scottz

I suppose it depends on a number of things. I'd have to analyze it to determine where he was going to sign. All I have to do is divine from what I know of Donaldson. Is he the sort of man who would put his horses in his own pasture in Atlanta, or someone else's in Minnesota? Now, a clever man would put his horses into his own pasture in Atlanta, because he would know that only a great fool would expect to see those horses in Minnesota. I am not a great fool, so I can clearly not choose that he signs in Minnesota. But Donaldson must have known I was not a great fool; he would have counted on it, so I can clearly not choose that he signs in Atlanta. But horses are prey animals and grazers, as everyone knows. And they spend about 16 hours a day grazing pasture grasses while always looking around for predators. And prey animals are used to not trusting they are safe, just like I do not trust Donaldson to sign in Minnesota. So I can clearly not choose that he will sign here. And Donaldson must have suspected I would have tried to figure all this out, so I can clearly not choose that he will sign in Atlanta! He beat the crap out of us when he was in Oakland and Toronto, which means I don't want to ever face him again. But he might want to have the chance to beat the crap out of us again, trusting on his National League team to face us in the World Series. So I can clearly not choose that he'll sign in Minnesota. But he's also made $80 million dollars through his age 33 season, which means he understands how to negotiate. And in negotiating with a four year contract on the table, he must have deduced that this could be his last contract, so he would want to sign for as much money as possible, so I can clearly not choose that he'll take a discount to sign in Atlanta! You're still reading? You fell victim to one of the classic blunders! The most famous is "Never get involved in a free agent bidding war unless you are willing to overpay." But only slightly less well known is this: "Never read a scottz post on a Friday afternoon and expect to get any real information!"

Where does Donaldson keep his horses?

I blame the random site that popped up when I googled "MLB free agents remaining and who may have horses or girlfriends who have horses." I'll update shortly - please verify the change is made to your satisfaction.

I used a random name generator to make a list of people who sounded like they might be baseball players. I think the generator did a great job.

Sign anyone who has already played here as it is proof that they are, in fact, willing to play here.

I thought it was obvious how the bit ended that I had no plan at all. But I'll take whatever credit you want to give me.

Felix Hernandez RP 34 - Doesn't want to share crown with Aquatennial Queen of the Lakes Josh Donaldson 3B 34 - Loons kinda freak him out Jacoby Ellsbury CF 36 - No longer very good at baseball Dallas Keuchel SP 32 - Concerned that North Stars fans still aren't over it Edwin Encarnacion DH 37 - Weather too cold for imaginary parrot Alex Gordon CF 36 - Retro baby blue uniforms clash just a little with all his Royal blue gear Hyun-Jin Ryu SP 33 - Airport not close enough to the west coast Ryan Zimmerman 1B - Feels like anyone who has been through Zimmerman, MN might not like him right off the bat Russell Martin C 37 - Has heard a catcher is more likely to be concussed here Wei-Yin Chen RP 35 - 6.59 ERA in 2019 Rich Hill SP 40 - He's 40 Ben Zobrist 2B 39 - He's 39 Martin Prado 3B 36 - Keeps alpacas in Texas Mark Trumbo DH 34 - Isn't Nelson Cruz Marcell Ozuna LF 29 - Sees how Rosario is treated Nick Castellanos RF - Unbalanced schedule - doesn't want to have to go back to Detroit that much Yasiel Puig RF 29 - Keeps fainting goats in 49 other states Alex Wood SP 29 - Insufficient quantities of chiropractors Trevor Cahill RP 32 - We've got a shot here Brian Dozier 2B 33 - Never heard of him Tommy Hunter RP 34 - Insists on being called Tommy, Lord of the North, and that just doesn't fly Jason Kipnis 2B 33 - Doesn't like state fairs Kole Calhoun RF 32 - Doesn't want to change his name to Kole Bde Maka Ska Ivan Nova SP 33 - Longs to reunite with Pittsburgh Starlin Castro 2B 30 - Likely to sign him and cash in when in gets to 2000 hits Juan Nicasio RP 33 - Doesn't realize how many good restaurants we have Todd Frazier 3B 34 - Would prefer not to be around so many lakes Corey Dickerson LF 31 - Would prefer many more lakes Jason Castro C 33 - Number of lakes is fine, but would like less fish Pat Neshek RP 39 - Homecoming is possible Andrew Cashner RP 33 - Friend of a friend has heard Minnesota "smells a little" Jason Vargas SP 37 - Too many Jasons already here C.C. Sabathia SP 39 - Too many C.C.s already here Cesar Hernandez 2B 30 - Would never live up to Cesar Tovar's precedent Jonathan Schoop 2B 28 - Never heard of him Welington Castillo C 33 - Minnesotans would latch on to the "Beef" nickname too much Dellin Betances RP 32 - Keeps ostriches in New York Anthony Swarzak RP 34 - Homecoming is possible Drew Smyly SP 31 - Look at all these free agents left Derek Holland RP 33 - I honestly didn't think this bit would be this long Mitch Moreland 1B 34 - Mitch Moreland? More like Mitch Lessland, huh? Julio Teheran SP 29 - If he's not good enough for Atlanta Fernando Rodney RP 43 - If he's still throwing, homecoming is possible Jordy Mercer SS 33 - Is he related to Bobby Mercer? Billy Hamilton CF 29 - Is he still fast? Taijuan Walker SP 27 - Let's give it a try, Taijuan. Sam Dyson RP 32 - I think this bit is over Brandon Kintzler RP 35 - Yeah, it's over C.J. Cron 1B 30 - Definitely over Eric Thames RF 33 - Steve Cishek RP 34 - Steven Pearce 1B 37 Jedd Gyorko 3B 31 Pedro Strop RP 35 Kevin Pillar CF 31 Collin McHugh RP 33 Tyson Ross SP 33 Robinson Chirinos C 36 Arodys Vizcaino RP 29 Juan Lagares CF 31 Travis Shaw 3B 30 Yolmer Sanchez 3B 28 Danny Salazar SP 30 Justin Smoak 1B 33 Hector Rondon RP 32 Wilmer Flores 2B 28 Will Harris RP 35 Steven Souza RF 31 Jon Jay RF 35 Matt Adams 1B 31 Jarrod Dyson CF 35 Jimmy Nelson RP 31 Brock Holt 2B 32 Brian Duensing RP 37 Asdrubal Cabrera 2B 34 Addison Russell SS 26 Chad Bettis SP 31 Yoshihisa Hirano RP 36 Clay Buchholz SP 35 Wade LeBlanc RP 35 Lonnie Chisenhall RF 31 Shawn Kelley RP 36 Matt Duffy 3B 29 Nate Jones RP 34 Tony Cingrani RP 30 Hernan Perez 2B 29 David Phelps RP 33 Matt Albers RP 37 Justin Bour 1B 32 Matt Moore SP 31 Jose Iglesias SS 30 Martin Maldonado C 33 Jonny Venters RP 35 Craig Stammen RP 36 Jared Hughes RP 34 Edinson Volquez RP 36 Logan Forsythe 2B 33 Derek Dietrich 2B 30 Brian McCann C 36 Hunter Pence RF 37 Neil Walker 2B 34 Gio Gonzalez SP 34 Domingo Santana RF 27 Devon Travis 2B 29 J.C. Ramirez SP 31 Kazuhisa Makita RP Francisco Liriano RP 36 Devin Mesoraco C 32 Tim Beckham 3B 30 Curtis Granderson LF 39 Kyle Barraclough RP 30 Chris Rusin RP 33 Luis Garcia RP 33 John Axford RP 37 Luis Avilan RP 30 Brandon Guyer LF 34 Ryan Tepera RP 32 Daniel Hudson RP 33 Matt Wieters C 34 Tyler Clippard RP 35 Brandon Maurer RP 29 Jerry Blevins RP 36 Robbie Erlin RP 29 Cory Gearrin RP 34 Ryan Buchter RP 33 Aaron Loup RP 32 Steven Wright RP 35 Jeremy Hellickson RP 33 Dominic Leone RP 28 Dan Otero RP 35 Bryan Hoay C 32 Cory Spangenberg 2B 29 Greg Bird 1B 27 Melky Cabrera LF 35 Kevin Plawecki C 29 Caleb Joseph C 34 Josh Phegley C 32 Nicholas Tropeano SP 29 Jose Lobaton C 35 Gorkys Hernandez LF 32 Adam Rosales 2B 37 Ervin Santana SP 37 Logan Morrison DH 32 Erasmo Ramirez SP 30 Matt Joyce LF 35 Adeiny Hechavarria SS 31 Josh Tomlin RP 35 Ryan Goins 2B 32 Jerad Eickhoff SP 29 Bryan Mitchell RP 29 John Ryan Murphy C 29 Xavier Cedeno RP 33 Tyler Saino SS 30 Cheslor Cuthbert 3B 27 Jesus Sucre C 32 Kelby Tomlinson 2B 30 Andres Blanco 3B 36 Tom Koehler RP 34 Josh Fields RP 34 Javy Guerra RP 34 Fernando Abad RP 34 Ronald Torreyes 2B 27 Guillermo Heredia CF 29 Tony Barnette RP 36 Gordon Beckham 2B 33 J.B. Shuck LF 33 Allen Webster SP 30 Michael Blazek RP 31 Cody Anderson SP 29 Josh Thole C 33 Pat Venditte RP 35 Ryon Healy 1B 28 Elias Diaz C 29 Matt Grace RP 31 Jose Pirela 2B 30 Dan Straily SP 31 Jesse Biddle RP 28 Edubray Ramos RP 27 Kevan Smith C 32 Trevor Hildenberger RP 29 Joey Rickard LF 29 Jacob Barnes RP 30 John Hicks C 30 Daniel Stumpf RP 29 Tyler Olson RP 30 J.T. Riddle SS 28 Aaron Brooks SP 30 D.J. Johnson RP 30 Jacob Nix SP 24 Ryan Burr RP 26 Rajai Davis CF 39 Carlos Gomez RF 34 Tyler Austin 1B 28 EDIT: I'm removing Tyler Austin from the list because dex8425 said he signed with a team in Japan, that it was a pretty good deal for Tyler Austin actually, and that dex8425 is taking any and all wagers that Tyler Austin will rake. Also, I read on mlbtraderumors or on a Doogie tweet that Tyler Austin's girlfriend preferred being near an airport in Japan, so we never had a shot anyway. Kohl Stewart RP 25 Tim Peterson RP 29 Felipe Paulino SP 36 Hector Santiago RP 32 Eric Sogard 2B 34 Mike Morin RP 29 Homer Bailey SP 34 Blake Parker RP 35 Brian Schlitter RP 34 Brooks Pounders RP 29 Danny Hultzen RP 30 Caleb Frare RP 26 Thyago Vieira RP 27 Ryan Feierabend SP 34 Derek Law RP 29 Jim Adduci CF 35 Jason Adam RP 28 Rob Brantly C 30 Wilkin Castillo C 36 Rico Garcia P 26 Isaac Galloway RF 30 Humberto Arteaga SS 26 Oscar Hernandez C 26 Erick Mejia 2B 25 Deven Marrero SS 29 Ian Gibaut RP 26 Peter O'Brien RF 29 Jace Peterson 3B 30 Yadiel Rivera 2B 28 David Hale RP 32 Tom Milone SP 33 Josh Smith RP 32 Drew Gagnon RP 30 Fernando Salas RP 35 Joe Hudson C 29 Francisco Cervelli C 34 Austin Adams P 33 Joe Panik 2B 29 Ross Detwiler RP 34 Aaron Slegers SP 27 Zac Rosscup RP 32 Chris Owings 2B 28 Robby Scott RP 30 Juan Minaya RP 29 Brad Miller 2B 30 Charlie Tilson CF 27 Mike Gerber OF 27 Kris Negron RF 34 Edwin Jackson SP 36 Tyler Lyons RP 32 Buddy hers RP 32 Jonathan Lucroy C 34 Tim Federowicz C 33 Sean Gilmartin RP 30 Cameron Maybin RF 33 Rookie Davis SP 27 Donnie Hart RP 29 Sean Rodriguez 2B 35 Ricardo Pinto RP 26 Gabriel Ynoa SP 27 Yonder Alonso 1B 33 David Carpenter RP 34 Tayler Scott SP 28 Ryan Eades P 28 Matt Kemp LF 35 Pablo Sandoval 3B 33 Bobby Wilson C 37 Rene Rivera C 36 Nick Vincent RP 33 Juan Centeno C 30 Ryan LaMarre LF 31 Gregor Blanco RF 36 Chris Stewart C 38 Marcos Mateo RP 36 Erik Kratz C 40 Tim Collins RP 30 Jeff Bianchi 2B 33 Rubby De La Rosa SP 31 Josh Edgin RP 33 Jemile Weeks 2B 33 Travis Snider RF 32 Kila Ka'aihue 1B 36 Mike Zagurski RP 37 Shane Robinson CF 35 Cliff Pennington SS 36 Alex Wilson RP 33 Danny Espinosa SS 33 Ricky Nolasco SP 37 Logan Kensing RP 37 Dylan Axelrod RP 34 Johnny Giavotella 2B 32 Duane Below RP 34 J.C. can C 40 Chris Withrow RP 31 Nick Franklin LF 29 Rafael Lopez C 32 George Kontos RP 35 Seth Maness RP 31 Alcides Escobar SS 33 Grant Green LF 32 Neftali Feliz RP 32 J.J. Hoover RP 32 Wilin Rosario 1B 31 Chris Hatcher RP 35 Dan Runzler RP 35 Collin Balester RP 34 Brandon Beachy SP 33 Brandon Hicks 2B 34 Henderson Alvarez SP 30 Juan Jaime RP 32 Alex Torres RP 32 Robbie Ross RP 31 Drew Hutchison SP 29 Zach McAllister RP 32 Cole Gillespie LF 36 Stolmy Pimentel RP 30 Michael Martinez 2B 37 Dioner Navarro C 36 Logan Ondrusek RP 35 Stephen Pryor RP 30 Fernando Rodriguez RP 36 Ezequiel Carrera LF 33 Wilkin Ramirez LF 34 Emilio Bonifacio CF 35 Mark Rogers RP 34 B.J. Rosenberg RP 34 Justin Sellers SS 34 Moises Sierra RF 31 Scott Van Slyke LF 33 Josh Zeid RP 33 Zach Putnam RP 32 Shelby Miller SP 29 David Lough RF 34 Brad Boxberger RP 32 Hector Sanchez C 30

Where does Berrios keep his horses?

Clearly, the Twins will need to put the most resources into this program, and certainly more than the resources put into WAG programs set up by other teams. It's the only way to produce a reliably strong baseball team that wants to play here.

Sounds like the Twins need to put some resources into developing the very best WAGs that love Minnesota. It'll be a good old fashioned CIA-style honey trap. Pay for their college, and send multiples after each college prospect they are interested in. Obviously, high school kids are off limits, but if the Twins draft a high school kid after he is 18, send multiples from the WAGs development program to the rookie league and/or low A ball towns. Go Twins WAGs! Help us resolve our biggest problem.

Lightning in a bottle was 2019. Catching it two years in a row seems unlikely. Taking a chance on past glory players is a disappointing step following a year when everything seemed like it was lining up well.

They can't.

How much better? If he were a free agent, where would he be on the list? (NOTE: this was a copy paste, and is obviously missing some signings) Gerrit Cole (29 years old, 7.4 WAR) -- signed 9-year deal with NYY (12/10) Stephen Strasburg (31, 5.7) -- signed 7-year deal with WSH (12/9) Hyun-Jin Ryu (33, 4.8) Zack Wheeler (30, 4.7) -- signed 5-year deal with PHI (12/9) Jake Odorizzi (30, 4.3) -- accepted qualifying offer from MIN (11/14) Madison Bumgarner (30, 3.2) -- declined qualifying offer from SF (11/14) Homer Bailey (34, 2.9) Michael Pineda (30, 2.7) Kyle Gibson (32, 2.5) -- signed 3-year deal with TEX (12/6) Cole Hamels (36, 2.5) -- signed 1-year deal with ATL (12/4) Adam Wainwright (38, 2.2) -- signed 1-year deal with STL (11/12) Tanner Roark (33, 2.0) Wade Miley (33, 2.0) Brett Anderson (32, 2.0) Iván Nova (33, 2.0) Martín Pérez (29, 1.9) Andrew Cashner (33, 1.8) Jason Vargas (37, 1.8) Rick Porcello (31, 1.8) Kevin Gausman (29, 1.6) Julio Teheran (29, 1.6) Jordan Lyles (29, 1.6) Gio Gonzalez (34, 1.4) Rich Hill (40, 0.9) Aaron Sanchez (27, 0.8) Dallas Keuchel (32, 0.8) Matt Moore (31, 0.5) Pedro Avila (23, 0.2) Clay Buchholz (35, 0.1) Tyson Ross (33, 0.0) Félix Hernández (34, -0.1) Jhoulys Chacín (32, -0.1) Jeremy Hellickson (33, -0.1) Odrisamer Despaigne (33, -0.1) -- reportedly joining KBO team Michael Wacha (28, -0.2) Alex Wood (29, -0.2) Edinson Vólquez (36, -0.2) Marco Estrada (36, -0.2) Shelby Miller (29, -0.2) Clayton Richard (36, -0.2) Tyler Anderson (30, -0.3) -- signed 1-year deal with SF (12/3) Drew Smyly (29, -0.3) Wade LeBlanc (35, -0.3) Matt Harvey (31, -0.3) Héctor Noesi (33, -0.3) Ervin Santana (37, -0.4) Ross Detwiler (34, -0.6) Trevor Cahill (32, -0.8) Edwin Jackson (36, -1.1) Josh Lindblom (33, N/A) Kendall Graveman (29, N/A) -- signed 1-year deal with SEA (11/26) Shun Yamaguchi (32, N/A) -- posted by NPB team (12/3) Kwang-Hyun Kim (31, N/A) -- reportedly posted by KBO team (11/22)

Too much. We're out.

Caleb Smith has some upside, but he's not one of Miami's young pitchers (he's 28). He only seems young because he hasn't been in MLB that long. He also doesn't move the needle in a significant way, IMO. He may produce similarly to 2019 Perez - sometimes good, other times fairly bad.

As long as you have the correct thinking cap on, 70charger, see if you can figure out a way to make a 3-way deal adding the Yankees, so we can get Cole, too.

Nothing in what the Reds have done indicates they are trading Sonny Gray or any of the others in their (current likely) rotation (Luis Castillo, Trevor Bauer, Anthony DeSclafani, Tyler Mahle). I'd love Gray, but he's staying put. If the Cubs are truly looking to cut payroll and would listen to offers on Darvish, I'd overpay on prospects to pick up a guy who's remaining contract (4 years/$84 million) seems downright reasonable, even if he fades in 2022 and 2023. What's an overpay on prospects? I don't know because that's not my job, but as a fan, I don't care. Give up more than you think you should have to if that is what it takes to make the trade. If getting Darvish is fan fiction, then I'm sorry for participating. We need somebody *significantly* better than Gibson, otherwise our rotation = 2019 = not good enough in the playoffs.

Great. Now we have to figure out how to trade for Strasburg.

Strasburg - 4 years, $156 million. Would that be enough? Or will somebody do $39MM/year for 5 or 6 years?

That's quite a rebuttal.

I'm not sure I understand the point of the original post. The Pohlads have paid some money to baseball players since Carl took over in the 80s? Did I get the point? If so, well, that's a position I can get behind. They sure have paid some money to baseball players.

Better make good offers to Ryu and Baumgarner. If they only plan on signing one of them, make them both great offers and tell them that only the first one to sign gets the deal. Then after the first guy signs, say just kidding, the second guy to sign also gets the deal.

I, for one, look forward to singing the new fight song. It's a great day for a ballgame, Hear us yell, cheer, and applaud. Flex your muscles, let's go Mussels, You're our favorite gastropod (rah rah rah)! We like your power and your defense and your K's per nine are hot! (hot hot!) We just don't like your fancy logo, Is that coming from a woman's...area? The ending kind of trails off on paper, but you should hear 9,300 people singing it en masse.

I would love to see data that breaks down the smooth transitions to 1B and the poor transitions - there have to be some poor transitions, right? I don't know what I'd be looking for, exactly, but I'd think that the quality of the other fielders would impact the transition of the player moving to first. If 2B, SS, 3B all throw darts to the 1B's chest, yeah, any MLB player can make those plays. But if not? That might contribute to a poor transition. Maybe? Maybe.

I suspect the Twins will piecemeal internal options for 1B and spend more than they want on a single good pitcher. I'd like to say they'll spend more than they want on two good pitchers, but I don't think they will. Too many teams want the same players. Also, a quick shout out for the Reds. I don't love everything they've done since last summer, but they are being aggressive in their moves. I hope to see them in the playoffs next year.