chpettit19

Dang, I knew that and totally forgot. Good call. Thanks for the reminder.

I guess I should've listed Fedko, too. He's probably the one who's really the most slighted here. They could argue they don't want GG in that small of a role, but it's likely the only role Fedko will/could ever fill in his career. And they went with a catcher who can maybe kinda play OF, too, instead. This was Fedko's death blow. But I don't think it's crazy to not replace a part-time, short-side platoon player with Emma or Jenkins. Unless you're going to truly move to the 2027 and beyond emphasis. Which I wish they would. But they aren't calling those guys up for a part-time role. And they aren't sitting Larnach, Buxton, Keaschall, or Bell on a regular basis for either of them. Jackson is weird, but I don't think Jenkins or Emma not coming up is what makes it weird.

Jackson is a confusing move, but GG is the player I think that should most be slighted by this. The Twins are either still selling the "this team is good enough to compete" narrative, or at least acting like they believe that. Larnach is going to start in LF vs every righty. Buxton is going to start in CF more often than not. Keaschall is going to start in RF every day. Bell is going to DH every day. Whether we agree with any of that or not, that's what the Twins are going to do. And in that case, Jenkins and Emma aren't a fit. Gonzalez was the fit as a short-side platoon partner with Larnach. Emma and Jenkins don't have a role on this team until an everyday OF job opens up. Whether that be by injury to Larnach, Buxton, or Keaschall, or by Bell no longer being an everyday DH. The Twins simply aren't going to play either of those guys over any of those other 4. Kreidler may be taking that platoon partner role with Larnach now. Or Jackson, who was drafted as an OF. But GG was the prospect that would've fit the current roster. Until Larnach, Buxton, Keaschall, or Bell lose their place on the roster, Jenkins and Emma are staying in St Paul.

Kreidler is interesting. Best defender on the team, but can't hit. Do we think Ross is as good defensively or has a real chance to be an actual MLB hitter? I don't, but others may disagree. I actually bring Kreidler back for next year for his last pre-arb year. Give Ross another year in AAA with maybe the September call-up next year to see if he's just completely overwhelmed at the majors or what. But, I wouldn't use his option years already. He's likely not somebody who's going to be worth paying any of his arb salaries (like Kreidler) so you want to maximize his options and pre-arb years. I'd start 2027 with Kreidler as my defensive utility guy who rarely ever actually plays because he can't hit and the young guys should be in the lineup everyday. That's the process I'd like to see them start now. I don't think Ross is good enough to put on the 40-man until late next year.

Taking naps...

I don't think there's any real option of trading Ryan anymore. Obviously, in the technical sense they can. But not for anything worthwhile. They went from 2 top 100 prospects plus to maybe a borderline top 100 guy on his way down after stalling a bit in the high minors? At this point, their best path forward on him may be to try to spin this into a "cheap" extension. If they're really willing to spend more, trying to get another 2 years (on top of next year) at discounted rates from him and Lopez may be their best option. The likely result is they get a comp pick for each of them, and maybe Jeffers. Tried to play both sides of the fence like many of us complained about them doing during the offseason and got hit with just about the worst-case scenario. Went from 4 or 5 top 100 prospects plus to 3 comp picks and a sub-.500 team anyways. Brutal.

While I fully expect this story to be a large part of the CBA stuff, I have to give Tom credit to this point that he hasn't said anything like that, to my knowledge. He's actually been pretty good at saying they just need to spend more.

I can sort of answer the "who the heck are we kidding" question. A lot of fans. Their PR move didn't flop. And we'll have numerous posters on this site praising them for the rest of the season. There were a number of articles written on here in the days following the deadline how Tom Pohlad "proved" things. How we should believe this Pohlad is different. How we have owners who truly care and want to win now. All that garbage. And many fans ate it up. The power of expectations is carrying a lot of weight this year. People have spent most of the last few months talking about how they're "overachieving." How they're playing much better than the offseason projections and predictions thought they would. But they weren't. Not by record. Most fans on here and the projection systems had them in the mid-70s for wins. Which is what they've been on pace for most of the year. But since they weren't on pace for 60 wins the idea that they were overachieving landed. Mix that with the anti-analytics sentiment of not caring about predictive stats that say they're going to regress and the business department/Tom Pohlad was handed a PR gold mine at the deadline. All he had to do was say they're contending, have Zoll make minimal investments in the team, and the fan morale went up, Twins focused websites sang his praises. We were back, baby! And they'll continue to sell the story until some other AL team gets good and breaks away in the wild card race. The fact that there's any sales pitch needed to convince people this team was never really contenders says it all. Fans are starved for any crumb of hope. And the AL sucking handed it to them.

I agree with the general sentiment here, but I don't know that September will be irrelevant. Well, no more irrelevant than the rest of the season. The situation hasn't really changed since the bad investments you referred to went down. The challenge at the deadline was always whether or not they'd take an unbiased, hard look at the talent on the team and make a decision on the best baseball path forward to being the best team they can be. I'd argue they didn't do that but instead looked at what they perceived the best PR move would be. But the situation between then and now hasn't changed. The pitch then was "we're playoff contenders! Ignore us being below .500 and just focus on us being 1 game back in the wild card and 4 out of the division." The situation is essentially the same. Still a below .500 team that is now 6 out of the division but still only 1.5 back of the wild card. They're just as "relevant" now as they were at the deadline. They'll keep selling the "we're contenders" storyline the rest of the year.

It'll end up being 6 trips total.

The intention was to do a series of articles throughout the summer, but life had other plans. I'll do one at the end of the season summarizing all my adventures. I'll get to all 30 this summer. Did spring training and the WBC as well. Has been quite the adventure.

Average bat, too slow and too weak an arm to play SS, is about where I saw his most likely ceiling coming up. I think that's playing out so far. Expected numbers show he's likely maxing out his performance to this point. Maybe he finds a way to be a guy who consistently outperforms what he "should" do. Maybe he goes back down to what the data suggests he should be. He's a useful player if he can perform to this level. Not the star many were hoping for, but a legitimate major leaguer who can hit at the bottom of a good lineup is a perfectly fine result. I think his RISP numbers make it feel like he's doing better than he is. That emotional spike carries more weight in our minds. Similar to how the team feels like it's overperforming even though it's performing almost exactly how the projections and many fans predicted. The league is just down so they're "in contention" and it feels like they're performing better than they are. If the Twins can back into playoff contention every year and Lee can outperform most every metric every year, we'll mostly be happy. But both should be looked at with a healthy level of skepticism until they start doing things in a more stably sustainable manner.

Yes. I think every team would argue they "need more" Hall of Famers.

I think these are all pretty good if these players are going to be who we hope they are. If Vahn Lackey is the star we hope he is, he should absolutely blow through a couple levels next year and put himself in play for an early 2028 debut. I don't have a big problem with any of them in the sense of their timelines if they are who we hope they are.

I've been to 27 stadiums this season. I actually think Target Field isn't far off from the norm in terms of atmosphere and fans paying attention. St Louis is known as a "baseball town" and I was just there Monday. Their fans weren't noticeably more into the game than any Twins game I've ever been to. Based on my admittedly limited data set of just this season, I think a lot of it very much has to do with how good/entertaining the team is. The Twin Cities aren't a baseball town, but the people who show up tend to be pretty typical baseball fans from what I've seen.

While I think there's some truth to this, the (former) X can hold roughly 18,000-20,000 people. That's roughly 1.5 million fans over an 81-game home schedule for the Twins. They do that even when they're bad. I think Minnesotans are more into hockey than baseball, but I think it's a pretty small advantage. I'd say it's Vikings 1. Wild 3 (big gap between Vikes and Wild). Twins and Wolves interchangeable at 3.5 and 4 depending on how good they are at any given time.

I will go out on a limb and take the under on 3 MVPs, 12 all-star appearances, 10 gold gloves, 6 silver sluggers, and 1 Hall of Fame induction.

Oh, this is exactly why I spent all offseason saying they should trade Lopez, Ryan, and Jeffers and that they don't just automatically have those pieces to trade for quality returns at future points. But I don't think I'd describe the situation as "tough." They made their choice, knew the risks, and got burned by the risks as far as their options to trade Ryan goes. I think the possibility of trading Ryan despite all of Tom's words since he took over was a tougher situation than they're in now. Preaching "we're in it to win cuz we care" and pushing the "we're buyers" storylines made doing the right baseball thing with Ryan more difficult. That decision is gone now. It's a bad situation, but not a tough one. Now you just sit back and hope he bounces back next season.

If Joe Ryan wanted out he could've forced his way out pretty easily. I don't buy this for a second. If Joe Ryan demanded a trade last deadline, Joe Ryan would've been traded. If Joe Ryan demanded a trade this offseason, Joe Ryan would've been traded. If Joe Ryan demanded a trade this deadline, Joe Ryan would've been traded. The Twins aren't stubbornly holding a disgruntled player for multiple years. I have no expectation that Joe will re-sign here, but if he wanted out so badly, he'd be out.

I'd argue the opposite. The Twins were in a tough spot, but they have no decision left to make now, and the situation is very easy. A truly rebuilding team would've traded Lopez, Ryan, and Jeffers before this season started. They would've maximized the number of shots they had at adding impact pieces for 2027/2028 and beyond. They changed plans mid-rebuild and decided not to trade those 3 guys. Lopez blew out his arm, Ryan collapsed again, and they kept Jeffers because the AL is abysmal. Lopez and Ryan aren't real trade chips anymore. The decision is easy now. The only way this becomes a tough decision is if the AL is improved next year, the Twins are still hanging around .500, and Lopez and/or Ryan are having success and worth more than a comp pick in trade at the deadline. They have no decisions to make on the "big trade" front until next deadline. The Joe Ryan situation is incredibly simple now.

I looked at going as well, but the prices were outrageous. The Saints game tomorrow has some decently priced seats, though, if you're just looking to watch some baseball in a corn field.

From the reporting out there, it doesn't sound like he's getting another option year. He better be their September call-up to at least get him a handful of ABs this year before he's just on the roster next year.

I know, just saying that he's an interesting piece for a team in the right situation.

Who is he pinch hitting for? The guy you constantly state can't hit and shouldn't be here is now a guy you want pinch hitting if needed? Jackson is out hitting Roden in their respective small samples this year. And he's faster. How is Roden more useful? And we haven't even talked about what happens if Jeffers or Caratini gets hurt this year. It's not all about just having Jackson for next year. Caratini looks hurt right now when he's out there. If one of them goes down this year, who's the catcher you want to come learn the pitching staff and perform in a playoff chase? All so that Allen freaking Roden can backup corner OF spots that have plenty of coverage and pinch hit for an equally crappy hitter if needed?