Twins33

TV guys talked to Dustin Morse, he’s coming to Chicago. Was mentioned on air. LaTroy didn’t think he would and neither did I.

Right

Fine for me as a second or third add. Need to get at least one BP guy better.

Hard to judge with Kirilloff, as wrist injuries can mess with an entire season.

As would I. Boyd-Greene is my number one choice due to Boyd. Greene is alright but I want a better reliever than him as well in a different trade. Wheeler-Lugo would be my second choice.

This is what gets me I don't remember if it was here I read it or elsewhere but someone said they don't trust him in high leverage situations and I completely agree. Even more so after seeing the stats. When he's up in an important situation I always am waiting for which kind of K it will be (looking, swinging and my favorite the check swing K). I never think he's going to homer or do anything good.

"•The Twins have released righthander Dusten Knight for a violation of team policy. Knight was a hit on social media this season because he liked to do back flips after notching saves; in seven games, he had posted a 1.59 ERA and three saves. Knight, 28, was selected by the Twins in the minor league phase of the Rule 5 draft last December from the Giants organization." http://www.startribune.com/twins-bullpen-shows-off-its-versatility/509490352/

I don't care really but found this interesting. Looks like you'll have to click the tweet because the image doesn't come through well apparently. Anyway, it is Magill's swinging strike rates.

Cave probably has earned it, but he has options and I'm intrigued by Reed. Would be nice to find another Cave or possibly/hopefully even better (more walks). Being a RH bat helps too.

He's worth that in a trade but I don't want to because of the position. To give up talent AND money for a catcher is hard for me. We saw what happened to Mauer from a foul tip. It was depressing to move him to another position and he was never the same offensively. I am/was all for giving out money to a FA C (would have really liked Grandal). That way if he goes down it's only money and not money plus top prospects.

Still not officially announced by the Twins, but more details:

Or is on vacation and ignoring all calls, which is what I'd do. Might not be an option for them though.

If you didn't say it, I was going to, so thanks. I'm a Rosario fan but he was absolutely terrible for four months last year and it feels like a lot of people don't know that because the other two months were so excellent. Even I was surprised a few months ago when I saw the stats.

If he played today, sure he'd probably be borderline. He didn't play today though. My baseline is basically 50 WAR is needed to retire a number, and some exceptions to that can be granted. Hrbek would not be in for me. The other guys can go into the Twins HOF. Retired numbers are for legends, in my eyes. Some of the greatest players ever. Hrbek isn't that, at least he isn't for me. For pitchers, Radke is borderline but I wouldn't. And I wouldn't Santana and I love him more than any Twins pitcher ever, as a lot of people do.

Cruz' agent said the Twins gave the best offer (could mean $ and/or option year) and said it was clear the Twins wanted him the most and that was important to Cruz. I'm certainly surprised he chose the Twins, especially over the Astros. Happily surprised. http://www.1500espn.com/touch-em-all/2018/12/bonus-show-nelson-cruzs-agent-came-twins-astros-rays/

Retiring a number is for an MLB HOF type player, or close to it, in my opinion. I would not have retired Hrbek's. And so far no one else but Mauer deserves it. Hopefully Lewis or Kirilloff are next.

We've brought this way off topic, so I'll end with this. I don't think there's enough players in MLB to provide 2+ WAR consistently every season, which was my main point which I probably said poorly. That would be what you'd need for true constant competition. There's backups because there's not enough talent across MLB. There were a little less than 100 hitters to provide 2 WAR or better this year according to fangraphs. Maybe some of those bench guys would do better if they got to play more but would they easily be able to provide 2 WAR all the time? No and 100 hitters isn't enough for 30 teams to split between them. I agree there should be competition for every player, unless you're Trout or some others. I agree that players who are bombing like Dozier last year should not just get to keep playing. That's always been ridiculous to me. I agree that you should find upgrades everywhere as much as you possibly can. I don't think too many people argue against much of that. The owners and their wallet, sure, but I'm guessing most fans want all the teams players to be good. I don't agree that it's easy to do because of the lack of talent across MLB. The Ryan Lamarre's of the world are always going to have a spot on the bench on teams because there's not 200 Max Kepler or Eddie Rosario's lying around. I'd love to have their clones sitting on the bench ready to go in case something happens to the originals but it's not realistic. The Twins would need nearly a whole new team if they were to do that kind of thing at every position. I'd be perfectly fine if the Twins upgrade on a whole ton of positions, but where are you going to find 15 new players from? Let alone all of them be potential competition/upgrades? You can and should add a couple a year, but then it'd still take 5+ years to rebuild it. There's just no way to get rid of 100s of bad players unless you start eliminating teams because not ever player has the talent to provide true competition.

I can see that, but not sure that's possible. There are a lot of good players in MLB but there is not enough players in the league to have multiple guys on one team who can provide legit competition to the players who play more. Usually, obviously not always, the better player gets most of the playing time and the other guy sits more because he has less talent. Plus, most of the good players want to play 140+ games a year (assumption). Like at this point no one is going to be good enough to have Mike Trout play less. Mike Trout is a no doubt "starter" unless he's hurt. I think in order for what you want to happen, you'd probably have to eliminate 5-10 teams from the league so you'd weed out the really bad players.

"Shouldn't play more than 60-70 games because they're not good enough to play 100+"? To add: Adrianza plays league average for a shortstop which is fine and the minimum bar I want from him, but I prefer Polanco getting most of those reps.

Haha, "mostly a bench player" work better for you?

True, it is smaller sample sizes but neither of these guys are going to be starters on this team (knock on wood) so sample size issues will always be a problem for them. Right now I'd go Adrianza and it's not even close for me. Devil you know, I guess, plus stats back it up for me.

Im more concerned about recent production than minor league production and Adrianza beats him there the last three years. If you just count Adrianza's last two years he beats Torreyes in BB% and ISO. Torreyes gets him on avg and K%, though Adrianza is average at worst in striking out. Torreyes may be better eventually because of his track record but he hasn't shown to be the last two years (even three if you count Adrianza as a Giant for one year) on the MLB field. At least he's not in my eyes because I'll take the more patient hitter with more power. Their defense is probably equal, but that I admit, I haven't looked at.

Thats quite a jump. Seems more like a 10-12M per kind of guy.

Since Mauer's paycheck was mentioned in the OP, I figured I should post this. https://www.twincities.com/2018/11/17/charley-walters-vikings-need-back-to-back-north-conquests/ It's not too surprising as I didn't expect them to spend 50-60M in FA, but it's still sad to pretty much have it confirmed that payroll won't be near last year. I'm just hoping they spend at least 30M.

Yeah, bat-wise they're similar. It's the defense that seems to lean Iglesias. Adrianza hasn't been given full playing time, but I don't think his D would be as good as Jose's.