HawksNest

Edouard Julien, remember the name for those of you worried about losing Arraez. Different sort of players in the sense that Julien will hit for a lower average but more power, he'll strike out more, but walk more as well. We're talking about a guy that has a career .437 OBP in the minor leagues and .922 OPS. That my friends is our Luis Arraez, positionless, high OBP replacement.

I get that folks are upset to see Arraez go, I am too, but if we remove the emotion or "fan" glasses from the situation and consider the context of the move, etc. then it makes clear that this is a pretty good move for the Twins. Arraez was a joy to watch, but let's face it, he was an undersized, positionless, slap hitter, with bad knees that has battled injuries every season. I think some of you are underselling how good Pablo Lopez really is. The guy had a 2.92 ERA last year if you remove his starts against the Mets (for whatever reason, the Mets REALLY had his number last year). This stretches the rotation even deeper and for the first time I can remember, we have 5 LEGIT starting pitchers (I know non of them are aces). We also add a top 100 prospect that likely slides into a top 5 spot in our organization.

C'mon folks, if given the chance, why on earth would he want to be here when given the chance to play for the Mets? Contract length was longer, gets to play in New York, and is on a World Series caliber team ready to win now with an owner willing to do whatever it takes. Easy, easy choice. Wish Carlos all the best!

OPS+ last year was 79...... 79

This FO man.....If the following is true, as quoted from Hayes' article, then why trade Urshela in the first place? It's just ridiculous and further proof that the FO, I'm sorry, just doesn't have a plan whatsoever. "Turner could provide the Twins with several important characteristics, notably a right-handed hitting third baseman to pair with Jose Miranda who could provide valuable leadership in the clubhouse. "

I agree with most of the posters and believe that the current FO regime has outworn their welcome. It has nothing to do with personal issues with either of them, it's purely about the results on the field. All that being said, it's quite clear that they caught lightning in a bottle in 2019 and it's sort of all been downhill from then. In 2019, with the most prolific HR offense in the history of the game, they refused to capitalize on what was clearly a magical season by trading only for damaged goods (recurring issue here?) in Sam Dyson and Sergio Romo. They've since presided over poor decision, after poor decision that has left the current MLB roster in rough shape, and the farm system even worse. If I was an engaged owner (how nice would it be to have one of those?) I'd have a very short leash on the current regime with serious changes ready to be made if 2023 goes the way it's looking like it will. It will have been 7 seasons at that point. Plenty of time to determine success and it's clear that things have been going backwards for years now.

Listening to MLB Network radio on SiriusXM right now and they just talked with Jon Morosi. Talked Correa and neither the hosts or Morosi even mentioned the Twins in relation to Correa. It was all Giants. Conventional wisdom, not shockingly, seems to be shifting heavily towards Correa to San Francisco.

Lifelong twins fan here, but this is just not a likelable team, at all. Sorry. Underachieving in every way. Self-important, smartest guys in the room attitude from the front office. It's just not any fun. Super, super, super disappointing. Clean house, imo.

Can we just fast forward through this season and get to 2022, please? (2022 can't possibly be worse, right?)

Falvine have been hitting it out of the park recently! P.S., you seem nice!

Too bad the league and MLBPA couldn't come to an agreement on some sort of "bubble" set up. NBA, NHL, MLS have all had zero (?) positive tests. Could have set up 3 or 4 regional bubbles. Alas, here we are. Can't say I'm confident that the full season is going to happen. Such a shame considering how good this team looks. Just classic. Best team in my lifetime and it's going to be ruined because of a once in a generation global pandemic. Unbelievable.

Bieber was absurd. Legitimately one of the best pitching performances I've seen in a long, long time (especially against such a strong lineup). Just gotta tip your cap and move on. It's baseball after all, we're gonna lose some games and sometimes you run into a buzzsaw of a starting pitcher.

What a shame. Guy has to be the most injury-prone player I can possibly remember.

My prediction, and I've actually thought this for a while now, is that Bauer signs with Minnesota next offseason. The Falvey connection from their time together in Cleveland will help bring him here in addition to our forward looking approach to analytics, etc. Also, I'm pretty sure that Falvey was intimately involved in helping Bauer take the next step after he was acquired from Arizona so their is certainly a relationship there already. Just a hunch and connecting dots.

The trade says just as much about what the FO thinks of Balazovic and Duran as it does about Graterol. Twins were obviously very motivated to get this deal done considering they continued to pursue it even when the Boston shenanigans were causing it to drag on and renegotiated with the Dodgers directly when the Red Sox pulled out. Why do you think the FO was so set on trading Graterol? They clearly believe that he is a reliever long-term and have identified Maeda as a cost-effective starting option that will slot in very, very, nicely in the top 3 of our rotation. All that being said, the FO doesn't have an awesome track record trading away bullpen pieces (i.e. Pressly, Nick Anderson, etc.) but I'm assuming that they feel really, really good about Balazovic and Duran here. Guys, don't undersell Maeda here. The guy is a really good pitcher.