation we will be a sub .500 team.

Good piece, Stu. I agree, it's time for Simmons to go.

I'm glad these three are making the most of their opportunities and I really hope they become solid ML pitchers. But, realistically, if the FO is planning for our rotation to be something of Maeda, Pineda, Jax, Dobnak, Ryan, Ober and Barnes -like arms next year, we won't have a winning record. They need to start developing more Berrios and better pitchers. But, again, good on them for the hard work and using the opportunity they've been given.

I dunno. At the beginning of the year, I said Levine should be in the hot seat and I was pretty worried about how this season would play out. I thought we would be a playoff team but a complete pitching fiasco was not that improbable. I said then that it could wreck our season. I think I've seen enough of Levine to move on from him. His trades have been pretty bad, his understanding of the talent in and outside the organization has been even worse. While his drafts aren't fully ready to grade, we can move on. I'll ok giving Falvey more time although I hope he rethinks this 5 inning pitching philosophy.

He's 24. It's time for him to be in the majors. Let him work it out over the rest of the season and the first two months of next season. If he's still struggling at that point, I'll be concerned. But he missed a year last year so it's not surprising he's struggling a bit.

Joe Mauer's stats will shock you then.

I assume he crowds the plate and he's facing pitchers who don't have the control of ML pitchers who are probably trying to pitch inside. Or he's a dick.

I'm not sure there is a best answer. We bought a lot of stocks while we still had a lot of debt a lot higher than 3% (both mortgage and school loans) but after the financial crisis hit us (we had one of those bad adjustable-rate mortgages) we were stunned on how exposed we had been. (My wife also got cancer in 2010 which added to our debt significantly). So, for us, there was a lot of relief not having debt and getting that monkey off our backs. The obvious other highlight is that now we save thousands of dollars each month that we are investing because we got insanely good at saving. The downside is exactly what you and the article reference - missed opportunities.

They've been a bit unlucky when it comes to runs but they have a 107 OPS+, a stat I like, which is tied for 6th in baseball. And TF tends to favor pitchers (which makes our pitching woes even worse) but they have a good enough offense, even with the injuries, struggles and rookies learning on the job.

3 out of 4 from Houston, 2 out of 3 from Chicago? Are we good somehow?

I thought this was a decent article on investing v. paying off debt that might be a useful read to some. My wife and I got drubbed pretty hard in 08-09 so we don't carry much debt anymore. It's amazing how much better not having a mortgage made us feel. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/pay-off-mortgage-invest-210000675.html

Realistically, the Twins should have a pretty good offense again next year although what it looks like is still undetermined. (They need pitching and they have depth at the corners and at second base so I would look to move Kepler and whoever gets me more in Arraez/Polanco). But for the rest of the season, Bean basically has it right. I'd add that, besides Ryan, I'd like to see Winder and Strotman get promoted.

He had an era over 11 in his last three starts for us so I don't think he was getting on track. Could be a number of things - 1) getting cut lit a fire in him, he's still a ML athlete and probably felt disrespected, regardless of how he performed. He's now in "I'll show them" mode. 2) NL is just a weaker league and Atlanta and Pitt aren't great offenses right now. 3) SSS 4) Maybe he abandoned what the Twins had him do, ala the Shoemaker complaint. I think this is the only one that I'd really care/worry about. But it might be worth monitoring the rest of the way.

JA Happ has had two pretty good starts for St. Louis.

Coming into the season, I thought Jax was a good third round pick that just wasn't going to get enough innings to adjust to the majors because of his military commitments and COVID. And maybe that's still true but he looked really good last night. I mentioned in another thread that he sorta reminded me a bit of Scott Baker, mostly in his delivery, but maybe in his results eventually. But I can also see why you think Scott Diamond instead. I hope the Twins throw him back out there every fifth day for the remainder of the season and I'd like to see Rocco let him hit 100 pitches in a game.

2012 Twins pitching WAR - .7 2013 Twins pitching WAR - 7.8 2014 Twins pitching WAR - 10.1 2015 Twins pitching WAR - 16.3 2016 Twins pitching WAR - 3.9 2017 Twins pitching WAR - 9.1 2018 Twins pitching WAR - 8 2019 Twins pitching WAR - 12.9 2021 Twins pitching WAR - -(!)3.2 WAR A few more years, maybe they can have a staff as good as the 2015 staff.

I was surprised that Jax's WPA for the game was negative. He's been on a nice run. I really hope he can keep it up. Last night was a really nice start for him.

Even now the offense is fine. They have no pitching at all.

Posts like this are so obviously dishonest, I'm not even sure you're not trying to troll. But let's just call out all your BS. "The previous front office repeatedly showed an inability to develop and maximize its own young talent, especially pitching, so why would we assume things would've played out the same way?" The previous FO kept a window of opportunity open for a decade because they built their own pitching pipeline. From 01-10, they had roughly 140 games started by FA pitchers (and that counts Radke). That was because Ryan, before he left, and Radcliff developed a strong farm system. They constantly retooled the Twins from a nucleus of Guzman, Hunter, Koskie, etc to Kubel, Morneau, Santana, and added more arms like Garza, Baker, Slowey. They left after 07 and both came back in 12. In three seasons, they had the next wave of players up for the playoff run that went to the last series of the season.* "The Twins lost the most games in baseball in 2016, as well as from 2011 through 2016 overall, and went 6 straight years without making the playoffs. It is not controversial in the least to say the franchise was in despair at that point in time." You say this because you know 1) it includes a period of time that wasn't covered by the previous FO, and you obviously ignore the short rebuild to 2015 b/c that screws up your story. So what we know about Terry Ryan was that, unlike this FO, he could build up minor league pitching pipeline, that he could keep a window of contention open longer than this FO. So, yeah, I think it's very obvious that had he stayed, this team would still have made the playoffs because the nucleus we had was going to do that, no matter who was in charge. The previous FO impact is so apparent that 1) the Twins best pitching and hitting prospect coming into 2021 were still players acquired by that old FO despite this FO failing to graduate their #1 pick or there other first round picks. 2) This year the WAR of players acquired by the previous FO is 14 while the WAR of players acquired by this FO is 1. That means that the FO has utterly failed to assist the nucleus they inherited. *Now, of course this is the part where you say "Ryan didn't acquire the good players Smith did" despite pinning 2011 on him. Whatever. If Ryan = Smith, fine. They still kept the window of contention open longer than this one did. Essentially, your entire argument is "Twins drafted bad in 2013-2015, I was spoiled from watching the team compete for a decade so I never understand rebuilding." Is my post too Ryan-friendly? Yes, obviously. He made numerous mistakes although hiring Brad Steil was a great move. But the revisionist history we're seeing from TD is over the top. Twins had 4 losing seasons in a row. White Sox had 7 (and 8 out of 9), Astros had 6. Etc. This FO had a simple job - assist the nucleus and extend the window of opportunity. They utterly failed on the second one and how much they assisted is up for debate.