chpettit19

Why do I need to waste my time looking up those stats when you tell us every day that they're terrible at all of those things?

Haha, that's fair. I promise you I am reading from the column that shows "% of PAs with less than 2 outs, runner on third and runner scored."

Yes. The Twins strand a runner at 3B after he was there with less than 2 outs 43.5% of the time. That is 5th lowest in baseball. It's a stat that does a great job of showing how frustrating baseball can be on a game to game basis.

I can give you a whole slew of stats, both specific and general, that the Twins are better than the average team in, but you'd still complain and tell us how terrible they are so I just went with the one I happened to be looking at at the time.

That was me. And they are. I'm sorry actually looking at the mathematical success rates of every team in the league and then comparing the Twins to those teams isn't an acceptable way to show they're 5th in the league in achieving a goal that is easily quantified. Your brilliant baseball mind must be better than the math. My bad. Here's a link to that awful, no good, terrible math that absolutely can't be right. But I'll save you the time of actually looking up stats and just tell you the Twins are at 56.5% success rate with a runner on 3rd and less than 2 outs scoring. League average is 51.1%. There are 4 teams currently with a rate higher than 56.5%. But don't let my facts get in the way of you complaining about things you're wrong about. https://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/majors/2022-situational-batting.shtml

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.

The Twins site had an article from Do-Hyoung Park yesterday about Maeda's rehab situation. Maeda said if he comes back this year it'd likely be in the pen. He threw a 30 fastball bullpen on Tuesday at 80% effort. Will fly to Florida after the AS break and hopes to start facing live hitters in August before starting his rehab games. Says September would be when he comes back and it'll depend on how the team is doing. I'd love to see him take the extra pitcher roster spot in September. Let's hope things keep moving as planned and we can have him back for the stretch run!

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.

Trienen was a good sized deal, that's true. Kahnle is a 2.5M a year guy who was signed last year while he was hurt and turned around and got hurt again this year. Joe Smith was signed for 2.5M this year. Hudson was on my list and I pointed out the Twins invested more in Colome than the Dodgers did in him. Mitch White was drafted by them and has been a mediocre reliever for 2 years now. I'm pretty sure you can find someone on the Twins to fit that description. So it's being able to move their Pollock contract for Kimbrel's contract and signing Trienen. The rest are all the same types of investments as the Twins make. Twins pen to start the year Romero and Cotton as the only 2 waiver pickups on it. Dodgers opening day pen had Phillips. So 2 vs 1.

Fair enough on the point 2. I'm getting old and the memory isn't always accurate so I apologize on that one. As for point 5. My point is that the Twins are doing the same thing other teams with really good pens are doing, but they're not executing it well. Example given: The Dodgers pen and how they were acquired (listed in order of IP this year): Brusdar- you know where he came from Evan Phillips- claimed off waivers Kimbrel- trade of major leaguer for major leaguer (AJ Pollock) Phil Bickford- claimed off waivers Alex Vesia- Acquired after 4.1 terrible big league innings for Dylan Floro as the Dodgers moved on from a good pen arm Yency Almonte- signed for 700k as free agent Daniel Hudson- signed for 7M as free agent David Price- brought with in the Mookie trade to lower the prospect cost for getting Mookie Justin Bruihl- Undrafted FA signing in 2017 Reyes Moronta- signed for 1.5M as free agent Twins paid 7.5 for Colome when include his buyout so they invested just as much resources in him as Dodgers did in their big free agent pen arm Hudson. There's a couple waiver claims in there. They got Vesia when they traded a veteran for prospects (like the Twins did with Alcala and Duran). A couple nothing free agent contracts like the Twins do. The only real diference is the Dodgers being willing/able to take on Kimbrel's bad 16M (and Price's deal previously, but Price was a means to the Mookie end and not a counted on piece of their pen). This is how pens are built by even the big spenders. That's what I'm getting at. The Twins are doing things the same way as everyone else outside of not bringing in the 1 expensive arm the Yankees and Dodgers types bring in. The Dodgers let their All Star closer walk after the year even. Like the Twins have done with May and Wisler. Now that doesn't mean the Twins shouldn't put more resources in just because everyone else is doing it this way, but teams aren't out there doing things drastically different than the Twins. Pen arms aren't reliable and everyone knows it. It's why pens are built this way. I get not liking the Rogers deal. I didn't love it. I didn't hate it. It turned out horribly and that sucks. They need to get better at identifying targets (like what they did with Wisler!), and continue to turn out productive pen arms from the system (like Duran, Jax, Alcala, Duffey, Rogers, May). But they're investing resources on the same scale as the industry standard.

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.

Rogers was on the injured list late last year...

Most teams lean on Larnach, Miranda and Lewis type top prospects as next men up. It's actually how most contenders break their top prospects into the bigs. Gordon was the 26th man on the roster. Kirilloff was a top prospect who'd been deemed ready enough to start a playoff game 2 years ago. Ober had nearly a full season in the bigs last year. I'm not saying they're veterans by any means, but they're quite comparable to players that make contender's rosters. What key spots? Ryan as opening day starter, yes. Gordon was the utility guy coming into the year. Ober started game 3 so kind of key, but as you'll see in my next paragraph the Dodgers had a guy in their rotation with about 40 more career innings than Ober and started game 2 of the season for them. Kirilloff hit 6 hole opening day so I guess he's kind of key if you want to make that stretch. Celestino, Duran, Winder, and Romero were not in key roles at all. I'm just not buying it. Dodgers Opening day roster included Tony Gonsolin and his fewer than 150 career big league innings. Gavin Lux and his 30 games more than Gordon last year. Edwin Rios and his 85 career games before this year. Justin Bruihl and his 18.2 major league innings before this season. Garrett Cleavinger and his 18.2 major league innings before this season. Evan Phillips and his 67.1 career major league innings before this season. Alex Vesia and his 44.1 career major league innings coming into this season. Mitch White and his 49.2 career major league innings. Shoot, our old friend Brusdar only had 66.1 innings coming into this season. I mean you'd be hard pressed to find a fan who'd even heard of Bruihl, Cleavinger, Phillips, White, or Vesia coming into this season. That's 9 guys that weren't exactly super experienced vets on the odds on World Series favorites coming into the year. That's the exact same number you say the Twins had.

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.

How often do minors coaches leave for college gigs? Is this as rare as the Wes move? If so MLB has to be starting to sweat a little here.

I'd have a problem with him taking all those swings in the timed derby when he can't even play CF everyday for the Twins cuz of his knee. I'll actually have a problem if he plays the OF in the game. If you can't play for your actual team without needing DH and rest days you shouldn't be playing in an exhibition game. And I'm a supporter (although a frustrated one) of the way they've used him to keep him on the field. He's got a handful of days off and to me they should be used to get his knee as healthy as possible going into the second half of the season.

Inexperienced guys on opening day roster: Celestino, Duran, Winder, Romero Middle ground guys: Jeffers. Kirilloff, Gordon, Ober, Ryan Not Inexperienced guys: Sanchez, Sano, Polanco, Urshella, Arraez, Correa, Buxton, Kepler, Gray, Bundy, Archer, Paddack, Duffey, Alcala, Pagan, Smith, Thielbar, Cotton, Coulmbe Certainly not half the roster of inexperienced players. I'd actually put the middle ground guys in the "not inexperienced" group, but there could be arguments there. Duran was a low leverage guy meant to build his way up to high leverage innings to start the year. Winder was a long reliever. Romero was at the bottom of the pen pecking order. Celestino was the 5th OFer. I'd argue the plan for the inexperienced guys was to get their feet wet and have the chance to take jobs as the year went along. Like what Miranda has done. There were 19 guys on the roster that there's no argument that they're inexperienced. Including 8 of the 9 position player starters on opening day (Jeffers being the 9th, but he'd spent part of 2 seasons in the bigs already so to me he's not inexperienced). Nick Gordon at 70 games played this year is the highest guy on the possibly inexperienced side of things, but he'd played 73 games last year. Otherwise it's Arraez, Urshela, Kepler, Polanco, (Gordon), Buxton, Sanchez, Correa leading the way in games played. Sano injury changed things drastically. Buxton and Correa missing chunks of games changed things. I don't think they were planning on relying on young/inexperienced guys this much.

1. 1 team didn't trade for Brusdar Graterol because they didn't like his medicals, does that make the Dodgers dumb for trading Maeda for him? If I'm remembering correctly Maeda is the one who ended up getting TJ surgery. 2. Paddack wasn't a talent improvement over any starter they had? They didn't add bullpen talent, but they added talent to another area of the roster. Which is generally how trades work. Not many trades of relievers for better relievers available out there. Paddack had starts of 5, 5.2, and 5.1 innings before he got hurt. Allowed 2, 1, and 1 runs in those innings. You're on here constantly complaining about starters not going deep into games and he made it into the 6th in 2 of his 4 injury free games. Weird that you don't think that's an improvement over the guys you're currently complaining about not doing that. 3. Agreed here. Rogers is still a good pitcher and would help the bullpen overall. But, to @Riverbrian's point, the way Rogers is currently performing wouldn't be helping the current struggles of the Twins bullpen. 4. If they hadn't traded Rogers and Alcala had stayed healthy they'd have Rogers, Duran, Jax, and Alcala as their top 4 relievers. I mean if we're playing the "what-if" game let's look at what the ideal situation would've been for now. That top 4 would most certainly be a playoff worthy top 4. 5. What does "treating the bullpen with respect" look like? Give me your top 5 bullpens in baseball right now and let me know how those teams treated their bullpen "with respect" that the Twins haven't.

Totally. Ryan wasn't the one who gave up the lone run today. I get it. There's no arguing against the fact that those 3 did all the work today. Why do they even have a 26 man roster? They only need the 7.

Luckily only their 7 good players had to play today. Thank goodness only Ryan and Duran had to pitch or they definitely wouldn't have won cuz all those other bad pitchers would've given up runs. You may be on to something with this being 7 guys doing all the work in the wins...

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

?‍♂️ All I do is report the numbers. Twins accomplish that goal 56.9% of the time. League average is 51.1%. They're 5th best in baseball.