Steve Penz

I may have spoke too soon. Sometimes this contractual stuff gets confusing.

Quick topic pivot- When Pineda is healthy what will become of Smelzer? The twins selected his contract. Would they then have to let him go? He won't pass waivers.

Souhan seems to want to take any chance to toss negativity towards Mauer. I am happy he got a nice send-off. We can enjoy the current success without dumping on him. Isn't Souhan the same person who challenged Mauer's toughness as he was suffering from a brain injury? That says plenty. Moving on.....

I feel like I am late to the game with this question but her goes. Do I understand correctly that Romero will only pursue a bullpen spot going forward? If yes, why have they decided that pitching as a starter is no longer in the picture?

This thread is as bad as my neighborhood Facebook page continually crying about poor snowplowing in Highland Park. He cut his heal in a freak accident. Here's to a speedy recovery. Great move getting Gonzalez.

I feel this but he needs to cut down on walks. His stuff is not good enough to survive if he walks 4.9 ppl per game.

Will there soon be a Cave vs Kepler discussion? Both are 25, athletic, can play corner and some center and seem to hit similarly.

Seems to me he rocked 2 years ago. He does not seem to have any power but he gets on base and hits like mad. Also, he started at SS the other day. I thought he was only 2B. It never hurts to have more depth up the middle.

Unless something very crazy good happens, they must be sellers. This is not because we have players who will bring back amazing prospects. This is because we need to be sure the correct people are playing. Morrison, Grossman, Dozier, Adrianza, Duke, Lynn and Rogers will not be on our team next year. Unless absolutely necessary, they should not play in the latter part of the season. Give reps to younger people if you can. If some of the above can be moved for even minimal return, it makes that easier to do.

Brian Dozier. Please come to life.

I can't find this one on Stitcher. The last one is the Ohtani podcast.

It is really too bad. He was a great pick up and for a short time a great asset and it should have stopped there. The extension was one of the worst moves Ryan ever made.

Echoing a lot of people in these comments, I feel like the best moves are to sign extensions to current folks, look for a RH bat and look for bullpen. None of these guys are worth it.

Why is Kepler deserving of a larger contract than Rosario and should we be extending Kepler at this point? It seems like a huge gamble without knowing he can hit LHP.

This thread makes me happy for a couple reasons. It has allowed me to learn from the discussion. And, he proved me wrong and thank goodness for that. I was not wrong to judge the way I did in the beginning but he has had a great year since not long after this post happened. It is nice to see his walk rate and strikeout rates trend positively. Hopefully he can stay this course and keep improving. Which player should I target next? Maybe there is a correlation. Here is one: I am so tired of Kohl Stewart and how he is not developing. Is it time to move on?

I can't speak for others but I feel Giminez needs to go now. Garver is wasting at bats at AAA. I feel that the baseball acumen of our FO is very high so I would appreciate hearing them explain why this move has not been made. They were sellers. Think about 2018. Get him up.

Per my comment on 7.21, yesterday the absent-minded stuff showed up from Rosario. 1. He missed a cut-off man. 2. He loafed on a fly ball to very short LF. The sun was hard and Adrianza lost sight of it. Meanwhile, Eddie is slowly jogging in from his position. I feel like he should have recognized the situation, taken control and made a play on the ball. The ball belongs to the IF until the OF calls him off. 3. There was a missed sign while he was on the first. I don't know if he missed it or if Adrianza missed it but it was missed. The result was Eddie loafing into second with no slide and giving away an out. I keep harping on this because championship teams don't make silly fundamental errors. He is hitting way better but not enough to offset not keeping his head in the game. At this point I feel like Granite should take LF when Buxton returns.

Hey Seth- Why does Palacios not get more attention? His offense seems really solid but his k/bb rate is about 4 to 1 and that is pretty bad. With the rest of his numbers as solid as they are, it seems that scouts may think that he won't be able to fix that. What is your take? Is he a poor defender?

I am just happy at the thought of him being gone. He seems like a good dude but we can upgrade the lineup.

Correct me if I am wrong, if they DFA Gimenez, he has to pass waivers before he can get offered a seat at AAA. My guess is that he would not pass and if he did, he would not accept a deal at AAA. Meaning, he is gone. This could mean that adding Anthony Recker is a lot like putting CG at AAA. They can then call up Garver which improves the lineup, and insert Garcia which improves the pitching starters. If they do this and add a quality reliever, then this is pretty good.

That's fair. Get him up for a series instead of Vargas and do a test run. We are on the backside of the season. Let's do this.

After 2 months, the numbers go up and to the right so I am pleased. He is at .273/.321/.457. This is great to see him improve. I still worry that he is a guy who will overthrow the cut-off man and get caught in a base-running error but nonetheless, this improvement is really good.

I am all for this but I am confused about why we keep Gimenez who's current line is .200/.325/.375. You hear talk about getting Garver up and fitting him in w/o getting rid of Gimenez. Folks might say veteran leadership and maybe there is something to that but it's not quantifiable. What I am missing? Bring up Garver and DFA Gimenez. Garver's stats may suffer a bit because he will be facing MLB pitching but they would likely stay far above those of Gimenez. And, you will have a guy who is 26 and the immediate future of the back-up catcher role vs a guy who will be gone next year. Many have addressed this but I still feel like it deserves more attention. What would stop the FO from making this move?