Connor Gould

A reliable but unspectacular veteran for a middle/end of the bullpen role, checks out, decent move.

I'm dreaming of Martin slashing .300/.400/.450 and being an elite leadoff or #2 guy and either playing average defense at a hard spot or plus defense at a bat first spot. Meanwhile Lewis I dream of a .260/.330/.515 guy sticking at SS. I'm excited for these dudes, obviously I threw out high end numbers that aren't likely, but it's fun to hope for it.

We've always been able to get a good number of at bats to 11 or 12 different guys a year, so I'm never worried about a dude being blocked as long as they're versatile, and it sounds like he can survive 1B, 2B, and 3B even if he's not a plus defensively. Also, it's nice that he's a righty since it feels like he could be a regular guy vs lefties being in a rotation vs righties. So yeah, I'm not concerned about playing time, for me it's just about if his bat plays and hopefully we see pretty soon. He should be the first call up after an IF injury and none of our IFs are all that clean health wise so I hope to see him by May.

This is like when Brady Aikan went #1 overall out of high school and had an agreed amount with Houston before they didn't like an arm MRI so they dropped the offer to the minimum they had to offer in order to still get the #2 overall pick the next year as compensation. He turns it down, goes to community college, tears his UCL in his first start, goes in the teens of the 1st to Cleveland, and busts. However, Rocker seems further along in development so it wouldn't be as catastrophic if he needed Tommy John, like how Giolito got Tommy John and still went 1st round and worked out.

I just love how clean of a profile he seems to have. No major injuries, good stuff, steadily building innings, consistently good numbers and peripherals, and consistently young for the level. Obviously developing pitchers is hard and plenty of unforeseen things can go wrong, but he checks a crapload of boxes and I'm hyped for when he gets called up next year.

He's one of the guys I'm the most hyped about pitching wise. Balazovic is at the top of that list since everything seems clean and Joe Ryan made his 5 September starts games I had to watch, but Canterino is number 3 in terms of guys I'm hyped for. Elite stuff, elite numbers, old enough to fast track, only question is injuries but Bailey Ober last year showed me that 100 innings is more than it looks like. He feels like about a year away from being where Winder is now in terms of timeline. 2023 rotation of Maeda, Ryan, Winder, Balazovic, Canterino, SWR, Duran will be fun, just gotta develop at least half the young dudes.

SWR being in the Stroman and Berrios trades is kind of funny. As a young dude in AA, I'm just glad the Ks are there. The walk rate isn't good but the fact that he got something right as a young AA guy is nice. I'm hyped for him.

The Twins pitching prospects are really weird to me since it feels like there are so many high ceilings but each with a glaring red flag. For Duran, Canterino, and Sands it's the health, for SWR and Strotman it's control, for Ryan and Winder it's the late breakout age, but Balazovic seems pretty clean although there could still be issues since prospects are tough. I'm hopeful since statistically we should get an ace and a couple #3s from a big group like that but we could come out empty and it's a little scary.

Josmil Pinto had me hyped so much after a good September, was electric. I was also all in on RPs Nick Burdi, Alan Busenitz, and Pat Light.

Based on his baseball reference page he looks like a competent control guy with low homers but no Ks. Maybe he can learn an out pitch and become MLB caliber.

As the rotation currently stands, there's only Bundy, Ryan, and Ober as surefire MLB players. While we'll be signing more guys, he's got a shot to be the first callup to the rotation if we get injuries before the prospects are ready to step in. He's got an opportunity, it's all right in front of him, and I'm hyped to see him try to take it.

Pretty much all arguments for trading Martin are based on the premise that all our guys will pan out and our current MLB guys will stay good. Planning around everything working out is asking for trouble. Also, let’s say we have 11 starting caliber non-catcher bats, that’s not an issue since it’s rare to have all of the guys healthy and we’ve shown an ability to get ample at bats for a lot of guys. So I don’t buy the redundancy argument. So it comes down to do we want to trade a bat for an arm, and in that case, we could just as easily talk about Arraez or Miranda this way. But I wouldn’t do that. I say stick with all our young bats.

I see some people mentioning that they'd rather see the prospects than veteran mediocre dudes, but I don't really see any of the guys as ready yet. Duran had basically a lost year, SWR is young and went cold to finish, Canterino was injured a bunch and hasn't been to AA yet, Sands and Winder are both probably close but are also coming off injury and should get some time in AAA to get going, so it's pretty much just Balazovic ready to go from the jump. Stopgaps are needed.

Twins looking inspired by the 2021 Giants blueprint. Gausman and DeScalfani being middle aged guys with long track records of #5 starters after being top prospects so long ago that no one cares, and the Giants unlock both of them for cheap in a jackpot offseason. Bundy fits that profile of former top prospect who is now a journeyman #4/5, small chance he becomes more but maybe we’re lucky. Either way, we need bodies in the rotation.

I'm down, he'd be cheap and if bounces back offensively it's a steal, plus it both gives us more money to use on starters and infield defense to help them.

Jax the next Matt Wisler throwing it every pitch. But actually though, that pitch could help him survive the DFA wave and stay interesting enough despite getting absolutely rocked. Hopefully he finds something with it.

I'm a little concerned about how all of the Twins pitching prospects seem to have injury issues. Sands, Canterino, Winder, Duran, a bit with Balozovic. The building of inings takes forever and the injuries just push it back further getting me paranoid about if they'll ever get there. If everyone with an injury history goes bullpen, we've got no future as a contender. But whatever, Ober was also like that and just jumped to 108 innings set to springboard to 160, so as long as all those guys hit 100 innings we're good.

Positionless team in 2023, with everyone being capable of a bunch of positions allowing you to send out any 8 non catchers you want on a given day. Unrealistic and potentially stupid, but fun idea.

I don't see it as all that easy to make a 2022 winner with the current situation, so I'd make it all about 2023. So that means you get a stopgap at SS and hope that Lewis is ready for a callup around June or July. And get stopgap starters who are just there until the SP prospects get up and see who's ready for the 2023 rotation. Rogers is a tender and use as the closer and see if he's worth extending or trading or neither. I don't really care too much about the bullpen, whether we use last year's OK guys or a new group of OK guys. Buxton is an extend or trade, playing out the year is the worst since it's a longshot year anyways, so extend or trade. He's shown enough that some teams may trade a big package for him and ignore the injuries hoping for a jackpot, which is what an extension is. I'd prefer extension, but if there's an offer comparable to our Berrios return the I'd be down to take it. As for DH, I love Cruz and would sign him, but I'd also completely understand if he'd rather go to a more promising team next year. Having an open DH spot would be useful with so many similar level guys we need to audition at different spots. It's the most complex offseason I can remember going in.

The Giants rotation is good inspiration. Obviously, we would need to develop our own Logan Webb and that's tough, maybe it could be Ryan, maybe Balazovic. But Gausman, Wood, and Descalfani are 3 historically average starters who were former high rated prospects from so long ago that post hype sleeper is an understatement and all went on to have great years. Unfortunately, that's even harder since identifying 1 is hard, let alone 3. We could live with 2. Our front office found those guys in Odorizzi and Pineda and that's part of why we won 101, but there's also the misses in Perez and Shoemaker and an NA in Bailey since he got hurt. I don't count Happ or Hill since at that age it's an attempt at stability not upside. So yeah, shows that our mission this offseason of making an entire rotation does have a good ceiling if you hit an absolute jackpot. And if it fails, we just DFA them and kick off the prospect rotation debuts a little sooner with an eye towards 2023.

I think it's that the Yankees feel like they need to win so they're in denial that the Twins have any chance. Meanwhile Twins fans are realistic about the odds and are just going with a relaxed "whatever happens, happens" attitude.

Most Improved: Buxton Rookie: Hildenberger Pitcher: Santana MVP: Mauer

I say that the Twins need to be patient and drive up Severino's pitch count. The Twins have taken the 6th most walks in the league and they need to get the bullpen in early. The Yankees have a lot of good relievers, so we need to make them use them all up. The most important thing is that Santana needs to be on. I don't like our chances in a slug fest.

We're finally back to the playoffs. That probably means that Garver, Vargas, Goodrum, Adrianza, Granite, and Gimenez will all play tomorrow. I'm predicting a 5-0 loss. But who cares, we got a shot at knocking out the Yankees.

That was a fun game even if it wasn't that important. So close to clinching.