bean5302

I suppose it's possible for the Twins to decline his option and sign him to a MiLB contract with an invite to Spring Training... that's the only way Sano is at Twins Spring Training. Actually, Sano will not get an MLB contract with anybody, I don't expect. In any case, yes, Sano's MLB career has been wildly successful from the viewpoint of 2009 international signing to where he got to today. Prospects don't pan out all that often.

Nick Gordon, forever labeled as utility player. Sitting at 1.3 bWAR in 259 plate appearances. Those aren't utility player numbers, folks. Gordon's pretty much a dead pull hitter, but he's been able to avoid having the shift utterly kill his numbers so far. Not sure how long that's sustainable, but right now, Gordon is producing at an every day player level greater than Max Kepler.

Gordon is top 11% of the league in expected slugging percentage, hard hit and exit velocity. Statcast actually says Gordon has been pretty unlucky this year as well. I keep expecting he's peaked, but watching him play, he's driving balls with authority. If Gordon ever figures out how to take a couple pitches, he could be a very dangerous bat. Crazy.

It's what Sanchez has done his entire career and it's what is expected of starting catchers in MLB. Sanchez is going through a rough period. Hopefully, luck will swing back his way and he'll get the numbers back up. His track record suggests it's just a matter of time.

Defense this series has been terrible, for both teams. The overturned call was ridiculous, but the Twins weren't able to get any runs across the plate until very late in the game, despite the Blue Jays fielding poorly.

Not exactly. They didn't plan on putting Gordon on the 40 man until he forced the issue when an injury granted him regular playing time at the MLB level. Gordon put them into a situation where they almost had to roster him. Gordon changed their perspective and forced their hand through his efforts. The front office corrected their mistake in time. They don't get credit for fixing the mistake they made.

Seriously dude? Gordon owns a wRC+103 against lefties this year. While it's not expected Gordon is a great play against lefties, all we've got are small sample sizes. This front office nearly screwed the pooch with Gordon. They consistently undervalued him and were intent on writing him off. They played him sporadically giving him long periods on the bench or with minimal playing time last year which is just about the worst thing you can do with a rookie. Not to mention Gordon was destined to finish the year in AAA and be non-tendered at the end of last year when an injury essentially forced Gordon to get regular MLB playing time. The front office nearly gets the exact same credit for Gordon as they get with Tyler Wells. Nick Gordon has done it almost on his own, despite the front office.

That's because of small sample sizes. Smeltzer's xFIP is consistently bad against everybody. He's a AAAA guy, to be honest.

From last month. He wants to start if he can. I don't blame him since a top starter makes 3x as much and gets contracts 2x as long as a top reliever... https://www.twincities.com/2022/07/07/twins-usage-of-star-rookie-pitcher-jhoan-duran-shows-eye-toward-bigger-picture/

Basically... Read the article, the comments... then comment. Pretty much everything you're commenting about has been addressed in one fashion or another.

As things are now and how I expect they'll go for the season. Saw a note about the Twins trying to slip Dobnak down to AAA, sure, they can option him, but they can't remove him from the 40 man. He's under an MLB contract through 2025. We have 10 guys on the 60 day IL right now, *2 will continue into next season, +3 I'd add to the start of next year's roster. +Alcala Coulombe Dobnak +Maeda +Ober Paddack* Romero Stashak Lewis* Sano Non-tender if not traded/Non-roster/Free Agents/DFAs 1. Jordan Balazovic 2. Dylan Bundy 3. Chris Archer 4. Jake Cave 5. Kyle Garlick 6. Tim Beckham 7. Cody Stashak 8. Daniel Coulombe 9. Emilo Pagan 10. Caleb Thielbar 11. Miguel Sano 12. Giovanni Urshela 13. Michael Fulmer 14. Jhoan Romero 15. Carlos Correa 16. Sandy Leon 17. Gary Sanchez 18. Drew Strotman 19. Caleb Hamilton So that's +19 openings, -3 because of shrinking 60 day IL (Maeda/Ober/Dobnak) -2 because the 60 day IL disappears at the end of the season and (Lewis/Paddack) carry over -5 new to protect from rule 5 (Canterino, Wallner, Julien, Woods-Richardson, Varland) -1 Jermaine Palacios = 8 open spots, assuming no trades Those 8 spots could be used to extend Sanchez or keep Balazovic or whatever. There are also borderline guys like Devin Smeltzer, etc. I could be missing something for sure. Just don't see the roster crisis, though.

No. There' is a 0% chance Correa opts in unless he is catastrophically injured. Correa's options were always to protect Correa at a significant risk to the Twins. It's a BAD thing if Correa exercises his options.

Even more depressing is Balazovic is pitching 2-3 innings a game at this point. He can't make it deeper before he's pulled so this is about the best you could expect if he was converted to a reliever. The most troubling aspect is he's making Tyler Duffey look like a miser when it comes to giving up the long ball. Getting hit this hard, this consistently, generally means the stuff doesn't work. Balazovic just isn't fooling anybody and a near 40% HR/FB rate is like home run derby numbers. It's a very, very dire outlook for Balazovic remaining on the 40 man roster. I can't imagine an injury could drag on this long without being noticed in pitch velocity, etc.

Gordon's been hitting the ball well lately. Actually, he's been hitting the ball well for quite a while now. The Twins nearly made a big mistake last year. It was clear the intent was to send Gordon to the AAA for the remainder of the season on August 4th last year and nobody really believed the Twins were going to keep him on the 40 man. Instead, Gordon could have easily been doing this someplace else having been written off by Falvey and Levine. Lamonte Wade and Akil Baddoo have struggled due to SSS and injuries this year, but Tyler Wells has provided solid value as a starter for the Orioles, just 0.1 WAR behind Sonny Gray, the Twins' best starter on the season. If I was watching Nick Gordon play this well elsewhere, I'd be pissed.

Smeltzer owns a 5.49 FIP and a 4.98 xFIP and he has options. Even if we looked at his smoke and mirrors starts this year in May, he still owned a 4.54 xFIP. He's an easy candidate to shuttle down to the minors.

Jermaine Palacios is a MiLB free agent. He's not subject to rule 5. If the Twins don't put him on the 40 man, he can just negotiate with any team he wants, and I was stunned he didn't do that already last year. New MiLB 40 man candidates Matt Wallner - Protect Eduoard Julien - Protect Jair Carmago - Maybe Matt Canterino - Protect Simeon Woods-Richardson - Protect Louie Varland - Protect MiLB players on the 40 man Jordan Balazovic Blayne Enlow Ronny Henriquez Jovani Moran Devin Smeltzer Drew Strotman - Easy remove Josh Winder Caleb Hamilton - Easy remove Coming off the 40 man Chris Archer Carlos Correa Miguel Sano Gary Sanchez Sandy Leon Michael Fulmer MLB/Injured Non-tender candidates Tim Beckham Jake Cave Kyle Garlick Mark Contreras Cody Stashak Daniel Coulombe Emilio Pagan Caleb Thielbar Dylan Bundy I don't foresee a whole lot of roster crunch, to be honest.

The opt ins are bad for the Twins. They were added to protect Correa from a disastrous year, not a year which isn't elite. At this pace, Correa would probably be 5yrs $140MM or so. Or he could take the Twins for 2yrs $70MM max, risk an injury or a terrible season and come out long term way in the hole. Correa is gone unless something awful happens and I don't wish that on either Correa or the Twins.

MLB has their issues, but so does everybody. I'm not a huge fan of Fangraphs since their updates seem a bit random. Some prospects have moved around, but all the notes are from last year. It's like rankings get updated, but there's seemingly little thought behind it.

I heard it was part of the Season Ticket Holder rewards program. One fan got chosen to be GM for a day! Falvey and Levine were furious it was legally binding and when the fan called Jim Pohlad for permission on the moves Jim agreed because Jim refuses to do that modern "zoom" meeting crap and it's not like he ever wanted to memorize Falvey or Levine's voice. They're "little people" to Jim.

Bundy has an option as well if something goes wrong. There's the potential Duran goes back to the rotation considering that's where he wants to be. Tough call there. Then there are the wildcards like Winder, Ober, and Woods-Richardson. One of my biggest complaints about the Twins' planning is that it feels like there is no plan.

You mean in the MLB.com top 10 list I posted? The MLB.com list hasn't been updated yet I don't think. It's just one source, but many others have only been partially updated as well.

While Pagan has another year of team control and isn't likely to get a raise after this year's performance, Tyler Duffey was a free agent and was making twice the money as Pagan. Duffey will hook up with somebody on a MiLB contract, but he really needs to figure out what's going on. His curveball movement has really changed from 2019 when he was dominant. It felt like he was holding his glove a different distance from his face when throwing curves vs. fastballs this year when I was watching him. There's no doubt opponents are picking up on something, and it doesn't help that Duffey has been pounding the middle of the strike zone with the four seam.

Eduardo Escobar, even if he is have a bad year. Kirilloff's lacks game power and refuses to take walks. Jeffers is no better than Sanchez. Ober's probably not a rotation piece with his injury history at this point, and even if he was, he's a back end rotation arm. Number 4-5 guys are nice to haves, but Kenta Maeda would have been far more valuable to have this year.

https://www.fangraphs.com/wins.aspx?date=2022-08-04&team=Twins&dh=0&season=2022 Gray got much better calls than Manoah and not 1 missed strike call was for a ball 4. The strike zone was tight last night and you can see it on the interactive grid.

I'm curious, which Falvey drafted and developed hitters were parlayed into pitchers? Pitcher Steve Hajjar and hitters Spencer Steer and Christian Encarnacion-Strand were part of the Mahle trade just now, but I think that's literally about it. Kenta Maeda was for pitcher Brusdar Graterol (Terry Ryan) Chris Paddack was for pitcher Taylor Rogers (Bill Smith) Sonny Gray was for pitcher Chase Petty (Derek Falvey) Michael Fulmer was for pitcher Sawyer Gipson-Long (Derek Falvey) Jorge Lopez was for pitchers Cade Povich (Derek Falvey) Yennier Cano (Terry Ryan), and 2 other pitchers. Hitter Austin Martin and pitcher SWR were acquired for the best starter the Twins had developed in 15 years, Jose Berrios (Terry Ryan). Nelson Cruz was flipped for Joe Ryan, but Cruz was a free agent signing and it would have been quite the gamble to predict he would play as well as he did. Big kudos to Falvey for finding that deal, it was great, but it hardly involved his front office doing what they were paid to do. Free agency is part of the job, but not the big part which Derek Falvey was hired to address in my opinion. He was hired to build a sustainable farm system through drafting and development, especially of pitchers.