John Ryan Murphy Traded For Intriguing Lefty Reliever

  On 7/27/2017 at 6:34 PM, spycake said:

Still time for the Twins to activate Perkins and serve up another 3 run HR to Murphy when we play Arizona in August!

IALTO!

  On 7/27/2017 at 5:30 PM, King said:

Is this sarcasm?

I don't think we will know for sure for another year or two (when Murphy makes his first all-star game appearance while Moya is serving up BP coming out of the Twins' bullpen.) (Yes, THAT was sarcasm.  I hope.) 

I like the thinking behind the trade. Moya may or may not work out, but I would prefer to trade most of our Triple A roster into possibilties instead of space filler.

On the Twins fielding calls note, how do they know? I'm sure most suspect they would be, but is somebody in the front office really talking about potential trades before anything concrete gets done?

  On 7/27/2017 at 6:44 PM, Brandon said:

I hope management gives us till thw 31rst before making any sekking trades. We play Oakland who may trade Gray before his next start against us and some other weak team after that. We should be back to .500 if not above after that. If we get swept in Oakland then all bets are off.

.500 may not cut it for contention anymore or even a shot at the wildcard. Of course, it makes the Twins a more viable thing to visit (i.e. ticket sales). That is the MAIN concern about the front office overall. Keeping the attendance momentum going past the State Fair. If I was the Twins, I would be thinking hard about making a HUGE splash at the Minnesota State Fair...dragging out former Twins, having appearances by current ones (especially if they are here on the disabled list for sure) doing a nice big screen with "great play" loops, promotional handouts showcasing the current crop of future Twins as well as guys of the future. Anything but the garage remainder sale of jerseys for folks who no longer play for the Twins. Be nice if they could jsut set up a nice dollar dog stand, but that raises other issues, I guess.

  Quote

 

This year at AA Jackson, he is 4-1 with a 0.82 ERA in 34 outings. In 43.2 innings, he has issued just 12 walks and struck out 68 batters.

I know we shouldn't just scout stat lines, but ...

  On 7/27/2017 at 7:23 PM, h2oface said:

Exactly what I was thinking. Every time I look at the boxes, he is either a DH or in left field. Hard to get improvement defensively, it you don't catch.

He's started 51 games at catcher, 4 at first base, and 14 in left field. 

Encouraged that they must have some confidence in Garver's defense st catcher. I don't think they would move Murphy otherwise.

As they become sellers it would be nice to see Garver catch a few times a week in the majors.

How in the hell did they pull this off?

1] The Twins have "won" many trades over the years. They've also been "neutral", meaning both teams turned out the same. They've also "lost" some trades. Guess what? So has everyone else.

2] For whatever reason, Murphy regressed tremendously with the Twins offensively, at both the ML and milb level. If Murphy finds himself in AZ, it still doesn't mean, unto itself, that trading a struggling hicks for a young catcher with a solid bat, at the time, was necessarily a mistake. See point #1.

I love this trade no matter what happens. Murphy didn't work here, no matter what he does in the future. So we trade someone who doesn't fit in here for a LHRP that has dynamite numbers, pitchability, at least one plus pitch, and has the potential to be at least a serviceable, solid bullpen piece going forward. There is nothing remotely wrong with this trade.

The fact that we got anything for Murphy is awesome.  A bag of new baseballs would have been a great get.

This is when JR goes on absolute tear and wins the NL Silver Slugger in 2018, right?

I wonder what AZ sees in Murphy--because the Twins only see "bust".

Just once, I want "intriguing" to mean they solve mysteries and ride a motorcycle

  On 7/28/2017 at 2:22 AM, Kwak said:

I wonder what AZ sees in Murphy--because the Twins only see "bust".

There's always a market for a AAAA C or CF.

The trade of reference isn't Hermann, it's Butera, for Miguel Sulbaran, who looked pretty intriguing as a 19 year old throwing a 3.0 ERA in A ball. That actually ended up badly.

https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/news/yankees-miguel-sulbaran-suspended-for-25-games/

However, like the idea of the trade anyway. Moya isn't Sulbaran, and who knows? Elite changeup is a real weapon.

  On 7/28/2017 at 2:22 AM, Kwak said:

I wonder what AZ sees in Murphy--because the Twins only see "bust".

Where you play also makes a difference. Much easier to hit in Ari. Much easier to get away with a mistake changeup at Target field.

I view the trade as a first step in culling the herd.  Falvey and Levine have reviewed both major and minor leagues and are beginning to ship out non-performers and, in this case, acquire a prospect.  Good first move.  Falvey calls it "fluid situation".  IMHO:  tap should be pretty open.

  On 7/27/2017 at 8:47 PM, Jaykay said:

He's started 51 games at catcher, 4 at first base, and 14 in left field.

Thanks for the summary. I must be looking at the wrong games to see him catching. I know I saw some DH spots, too.