vulturepaj

There is NO downside to the pitch clock. None. There is even less time between innings now. Who's against that??? I don't necessarily agree with the shift ban -- less legislation is almost always correct -- but let's move on. TWINS COUNTRY, LET'S RIDE

Start getting Brooks Lee some time at 3b in camp and AA immediately. He's 22 (not unheard of) and has the "it" factor; all can see it. Unload Farmer to the Dodgers or another team later in the year and ramp up Lee at 3B. Early in the season you bring Lee up and rotate the 3B/1B/SS/DH rotation with Correa, Miranda, Kiriloff, Lee and Royce. Start phasing Royce into some time at 2B as well. 2024 Lineup: 1B: Miranda/Kiriloff 2B: Royce SS: C4 3B: Brooks Lee LF: Gallo/Larnach/Wallner CF: Buxty RF: Gallo/Larnach/Wallner DH: Miranda/Kiriloff/Anyone Twins Country, Let's Ride.

I gotta say, trading Gio was worth it simply because I don't have to listen to his walk-up song anymore. Horrible.

Hello all... I see Twins Fest tickets for Saturday are sold out on the official website. Does anyone have an idea of a secondary market or some other means to acquire one so close to the event?

What does a 6 man rotation actually accomplish, though? Off day on day 2 of season. Now you're one man shorter in the bullpen and we all know how Rocco likes to go to the pen early and often. 5 Man rotation with Ober to AAA in waiting or Maeda to the pen (for good). Actually, Maeda in the pen is kind of tantalizing.

I do believe that we will see Duran in a conventional closer role for years to come and nothing else and that's just fine with me!!

I wonder if they're talking about converting Royce to 3B now? I don't see Celly as a long term major league player, ever. Seems the Twins might not, either.

I wouldn't call it "fun" watching Arraez not get to a routine ball in LF to lose a game. Nor would I call it "fun" watching him air mail 1B to lose another soon after.

Celestino's soft contact (observationally... I don't have numbers to back it up) is far too extreme for me to be excited about his potential at all. He's also not an exceptional OF in my mind. He is now redundant and I don't see much further development, but hope I'm wrong.

1) Polanco (S) -- 2B 2) Correa (R) -- SS 3) Buxton (R) -- CF/DH 4) AK47 (L) -- 1B/DH 5) Miranda (R) -- 3B/1B/DH 6) Gallo (L) -- LF/RF 7) Larnach/Walner/Taylor/Gordon - (L/R) -- DH/OF 8) Kepler (L) - RF 9) Vazquez/Jeffers (R) -- C

Gallo is exceptional in RF, on par with Kepler and holds TWO Gold Gloves. Rtot/yr -- Total Zone Total Fielding Runs Above Avg per 1,200 Inn The number of runs above or below average the fielder was worth per 1,200 Innings (approx 135 games). This number combines the Rtz, Rdp, Rof, Rcatch numbers into a total defensive contribution. See the glossary section for a more complete explanation. Provided by BaseballProjection.com Below is the career Rtot/Yr at each position for Twins Position Players Player Pos G Rtot/yr Alex Kiriloff RF 35 5 Alex Kiriloff LF 34 (25) Alex Kiriloff 1B 47 7 Arraez, Luis 2B 169 0 Arraez, Luis 3B 79 (7) Arraez, Luis 1B 65 13 Arraez, Luis LF 48 (8) Buxton, Byron CF 542 15 Carlos Correa SS 881 7 Celestino, Gilberto CF 112 (2) Celestino, Gilberto LF 29 32 Celestino, Gilberto RF 10 35 Christian Vazquez C 681 11 Farmer, Kyle SS 235 2 Farmer, Kyle 3B 86 (2) Farmer, Kyle 2B 63 14 Gallo, Joey LF 284 0 Gallo, Joey RF 209 31 Gallo, Joey 1B 96 2 Gallo, Joey CF 56 1 Gordon, Nick LF 73 (3) Gordon, Nick CF 72 (4) Gordon, Nick 2B 53 (2) Gordon, Nick SS 31 (23) Jorge Polanco SS 501 (9) Jorge Polanco 2B 222 0 Kepler, Max RF 700 16 Kepler, Max CF 159 (6) Larnach, Trevor LF 93 (9) Miranda, Jose 1B 77 (1) Miranda, Jose 3B 34 (15) Ryan Jeffers C 168 (4)

Did we just see Luis Arraez' best year? Highly probable. Can he make up any decline in hitting by presenting on defense? Certainly not. He was horrible at 2b/3b and hideous in LF. Does he look like a 1B to you? Does he feel like a DH to you? 9 HR in his career year... is that going up from here? Does Alex Kiriloff look like a 1B to you? He sure does. Do Wallner or Larnach (and others) seem like possible quality DHs to you? Yep. Has the league seen Pablo Lopez' best year yet? Quite probably not. The Twins sold on the probable top-tick of Arraez' career and even got the extra fan headline juice that comes with the Batting Title. Arraez is a solid player. I don't believe the intention should be to plan for and pay "solid" players. Rather, seek out and try to develop exceptional players. Kiriloff may be that at 1B. Lopez may be that at SP. And we got two more dart throws for the future in the deal. If Royce can transition to 3B and play average defense there (seems plausible), Miranda will move to primary DH. You have this type of defense then (assuming Kepler stays): C - Vasquez/Jeffers -- Above average 1B - Kiriloff -- Average? 2B - Polanco -- Average. SS - Correa - Exceptional 3B - Royce - Average LF - Gallo/Taylor - Exceptional CF - Buxty/Taylor - Exceptional RF - Max/Gallo - Exceptional In very smart fashion and in such a way that previous front offices wouldn't have tried, Falvey has shown great creativity and foresight. Great move.

Twins are reportedly currently under their target payroll by about $45MM per year, I have read. In my opinion, it is not the correct route to go to sign Rodon based on his injury history and our roster composition. Plus, position players hold up better. Here are the three steps to WE’RE GONNA WIN TWINS, WE’RE GONNA SCORE -- Step One -- Trade Luis Arraez and Bailey Ober to Marlins for Pablo Lopez and LHRP Tanner Scott I ran it through the trade simulator (Trades » Baseball Trade Values), it’s fairly even. Lopez is on rookie deal making less than $4MM, earliest Free Agent 2025 Tanner Scott is making about $1MM per year – last year he had a very high whip but had 90 Ks in 63 IP and is LH Arraez low salary but up for Arb soon and he’ll do well with that. I don’t want to be tied at all to a slow, non-athletic slappy without a position. Ober low rookie contract but still young and shown some promise – I personally don’t see a high ceiling there. Net-Net the contact implications short term to this deal would be fairly negligible. Step Two – Sign Dansby Swanson for roughly what Xander Boegarts got – about $25MM per year Step Three – Sign a Veteran RH power-ish bat to a short term deal DH (that could perhaps play LF and/or 1B): Such as: Trey Mancini JD Martinez Justin Turner Brandon Drury Will Myers Andrew McCutchen AJ Pollock Jurickson Profar Resulting Situation/Lineups Players in italics in minors with their current national ranking within the organization Catcher – Christian Vasquez Ryan Jeffers Jair Camargo Alex Isola Charles Mack First Base – Alex Kiriloff Jose Miranda Kyle Farmer Tyler White Aaron Sabato (20) Second Base – Jorge Polanco Nick Gordon Kyle Farmer Edouard Julien (15) Alerick Soularie (18) Tanner Schobel (19) Yilber Herrera (29) Shortstop – Dansby Swanson Kyle Farmer Royce Lewis Austin Martin (3) Brooks Lee (1) Noah Miller (4) Danny De Andrade (16) Third Base – Jose Miranda Kyle Farmer Keoni Cavaco (30) Outfield – Byron Buxton Max Kepler Trevor Larnach Alex Kiriloff Royce Lewis Nick Gordon Gilberto Celestino Kyle Garlick Matt Wallner (7) Will Holland (28) Emmanuel Rodriguez (11) Misael Urbina (12) Kala’I Rosario (21) Yasser Mercedes (25) DH – I have no idea yet Starting Pitching – Sonny Gray Pablo Lopez Tyler Mahle Joe Ryan Kenta Maeda Josh Winder Chris Paddack Ronny Henriquez (5) S.W. Richardson (6) Cole Sands (10) Jordan Balazovic (13) Louie Varland (23) Brent Headrick (24) Matt Canterino (14) Blayne Enlow (22) David Festa (17) Marco Raya (9) Bullpen – Jhoan Duran Jorge Lopez Caleb Thielbar (L) Griffin Jax Emilio Pagan Jorge Alcala Jovani Moran (L) Tanner Scott (L) Not much in terms of RP prospects As I have stated this offseason, I believe you now have a decent major league pitching staff going into the year. We haven’t been able to say that for awhile. Additionally, there are a slew of near-ready SP Naturally, when and where Royce Lewis fits in is key, but it seems to me in this scenario, he would slide nicely into LF with backup duties at CF. Lineup: R- Buxton CF S Polanco 2B R Swanson SS L Kiriloff 1B R Miranda 3B L Kepler RF R Gordon/Royce/FA LF L Larnach /FA DH R Vazquez/Jeffers C Conclusions: Arraez -- move that guy before you have to pay him. Farmer/Gordon becomes super utilites with Swanson on board (besides, who can be excited about Farmer as your starting SS??) Defense a little sketch at 3B and maybe 1B… if Royce becomes LF you are +++ in OF and possibly C. Swanson solid SS and I think Polanco at 2B is solid as well. I can’t use Celestino in any way except for AAAA injury fill in. We have tons of SP coming up soon, signing Rodon wouldn’t be ideal use of cash at this point. We need offense more (strange to say) Point could be made – why sign Swanson when 3 of your top 4 prospects are SS but those players tend to shift naturally to other positions