Hosken Bombo Disco

Graterol’s success is important to consider, in my opinion, especially given the fruitless quest so far to find dominant relief pitching. Yes, the friendly Maeda contract slipped my mind there. Good reminder.

The Maeda trade was good, but the guy we gave up for Maeda has already played a key part in a World Series championship and is on the verge of becoming one of the premiere relievers in baseball. Is that a fair assessment? The Odorizzi trade was a steal. There have been some other trade wins and trade losses. Syndergaard was healthy for 2019 when we could have used him, and is already rehabbing for 2021. If Alcala or Duran become elite, we’ll all share a laugh about this.

I am looking forward to the season but since the knives are out for you, I will have to agree with you here. They just haven’t pulled the trigger on the big one. Syndergaard might have been acquired in 2019 for Buxton, who reached his peak value on July 31 that year. Before that, Gerrit Cole, hundred million dollar pitcher, might have been had for the price of Nick Gordon and others. These trade ideas were discussed real time. It’s okay that they didn’t make these trades, and it should also be acceptable to point out that they could have. I still like the Maeda trade, but we should temper our praise of it by acknowledging that the player we gave up was much better than expected. We’ll see how it plays out. In a hypothetical redraft, Maeda would not be the second AL starting pitcher chosen, not by a long shot, so I agree with you there, as well. Doesn’t mean I don’t like Maeda. I think he’s very good.

I would argue the top Twins highlight of the 2010 decade. It announced: we are back.

Home Run in his All Star at bat. Home run in his first postseason at bat. Personification of clutch. I also want to say I think he provided a spark for the Dodgers when he went there after the 2018 trade.

As a back up catcher, I’d guess yes he compares to today’s guys, even as a #2 catcher.

While it’s a matter of opinion only, whether or not Willians Astudillo is a “better” hitter than players on the 1987 and 1991 Twins teams, it really did only take me about 5 minutes to look up the data (though considerably more minutes than that to prepare and present here) to see that even Astudillo’s worst season so far compared favorably to some of the guys on the ‘87 team. (I used OPS+ here, please apply the usual caveats about comparing guys across time periods and eras) So while the 1991 team wasn’t too bad, lots of guys below average OPS but not too low, the 1987 team had some real stinkers. Here are the high(low)lights: Steve Lombardozzi, the regular second baseman in 1987, had a full season OPS+ of 70, coming off a full season OPS+ of 79 the year before. Al Newman, the utility guy with 349 PA, had an OPS+ of 59. And the 1987 catchers, except for Mark Salas, traded mid-season, were awful. The starting catcher all year was Tim Laudner, whose OPS+ was 65, and backup Sal Butera posted a Drew Butera-like OPS+ of 21, a number so low that Astudillo probably couldn’t reach it if he tried—or didn’t try, or however that works. Is this the right place to mention that Drew Butera also has a World Series ring?

You pretty much covered it Mike. The Gophers final four run in 1997 was fun. If “shook the MN sportsworld” is the criteria, without regard for good or bad, I’d put Mike Lynn’s Herschel Walker trade in there. Set up the Cowboys for a decade!

Never saw it, and at this point in my life with so many other things on my list... So is a Home Run worth 4 out of 5 stars?!?!? What do you call 5/5 stars?

I’m not as sold as you. I give the front office credit for bringing the quant team into the 20th Century, and they spend on good free agents, but they have lost and/or traded away too much talent, and they’re not winning postseason games. They are not the next Moneyball; but they don’t need to be, I guess.

This is really well presented on Maeda, and I count at least 17 paragraphs, 4 Tweets, and a table of bullet points, before getting to the lede in the headline—quite a build up but the Colorado guy sounds intriguing if he’s available, which I doubt. With Larnach and Rooker in the wings, I might part with Kirilloff. Or one of the others. Who knows. The Twins really rolled the dice when they traded for Maeda. So, more realistically, I’d like to see the Twins get better at indentifying and developing the quality guys already in the organization, whether that’s Jose Berrios, Nick Anderson, or maybe Sean Poppen (gone) or Cody Stashak (still here).

Kluber to Yankees on a 1/11 https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2021/01/yankees-corey-kluber-finalizing-deal.html You were right there on your estimate, South Dakota Tom. A contract for 3/24 with maybe some incentives or opt-outs might have landed him.

The Twins are almost finished with some show about Baby Yoda, while the White Sox are almost finished rehabbing Michael Kopech. Seems about equal.

I’m not sold on Hendricks either. However, the Sox have a couple other bullpen guys who had nice debuts in 2020, plus a better rotation (may be old fashioned but it’s something I still value), and if Kopech returns with a huge season for them, the Twins are in deep trouble. But that’s a big ‘if’.

I was thinking they will start with Berrios, Maeda, Pineda, and two more veteran reclamation projects plus maybe a minor trade, and whatever young guys like Dobnak and Alcala. Where did you hear about Kluber throwing?

I just think it’s more likely they are looking for vets on one-year deals. Kluber might fit that bill after all his injuries now; I’d be intrigued by him.

Yeah, from the fans’ standpoint, this is a guessing game. When Darvish was the top free agent a couple years ago, the market was extremely slow. However, I would bet that the next guys down had offers, like I assume Paxton, Tanaka and Odorizzi have soft offers right now, if they don’t want to play that game of chicken and try to squeeze out every penny. My prediction is I don’t think the Twins are shopping for starting pitching.

Honestly I never liked the M, but I always liked the pinstripes (the Twins pinstripes). My least favorite Twins uniform was the solid white with gold trim when they moved into Target Field. I think you still see that once in a while but only rarely. Keep the powder blues! It makes me feel like I’m in a more innocent time. I think the concussion thing sprouting up after 2010 was more of just societal awareness. Players got concussions but played through them. Great comment! Come back soon.

St. Paul is Minneapolis-ifying the old Ford plant site as we speak. Maybe the two cities are growing closer as they age?

And let’s all say it together: “Not everyone from Minneapolis...” Minneapolis is great in many ways. Definitely not trying to shame anyone here.

One of my favorite pieces of writing on the "Minneapolis vs. St. Paul" debate (yes, out-staters, this is a thing) by Mischke in 2009 Mr. St. Paul, where are you?

Glad for Tyler Wells to get a chance. Hope he stays healthy.

Okay true but this game could go sideways on you in a hurry, considering what the Twins have done (or not done) in the postseason.

The Dodgers went to the World Series that year. Tough crowd. But let’s wait and see what becomes of the Kenta Maeda—Luke Raley trade, as it’s come to be known here. Bottom line: Who was the winner of the Brian Dozier trade? Brian Dozier, and it’s not that close.

Eddie is an old fashioned “go big or go home” kind of player in a “just qualify for the playoffs baby” kind of league, with the unfortunate timing of covid and the CBA expiring on top of it to dampen his prospects for a nice contract. Boston seems like a good landing spot for him. He’s by no means done.