gunnarthor

I think if the Twins make plays for the 34 year old Fister or the 38 year old Hill, we'll be reading a lot more of the Twins only sign back end guy stuff. The FA market is horrible this coming year. Hill might be the best starter. The Twins aren't going to upgrade their rotation thru FA. So the Twins shouldn't be giving away Santana just to get out of his contract.

Yeah, I agree. I think the Twins only have a handful of guys who have true FOR potential and Jorge isn't one of them. If they can include him in a package deal, that's fine.

Polanco is an obvious throw in guy. Top 100 prospect, out of options next year (I believe) might not be a short stop. I guess it depends on what a "throw in" is. If I was another team and I knew Santana (for example) was my main guy but I was trying to add a bit to the trade, I might try and snag a guy like Gonsalves or Vielma. Neither are top 100 guys but one looks like he might be a solid back end LH starter and the other plays great defense. Maybe aim for a strong bullpen arm like Chargois? If I was hunting in the low minors, Landa, Cabbage or Jorge might be tempting. I think it just sorta of depends on what the main trade part is and what the return is. If you're looking for a high ceiling guy who might be available you'd probably be looking at a guy with some warts - maybe Jermaine Palacios or Melotakis. Or a rehab guy like Meyer.

Very nice news on Balazovic signing. I really liked this draft class although it'll be a long time before we know how it shakes out. Sounds like Park is doing well against AAA pitching, which is good. Hopefully, he fixes his timing quickly and is back in the majors soon.

Apparently, the Rangers are looking at Santana. http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2016/07/pitching-notes-santana-cobb-felix-cards-red-sox-eovaldi.html "Texas is in need of rotation depth, as its current depth chart shows, and that may well remain an area of interest even if the club is able to add a higher-end starter. While the veteran Santana doesn’t come with a ton of upside at 33 years of age, he has long been a solid pitcher and would deliver some much-needed dependability. He has averaged over 180 innings annually dating back to his rookie campaign in 2005, and is still working with the same velocity and generating about the same swinging strike rate that he has for much of his career. Santana is owed $13.5MM this year and the two to follow, though, so there’d be some financial negotiating to work through."

Have to think Berrios is up after the break. Also really nice to see Stewart adjust to AA hitters.

Sounds like mlb actually dropped a hammer on the Red Sox over this. http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2016/07/red-sox-international-penalties.html "The Red Sox have been banned from signing international amateurs that are subject to MLB’s bonus pools for the 2016-17 signing period, reports Yahoo’s Jeff Passan. Furthermore, five prospects that the Sox signed during the 2015-16 signing period have been declared free agents that are free to sign with new teams beginning tomorrow, though each player will retain the initial bonus money he received from Boston. Per Passan’s report, right-hander Cesar Gonzalez, outfielders Albert Guiamaro and Simon Muzziotti, and infielders Antonio Pinero and Eduardo Torrealba. .... Stepping back and looking at this from the perspective of players on the upcoming international market, the punishment from MLB likely voids a fair number of agreements that were already in place between Boston and prospects out of Latin America. Badler recently reported that Venezuelan Roimer Bolivar, whom he had ranked as the No. 31 prospect on this year’s market, was expected to sign with Boston. Beyond that, the Sox were expected to sign shortstops Erik Pena and Raymond Mora as well as catchers Christian Longa and Wilfredo Astudillo. Now, that quintet of players (and presumably several more unreported teenagers) will be on the lookout for new clubs with which to sign. While they’ll undoubtedly find teams interested in paying them, their market may be more limited, as many clubs that aren’t planning to exceed their pool have likely already come close to maxing out their allotted spending limit with advance agreements." Unreported in the article but this might also have a chilling effect on other teams make these kind of package deals going forward.

Is Trey Cabbage hurt?

Reusse's been making the same insinuations.

Well, you are just wrong. And it's easy to check. The Twins finished with the 7th best record in the AL. They finished three games out of the wild card. I'm not sure why you keep slamming last season or misstating simple facts but it gets pretty annoying. http://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/AL/2015.shtml

And that's fine, it's your opinion, you can have it. I've certainly been higher/lower on other prospects as well. But there's a difference between being higher/lower and ignoring what information we do have. You are looking solely at certain stats that reinforce your views. You are ignoring information that doesn't fit in your structure. In this case, the reports from prospect people that universally have Stewart as the better prospect, even before the season started. They have all given reasons for why they feel that way, including information on physical traits, stuff and attitude.

I guess we will just have to disagree. Most (all) prospect rankings have Hu far below those other guys. And it's because those rankings are doing more than looking at his stat line. The pitcher that Hu most reminds me of is Liam Hendriks. Both are short, RH pitchers. Both had great control which helped them dominate the minors. Both had fantastic strike out, walk and HR numbers. Hendriks made the majors at 22 but failed to make it as a starter b/c he didn't have the stuff to play up in the majors. He has since bounced around the league, playing for four teams and becoming a bullpen arm. Stewart, Gonsalves, Jay are all better prospects.

I thought they had a month.

He doesn't sit 95. He may have hit 95 once but that's not the same as sitting there. From mlb.com - His fastball will be plus at times, but typically sits in the low 90s with good life. from fangraphs - His arsenal consists of a low-90s fastball with decent movement he didn't make BA top 10 for the Rays, so I don't know how they view his fastball.

But first you were supporting the trade b/c they were going for it. The Twins got equal WAR from Capps in 2010-2011 (the years of control left on the trade) as they gave up in Ramos (who obviously has more years of control and had more WAR from 2012-present). So, if we're shifting from 'go for it' to only 'go for it' if the trade equalizes over time, then you don't trade your prospects. Also, trading your 12th best prospect for a relief pitcher doesn't really signify a position of weakness. It was a pretty normal baseball trade. Look at the other RP trades - the Jepsen trade doesn't look out of line.

That's surprising. A quick look at b-r shows Archer w/ 85 ERA+ and -.1 WAR, Smyly w/76 and 0, Moore at 81 and 0. Team with 92 ERA+ and 3.7 WAR. (Ours is 85 and 2.7) Obviously, you don't give up on those three, but yeah, that's not good. I mean, we're worse because of course we are but seems like a bit of a disaster to me.

Fine, 11 starts from Shark wasn't worth losing six years of Russell. I don't see how you can support that trade and then complain about the Twins losing far lesser players like Hu and Ramos. Either don't trade prospects because the years of control or far too valuable or accept that you're willing to trade a prospect and risk the chance that the prospect will exceed your expectations for him.

I assume Hu, who is on the same level as Gonsalves and Stewart, wouldn't have been brought up either. Frankly, if the Twins were contending this season it would have been because Berrios was brought up and Duffy and Gibson and Santana were pitching well, as well. If we're hoping for Hu (or Gonsalves or Stewart) to pitch this season, we're in trouble. None of them are making the majors this season. (And the Rays, with their pitching disaster, don't seem ready to call him up, either).

Depends on what your team needs. Apparently if not signing RP in the offseason shows you're not going for it, the opposite must be true as well so trading for one must mean you're going for it. And, sure, there is value in trading for guys with more than a year left and/or flipping them or whatnot but I'm pretty sure that doesn't fix the problem of giving up the Russell package.

Stats certainly have some meaning but you have to put it in context with what you know of the player. Red Sox drafted Andrew Benintendi last year and he is already in AA but that doesn't actually tell us much b/c Benintendi was already filled out so most scouts thought he'd do very well in A ball. (And, of course, he is a great prospect on top of that). So with him, you probably want to see how he's doing against advanced pitchers first. As for Hu, he wouldn't be our plan B. The Twins have both Stewart and Gonslaves at AA and they are both younger.

Huh. Shark was worth 1.8 WAR for Oakland and Hammel was worth 0. They gave up a top prospect, another top 100 type and a backend starter. But they went for it. Funny. When the Twins traded Ramos, a top 100 prospect, they got a 1.0 WAR season out of Capps, went for it and failed. Yet, you seem to bring that trade up almost as often as David Ortiz. Strange.

I don't believe Ryan called the pen his #1 priority going into last season. But again, that's what happens when teams trade away prospects. Twins do it far less than other teams.

Yeah, but you're wrong. Stat lines, esp the farther down, mean very little. That's why it's more important to know about the stuff. He's a nice prospect but I don't think anyone has him in the Rays top 10. Fangraphs preseason review had this about him - His arsenal consists of a low-90s fastball with decent movement, a slight but deceptive slider, a straight changeup and a palmball that acts more like a split-change. The Rays did well to pry him away from the Twins in the Kevin Jepsen deal, and this year will be his biggest test facing Double-A and Triple-A hitters. Nothing he throws s a true out pitch, which is why his command is so crucial to his advancement. I think that tells you a lot more than his stat line.

So, it seems you're complaining that 2014 Twins din't go all out to win the World Series? I'm sorta lost at this point on your argument. They didn't commit to win (but they did) but they didn't commit enough so it cost them Hu? Is that it? Or is it that they just didn't spend enough in FA again because I love that argument. It's also a bit insulting to say the Twins didn't try just because they did things differently than SD and Oakland. And how did selling off Russell work for the A's? I suspect, considering how much we've spent complaining about losing guys like Hu, Jones, Benson and John Hicks, a Russell like trade for Buxton would not have gone over well.

Shark and Hammel.