Cap'n Piranha

My opinion can’t be formed without qualifiers in years and dollars. 5 years and $100M? Hard pass, thanks Mr. Dozier, don’t let the door hit you on the way out. 4 years and $60M? Welcome aboard. With pace of play, it has to be asked—if baseball is struggling to attract younger fans due to the length of the games, it’s going to have a tough time remaining relevant in the next 50-100 years. Therefore, the question is whether something should be changed to save it, or preserved to lose it.

It’s about the contract. You would find many willing trade partners for May, Duffey, Rogers, Mejia, and Kiriloff, as well as many other Twins not on this list. You would find none for Mayer.

With the Red Sox and Yankees both set up to be 95 to 100 win teams for the next few years, does it make sense for the Jays to start selling? With nearly a quarter of their schedule against the beasts of the east, and only one wild card in play, the best move for the Jays might be to start a 3-5 year rebuild now. The Twins can help with that, with a deep system full of potential high upside guys. Even better, if the Jays are tearing down, they’ll probably be looking for more lower level guys, rather than immediate big league help, which lets the Twins keep their now open window, well, open. To the Trade: Twins get—Josh Donaldson and Marcus Stroman Jays get—Fernando Romero, Wander Javier, Akil Baddoo, Blayne Enlow, and Alex Kiriloff Why the Twins do it: adding Donaldson improves the infield defense, while allowing Miguel Sano to focus exclusively on hitting. A Dozier-Mauer-Donaldson-Sano-Rosario-Buxton-Polanco-Kepler-Castro lineup could potentially be one of the best in the league. Adding Stroman to the rotation gives you a solid top 3 with Santana and Berrios, and you still have Mejia and Gonsalves as back end options with upside. It allows Falvey and Levine to focus on bullpen arms, which at that point would be the weak spot on the team. And finally, it would send a clear message to the casual fan that this new administration is different, and serious about winning. Why the Jays do it: as mentioned above, Toronto seems to be looking at a closed window for contention right now. Acquiring young, cheap, controllable assets for 2021-2023 makes sense. Of the 5 guys above, at least one is a Top 100 guy now, and quite possibly all 5 will be by the end of the year. With all of them except Romero at least a couple of years away, the Jays have time to continue building out a wave that can overtake the spent-out Boston/New York teams of the early to mid ‘20’s. What are your thoughts, armchair GM’s?

They did spend a lot on Nolasco, Santana, and Hughes, just not at the individual level. When all three (four if you count the extension) of those contracts have run their course, the Twins will have paid around $150M for 10ish seasons of pitching. The bigger picture here, however, is this; what if, instead of doing that $150M for league average production from 3 players, the Twins spent $150M for 6 years of ace production from one player?

He's definitely not a 25 man guy next year. I don't know if he has the option to become a minor league free agent next year, but if not, he'll definitely be in Rochester for 5 months.

Yeah, it's a nightmare when Dick gets stuck on something.

I appreciate the update on the former Gator/Bear quarterback, thanks.

Sources say it was actually pretty bad for Smokey Joe last night. Reportedly, he got into the Hershey's syrup.

I think we all thought the Twins would be playing meaningless games in September. Turns out we were right, just in the complete opposite way.

With the win last night, it is now guaranteed that Sunday the 1st will not be our last game of the season. Game 163 is now the worst case scenario.

Busenitz looks like he's going to be a key piece in the bullpen. Therefore, I'm not sure why he pitched yesterday, after pitching Saturday, when the Twins had an 8 run lead and 13 other relievers they could turn to.

The Yankees broadcast says that when MLB limits/bans trips to the mound, it will be called the Sanchez Rule.

Gameday says two fouls on 100 MPH pitches, two more fouls on 99 MPH pitches...

So the Mauer AB got me curious, so I googled most pitches in one AB, and found that the record is 20, set 19 years ago in 1998. It was set against Bartolo Colon.

http://www.midniteticket.com/sites/default/files/styles/news_landing_thumbs/public/groundhog-day-steve-tobolowsky-needlenose-ned.jpg

Great minds...

Noted speed merchant Kennys Vargas first to third... We got a little something cookin' here...

2 swinging strikes in one at bat! I can't see real good, is that Randy Johnson out there!?!

I never understood that phrase. How can money be defined as good or bad? It can't do or be anything other than money.

Is it possible Terry Ryan and Rick Anderson snuck into the office, pulled off the Colon signing, and Falvine just decided to go with it?

Look everyone, Mr. Positivity's here to cheer us all up.

The game's started. Have we lost yet?

Since the break, Buxton is fourth among all center fielders in WAR, and is actually outhitting Mike Trout (Buck has a better average and slug, with a much lower OBP). He also has only two fewer homers than Trout despite 68 fewer plate appearances. In other words, if Buxton hits like this the entire year next year, while holding his advantage in baserunning and defense, he will in all likelihood be a better player than Mike Trout.

I hope every batter bunts against Sabathia.