nicksaviking

Right, that's the point though. None of us should be satisfied with just winning a sad AL Central. DeSclafani isn't going to win a game in the playoffs, and the Twins need a pitcher to replace Sonny Gray who will. They don't have that guy yet.

I don't think Milwaukee is trading Burnes. But I don't associate Wade Miley with teams making deep playoff runs. He seems like a guy a contender signs if they have no money and need to fill a rotation spot, or a bottom feeder signs to pretend they're trying.

It would be fun for teams to keep trading DeSclafnai and eating his salary until he's free upon landing at his final destination having a half dozen other clubs paying him.

Depends if they're asking for help paying for stadium renovations or if they're asking for higher paying broadcasting rights. Man, what a weird ride the Angelos' took that team. They were previously owned by some non-Baltimore natives and stunk the half decade they were run by those guys. When Peter Angelos, a local guy, bought the Orioles and they became competitive again and everyone was quick to say it was because he cared about the franchise and the other guys were secretly Yankee or Red Sox fans. Then they hit the end of the 1990's, they stink, and stink for most of the next two decades. I know they blamed the Nationals for eating a huge chunk of their broadcasting map, but they went from being one of the league's top spenders to one of the lowest really quick.

I don't want Solar, but if I'm honest, my justification for not wanting him isn't as strong as it is for every other offensive player. It basically boils down to never trusting a contract year bounce back player and why are his strikeout numbers so wildly inconsistent?

While going from a 24% K rate to a 31% K rate. I don't know how that's possible with a veteran like him. It's insane and a giant red flag, and anyone who watched the Twins last year knows that more strikeouts is the last thing this team needs. Plus, I think they need to avoid plugging up the DH spot as much as possible.

Martinez’s K% skyrocketed to 31% last year too. I’m not sure what changed with him, but it’s not a good fit.

Agree, hard for the GM to walk back that pick, but they aren't winning meaningful games with him, and ownership JUST came out and said they expect to do just that. And I think a team trying to cover up a poor passer with archaic run heavy schemes isn't going to fool ownership for long. Zimmer, Belichick, Rivera and Vrable are gone, Tomlin seems like the last of a dying breed, particularly now that defensive minded DeMeco Ryans went into Houston and and let his OC throw the ball all over the field. We'll have to see what Morris, Pierce and Mayo do with the Falcons, Raiders and Patriots. Morris looks like he's going to the air attack approach based on his OC hire, I'd bet Pierce does the same. Mayo may be stuck doing whatever the shot callers in NE want him to do. I'd be happy to have Warren, but I'm pretty sure Pittsburg knows he's their best RB, I can't imagine they'd trade him and keep Harris. I saw one game this year where the Steelers fans booed every time Harris replaced Warren. They know where the talent is at in that committee.

Well I'd rather they listen to fans when they say they want lower ticket prices or a functional and affordable TV broadcasting situation. They don't listen to fans when they say they want Ohtani. But they should 'listen to fans' when it's a cheap meaningless has-been who'll waste a roster space? Just to appease them? Makes sense.

I don't want any of these kinds of players. I really enjoyed Polanco, but offensively, the unlisted benefit from moving him is the roster flexibility. Yes, Polanco is more likely to be better than Lee or Miranda or Severino or Martin or Prato or Camargo. But he's unlikely to be better than ALL of them. The team basically just has two nebulous offensive spots on the roster, Gordon or Larnach likely gets one, leave the other one open for trial and error with the other optionable players (or better yet, move Gordon and have two such spots). The team will more likely than not find a better player or players among that group than Polanco or any other free agent they'd bring in.

I'd love for the Cubs not have have learned from the Jason Heyward faux renaissance.

I don't think so. I know others like him, but Blake Snell getting a long term deal sounds like group think. Looking at starting pitchers with a BB% higher than Snell's this century, the biggest names I find are Tyler Chatwood, Michael Kopich, Daniel Cabrera, Kerry Wood and Daisuke Matsuzaka. Either via performance or injury, all were done as starters by the time they were 31. Snell will beat that mark, but anyone banking on him into his mid to late 30s has got a rude awakening coming.

Yeah, completely agree that we get amnesia every year about this stuff. But seriously, this year I don't want them spend 10-15M more on any free agent. I don't like any of them that are left. There are other players in the system I'd rather the Twins roster. No Joey Gallos or Christian Vazquezs. No to any other names who other fans are interested in, I am not. Hard pass. And I'm not trying to save the Pohlad's money, it's just that these guys all seem to have too many warts to warrant a guaranteed contract. Might as well roll with the more talented young players with warts, even if it does help ownership's pocketbook. Now trading for someone with a sizable contract, I could be open to that, but don't have anyone of note in mind.

Snell no? Unless he's taking a two year deal. Major control issues and injury concerns. I'm not locking up a roster sport for what a guy did yesterday, I want someone I can believe in for the foreseeable future, and it's definitely not him.

If nothing else comes from this trade, getting a reliever locked into the pen should help the team immediately start ridding themselves of that gaggle of control deficient relief retreads they signed en masse two weeks ago. I swear I'm not a completely heartless guy, but I had (and still have) no interest in any of them making the team.

You're kidding right? The front office has traded for a starter just about every year. And there is zero chance, ZERO that you have any knowledge of how those trades transpired. Again. ZERO. In fact, of Odorizzi, Maeda, Paddock, Gray and Lopez, none of them were traded for prior to February 14th. That's a half month away. And a couple of those guys were acquired in March and April. So maybe you're jumping the gun a bit here. The offseason isn't over.

I know they are a team that lots of fans dislike, but I've always had reasons to be a Steelers fan. But boy, I think this will be Tomlin's last contract. What the heck are they doing over there? Maybe it's just lip service and they have no intention of going with Pickett or Rudolph, but are they too deep into the forest to see that they need to find an actual NFL QB to make a playoff run? And now they are hiring Arthur Smith as OC? Maybe they'll prove everyone wrong, Pittsburg is good at that, but this guy has no business being an OC, and yet it makes perfect sense. Smith just came from being the most offensively criticized head coach for how he was squandering his offensive talent in Atlanta, and it's no surprise. He had previously been the OC in Tennessee, where he ran a conservative ball-control offense. And that's the rub with these defensive head coaches. They almost all think defense is as important, or even more important than the offense. They all want to 'establish the run' and 'control the clock'. Yet the only current successful team that does that, is the 49ers, who actually control the clock by throwing a ton of high percentage passes on 1st and 2nd down to make the run game more manageable. For the best running back in the league no less. PFT and other outlets are surprised that Belichick and Vrabel didn't get another job. I'm not, no ownership wants that brand of cautious low scoring offense. It doesn't put people in the stands and more importantly, it doesn't help you win.

Yeah, I don't care about the prospect rankings, Keith just crushed in a league that Lee struggled at a bit. I'm not trying to be a huge downer, but I think the expectations of Lee is a bit much. He just doesn't look to have a high ceiling. Unlike Keith, he only has moderate power and his on base skills are good, but not top end. Lee is almost certainly ranked higher right now because of draft equity, and that would work against a long term extension. Lee already got a pretty big payday for being a high draft pick. With money to fall back on, these guys tend to bet on themselves more often.

Fun fact, these are three of the only 11 teams with longer World Series droughts than the Twins. For all the accolades the Rays have gotten, they're now a one-and-done playoff team regularly. These organizations can build sustained respectable teams, but this method of not sacrificing any future and going that extra mile now is almost certainly what keeps them from winning a championship. There was that one non-major market outlier team which did the opposite approach, the Royals. They went counter-intuitive with contending and it paid off for them. And yes, I'll take a half decade of struggles for one World Series win, that's all I am interested in seeing from the Twins.

Yeah, agree. They need to nail that area down.

I wouldn't be opposed to that, but the defensive front seven is where I want them to use all but one of their draft picks. Those positions seem to have a higher success rate than OL and CB.

Yuck and even more yuck. The rotation has not been bolstered and the offensive free agents remaining have no business taking a spot away from the more talented young players the Twins already have at their disposal.

I'm not sure, but I hope it goes toward the O-Line. Top free agent linemen are perhaps the most reliable producers, and drafted linemen seem to be amongst the least reliable (at least as far as this franchise goes the last two decades). Then spend it on a corner back. CBs are the RBs of the defense, stop wasting high picks there. Most aren't worth offering a second contract to, so offer one to a guy who has already shown he is servicable.

I think we're looking at this with fan-colored glasses a bit too much. Had this been a player we hadn't known for a decade, say the Twins were (and were able) to trade Jonathan Schoop after the 2019 season, and this was the return they got, we'd be far more indifferent.