Minny505

I have heard Clevinger bandied about in the rumor mill. I like that idea. I don't think the Friars will trade both Gore and Weathers in a deal. That's like the Twins trading both Duran and Jordy Blaze in one deal. That has to be for someone better than Berrios. Maybe I'm wrong? I would ask for Clev, Weathers, and Gore, but willing to accept Hassel in place of one of the MiLB pitching prospects. The Twins need to throw as many high caliber pitching prospects at the MLB wall as possible thru the rest of this year and next year to make a legit run in 2023.

Would like opinions on this. I'm actually torn. Taking back Kiermaier (Owed $12mil in 2022, then FA) in the trade to get Joe Ryan and a top6 system pick and plug the backup CF hole that the Twins have. Tampa might be open to that to get out from under that 18%-of-their-payroll contract. What's Twins Territory think about doing something like that in fairy tale land?

I have the same feeling. The comp pick will likely remain in place. It should. It's the penalty applied to the team that signs the FA that needs eliminating, and it probably will be. It really doesn't make any competitive sense and only suppresses FA contracts...which is, of course, why the owners, who seem hell bent on minizing the enojoyment one gets from following MLB, love it.

It was great in the offseason when they first launched and they were updating the prospects every week based on the plethora of prospect lists getting published, along with reader/fan feedback about the teams they followed. It seems it has not gotten updated since opening day though and a lot of their prospect rankings are outdated.

With the Twins near the bottom of the league in pitcher Ks, trading Simmons is going to hurt this team more than others. I'm not advocating we keep Simmons, just that the drop off is going to be substantial unless we plug in a mediocre D, no-bat SS in his place. Moving Polanco back to SS full time should be off the table IMHO. I'd still love for the Twins to find a way to trade with the Rays for Taylor Walls at the deadline...if the Rays are ready to permanently hitch their wagon to Wander Fronco. Maybe take back an aging Kiermaier to pair the prospect Walls with a salary dump and give the Twins a legit backup CF?

Make the Rays ownership an offer they never refuse: cover Cruz's salary.

I want to add the Rays to this list: Nelson Cruz for Taylor Walls. We get a cheap, stud defensive SS for the next 1.5 years with upside that could hold the position for most of the decade. If not, he becomes a true Utility IF when Lewis is ready. Not sexy, but reasonable with the Rays having a glut of SS, including Franco, at the AAA/MLB level right now. Franco is the present and future SS there. Moving Walls off SS diminishes his value significantly at his age, so he seems like trade bait.

This is a feature, not a bug. This is how most of the top bullpens work these days. The best pitcher is the 7/8 inning guy who faces the highest leverage or best hitters in the lineup, while the second best pitcher is generally put in for a clean 9th when the 6, 7, 8 batters are due up and ahead by 2 runs. BTW, is Rocco is nickname? That's the first time I've seen quotations used in reference to him.

Here is why > https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/14317320/aroldis-chapman-fired-gun-accused-choking-girlfriend-domestic-violence-incident He seems like a completely horrible person. I can never root for a team with a player like that...like when "Sully", the podcaster from Boston, stopped following the Red Sox while they had Steven Wright on the roster. Maybe that's a good rule for convicted domestic violence offenders in MLB. You can still play in the league, but you are no longer eligible for any awards, including the Allstar game. It's bad publicity for the league when horrible people have the spotlight shined on them and avoiding that situation is in the best long term interest of everyone on both sides of the CBA.

Nailed it Roger. We have seen high contact prospects "play up" when they get to MLB over the last few years, while low contact guys generally struggle. Rooker and Sano vs Polanco, Gordon, and Arraez, are recent Twins examples of this. We also see this league wide, not just in the Twins system, with guys like Alejandro Kirk, Nick Castellanos, or Adam Frazier, vs Bobby Dalbec, Alec Bohm, or Keston Hiura. Pair that with little-to-no defensive value and you have a recipe for disappointment.

Yup. Like Berrios, Buxton, Maeda, Rogers, Duffey, Robles, Kepler, Pineda, Happ, Garver, Arraez, Polanco, etc, they should be placing calls to everyone about each of them to see how many teams are willing to offer good value for any of their current 26 man roster players with 2+ years of experience. It would be a dereliction of duty for the FO to not be trying to find a trade of value for all of them, including Donaldson. No other rationale is really needed.

I never saw any taunting from Donaldson. He kept his face, body, voice, and tone directed toward his own dugout and teammates the entire time. Listening the the national pods on this, from Effectively Wild, to Jomboy, to Starting 9, and everything in between, they all had the same take. Giolitto responded poorly to "fire up/encourage his own team" kind of action from JD. If anyone should be embarrassed, it's Giolitto.

I came here to bang my keyboard loudly as I comment against this sentiment, but it seems about 30 of you beat me to it.

I didn't realize Whitefield was still in the system and having a great two months. I'm really surprised he has not been called up. He has to be a better option than Celestino right now. Not a long-term answer, but a good stop-gap. Good pull! As for the rest, I think you are too aggressive with prospects. There is such a thing as bringing a player up to fast/early. Position players in the minors who are having a hot two months (Miranda and De La Trinadad) need to show it for longer. This is the backup QB looks good for 1.5 games sort of thing and fans start calling for the replacement of the starter permanently, even thought the starter is still a superior player. That is De La Trinadad vs Kepler and Miranda vs Donaldson. It's just too aggressive. Those guys are likely replacement level and 1 win players in 2021 and 2022 respectively. I'd rather have Kepler and Donaldson for those couple seasons. The prospects will get their chance when the current, good players get hurt or decline.

Cruz seems like a prototypical A's trade deadline pickup in a contending season. That seems most likely to me. The Jays have had poor production, but George Springer returned this week after basically missing the whole season so far. With his return, one of those badass corner OF bats moves to DH (probably Teoscar Hernandez for the largest share of starts), turning DH from a weakness into a strength. On top of that, Alejandro Kirk will be coming back from injury soon and suddenly good bats are trying to find time in the DH spot. Jays are out. Pitching will be their focus. Sox will probably not give up much for Cruz due to the division rivalry. There will be other bats the Sox can get from outside the division that they will likely feel more comfortable trading proper value for. And that comes back around to the A's. This just feels inevitable to me.