chpettit19

I was watching the MLB Network airing of the draft and Dan O'Dowd had mentioned at 1 point that he'd expect a number of teams to take him off their board completely because they simply wouldn't draft someone off bullpens and no game action for so long. It sounds like a reasonable enough reason for him to have fallen so far. I think the Twins are going to have to work some pool money magic to sign him and Lee, though.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong here, but I believe Aug 1 is the deadline for signing draftees. So he'll be somewhere playing for the Twins within a few weeks, assuming they sign him. And I'd think they'd be a little aggressive with him to give him a real shot at getting AA PAs at some point this season.

Man, Twins draft a consensus top 5 prospect at 8 and there's still boards filled with people being mad about it. Hard to fathom. Parada is just as likely to stick at catcher as Lee is to stick at short so take that into consideration when complaining about not taking him. "I know you don't draft for need" followed by a complaint that they didn't "draft for need" is a fun little game to play. The Twins got what almost every scout in professional baseball thought was the best pure college hitter in the draft with the 8th pick. Why can't we just be happy about that? It was a fantastic first night for the Twins and that started with getting Lee at 8.

Why are we talking about Celestino, or anyone, as the "future centerfielder in a couple years" or the "heir apparent to Buxton when he stops playing center, sadly sooner rather than later?" Buxton is on a 7 year deal and isn't about to suddenly stop being an elite defender there. And when he does stop being elite (in what? 4 years?) he'll simply be above average before moving to average. The only replacement, or "heir apparent," you need for Buxton is an injury one. If Buxton is on the field anytime in the next 4 years he's playing CF and he'll be among the 3 or 4 best in baseball at defending there. Even injured he's one of the best defenders in baseball. I don't understand those statements at all. Gordon is not a backup CFer beyond being able to play it as part of his utility role. Celestino is a 4th OFer who was basically always projected to be a 4th OFer and is now fulfilling that role. Anyone in the Twins minor leagues at this point that has any chance of playing major league baseball anytime in the next couple years (outside of Royce Lewis) is a 4th OFer, or COFer, type, and not a starting CF type. I don't see the depth here at all.

This is great work, thanks! I think the only player I wouldn't be super thrilled with at 8 is Berry. If he was getting 70 grades on his bat instead of 60 I'd be more open to it, but he's a 2 tool prospect and if either of those don't translate well he's not a major league player. Not my cup of tea with the 8th pick. Any of the top 7 would obviously be ideal, but I wouldn't be upset with Neto or Cross as a consolation prize. Getting their pick of the best arm wouldn't even be a bad situation. They're in a good spot so I think they'll get a good prospect and be able to hand their development teams a really nice piece of clay to mold. Here's to hoping it's someone we see in the bigs in about 3 years.

Sano has a 2.75M buyout next year. He's not getting that 14M. Snell is making 12.5 this year and 16 next. Both of those numbers are higher than Sano's. SD would save 3.25M this year and 13.25 next year in that deal. Not saying they'd do it, but the money wouldn't be the reason.

I really hope there's someone better than last year's 13th pitcher taken available in this class. Bunch of arms that were rated that high until they all got hurt.

Must've missed that "hope" word hidden in there, didn't you? And I said Gold Glove. Current Buxton isn't winning any platinum gloves this year. Weird that you're on me for hoping on the 4 tool guy while you prefer the 2 tool guy. But to each their own.

This is where I'm at with things as well. I think he's the most unpredictable guy because he likely has the highest ceiling in the draft, but also the lowest floor in the top 7. If he's the one guy from the top 7 who falls I take him and hope his worst case is the Buxton we currently have, but with defense in CF everyday instead of every couple days. Gold Glove in CF, .215 BA, and 35+ bombs a year is a really useful player.

Dropping Snell's contract would be the cash considerations in this kind of deal. Snell isn't worth anything except payroll relief at this point.

I think signability stuff is going to be bigger this year than ever because of all the pitcher injuries. Is someone going to try to collect multiple top arms by taking one early for under slot? Will it be the Twins? Will be fun to watch.

I wonder what SD thinks of Cave. Would they be willing to take him in return for Snell or Clevinger? Cave and a low prospect? Lots of talk of them wanting to cut some salary midseason so I'd certainly call and see what they're looking for.

There's a need for bullpen arms in Minneapolis as well. Maybe he can catch, close, and DH? Shohei who?!

I'm thoroughly confused as to where this idea of just moving guys behind the plate came from. We don't have much for SS depth in the minors either, should we move Wallner there next if he isn't good at catcher? Matt Wallner is 6'5" tall. Grayson Greiner is the tallest catcher in MLB history at 6'6". Matt Weiters, Joe Mauer, and Larry McLean are the only other catchers I'm aware of that were 6'5" or taller. The average catcher is shorter than 6'1". The receiving techniques the Twins teach now are all based around getting as low as possible. I don't have any idea why people think a 6'5" Wallner could just pop behind the plate and catch. Why would he even be open to putting that extra wear and tear on his knees anyways?

For this season Sanchez and Jeffers are fine. They're not stars, but they're both decent enough hitters for catchers. For next year I'd be happy to see Omar Narvaez signed. I'd guess Milwaukee tries to bring him back, but if he hits the market I'd sign him and platoon him and Jeffers.

I agree in general, but at some point you have to do what's best for the team. I'm sure the idea was that he'd eventually be able to go more than 4 innings in starts. At some point he needs to do more than that. If he goes the entire season without ever stretching out beyond 4 innings I don't see anyone being willing to pay him 10 mil. To me the question is how long do they have to go along with the 4 inning starts to say they operated in good faith? If the answer is the whole season then the contract wasn't smart and all you did was handcuff yourself into a situation that hurt your team. At some point they have to be able to say "look, we gave it a shot, but you just can't give us enough as a starter and we need to make a change." And I also hope they're getting to the point in their pitching development that contracts like his aren't something they need to rely on so I'm not too concerned with guys signing them in the future. They've done their part and given him his chance to stretch out. It's been half the year. Not only has he not stretched out, but now he's on the IL. Not a serious injury from any reports I've seen, but it is just another data point showing he's likely not able to stretch out and be a 5+ inning guy. To me they've done their part and operated in all the good faith they needed to. Signing any deal is a good faith agreement that you'll let that player play that role until they show they can't. I'm saying he's shown he can't do enough to be a starter. Nobody says a team should operate in good faith when they DFA a guy under contract. Same thing here. I think it's more than reasonable at this point to discuss a role change. They operate in a risk reduction strategy with their pitching in every other sense and it's time to do it with him before that 3.08 moves its way towards his peripherals and then he's giving you 2 inning blowup starts and putting the pen in an even worse spot.

I think him continuing to fail to go more than 4 innings in his starts is hurting his contract negotiating power for next year if he's trying to get a starting pitcher deal. I'd argue moving to a closer role (allowing Duran to maintain his "heart of the order, high leverage situations" role) and being a shutdown closer for the rest of the year would fetch him a better deal than being a 4 inning starter.

Reminds me of the Maeda deal. LA used to put him in the pen in the second half of seasons and playoffs which stopped him from reaching some of his inning based incentives, if I'm remembering correctly. Not saying they were doing it to save a couple mil, just saying it's what they did.

Very true. I hope it's something that's being discussed. If he can be a legit bullpen piece (multi-inning or shutdown backend guy) and they can get Alcala back by the end of the month they could see a nice improvement on the pen without having to make a bunch of trades. I'd still like to see a trade or 2, but those 2 arms could be a huge improvement for the pen. If I were the FO I'd be looking more to bring in Castillo for the rotation than a bunch of pen arms. Reshuffle the good arms they have and add a frontend starter. That'd be my ideal move.

He just seems like such the obvious piece to change roles, but that certainly doesn't mean the guys in the FO and coaching staff see it that way.

I've wondered to myself if they've had talks with Archer during his IL stint about coming back as a bullpen piece. If he were younger I could understand him pushing back and wanting to continue to reestablish himself as a starter to get a nice contract next year, but he's 33 and I think his stuff would play really nicely in the pen. Only going 4 innings a start isn't really helping his FA contract cause anyways. I'd approach him about moving to a high leverage pen role and tell him his chances are higher of getting a deal next year if he comes out and shows he can be a shutdown reliever at the backend of a pen.

My guess is that they'll want to keep Winder in the 120-130 inning range for the year. He's thrown 48.1 to this point. Let's hope for 5 more tonight. So after tonight (the Twins 89th game) Winder will be around 53 or 54 innings. The Twins have 14 full times through the rotation left after tonight. If each spot in the rotation averages 5 innings a start there's 73 innings left for each spot in the rotation. It'll be interesting to see how they manage his innings. He threw 125 back in 2019 so he's shown he can handle that kind of workload. If he were to take a turn in the rotation and average 5 innings a start for the rest of the season that'd be the range he'd be in. They let Ober throw 108 last year after no innings in 2020 and being an injury risk. I think 125 is doable for Winder. As for role, I think it all seems to work itself out with injuries. Won't be surprised to see him sent down at some point after a bad start, but also wouldn't be surprised to see him stay in the rotation if he keeps pitching well. He wouldn't be the one I'd move to the pen as he's far more important for the Twins moving forward than the other options for a role change and I'd try to build him up and keep him working as a starter to work on perfecting his routine as a starter. I'd expect them to send him down to start before they put him in a 1 or 2 inning bullpen role.

Would absolutely love the Twins to get Parada, but I see basically no chance of him falling to 8. Lots of talk about Washington being in love with him and him being the favorite to go #5 to them.

Dang. That was an in depth comment.

I agree with that. They have not made any "win now" trades at the deadline that have helped them "win now." At least none pop to mind quickly. Based on the trades they've made in general, though, I trust their ability to make good trades. I hope to see them make some quality "win now" trades over the next few weeks.