Twodogs

Well after Lopez and Paddock get traded to get under 130 million Festa and Matthews will be in the Big club rotation. Man I really hope they don't trade pitching but that's probably what it looks like is going to happen in some form or another.

Seems to me that all of their young guys are up and coming position players. Yes you are correct that none of them have really proven themselves as of yet so the quality is definitely questionable but I'm pretty sure that many of them with a couple of years of experience at the MLB level will become pretty good ball players Walker, Lewis, Lee, Julien, Miranda, Rodriguez, Keashal, Martin, Larnach, Wallner, Jeffers, Buxton, are some of the guys that come to mind who the Twins have developed or are developing. None of them other than really Buxton maybe even Jeffers would be considered a valuable piece for trading and such, but most of those guys have proven that for at least short periods of time can play baseball at a high enough level that maybe they'll one day be starting quality players. Pitching wise they have Festa and Zebby coming up along with Ober who they've developed and you could include SWR since he's young even though they got him in a trade, the Twins probably get most of the credit for developing him. So they have guys, but not the big name guys that an organization would like to have. Correa, Castro, Vazquez, Paddock, Ryan, Lopez to me would be examples of guys the Twins have that they really didn't develop. So I think they have some guys, but not really guys that they can get big trade pieces for, at least not yet. So they have some work to do in order to have a lot of depth to be able to trade pieces away. Hopefully they don't trade Lopez away. They might be stuck with mostly what they have, have to fire sale Paddock and maybe Vasquez in order to keep Lopez?? But I'd rather have Lopez than those two.

He will be Randy Dobnak's personal catcher in St. Paul.

I think I'd rather still have the pitcher?

Yeah, new ownership might get rid of Falvey regardless. I mean, I'm sure most people that buy a new company or whatever is going to bring in their own people to run stuff?

Yes I agree that their best shot at trading away someone would be to trade away a position player before their arguably best starter. I mean the Twins have shown a great ability to develop position players over the years. They have largely struggled to develop pitching. Ryan and Lopez came in trades, hey they developed Ober but SWR came in a trade also. So they should probably ride Lopez and trade a position player. Anyway, we absolutely have no influence, so fingers crossed 🤞 I guess?

I mean, I see what you're saying but since the trade, Berrios has started 108 games, 44 wins, 620 innings, 570 strikeouts. Now granted, I hope and pray SWR wins 20+ for the next 5 - 6 years in a row. You know what I'm saying, I mean I want SWR to do great things, and in 5 years from now we could bring up real good arguments as to why SWR is better than Berrios. But right at this moment, to say these things is probably a little bit out of line, even with the WAR statistic. That trade is definitely not over with, but I'm pretty sure Berrios would have made the Twins better for the last 3 seasons than SWR has. I mean how long will it take for SWR to even throw 620 innings as a Twins starter? I hope not long, but his track record so far says it'll take awhile.

I mean I am by no means Pohlad fans, but do people think the Pohlads are sitting by the phone trying to trade away arguably their best pitcher? This is Falvey's job, so if there is someone to be pissed at it would be Falvey. I'm thinking the Pohlads said, "hey get the payroll around this number." and now it's Falvey who gets to make the decision on how it gets there. That's just my thoughts.

Hopefully he hits .270 with 25 bombs and helps the Phillies win a bunch of games. Hope he does well. Maybe a change of scenery does him some good.

I've been kind of saying the same thing. I mean you usually fix up your house before you sell it, right? It seems that others think I mean to go and get a Juan Soto contract, but that is definitely not what I meant when I've brought it up before. Just that maybe keeping payroll where it's at instead of cutting it, could still trade some people to reduce the payroll but then use that money to add a needed piece or two. Just like you said a winning club should be worth a little more than a squad that gets cut to scraps. Regardless of the sale or no sale, I just want to see the Twins compete for something this season, hard to do that when you cut payroll and then you can't add anything? They have a good core, just might need a player or two to put them in contention. 🤞 Fingers crossed

For sure, I'll buy the Farm system and it's impact on keeping a competitive team out there. The Twins have always had a decent system, especially for producing position players. But you brought up the point that in order to hold it's value there has to be some perceived hope to do well. Otherwise one of the future money makers ticket sales would go down. So my point is, or I should say I am going to surmise that if the Pohlads spent just a little, maybe we're able to keep the payroll in the 140 million range that at the moment their team might perform better and would hold the value up. Then the new owners could potentially break it all down and start over, but I'm thinking if I'm the Pohlads and I want top dollar for the Twins, they definitely don't need a Juan Soto and some crazy ass contract. But getting a decent guy here or there on a 1 or 2 year deals or keeping someone they have right now, maybe a Santana or whatnot might actually help the sale of the team? I mean you always fix up the house a little before you sell it, right? But yeah the farm is a great asset for sure, and some crazy Soto type of contract won't help, but if they would just splash a little paint on the team it might help a little. I'm saying more like keep the status quo until a sale goes through. 🤞

For sure, I'm not trying to say go out and sign Ohtani or Soto. I'm just saying that, if for some reason, because of cost cutting measures the Twins become a bad baseball team, do they become worth more money or less money at that point in time. I mean we are talking billions of dollars here. But in a smaller analogy, if you are trying to sell me a car, and I can't quite make up my mind on it. One day the engine works fine and the next day it's not quite running right I might still want the car but I'm not going to pay top dollar for it since it has become a little depleted with the engine problems. So if the young guys and a shaky back end of a starting rotation can put the Twins in an annual hunt for a division championship. Then they will be fine. But if they mis calculate and they end up as a 4th or 5th place team what does that say to prospective buyers, who probably will rely more on gate and ticket sales than say the Dodgers and the Yankees need to? I mean if the Twins are worth 4 billion right now, could a bad season drop them to 3 billion?

I know the Twins are trying to sell the team. I was just wondering if they are going about it wrong? I mean if the Dodgers were to sell. Would they be worth more now, with the Ohtani, Yamamoto, Glasnow, Edman, Snell contracts? Or would they have been worth more without those guys?

Yeah that's why I'm thinking that we can't really expect much out of this team this season. They finished 4th last year and the Twins are probably going to run the same team back again minus a couple of pieces. Most likely a 4th place finish again. But, if those guys like Lee and Julien and Martin get full seasons under their belts and start to figure things out a bit, then they could come back really strong in the next few years or so. I found it amazing that the Oakland A's signed Severino to darn near 70 mil?

Shannon Stewart is the perfect example. Somehow the Twins need to find a really inexpensive Shannon Stewart! I wish them luck, that one will be hard to do nowadays. But last year they seemed to be a decent team, they just seemed to be missing that spark at times. So hopefully this year it all turns around.

So I like your ideas. But I guess my big thought process here is that this is basically the same exact team Minnesota had least year and they finished 4th. So I believe somehow the Twins need to sign either a left fielder or a right fielder that can change the clubhouse and provide that extra spark that they didn't have last season. Maybe doesn't need to be a great player but probably needs to be a spark plug kind of guy. Then you'd have to get rid of Santana, and probably go full blown Miranda/Larnach at 1B. This team needs someone who is a quasi everyday player that makes a difference in the clubhouse/adds a spark on the field to light a fire under this team. Obviously can't spend big on this guy. The pitchers look ok, again I think an everyday type of player needs to be brought in to change the atmosphere and the attitudes and bring positive energy to the team. Otherwise you have the same team that finished 4th last season?

We are looking at finished products in Gil for Cave trade. But even had Gil stayed with the Twins, he most likely doesn't pan out the same. It might have been something he did in NY or some coach he gravitated towards once he was in the NY organization that honestly might not have happened in the Twins organization. So just because he's lights out now, doesn't mean that had he stayed with the Twins that those same exact things would have happened. But I mean yeah, wouldn't it be cool to have Lopez Ryan Ober Gil Whatever at 5th. I mean it's great to fantasize about, but in reality it probably doesn't work out the same.

I didn't know Grand Forks had a Five Guys. I haven't been there in a long time. But if you want a free agent burger I'd recommend The Kegs on 5th Street north. Or if you want a beer the Hub had a good burger back in the day.

I thought at one point in time that Duran called out the coaching staff on pitch selection. Not sure if Duran wanted to throw more fastballs or more off speed, but I remember after a meltdown he went public that did not agree with the pitch selections he was given. So Duran may actually agree with you on that.

Is there anyone, besides Glen Taylor, in Minnesota rich enough to buy the Twins? How many billionaires are there in Minnesota?

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DA1WeJiRQMc/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== Eric Byrnes and Will Clark talking about Farhan getting let go. Pretty amazing, former MLB players talking about how front office guys messing with the lineups and stuff. I know people on this site speculate a lot about how Rocco might not really have control over the lineup, but here is a situation where it looks like something like that was really taking place? If it's going on there, could it be happening in Twins territory too?

San Fran got rid of analytic guy and hire Buster Posey.

He got out while he could.

Did it really seem like the Twins had enough pitching this season?