Trov

The current FO has treated 1B as a not needed defender there. They will throw anyone over there. This has been a clear plan that outside of Sabato, who has not been good in minors overall, they have no one you would slot into 1B in minors. Over the last few years we have rotated several different people there. Personally, I do not like this plan, as a good defending 1B will save your team a ton of errors and extra bases. It is not so much about the stops they make, but the way they field bad throws from other guys. Sure, if a throw is good, just about any MLB talent should be able to play the position. However, when you have a bad defender there you notice it. However, clearly this FO feels you can live with a bad defender there in the long run as they have had no plan to address it. I would not be surprised at all if they give Julian some time there if he hits his way onto the roster and AK is not ready to play.

I personally have little interest in the WBC. I also wish it was not during spring training. I am not concerned about injuries, they are not any more likely to happen than any other games, other than maybe a pitcher trying to throw more than arm is ready for. I would hope the pitcher would identify that issue before it becomes one. Unless the manager for the team does not care about that. However, there is really no good time to fit this in. Before season, you run risk of too much too soon. During the season, players will opt out to get rest normally to be ready for team. Post-season, you run into players being banged up and just ready for a break, so they will either opt out or not be healthy. I am glad it is only every 4 years.

For me it is a combo of fans, players, and media for how I feel about a team. My dislike for teams change over years as well. I will always hate the Yankees, and it was a combo of things. One, their choice to go out and overpay for many FA just because they could annoyed me, but what annoyed me more is how national media overvalued some of their players. Mainly, Derek Jeter is one that national media raised his profile more simply because he played for Yankees. Do not get me wrong, he was a HOF player, but he made plays on defense that were raised in the eyes of the media simply because of playing for Yankees. He was graded out second half of his career as subpar defender but was still touted in national media as a top defender. His play in playoffs against Oakland national media talked about how no other player would have even thought of doing that, only Denny Hocking had a similar play prior to that in a normal game, not playoffs. Did anyone talk about how smart of a play Hocking did? No. How about the "play of the year" when the legend has it Jeter dove into stands to make a catch? Well, if you actually watch the play, he made a running catch, no different than any OF does. Then he chose to jump into the stands because he was on a full run, and not slide or something like that. He caught the ball on the run, then jumped into stands. It was not even a diving catch. Jeter is not the only player that gets put up higher because he plays well for the Yankees. That is one reason I hate them. The other reason, is Twins never beat them, even when Yankees are not a good team. I also do not like the entitled fans. I also hate Boston, because they did much of what Yankees did, but people loved them because they were the rivals of Yankees, I do not like either for much of same reasons.

Would you rank Steer and CES above Lee, Lewis, Miranda, and Julien? They all basically played the same roll in minors. Some area of infield. Unless you moved some to OF, you could not play all 6 at a time. Now that we have CC for 6 more years, that really only leaves 3 spots, if none move to OF. Of the 4 we kept, who would you swap? One way or the other at least 2 or 3 were not going to be playing with Twins in the future.

Not sure why you wish him ill will. It is not his fault he was left to the rule 5 a couple of years ago. Even if he does well, it has no effect on the Twins at this point. Now, if you are wishing this so you can defend the choice to leave him on rule 5, I personally do not think that choice needs defending at this point. Once in a great while a team will leave the wrong guy unprotected, but generally, they know what they are doing. In Baddoo's situation, he was young, not played above A ball, and had a lot of holes in game. In our organization he was ranked like 5th or 6th OF, and most likely would still be in minors for us, only making some games due to injuries from guys above. Unless you can go back and point to someone you would have left off the 40 man that year for Baddoo, there is no point in complaining he was left off it. It was him or someone else. I am sure every team wishes they could keep every player they wanted without worrying about 40 man rosters, years in organization, and service time. But those times are gone.

Very few teams want to slot a guy of his age into just DH roll. Twins even more since trading Cruz away have used DH as a way to give a normal starter a break in the field for the day while keeping bat in line up. I doubt Julien breaks camp to be a regular DH. Also, teams are unlikely to call up top prospects to ride bench. Unless they will be using Julien almost every day he will not break camp with Twins. As health continues to impact team he could break camp for that reason, but I find it very unlikely he breaks to DH. I know he is not a major defender, but I would bet if they wanted Julien to break camp, he would start at 2nd over Polanco and Polanco would DH more often.

The problem with this model is Buck generally does not get hurt from fielding, but from hitting and running bases. Yes, he has had a few injuries from fielding, but over the years most of his injuries come from hitting and running. Look at last year, the knee came from the slide at second, DH would not stop that, only sitting, but if he is sitting he is not helping. Then later in year he hurt his hip again. The year prior he missed most of his time with hip issue after running bases. He has missed time from being hit by pitches, foul balls of foot, slides, and just running bases. No amount of DH will help that.

CES was down the depth chart for Twins. He could very well turn into a star, but he has many flaws. He is mainly just a bat, as his defense is not good. He has struck out at a high level, not crazy, but it generally goes up as you face higher level pitching. If he stayed on the Twins, he would be like the 3 or 4th ranked 3rd baseman on our prospect list. I wish him all the best, but do not just compare how he does to Mahle for the Twins, but how does he do to other players we kept.

The overall success of this team will come mainly down to the pen. However, timely hitting will be important too. Last year we did not have great timely hitting most of the year. Rocco leans on his pen a ton, mainly not allowing any starters, unless there is a huge lead, to go a full third time through order. This means he is normally asking minimum 3 but normally 4 innings from his pen every game. He also normally is only asking they do 1 inning at a time. So really looking at about 4 to 5 pitchers each game. If anyone struggles in a game it can blow up the whole game. Personally, not a fan of this plan, but they work the plan. That is why I believe it will come down to pen. It seems even if a guy is doing well, the second they allow 1 runner the third trip through the line up, they get the hook, unless the lead is huge. I am sure there is a little more to it, but sure seems to be the deciding factor.

I do not like the comparing markets as a reason Twins should spend more. First, there is more than just the size of the media market, like is there other competing teams, not just baseball, but other sports in that area to draw money from. What is the TV deal like? What is the gate number like? Spending does not equal winning, it is the right spending. You point out Detroit, they have spent plenty over the last several years, how have they done? They spent on the wrong guys the last several years. Even the Padres, who the owner has basically said he does not care if he is losing money on the team, has spent poorly at times, example Hosmer. It is not like the Twins have acted like TB, Oakland, Baltimore, or Pittsburg and spend nothing, they are around league average each year. I also attack the premise that once a team makes the playoffs they cannot win. Very rarely does the clearly better team win every playoff series. It very often comes down to who is hot. Even the best made rosters do not win a WS. Both of the Twins WS wins they were underdogs at every round. Back to the Padres comparison. I hate how fans wanting the Twins owners to dip into their personal accounts to spend big because an owner has done so. Owning a team is a business, and it should not be expected by fans that the team operate at a loss. I do not know the exact numbers on how much the Twins make, but do not forget it is more than just MLB payroll that goes into the budget. Maybe they are making hundred million or more each year, or maybe they are making just a little. The Padres owner has basically said, he is losing money and does not care, he cannot take it with him and wants to win baseball games. Great for their fans, they have an owner that is find losing money in his business, do not expect any owner to lose money. Finally, I have said to fans all along, if you are upset at the spending, or lack their of, stop watching. Stop giving them your money in any way. Start watching teams like the Padres that spend money. Be fans of teams that will do that.

I say build a team that can hit line drives and hit them hard. The rest will take care of themselves. There will be power hitters always, but after 2019, everyone had power. Records were falling all over the place. Then yes, the ball became dead, and players were expecting same results. I remember a few balls early in year last year I thought were crushed, to be caught on the track. I agree MLB needs to stop changing it up and go with 1 type every game every year. It is hard to judge a player year to year when one year the ball is a super ball flying out, then next year it is like hitting a pillow. Guys like Mitch Garver get the years of but what if they hit like 2019. Outside of 2019, Mitch has done little at the plate power wise. He has had health issues, but even if you stretch out the games he has never been close to what he did in 2019. He was not alone, and it messed with many fans. We were thinking we had a huge HR hitting team, and doubled down on it, only to having wall scrapers. Players had to adjust.

I would disagree the games at AA mean nothing. When in the past have you seen the Twins move a guy so quickly? The hype was big on Lee before the draft. Many said he could go number 1, and could not believe he fell all the way to us. I do not think anyone is trying to say he will be best in the game or HOF bound even, but he has shown that he clearly can handle himself very early on. Yes, he may be more advanced and not a lot left to learn, which is even more of a reason to move him faster. I am not reading from people saying he will be MVP or anything. He very well may be or may get overpowered when he makes MLB debut. I believe the hype for him though.

Dodgers will not give up any major talent for Farmer. I mean look what we gave up for him, nothing earth shattering. Just because they may feel they have more of a need, does not mean they will give away talent. They have someone that can fill in just as good as Farmer most likely. Now, if he starts failing and if Farmer puts up strong numbers, then maybe they would be willing to give up more for a the rental.

It should not be a huge surprise he could crack soon. If he would have signed out of HS, he could have been high draft pick if his dad was not a college coach, he would be talked about ready to break with a team this year. If he lights up AA like he did every level after draft last year, he will be taking some at bats at MLB level this year.

Dodgers are not going to overpay for a guy like Farmer who will just be a little upgrade over what they have, if an upgrade at all. Could they have interest in Kepler, but gain will not overpay. There will be other options for them to improve without overpaying.