Taildragger8791

Seems like most games have been in that 2:30-2:40 range. The fact that this one was barely over 3 hours with 18 runs scored is a great sign. Unbelievable that they let it get to this point before finally putting their foot down and making batters/pitchers get on with play.

I don't see the relationship between a shift and a 37% K-rate and a bunch of fly balls and pop outs.

Hmmmm…$30 million for one great player or $30 million for 3 bad ones? Such a tough decision.

Buxton is the only one that took a team-friendly deal, and with his injury history it made sense. The other guys were all unproven and under team control for years and thus took moderate deals in exchange for security.

Wait…so in his best stretch he still gave up a 247/.330/.469 (.799) batting line and that’s encouraging? He gives up far too many walks at this point. Kid has talent but I’m always highly skeptical of control-issue guys because it rarely improves significantly going from AAA to MLB.

And you get what you pay for. An inconsistent good-not-great pitcher who hasn’t proven he can handle big games, and a stud talent that needs load management and plays <100 games per year. Sometimes the big contract actually makes sense.

To be fair, with the changes to the ballpark last year it should be less homer-prone and more pitcher friendly. But Bundy was still clearly getting rocked and needed a much shorter leash today.

We saw something like this last year too where pitching looked good through a couple turns while the offense struggled. Eventually the offense improved (albeit still streaky) and the pitching regressed to their true talent level (not great). I worry we’ll see a similar flip this year in the next couple of weeks. Meanwhile team will lose too many games sorting out pitching and hitting before figuring out what (if anything) works.

That would be stunning indeed. Cleveland GM would be declared clinically insane if he traded a starter for 3 mediocre DH’s.

He hasn’t played real baseball in 2 1/2 years and outside of the AFL he hasn’t hit above low A ball. Hopefully he used the downtime to train out some bad habits and train in some good ones. It’s still reasonable to expect a full season to establish himself and make adjustments. Players don’t improve just because time passed and they aged.

That would be a huge win for MLB against players. The few players per year that benefit from this in exchange for teams getting closer to a salary cap and still no floor? Slam dunk for owners.

Berrios also showed a lot more 'stuff'. He just needed to stop tipping his pitches and make some adjustments back and forth. Jax's pedestrian 'stuff' does not give him the same basis for a breakthrough.

Buxton was slow coming back from injury, but has progressively gotten better week by week since then. Over the last 3 weeks he's hitting .273/.341/.584 with a normal BABIP. He's been scorching over the last week or two. Superstar or not, the Twins tend to win a lot more with him than without him and that's all that matters.

Do we know for certain that Dobnak's finger strain won't be a lingering issue? Or is he surgically repairing it? Sounds like something that needs to be properly fixed before it goes away...

Results would indicate it wasn't an unfair label. Some guys come in more advanced on certain tools than others. Clearly he had zero advanced skills/tools and needs to be molded and developed almost from scratch across the board.

Any concern that the very poor strikeout/walk rates may indicate a fatal flaw in his hit tool? I understand the lack of results in a tough adjustment to a tough hitting league...but I expect the raw bat-to-ball skill should still come through.

I don’t think any SP prospects after Ryan are ready out of the gate next year. Everyone else has injury or performance issues to iron out, or innings limits to consider. If we hold a year-long rotation spot open for tryouts it’s going to be a disaster. There will be opportunities out of the bullpen or once injuries strike if guys force their way up. You’re already taking on quite a bit of risk slotting Ryan and Ober in full-time. Either could falter and create an opening as well.

I tentatively agree, but I was a little concerned as he lost his control that he was having to go back to the same pitch over and over until it started getting hammered. That fastball in the upper-right corner was a favorite spot and guys started sitting on that until he changed it up. Hopefully he gets a little less predictable and more confident in mixing up his pitches to prevent that.

At a minimum, Joe Ryan looks like he'd make a lights-out reliever with that deceptive delivery. Once he got guys sitting fastball he did a good job mixing in changeups and curves to get swings and misses. He didn't seem to throw his curve for strikes, not sure that'll play against better hitters. Also not sure good hitters won't continue yanking out those fastballs if he continues to throw them 70% of the time (or 90% the first time through the lineup). There were 2-3 balls that almost left the park last night. He also has that weird fastball/slider thing that he throws in the upper RH corner and off the plate a lot. That's the one fooled guys early but eventually got him in trouble with walks. Not sure if that was a control issue or if it was an attempt to induce chases. If it's the latter I don't think it'll work at this level. Guys were spitting on that pitch.

Duffey and Gant seem like near-locks to me depending on arb 3 salaries. Duffey has been solid for 3 years now, with a little more up and down this season. Gant looks effective as a good swing man which the team will certainly need next year. The rest of the question marks should be replaced in my book.

I hope and expect it will be someone not currently in the organization. It should be someone that flashes serious tools in games even at a young age. Between easing back from injury and needing quite a bit of development still, I suspect Royce Lewis won't be using up his rookie eligibility next year and would be the most likely candidate for 2023. I see him being up and down all year and struggling similar to our young Byron Buxton. Petty is a huge wildcard as a high school pitcher with no MiLB time yet, so he's got my vote for younger internal candidates based on the completely unknown ceiling alone. I'm very down on Cavaco. He doesn't have a natural 'hit' tool and that can't be learned. Strikeout rate in July/August combined is almost 39% and walk rate is 5%, so he's not progressing at all. Urbina is interesting but hasn't flashed much to me. I understand he's young but you still gotta show flashes to make #1 prospect. Noah Miller is defense-first which would be tough to make top prospect unless he gets on base at a high clip and steals bases.

Agree we shouldn't be putting that kind of pressure on a AA prospect who is probably a year away. I figure Pineda is good for missing 2 months per year, so you need a fallback there. Maybe that's where Gant comes in. I would never assume this team will successfully sign a #2 pitcher though. Hardly any of those are available in a given year and they get paid. Pitching prospects, even promising ones, struggle to make the leap to MLB all the time. I don't think we can count on anyone outside of Ober for next year. I think Ryan will get a significant opportunity but you still need to assume he'll struggle. I would make every other prospect force their way into the rotation unless we're calling it a rebuild year and are prepared for 100 losses. I don't know how you fill in the other 3 rotation spots at this point.

I don't think the Twins can make any plans that count on this kid next year. He's found money if he turns out to be healthy & effective. In my classic Minnesota pessimistic view: He's still sidelined with a vague elbow strain, right? I imagine he's going to rest/rehab until spring '22 at this point. Maybe it's something that heals on its own but we've seen enough times this lead to eventual surgery that will wipe out another year and a half. At which point he'll be 25 years old with 3 years of minimal innings. If all goes well and he holds up health-wise then he'll then spend 2nd half of 2023 establishing innings/command. So new ETA is 2024 at 26 years old, probably with a new ball club.

Sabato and Cavaco both wearing golden sombreros tonight. Oof.

You're not making any sense. And I just don't see why you'd levy an accusation when there is plenty of reasonable doubt against it. There are plenty of other cases of service time manipulation to point to but this one just ain't it. Hiding behind "I'm not accusing, I'm just throwing it out there" is bad faith.