chpettit19

I'd argue Kepler's decision should've been made at the end of last season, but Pagan's should've been made in the middle of last season. I'd love to know what the internal conversations are like on those 2.

2 things come to mind here: 1- The Twins do not have a very impressive list of "All Time Great Outfielders." Which really shouldn't be that surprising. 2- Longevity mixed with unrealistic expectations really defines Max's career here. He's been around a long time, playing really good defense, so he's amassed some WAR. The Twins kept hitting him in the top 5 of the lineup despite him not being a very good hitter, so fans got upset that he wasn't better offensively like you'd want out of a top 5 hitter. Max has been a solid major league baseball player for a while. He doesn't belong on a list of greats for a competitive team, but he was good enough for many years to have been a 7-9 hole hitter on a really good team. Unfortunately, he didn't play on really good teams so he was miscast as a top of the order hitter. Interesting article, though.

I just want some real sample size before I start making major moves. And the expectation is that you come into the season with very few holes to start with. That's a different problem that can't be fixed now. They shouldn't have come into the season with Pagan and Kepler sized holes in the roster to start with, which makes it even more frustrating that they're still sitting here in the middle of June with the same holes in the roster. If the Twins come into the year with those holes already filled the situation is far less dire than it is right now, and the 2nd 3rd of the season is spent fixing smaller holes on the margins, instead of major ones. Teams like the Rays, Braves, Dodgers, Astros, etc. aren't working on plugging as many holes as the Twins. It all ties together. If you build your team better to start with the 3rds plan works much better. The Rockies, As, and Royals should be following a much different plan right now. The problem with the Twins is they set themselves up with holes that should've been very obvious, and thus filled, in the offseason. Now they've put a lot more pressure on themselves to fix it midseason.

If they refuse to cut the dead weight? No. If they start doing their jobs and making some moves? Sure, this division is trash, and it won't take much to win it. But I wasn't speaking in specifics about the playoffs for this team this year. Just speaking in a general team management sense. I go by the idea that you break the season into 3rds. 1st 3rd you find out what you have. 2nd 3rd you work to fill your needs, and improve your team. 3rd 3rd you play your best players, and do everything you can to win your division/make the playoffs. My concern with this front office has always been that they're slow to react. We're past the 1/3rd mark of the season. They know who these players are (they knew who Pagan and Kepler were before the year). They need to stop sitting around and hoping Pagan will suddenly be a high leverage arm, or Kepler will hit (I "joked" with my friends the other day that that HR bought Kepler 3 more months with this FO). In speaking about the late season/playoffs I was simply saying you need to get rid of the Pagan's of the world, because you can't hide low leverage arms in August, September, and October. Since that's all he is you need to spend the middle 3rd of the season finding his replacement. That starts by cutting him. Today. You need to find 26 playoff worthy players, and that work starts now, not at the deadline.

Julien looks like he can be a really nice hitter in the bigs, but he's a shining example of why defense matters. So many plays that he just can't make, and when you can't make the plays it makes your pitcher throw more, and leads to the BP having to come in earlier than it should. Correa still should've made the throw on the double play, but if Julien can field it and get it to him smoother, and quicker, Correa has time to set himself a little as he throws. The play up the middle on Vlad with Bichette at first where Julien tried to back hand it wasn't the easiest play in the world, but when you're shifted up the middle, and the ball is 10 feet to your right, and not particularly well hit, you need to turn that into an out. Lewis' throw on Vlads grounder to 3rd needs to be an out (lots of free trips to 1B for Vlad today). Defense matters, and today was a great example of it. And Pagan still needs to go. 3 high leverage appearances in 66 games isn't a lot, but he's blown all 3, and as the season gets deeper, and you get into the postseason, you can't keep playing with a short pen every night because you have a guy who can only pitch low leverage spots. They need to upgrade the pen. And DFA Kepler. There's no reason those 2 are on the team anymore. Time for the FO to step up and do their jobs.

If the money is right (meaning low) it's worth talking to him about, but I wouldn't count on him at all for next year so we're looking at 2025 as the year he'd be back in the rotation. Ryan, Lopez, Ober, Varland, and Paddack are all still under contract then. I'm not writing them in stone as our 2025 rotation, but if they can't produce any more pitching by then there's a massive problem. I just don't see the need. If I'm the owner I'm telling the FO they can sign Mahle for peanuts, otherwise it's time for them to produce their own pitching because that's what I pay them for. It's pipeline time. They need to be able to back up those 5 starters the next 2 years with internal development. There should be no more trades, or signings, needed. They have 5, and it's time to turn SWR, Festa, Enlow, etc. into the next wave to provide the depth for the 5 big leaguers they have.

Well that's what I get for going from memory. Thanks for the correction.

Depth is the name of the game this year, and the Twins aren't going to put Maeda in the pen until they've given him every last dying breath of a chance to start. They've already said they're working him back up as a starter. May be good for fans to start preparing themselves for the very strong chance we see Maeda start more games for the Twins. I understand there's space for Moran because of Thielbar's injury, but I was questioning why you were suggesting there wasn't space for him without Thielbar's injury. He's been really good for a while now. Not sure why you were suggesting sending him down just to test out Balazovic, who's not significantly younger, when Moran is pitching well. I'd like Balazovic to have more sustained success with a WHIP lower than 1.4, and fewer than 4.5 walks per 9 before I get too excited about calling him up. He's striking guys out, and not giving up HRs, which is very nice, but he's not laying waste to AAA hitters by any means. He's been decent, but a 4.26 ERA with nearly a hit per inning, and walk every 2 innings, isn't screaming "call me up!" This isn't a Wallner for Kepler obvious situation to me. I have no idea who will be the best 8 by the end of June. Jax has shown how quickly you can get good relievers back on track, while Lopez has shown how quickly they can come off them. I'm not sold on Maeda automatically being a weapon out of the pen if he can't start. It's certainly an option they should explore, but I'm not at all willing to put him in the top 8 at any point right now. The bullpen doesn't worry me that much right now. I think they're solid enough that they aren't going to tank the season. When you score 3 runs or fewer every night there's no room for error in the pen. That's not a realistic expectation for any pen. They're going to blow some leads when they have literally no margin for error. None of them are going to have 0 ERAs. If this team can start scoring 5 runs a game more regularly I believe this pitching staff can win the vast majority of those games without rushing Balazovic when he's not really dominating AAA. I have no need to "see what they have" in any pitchers right now. Hitters on the other hand...

Weird place for sure. I don't know how to salvage this season outside of the players simply figuring it out and playing better. I mean you start with getting the young guys up, and the Keplers of the world out of here. But there's only so many moves they can make from within the org itself. If they're in sell mode in July it's because the FO screwed up so they shouldn't be allowed to be the sellers, but if you're bad enough to be in sell mode in July you need to sell. I don't see any way the Pohlads fire people midseason. Just not their style. But I also don't feel like they're going to fire them after the season either (that's mostly based on today's Gleeman and the Geek). This is all becoming very depressing.

We may have to take away your posting privileges for not making the required "were they facing the Twins lineup?" joke here. We have standards!

I like this part of the Falvine team building strategy. They like good command, college pitchers in the draft who they believe they can add a little oomph to. It's the same strategy Cleveland uses. I think it's easier to teach a mechanical tweak that gets you a couple extra ticks on your FB, or a little extra spin on your breaking stuff, than it is to teach someone to truly have a feel for commanding their pitches.

Colome blew a save on May 2nd, and took an L on May 4th against the offensive juggernaut known as the MN Twins! He then pitched an inning each on May 6th and 7th against the Reds before being demoted back to the minors for the White Sox.

Why are we sending Moran down? He has allowed 2 earned runs in 13.1 innings with 14 Ks to 5 BBs since the start of May. You're expecting Balazovic to be better than that? Basically a WHIP of 1 with a K per inning, and an ERA of 1.35 for a month plus is awfully solid. And Kenta is going to use the entirety of his rehab assignment to see what he's got left in the tank. He won't be here next week.

@Blyleven2011 Is correct, Kyle Farmer is the emergency catcher. And he's an awfully good option considering he was drafted as a catcher, and came up through the Dodgers system as a catcher. He has only caught 19 games in the majors, but I'd guess that's about 19 more than anybody else's emergency catcher. He has 363 professional games behind the plate.

I wouldn't ask Kepler about CF at all. I don't think he brings any value there either. He's a worse fielder, and no better hitter, than Taylor. I think they should DFA Kepler no matter what. The mindless platooning drives me nuts. It's to the point where I seriously think other managers/FOs sit in pre-series meetings and actively laugh at how easy it's going to be to manipulate the Twins lineup however they want. I can't imagine there's ever been a team in MLB history that pinch hits for the top 4 players in their lineup as frequently as the Twins. Makes me want to cry. As for Jeffers, I just think he's turned an actual corner, and he's a solid hitter. He was drafted for his bat, and made some legit changes to his swing, and approach, this offseason. His OPS vs lefties this year is .690 (35 PAs) while his OPS vs righties is .917 (72 PAs). I don't think he'll maintain a .917 OPS against righties, but I think he's significantly better in the box than Vazquez.

Where do you spend the Correa money then? What's the realistic situation that leads to this being an overall better team without Correa?

My biggest complaint with this FO is that they're just "slow" with everything in season (I don't mind the slow playing in the offseason so much). They built all this depth to better handle injuries, but then they never want to use it unless they absolutely have to. Of course ILing a guy for 10 days when he only needs 5 isn't ideal, but playing with a 1 man bench for 5 days is less ideal. If they had no options for callups it'd be one thing, but they do. I'm a believer in the idea that you take the first 3rd of the season to figure out what you have that year. The middle 3rd working to fix holes. And the last 3rd going all out to win you division, and get optimal playoff positioning. So I'm good with mixing and matching lineups early. Good with giving the Keplers of the world a little rope to get right. But after the 1/3rd mark of the season it's got to be about performance. The players have let you know who they are. Kepler isn't good enough. Correa needs to go down in the lineup. IL decisions need to be made quicker to get your team a full roster for every game. Real changes in team management need to be made to optimize your team for this season. We're into the 2nd 3rd of the season, and nothing seems to be changing. As for just the IL stuff, I can't help but wonder if the FO really isn't just truly listening to the medical staff. They have their all-world trainer now, but they're managing things the same way as they were under the guy they fired. Does Paparesta really work nearly the exact same way as the last guy, or is the FO just doing what they want?

As well they should!

And this brings us back full circle to "if they're bad they're not worth much anyways," and we wouldn't want/need/whatever to trade them if they were good because the team would most likely be in a much better place in the standings. Those 2 really need to figure their stuff out. The entire franchise is really relying on it.

That's fair, just not the strategy I'd take. I just don't see them being able to get someone better for next year, or the year after even, than good Polanco. They have holes all over the lineup that need to be filled. I don't see adding another hole by trading Polanco as something that leads to fewer holes in the lineup in the near future. If you're blowing it up for 2 or 3 years down the road it's a different conversation. And at that point I'm asking Buxton to waive his no trade, and moving both him and C4 as well.

Why is it irrelevant? Your stance was that you wouldn't sign a "good player" because the plan was to have a young guy "take the reigns." You said that was giving up "on the plan just when it was ready to bear fruit." It's not irrelevant to ask if you'd forego signing a different "good player" if you had a different young guy ready to "take the reigns." Pick whatever good, proven, top 30 MLB talent you want, and whatever top pick, ready for a fulltime shot in the majors prospect you want. Doesn't have to be Trout and Carroll. But if it's really about offseason decision making on passing on elite talent for a prospect then whether or not you'd do it with other players is entirely relevant. Royce Lewis has a fulltime position right now with the Twins. Has since he's been eligible to come off the IL. But you would rather that fulltime position be SS, and the Twins not have a top 30 talent in Correa. That's a bold statement that should be able to be backed up with more than "irrelevant" when presented with other players who fit those categories.

I can understand the whole "we need depth" thing in general, but keeping Kepler around doesn't seem to be about that since they continue to hit him leadoff, or the 6 hole. I don't see any defense for not DFAing him and giving Wallner a shot. I'm not a huge Wallner believer as I think the swing and miss, and lack of defense, will lead to him being just another guy, but there's a chance he's really good. We know Kepler isn't. They picked Wallner early for a reason. Time to let him sink or swim. I'm not a fan of trading Polanco, unless they know his legs are just going to keep getting worse and worse, and he isn't himself anymore. I don't see anyone outside of Lewis or Lee who have a real shot at out playing him, and I don't see Lee being ready this year. I'd like to see Polanco's option picked up for next year, unless they're really blowing things up. But, even then, I'd pick up the option and trade him in the offseason when a new regime is running things. But I don't know how this team succeeds without Buxton and Correa figuring things out.

I think anytime you can sign a top 3 player at a position, or top 20-30 player in all of baseball, you do it. Would you not sign Mike Trout because you have a young Corbin Carroll ready to debut?

While I'm not opposed to a hitting coach change, can we stop pretending hitting coaches are some magical fix to things? Rowson is brought up weekly around here. After he left MN he went to Miami who had a terrible offense while he was there. He's now the hitting coach in Detroit. They have scored the fewest runs in all of baseball this year. Hitting coaches can't turn bad hitters into good ones. Their influence is marginal. It's why the average tenure of an MLB hitting coach is less than 3 years. You'd think if they were out there fixing guys left and right teams would hold onto them like gold. Instead they get fired less than 3 years after they get hired.

"I'm not going to analyze 6 years of moves" is your stance? You realize that's literally what you were claiming to be doing when you presented your "intern GM" idea, right? Falvine have failed at their jobs. I'm ready to move on. But your "intern GM" idea is out there. The idea that any of us (other than the couple of actual front office personnel who comment from time to time) could actually run an MLB team is flat out ridiculous. "The straw argument that there would be not pitching does not fly" is an interesting sentence when your whole idea is that you'd just take away all their moves and then just do good ones instead. OK, you win, if we take away all the bad moves the FO made, and just assume the moves a random "intern GM," or, apparently, any random TD poster, would make were good the team would be better. Guess I can't argue that. "If we don't sign players to extensions then we would have fielded trade proposals back which would have netted something back." Correct. My point is that you're just assuming those assets would be good. Mike and I weren't saying there'd be literally no pitching on the team, but that the FO has built one of the best rotations in baseball right now by having made moves. You can't just take away their moves and say you have any idea what the results would have been if they hadn't made them. The FO has failed. It's time for the whole brain trust to go. But they're not the worst FO in the league, let alone worse than "a majority of the people on this website." That's a ridiculous argument.