gunnarthor

TwinkieTown's article on Ryan Lamarre also notes in the comments that Nick Gordon was promoted to AAA. https://www.twinkietown.com/2018/5/22/17380542/minnesota-twins-mlb-recall-outfielder-ryan-lamarre Haven't seen officially anywhere else though.

No! Get the flu shot. The "flu shots don't work" stories are mostly fake news from the anti-vac crowd. Getting the flu shot protects you but also protects others - the elderly and young children - who are more at risk. https://www.cdc.gov/flu/protect/keyfacts.htm

Gordon with another home run. The fangraphs writer noted that Gordon was working on his swing to get more out of his raw power into games. So far, so good.

Yep, it was a good deal. Twins were paying him #3 money (and less AAV than Nolasco). His shoulder broke. Good luck to him in the future.

Interesting write up on Wade - "Wade has an unusual profile: he’s an average runner with a below-average arm, but his instincts allow him to play an above-average left field. Meanwhile, his power is below average and his bat control is fringy, but his pitch selection is plus-plus. This rare skillset manifests itself in backwards strikeout-to-walk numbers with little power and a higher average than his hitting ability suggests he’d produce, since he’s swinging at better pitches than almost every player. So, the traditional hit tool, which we grade as a 50, doesn’t capture the production of which Wade is capable with elevated contact and walk rates. While “underpowered, fringey-tooled platoon left fielder” isn’t a sexy profile, Wade is extremely likely to have a multi-year big-league career because of his elite feel for the strike zone."

Yep, I was hoping for a Cuddyer like player out of him and it looks like he might be able to pull that off. Still would like to see a few more walks but he should be promoted this season. Barring injury, I'd expect he'll be a unanimous top 100 guy next season.

It's not necessarily a horrible idea but it has a lot of downside that didn't happen. The most obvious is what if the relief pitcher gets knocked around? Do you bring in a second relief pitcher in the first? Bring in the starter with men on? But you could also have a long inning. Was the relief pitcher on a pitch count? We saw the Twins and Brewers' starters both have 30 pitch first innings the other day. Do they let Romo throw 30? Is that an injury concern for relief pitchers once they approach that? The upside makes some sense, use a big power arm to limit a top-heavy offense and then let your rookie feel more comfortable before facing those big bats. I'd also point out that gimmicky things with pitchers aren't new, despite Brian Kinney's mlbtv euphoria. Bobby Valentine once switched his LH pitcher to LF and brought in a RHP and then kept switching between the two during a game. I think mlb has a bit of a problem with the all-or-nothing game it's becoming and this is just another step in that direction.

In this instant case, we have a well funded guy with solid lawyers who suggested he plead guilty. We also know that sexual assault crimes are generally not made up. Something happened to the six year old girl. He says he never did the crime and, yes, innocent people do plead to crimes they didn't commit. But if we're going to say that the knowing guilty plea of an upper class white kid knocks it back down to he said/she said, I think we've gone a bit too far. I think it's fair to take his guilty plea at face value. He almost certainly touched his six year old niece and broke the law in doing so. I'm convinced of that. The other side is where I'm less certain - he went through the rehabilitation process. He isn't likely to commit such a crime again (his crime sounds like the same things Lena Durham wrote about in her book that enraged many). I don't know what a 13 year old kid was thinking when he did those things but I think it wouldn't be what a 23 year old man would have thought. I'm not sure how it'll affect his baseball career but I do think some team will take a chance on him.

For those interested, SI wrote a mostly sympathetic article about Luke Heimlich, the standout college pitcher who plead guilty to a crim sex crime against his 6 year old niece when he was 15 (I believe he was 13 when the crime occurred). Heimlich has top shelf stuff and was going to be a first round pick last year before the story surfaced. No one drafted him and he went back to school for another year. He's still dominating on the diamond. It's an open question on whether any team will draft him. My guess is no but someone will quietly offer him a post draft free agent deal, cut him when the story gets out, and then the Cubs will sign him for even less. https://www.si.com/mlb/2018/05/16/luke-heimlich-oregon-state I have no idea where to stand on this issue. On one hand, the allegations he plead guilty to are creepy as ****. On the other hand, I strongly believe that children should be given the chance to rehabilitate and the experts say he is very unlikely to commit such a crime again and he successfully completed the programs he needed. On the third hand, that shouldn't mean he gets a million dollar job. On the fourth hand, this wouldn't have been a story if he wasn't an accomplished athlete (Oregon State has 11 registered sex offenders who are not the focus of campus newspaper stories). The article talks with sexual abuse survivors and experts as well as crim sex abuse lawyers. I think those parts were the most interesting. Yes, innocent people plead guilty to these kind of crimes all the time but guilty people are also full of denial of the harm they caused. The entire thing sucks. At the end of the day, if the Twins get him, I'll probably end up hoping for the best b/c I root for the uniform but I'll feel gross about it, just like I did when I rooted for AP. But I hope that we find a good college pitcher without the issues instead.

Yep. Lewis is off the table but they'd probably ask for a package with Gordon and Gonsalves as an opening offer. Maybe we get it moved a bit but Realmuto will hurt us prospect-wise. Additionally, his next two arb years will be expensive. He's making 2.9 this year and probably makes something like 14-17m over his final two arb years. Pohlads don't like to spend money.

I think Lewis has to be close to a promotion. I'd imagine that the Twins wait for the all-star break but I think they could do it now. I wouldn't skip A+ though. We saw the jump from A+ to AA is rough (look at Rooker), I can't see a A to AA jump.

Hope he gets there. I thought Rosario had more SB than he does. Buxton will probably get there.

Realmuto would be #1 on any list but it won't happen. Dodgers have some depth there and suck this year. But realistically, there aren't that many good catchers. Garver has been ok (100 OPS+) and isn't Ryan Doumit behind the plate. I'd like to upgrade Wilson for sure - we have a thread already on Swihart - but I'm not sure we'll get a catcher better than Garver.

Not sure. I'd assume so but I think I remember reading an article a few years back about how the Red Sox wanted to move his bat out from behind the plate to get him in the lineup more often. He had a decent but injury affected rookie season so they moved him to LF the following year (he had never played the OF before, even in the minors). I'd give up a rule v type for him just to see if we can hit on the lottery ticket. Luke Bard is back in our system. See if that's enough and move on. I'd still rather they get Realmuto but that won't happen. Swihart has some potential upside even though I don't think he'll reach it. But he and Garver would probably be better than Garver and Wilson.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2018/05/blake-swiharts-agent-asks-red-sox-for-trade.html#comments Swihart was a former top 20 catching prospect who was extremely hyped by the ESPN machine a few years back. He hasn't played much the last few years but is out of options and basically sitting on the end of the bench like a rule v guy. He wants out. He hasn't hit - he has a .234/.295/.320 career line at AAA - and he hasn't caught much over the last few years (65 games behind the plate the last two years). Obviously, there is some upside since he was a former top 100 guy and the #2 catcher in the minors. He's a switch hitter. I don't think he'd cost much, if anything. His biggest problem is he'd need a 25 man roster spot. But he might be an upgrade over Wilson. But Realmuto would be a nice upgrade too.

They stand for winning elections which means they'll bend over backwards to not look bad to rust belt voters before the midterms. I guess being seen as the party against torture is too controversial. It does seem like the Dems might be working on a strategy to pull defeat out of the jaws of victory here.

Was Buxton's bunt ruled a hit or an error? I saw the play on mlbtv this morning and I couldn't believe how fast he got to first on a bunt more or less straight back to the pitcher.

I hadn't been following him much but I picked Bechtold to be a sleeper break out guy this year and, oof, he's really struggling in A ball - .198/.280/.240. I didn't not expect that at all. I'd like to see Kiriloff fix his k/bb rates a bit but he is really stinging the ball. Maybe he'll have to move up before address those issues.

Teams want the players to take PEDs.

fangraphs mock - https://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/2018-mlb-mock-draft-v-2-0/ Twins taking Turang, the shortstop with lots of tools. Also notes that the Twins were heavily watching Rocker before he went down.

Not really a surprise, he had lots of PED connections. When he was with the Yankees, ownership emailed ARod and asked if he could hook Cano up. Cano worked with Angel Presenal who MLB banned b/c of PEDs. I'm really more surprised he was caught.

Well, I wanted Wright ...

It'd better be Sano.

I think Winfield is on the short list of players who you could imagine having success as a two-way player had they been allowed to do it.

I haven't heard anything. Is he close to coming back? Is he going to go on a rehab assignment first?