Twins33

I’m definitely not taking the Indians lightly and I don’t think the Twins should either. I think it’ll be a closer race than last year, both teams winning 90 something games. Their pitching is still superior. Relying on both Dobnak and Thorpe (or whoever) for the first month worries me. I was worried last season too but Perez surprised in the beginning. Not sure it’s smart to hope for magic again, especially in two spots. The Twins offense is superior, but I think the ball will go back to a more normal ball. I think the Twins were a great offensive team last year and many players made legit sustainable improvements but I see them scoring fewer runs. should be a good fight the whole season.

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I’ve always felt that Graterol ends up in the BP so this is fine with me. He’s still young so maybe he can be a good starter but how many pitchers have we said that about? A lot of them and the majority of the time it hasn’t happened. he needs to develop that changeup or some other third pitch if he’s going to be a successful starter in the future. He’s been working on the changeup for at least two years now..so far nothing good has come from it.

Jeffers was just called the Twins best defensive prospect by mlb.com so he may be better at both https://www.mlb.com/news/best-defensive-prospects-in-mlb?t=mlb-pipeline-coverage

Rotation for the first month: Berrios, Odorizzi, Bailey and two rookies. rotation for 2021: Berrios, Pineda, three fill in the blanks. Yes, they do NEED another pitcher. I don’t believe they’ll have to worry about the White Sox, but the Indians still have good pitching and will still be a threat. I think the Twins can win the division but I don’t think it will be as easy as 2019. they need a starter who is a 1-3 in the rotation. One who has at least two years of control. They need him ASAP so he can help them win. Waiting until the deadline is an option, but then you miss out on that players production earlier in the season by not acquiring him sooner. Plus, the Twins can’t count on the rotation being as healthy as it was in 2019. i don’t know who this mystery pitcher will be. That’s for the Twins to figure out and acquire but as I said, it needs to be done ASAP.

Think he knew it was a possibility all offseason

He changed his pitch mix. Can’t remember the specifics but remember that was reported.

same for me. Then Kepler at 3 and Cruz at 4.

He signed with the Tigers a week ago.

Not sure if I’m misreading this or not and maybe this has already been replied to but players are declared free agents a few days after the WS ends. Then later a team decides whether to QO or not (think it’s like five days after the players are declared). Official FA where you can negotiate with players and QO offer day were the same day, November 4th I think it was. Now there may be some small exclusive window, but I don’t think its 10 days. Odorizzi’s agent was testing the market, but wasn’t finding anything to his liking on a long term deal from the Twins or other teams which is why he decided to take the QO. That was reported at the time. Seems like no one expected all those high offers that later came at Wheeler and the others. Will Smith was QO’d and negotiated his contract with the Braves before accepting or declining it. He told teams that if he didn’t get a good enough offer, he was going to go back to the Giants for the QO. It’s the smart thing to do, players using the QO acceptance deadline as leverage. There were a lot of tweets about it for both Odorizzi and Smith, but it’s hard to find tweets after this amount of time has passed. https://nypost.com/2019/11/14/will-smith-lands-first-big-free-agency-deal-of-offseason-from-braves/ “Smith planned on accepting the one-year deal from the Giants if a better option did not develop. It did not take long for one to come through.” If any of this has nothing to do with what you were saying, then just ignore this. Edit: I see now that this was already mentioned. Ignore me!

I remember the rumors that he’d probably be traded. I was meh about it. Preferred to not trade for him. Then we trade the fifth or sixth best SS prospect (or whatever it was, wasn’t top three) for him. I was all for it then. A number 3/4 for that? I’d do that every time. Odorizzi has been better than expected, at least my expectations. The Twins need to keep finding ways to do this (and more hopefully).

I’ve never had any expectations that Bumgarner will ever be more than a three from now on. I said that when people wanted to trade for him during the deadline. We all would obviously want him to be better than that, but it’s probably not likely. I prefer Ryu (I actually prefer both Ryu AND Bumgarner), but Bumgarner would be an improvement on having two rookies in the rotation. Sign one. Sign both. Don’t strike out on both unless that means you nabbed Cole or Strasburg instead.

Both, but if only one then Wheeler.

Stras already opted out. There was a deadline of a few days after the WS.

Buy out. It’s what the Twins did to Perez. If they had picked up the team option on Perez he would have been paid 7.5M to stay on the team. If they chose to not keep Perez, which they did, the player gets an agreed on amount that was made when the contract was first signed. They bought him out for 500K, essentially paying him that to go away.

The player is the one who can opt out. Never the team.

I’m fine with all of these scenarios. Falvey/Levine have said they prefer to not give opt outs though. I think they refused to give one to Darvish.

I was never interested in Teheran previously as a trade option but as a FA signing I’d be fine with it. He would have to be the third or fourth best SP the Twins signed for the rotation though.

it is a little crazy. A few years ago, BA said he had the best strike zone recognition out of all the Twins in the minors Think he was listed for best average too. That’s when I started paying attention because from studies done it seems like a lot of the best players in baseball usually are on the strike zone recognition list at some point in their career in the minors. Arraez knock was power and defense. If he didn’t have those issues he probably would have been mentioned a lot more because he’s always had a good bat. If you’ve got a guy who can do them all, well, he’s probably named Mike Trout. Think Wade was the 2019 pitch recognition guy. Again, knock on him is power which makes people put him in the 4th OF pile.

Yes, that’s always true. That’s what teams have to be good at. The Astros seem to be good at that part as well. While they’ve acquired good players, have there been any regrets about the guys they lost? All three traded for Verlander have done nothing so far. That looks like Verlander for a bag of balls. Musgrove is the only decent guy in the Cole trade and as of right now he’s only a three or four in a rotation. Not much lost there as of right now. And we know they’re not regretting getting Verlander or Cole even if they had given up good players. That’s what the Twins need to learn how to do. And while prospect lists weren’t too high on Arraez, it was clear that he could hit. That’s been clear since 2016, at minimum. Just look at his walks vs strikeouts and go from there. He shouldn’t have been seen as such a surprise. Thrylos has been beating that drum for years and it’s the only thing I’ve ever agreed with him on. The questions about Arraez were his defense and no power. He still has time to improve his defense and he can start by being the opening day 2B. Power may come, it may not. I know I never thought Dozier would become a power hitter. I don’t think any of us are saying it’s easy so I guess we’re all in agreement then. I agree with you that this is the perfect time to start doing it. If not now, then they never will. Hopefully they can find a way to keep their best guys like the Astros do and still get very good players in return. Who those best prospects are/were may not be known for another five to ten years. Just because Lewis and Kirilloff are usually one or two on lists doesn’t mean they’ll be good MLB players. Nothing is guaranteed. They have to identify the right ones. Nothing about baseball is easy.

I think you’re missing what birdwatcher said. Houston got Verlander without having to trade their “Royce Lewis.” They got Cole without having to trade their “Royce Lewis.” Why can’t the Twins do the same? I think that’s what birdwatcher is intending. Houston has made great trades with out trading their very top guys. The Twins should try to do that if possible. It may not be possible, but the Astros have done it several times and that’s definitely something the Twins should try to emulate.

Kep

This is just how he is. He starts out with a good eye then he’ll swing at a few bad pitches and get hits off of those pitches. Once that happens his brain thinks he can hit everything..which he clearly can’t.

Not a fan of Minor, but ok with the rest