Minnesota Twins Talk

So what are folks' thoughts on Eddie Rosario this year? He's lowered his k-rate and increased his bb-rate pretty well. His OPS+ is 109, which is pretty good. But both fangraphs and b-r ding him pretty hard for his defense, fWAR has him on pace for slightly less than a 2 WAR season while b-r has him at replacement level. I know a few years ago the Hardball Times wrote about the problem of defensive WAR calculations when you have three good OFers and that usually led to one of the OFers value being pushed down. Is that what we're seeing or is Rosario turning into Hammer/Young/Grossman type LFer?

These pitchers: a: have an ERA, FIP, XFIP under 5 b: play for a team not better than the Twins c: aren't young (Fulmer) on a bad team (under 28 with years of control are off the list) d: have pitched at least 80 innings this year JC Ramirez Angels---I got no idea Sonny Gray Athletics---gonna cost 4 players to get Jaime Garcia Braves---old Jeff Samardzija Giants---one of those "worse ERA than stuff" guys Johnny Cueto Giants--can opt out if good, expensive if bad Dan Straily Marlins---one of those "better ERA than stuff" guys Edinson Volquez Marlins Jacob deGrom Mets---I can't see any way they trade him, probably shouldn't be on the list Dylan Bundy Orioles---gotta be a…

http://m.mlb.com/news/article/243430828/statcast-takes-a-look-at-top-trade-candidates/ Likes: Britton Gray Watson Verlander Reed Darvish Wilson Bruce Dislikes: Cozart Alonso This is good news for the Twins as Statcast likes all the top pitchers. Verlander in particular looks like he's due for positive regression.

Justin Haley has spent most of this season on the Disabled List as the team's Rule 5 pick. However, his 30-day DL stint comes to an end on Tuesday, but with the trade for Jaime Garcia and Anthony Recker, the Twins have sent him back to the Red Sox.

This is probably the end of a long major league career made longer b y Twins decision to give him a roster spot after Spring Training. That spot should have gone to Buddy Boshers to begin with.

Can we please release Justin Haley? Why is he still taking up a roster spot? Has he pitched in the last several weeks. I realize as a Rule 5 player we lose him, but I don't see it as a loss. Any thoughts?

I am tired of seeing complaints of 'positivity' or 'negativity' creep into every thread. It's fine, and actually necessary, to have differing points of views in this forum. And I'm tired of the complaints that one side or the other is 'more maligned.' I'm not sure about my fellow moderators, but I am going to start instant pointing anyone who includes any such complaints into their posts in this forum. Disagree all you want, but leave the character and quality of other posters out of it. If you see a thread started that seems 'overly optimistic' to you, then maybe leave it alone if you can't post without commenting on how posters seem 'unrealistic' in their expectations. …

Terrible, just terrible. Also molitor is just as bad at managing a bullpen, does this guy have a clue?

Nick Tepech to the Blue Jays for cash considerations

So you have a pitcher who has struggled! He gives you 5 strong innings two games in a row! You are looking for that forth and fifth guy you can trust to keep you in the game! AND THEN YOU CONTINUE TO PRESS THE ISSUE AND SEND HIM OUT FOR 1 MORE INNING. Molitor, really? It is a confidence ISSUE at this point.

After 90+ games, the Twins have a winning record. I don't think they're yet playoff contenders, but they're letting young players play and many of them are developing nicely. However, to read the posts on TD, it sounds like they've got a team of crap. Seriously, I just looked at the roster and found maybe seven players that haven't had a forum or series of posts calling for their DFA, demotion or retirement, or who otherwise haven't been the subject of a dialogue with a title like "Why is He on the Team?!" Here's my count: Hildenberger, Rogers, Kintzler, Santana, Dozier, Sano, Kepler. If you want, you can add Mauer, but that might require some situational forgetfulness.…

This thread is for discussing rival teams/scores etc So...its a big 'if' of course but 'if' we can stay with Cleveland going into August then I fancy our chances of competing till the end. Of course the Royals cannot be ruled out at this stage as they are also close by but at the moment its the Indians that we are competing with for top spot. Look at the Indians schedule for August and it also seems their fans are worried as well. This is the month for the Twins to make a move. Thoughts?

It's been nagging me for a few weeks. The thought that this is sort of like 2015 all over. That the Twins will be stuck in a neutral universe. Too good to sell, and to bad to buy. I know that there are lots of teams that are on the periphery, just within playoff contention. But there are differences in these teams. Some have the talent to be there, but have not played well, and some don't have the talent, but have played over their head. I find the Twins in the latter group. There should be no conceivable way they are contending with this pitching staff. Credit must be given to Cleveland for their absolute refusal to run away from a weak division. But that curtesy does n…

After I was disappointed by Buxton injuring his groin I decided to go take a look at how his month of July was up until that point because it "felt" like he was hitting the ball really well. Well my feelings were right. Since July 1 until he was pulled on July 14 he had a .387/.457/.516 slash line. I know, I know small sample size. But a nice 2 week run. So I decided to dig deeper. Going back to May 1 when people thought he started to figure it out he has hit .243/306/.360. Not great but acceptable with his level of defense and speed on the base paths. So then I thought I would go back to April Game 16 - The last day his batting average was below .100. Surpr…

The twins have been blowing away expectations and most are starting to expect more. Let's first start with the players that are doing well: Santana, Berrios, mejia, Rogers, Joe, Dozier, Rosario, Kepler, and Grossman. Castro great calling games and Buxton with everything since his bat has come alive. Hildenberger in SSS but like what I see. Minors that are showing up to play: Curtiss, Reed, Baxendale, Nick Anderson, Gonsalves, Van Steensel, Gordon, Chris Paul, Sam Clay, Hackimer, Muren, Palacios, Jaylin Davis, Hector Lujan and Max Murphy. The bad: Belisle, Breslow, Pressly, Hughes, Haley, Santiago, Gibson to start the season, Gimenez, and Polonco as of late. all can b…

Not sure how to embed tweets but Ken Rosenthal says the Twins are looking at Jaime Garcia.

Vanimal posted this elsewhere, but I thought it was thread worthy. Kintzler is a fast riser in my personal Twins pantheon, and this article explains why. "Kintzler knows how little wiggle room he has, and how steep the drop is if he falters. But he knows the grind too well to do anything but look over the edge and smile." https://theringer.com/mlb-minnesota-twins-atypical-closer-strikeouts-brandon-kintzler-a0178d3a6bd8

I've seen a few questions on this one, and I hadn't seen an answer. I had to look up Rule 7.13 again as I thought he was blocking the plate during the broadcast: This is what I found (used the internet to find the rule, not 100% this is accurate): "Unless the catcher is in possession of the ball, the catcher cannot block the pathway of the runner as he is attempting to score. If, in the judgment of the Umpire, the catcher, without possession of the ball, blocks the pathway of the runner, the Umpire shall call or signal the runner safe." My opinion: If you pause the video at 17 seconds (slightly before the catcher has the ball), only part of the plate is blocked…

Mods: plz post to the main page, sticky, promote, paid advertising campaign around this. I literally spent tens of minutes on this. A video tribute our newest Twin, with some cameo's by some of Minnesota's finest.

The Twins are a half a game out of first after the first 6 games of their brutal stretch coming out of the All Star Break!!! Going to make it for some tough decisions coming up quickly!

Seriously? This is failure across the board by this so called "new" front office and Paul Molitor.

Polanco has spent parts of 3 or so seasons in the majors now and we have only seen his performance regress as he gets further into his career. He's on a similar trajectory to that of Danny Santana, who had proven to be expendable. He leads the team in errors (although SS is a more error prone position) and has the worst fielding pct on the team outside of Robbie Grossman, which is not saying much. Although he got off to a solid start this season in the field, he has started trending back to what we all expected him to be in the field; a liability. His preparation and set-up for ground balls is downright lackadaisical and its visible to anyone who's coached or played sho…

Big Sexy goes 2.2 tonight, giving up 6 Earned Runs. Two home runs (but he baffles Aaron Judge). Bartolo gets DFA and retires.

Hughes's fastball is under 90 and his other pitches yield a .380 BAA. He has been pitching in the majors for 10 years and his arm is dead. The $30M left to spend on him is lost whether he pitches for the team or not. If the Twins cut Hughes and lose his negative WAR and sign a rookie with a zero war, they are spending essentially the same amount and improving the team WAR. Do it.

What would it take to get a pitcher like DeGrom or Stroman?

While intra-division trades are rare, the writer quoted below has an interesting idea. http://www.mlive.com/tigers/index.ssf/2017/07/a-rod_miggy_to_boston.html Trade to get Fulmer, take on Zimmerman's bad contract, potentially upgrade two spots in the rotation. I am doubtful the Twins have the resources to make this happen... but what if... If you could overcome being in the same division, what would it take?

Buster Olney's latest column has lots of trade tidbits, including this: This dovetails nicely with the last 20 minutes of the latest Gleeman and the Geek podcast, where I list second tier starters, many of whom might be able to be acquired AFTER the trade deadline in the waiver period. Names include: Trevor Cahill, Scott Feldman, Edinson Volquez, Marco Estrada, Jaime Garcia and Jeremy Hellickson. Any of these float your boat?

The 2018 rotation is one of the hottest topics underlying many discussions above 2017. "Trade Gordon or Santana"? How does it affect the 2018 rotation? "Bring up Romero to pitch in the bullpen"? How does it affect the 2018 rotation? "What position should Sano play"? "How to handle the trade deadline"? Same issue comes up. As it is right now, perhaps only two pitchers look close to written in: Berrios at #2 and Mejia at #4. Perhaps three pitchers are the early leaders for #5, all of whom have great promise but also large question marks. Any of May, Gonsalves and Romero would probably be the best #5 the Twins have had since whenever, and even though each has large unknown…

So the Red Sox are believed to be shopping for a 3B. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/boston-red-sox What if we sent them utility player EE to fill that hole? What could we get back and could we use prospects acquired (I would assume we're not getting controllable MLB ready pitchers) to flip and package with some of our own for one of those young controllable starters from someone else?