kab21

Enter the Twins according to this logic. The Twins will unlikely sign a full time DH because they will continue to play Sano there for 50 games and Grossman/O(h)tani could be part of the revolving DH position. DH'ing Otani 50+ games is better than a PH role and that is a commitment that I would be willing to make to bring his pitching here. And what level of commitment to an alright bat at DH makes it still worthwhile to add him to the starting rotation. Would you 'endure' 80 games of a DH that hits .725 OPS to sign him to what will almost certainly be a very undervalued contract?

I am not sure if there is a pitcher in baseball that won't look good if you start omitting enough results using some arbitrary split. Gibson's nice little run that he is having is why I disagreed those with pitchforks that were ready to cut him despite no viable replacement being on the MLB or AAA roster. There is some level of competence and he is showing that he can be successful against awful offenses but I don't really believe in any significant change from his previous 700+ innings of mediocrity.

I commented on this elsewhere but he isn't really good at most basketball skills and the things he is good at aren't a great fit due to the number of ball needy players that are better than him. But the Wolves absolutely need competent NBA players to fill out the 9-12 spots on the roster. They are just a couple of injuries away from relying heavily on never have been's or never will be's. Bazz is a legit NBA player. He just isn't very good.

Ugh... It is that thing you know is going to happen but you convince yourself that maybe it won't and then it does. Looks like Busenitz is the last man standing from the trade. Nice ERA but the lack of K's is a concern. Yes, Nolasco is standing but Nolasco is being Nolasco. I think most saw that happening...

Rosario continues to remind me of Jacque Jones. He was toolsy but it was obvious that he wasn't a natural CF'er or even played LF defense that matched those tools (very similar to Rosario). He had similar plate discipline and power. He also made numerous WTF type plays. But he was a great option to have through his arb years. Of course if Rosario could be traded at peak value then I am interested but I see a lukewarm market for the reasons that people state in this thread as wanting to trade him. He is a solid but not great hitter that plays alright(ish) LF defense with poor plate discipline. Other teams know that he is limited as far as upside also.

It is also right in line with most of his starts in April and May.

His increase in whiff rate is result based and still very much SSS. Even the swstr% is SSS. He started the season with 3 out of 4 games with similar rates. He had 4 straight games >10% in late May/early June. His velocity has held steady between 91 and 92.1 during all 5 of his MLB seasons. I wouldn't put much hope in that improvement. And if you aren't basing this on results then is it just hoping?

I am sorry but this article is way over optimistic about Gibson due to his success against two thoroughly mediocre teams. Also included in his 'great' month is a 3.90 ERA and 2 games where he didn't make it through the 5th inning. I need to see a little (I mean A LOT) more before he is even an option for next year. That bridge has been burned for me to be honest. The Twins need starting rotation arms of any kind to finish the season and somehow stay in the playoff hunt but they should be completely prepared to find better options than a starter finishing his 4th full season with a very high 4's ERA that is trending higher. Taking a split from the all star break is just a little too convenient for me. He just happened to throw one of his worst games of the season immediately before the AS break.

It isn't about the 7M tbh although that is sort of significant money. Colon has put up terrible stats this year and the Twins should definitely enter the year with 5 better options than Colon (if you believe the advanced stats). He is a fallback (plan B/C) type of option at best. the Twins are actually in a good position to take a little more risk (and upside) at the 5th starter since they could have Gonsalves, Romero, Jorge, Enns and Littel at AAA. Those are 5 legitimate prospects (stretching it a bit with Enns but he is still a solid arm).

I am sorry if you are offended by my comments but I have mentioned numerous times that the Twins didn't have any SP depth when they signed Colon and they still don't have a good option to replace him so there isn't a reason to stop running him out there. But there should be every expectation that his success won't continue. It would be great if they could squeeze another month of okay-ish starts out of him though.

He has a 6.35 ERA this year with a 5.32 FIP. This might indeed be the year that he can't get people out anymore. All that we are seeing is a small 8 game sample size that includes an 88% strand rate. If the Twins had other options then I would suggest them but they already still have Gibson in the rotation so there isn't any reason to yank Colon. Expectations should be low though.

Yes, but the question has to be 'Why was the old agent fired?'. How much flexibility is there in a max contract? Would Wiggins have to wait until next offseason to avoid paying both agents?

I agree that affiliates don't change much but it is also very, very difficult to add teams to a league (through subtraction of another team). St. Paul only works geographically for the Midwest league and for AAA. I doubt the stadium is at the AAA level so that leaves the Midwest League. I don't see the Midwest League moving into a major urban city. And there is still the monumental task of removing one team from either league to create an opening. A team could move but that is still a difficult task.

Colon is much more like 2008 Livan. Early success with terrible peripherals that suggest things can turn ugly fast. It has been a great ride so far though.

I didn't have a problem with the signing because the Twins had no SP depth but I had no expectations that he would be productive. I will be the contrarian in the thread though and at the end of the season say 'Thank you, We wish you success next season wherever that may be'. Colon 2017 reminds me of Livan 2008. The success just isn't going to last but it has been fun.

So the Kyrie trade may yet fall through due to Thomas's physical (known issues...) and Wiggins might not sign a max extension. What the hell happened with Wiggins? I still expect a max deal extension to happen even if they wait until next season but this has a bit of drama so far (fired agent - declined? max deal).

There are always several college draft picks that should start higher than ETown. I also think it would be a better choice than ETown for many although I wouldn't necessarily get rid of ETown.

Great topic. This was one of the over/unders that I made in late April. It is safe to say that the Twins will have obliterated the over/under that I picked. IIRC I picked the high mark (Twins) for both options. The amazing thing is that despite the continual churn the Twins are still in the playoff chase.

I am really happy with most of the affiliates. I really like the addition of Chattanooga and CR recently. Rochester is the one where it seems that the Twins don't have a great relationship but I don't know much about the local issues. It sounds like either org would move on but there has to be another team/affiliate that is also available. Tough to find a match. E-Town might be another one. My preference would be for the Twins to add an affiliate in the NWL or the NYPL and get an advanced short season team.

It is kind of difficult to claim that he can hit 30 HR/season if he can't do that at any AA/AAA/MLB level. He has 61 HR's in the last 3 seasons split between AA/AAA/MLB. That is 380 games. This is the issue with claiming that he is a 30 HR in the majors. I have always liked Vargas and I still think he could be a prototypical slugger DH that the Twins always lacked in the 2000's but he is using up his chances by not destroying the ball when sent to the minors. It would be one thing if he had alright-ish MLB numbers (.740 career OPS) but had a .900+ MiLB OPS with 30 HR pace when sent down but he has alright numbers when sent down and his K struggles follow him down.

It definitely makes sense but buying tickets has gotten really complicated. You can't just suggest 'get some tickets in LF' anymore. There are 3 different price ranges and 5 different categories of game price ranges. This is coming from someone that has been outside of the US for almost a decade and had it easy with a partial season ticket (Tigers) package. I am sure that all teams are doing this now.

Vargas has always shown enough to get another look but he has never shown enough to simply take the DH spot. And this continues to be the case. Will he always tease teams with that 25-30 HR potential that it certainly looks like he has? Or will he actually break out and hit 25+ HR with a .800+ OPS? But can we leave SSS 'clutch stats' out of the argument? They are essentially meaningless.

They may not even have to blow it up after this trade (with Thomas leaving). Getting the Nets picks and Zizic could be HUGE for them.

But there is a difference between having to trade top 50 prospects and signing a FA. The market in FA is likely to be much more active than the trade market. I am not excited about a Dozier extension but it wouldn't be a horrible thing. The Twins have a lot of payroll flexibility coming up with big contracts ending and a lot of pre-arb and arb players filling out the lineup. It will be interesting to watch the new FO work. So far they have shown a willingness to operate outside of the box.

I agree with this although there is upside. His WAR has been between 3.3 and 5.9. Obviously he won't be worth 5.9 again but a 3-4 WAR player is worth 21-28M/yr (1 WAR = 7M ballparkish value). This has been why I think his next contract is going to be closer to 20M/yr though and this is why I keep saying that you only sign if you think he can stick at 2B. His WAR at 1B (or DH) probably drops by at least 1 (from 3-4). Yes, WAR has been used. I expect the forum to implode shortly.