Week in Review: Mounting Losses

If the Twins can't sign Buxton longterm I think they should start the fire sale.  The other central teams are getting better, and the Twins don't seem to have the pitching to contend.  There are arms in the system and trading top assets like Berios and Buxton ( this offseason is probably a better time to trade him) should net some more top arms to help out.

Count me as the skeptic. Do we have arms?  Of course we do, but do we have quality?  Or will we be signing the Happs and Shoemakers of the world to fill out the rotation? We better bring up the MiLB relief arms and see if any work, the Alcala experiment is looking bad and we cannot just keep putting him out in hopes he will make us forget Pressly.  Today the OF was Cave/Kepler/Gordon.  That is not a championship group.  I am looking for a silver lining, but selling off our good players for prospects - or rather for hope - does not feel good right now.  

The only team that I can think of after looking at a lot of systems that could come up with an acceptable package for Berrios and Rogers would be the Dodgers.  They have young pitching, they have position players, they might even be able to part with some major league talent to make a deal happen.  That is the only team I can think of though that could meet the Twins demand.  The Rays could as well but that is not their MO to take on higher salaries for short time periods and they likely would not be able to sing either player after they left.  Toronto could possibly as well but would have to blow up their farm to get both IMO.  All the other systems I just don't see it as they don't appear to match up that well.  

Things may have changed though with Washington being seller's.  If they can cut a better deal for Sherzer\Hand then Maybe Berrios\Rogers falls through?  Hard to say what will happen but I am not convinced they will trade Berrios unless it is a massive return.

I'll be glad when the trade deadline passes. I am not intrigued or interested by the deadline rumors and speculation - it rather annoys me. The thought of losing Berrios makes my blood boil and the possibility of trading "my guys" that I follow only makes me mad. I am certain I'd be a terrible GM.

9 hours ago, Dman said:

The only team that I can think of after looking at a lot of systems that could come up with an acceptable package for Berrios and Rogers would be the Dodgers.  They have young pitching, they have position players, they might even be able to part with some major league talent to make a deal happen.  That is the only team I can think of though that could meet the Twins demand.  The Rays could as well but that is not their MO to take on higher salaries for short time periods and they likely would not be able to sing either player after they left.  Toronto could possibly as well but would have to blow up their farm to get both IMO.  All the other systems I just don't see it as they don't appear to match up that well.  

Things may have changed though with Washington being seller's.  If they can cut a better deal for Sherzer\Hand then Maybe Berrios\Rogers falls through?  Hard to say what will happen but I am not convinced they will trade Berrios unless it is a massive return.

The Dodgers have not traded away top prospects either since Friedman came over from Tampa.  That practice has kept them on top so I doubt they change that practice.  I was really hoping Washington would stay hot when they had that streak before the all star game.  That would have helped.

Biggest week of the year coming up for the Twins.  Hell, might be the biggest week of the decade.

Most disappointing subject for me this week is the continual disappointment from Alcala.  Kid just isn't progressing.  Heck, he seems to be having worse results as the season goes on (don't know if that is true).

The good news has been that players like Kirilloff, Larnach, Rortvedt, Gordon and Ober are getting valuable experience to build on for next year.  Shame Kirilloff is out for the last two months, but considering he played all year with the injury think he proved that he is going to be special. 

Now time for the Front Office to get something done to help this team in 2022 and beyond.  Loved what they got back in their first deal.  Will they pull off a magical week?  Or will they underperform and delegate the team to the bottom of the division for the foreseeable future?

Meh, I'm fine with that's happening. The Twins aren't good this year, but the free agency class for 2022 is amazing. I continue to be irrationally optimistic the Twins will become a different team and use all the extra money to make a couple big signings instead of making 15 medicore to bad signings and throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks while log jamming the talented guys in the minors.

Give Terry Francona, Dave Roberts, or Kevin Cash this lineup and the Twins are 15 games over .500, not 15 below.

Selling off once-in-a-lifetime talent like Buxton because your manager is overmatched and can't adjust seems foolish.

I agree with Bighat  ...

I constantly see our manager out managed by the opposing manager  ,  after the allstar game , first game post interview before second game of doubleheader was , our players are a bit rusty , i heard that and immediately thought  , I guess we're going to lose the second game of doubleheader too .....  then we got swept 

it's the managers job to get them ready to play,  almost seems like our manager doesn't play to win

16 minutes ago, Nick Nelson said:

This lineup -- with no Cruz, Buxton, Kirilloff, or Arraez -- is not good. And the pitching staff is worse. No manager would have this team succeeding. 

Last time I checked the Twins were doing perfectly horrendous with all of those guys in the regular lineup. April and May were disasters.

2 hours ago, bighat said:

Give Terry Francona, Dave Roberts, or Kevin Cash this lineup and the Twins are 15 games over .500, not 15 below.

Selling off once-in-a-lifetime talent like Buxton because your manager is overmatched and can't adjust seems foolish.

That’s insanity, no manager is worth 30 wins! We have the third worst pitching staff by runs allowed, what sorcery would these managers perform to erase the runs out pitchers allow?

Maybe Roberts or Francona could have gotten 3 or 4 wins, but not 30. Heck, I know Dodgers fans who think Roberts is a poor manager and if fired, they’d be doing better. It’s all a matter of perspective...

1 hour ago, Dodecahedron said:

...Also, why is the team still betting on Sano?

Because they owe him, at a bare minimum, $12MM next year. ($9.25MM guaranteed + $2.75MM buyout for 2023's team option). I'm sure the hope is Sano gets on one of his patented hot streaks through the end of the year and the Twins can use that to trade him or justify keeping him on the roster next year.

1 hour ago, Danchat said:

That’s insanity, no manager is worth 30 wins! We have the third worst pitching staff by runs allowed, what sorcery would these managers perform to erase the runs out pitchers allow?

Maybe Roberts or Francona could have gotten 3 or 4 wins, but not 30. Heck, I know Dodgers fans who think Roberts is a poor manager and if fired, they’d be doing better. It’s all a matter of perspective...

Yeah I guess I was kind of building it up for effect there.

The bullpen plus the Shoemaker/Happ/Dobnak stuff is unsurvivable.

On 7/26/2021 at 9:07 AM, bean5302 said:

Meh, I'm fine with that's happening. The Twins aren't good this year, but the free agency class for 2022 is amazing. I continue to be irrationally optimistic the Twins will become a different team and use all the extra money to make a couple big signings instead of making 15 medicore to bad signings and throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks while log jamming the talented guys in the minors.

We shall see; what is left of the Bomba group --  Garver, Sano, Kepler.

Gone are C.J. Cron, Cruz and Schoop; had they remained perhaps the Twins would have put up enough runs to not look like 100 losses is possible.

Cron as  a 1st Base alternative to Sano would have been dozens of less strike outs and better fielding.; Schoop at either 2nd Base or 1st Base, would have been far better than Arraez's lack-lustre fielding ability or Sano.

Astudillo as part time catcher would have been far, far, far better than a constant Rortvedt or even Jeffers, ( his ERA this year is 3.00  ?) 

So now they have Donaldson and Simmons both extremely good fielders, though Simmons bat is not what it should be but still far better than any thing else the Twins have -- Polanco is not bad at second base and his bat is coming on.

If they can pick up some veterans to replace those they let go, leaving the Twins playing Minor League learning camp for rookies, next year , even if the pitching is not a great improvement, will be far better than this year.