diehardtwinsfan

I personally find it odd that the college ranks have out done MLB in this area... For all the talk about money ball and finding advantages, this one is strange... Good move by Falvine... I also wonder if perhaps that's why they went heavy on college pitching in the draft this year despite experts saying it was pretty weak for college pitching... hope they say something, because their ptiching class in the 2019 draft was pretty uninspiring.

Not sure I agree with you on Chalmers and Celestino... Celestino is a bat in high A, and not even a stand out bat. I know with the 26 man, bad teams may try and poach a bit more, but that's a guy you cannot hide for a year. Chalmers has pitched a bit higher, but walking 6 batters per 9 innings, even with the sexy K rate will likely have a tough time in MLB... A tanking team my want him, but he's going to havea tough time sticking... On the other hand,I have to think Tyler WElls gets added.

Graterol's problem to date is durability. I don't see him pitching a full season. He's going to get shut down at some point in 2020... He can either start or finish in the pen to make it work, but that's probably the big issue there. I'm not sure I'd pencil him into a spot for 2020 unless they've resigned Pineda.

the more important question... Can the robot eject Gardy?

Cave in 2 albeit limited seasons has an MLB OPS of .801. He plays mostly CF, and while I think we all agree his CF defense is a bit subpar, I think you're being a bit harsh on him, since his corner defense should be average to above. The guy will be entering his 27 age season and has shown he can hit MLB pitching well above the average CF and above the average MLBer as well... He is a very good 4th OF who can provide an adequate replacement for short stints when someone goes on the DL.. If he keeps that up, he's going to be here for a an arb season or two as well, as he should be. If he improves, we have a nice situation on our hands. That said, starting him for 3 months until one of our minor leaguers is ready is a bit risky. I'm not personally sure that's a good idea. I think the article implying Rosario is down trending is well... not a reasonable picture at all to put it nicely. I'm not sure Cave could fill in for Rosie, nor am I sure that we should be counting on Rooker, AK, Weil, or Raley to be ready at some point this summer. That's asking for trouble. Rosie is a known commodity. Flawed, yes. But he can also perform at an MVP level for prolonged stints. I don't think the value he'd return in pitching (which I suspect is little) would be worth the risk of opening up that spot. Edit: side note, but Rosario was one of the few guys hitting the ball in the playoffs. SSS I know, but I don't think it's smart to dump the guy who showed up against NY.

Sites like TD have served to aggregate information for fans like none other before... but let's not pretend that the front offices around the league have more of it. I'd be willing to bet that the #30 FO in the league in terms of analytics has far more data at their disposal than we do. And given how surprised we are by a lot of FO actions around the league, I'd say we are still lagging behind them.

not a fan, but why not Donaldson if this is what they are thinking?

oh wow... I started laughing the moment I read the title... Well Done...

The answer is always 42.

Corner OFs are pretty cheap right now... so no, I dont' think Rosie brings back pitching... I also think people are being way to hard on him. Defensive metrics are pretty flawed, that's especially true of OFers when you have 2+ defenders, which we do when Buxton and Kepler are on the field. But Rosario has graded well when Buxton is off the field.. I'd add that the eye test doesn't back up that he's a bad defender either, so I'd probably toss all of that given the questionable nature of defensive metrics. His biggest flaw is the occasional boneheaded play, but even that has hardly been a consistent thing. As for the bat, yeah, he needs to be selective. I suspect that guys like him are also going to be more susceptible to "pressing" so to speak since he doesn't naturally lay off pitches, but good Lord when he's on, he's ON... and as others said 1st half Rosario was pretty good. We won't get much for him in a trade. I could be wrong there, and I'd trade him if he was bring back a top shelf starter, but I doubt he does. His replacements will not outperform him... not for now at least. The goal is to improve on 101 wins and advance in the playoffs, not re-arrange the furniture. Rosario should stay. I don't think he's in the long term plans, but he should stay until we have a capable replacement.

I think this speaks to just how bad defensive metrics are...

Chemistry is not a synonym for happiness. The question I'd ask is if you've ever worked in a toxic environment. I certainly have. I know what it's like to absolutely dread Monday morning. Perhaps you're lucky in that you haven't, but I don't think baseball is different in that capacity, and I don't think winning is a simple cure for all of it either. Winning helps sure.. but a good environment also helps winning... Using your examples, do you think a plumber that hates his/her job makes more or less mistakes? Do you think that firefighter who hates his job might lose a bit of that will to save the trapped girl? Do you think that cop might get frustrated and take it out on the perp potentially giving the perp undeserved freedom or a nice payday later on? A good work environment will affect production. The question is how much.

So another question... Are you now a Twins fan? Hope you stick around.

I don't buy baseball savant saying Rosario is one of the worst OFs in baseball. He's got above average range and a cannon for an arm.. yeah, he makes a mistake or two... but not that many.. I'm guessing this is more a shortcoming to defensive metrics that cannot figure out how to deal with 3 above average defenders.

You could argue that Ryne Harper was one of those. Look, I'm really hoping they spend cash on Will Smith, but I have zero problems adding guys like this. As I mentioned before, I suspect this is a means to stash him in AAA. Whether it works or not, who knows. But even if he's at the ML level, they are showing track record of turning some guys that were mostly marginal guys into decent relievers. I think it would be wise of them to keep trying.

I don't know... look at how many guys turned into pretty decent relievers this year. The BP was considered a pretty big weak point going into the season and we fans all hammered them pretty hard for not doing enough... They finished with one of the best pens in the game this season. Were mistakes made? Sure... but their process certainly yielded results.

Woah... you're arguing to spend... I like it I think Cole should be the shot personally, but I wouldn't complain if they got Wheeler. I think I'd rather target MadBum personally as I'm not nearly as confident in Wheeler, but to be fair, I'm guessing the FO has much more data than we do.

yeah, comparring him to Bryant really isn't fair.. there's very little similarities here other than that both were drafted high. Buxton can file that grievance, but I'd be very surprised if he won... He certainly didn't deserve a call up... his play dictated the need to evaluate other outfielders.

potentially... but lots of times (as noted in the other thread) teams drop these guys through later hoping to stash them in the minors.

No, I doubt anyone thinks that... but let's not pretend that good/bad chemistry can affect wins and losses either. I'm not sure it can really be quantified in any way, but it's definitely something that can reasonably have an affect.

I'd argue that spot is his to lose, and I'm comfortable leaving a spot open to competition between Dobnak and other minor leaguers. I think if they retain Pineda that Graterol will take that spot to start and then move to spot starter/long relief as he will have an innings limit next year...

I was always curious how the scholarship works for HS players. Do you get to pick the university of your choice or is it set at a certain dollar figure? Do they let you go to day school like you would have had you went to college? Congrats on having a kid that does 7 to 7... you're lucky... all I got to say. Side question, now that you've had lasik, have you considered another try at the minors?

I definitely think there's something to chemistry... but winning also cures what ails in some way too... That kind of adversity will bring out the gaps in that armor...

I don't think Buxton and Bryant are the same at all. Buxton had plenty of really bad on field results in 2018 and as was noted spent plenty of time on the DL too... That will get factored in I'm sure. The team is going to argue (and rightly so) that Buxton didn't earn that callup.

I think the struggle I have with this is that a guy like Archer isn't going to get fixed in ST... You're going to have to endure some painful starts for months quite possibly before things get figured out... For a contending team, that's a pretty big ask, as games will be thrown away.