Twodogs

Could be Arraez at DH Farmer at 3rd and Miranda at 1B. Farmer's competitive with the glove and has averaged 15 home runs over the last two seasons.

I mean why wouldn't it be true that they contacted them? I don't see how that gets made up.

It's cool that the Twins went all in and got him, he will definitely help in the here and now. I have a couple of concerns. Mainly, the Twins have a bunch of middle infield prospects who are now basically blocked. Lewis, Lee, Martin, etc ..... So these guys may rot in the system because there might not be any opportunities for them. Second, he should be a huge asset for the Twins, say 3 - 4 years down the road the Twins are in last place and put him and a bunch of other guys up for trade at the trade deadline. I'm assuming that the Twins would get lowballed because of all of this nonsense. So I think he won't have big trade value even though he's valuable.

Looking at his stats, Wacha doesn't even really seem to eat innings. 127 last year, in a good year.

I mean I get your explanation here, but if that was really the case, wouldn't the good relievers out there have a higher WAR than the good starters? My thinking is that a good starter, like a Verlander, can lock down 6 - 7 innings of a ballgame where a good reliever can only usually lock down 1 inning. Now usually a good starter can do this because he has multiple ways to get guys out, they have 3 - 4 maybe more plus pitches so the hitters are unable to really lock into something. Now if it's true that Duran is incapable of using or developing more than 2 pitches, if he is not good enough to get a solid 3rd or 4th pitch then yeah I guess relief is all that he can do. My thing is why not give him a chance to try, it isn't going to effect the 2 good pitches he has, but if his body incapable of throwing 3 or 4 pitches then leave him where he's at. But if his body and his drive says that he could, then why not give him a chance?

Has anything been written about that? Because I mean last year was his first as a reliever? No? I think he's started something like 80 games in the minors? It would be interesting if he got a crack at it like next season after all the free agents leave, I mean if he's not good as a starter they can always put him back into the pen. But it would be worth it, I believe to give him a shot at it.

With those vesting options and guys like Julien, Martin, and Lee knocking at the door. Seems like Polanco should be considered trade bait towards the deadline. I mean seems kinda similar to the corner OF situation with 2B?

So I know Duran is in the bullpen right now, but has it been made clear that he will never start ever again? Or did they just put him in the bullpen for experience sort of like they did with Johan Santana? Just curious, because obviously his worth becomes a little different if he still has the potential to be a starter?

I agree, seems like they had less injuries back when they played on the Metrodome carpet/concrete.

I look at it like this, what good does it do to trade someone with no trade value? So after looking at the trade values I'd trade Kirillof or Larnach. I mean if you trade Larnach then you still have Kirillof; if you trade Kirillof then you still have Larnach. They are worth the most, so then we'd get the most from them?? Kepler is still under contract for this year and next because of an option. So you can go with Gallo, Buck, and Kepler in the OF with Kirillof/Larnach whoever stays splitting time in the OF, 1B, and DH and Gordon also splitting time between the OF and a little INF, and you have Garlick also sitting on the table. Walner and Celestino are both strong depth pieces in AAA than can come up in case of injuries. If they are going to trade someone, might as well trade someone that can actually bring something back??

It would have looked neat had you put sprinkled after Garlick. ?

I'm hoping this isn't the case, but it sort of reminds me of Hank Gathers. Hope he gets better.

But the Phillies, Mets, White Sox, Blue Jays, and to a lesser extent Tigers all come from pretty big markets. If they have such an advantage from the big markets they are in, why have they been so futile? In fact Minnesota is probably more in the middle of the pack than in the bottom of big to small markets in baseball.

I think any pitcher that the Twins currently have are part of the pipeline. I mean Maeda got here with the Grateral trade, but I think where the front office comes into question is that the crop of guys coming up through the system seems weak. I mean it was brought up that Cleveland still has guys coming through the system. They know that when they get rid of a Bauer, Kluber, Clevenger, Carrasco, Colon, Lee, etc..... that they have replacements already on their way. So that's where I question whether the FO actually has some magical method that produces a pipeline or if it was the Cleveland organization, their developmental team and coaches. I mean it's quite possible that if all of the Twins guys over the last 6 years or so had gone through the Cleveland system that they'd have a bunch of all star pitchers. What I think is that too much focus and or credit is being given to Falvine and their abilities. I think that they are just figure heads and that if the twins get a pipeline going it's going to come from whoever develops these guys. Falvine just provides some clay, the coaches and development team are the ones who create the final products. That's why every in year during free agency I always suggest forgetting so much about free agents and find an out how much money it would take to pry away the guys in Houston's or LA Dodgers organizations development teams and go out and sign those guys. Because they seem to continue to produce players year after year. I'm sure those guys have a price. I mean how many other teams can just let Carlos Correa go and have a Pena sitting there ready to take over?

If I were rich enough, and had a lot of free time. I would put up the sports writers Hall of Fame. They would be voted in by former major league players. I would put in a clause that only the sports writers with mostly clean backgrounds can get elected. They would need to get 75% of all of the former players to vote for them and they would only get a limited amount of time to be on the ballot.

Well, I mean if you are looking for a one year filler, AJ Pollock would be a decent pickup. I mean he probably has more projectable power. He's on the older side, but I mean if you're only looking for a year stop gap until Cabrera is ready he'd be a good target. Has won a gold glove in the past, probably isn't as good as Kepler since he's a little older but serviceable nonetheless. Also trade capital free which allows NY to use that capital at the trade deadline to push them over the top for a WS run?

I wonder how much Kepler's value gets lowered just by the fact that the Twins want to replace him with Gallo, a player that the Yankees didn't want? Plus why would the Yankees trade for Kepler when there are free agents out there that are ok ballplayers?

I wonder how much Kepler's value gets lowered just by the fact that the Twins want to replace him with Gallo, a player that the Yankees didn't want?

I don't think I'd trade anything for Escobar. But I mean if he was given away I'd probably be fine with him. Now I know a lot of people are talking about lateral movement here, but I think when the twins traded away Gio, I believe that they thought they'd get Correa back. So that would have put Farmer in as the Utility player. Now that it looks as though Farmer is probably the starter, keeping Miranda at 3rd and having Escobar as the Utility seems like it would be a decent fit. But again like I said I wouldn't give them anything for him. I mean the Twins probably need to reconsider doing a rebuild at this point in time. Especially if they struggle this season they probably will have to trade gray, mahle, maeda, gallo, Kepler, polanco and whoever else at the deadline so as to start over. So no point in trading any prospects for an Escobar at this point in time.

Not that this would change your mind, because it shouldn't. But using Puckett's trial as an example of why Puckett deserves a break is a little off because they tried to put a case together against Bauer and the DA threw it out because there wasn't enough evidence to convict him. So Puck actually had a trial because there was actually more evidence against Puck, or actually there were probably inconsistencies against Bauer.

To all of the people claiming that it's about Bauer and only Bauer that's a pretty big cop out from a bunch of people that pretty much compare everyone and everything in baseball on this forum. Bauer to Puckett is a fair comparison. But it's a different comparison. So for instance, had Bauer never done anything wrong in his career and he came to Minnesota, played 10 years and helped the Twins win a couple of world Series titles and then, after his career was over, he went and did some horrible acts how could you hold the Twins accountable at that point in time? I mean had Puckett done all of those terrible things in say 1989, I doubt that the Twins would have worked so hard to resign him at that point in time, they probably would have let him walk when he became a free agent. Now that we already know what Bauer has done and been accused of, the Twins already know what they would be getting into and any reasonable person would steer away from that kind of controversy. So yes they are similar, but also no because the timing is way way different. Some team out there will take a chance on him and he may implode or he might right the ship and fix his life. But it will probably be one of those teams that can afford to make a mistake like this and just move on. Like the Yankees, or the Mets, some big spending team that can easily cut bait when something doesn't seem right. I mean the Dodgers are going to do it. They took a chance, it didn't work out they walk away from it. Twins have a tough time doing those kinds of things. So there is about a zero percent chance the twins go after him and rightly so.

I remember people always dissing Radke. But Radke retired when he was 33 with a 45.3 WAR. To put that in perspective, Justin Verlander, (who by all accounts would be considered an Ace) only had a 51.4 WAR after his age 33 season. Not too much different when spread out over 10+ seasons. I know Radke's arm was bothering him and he decided to retire instead of fixing it.

I think Ryan can be counted in the pipeline, but I also think there is a difference. So Ryan in his rookie season was 26 years old. Santana and Liriano we're both 21 when brought up to the majors and Santana had like a 6.70 and a 4.70 eras for his first two seasons. Liriano also spent 300+ innings in the minors in the Twins system. He did that in 2 seasons. Now it would take 4 years for some prospect to accumulate over 300 innings in the twins system. Brad Rake is similar in that he was brought up and allowed to fail early. Derek Jeter says to young players be prepared to fail, if you can handle failure you have a chance at making it. Now had Joe Ryan struggled really bad last year the Twins would probably be pivoting away from him. Because he is so old. I really think if you want a pipeline to produce you need to get these guys up here when they are 21 years old and see what they can do. Then when they fail, they can go back down and work on those things that didn't go well and come back in a year or two and still only be 23. They need to be pushed when they are in the minors, to see if they can handle it, not constantly babied with ridiculously low inning limits, it's seems to me that with these limits they are trying to develop relief pitchers and not starters. Anyway I digress, they need to bring these guys up early either their stuff plays or it doesn't. If it doesn't they are young enough to develop another pitch, ie Santana's changeup. Or they can then be groomed to be a relief pitcher or something else. But when they wait until they are 24 or older to finally bring them up it's like do or die, either they produce right away or they move on from them. I'm hoping they give SWR a real shot this year as he will turn 23 this season. He will need time to fix stuff if it doesn't work in the bigs. Maybe he will be a polished reliable starter by the time he is 25. But he probably won't if he rots in the Twins minor league system much longer. Also, on a side note. Seems like Cleveland is still bringing up pitchers that do pretty well. I mean Falvey hasn't been there since 2017? So maybe the smart GM had nothing to do with the Cleveland pipeline, maybe he just drafted kids and traded for some others and someone, a pitching coach, a baseball guy, in the Cleveland system developed these kids and turned them into really good pitchers??? Falvey supplied them with raw materials and the system made something out of those raw materials. I wonder if people maybe think that if the Twins had all of those raw materials that Cleveland had that they still wouldn't develop any pitching. I sometimes think that the Twins need to quit trying to spend 100's of millions of dollars on bringing in some player who is going to be the savior of the franchise and maybe spend those 100's of millions and steal away the coaches in Clevelands organization, and spend that money of the player development people in Houston's and the Dodgers organizations. Then they'd probably be able to save their money on free agents and then turn around and spend it on the guys that they develop. I'm starting to think it's not the GM's that produce these pipelines, it's the people working down in the systems that are doing it. I mean for example Falvey left like quite awhile ago and Cleveland still produces better overall pitching than the Twins. I mean I'm sure these player development guys and coaches have a price too?

Trevor Bauer might be available?

Joe Mauer signed an 8 year 180 million dollar contract and almost everyone hated him for it around here during his last 3 - 4 years. And Joe is a hometown hero. Are you telling me that the people that are pissed off about not signing Correa to this really long term contract wouldn't be on here in like 4 - 5 years saying that because of Correa the Twins are not able to compete? I mean I'm ok with the big money long term deals, but I just remember all of the anger slung at Mauer in his last few years that I don't think TwinsDaily would be able to handle all of the hypocrisy had they actually signed him.