twinstalker

Counting down makes no sense. Oh, Alex Kirilloff is #1? I've been waiting five articles to find out! The big pubs start with #1 for a reason. JMO

The Dodgers are light years ahead of other teams, trading-wise. Friedman is the guy who started the TB thing, after all. I would stay away from those guys, because the one you get is the one they want you to get. Yes, I know, we got Maeda and he had a great 1/3 of a season, but their deal when committing to give Maeda to the Twins there was about getting Betts.

I had to read to the end to see if Rogers and Colome and Duffey were going to be on there, but it was worth it. Whew!

Great. I would say "Garofalo." Not a dad. Not that I know of.

Great article. Not to be that guy, but in 1986 Letterman was the host of Late Night on NBC. The Late Show wasn't a thing until maybe seven years later. And obviously you meant it wouldn't be the last time Pride sang for Killer. One of my earlier memories, for whatever reason, is that of Charlie Pride (because he stood out as a black man in country music), and as I was listening to the Twins game on radio with Harmon on 1B and Bert pitching vs Nolan Ryan, I also then leaned that Pride had played baseball. I may be making up the exact game I learned that, but I do remember the frustration of listening to that matchup, because Bert would pitch well and the Twins still had no chance. Rinse and repeat during those years. In honor of Late Night's David Letterman's Top 10 lists, here are the things I remember learning from listening to Twins radio after going to bed in the early '70s in Iowa: 1. Charlie Pride played baseball but never made the majors. 2. Nolan Ryan threw over 100 mph (and Twins couldn't touch him). 3. Wilbur Wood (SP, ChA) killed the Twins with his knuckleball. 4. Aurelio Rodriguez (3B, Det) was tough against the Twins, Dick Allen (ChA) was phenomenal. 5. Disney World was in Florida. 6. Freddie Patek (SS, KC) was 5'4". He later grew an inch. 7. David Clyde (Texas) was a phenom who would go straight from high school to pitching against the Twins. Later in the season, the Twins would send Eddie Bane against him in a promotion touting two pitchers who never pitched in the minors. It was a frustrating game to listen to. Clyde was better. 8. Jim Kaat won the Gold Glove every year. 9. Frank Howard (1B, Was/Tex) was the largest man who will ever wear a major league baseball jersey. 10. Ray Christensen, Herb Carneal and Halsey Hall.

"Someone should have brought up St. Paul by now." This made me laugh. Normally, once I read the headline, the joke's done for me, but this was a good line.

Yeah, an earlier article explored who might be out there for the Twins to select and mentioned Gonsalves, at which I balked that he wasn't eligible for Rule V. That's where that name comes from.

Guys like Romero and Gonsalves wouldn't be eligible for the Rule V draft even if they weren't on the 40. Once you're on a 40 and tossed back off, you get to be a free agent at season's end. That might not be true of younger prospects (or it might be), but it's definitely true of guys who've been with ML organizations for as long as those two have.

What does that tell you?

As a fake doctor, take my word that Gonsalves needed TJS before he left here. I don't know whether he's had it, but I wouldn't touch him if he hasn't. Also, I don't know he qualifies here. He's way more than a 6 yr minor leaguer even. I don't think he's subject to Rule V.

The problem with Whitefield isn't putting him on the 40, it's taking him off the 40. Bring back Pineda or possibly Romero, and you have to expose Whitefield to waivers. Now it may be that he has to be put on the 40 in November anyway, and they just won't be able to do that, but teams make claims often just to expose a guy right away, and therefore they become the default team when everybody passes. Basically, what I'm saying is that if the Twins were interested in keeping Whitefield, he wouldn't be on the 40. My guess is they think there's a decent chance other crap happens (like someone going on the 45 day), and he can stick through the regular season, or if nothing happens they dfa him when Pineda comes back. As for Celestino, they definitely don't want to have him on the roster. A full year's service time if he stuck for the 60 games. They don't really want to start his clock until a while into 2022.

Balazovic is not on the 40-man, and all the starting pitchers kept, except Chacin, are on the 40-man. Whether we're talking Balazovic, Sands, or other prospects not on the 40, I'm sure each is being handled and worked with and on a program. It's not perfect, but I doubt there's a ton of difference between whatever program they're on and being at CHS field. In fact, expect him and others at Ft. Myers.

The rest of the world likes Rosario better than the Twins do and the analytics do. Yet he has no market. What does that tell you?

Apparently, Trov, nobody can answer your question about the 40-man roster and DFAing. I've spent two days looking for that answer. It almost bugs me more that people don't seem to care. It was literally my very first question when MLB said taxi squad.

Is there a database of all signings and their rankings by BA or such? It would be nice to know how all teams are doing.

1977, 1979, 1984 are candidates, too, though I'm too lazy to look it up. Edit: 1977: 24-11, 42-31, 67-48 were local maxima before finishing 84-77 (35-25 after 60) 1979: 22-8, 53-42, finish 82-80 (32-28 after 60) 1984: 18-15, 54-49, 67-58, finish 81-81 (28-32 after 60) 1972: 23-12, finish 77-77 (33-27 after 60)

He's lucky enough to get paid, but I pretty much lump him in with the mass of pitchers in a system that is going to produce a lot of pitchers. Falvey's infrastructure and hires will no doubt be responsible for this. And unless I had Strasburg or Cole or Bauer in front of me at my draft pick, I wouldn't be picking a pitcher when I'm of the opinion that getting out amateurs has very little to do with getting out MLB bats.

I skimmed the OP and didn't see the part about the "chant" which I'd forgotten about. Trust me, we used to make fun of him for that. I don't really care about statues, take his down. But what I do know is if social media was around for Calvin's generation, pretty much everybody, except for the one guy's dad, would be caught saying things that are totally inappropriate. My mother was the least racist person I knew and taught me about bigotry, but she still said things that could be considered ignorant or possibly racist, even though she would be appalled if someone implied that. Because she was of a different generation. But she raised a kid who is taking this very seriously, and if we want the change to come, we just can't be militantly reactionary to every slight in the past. Not because it was right or excused as part of the way things were, but because there are a lot of people who are partially but not all in on the cause, and you don't want to lose them. Sure, tributes to traitors and slaveholders and murderers must be destroyed. And wrongs that are occurring in real time (there are lots still after Floyd) and Calvin-like statements we hear now must be immediately condemned. But there is a line when it comes to the past, not because Uncle Joe needs to be honored for his comments, but because you will lose people. Right now I know Trumpers who are appalled at recent events. We need to keep these people's attention with current atrocities. I guarantee there are a number of people who, just based on the current Calvin thing, will no longer pay attention to what is happening in this regard. Pick your battles. This is too important.

If you're middle aged, Calvin was racist like our fathers were racist. More than anything, he was ignorant. Certainly his quote about Carew was anything BUT racist, you really have to reach there. I've called a black person an idiot. Is that racist? No, he was being an idiot, and I call all idiots idiot, and usually they are white. Calvin would have called any white player who was top five in the MLB a fool there. I think I'm pretty sensitive to the situation going on, but I'm uncomfortable removing the statue of our club's founder simply because he was ignorant like most everybody of his generation. Let's save our outrage for those doing overt harm, or we will tire out before anything of substance gets accomplished. And yes, I understand the insipidness of latent racism.

I totally agree. Pretty sure I know this Hanson, and he's a hypocrite because I remember him not standing for the anthem at the hockey tournament a few years back. He's was trying to keep his beer on the downlow beneath his seat. It just pisses me off when Stu finds another hick to get his opinions from, because these rednecks do not represent Minnesota or our sports fan. In fact, if Joe Mauer weren't so talentless and overpaid to the point where he destroyed any hope for the Twins in the 2010s, I'd suggest he interview him again.

Dobnak might be their best pitcher, so while I can see an argument that he's not top five due to circumstance and Berrios, I cannot see how he would be behind Devin Smeltzer if there is a sixth spot in the rotation. Besides, Smeltzer has looked very well-suited for middle/long relief, whereas Dobnak has been slotted more as a starter thus far in MLB, And Dobnak was backing it up in ST as a starter this year.

I skimmed this, but the point seems to be that maybe you get actual player more often by choosing corner/1B bats. However, I see no reference to the ceiling, so a 50 WAR pitcher is the same as a 5 WAR bat-first player, but maybe difference in average WAR is what should be tested. Is it better to succeed in getting a bat-first player slightly more often than succeeding in getting a pitcher when it's the pitcher who are more frequently great? Not even sure that's the case, just wondering. But as you mention, there are pitchers drafted that even Falvine might never have passed on no matter if their general strategy is avoid them. Just curious before I look it up...what college pitchers were sitting there for Falvine in 2017? Remembering back, there were two: Brendan McKay and Kyle Wright. While they looked good, I don't think anybody mistook them for Cole (1) and Bauer (3) or even Hultzen, who went 2nd in 2011. By the way, take a look someday at how the Twins crapped all over what might go down as the best draft ever. Three picks in rounds 1 and 1s, none sniffing MLB.

I would love to know specifics on who was using the n-word. The first guy that comes to mind was someone Falvine never seemed to appreciate as much as Minnesota fans did. Maybe this explains that, though he seemed like a really good guy and probably is...it's probably someone or someones else. Huh. Maybe not. Torii Hunter and LaTroy Hawkins were hired by the Twins in late November 2016. Here's a list of those there in 2015 with Hunter who were traded/released thereafter, let's just say through the 2018 season. Honestly, it's a short list, as most were gone prior to November 2016, are still with the club, or are Brian Dozier, Ryan Pressly, Eduardo Escobar, or Joe Mauer (who doesn't fit "getting rid of"). Joe couldn't say it in a sound-proof room all by himself experimenting whether he could utter the syllables. And actually, now that I think about it, it didn't have to be a player.

Gasser and Bumgarner, I remember them well. At the time, the only resource I had (busy life then) was Sid Hartman, and surprise(!) he was very high on them. I told my friends how good they were going to be. I also remember being very high on that 1989 class, and that one panned out quickly. The 2002 class looked bad when Span looked like a bust and just a couple of relievers were producing, but then he had lasik or something, and suddenly he could hit and get on base. 2002 was also the first time it seemed as if the Twins had a good farm system. Kubel and Mauer were having huge years, and Morneau was looking really good. Plus the MLB team was young and taking over the division.

Just out of curiosity, are they still planning on switching the Pirates and the Braves to make it easier on the New York teams?