h2oface

I guess the future means the past. Going back to playing baseball like it was meant to be played in the field. Sounds good to me.

Post of the month! 😇

A number 5 overall pick. I keep remembering Tyler Jay (6), and Kohl Stewart (4). This time we traded for him, and he is now a hugh question mark, and heading that way.....

Thanks for the article, and educating some of these posters that only know the game from todays angles led by WAR.

Pagan!!!!

No more Yikes in the likes. This is a double YIKES!

I think they should try to find another Lopez. Hell, double down again...... double down on..... a couple Lopezes! Add confusion to the minds of the opposition with Lopez, Lopez, Lopez and Lopez! If they had the same first names as one of the other two - gravy. I mean, it's confusing me already, and there are just 2. Go Lopez crazy!

Maybe there will be, as there should be, an actual hall that would be the Hall of Shame in the Hall of Fame. Guys like Pete Rose, Shoeless Joe, Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, A-Roid, etc...... could and should all be in the Hall of Fame in that special Hall of Shame. They are part of baseball, and were great players, and most of the steroid clan were good enough already without the boosted stats. Correa would fit in the Hall of Shame deservedly. Correa can never shed that. It is part of his story and history will remember, even if Cody already forgot. He still has a ways to go to get there, though, just on his performance. He will need to stay potent for several more years to make it.

Maybe being the key word, here. For if you pull him, you never really know if you should have or not. If you don't, you find out, one way or the other. And if the pen immediately blows it up, like on the first pitch or first batter like we saw way too often last year, you really can't claim wisdom. One might claim wisdom if the pen performs, but you don't know if your starter would have done just as well.

Funny stuff. Working the "confusion" in - brilliant. The horror of Grimm's Fairy Tales. Love it. Pay no attention to the nay-sayer. Keep 'em coming. I remember the "confusion".... https://www.yahoo.com/video/twins-outfielder-max-kepler-apologizes-for-controversial-photo-amid-george-floyd-protests-230841299.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAAqFFyRZ9ZV3VxHOyE9emsg3SVejNk3mRVJzoEwJzxoY2muvLYOG5hNhO1y8QcrTiZeu8Auo8sZS2AWxI2WfSHiLfqMKRuhHD7SA1FeNytu0N2Fi1ZmCMC8G4nCtC_tsijnEgd-gUgK0elPrrpSchaQduzPY2zNd5oz-PgFc8Cns

I guess it is all perspective, and how one hopes it goes. Lopez was an expendable piece with only 2 years of control and arm/shoulder risks to the Marlins, but "controllable, young, high-end pitching" for the Twins, even though "he doesn't [even] quite clear the Sonny Gray Threshold", which might be debatable that Gray even qualifies as "high-end pitching," and "controllable" is just through 2024, and by mid-season he is in the trade now zone if we look at the Pressly and Berrios trades, especially if he doesn't like the terms of an extension he might be offered. Crucial veteran (27 year old season) depth with health question marks added to a rotation besieged by question marks. He probably fits right in. Lefty Evan Sisk and righty Steven Cruz went from promising prospects being pitched with great optimism in the TD prospect articles - Sisk one that could help in the show this year - to "a pair of unexceptional pitching prospects." Teenaged prospects, Jose Salas and Byron Chourio, come with "considerable upside", but apparently not that considerable to the Marlins and they became a throw in to make the deal. The Marlins are betting that Arraez is just getting started at 25 (26 for the 2023 season) and will hit even better and improve his fielding, and now for the Twins, the narrative becomes "if he loses 20 points of batting average, which can happen almost by random chance, he's a pretty mediocre player. He has no defensive value, no power, and doesn't really draw that many walks." And then there is a strikeout master in Gallo to fit in. He talks like he will be starting everyday - "“It’s shaping up to be pretty good,” Gallo said. “I hope Buxton doesn’t steal too many of my balls. I like to run and catch some. I’m going to tell him, ‘Let me catch a few balls.’ Yeah, it’s exciting. Just to play next to a guy like Buxton is an honor. I’m glad I don’t have to hit against him anymore because he catches every ball in the gap.” - We should have fine defense, at least in the outfield and behind the plate. “That's a defense that makes you just want to throw strikes and let the hitters put balls in play,” said Pablo López. Yikes? Maybe all will shine. I hope so. They all may be great deals for both teams, Funny how perspective can change. Personally, I hope the home grown guys play so well that they make the strangers expendable.

So #3 is 1 year wonders, and #4 multiple years of control. Hmmm. Don't tell them that they contradict each other. Maybe they are confused. It surely is confusing me. Maybe I am just confused.

Many credit the 134 pitch heroic no-hitter and the first and the only Mets no-hitter (I can't really count the bullpen 5 pitcher no hit game last April as a no-hitter, you can if you like) as the beginning of the end. The no-hitter was after several injuries, of which some were not to his arm or shoulder, but knees. This is apples to oranges. Duran is his own man, and it should be his decision. If you don't give him a shot, and he wants to, Duran will find a team that will as soon as he can. The Twins can't control him forever if he doesn't want them to. Besides, all he has to do is say he doesn't want to sign an extension yet, and he probably will be traded like Arraez and Berrios, no matter how good he is. https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1206124-johan-santana-no-hitter-why-it-was-mlbs-most-impressive-no-no-in-recent-memory#:~:text=For this one night%2C Santana,complete the no-hit bid.

Duran was always special, and that is why they traded Escobar for him. Gabriel Maciel and Ernie De La Trinidad were certainly throw ins and nothing special. The hope was always there for Duran. Verlander doesn't, and never did, throw it 100 or more all the time, but he did/does when he wanted to reach back and unleash it. Powereful weapon. To assume that Duran will not become more of a pitcher and less of a thrower as he matures and ages, and he will not explore change or speeds in his performances, even if only as a reliever, is a pretty limiting and demeaning stance. Last year was a successful experiment. He can always be used in the pen. To let a person grow is not breaking him. To impede someones talent for selfish reasons is breaking him.

I watched Kershaw pitch a flawless 6 innings, and then get shelled in the 7th. Several times actually. Some in the post-season. Is that the same kind of example of fragility?

How many that get moved off SS, for whatever reason, whether young or older, ever make it back and stay there? I can't think of any. There are probably a few, and some act as a sub because of injury or suspension or whatever, but they never really return to man SS for the long haul.

Interesting group of attendees. Gordon is probably wondering if he is even going to be on the team as they keep adding players that seemingly replace him. Did Watkins blow any calls during the event? I sure hope they get someone else this year to be 3rd base coach. I wish Ron Washington would come home.

My understanding was it was an experiment to limit innings as he ramped back up from injury. His injury had to do with throwing the ball, he just happened to be starting at the time. He wants to start, and has expressed that politely several times. Not giving him the opportunity to do so will drastically limit his career earning potential, and he knows that. I hope he gets that chance this year or next. Good thing Santana got the opportunity when he started in the pen to limit innings. What the FO has believed in regards to pitchers hasn’t worked out so great.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2023/01/twins-notes-rotation-ober-arraez.html Part of this more perfect world would be if the FO actually developed pitchers, like I understood at hiring, was their specialty. The complete projected starting five for 2023 were acquired by trade, and so was Paddack. SWR, and Duran. There are more, too. 6 years in, and they trade their best developed (Graterol) or highest potential pitchers from draft (Chase Petty), or don't draft them when they have the chance (Hunter Greene). Hard to develop them when you don't have them. It seems the other teams they are trading with are doing the developing of pitching prospects better than our guys. If they developed their closest, or best prospects, instead of trading for arms that are known injury gambles,and only middle of rotation pitchers, perhaps they wouldn't be in a position where a trade like batting champ fan favorite Arraez for oft hurt and a gamble like Lopez makes sense to them (but not necessarily the majority of keen fans).

We had that many games Baldy let the pitcher complete, and the pitcher could complete, 6 innings? Not that it is a lot, but it still surprises me.

They also like to trade the highest upside pitching prospects for quesionable arm health, instead of developing them. Graterol was MLB ready, and developed in-house all the way from a MiLB free agent!

Similarly, does that mean if Lopez gets offered an extension this year, and he wants to wait and bet on himself for a while (waiting is not necessarily a no, especially if the offer is too low in the players opinion), that he needs to be traded at the deadline with 1 1/2 years on his contract left, like Berrios and Pressly?

Yes. Very possibly. Especially if Correa hits the first half of the season like he did in 2022, and his defense continues to degrade from 2021 as it did last year. Or he is injured. He didn't make the team last year. He has made it twice - in 2017 and 2021. And there is also Bobby Witt, Jr., Bo Bichette, Wander Franco, Tim Anderson...... to name a few, that could be the picks depending on the first couple of months, as flawed as the all-star selections are. Pena will get a lot of carry over mileage from his post season play last year. Here is what one fantasy rating thinks, which, like my opinion, doesn't really mean anything, necessarily, either. https://www.fantasypros.com/mlb/rankings/al-only-ss.php

They should just call him a right handed outfielder, instead of a right handed “hitting” outfielder. Always good to trade away pitchers so you don’t have to develop them, especially those pesky flame throwing lefty’s. .

Get the whole gang back together, eh? I don't get it. Minnesota doesn't have to be that nice. Better hide the trashcans. Maybe get compactors for the dugout. Plus, Gurriel comes with even more baggage. https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/10/28/560615006/astros-yuli-gurriel-suspended-for-racist-gesture-but-not-until-after-world-serie