mnfireman

To those arguing the best teams should win the post-season, the 1987 World Champion Minnesota Twins had the 9th best record in MLB, defeating the MLB best Tigers in the ALCS and the NL best Cards in the WS. That is why they play the games.....

Looks like bad bullpens and poor defense are everywhere....

If you are watching the LA-SD game, that is how you manufacture a run. Check your ego. A BB, a bunt and an error, a HBP and a SF: BOOM, insurance run and new pitcher into the game.

Not so much....

But the HR's are still exciting!!

Both teams are trying to end it on one swing instead of manufacturing an inning.... 3 true outcome baseball sux!!

Falvey and Levine have basically been trying to buy time until the prospects arrive, and they have slowly been trickling in. Archer and Bundy were supposed to placeholders, but wound up being counted on at MLB due to injuries and slow development. Same with Happ and Shoemaker in '21. Colome' and Pagan were relied on for too long, with Pagan publicly being outed as resistant to coaching. Perhaps Colome' was also. I believe (and several TD posters disagree with me) that the lost season of 2020 hindered a lot of players development. Pitchers were throwing with no coaching (perhaps leading to injuries in '21 & '22, it can't be proven either way) and many position players were missing valuable hitting and fielding coaching. Also, these players were not getting professional baseball strength, conditioning and stretching coaching/supervision. All a formula for failure. To the eye test (mine anyway) injuries, especially to young players, seem to be up over the last 2 full seasons at all levels. And many of these players would have advanced at least 3 levels over the '20 & '21 Milb & MLB seasons, that's a lot of missed high-level competition. And don't tell me that all of baseball dealt with the pandemic and missed seasons, I know that. It just appears to me that the Twins players being counted on for future development were in the stages of development and at the ages where coaching mattered and they were unable to get it. All this and what team could withstand losing their starting C, 1B, 2B, LF, CF, RF, replacement 1B, replacement RF/LF, 3 starting pitchers (actuaully 6, but Archer shouldn't have been here that long Maeda probably wasn't counted on to contribute much, and Mahle was acquired at the deadline), and various relievers and role players throughout the season?

Never mind, I just did the research, and he had the QO attached last year.

Just saw on MLBTR that the QO is $19.65M. Should the Twins tag Correa with the QO to at least try and recoup a draft choice? Or did the Astros attach the QO to him last year, I don't remember?

I'm starting the season with Ober and Maeda in the BP and a lot of rookies/pre-arb players on the roster. They may move into rotation as they build up arm strength and Varland and Winder may need to move to the 'pen. Kirilloff and Lewis are on the IL to start the season. The bench should be fluid with Miranda, Arraez and Gordon able to play several positions and also be used as the DH along with Wallner. Yeah, tied up a lot of $$ @ C and SS, but those are important positions, and, to me anyway, warrant the expense. The Twins system needs to step up and fill spots starting this year and I tried to reflect this in my roster exercise. Decisions will need to be made when Lewis is ready, and if Kirilloff is ready. The arms are young, but SWR, Moran, and perhaps Coulombe, Megill and Paddack will be healthy enough at various points of the season to step in. And I may decide to go over budget and keep Pagan, keeping Sands in AAA until needed.

C: Willson Contreras ($15.00M) 1B: Luis Arraez ($4.50M) 2B: Jorge Polanco ($7.50M) 3B: Gio Urshela ($9.00M) SS: Carlos Correa ($35.00M) LF: Trevor Larnach ($0.70M) CF: Byron Buxton ($15.00M) RF: Max Kepler ($8.50M) DH: Jose Miranda ($0.70M) 4th OF: Gilberto Celestino ($0.70M) Utility: Nick Gordon ($0.70M) Utility: Matt Wallner ($0.70M) Backup C: Ryan Jeffers ($0.70M) SP1: Sonny Gray ($12.00M) SP2: Tyler Mahle ($8.00M) SP3: Josh Winder ($0.70M) SP4: Joe Ryan ($0.70M) SP5: Louie Varland ($0.70M) RP: Jhoan Duran ($0.70M) RP: Jorge Lopez ($3.00M) RP: Griffin Jax ($0.70M) RP: Jorge Alcala ($1.00M) RP: Caleb Thielbar ($2.00M) RP: Kenda Maeda ($3.00M) RP: Cole Sands ($0.70M) RP: Bailey Ober ($0.70M) Payroll is 5.29% under budget

He can't officially until after the WS. Nobody is a FA until after the WS>

Turner having a bad night......

Competing against Judge, Turner, Bogaerts, Swanson, Arrenado (if he opts out), deGrom, Verlander and Rodon for FA $$ may find him looking for suitor in March again... Lots of high-end merchandise out there this year.

You might want to go look at the rest of the roster for those two teams and see why the team made the play-offs, again.....

So if they upgrade the OF and 1B/DH to all-star types, who of Kirlloff, Larnach, Kepler, Arraez, Miranda and maybe even Polanco and Urshela do you trade? All have showed that they have big upside, but have ???'s attached to them.

So you want to win next year but you also want to start Polanco at SS and Arraez at 2B? Sorry, can't do both. It weakens the defense up the middle, especially with no shifts next year. They also both wore down this year as the season progressed and I don't see that changing next year. I don't know the teams plans for SS next year, but Polanco should not be it. Maybe we'll get surprised by an off-seaon trade....

And that is why we run hard out of the box boys and girls....

Judge may hold up the SS FA market as most teams can't afford Judge and a top SS, or the SS market could settle early and Judge may drag into February. Who knows ?‍♂️. Turner or Correa could settle SS for 5 years or more and would make one of Arraez, Urshela, Polanco or Miranda available in a trade for starting pitching. Andrus for $15M, no thank you. I would rather Polanco or Urshela play SS before him. Swanson is an elite defender, but I suspect his offense will fall back to its previous level. Bogaerts is going to wind up being an expensive 3B or 2B, or maybe even corner OF, very soon. The Twins need a SS for 2months in 2023, until Lewis returns from the IL, so I don't see this being a top priority, but Correa was a pretty nice fit this year and I think he would look good out there next year (or 5).

If a team is relying on their farm system to supply the talent, then you sign 1 big name free agent in the off-season, which for the most part the team has done. You develop talent in the minors, then when they get ready to hit FA and become too expensive, you trade them for prospects to reload the farm system. Then it becomes lather, rinse, repeat. But the developed talent has gotten hurt or under-performed, making it necessary to sign reclamation projects to fill in the gaps. The FO is betting on these low $$, injury prone players to last long enough for the youngsters to go through their growing pains and then, hopefully, establish themselves. But then the on field talent implodes through injury and/or slumps and then the team is using the 5th and 6th players on the depth chart. In a perfect world, Kirilloff, Larnach, Buxton, Ober, Lewis, Alcala and maybe even Balazovic would have already established themselves as solid everyday players, maybe even All-Stars, by now and Kepler, Polanco, Maeda and Sano would remain above average contributors. They have tried adding pieces through trades to push the team forward; Gray, Mahle, Lopez, Maeda and Pagan are recent examples, but they also wind up injured or ineffective. The FO has been doing what you are saying they need to do, but through bad luck or, maybe, bad decisions, the moves have not worked out.

Cards manager talks analytics after the game, Phillies manager talking bloops, defense and feel for the game..... I'll take the latter for the win ?

Watching the Cards bullpen do their best imitation of the Twins bullpen...

Former Twins (still qualifies as non-Twins) Kyle Gibson and Jose Berrios were 44th and 45th amongst 45 qualified pitchers in ERA. Former Twin Taylor Rogers led MLB with 10 blown saves (Pagan was tied for 3rd with 7, Lopez tied for 8th with 6). Former Twin Jose Berrios tied for 2nd in HR/9, tied for 43rd amongst qualified pitchers in WAR. Former Twin Martin Perez walked the 3rd most batters in MLB. Former Twin Jonathan Schoop was 128th of 130 qualified batters in AVG, 127th in SLG, 130th in OBP and 130th in wRC+. Former Twin Nelson Cruz was 129th of 130 qualified batters in WAR. Our hometown 9 may not have performed to expectations, but some of the former players (non-Twins now) also had horrendous seasons. Note: The Twins had 0 pitchers qualify for the ERA title, and only 3 batters qualify for the batting title (won by Arraez!!) and of those, 2 were top 15 in GIDP, 3 if you include Miranda.

Looks like they are gonna let Arraez rest his way to a batting title....

Can't have too much depth, as the injuries of the last few seasons have shown, so I say sign him. He is not a superstar, but seems fundamentally sound and comes up with the big hit or big defensive play often enough.