Teddy

Oh, I have a feeling that he wouldn't sign with the Twins if he thought there was a chance of spending time in the minors.

I was fully on board with selling at the deadline, especially with guys like Kintzler, who was a pending FA. Frankly, I wanted Falvine to do more, like move Gimenez and Grossman at the time as well.

Dereck Rodriguez is a 6-year FA this year, right? Any word on whether he'll re-sign with the Twins?

I'm iffy on Bautista as well, as I'd think a guy like Mike Napoli via FA or Carlos Santana via trade would make more sense, as both a player and a clubhouse guy to teach the youngsters how to win at this level.

I think expecting 10-12 WAR from the combination of Buxton and Sano is a bit of a stretch at this point. You're basically asking them both to be at or near the level of a 2016 Brian Dozier to hit that number. While I think it'll take continued growth from both players to see this team become elite, I think we're a season away from expecting that, especially with Sano's weight and shin issues.

I am giving the benefit of the doubt to Falvine in the hope that they have a plan in place. With that, I'm just as OK with losing these two guys as I was losing Adam Brett Walker last year.

Quote: "At this stage, it’s clear that we’re not talking about the second coming of David Ortiz, but Vargas can have a role in the big leagues." Remember that after a couple of seasons, David Ortiz looked like, well...Kennys Vargas.

I'm just happy to see that he's learning how to make adjustments. Playing the bigs is all about making adjustments. Now pitchers will adjust to him, and he'll have to adjust again, but if he keeps his head on straight, which I think he will, he'll be fine. Better than fine, actually.

Just like they didn't allow Berrios to wear La Machina.

The Twins' website still shows Recker as being on the 40-man roster, even though he was outrighted a few days ago. With him off the 40-man, that leaves three openings. I bring that up because I fully believe John Curtiss belongs up with the big club, and they'd need to put him on the 40-man roster to do that. I won't be surprised if Matt Belisle is a waiver trade, because he's been hot and could help a contender. That would open up a 25-man roster spot for Curtiss. If Dillon Gee pitches well, he could stick through August, and barring any injuries, we might not see any other movement until September 1. Once September 1 hits, there are a few guys that should get a shot. Mitch Garver. Kennys Vargas will be brought back up. Engelb Vielma should get his chance. I'd like to see Stephen Gonsalves & Aaron Slegers get tastes of September in the Big Leagues, but both of them would require being placed on the 40-man roster. Beyond that, probably not many worthy, with the possible exception of Fernando Romero, but I doubt they'd bring up both Gonsalves and Romero, and frankly, I think Gonsalves is a little ahead of Romero at this point.

I was hoping they'd trade three guys: Kintzler (no brainer), Santana (because I think he's topped out) and Eduardo Escobar. Escobar is arbitration-eligible this offseason and I would've thought he'd be a great pickup for a contender needing some versatility with pop in the bat. As much as I love him as a team guy, there are replacements available (Adrianza and Vielma, to name two) at a much lower cost.

Even when the Twins were in contention, I was advocating selling. While I'm loving the Twins playing prominent baseball in July, those six weeks in first place didn't look sustainable. However, they have a lot of talent that is nearing readiness for a big-league look, and they have a few guys who it makes sense to trade to fill some holes and set up for a really solid 4-5 year run of championship-level prominence. Ervin and Kintzler are the two names that make the most sense to deal right now. If Polanco was hitting, I'd be in favor of trading Dozier (for the right haul) and moving Polanco to 2B, but right now that doesn't look like a great move, so Dozier should probably stay. Moving Escobar makes a lot of sense, from a sell-high perspective, too. However, I don't think anyone would take a flyer on Gibson, as he's just too erratic for what he's being paid.

Recker spent time in the Cleveland organization in 2015. I wonder how much that played a factor into Falvine's decision to include him in the deal.

Gimenez isn't performing so poorly that they need to dump him now (see Breslow, Craig). They can wait five weeks and call up Garver September 1 and at that point, relegate Gimenez to performing the task for which he is best suited, namely pitching mop-up in games that are out of hand.

I'm not ready to give up on Polanco. He's shown too much upside in the past, but he may be hitting a sophomore slump. Frankly, I'd like to see the team deal away Adrianza, who doesn't seem to provide much, and give Engelb Vielma a shot at playing short for the rest of the season. His offense can't be much worse than what we're seeing from Polanco right now, but his defense is elite-level.

Frankly, I would love to see a stat like Viscosity. It would show who is the most smooth at top speed. Of course, purists like Dan Gladden would tell me to simply open my eyes and watch, but where's the fun in that? We don't watch baseball for fun, do we?

I'd have to think the Twins would need to be out of contention a month from now for them to become sellers and move Grossman. Frankly, it makes a LOT of sense, as with his OBP, he'd be a great bench bat for a contending team. I just don't see him being traded if the Twins are still in contention by the trade deadline.

If they don't put him on the 40 man roster this offseason, he'll be exposed to the Rule 5 draft, and I doubt highly they'd want to expose him.

Seth, I found this a bit curious. For both Romero and Jorge, you have the same OPS in each of the first three months: The OPS against him in April was .853. In May, that dropped to .705, and in June so far, it’s just .676. That seems statistically unlikely, and I wonder if it's an oversight?

Oh, and I'd shop Belisle & Breslow too. Not that there'd be too many takers.

Escobar and Dozier are two of my favorite current Twins, but it makes sense to shop both, along with Grossman. There are replacements ready (or nearly so) in the minors in Engelb Vielma, Nick Gordon and Zach Granite respectively. All three of those guys might be in the Twins' long-term plans, where it's highly unlikely any of the three current Twins (Esco, Dozier & Grossman) will be.

It's pretty sad when the backup catcher has the team's best ERA after three appearances.

The problem is that only two of those guys are on the 40-man roster (R. Rosario and Melotakis). Somebody would need to be dropped to add one of those guys, and once they're added, taking them off the 40-man would expose them to waivers, so it's not like you can just shuttle them in and out on options. If Hughes' shoulder doesn't get any better, he might be an option for the 60-day DL, which would open up a spot, and they could always dump Tepesch, Rucinski and/or Wheeler (whom I'd like to see get a legit shot before he gets sent back down) to make room, and in that event, my first two choices from AA to add to the 40-man would probably be Curtis and Bard. I don't trust Busenitz (it takes more than flames at the top level) and Hildenberger needs more seasoning, and will likely be nothing more than that sidearm guy out of the pen every team seems to have (see Bradford, Chad).

I respectfully disagree, Howie. Each of those three AA arms have bigger potential than probably a guy like Mejia or Santiago, so there's no reason to mortgage the future just because the team is out-performing expectations this year. Stick to the plan. Personally, once he gets a couple more starts, I expect we'll see Nik Turley before Slegers, Hurlbut or Wheeler. And does Gibson make it to the weekend before they swap him out for Mejia?

Gonsalves has that shoulder issue that they just took a look at, and tests came back negative. He's not ready for this jump yet, anyway. Berrios still needs a couple more starts, and I think they'll give Gibson and Hughes at least two more months to figure things out. One of the five is bound to get injured in the next few weeks, which will allow them to slot a hungry and more proven Berrios into the rotation.