gunnarthor

I don't think the Twins will pay Donaldson and they little FA money they spend will probably go to bullpen arms. I think the infield will be pretty similar to last years infield.

I don't believe I've ever written a positive statement about the Pohlad family. I'm not as negative on Falvey and Levine although I'm not quite ready to say that they are good at their jobs either. I think, as others noted, Falvey has done a nice job changing coaching philosophies etc but I'm not sure Levine has done a good job at roster management, FA signings, etc. But I'm certainly not ready to call for either of them to be fired.

This seems like another pro-FO piece without a lot to back it up. The FO didn't trade Dozier when his value was at it's peak and threw in the towel at the trade deadline that year as well. Smeltzer is a bullpen and Raley might be a 4th OFer. Escobar is probably the best trade here in that Duran has some real potential as a #3 type (which is a good thing). I don't know how anyone can say the Pressly trade was good. Alaca is 25 years old now and put up nearly a 6.00 era in AA. Pressly is one of the best relievers in the game. Chalmers isn't anything to get excited about. He's 23 and thrown 20 innings above low A ball and has serious control problems. Not a lot of upside there. Last year the Twins had 10 players amass at least 2 WAR. This FO acquired only 3 of them (Cruz, Odorizzi and Pineda). I liked the Schoop and Gonzalez signings last year, Cron was a good pickup and I like that the FO hired Rocco and decided to go with Garver instead of signing someone else to play with Castro. Those were all good moves. But this FO also traded away Huascar Ynoa (who made the majors at 21 for Atlanta) and while they've made a number of trades, they have yet to trade for a top 100 prospect and Jake Cave is the only guy that's managed more than even a 1 WAR season in the majors. I'm not saying our FO is a failure but so far most of their moves haven't done much, although they've made a lot more moves than normal. They didn't understand when they had an opportunity in 2017, didn't do anything to reinforce this team at the deadline this year. There is value in letting guys like Polanco and Kepler play instead of replacing them and those moves look great now. But most of the success is because of the players, not the FO or ownership.

Wheeler's in a great place and he'll get paid. Too many teams need pitching but can't afford Cole or Strasburg so they'll go hard on Wheeler. One team will pay him more than what anyone expects. I'm not sure he gets that sixth year but I'd be very surprised if his AAV is less than 23.5m.

I'm rooting for him but I think in the end he's a solid bench player. My guess is that Nick Gordon plays most games at second base for the Twins after July next year.

I think the Twins will sign a low bucket FA starter again - I've mentioned Ivan Nova but someone like him for sure. I just don't think the Twins will pay what good starting pitching is worth. The FO comes from a non-spending background and Rocco came from Tampa as well. I think the writing is on the wall that this team is going to adopt a Rays like pitching staff, rather than bring in big FAs. As to the FO's ability to identify talent (especially pitching talent), I think the jury is still out. Odorizzi was a great pickup but many of the trades and signings haven't worked out. Still too early to condemn but probably too early to praise, as well.

I think we'll hold our top two prospects but think we'll make a big trade involving one or two guys in our top 10 lists.

Man, a Minnesota football team hosed by their kicking game. That never happens. In all honesty, getting the ball with a chance at the end of the game was about all we could hope for from this game. Left a lot of points on the field. We should have won, which is nice to say about the Gophers football team.

Obviously, it depends on the cost. His lack of control and low K-rate in the NL concerns me a lot. He was never seen as a top prospect - peaking at about 70 on top 100 lists. MLBpipeline, a year ago, wrote: "Alcantara's control and command both leave much to be desired, but as he keeps adding velocity, he's still learning to harness his stuff. While pinpoint command won't be ever be necessary given his dynamic repertoire, he'll need to pitch down in the zone consistently to be effective as a starter. At the least, Alcantara has the weapons to become a dominant closer at the highest level." On the plus side, he did throw nearly 200 innings last year and looks like his floor would still make him a valuable cog in a bullpen rotation. I'd be comfortable moving a package around Javier (although that might be selling low on him). I'm not sure what Miami needs/wants but the Twins have a lot of 45-50 FV talent in the system and it makes sense to move some now.

It's been addressed ad nauseam in the 15 other threads on Rosario.

It's pretty sad you think that was objective and evidenced.

I was thinking, what TD really needs is yet another article attacking Eddie Rosario. Can't get enough of those.

I'm not surprised he took the QO. I think it's a bet on himself play and it makes sense. Plus 18m is a lot of money. He doesn't have to worry about being locked out like Kuechel was last year.

Depends on the deal but we have four open spots and we need to fill them. He could fill one.

I like the idea of going after Gray. We won't sign a first tier free agent.

Believe it when it happens. I think we're much more likely to go with a bullpen rotation and payroll similar to last year.

Nice win. Now if we can just make a couple more statement wins against Iowa and Wisconsin ... and Ohio State ...

Oh, I don't disagree. He shouldn't be extended and we should look to trade him in the right deal. But I don't agree that his defense is as bad as some of the WAR grades suggest.

I don't remotely trust the dWAR grades for Rosario. In 2017 and in 2019, dWAR graded him at Josh Willingham and Delmon Young levels. In 2018, they graded him average. Fangrapshs defensive valuations were slightly different but followed the same pattern - horrible in 17 and 19, better in 18. What was the big difference in those years? An elite CF was missing in 18. An article a while back (either on fangraphs or BP?) noted a problem with defensive calculations when a team had three really good defenders. One of the OFers would get negative grades because the other OFers took over. I think this is what is happening to Rosario - in 17 and 19 he made 66 and 63 'out of zone' plays. In 18, in about 100-200 fewer innings, he made 77 OOZ plays. Having Buxton and Kepler in center field has hurt him but he's a solid enough OFer.

Very nice that Travis is kind enough to answer questions. I'll just ask what was your favorite on the field memory as a baseball player? And did you excel at other sports in high school or just focus on baseball?

He had less than 100 at-bats in the majors that year and was coming off a 5 WAR season. The team made him play hurt early in the year, he didn't have that many at-bats in the minors either (less than 150) but had a .900+ OPS after July. Plus the Twins promoted worse players as injuries decimated our OF (Johnny Field, I believe). The Twins kept him down to get the extra service time, not because he hadn't earned the call up.

I think both players got screwed and it made me like baseball a little less in both cases. I think the author is right that the next CBA is going to have to address this b/c that's probably the only way this will get fixed.

That sounds about right. I'd be very surprised if they moved any of our top 4 prospects (Larnich, Kiriloff, Lewis, Graterol) but they could move Balazovic in the right deal.

We have three more years of Buxton and then he'll take over CF. I suspect Lewis will spend all of this season in the minors and the team will reevaluate what they have after next season.

Forgot to list mine WFC/USB are our two big bank stocks index funds tracking the S&P Shopify (thanks a million on that one) Coke Roku Disney John Deere We have others but those are all pretty substantial holdings. You certainly have a more tech centric holdings than we do.