stringer bell

Bobby Kielty was one of the guys I had an irrational affection for. He never amounted to more than a platoon guy and never became the five tool slugger I envisioned. I hated it when they traded Kielty for noodle-armed Shannon Stewart (and I was totally wrong).

Reading the MLB Trade Rumors writeup, it appears that Maeda could earn an additional $10M in incentives based on starts and innings. $13M per year is hefty, but it also provides protection in the event of injury or ineffectiveness. $13M is not too much to pay for a reliable 1-3 starter. He is under contract through his age 35 season. I really hope this trade pans out as the Twins could be looking to restock their rotation in 2021 no matter what the results for 2020 are.

I've also wondered about Graterol's body. type He's not tall and he weighs 265 according to the Twins web site. I'm not calling him out for conditioning etc., but questioning whether a guy with that type of body can be durable while throwing triple digits.

We shall see.I have not been as high on Graterol as most here. I just looked up Maeda on BBRef--he's a pretty solid arm in his early 30s. This club needs starters most of all and getting a guy for four years might to worth it.

I played golf down there several years ago with some locals and was concerned about some of the wildlife on and near the course. I was told that I should worry about things that "have their bellies to the ground" i.e. snakes and gators. I agree that a waterlogged ball is not worth the trouble given what is in the water hazards in SW Florida.

Signing Walker to a two-year contract would entail losing a player off the 40-man roster. Secondly, since he has five years of service time, it would require that he agree to be sent to the minors on something other than an injury rehab and, of course, injury rehabs are limited to a certain number of days. Finally, in a scenario such as this, if he's not available until after Pineda and probably Hill are ready, is there really that much for him to offer to a "win now" team? I like that Walker is youngish and he does seem to have plenty of upside if he can get fully healthy and down the road the Twins do need to fortify their starting rotation. I'm not sure if this is as good a fit as Walker can find right now.

I agree that cheating by using PEDs and cheating by using illegal means to know what pitch is coming are not exactly the same, but both are against fair play. Marwin hasn't been convicted or charged with anything yet and even if he was, he played last year without such aid (presumably) and was the player he was. Some in this thread have said essentially "throw the bum out" because they assume he cheated in 2017. If so, do they have the same opinion on those players who were suspended for PED (and masking agent) use? If we are only discussing the merits of Marwin Gonzalez the player, of course he belongs on a 26-man roster and he'll most likely be a vital cog on a good team. If he is a disruption for the team (I really doubt this), that would be another matter altogether. The whole Astros Cheating Scandal has not been divulged. If it is much, much worse the league will have to take further action. If it stops where it is, the organization and it's players (including Marwin Gonzalez) will have a stain on them.

It's up to the league to discipline any players involved, not the teams. Gonzalez was a good, well respected teammate, who was valuable on the 2019 Twins team. I would expect a similar performance this year in probably fewer plate appearances. If the league does nothing, Gonzalez' penalty will come with his next contract, most likely. At 32, he may not even get a major league contract especially if his offense doesn't improve in 2020, and his spike in 2017 will be chalked up to cheating. Before we get too ethical, remember there are three other players on the roster who were suspending for cheating with PEDs or their masking agent. Whether cheating with drugs or stealing pitches, IMHO cheating is cheating. If we can forgive Cruz, Polanco and Pineda maybe the same should be done for Gonzalez.

Something was very wrong with Chacín last year, but he has been a pretty good pitcher in the NL. His lifetime numbers are as good or better than Bailey's for example, and he's a year and a half younger. His lifetime ERA+ is 108, Odorizzi's is 106. Maybe his style is not conducive to everyone trying to lift the ball and hit it out of the park, but there's a chance he'll have a nice comeback year. I wouldn't be at all surprised if he makes the rotation out of Spring Training and I am not sure that would be a bad thing.

First and foremost, it isn't fair to judge a pitcher from just 27 innings, as you said. Secondly, IMHO, the swing and miss rate negates the low spin rate. He's getting swings and misses and Ks. If I recall correctly, Thorpe seemed to be a victim of nerves leading to to crooked numbers. The other thing I remember is sailing along and then encountering an inning where he couldn't get anyone out. Bad luck? Different stuff out of the stretch? Lack of trust in his stuff? Regarding FIP and xFIP, some pitchers never can pitch to what would be predicted for them--Ricky Nolasco comes to mind--but usually ERA tends to normalize near those indicators. If Thorpe could pitch close to those marks, I think he'll be an asset for this year and years to come.

It's pretty obvious that we, the fan base, don't have a consensus on who to keep and who to discard. the beauty of it all is that they have all the pieces at this time. I think that a few months in that they may have to decide and they'll have more information to make a decision. My sense is that Kirilloff could be an elite hitter and maybe Larnach. Rooker and Raley probably project lower, but Rooker could be among the top quartile power guy. Cave and Wade both had their moments (Cave with a much larger sample size).I don't think Cave will get past Rosario, but if he gets an extended opportunity, who knows? I think all of outfielders will get a chance to improve their stock. By the end of July both the fan base and FO will probably have much more informed opinions about all of them.

It wasn't a magical season for the purple. They lost close games at KC and GB, but they weren't unusually unlucky either. They had two games where a team needed to score on first and goal to win the game and didn't. They faced KC without all-world QB Mahomes. Like most every other team, their season could go either way by one play in 4-6 games. They were pounded in two of their last three meaningful games by GB and SF. To me that negates the nice win at New Orleans. Green Bay overperformed this year. I don't know if they can repeat their high-wire act again. Chicago underperformed and still lacks a top-tier QB. I think 2020 regular season will come down to health as it usually does, but I don't think the Vikings are in the top tier of NFL teams going into the season.

I like Arraez in the leadoff spot against right handers, with Buck hitting ninth. Polanco in the 2 hole works for me and try to go L-R after that.

The wisdom of waiting for the trading deadline is that the Twins will have a lot more clarity on what they need and a better idea of which pitcher fits their needs. Most of the guys signed as free agents have questions attached to them. Performance in the first half will answer many of those questions. I expect the price tag would be high, but the Twins also by then will have a better idea of which prospects they are willing to trade in order to get who they want.

I don't think the Twins can depend on five guys in the rotation to get them through the season. Last year was an anomaly in that, until August, the team got more than 90% of their starts from the same five guys, who were all reasonably effective. This year, we can expect one of the three written in already (Berríos, Odorizzi and Bailey) to come out of the rotation because of injury or ineffectiveness. Beyond that, I think it should be expected that at least one of the three likely replacements at the bottom of the rotation (Dobnak, Smeltzer and Thorpe) also either gets hurt or struggles. Having Pineda and Hill as reinforcements at roughly the quarter pole and halfway mark is prudent, but overall I expect Twins starters to be a continuing problem this season. My hope is that the club's starters, as a whole, improve as the season progresses. Last year was the opposite.

Harper fooled 'em in the first half of the season, but was hittable from midseason on. His OPS against in the first half was .619, but .887 in the second half. That trend doesn't project very well. He'll be 31 around opening day. He was a good contributor to the Twins' great first third of the season, but it appeared Baldelli lost faith in him as the season wore on.

There is a 26 man roster this season, so the Twins can have eight in the bullpen and still have four bench players. Especially early in the season, there is really no point to having more than 13 pitchers. Non-starters Avila, Gonzalez, and Adrianza are set, so the fourth bench spot is between the versatile Astudillo (including being a third catcher) and Cave. I believe both players have an option remaining, so which guy fits better? All things being equal, I think Astudillo is the better fit, but if Cave clearly outplays him in the spring, he can win the job. Most likely, someone will be injured and we won't be having this discussion at all.

I think spending money on a declining Pillar makes very little sense and while the team needs more speed and a good defender, especially if (when?) Buxton is injured, Dyson really doesn’t have a major league bat. I think the best and most versatile 26th man would be Astudillo, but he’ll need to win the job over Cave.

"Zuke" is listed as one of the catchers on the Nationals 40-man roster. I assume he and Gomes will split time there again this year.

Back to the OP--Counting Raley, the Twins have four corner outfielders who look close to major league ready. All four may also be groomed to play first base, but that hasn't been their position up to now. All four of the players are bat-first and three of them hit left handed. To me, there is a lot of redundancy there, especially when the Twins have two established left handed hitting corner outfielders, along with Jake Cave and LaMonte Wade Jr. To me, the Twins need to prioritize who they are going to stick with and who they can stand to lose and include those guys in trades. Next year probably will feature a real roster issue with high potential, but unproven corner outfielders. It is best to be proactive and deal with the problem early rather than late. All four will have a chance to put themselves in line for a promotion this year. May the most qualified win!

Regarding Harper, it seems that when teams want to keep a player, they don't announce the DFA and then do an outright assignment, if the player isn't claimed. If they are going to release the player anyway, then they announce the DFA immediately. I suspect the Twins do want to keep Harper around, but he'll be 31 before the season starts, so there isn't really much upside. Donaldson has worn #20 for most of his career, but started as #29 with the A's and was #27 with Cleveland in 2018 (I forgot he was with the Tribe!). There is a longer commitment from Minnesota to Donaldson than Rosario, but Eddie has been with the team since 2015. I think Donaldson ends up wearing a different number than #20.

Rene Rivera inked a minor league deal with the Mets and yesterday the White Sox signed Adalberto Mejía to a minor league contract.

And welcome to Twins Daily Gary_Wayne_Guy!

Welcome to Twins Daily DanFordWasTheMan.

With regulars pretty much established at all nine positions, it would appear that Gonzalez would get most of his playing time this year in the outfield, leaving precious little time for Cave, if he makes the original 26-man squad. My thought is that whoever is in that last slot on the roster won't get much consistent playing time. Maximum versatility and the ability to play well after sitting several days on the pine would be optimum for the last guy. My unverified opinion is that if Cave plays regularly, he plays pretty well, but when he gets to play only once or twice a week, he doesn't perform well. I don't know if Astudillo would be better in that very limited role, but he would get opportunities at the infield and outfield corners and catcher when players get nicked and come out of a game or in blowouts. Plus Astudillo has the one outstanding skill of making contact which could come into play in a rare pinch-hitting scenario.