Danchat

They traded 4 prospects for Lopez, he's a 100% lock to be back, the price for him was set based upon the years of control of his contract, for better or worse. As for Pagan, it's mind-blowing how he's still even on the roster despite having 3 straight poor seasons but the front office loves him for whatever reason. You would think they could get him back on a minor league deal, though.

Last year I made a pretty big article going over who to keep and who to protect on the 40 man roster for next year - I think this time around it'd be better to keep it to just who to protect. Here are my notes: Locks P Woods-Richardson - Looks like he's getting added to the 40 man roster this weekend. He is well deserving of it, but he'll have to jockey for starts next year against Winder, Sands, and Varland. Please stay healthy! 2B Julien - He's been deserving of a promotion to AAA for some time now, has an insane .441 OBP and .931 OPS, Could debut early next year. Possible/Likely P Canterino - Would be a lock if not for injuries, but they kept Enlow around despite his surgery this time last year, and will probably do so for Canterino. This reminds me of Nick Burdi, when we didn't protect him and lost him in the R5 draft. P Headrick - Dominated A+ and then got slowed down at AA, he is a bit old for a prospect who just arrived at Wichita (will be 25 next year), but he generates strikeouts. Decent chance he's a reliever if he makes it to the majors. 3B Severino - I'm not that high on him, but he's had a very strong year and he's only 22. He jumped from 8 HRs in 425 PAs to 19 in 351 PAs, and maintains a strong OBP. I suspect they could sneak him through the R5 process as I think he's too green right now and doesn't have a super high ceiling. Outside Chance C/1B Isola - He'd be a likely keep if he could be a full-time catcher, but that does not appear to be the case. P Mooney - He had a fine year at Cedar Rapids, but hasn't made it to AA yet and will be 25 next year. Great strikeout rate, but too many walks, and only 60 innings pitched this year. OF Urbina - Still has a super high ceiling, but he simply hasn't done much with only 656 PAs in his MILB career. Will only be 21 next year, and it'd be unfair for him to see MLB pitching as a R5 pick. INF Helman - Had a great year but he's maybe a utility infielder in the bigs. 20 HRs and 40 SBs is impressive, Gives me some Niko Goodrum vibes. RP Sisk - Dramatically improved from a shaky 2021 season, all he has left to do is lower the walk rate. The Twins may have been better off giving him innings in September over Pagan/Megill... but it is also a sign that they don't think much of him. Thoughts?

Yup, there's nothing like watching football on your big, high definition TV! Especially when you skip ads like I tend to. I still like going to 1 to 2 games a year, but there's nothing like watching in the game and then flipping on Redzone.

A hot finish is nice, but I don't think Martin is that good of a prospect now that we've got a larger sample size on him. He's supposedly a bat-first prospect who will mostly slap singles and draw walks, and defensively can't handle SS despite being given every chance to stick there... so he'll probably play in the outfield and have the speed for it, but his inexperience there could make it a slower transition. Maybe I'm just getting jaded, but I can't say I have any confidence here. We talked last year about how hot Celestino finished the year in the minors despite a very poor first 4 months, and now he's sporting a .620 OPS in the majors.

I’m pretty sure his RBIs are low because he hits lead off most the time, but I don’t have the stats to confirm that.

Gotta admit I’m jealous, that’s a very fair price for a very good starter. Too bad the Twins prioritized Mahle over Castillo.

That’s absolutely worth $10M, we are way better with him in the lineup compared to the alternatives. But 7 more years of this… he’s going to miss more and more time.

Was it just me, or did the Royals runner look safe at home?

I think he's taking a big step forward this year - having AJ Brown at his disposal and being in his second full year as a starter, I think we could see him jump up into the #11-15 QB tier this year.

I had the Vikings losing this one, but I did not expect a tire fire... woof. I tried not to overreact to our big win Week 1 and I'll try not to overreact to this loss. Let's give O'Connell time. I think people will finally stop underrating Hurts and the Eagles after this one, their roster is loaded and Hurts looks to be making the next step.

Gotta love how the two big acquisitions with future years of control are already hurt/completely imploded. The front office made the moves they needed to make (unlike past years), they just have no competency.

4.24 ERA for Lopez since acquiring him...

Pitchers care about the money first and foremost on the FA market, and the Twins rarely ever bid on starters, so it is a moot point, but as far as I know there has never been a starting pitcher to decline an offer based upon how often that team pulls their starters 'early'.

Since the Twins 2022 season is virtually over as far as the playoffs concern, let’s focus in on two important races – Arraez’s race for the batting title and the AL Rookie of the Year. Here are the front-runners in the batting average race: Arraez .316 Boagerts .315 Judge .312 Abreu .309 It’s still a close match. Fun fact: If .316 is the winning average, it will be the lowest batting average in the AL since 1968, when Carl Yastrzemski won the title hitting just .301. Other low values include 1966 Frank Robinson at .316, 1945 Snuffy Stirnweiss at .309, and 1905 Elmer Flick hitting .308. Yes, .316 would tie for the fourth lowest winning batting average ever! If you’re wondering, if we bring in the NL, only Tony Gwynn’s .313 in 1988 is below Arraez’s number… we are definitely in the midst of a pitcher-friendly era! Next, let’s see how the top rookies in the AL are doing: Jose Miranda Year Age Tm Lg G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS OPS+ TB GDP HBP SH SF IBB Pos Awards 2022 24 MIN AL 106 407 373 38 103 22 0 15 64 1 1 25 79 .276 .334 .456 .790 126 170 15 8 0 1 0 35D/H Julio Rodriguez Year Age Tm Lg G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS OPS+ TB GDP HBP SH SF IBB Pos Awards 2022 21 SEA AL 126 540 491 80 137 23 3 27 73 25 7 40 140 .279 .343 .503 .846 145 247 6 8 0 1 4 *8/H AS Adley Rutschman Year Age Tm Lg G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS OPS+ TB GDP HBP SH SF IBB Pos Awards 2022 24 BAL AL 95 391 331 61 83 30 1 11 34 3 0 53 70 .251 .358 .447 .805 127 148 2 4 0 3 0 2D/H Bobby Witt Year Age Tm Lg G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS OPS+ TB GDP HBP SH SF IBB Pos Awards 2022 22 KCR AL 134 560 522 72 129 27 6 20 72 27 7 27 120 .247 .289 .437 .726 103 228 10 6 0 5 2 65/DH Steven Kwan Year Age Tm Lg G PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS OPS+ TB GDP HBP SH SF IBB Pos Awards 2022 24 CLE AL 130 554 487 72 139 21 5 4 39 15 5 57 53 .285 .363 .374 .737 114 182 8 5 1 4 1 *79/8HD Rodriguez is the clear and obvious favorite here, having the best offensive numbers and adding in his ability to swipe bases and play the outfield well. Rutschman deserves a ton of credit as one of the few catchers who can still hit. Kwan has been sneakily good, but I'd put Miranda third on this list. Alright, that's enough from me. Can the Twins finally break an 8 game winning streak against the Guardians?

When did Rodriguez get added? I thought Varland was the 29th man. Edit: Apparently Megill has COVID, so Rodriguez can come up without the need of a 40 man spot. Thank goodness AAA is in St Paul!

I am somewhat impressed they haven't lost yet... that's about all the praise I have for this team.

I know, how dare he keep Jake Cave on the bench! OK, yeah maybe Gordon should be in the top 4 and Wallner shouldn't be hitting 8th, but we're squabbling over the order of deck chairs on the Titanic, meanwhile the captain has already drowned and people are still yelling at him.

Yup, Kepler will be back, but his near-total lack of power this year has to be a big concern. He should collect some more hits with the shift limits, but only 9 HRs and 18 2Bs in 446 PAs is embarrassing (.666 OPS!).

Rocco's version? There is no way the front office is letting him run his own version of analytics, it's clear to me that he's executing their plan, as if they weren't happy with what he was doing, they would force him to change it up... similar to how Molitor got the can, with one of the reasons being letting his starters stay in too long (in their eyes). Exactly, this is a Falvine problem, not just a Rocco one. Having the current front office hire a new manager is likely going to have them find another analytics-driven manager, which I'm sure everyone would be stoked about! And the problem is that Rocco may not be allowed to sent him out there more than 70 pitches, especially with how Ober's innings were managed last year.

What spreadsheet decision lost the game today? The back end of the bullpen lost the game, in baseball that's sometimes going to happen even when Jax/Thielbar/Duran were pitching well up to this point. And spreadsheet or not, the lineup is decimated by injuries.

Hasn't Arraez graded well defensively at 1B? I'll pass on Hosmer, he's a below average bat for a 1B and getting old, and he does not have 16 HRs, he's at 8 and hasn't hit at least 16 since 2019... veteran prescence is nice, but it hasn't helped the Red Sox (he's hitting .611 OPS for them and injured now). So you'd rather the Pohlads sit on the money? It's not like we've lost many/any significant internal free agents in recent years.

Bailey Ober has been activated, and to make room, Jharel Cotton has been DFA'd (for the fourth time this year!).

Like kissing your cousin?

Conversely, Verlander was pulled at somewhere in the 80 pitch range when he had 7 no-hit innings on us. I'd let Ryan go past 110.

I was hoping they would prove that the 2021 was a fluke - I didn't expect any success in the playoffs, but if I were to know how bad this division was ahead of time, I would have expected us to win it. The initial promise was 'sustained competitivity', and I don't feel like that has been attained. We've gone off the rails since a successful 2019-20 stretch, and even during then this team wasn't competitive at all in the playoffs. It feels like we're miles from being our 2019 squad, which already wasn't good enough.