Rik19753

Fangraphs recently released its 2023 top 100 prospects list and three Twins prospects made the list. They were Brooks Lee at 19th Royce Lewis at 55th Edouard Julien at 75th Those rankings are similar to other prospect rankings, so no huge surprises there. One mild surprise may be E.Rod's omission. Fangraphs cited his injury concern and high K% as reasons that he didn't make the list. But what caught my eye was the 47th ranked prospect, former friend Spencer Steer. Yes, Steer was ranked ahead of Royce Lewis. Now, I've looked at several prospect rankings and have never seen Steer anywhere close to 47th, so it's probably safe to say that it is not the national perception. In reality, I have a hard time thinking any major league GM would choose Steer over Lewis. However, I am a big believer in Fangraphs and they seem to be right often when they are bullish on prospects that are generally not regarded that highly, so I am a little worried. When the Mahle trade happened last year, I think most (myself included) were pleasantly surprised that the headliner was Steer and thought that the price was cheap compared to the Montas and Luis Castillo trades. But in Fangraphs' rankings, Ken Waldichuk (the main piece in the Montas trade) and Noelvi Marte (main piece in Castillo trade) are ranked more than 40 spots lower. Were we wrong to think that the FO had gotten a good price on Mahle? I shudder to think that the Mahle trade may turn out to be even worse than it seems right now. Is it possible that Steer is a better prospect than Royce Lewis? And did the FO get fleeced in the Mahle trade? Let me know what you think.

Sure, Urshela is the better overall player, but Farmer is a better SS. And I think that is all that mattered to the FO. if they had Urshela and not Farmer, and if, god forbid, Correa were to get injured, it would be Gordon, Polanco, or Urshela filling in. Heck, they don't even have Palacios anymore. So that move was necessary. Also, it is debatable whether Urshela is actually superior to Farmer. Farmer has 3.3 WAR in his last 2 seasons, whereas Urhsela has 3.1.

But you don't trade away pieces if you can get the same thing without giving up anything. Trading Ober and Canterino for May is like paying $10 for something that can be had for free. The comparison shouldn't be May vs. Ober and Canterino it should be May vs. (Best FA RP that can be signed for the amount that May is paid), Ober and Canterino So unless the FO believes that May is better than any available FA RP, they will have no reason to give up even their last ranked prospect for May. Much less Ober and Canterino.

I like it. The best defensive OF in the league just got better. I guess this signals the end of Celestino though. Really would have liked for them to give a chance to Evan Sisk. But it is nice that J.A.Happ actually provided some value to the team after all.

While the statcast numbers paint a nice picture, the fact that Kepler does not produce at the level that his underlying numbers suggest he should is ancient history to everyone that has been following the Twins. The front office should be texting all of these numbers to other general managers to get them to bite. I'm sure some GMs who have not been watching Kepler play every day will look at the numbers and see a buy-low opportunity. And I have nothing against Kepler, I think he is a great personality but his fate was sealed when Gallo signed. Although it makes one wonder who would possibly trade anything of value for Kepler when they could have just signed a very similar player in Gallo for 4M more.

I don't think the FO should be getting any praise even if they were to sign Correa, at least not yet. And that's coming from me who is a lot higher on this FO than others. Two teams that are practically begging free agents to take their money backed out of deals with Correa, and given the recent injury history of trade acquisitions/signings by this FO, you would have to wait for at least 3 years (or dare I say, a WS victory) to give any kind of credit to the FO. It would also not change the fact that they were one fluky Correa injury away from having an absolutely horrendous offseason.

While that is certainly true, this year could be an exception. Since it is already very slim pickings at this point, I think the FO would dish out a lot of money to any worthwhile player if it is on a 1 year contract, like they did with Gallo. Guys like Eovaldi and Drury are unlikely to take 1 year deals even if you give them a lot of money, but I think 1 year, high AAV deals are just what relievers like Kimbrel and Britton are looking for.

I really like Gordon and I think he needs to be more than a utility player. He hit the ball harder than everyone on the team besides Buxton last year and was 5th on the team in xwOBA. He is clearly one of their better hitters and the Twins do not have enough good hitters to have the luxury of having Gordon as a backup. The FO and some fans need to stop assuming that his power is a fluke just because he doesn't have a ton of muscle. I think you play Gordon/Garlick at LF to go along with Buxton and Gallo in the outfield(assuming Kepler is traded). Gordon's .793 OPS vs righties and Garlick's .839 OPS vs lefties would make for a great platoon. Just get him into the lineup as often as possible, he should be getting the same amount of hype and expectations as Miranda, Kirilloff, Larnach and Royce.

The A's seeing something in Ruiz that others don't still doesn't explain the trade. If the other teams really did value Ruiz like BTV, the A's would have definitely asked for more even if they were 100% sure that he would blossom into the next superstar, because you would never ask for less than what the other team is willing to give you. I think it's more likely that every team is higher on Ruiz than his prospect rank or his value on BTV.

I like this idea. Farmer is great against lefties, with a .837 career OPS vs. a .650 OPS against righties. If they intend on using Farmer as the utility guy against lefties and Nick Gordon against righties, I like it. On the other hand, if they plan on Farmer being the Opening Day SS, I hate the move. If they aren't going to spend their money on SS, where else are they going to spend their money? I have a very hard time thinking they have a shot at signing the likes of deGrom, Verlander or Rodon. Unfortunately, I think the latter is a much bigger possibility than the former. I just have a hard time thinking that the FO would pay $6MM for a utility player when they are so obsessed with their cap space. I don't think they have completely ruled out signing a top SS, but I think this is one of the moves that we have seen time and time again in recent years where they prepare their fallback option beforehand so that they have a backup plan for whenever their feeble attempt at signing a top free agent inevitably fails.

I think this trade means that the Twins don't have any intensions of signing a top SS in the free agency market this year. If they were seriously considering signing Correa or Bogearts, it is highly unlikely that they trade for Farmer as a backup when he himself makes nearly $6MM.

The season is all but over now. I'm disappointed, but not surprised. Great timing for the NFL to start though. These losses made my transition from baseball season to football season a lot easier.

Did anyone notice how small of a lead Hamilton had when he tried to steal third? I know he's known for his speed but that didn't look like a good steal opportunity in the slightest.

Very interesting stuff. Gary really stands out to me in that he has already exceeded his average numbers of doubles, but needs 20 more HRs. Prior to this year, he had 78 career doubles and 138 HRs, and not a single season in which he hit more doubles than HRs, so I guess he is getting pretty unlucky in that his deep fly balls aren't going out as much as they did in previous years. His statcast numbers indicate that he is hitting the ball just as hard as in previous years, so it may just be luck, or it may be from changing home fields. I just want to point out that the OPS numbers probably aren't correct. Buxton has a .843 OPS so far this year, so he wouldn't need a .907 OPS the rest of the season to end up with a .770 OPS.

I guess we can't have nice things around here. Just when you thoughts things were turning for the better we lose what may be our best pitcher... And to rub salt in the wound we get to see Pagan in the 3rd inning.