2wins87

Yeah the nationals have no need for Gallo or Kepler, but it's hard to see how the Twins would add another corner bat without moving one of them some other way. Buxton will have to be re-activated for tomorrow's game (I think the transaction actually has to happen today technically) and Larnach will be sent down. If Polanco is also activated this weekend as expected, and neither Gallo or Kepler is moved, it's hard to see how Wallner doesn't lose his mlb roster spot. Personally, I would be taking the best offer on Joey Gallo ASAP. I'm very comfortable with Wallner being able to at the very least replicate Gallo's production, with Larnach as a decent enough backup. I could also see a three team trade developing with either Gallo or Kepler involved. I'm asking for a lot for Wallner, but definitely listening to offers for Larnach.

Gut reaction just learning about the prospects now, but if I were a White Sox fan I think I'm excited about getting Quero, though I don't think the Angels needed to push him so fast, particularly if the goal is for him to stick as a catcher, and I'm pretty lukewarm on Bush who maybe can start but could very well just be a lefty reliever. I think Quero straight up for a Giolito rental is already a really good deal. Lopez doesn't really move the needle much but getting a pitching prospect included is nice even if I think he's a back-end starter or reliever

Luke Raley exceeded rookie service time limits in 2021 so he doesn't qualify. Yoshida, Jung, and Henderson all had much bigger national profiles, so I think it will be very tough to beat them in a writer's vote even if he out-plays all of them down the stretch. Would be nice for Julien, but I just hope he can help the team make a playoff run.

Was going to say it was an interesting challenge trade to swap two struggling major leaguers. It sounds like the human element for Lopez and his family might have been a bigger impetus though. Reflects well on both the Twins and Marlins that they were able to work out a deal that can hopefully help Lopez and his family. Floro's multi-year track record is a lot better than I first expected, much more in line with his peripherals this year. He's never quite been a dominant reliever, but actually a longer and better track record than Fulmer last year. I still think they could use one more reliever of similar or better quality, but actually he looks like a pretty good rental and they didn't have to give up any prospects, just the opportunity to try to reclaim Lopez next year.

BA had an article on his defense. Scouts didn't think he had the arm to stick at catcher when he was drafted, but he made huge improvements this offseason to the point that he's around MLB average arm strength now, and he's thrown out 31% of base-stealers across two levels. The overall impression now seems to be that he can stick at catcher.

The bulk of the promotions generally don't happen until several weeks after the draft. Wallner, CES, and Headrick were promoted about 1-2 weeks after the draft last year, but Varland, SWR, and Severino were all August promotions. Once the draft picks start to get assigned above rookie ball we will see more turnover.

Cossetti's bat has now been every bit as good in high-A as it was in low-A. He's definitely been the biggest surprise this year, and it sounds like he's done a great job putting in the work to shore up the concerns over his defense. I hope he gets a taste of AA after a few more weeks. He looks like a really legit catching prospect who could be knocking on the door during Vazquez's final year under contract.

Well, we could also give some credit to the front office for building depth and then refusing to give up on any of it even with half the fan base screaming for the under-performing veterans to be DFAd. That's probably a bridge too far though.

No, I don't think so either. It's possible the handshake deal with Walker pre-draft was actually under-slot and that was part of the hold-up, as they wanted to make a run at the 20th pick or something prior to this week. It doesn't seem like Jenkins was likely to go much higher so it wouldn't make sense that he could really be demanding way over slot. More likely though, they had already agreed to basically slot and it was something much more mundane. Maybe details emerge but probably we'll never really know.

They could still go over slot to sign one of the HS kids at the end of the draft, but I don't think they will. It looks like the 19th rounder Sam Parker could be a draft-and-follow selection, so they could still potentially sign him for up to $225,000 before next July if he attends a full year at his college. I am only vaguely familiar with the rules so I was just reading up, and if he goes to JuCo and qualifies as a draft-and-follow, other teams will not be allowed to contact him before July 2 of next year, which is only a week or so before the draft. I wonder how strict that is, are other teams' scouts not allowed to even talk to him? Presumably if he absolutely rakes in JuCo he would be incentivized not to sign and enter the draft. Seems like he would have to find some happy medium where the Twins still want to sign him but he knows he wouldn't get significantly more interest from other teams.

Funny that he got that exactly that extra $4500 they had saved up. I'm sure that wasn't actually the hold-up, but they are now exactly at slot.

Dozier was not a big guy but he did have probably two inches and at least a dozen pounds of muscle on Prato (at least as he's currently built). Dozier was able to get to power with more of a slide step than a full big leg kick, and probably that helped him to maintain his timing and good levels of contact. I do worry about Prato's size and big leg kick translating to the majors where pitchers are generally better at changing speeds and throwing off timing. He's shown a decent knack for contact despite it in the minors, but even now the power is kind of marginal and I do have a hard time seeing him getting to Dozier level power. I still see more of a utility profile, especially if the strikeouts were to tick up a bit without added power, but as long as he keeps producing I don't see why he couldn't be a major leaguer given the right opportunity.

Partly, pitching in the futures game messed up his schedule. I would have expected him to be closer to normal by now though. He is still very lanky so maybe they do want to protect him in the same way as Raya.

I agree with this, and I'll note that the International League is much more similar to the MLB in terms of left-handed pitching (at least 25% or so). The Texas League is weirdly short on LHPs this year, so if they want him to see more lefties a promotion would be the way to do it.

Two pitches before Julien's HR I was thinking "They keep pitching him inside, I really think he could turn on one of those." Really fun seeing him do exactly that. He's really locked in right now and he's got such a professional approach that it's hard for opposing teams to find a good way to get him out. There are still holes in the offense, but now 5 games out of the break with 5+ runs in each game, it's already around the longest stretch of competent offense they've had this year. Don't want to get too optimistic yet, but it's been nice seeing some run scoring.

Walker Jenkins Walker JenkinsBrooks Lee Has lived up to every expectation except power production early on. I suspect the lack of impact is also behind his somewhat low BABIP. Still some All-star potential, but very high floor. Looks good on defense though range might be limited.Emmanuel RodriguezMatt Wallner Has done a decent job of keeping Ks in check. Still a bit of a risky profile, but no indications that he can't hold his own in the majors.Marco Raya Still a relief risk given nagging injuries and limited workload.David Festa ERA looks much worse than peripherals. Still needs to fill out.Charlee Soto Physically reminds me of Jhoan Duran. Super high ceiling as a starter.Austin MartinConnor PrielippKala'i Rosario Great EVs in A-ball last year (90th percentile: 106.5 mph). Tapping into the power with solid improvements on plate discipline numbers this year. Not going to provide a ton of defensive value but still one of my favorite bats.Yasser MercedesYunior Severino I'm a sucker for a switch hitter with power from both sides. Doesn't really look great on defense so he probably ends up at 1B rather quickly.Luke Keaschall Somewhat similar to Schobel pick last year. Seems to have a bit better feel for contact and a bit better speed, which could give him value as an outfielder. Despite lack of raw power, has shown a very strong ability to get to power in games. Will have to see how that translates into professional ball, but seems like more than the sum of his parts.Brent Headrick Low 90s fastball, touching 95/96 (pretty solid velo from the left side). Mostly uses fastball/slider for outs, and relief might be most likely long-term role.Jordan Balazovic Making a bit of a comeback this year. Still sits mid 90s hitting 97. FB, slider/curve should work as a reliever, but changeup still looked very usable in AAA.Tanner Schobel Smallish guy who didn't hit the ball very hard in A-ball last year. Has had a power surge this year, a little reminiscent of Spencer Steer two years ago. Still profiles best as a utility player.Simeon Woods Richardson Still 22, I think he puts things together at some point. Somewhat unique, over-the-top delivery with decent extension, but the low 90s FB doesn't leave much room for error and probably doesn't help the secondaries play up.Cory Lewis Has featured knuckleball as a secondary to great results. Fastball only 89-92 range, but seems to have good enough secondary characteristics to still be quite effective. Slider has been an effective secondary for him as well, with changeup probably the 4th pitch right now. Knuckleball might give him an additional weapon against lefties, putting less pressure on the changeup.Brandon Winokur Will have to watch out for contact issues in pro-ball. Plenty of potential if they can keep his swing in check .Jose Rodriguez Still very young, but may not have much physical projection left. Holding his own in the FCL with enough contact but less power than he showed in the DSL. HM (21-30): Enlow, Cossetti, Canterino, Matthews, De Andrade, Miller, Salas, Cardenas, Nowlin, Ortega, Helman Might be low on Salas and Miller, but both need to prove themselves with some production. I'd sort of like put Cossetti in the top 20, but given his age I'll hold off unless he starts dominating in A+. Matthews sits in the mid 90s with his fastball and has excellent control but has gotten roughed up a bit in A+, which makes me wonder a bit on the secondary characteristics of his fastball and the level of his secondaries. Still think he could go on a run soon. Cardenas doesn't impact the ball hard, but has solid plate discipline and a good arm. Nowlin still struggles with command but has 3 good pitches. Ortega seems to have a pretty good knack for line drive contact and could be a utility type.

Edman is basically Kepler but at infield positions. Doesn't move the needle for this team offensively, I don't see how it would be worth whatever they would have to give up. I would have tepid interest in Hicks who would be cheap to acquire. He still struggles to throw strikes, I'm not sure how much he can be trusted. Goldschmidt, obviously, would help, but I agree it's kind of hard to even contemplate how that trade would come together

How many times this year has Sonny been cruising only to completely lose his control in the 5th or 6th?

MLBPipeline - Brooks Lee tapping into power 1.087 OPS in July now. I kind of expect they'll want to see him sustain his current level of hitting for a bit longer, but one thing I've noticed is that the Texas league seems to have a disproportionately low number of left handed pitchers this year. I would argue both Lee and Severino could benefit from moving to AAA just to see lefties a bit more often.

To me the first half of last year does look like long relief. Maybe you could say it's a multi-inning role in between long relief and late-inning relief, but at any rate, he did well pitching multiple innings. I think he could be even better if it is only in limited situations when he's been very efficient for the first inning. It's not really about last night specifically for me which I've said was a 50-50 call in my mind. The Boston game was much more memorable to me. Jax looked good and clearly could have at least started a second inning. You have no idea if Duran will be efficient enough to go 2 innings there. I think I am usually on board with the majority of Rocco's tactical decisions, but I've felt for several years that he tends to be inflexible when it comes to bullpen decisions. I think he's evolved on usage, but he still seems to approach most games with sort of a set plan on reliever situations/matchups and I'd like to see him let the results dictate usage a little more.

When did they try that? Because I can't recall it. From my memory and a quick glance at the game logs. He started last season as a long reliever, was good in the role, then became a late inning reliever and they haven’t tried multiple innings since. I'm 50-50 on last night's game given it was back to back. But at the same time he's probably unavailable today either way, and it's not like they were going to pull him from the inning early if he had a couple long counts and got to 20 pitches but was otherwise getting outs.

It's only one game. He's been around a 15% K rate the whole season. Since he's had a bit of a power surge starting mid June his K rate has basically been the same. He's a guy that can do both contact and power and probably needs to. He's not going to get many hits putting the ball on the ground.

Nope. Jax hasn't gone more than one inning since the middle of last year. Basically as soon as he became a trusted late inning guy he's also been a one inning guy. It was his performance in those multi-inning appearances that got him into that role though.

Yes it could be, I did want to acknowledge that. But that doesn't mean they couldn't push him a little further when he's been really efficient. I don't want to see it regularly, but I wish Rocco would call an audible every now and then when someone comes out to pitch only inning 6 or 7 and ends up looking really good and efficient. Wouldn't have to be Jax, though he's probably the only guy I would trust out of the current healthy group

20 straight scoreless appearances for Jax now dating back to May 22. All 1 inning or less and 18 or fewer pitches. The usage might be helping him to be successful but I've been wondering why Rocco hasn't even asked him to start a second once. I feel like there have been a couple times when Jax finished an inning in less than 10 pitches only for Rocco to go to Duran for 2 innings or to go to a lesser reliever. I could be conflating it into more occurrences than in reality, but Jun 21 against the Red Sox was one that particularly stood out in my memory. Jax finished the 7th in 8 pitches and Rocco went immediately to Duran with the clear plan of having him go 2 innings. Duran did go 2 innings but not before giving up the lead in the 8th and using 32 pitches. They did end up winning in extras. Maybe tonight's game wasn't an ideal situation either after pitching last night and against a team where you can put a little more trust in the lesser relievers. But after breezing through the 7th on 6 pitches, I would have been very tempted to stick with Jax rather than risk going to Ortegas. It worked out fine, but I don't really understand why Jax is the one guy who never goes multiple innings when he's been so efficient and so good. And he was a starter two years ago, and a multi-inning guy even more recently than that.