Monkeypaws

If they get healthy Bailey, I like the signing. He had TJ in 2015, and surgery to remove bone spurs in the elbow in 2017, and knee inflammation in 2018. BTW, apparently Homer is a nickname after his great-grandfather. His real name is David Bailey.

Reads mod note, discards original message: "What the heck kinda joy juice are you on Ted?" I've always believed that good drafting and development and international signings are the foundation of any winning ball club. Augmented with the key free agent and/or trade, that is the way to keep that window open a long time. It raises the floor. You have to be able to take advantage when NYY and LAA and the big other spenders have down years. Let's just say I share your optimism.

Signing premium players is a good thing. We don't want to overthink this.

Definitive quotes from MB here: https://www.mlb.com/news/madison-bumgarner-eyed-d-backs-from-start

Selling Berrios short is in style now. I think we forget how young this guy is. He is 25 until next May. He is 2 months older than Gonsalves, 5 months older than Stewart. He’s only half a year older than Griffin Jax, and 7 months older than Romero. Yet he has been out pitching them all at the major league level, and for years. Last season Berrios was in the top ten for AL pitchers in the following categories: ERA, WHIP/9, BB/9,K/9, IP, CG, K/BB, HR/9, ERA+, FIP. 11th in Ks, 12th in wins. He also placed top 10 in multiple categories in 2018. Given his devotion to his physical conditioning, and the likelihood that there is still room for improvement, investing in him is smart money. I sure think he has another level given his age and work ethic. Granted he has a down period now and then, but he is just entering his prime. I'm hoping Falvine throw mad money his way.

That is madness - 2.0 WAR isn't great, and we are talking the last 2 seasons combined. This for a guy that averages 7.3K/9. Even 24 for 2 years seems a lot, given what the Twins gave Pineda.

Looking at Porcello's career, he seems to alternate good years with bad years. He's due for a good year in 2020. How about a nice 1 year deal? He will turn 31 this month. https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/p/porceri01.shtml

Darn. Pulling the wool over people's eyes and half-truths are my speciality. (crumples up Twins resume and throws in trash.)

Was just looking at Johnny Cueto's numbers https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/cuetojo01.shtml, a good cautionary tale on paying big money for past performance for 30ish pitchers with lots of mileage on the arm. Not that I wouldn't welcome MB to the Twins with open arms.

Don't give him a QO, then sign him for 2 years for just a few million more - smart.

Safe to say that "targeting" and "acquiring" are entirely different things. The Twins have been very astute at the former....

Philly seems to be the place for high profile NL east free agents. Looks like they'll have $50+ million tied up in 2 players.

I think Tatis, as a 20 year old, with his .317 batting average, .969 OPS, 16 steals, and 22 HRs in 300+ at bats is out of this conversation. If WAR is the one and only measuring stick, his 4.2 in 80 some games is right there with Chapman. I will acknowledge that he did make a lot of errors, but SS and 3b aren't the same gig.

That's way way way way way way way way too much. I don't even agree with the notion that Chapman is > Buxton all by himself.

I'll play in the other direction. What if the Twins hadn't signed Nelson Cruz? Probably no way they even make the playoffs: that's how important I think he was to the team.

Frankly I'd just roll with Cron and Sano: younger, cheaper, and they both performed well when healthy last season. Put the money into pitching. If they don't think Cron's thumb will be the same, then I'd pursue Kendrick.

Yet Minnesota always scores well on quality of life comparisons. I guess if you want to raise healthy well-educated children in an area with ample employment opportunities, AND make 7 figures a year, this isn't a bad place.

Gotta say, watching that Larnach vid, he really is the professional hitter the announcers claim - uses the whole field, and has pop both ways as well.

I would make a priority target of this guy, and it appears about 20 GMs agree. • Elite stuff • Great pitcher physique at 6'4", 195. • Not yet 30 • For his age he has a pretty fresh arm: he's only pitched 463 innings in the last there years, since his TJ operation, and only 749 in his hole MLB career. For comparison, Bumgarner, who is 9 months older, has thrown 1,846 ML innings. Assuming reports are right and there are 20 teams looking at him, that puts the Twins baseline % of getting him at 5%. An awful lot will have to go right to make it happen, but given the status of the Twins, slight optimism is warranted.

Another guy generally included in out top 10 prospects seems like he should get his shot before Kiriloff: I'm talking Brent Rooker. Yeah, he whiffs a lot, but he mashes too, very much the modern ballplayer. He's actually a left fielder as well. Falvey and company even spent a supplementary 1st on him, so the idea of Kiriloff leapfrogging him in seniority AND position ... I don't think so. He did well with Team USA this fall to boot.

If Kopech comes back healthy this year, they have quite a few very nice pieces going forward.

This would be another sharp nail in MLB's eventual coffin imo - it is an not an excellent plan to cut off wide swaths of Americans interest in baseball because they live in Montana, or Tennessee, etc. Coupled with the owners' acceptance of declining attendance at games because of other revenue streams, all it will take is a slight economic downturn for the dominoes to start tumbling. We've seen the unthinkable with banks, airlines, the auto industry: baseball is infinitely less likely to get a bailout when times get tough. Shortsighted.

The Astros deserve zero credit for what Cole has achieved - #1 overall, he was a stud when they got him who was maturing into his prime. Now the acquisition part ....

I like your "if it ain't broke don't fix it" approach to most of the team. Fun read. Keuchel Hamels would be very good if it happened.

Interesting Jeremy. I'll pick a couple nits though. Between Rosario, Cron, and Castro, that's 70 bombas going out the door. The pitching would be better, but that's a lot of offense to dump at once. IMO Brent Rooker is much more MLB ready than Kiriloff at this point.