sthpstm

Oh my, has Stewart really dropped so far as to be out of the top 10?

First and foremost, Falvey will change the philosophy of drafting, developing, and working with minor league and major league pitchers. Who he determines to fit into that philosophy, I couldn't guess, but my point is this will be less about the pieces changes and more about the system that produces and works with those pieces changing.

And Berardino got the same quote. Do you think the article on the Twins website would be there if it weren't all but complete?

No one is exactly like those under whom they learned their positions, but Mark Shapiro and Chris Antonetti have seemed quite aggressive in their moves. Shapiro was not afraid to trade off the best players and fan favorites for young pieces when expedient and we've seen Antonetti be fairly aggressive in acquiring/attempting to acquire talent to help their post season run this year.

Here's a brief article on Falvey's previous promotion along with the David Stearns hiring in 2011: http://m.mlb.com/news/article/26174134// And I believe someone has already posted this or a similar interview with Falvey at the beginning of the year: http://cleveland.cbslocal.com/2016/04/04/indians-assistant-general-manager-derek-falvey-says-the-off-season-goal-was-to-supplement-the-core-pieces/

I'm curious where these rumors are as I haven't seen, or looked for, them yet. Interested that David Stearns and Falvey shared the director of baseball operations role in Cleveland before Stearns left for the GM post in Milwaukee. IF it is Falvey, it would seem as though he may lack the contract negotiations and external analysis needed, but certainly the Twins could hire a GM to balance that out. And, if that is Antony, I personally won't complain

Baxendale is a near lock for me in the same way Rogers was going into 2016. Thanks to being a starter for most of his time in the minors, he's had plenty of experience and has very little to nothing left to prove. His 35 innings in AAA have been very good. He was sufficient as a minors starter but his stuff can play up in the bullpen. He can start as a long reliever or a 6th/7th inning guy depending the other bullpen pieces.

I think I have more reasons to cheer for the Cubs to win the World Series. I like McLeod. The Dodgers will become more desperate and may make a trade favorable to us depending on what weaknesses show up in their post season performance.

Hard to disagree with the general sentiment here. Assuming Baxendale's move to the bullpen was permanent, I see no reason he shouldn't be a near lock. He's had plenty of minors experience and likely would have moved quickly if he wasn't starting. So, Kintzler (you need a little experience in this pen/won't cost much), Chargois, Rogers, Boshers (outside of ERA, his numbers are solid), Baxendale, Duffey, and two of Pressley, Wimmers, Light, Dean, Hildenberger. And since we're not signing a top FA, I wouldn't do too much in the way of FA signings as we should have plenty of young depth behind these.

I am all for trading Dozier, but I agree that one of those three seems unlikely. I continue to believe that a trade for Dozier may be more likely to get back higher valued position players, which would allow us trade a more valuable piece (Sano, Kepler, Buxton) that could fetch the pitching we need.

I'm curious why he didn't include the Howie Kendrick for Andrew Heaney trade (I know, I keep banging that drum). It's not a perfect comparison since there was only 1 year left on Kendrick's deal and Kendrick was older but not of these are perfect comparisons as others have stated. If we need ML ready starting pitching, it seems like there may be no better trade comparison.

Thanks for getting the thread back on track! 1 year of Howie Kendrick was worth Andrew Heaney who, at the time of the respective trades, was a higher rated prospect than Meyer and had made several starts in the majors already while Meyer had only pitched at High A. I think that's a better trade to set a starting bar for the Twins to get over to trade Dozier. I can't help but wonder if the Twins will get significantly better offers for Dozier centered around top position prospects which would allow them to part with a more desirable MLB piece (Kepler or Sano or Buxton) to get the pitching we all want them to obtain. No, I don't want to trade any of them, but take Kepler for example. I would think the market and demand for someone like him would be far greater than Dozier. I think we could come up with a lot more teams who appear to have outfield needs than second base needs. You might get the teams that you really want to bidding (i.e. the Nationals have incredible quality and depth of young, MLB ready pitching; it's hard to imagine them bidding for Dozier, but Kepler or one of the others seems more likely). I know I'll get a lot of push back for putting these names out there but I think we should all be prepared for some big changes from the next regime. The current roster construction must be altered. We have what appears to be the potential for a solid core of young of position players getting MLB experience. The pitching is years behind it. We can't waste all of these years. I think we need to get some balance between the two. Yes, trading for 2 MLB SP might help next year but look at the price in prospects of the recent trades and consider that with no solid FA SP the price will be costly.

Gonsalves has talked about working on his slider, but BA and now Law have talked about not using it and/or it being below average. I'm curious what the reality is and how much he's actually used it in game situations.

Mike, Mike, Mike. How can you make such a grossly inaccurate statement? Meija pitched 2.1 innings in the majors this year.

1 year of Howie Kendrick got Andrew Heaney, a top 30 or so prospect just starting in the majors - sadly out for TJ this year. 1 year of Neil Walker brought back 3 years (2 as options) of an established back of the rotation starter, Jon Niese. 2+ months of Ben Zobrist brought back Sean Manea, a top 75 or so prospect close to the majors plus a AAAA player. I can't think of many better comparisons, so I would start there; each trade brought back 1 SP for next year. I would expect more for Dozier than these comps since he is arguable better than all 3, he is younger than all 3 were at the time of those trades. I would expect the first piece to be a Heaney or Manea, not a Niese. You may be right that only a few teams have a glaring hole at second next year, but it only takes one, and you don't know who else might view him as an upgrade. If teams agree with the recent Fangraphs article that his changes to his swing are positive and permanent, you never know.

Agreed - I don't think people saying trade Santana (and Dozier) expect the return to be players that will make the Twins better next year but rather better in 2018/2019 and beyond. Could everything go well next year with the offense and the pitching is not completely awful and the Twins make a worst to competitive turnaround? I guess stranger things have happened (see the Orioles current team), but i don't see that as a viable strategy. I want a strategy that will build a perennial contender and in my view the offense/defense should be settling in by 2018 and so we need a pitching staff that will coincide with it. Trading Santana and Dozier for SP's to add to Berrios and be around or above Gonsalves/Jay/Mejia is more certain than keeping your currently solid veterans who will not be around or not be as good by that point.

Garver and Walker September call ups, with Aaron Slegers, Ryan Eades, Stuart Turner, and Daniel Palka rather than Granite to the AFL since I've seen enough of Granite to know he's going on the 40 man roster but uncertain on Palka. Heck, if Buxton isn't coming back for September (I hope he is) maybe Granite gets a call up and audition in CF.

Keeping Santana seems like a very TR move - let's keep him and hope 4 other starters exceed any past results and reach their absolute ceilings and the offense maintains or improves slightly we can be a .500 team competing for a wild card spot. I hope the Pohlad's didn't fire TR just to appease fans and just hire someone who will keep the same philosophy. We are going to lose 100 games this year and have been dreadful for most of the past 6 years. We need to rebuild a SP rotation for 2018/2019 that can hopefully coincide with our top hitting prospects developing. Since prospects miss all the time, we need to fill that pipeline with 2-3 more SP's in the AA/AAA range.

I completely disagree with the idea that no one will give up good, upper level minors, nearly ready for the MLB, players for Santana. We got Adalberto Mejia for the Eduardo Nunez, who has played well for about 1 year. Surely we can do better for Santana. Sell high on an aging player! While I appreciate optimism, the idea that the Twins should be built to compete in 2017 is just unrealistic. Trade Santana for pieces that you believe will help in 2018/2019, and beyond. Yes, you lose a major piece of your current team, but if you're current team is terrible you suck it up and deal him to ensure you have more potential pieces for years that you are building towards.

You need to check out this series: http://twinsdaily.com/_/minnesota-twins-news/minnesota-twins/examining-pre-arbitration-players-r5009

I'm on board with filling the pipeline, but we can't ignore catching depth (lack of). I'd be targeting Barnes and Brock Stewart (because I don't think you can get De Leon, but try by all means). I'd also trade Santana - the Rockies seem like a team that could use a veteran that's not De La Rosa to team with their young guys. Maybe we could pry Marquez and Freeland or one of those plus a Castellani. I want to win in 2017, but I just don't see it. All these guys could be up in 2017 and hopefully making positive contributions by 2018/2019.

Do you not consider Duffey an option for the 5th spot next year?

I think the 4.2 walk rate they mention for Gonsalves should be understood in the context of 4 starts with a high walk rate of 8.2 (starts 1,2,3, and 6) and the other 6 starts (starts 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10) a rate of 2.25. It seems like a guy working to adjust to his level and showing success in that process. It's hard not to get excited about this guy!

If he is the type that will age well into his low 30's, will deliver good innings consistently, and the options/extra years are affordable, you can take that risk. You mentioning something earlier doesn't make it right. Others can disagree.

But the point of the extension is to give the team an affordable year or two (or options) in his free agent years. If the team can't have the defense improved to good/average by 2019/2020 (preferably 2018) then we have bigger problems.