DJL44

What players you put in the lineup matters a lot more than the batting order.

He's paid what he's worth. If he could play healthy every day he'd be worth $300M. He can't so the Twins get a discount.

No. If another team wants Helman I'm pretty sure they could get him for cash.

It is this belief that they have special sauce and other teams don't. The evidence says they are not special when it comes to finding or developing talent.

Rocco is coming back because Rocco is doing everything Falvey wants him to do. Levine is coming back because he's acquiring the kind of players Falvey wants him to acquire. The roster, especially the pitching staff was not constructed to give the Twins a good chance at winning. The Twins don't want to spend money on long-term contracts for starting pitchers. Part of this is you're usually paying a premium. Part of this is probably ego thinking they can produce this consistent pitching pipeline despite all the evidence to the contrary. That means they spent money on short-term stopgaps like Bundy and Archer thinking they could use them as 4-5 inning pitchers and turn the game over to the bullpen. That's the best "value" for the money. Most team's bullpen can patch over the 5th and 6th innings for a weak starter every few days but few teams have the depth to do that every game. You can't construct your starting rotation with 5 inning pitchers unless you have a deep, kickass bullpen to rely on. This directly conflicts with their philosophy finding relievers which is to never pay for the bullpen when you can grab guys like Megill off waivers or use your failed minor league starters like Jax. Relievers are volatile so the cheapest way to assemble a bullpen is to get a lot of options in the offseason and sort it out as the season progresses. This also make sense from a "value" perspective if you can quickly determine which relievers are going to perform that season and which ones will not. The experience with Emilio Pagan this season proves pretty dramatically that this organization is NOT good at quickly determining which relievers are going to perform unless you give them someone obviously dominant like Duran. Either one of those strategies (5 inning starters, sort out your bullpen) can help a team win on a budget but putting them together is a recipe for disaster. You can't go with a rotation of 5 inning starters unless ALL of your relievers are studs. You won't have a bullpen full of stud relievers if you're using rookies and secondhand waiver wire pickups. You can use low leverage innings to sort out the back end of your bullpen to find the treasure among the flotsam but not if you need to use the bullpen in the 5th inning every game. If you want to construct a bullpen that way you need at least 3 starting pitchers who consistently pitch into the 6th and sometimes the 7th inning to give the high leverage relievers a breather. It is all hubris and ego. "We don't have to pay for pitching talent. We're so smart we can develop our own through our genius pitching development program and our analytics team's ability to find treasure in other team's trash."

I figured the team would try to find a shortstop better than Palacios for AAA. There are usually better options among minor league free agents. Helman should probably try to find a different organization with a clearer path to the big leagues but it's more likely any port in a storm to make sure he doesn't have to play independent ball. Martin and Julien should both move up to begin next season. Martin doesn't need a 3rd year in Double-A.

He's a prospect because he's hitting. He will have to hit his way to the major leagues. At age 24 it's unlikely his fielding gets much better. He needs to be at a level where he is challenged at the plate. BTW - they have a term for someone who doesn't make the big leagues until 28: non-prospect.

He's going to be 24 next season. I don't see a reason why he should spend any time lower than Cedar Rapids. Start him at Double-A and see how he does.

If you had to pick 5 people to run a mile it makes sense to get one middle distance runner and 4 sprinters.

The Dodgers pulled Clayton Kershaw (future Hall of Famer) in the middle of a no-hitter this season. The Mets pulled Max Scherzer (future Hall of Famer) in the middle of a perfect game after 68 pitches. MLB teams don't want workhorses. They want thoroughbreds.

"there is little doubt that Wallner's powerful bat will be part of the Twins line-up for most of the next decade" I think you're a little ahead of your skis here. Only around 30 hitters in the history of the team made it a decade with the team. You're essentially predicting he'll be a Twins Hall of Famer based on a nice September debut.

Let's hope Varland fares better than the previous 4 winners of this award.

I would actually like to attend Friday night to see Ohtani pitch. Unfortunately I already had plans to do something else. It also looks like it's $27 a piece if you want to get a seat where you can actually see the pitcher (upper deck behind home plate).

Is that true for weekend games in the summer or just the crappy weather games when school is still in session? Do you actually get a seat or is that standing room only? I went to one game this season as part of a group. Tickets were $20 each for section T. It was nearly $200 for the 5 of us once I figured in parking and hot dogs from the "cheap" concession stand. We had to leave at the seventh inning stretch at 10:00pm (despite the 6:40 start time) because I had to get up and go to work the next day. I usually attend if I don't have a conflict when work gets group discount tickets. That has cost $10-12 a ticket for the 330 sections.

I disagree. Tickets are expensive enough that I only budget to attend once a year.

On the Saints depth chart?

That's easy Sox. I'd rather root for Tito than LaRussa.

Jose Miranda has definitely cooled off. Last 28 days split - .243/.325/.379. Time to make an adjustment.

I agree, this is a garbage hot take. Do you just hate whoever is getting paid the most?

Raising prices isn't going to help their falling attendance. You will see a lot of discounting to try to get people in the door. 12% is a huge increase on already expensive tickets to a half-empty stadium.

I'm sure Matt Wallner's friends and family are not going to stay home and avoid Target Field because they already saw him play at CHS Field.

Stole 104 bases and Willie Mays' MVP in 1962. Very good player but not a Hall of Famer unless you double the size of the Hall of Fame.

They usually like the teenagers to attend high school until the FCL starts rather than playing A-ball.

I agree with this, though they did make bold moves this past offseason dealing away Donaldson and Garver (both positive moves), extending Buxton, signing Correa and trading for Gray. Buying at the trade deadline is almost never a net positive for an organization. This offseason's bold decisions will involve Kepler and Polanco and perhaps Urshela and Gray,

Scratch-off tickets are cheap but the odds are terrible