kab21

He was nowhere near a top 100 list and was outside of Sickels' top 20 (but a sleeper alert). #20 at Twinkie Town and #16 on this site. That is pretty much out of nowhere for prospects during a season. The amount of information distributed to hitters was exponentially better the following season after he had 10 great starts and was getting talked about.

Eyes will roll if there is another Death Star at any point during Ep 8 or 9. I think they left themselves a lot of directions to go with Ep 8 and 9. They basically used Ep 7 to set the table. Not all that exciting in itself but it needs to be done. Normally in a 2 hour movie this would be the first 20-30 minutes. They basically did this for 2 hours of a 6-7 hour movie with Ep 7. Of note other trilogies (like LOTR) didn't need to (almost) waste an entire movie on character building and world building (already built...). I still liked Ep 7 but I felt dissatisfied overall.

Not really. The new sheriff decides how the money is spent. Pohlad decides how much is spent each year. And how exactly did this start? About the 1M difference between what the Nolasco is being paid (including the part the Twins pay) and what Santiago is being paid?

But the point that should be made about this is that Duffey was a solid MiLB'er that came almost out of nowhere and teams didn't have great scouting reports like Brock says. They came back in 2016 with that information and Duffey couldn't adjust. It doesn't really matter if he has two different curveballs and even a changeup if hitters don't respect his fastball. I don't think it is set in stone that he can't succeed as a starter but all signs point to his pitch repertoire being much better suited to the bullpen. If what people say is true (smarter than I about pitching) then I don't see much reason to stretch him out and risk not getting anything out of him. At this point in his career I want to get something out of him instead of him being cut due to another lackluster year.

Carrying two utility infielders has always been a pet peeve of mine. 13 man pitching staff slightly outranks it but not by much.

I have been saying this for years. The Wolves haven't had cap issues so getting salary relief for Pek never made sense since they could do this with a now expiring contract.

First - you can't just put quantity together to make a trade. Second - I believe the Wolves can't trade next year's pick due to the still unfulfilled conditional 1st rd pick trade with the Hawks for Payne a couple of years ago.

You did say .800+ and the .750-.770 number was only for BAPIP drop. I said I expect him around .750. In addition his SLG is still higher than expected. And he is getting rested a lot vs RHP. And don't discount what a 50 points of OPS is. It is the difference between a very good to great player and a good one.

So your optimism depends on him ranking around the 10th percentile of all (qualified) batters in BAPIP? Good luck with that. I will take it also. In fact it is what I projected BEFORE the season began when some people wanted to cut him.

.370 BAPIP Let's consider him an above average BAPIP hitter and he can maintain a .320-.330 BAPIP. The reduction in BAPIP will knock 60-80 points (or thereabouts) off of his OPS along. Now we are talking about .750-.775 hitter. I can see .750-ish out of him. But .800+? Not really. And multiple projection solidly put him around .730.

600 PA's is still just one full season and players have lucky seasons all the time. Santana had 430 great PA's his rookie year. Rosario had 480 pretty good PA's his rookie year. But maybe 600 PA's is the magic number.

But Robbie-freakin-Grossman OTOH

Things I hate about Twins (and modern to an extent) Baseball 1) 3 catchers - if Garver comes up then Gimenez goes down or is cut - not worth doing it right now - Garver will be up at some point 2) 13 pitchers 3) an entire bench made up of utility IF/OF/C - Escobar can at least hit some (.681 career OPS) but that still isn't very impressive If this move is made and the Twins bench consists of Gimenez - Escobar - Adrianza - DSan then it is barely better than carrying 13 pitchers. Since Park is on the DL then send me Palka or Vargas. Probably Palka right now and mix him into the OF some with Buxton and Rosario struggling. Cutting Santana is also fine. Why he can't be semi-competent at the plate and in the field is baffling but we have seen enough.

I would normally agree but I believe the many people that his pitches don't project well as a starter. If this is true (certainly debatable) then just leave him in the bullpen. I do like the idea of having higher leverage multiple inning pitchers available though instead of this one (inning) and done concept. No reason that Duffey couldn't be a 7th/8th (and even 9th) inning guy but it would challenge bullpen usage as we know it.

Of course a 1.47 ERA is a mirage just like the 5.58 ERA last season with the Twins was a mirage. I think nearly everyone in this thread expects him to revert back to the average 4.00 (career ERA is a little lower) that he has always been and your stats do nothing to refute that. I think we should all have the expectation that every GM knows that Santiago will go back to being Santiago. There is no find a trade partner fast because he has had 3 great starts. The issue that I see the Twins facing is somehow clinging to a .500 record and not selling Santana or Santiago. Of course as a fan of MN sports I expect an 6 game losing streak at some point breaking our hearts. But winning would be great even if we weren't able to pawn off a couple of veterans for mediocre prospects.

At the 6 spot does anybody enter into the equation besides Tatum, Isaac and Markkanen? I just can't see an option of drafting a PG or small guard with the roster makeup unless that player was WAY BETTER than any other option. I think this is a great draft to trade down or to trade for a underappreciated veteran. The Wolves can draft lower than 6th if one of the teams below them gets lucky and moves into the top 3.

His pitching could put him as a top 10 pitcher. His hitting (at a corner position or DH) is intriguing but probably tops out at solid every day player. If I was a team I would only want him pitching or at most pinch hitting. Having a part time DH is bothersome. Unless of course you are the current Twins that seem to like rotating Sano through the spot and I wouldn't care if Otani stole a start or two/week from the Gene Larkin (I mean Grossman). But if I was a team with a legit DH that shouldn't field or is blocked in the field then I don't want an okay hitter taking AB's away from a vastly superior hitter (probably being paid a lot).

The worst part of NBA contracts (related to at least) is the ridiculous salary matching requirements for trades. This is one of those good on paper (barely) but horrible in execution ideas that serves no purpose. There is a salary floor (at least to some extent I think), a soft cap and a punishing luxury tax. The other (slightly related) silly thing is the veteran carousel every March where they get cut and they have to sign by a certain date to be playoff eligible. Many times these were players that had to be included in the deals above.

So here are the 2017/18 salary commitments for the Wolves from this site - http://www.basketballinsiders.com/minnesota-timberwolves-team-salary/ Rubio - 14.25M (2 years remain) Pekovic - 11.6M (expiring) Dieng - 14.1M Aldrich - 7.3M (the third season looks non-guaranteed) Wiggins - 7.6M Towns - 6.2M Dunn - 4M Bjelica - 4M Lavine - 3.2M Kevin Martin - 1.3M (one more season remains) Jones - 1.5M Total committed = 75M (I didn't add everything up and there is some rounding up above) Muhammad = RFA Hill = 4.2M team option Payne = UFA Rush = UFA The 2017/18 cap is expected to be 102M. So there is 27M to work with. And a 2.8M exception. Max contracts are 25% of the league cap. Or 30-35% for more experienced players. Ibaka's max contract should be 30% unless I am mistaken. Millsap could be 35%. Am I correct with this? Another question - Designated players. Teams can have two. This is where the Wolves screwed themselves with Love (saved it for Rubio) but now teams can have two. It appears that if the Wolves signed Ibaka (or someone else) to a 5 year contract then they wouldn't be able to do the same with both Wiggins and KAT. Is this correct? This would put the brakes on any 5 year near max contracts in my plan.

How many times does this need to be split in order to make him into a league average hitter?

I really hope that they go in a fresh direction. I like The Force Awakens but it seemed like I was reading a really long first three chapters of a book where they are character building and the main story is yet to come. This is what was so great about the original (A New Hope). Limited characters and a new storyline. In The Force Awakens there were so many characters because they retained the old characters but introduced an entire new set and they recycled the storyline for the most part. I was mostly joking comparing the two apprenticeships. This is the route of the Jedi and repeats many times. They have a lot of possibilities of diverging from Ep IV-V-VI. At some point I have to believe that Kylo Ren either comes back to the Jedi. Probably ending in his heroic death that turns the tide of the entire war.

One big part of the Empire Strikes Back was Luke meeting Yoda and his apprenticeship. That storyline will certainly repeat.

Someone that makes a cameo appearance pinch hitting twice a week doesn't count as a two way player imo. The extent that this has drug on is a little silly though. If you want to your definition of pinch hitter to be making a pinch hitting appearance then so be it. He can play OF.

It still doesn't change the statement. He isn't 'basically a two way player' (your words) if he only hits when pitching. Bumgarner isn't a two way player.

Strange thread. I was one of several Robbie supporters this offseason when several offseason plans had him being cut (or nearly cut). And now 8 games (for him) into the season we are talking about him possibly being the Twins DH and a .800+ OPS player. Very, very unlikely. He is a solid player though and I compared him to Gene Larkin before. low BA, high OBP with a little pop. Ideally he would be used in that role and the Twins could find out if Park or Vargas are real options going forward. It isn't about age but upside. Grossman's upside is a .750-ish OPS with a high OBP. I want to find out if either Vargas or Park (my current preference) is a .800+ OPS hitter with 25-30 HR's at the DH spot.