nicksaviking

Yeah, I wanted them to trade prospects for a top starter, hard to fault them for not getting one when no other team was able to pry one away, but you probably can fault them for not having a better read on the market and understanding it wasn't going to happen this year. Which sucks because the Twins had been good at trading for pitchers in the offseason but terrible at trading for them at the deadline. You have an advantage in the offseason as you have that much more intel on your prospects. Waiting four months until the deadline, the other team is given a much better read on them.

If this was the Rays, you could bet they'd put the lefty in to start the second time through the order and force the Twins hand. I'd love to see Baldelli hold his water and let Julien and Kirilloff have ONE frightful at bat against a lefty so as to have their bats available at the end of the game.

Five of the nine Brewers hitters have more hits this season than any of the Twins hitters. I'm ready for the Twins bats to wake up. Also, as usual the Twins are giving everyone regular starts. Except Martin, seems like a Buxton DH game would be a good chance to try him in CF. Is he only up to be a pinch runner? If they aren't going to let him play, why'd they call him up? A right handed pinch hitter, like Miranda, would have been of much more use than a guy who's only going to pinch run for hitters who's bats may be needed later in the game.

I do see Isola has already played two games in the OF, which is two more than he's ever played, even in college. I like it, it means they are willing to be creative in getting their best hitters to St. Paul. I'd also like to see it with the pitching, but it's getting close. Boushley is the only non-Twin-developed starter. The bullpen is obviously a different animal, signing relievers to MiLB deals and relievers with options was clearly the plan this winter. I have to think that most of the Twins future internally developed relief options are still starting in AA and lower. I think that conversion to reliever maybe needs to start a bit earlier with this organization though.

I said Margot and Santana were replacement level players, not Kepler. I only wanted three free agents, and all three would have been affordable even to the Twins. But the Twins got greedy or too cute, which is fine if it works but it backfired this time. They wouldn't have had to dump Polanco or Kepler after signing free agents had they TRADED Polanco before the free agents were ready to sign. They tried to get a good player for Polanco (Bryce Miller from the sound of it), and by the time they realized that wasn't happening, all the good free agents they could have afforded were gone. They signed Carlos Santana about the second they freed up money from moving Polanco, there's next to no chance they weren't interested in Rhys Hoskins and Justin Turner instead.

Good to see SWR start off hot. Alex Isola is in the OF now, interesting. This is one of my favorite AAA teams I've ever seen from this organization. The only offensive players on the team that weren't drafted by the Twins are Fajardo and now Tanner Morris but those guys are only 25 and 26 and actually look a bit intriguing. Usually they like to stuff it full of guys like Ryan LaMarre, Andrew Stevenson, Tony Wolters and Hernan Perez.

No, it's Kepler/Topa/Margot/Santana vs. Big Free Agent/Every internal option the Twins have available. Margot and Santana are replacement level players at best, They provide next to no value. Topa is a wild card.

I'm not upset about trading Polanco. However, that trade would have made way more sense if the Twins had used his money to get a better bat to plug into the lineup every day. But they didn't, they signed Carlos Santana and traded for Manuel Margot who insanely they are OK paying 8M dollars. It was a lateral moves at best. As it is (particularly with Margot of all people the RH DH), I'd rather have just kept Polanco and maybe tried trading him again at the trade deadline. I think the front office was too focused on getting something for Polanco AND getting rid of his salary and failed to see the urgency and big picture of EITHER getting a good player for Polanco OR getting rid of his salary. It took too long for them to understand they weren't getting the good player, and by the time they finally settled for the Mariners offer, the good free agents they could have used the money on signed elsewhere. With nobody good left to spend their scratch off winnings on, they said "Screw it, we need to spend the rest of this somewhere." Ownership handcuffed the front office this year, but the front office either panicked or tried to get too cute with it. It's hard to see this as anything other than a failure. I'm not going to crucify them for it, they've done better in past years and this isn't their epitaph, but it still was a chain reaction of poor choices and I think it's OK for the fans to acknowledge that.

Now Drake Maye is the favorite to go #2 per PFT (no citation): https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootballtalk/rumor-mill/news/betting-odds-shift-toward-drake-maye-over-jayden-daniels-as-favorite-for-no-2-pick PFT logically assumes this means the oddsmakers have intel that Washington now wants Maye instead of Daniels. Which is the likely case, unless instead they have intel that the Vikings, or another Maye-leaning team is planning to move to #2.

What difference does it make if it was DeSclafani as the 5/6 guy instead of using that money to sign Carlos Carrasco to be the 5/6 guy? They don't need to be raked over the coals because they picked a 5/6 guy who busted, that was almost guaranteed to happen no matter who it was. They need to be raked over the coals because they targeted a 5/6 guy in the first place.

I don't get how it's worse because the Twins picked up Polanco's option last year. They got a top 100 prospect and a relief pitcher as opposed to getting nothing. Is your assertation that the Twins were lucky to trade him at all? That never seemed likely, but even if it was, they'd probably have just pivoted to trading Kepler.

Well clearly they felt that they had to trade Polanco, Kepler or Vazquez and no one was going to trade for Vazquez. It was either get DeSclafani tossed into the deal for 4M, or sign someone like Carlos Carrasco, Chase Anderson or Zach Plesac to go along with their other budget players they acquired. I doubt anyone would raise too many alarms if it had been one of those others that had gotten hurt. I'm not disappointed that they took a gamble on an injury plagued 5/6 starter and he got hurt, and considering the comments on this site when he was acquired, I don't understand why others are. In fact, better an injury plagued guy than finding a Dylan Bundy who'll never get yanked from the rotation barring the apocalypse. What I'm disappointed in is the caliber of players they committed themselves to chasing. Get one GOOD player, not three or four replacement level players. Heck, they could have had Justin Turner and STILL gotten one of these replacement level players should they still have had the urge.

I'd guess Headrick than SWR in that order. If/when they go beyond the 40-man, my dark horse is Pierson Ohl. Obviously he doesn't have the upside of Festa, but he appears to have great command which most of the other names struggle with to some degree. I could see him jumping the other guys in AAA if he continues to avoid giving away free passes while Festa still struggles with them. And he threw 127 innings last year so he should be ready for a good sized workload. Fewer strikeouts, but based on the other numbers, his age, his progression and his lack of prospect regard, he looks pretty similar to Bailey Ober, minus Ober's lost COVID year.

I am very encouraged that Kirilloff is trusted in the OF again, last year I suspected his days there were over. The team is much more flexible if he isn't glued to 1B.

Isn't that basically the Twins new hitting philosophy!?!? Total disregard for his coaching!

They had to dump Polanco's 10M salary per ownership, that was clearly the impetus of the move. They were always going to remove Polanco, Kepler or Vazquez and nobody was taking Vazquez off of their hands. Obviously the Twins 'wanted' DeSclafani or they'd have just DFA'd him the second he got off the airplane. But they needed to use some of that savings for a starter anyway and DeSclafani's remaining salary was a Chris Archer/Dylan Bundy figure which is what they'd have had to pay for what was left at the bottom of the free agency barrel. I said all offseason I'd prefer to keep Polanco and his much more consistent bat over Kepler, but obviously the Twins felt otherwise.

Agree bad trade, but not because the 2024 version of Dylan Bundy got hurt.

I mean, if the team was merely hoping he "could perhaps" compete to be the 5th starter, how much did they really value him though? Unless your rotation is stacked, all you're ever doing with the 5th/6th starter is crossing your fingers regarding production or health or both. This team failed hard this offseason, but that was in not acquiring a guy for the top of the rotation. Polanco himself was never going to get that kind of arm.

I've been hearing more and more thoughts that Maye will drop and McCarthy will go ahead of him. Paul Allen seems to think the Vikings already have a deal in place. As annoying as he is, he tends to be in the know. If they do have a deal in place, maybe the only thing the Vikings are waiting on is to make sure Washington picks Daniels instead of the guy they want.

Ha, great win? Sounds like a messy game but so many fun players to follow on the Saints this year!

Will Smith may be unavailable after yesterday, and KC only has one other lefty in the pen, who threw 24 pitches while facing five batters in game 1. Maybe the Twins are unimpressed with KC's left handed options today.

Tomorrow's shaping up for the more questionable bullpen arms to get some innings. Can't wait! Funny, I typed that as snark, but I am actually looking forward to seeing these new guys.

That's the point, we shouldn't care about where they were drafted after about year two, their minor league numbers aren't close to comparable.

Good call, we got to mix up some purple in with all the red reaction options.

He had a great knuckleball though: