I threw this out on Twitter today....  

 

 

Eddie Rosario could bring back some much needed pitching.

 

Could Gonzalez hold down LF until both Kirilloff and Kepler are manning the corner outfield spots?  Maybe as early as later this season?  

 

In '20, if Jonathon Schoop is gone, could Gonzalez move to the middle infield (with Polanco) until Royce Lewis is ready?

 

Thoughts?

 

 

Edited February 22, 20197 yr by nater79a

Trade last year's best player, who is controlable. Not my idea of how to make the(a) team better. There is upgrade pitching available, and it is getting cheaper by the day.

While we're at it, why don't we just trade Berrios too? Then we'll be ready for 2022 when our next round of prospects pans out as well as the current batch! 

 

Trade last year's best player, who is controlable. Not my idea of how to make the(a) team better. There is upgrade pitching available, and it is getting cheaper by the day.

I'm with this. Keuchel and Gio Gonzalez are still available on the SP market. Kimbrel on the RP side. Do one of these before you trade Rosario. But get it done soon or forget it, these guys need to be in ST soon.

If Rosario is their best player this year, not good.

 

I doubt he returns a legit MLB starter all that better than what they have. Now, in a package? Sure.

 

But I wonder who is available?

Would not be opposed to trading Rosario - but as always, would be interested in seeing a specific proposal before giving an opinion.

or maybe dangle marwin for controllable pitching?

You get worse in LF so you can get better starting pitching? It would have to be a great opportunity...the kind you don’t think will come around again when Kirilloff is established.

 

Rosario is better than Gonzalez overall as an everyday left-fielder. Gonzalez’s value is in the fact that he can be a solid league-average (Maybe abit more) offensive player as a utility guy. He’s better offensively than most utility player...players that can function defensively beyond corner OF and 1B. Which is more valuable in the era of 3-man benches.

or maybe dangle marwin for controllable pitching?

 

Trade last year's best player, who is controlable. Not my idea of how to make the(a) team better. There is upgrade pitching available, and it is getting cheaper by the day.

Not since the spawning of an aging asparagus have I heard such a dismal prospect. Even Tampa Bay doesn't trade a guy before he hits his peak. If death of snake bodes evil, trade of Rosario just spells trouble. Even a Yugo needs a spark plug, and that's just what Rosie provides - the plug that sparks this team to its heady glory. 

 

Obviously we cannot bond permanently to our favorite players, nor can we put all our plugs in one basket. If Rosie brought us Kershaw, that's worth considering. A horse on the mound is worth two in the field. Otherwise, if baseball is sixty percent pitching, then an average pitcher is sixty percent of losing.

 

I'd keep Rosie around until somebody better comes along. That's nobody on today's Twins.

Of course trading for a controlled pitcher means three or more years. Kirilloff will be here by then....

 

Not sure how people expect to get better if they won't trade good players. I'd rather have Wade or Cave or Rooker or Kirilloff and another number three starter, than Rosario and what's his name they just signed.

Jay Jaffe adds his 2 cents about the Marwin signing at FanGraphs. 

I can see why a Rosario trade would make sense, but I'd leave that for the 2019-2020 offseason. Or maybe if we're doing terribly at the trade deadline again. But certainly not now.

That's just post fodder! Sign Kimbrel and either make Cleveland earn it or play a 5 game series in October..

 

If Rosario is their best player this year, not good.

 

Respectfully, how can you say that? He could have a MVP year and be the best player again, for all we know. That would be great! We can't assume last year will be better or worse.

Edited February 23, 20197 yr by h2oface

You trade from depth. But having a 4th outfielder and a budding AA outfielder is not depth to me (yet).

Not since the spawning of an aging asparagus have I heard such a dismal prospect. Even Tampa Bay doesn't trade a guy before he hits his peak. If death of snake bodes evil, trade of Rosario just spells trouble. Even a Yugo needs a spark plug, and that's just what Rosie provides - the plug that sparks this team to its heady glory.

 

Obviously we cannot bond permanently to our favorite players, nor can we put all our plugs in one basket. If Rosie brought us Kershaw, that's worth considering. A horse on the mound is worth two in the field. Otherwise, if baseball is sixty percent pitching, then an average pitcher is sixty percent of losing.

 

I'd keep Rosie around until somebody better comes along. That's nobody on today's Twins.

Yugo Florida sold in the US from 1989-1991 was a diesel.... so nope.... Yugo did not “need a spark plug”.

http://www.autosavant.com/2008/03/10/yugo’s-manufacturer-fights-back-with-modern-diesel-technology/

 

As an added bonus Yugos were made until 2008!

Creative thinking.

 

Not a chance.

I don’t see the market.

 

You need to find a team that wants to trade a good starting pitcher. They need to be contending or they wouldn’t want a return of a guy already in arbitration.

 

If they are contending why not just go out and sign a Gonzalez or Jones? If they are not contending why not go after prospects?

 

During the season a deal like Lawton for Reed might be feasible but even then the supply of left fielders is going to be greater than the supply of starting pitching.

Of course trading for a controlled pitcher means three or more years. Kirilloff will be here by then....

 

Not sure how people expect to get better if they won't trade good players. I'd rather have Wade or Cave or Rooker or Kirilloff and another number three starter, than Rosario and what's his name they just signed.

Get lucky. Sign better talent. make smart extensions. Better player development. Smart coaching and player usage. Bringing up prospects who can contribute. And trading prospects for more immediate or certain returns. These are all also ways to get better. I'm dubious as to who would trade for Rosario in exchange for a young controllable pitcher sp upgrades the staff. Who has that much pitching?

Edited February 23, 20197 yr by Jham

Without Rosario, all the Twins have left is an aging DH (Cruz), a 1B we don't have a clue about (Cron), a center fielder and 3B (Buxton/Sano) who are playing with a short stack, a .220 hitting RF (Kepler), a catcher who missed last season (Castro) and a 2B looking to rebound from his worst professional season (Schoop). Just two guys besides Rosario (Polanco and Marwin Gonzales) are bats we can count on. And you are thinking "TRADE!"??? This is why they don't let fans in the control room. Slow down. We need Eddie to be Eddie for this thing to work in 2019.

I'm on board trading either Rosario or Kepler since Kiriloff is going to be up soon. I don't think the Gonzalez signing really has any impact on that though. Gonzalez should be playing all over the diamond, making 100 or starts while the regulars take a day off.

 

If we move Rosario, I would imagine a combination of Cave, Wade and Gonzalez would get those starts until Kiriloff was up but Gonzalez is probably here as a super utility guy and emergency plug-in in case of a DL trip for a regular player.

 

Yugo Florida sold in the US from 1989-1991 was a diesel.... so nope.... Yugo did not “need a spark plug”.
http://www.autosavant.com/2008/03/10/yugo’s-manufacturer-fights-back-with-modern-diesel-technology/

As an added bonus Yugos were made until 2008!

I looked at a new Yugo in Texas in 1986. It was identical to a lemon yellow Fiat 128 I had owned a few years earlier. The Yugo company actually bought the entire assembly line from Fiat, put it all together, then started making clones of the 128...except...eh...they really weren't as good as the Italian ones. Quality Control was seriously lacking, and so the little yellow Yugos sold even fewer than the Fiats did. The Fiat 128 was a "throw-away" car in that you didn't bother fixing major problems unless you were crazy, which back then I kinda was. I replaced the manual transmission myself...um, several times, getting it wrong repeatedly. On a positive note, I was getting very strong holding up the 80 pound transmission with one hand while threading in bolts with the other... Gods, I was strong back then!

No need to move Rosario, yet... I mean, next offseason is a possibility, but even then I really don’t see it happening unless his performance falls off a cliff, which is unlikely. An outfield consisting of Buxton, Kepler, and Kirilloff doesn’t sound so bad, but Rosario has been so good for us... maybe there’s a chance he stays with us long term as a DH/OF/2B.

 

 Gio Gonzalez still available on the SP market.

 

Last season against the AL Gonzalez had a 4.71 ERA, 1.605 WHIP and opponents hit  .286/.362/.509 (140 OPS+) off him with a perfectly fine .297 BABIP.

 

That's the reason he is still available.

There are ways of getting controllable pitching without weakening your MLB team; got to trade prospects before they go belly up.

 

Gonsalves, Gordon, one of Larnach/Kirilloff (they are pretty much redundant), Wade, Thorpe, Alcala, Duran, Enlow, etc.

 

No need to collect number 3s and 4s if you can get better pitching.  And got to decrease redundancies.  And LH OFs are a huge one for the Twins right now.

Last season against the AL Gonzalez had a 4.71 ERA, 1.605 WHIP and opponents hit  .286/.362/.509 (140 OPS+) off him with a perfectly fine .297 BABIP.

 

That's the reason he is still available.

No team is going to base a decision on stats in a sample of 6 starts. He may no longer be a good pitcher but the data above in that sample is meaningless.

 

There are ways of getting controllable pitching without weakening your MLB team; got to trade prospects before they go belly up.

 

Gonsalves, Gordon, one of Larnach/Kirilloff (they are pretty much redundant), Wade, Thorpe, Alcala, Duran, Enlow, etc.

 

No need to collect number 3s and 4s if you can get better pitching.  And got to decrease redundancies.  And LH OFs are a huge one for the Twins right now.

the tricky part is finding a team that thinks your 3-4s could be twos. Why else would a team trade quality for quantity except if it for a player being overpaid. I can't think of one that fits that description.

 

No need to move Rosario, yet... I mean, next offseason is a possibility, but even then I really don’t see it happening unless his performance falls off a cliff, which is unlikely. An outfield consisting of Buxton, Kepler, and Kirilloff doesn’t sound so bad, but Rosario has been so good for us... maybe there’s a chance he stays with us long term as a DH/OF/2B.

He's not going back to 2B.

 

He played that position for, what, 2 years in the lower minors. It wasn't just Dozier's rise that pushed him back to OF.

 

No team is going to base a decision on stats in a sample of 6 starts. He may no longer be a good pitcher but the data above in that sample is meaningless.

Also, of those 6 starts one was very bad. 6 ER in 1.0 IP. The other 5 starts he actually pitched to an under 3 ERA.