gman

Interesting to note that 5 of the starters mentioned above pitched at some point for Elizabethton, although all 3 of he college guys have been move to the Cedar Rapid roster.

Let Rogers close for now. He's due for some time off.

In September just like minor league players getting a look see, we often see minor league managers get added to the coaching staff as a way of saying job well done. I wonder if this year we might get a preview of things to come and allow certain minor league managers to get reacquainted with the major league roster?

I don't see Vargas on the Twins 40 man this winter but could see a trade for a low level lotto player. I Think Santana and Kinsler are mostly traded with some back and forth still going with the loser of the Grey sweepsteaks. Escobar or Dozier could be traded but not both.

IMO as the Twins continue to build their front office and coaching staffs they can use all the smart up to date baseball people they can get.

If they trade any other veterans I hope they eat additional cash to up the prospect return.

Maybe we can hire Miracle Max to help with the pitching.

Are they waiting for waiting for Andrew Vasquez to dominate before they promote him? Will Chris Paul make it back this year?

I have been a proponent of sell all year. If you asked me last winter or any month since, I would have said sell. That doesn't mean I am disappointed in this year. We have won more than expected and still have 60 games to grow on. Last winter we needed 11 pieces for a 13 man pitching staff. Did people really think we were going to sign or trade for that many above average pitchers? Right now we need to find 7 or 8 pieces for a 13 man staff in 2018. So far I count Berios, Mejia, Rogers, Hildenberger and Busenitz as solid pieces for 2018 and beyond. Might be wrong some could fail. Hopefully we find 5 more in house to add to this group in 2018. Do I expect this many young pitchers to carry us to a playoff in 2018? No. I expect 2018 to be another development year. It's too bad our top relief prospects all seem to have gotten injured this year, but another group not much talked about before seems to have shown up. Maybe we will add more in house if we have a better year health wise. Maybe we add pieces by trading Santana and Kinzler. Either way they won't be here long term. Besides pitching, our middle infield and first base situation needs to be solved. I expect Mauer to retire at the end of 2018 and we need to plan on his replacement. A trade of Dozier may be a 1 step back for 2 steps forward move. If we can add a pitching piece for late 2018 or early 2019 by trading him great. He won't be here in 2019 anyway. I don't expect this team to really click pitching and hitting wise until the second half of 2019. Both groups will need more development time. By then we should have another wave of prospects getting ready to make their presence felt and might add upgrades and more trade possibilities. To go from a 103 loss team to serious playoff contender in 3 years is a good achievement. (It is interesting to note that most of the players counted on to make this happen were acquired by Ryan.)

I like the thinking behind the trade. Moya may or may not work out, but I would prefer to trade most of our Triple A roster into possibilties instead of space filler. On the Twins fielding calls note, how do they know? I'm sure most suspect they would be, but is somebody in the front office really talking about potential trades before anything concrete gets done?

I agree with most of whats been previously stated. I think the plan the whole year should have been sale at peak. Maybe this is peak season. Hopefully they have been setting up trade possibilities long before now and those trade partners have not gone somewhere else.

Neither Cleveland nor Kansas City will win the rest of their games nor will the Twins lose the rest of theirs. What this series really did was expose the overall weakness in the Twins roster. If you look at the lineup this series, can you imagine playing 30 or 40 games with Sano on the DL. Nine months in, I don't fault current managment for the roster construction, you build with what you have.

If and when this team builds a really good bullpen (or pitching staff period) it will be from prospects. We aren't going to compete with the Yankees or Dodgers, etc. for the best free agents so we need to develop. Unfortunately due to injuries to most of our top relief prospects we haven't yet seen them this year. But just like the rest of the team, in order to build a really good bullpen we have to rely on the prospects

I always thought that this year should have been a tryout camp and rebuilding year. I didn't care how many gmaes we won and still think that. At 28th in pitching this year, next year needs to be a tryout camp for pitchers, hopefully we will have more healthy bodies coming up. Again I don't care what our record is and expect having many rookie pitchers will probably put a drag on the won/loss record. Over the next two years, besides Gordon, Garver and maybe some AB's for Wade what other players on the farm are inline for any meaningful AB's with the Twins? I don't ever expect the Twins to compete with theYankees, Red Sox or Dodgers in free agent spending so that pretty much leaves prospect drafting and development. As a mediocre team we don't get the best draft picks either. To optimize our assets, we need to trade whatever veterans we can at the perceived optimum time of year for the best prospects we can get. The prospects may bust, but there doesn't seem to be too many alternative routes to develop a really good team in Minnesota. I think they need to become a prospect juggernaut in order to become that really good team year after year. I also think it will take several more years to get there.

I didn't say anything about previous trade results or Kinsler ability. You might try responding to what someone actually says. If you have a problem with trade results or think Kinsler is a poor closer then take credit for your own thoughts.

We have waited for years for the Twins management to trade veterans and rebuild the system. Terry Ryan sat on his hands and got properly chastized for it. Always acting as if we were 1 second rate starter or reliever away from a good team. Current management seems to be followiing the same worn out route. Who are they trying to kid? Our current veterans become burdens next year if not this. Dozier has no position flexibility at this point other than perhaps 1st base and DH. His fielding has continued to fade and basically he's a mediocre fielding second baseman with 25 homers and 245 average. Nice, but there are many in the league better. The Twins have to find someone to fill ths position by the end of next year. Will he be more tradeable a year from now? Basically next year he's blocking the future at this position whoever that is. Will he be happy sitting on the bench the end of next year? He's not a utility type player. Trade value not much. Ditto for Mauer who is not tradeable for anything but will occupy a roster spot and can also only play 1 spot. Kinzlers is tradeable. If we want to try and resign him in 2 months and he's willing he wouldn't have to move his family and could play for a title contender in the meantime. Santana is tradeable. Not for as much as last winter or even 2 months ago. But we could get something. We can add some single A high upside type. Won't help next year. But next year will be another tryout camp for pitching. Not much else. Grossman and Escobar? I'm tired of this get by crap. There are many teams passing us by while we are afraid to build our own pipeline. The top teams right now got there by trading their vets while we continue trading for shortterm vets at the deadline. Because we have a 500 record in a weak division? Oh please.

The Twins need pitching for 2018, neither Colon nor Garcia will be back. Gibson is eligible for arbitration and would probably be cheaper than other pitchers on the open market, not necessarily better. The free agent market doesn't look good. I think they really need to find out if Gibson can be improved over the last 2 months of the season and Triple A is probably a better place. We have four nearly ready potential starters in the minors in Romero, Gonsalvez, Jorge and Slegers. Probably only two will make it and they will struggle next year. Right now our 2018 rotation looks like Gibson(?), Berios, Mejia, uh & duh. Yeah Santana is still here but I expect him to be traded and unfortunately we let the best window for that pass us by (again).

The off season 40 & 50 rank should be interesting. Graterol rank as #12 with only 30 career innings pitched speaks loudly of his stuff.

Reminds me a lot of the Tommy Milone trade. Except Milone was more effective and the cost wasn't as high. Garcia's last two starts have been okay, but his 4 previous starts he pitched 22 innings and gave up 31 hits and 23 runs. He should fit right in. But he did hit a grandslam.

Are we sure Ryan isn't hanging around?

In 2009 the Twins signed a 16 year old teenager for $800K. His name was Kepler. Right now I would be real pissed if we gave up Kepler for 10 games of Garcia

Seems like a 2018 ticket sales drive type of trade.

Rochester has a decent record but they are not loaded with prospects. With only about 5 weeks left in the minor league season, I think it's time to start moving players up to the level we want them to start at next year. Give them some adjustment time and get players ready for the next step.

I think Slegers needs to be put in the Twins regular rotation for the rest of the year. Give him 6-8 starts and find out what you have. He has been succeeding at Triple A and he Twins need him to learn how to succeed and become a reliable major league starter for 2018 and forward. The Twins also need to find out if he is not a future probability at starter.

The door may open a little more in 2018, but I think it will be primarily because of players brought up to continue filling out the major league roster. I don't see any reason to spend big on free agents in the offseason, especially based on what will be available. Trades should be based on bringing in good prospects to add to our core. We need to bring up 2-3 bats to replace Dozier and Mauer by the end of 2018. Neither of which has much positional flexible and Mauer basically can't be traded. We will also need to bring up 2-3 starters and 4-5 relievers if possible. Santana has lost trade value based on the way he has pitched in June and July and other than Kinzler we don't have a lot of tradable veterans of any value. So that leaves us to promoting from within and continue to grow the team.