BuxtonBonanza

The excitement is palpable, enjoy that Florida weather!

If the Twins think Lewis can be back this season, they are probably willing to roll the dice and wait for him to get 100% and not have Urshela as a backup to Miradana or Polanco. Once Lewis is up, I suspect he will take over Polanco's spot which would also lessen the possibility of his 500 AB option vesting. With Lee on the way and SS on lockdown for 6 years, the Twins need to see what they have with Miranda (signed until 2026) and Ushela taking away ABs and innings in the field don't help with that assessment. While it would be great to have Urshela as a backup, having him play doesn't serve the medium to longterm future of the Twins and if the FO could get a prospect for him, I can see why they did it and don't have an issue with the team depth in 2023 or beyond.

One of my favorite cards so far this calendar year is the Joe Ryan throwback RC card. Such a classic design from the 1987 Topps All Star set. Hopefully Topps keeps mixing up the cool historic designs with the contemporary players.

I will be there for the Oakland series! Looking forward to it, I have heard so many things about the Coliseum both good (fans) and bad (possums) that I can't wait to see it for myself.

I think on Gleeman and the Geek there was a mention that Correa was advocating for more starting pitching help and I wonder if this was some result of that campaigning?

I think most players in the modern era will have issues some more problematic than others so it is all a calculated risk. Correa is but so is DeGrom for the Rangers (pitched 38 games in the last 3 seasons) or Judge for the Yankees (who had a partially collapsed lung at one point!). I think the Twins have had particularly bad luck with Mahle and Paddock which does influence some of our perceptions but if a player has a few years of service time, they are probably dinged up one way or another before a trade or FA.

Agree with many on the thread, bring on the roboumps but not the challenges. Once we accepted replay potentially overturning human decisions on the field, then the strike zone became the logical next step and a necessary one. This coupled with the pitch clock and the game is much more mechanistic than it was in 1901 upon the founding of the American League but its still the same basic game which we all have fun watching, just changing in subtle ways for the better, Still though, screw the challenges.

Truly crazy but it seems like it is a win for both sides. High AAV for a high value player and if everything goes well with the leg, the ability to extend for a reasonable amount of money (especially considering the value of money with inflation in the years to come). Yet another creative deal by this FO after the deal last year as well as Buxton's. You don't necessarily need to throw a ton of money for a ton of years to get it done in today's FA market and they are showing it. Interesting!

Even if they don't end up with Correa after the second bite at the apple, at least they are willing to play in the deeper end of the free agent waters. Sure there are no free agent medals for second place but the FO is willing to spend $200M+ which is what is going to take for upper tier free agents moving forward. Of course, some free agents like Ohtani and perhaps Soto will have their number start with a 5 but given how much past FOs have played in the shallow end, they have to start somewhere so why not Correa?

I think the FO does have a philosophy but like any other FO in sports, it doesn't share that readily with the public. The recent contractual trends seem to be either very long term to bring down the AAV OR 1 / 1+1 deals so this FO seems to be making similar decisions with a long term deal for Buxton, a long term offer for Correa and a bunch of short term deals and trades. What I am curious about is what is their plan for the starting pitchers, as there a lot of them (Mahle, Maeda and Gray) have deals up after next season. It is tough to intuit what they are looking to do past 2023 but whatever the plan is, I doubt it is a "road to nowhere".

There is something really off/weird about him being the odd man out for two off seasons in a row. It could be the pricetag the years, the timing of deals being struck or all three. By all accounts the Twins really liked what he brought to the table as a player so if he is truly back on the market and the Twins are interested it might be worthwhile to roll the dice for a high AAV but shorter commitment (say 5 years?).

The dark blue really pops with the creme coloring and the flags are pretty killer. Had to get Buxton, natch, and am stoked to rock it this season. Is anyone else pulling the trigger on the '23 jerseys?

A healthy Buxton has to be an automatic MVP finalist. Using past bWAR as a predictor, in 2021 he had 4.5 bWAR in 61 games which comes out to 11.8 bWAR for 162 game season and in 2022 he had 4 bWAR in 92 games which comes out to about 7 bWAR for 162 (I was terrible at math so take all of this with a grain of salt). The top two MVP finishers last year were Ohtani with 9.6 bWAR and Judge with 10.6 bWAR. If he can just keep it together, he will definitely be in the conversation but that is always a big if.

Awesome year long report! I live in California and am hoping to travel to MN to see a home stand this season. Really looking forward to it and this report helps fuel my mania (and the hope for some inexpensive but great seats)!

Agreed, I really dug Pache's game on the Braves (the A's, not so much) so we if we are dumpster diving go for the upside. Zips projects slightly above replacement level so ¯\_ (ツ)_/¯ 2023 FGDC PROJ 71 308 8 .227 .280 .373 .286 90 0.7