Vanimal46

RIP Adam Zimmer. Only 38. Mike Zimmer has dealt with a lot of loss and adversity in recent years losing his wife, now his son. Awful news.

Roquan Smith for a 2, 5, and a middling veteran LB is a trade I would have made. Baltimore gets a steal there.

Correa is going to drum up interest from over half of the teams in MLB. That’s just reality. He’s a top SS in the game with abilities that should translate well as he gets older. Correa is not a big west or east coast star that we have to convince to play in the modest Midwest. He’s been on our team, knows the coaches, and has said on numerous occasions that him and his wife like it here. The latest (free) Gleeman and the Geek played a 12 minute clip talking with Dan Hayes. He shared that Correa made impacts in every facet of the organization. Why would we not fight tooth and nail to retain this guy? We have the money to make this a long term relationship and finally end the revolving door of shortstops over the last 20+ years.

I don’t think Falvey and Levine view Jeffers as a primary catcher moving forward. He does well against LH pitching, but there’s not enough pop against RH pitching. Pursuing Contreras is plan C (no pun inteaded) for me. If we strike out signing any of the top 4 FA SS or Rodon, then go for it. Ideally, the Twins indeed sign one of the 4 top FA SS, and they dedicate less money to a C option like Omar Narvaez or Roberto Perez.

Every game is heart attack inducing. Good lord. It’s amazing we’re 6-1.

Dantzler… He was about to get burned by Hopkins.

It’s a home game.

In fairness that was a pretty weak holding call. Mundt let go pretty quickly.

Our defense steps up when it matters most, I’ll give them that credit.

8 missed kicks in 7 games. You can’t make it up.

Greg Joseph needs some competition this week. You’ve got to be kidding me.

Wow, special teams once again bails us out.

Not great, Bob.

My goodness. Arizona right back in the driver’s seat.

Comically bad tackling effort by Kendricks and Peterson.

No flag for the flagrant DPI on Jefferson??

Same re-run every game. Look good in the first half. Stumble out of the gates in the 3rd quarter. Let the opponent get back into the game. Kirk has to lead a game winning drive late in the 4th quarter.

I appreciate the way John describes each priority level in corporate terms. As we roll out the “product” on the go-live date of opening day, this is how I would prioritize the needs. High Priority: 1-A: Shortstop - I agree with you both that there is not a capable SS on roster who can start opening day. The product will simply fail without addressing this in some way this winter. 1-B: Top of the order bat - This need could be addressed by re-signing Correa and solve both needs. If they do not sign one of the top 4 FA SS, then this need has to be taken care of through another upgrade. The product will fail if we lose a top of the order bat in Correa and supplement him with a bottom of the order bat like Andrus/Iglesias/etc. Medium Priority: Late inning bullpen arm - We may have enough quantity of arms for the bullpen now to “go-live”. Adding another one will optimize the product even more. Catcher - We have a functional catcher already in Jeffers. We could use a good partner in crime to call a good game for the young pitching staff. Backup CF - We could go live with Celestino again, but he needs AAA seasoning. We all know Buxton is likely to miss quite a bit of time in CF. Low Priority: Starting pitching - Unless Rodon falls into our lap for another 1 year deal, or there’s a trade for a better than Sonny Gray pitcher available, I’m not too interested. We can wait until phase 2 (trade deadline) and try internal resources first. Right handed OF bat - A nice to have. Not a make or break requirement to go live.

If that’s how things turn out, then Trea Turner is a nice prize to go after as well. 4 quality free agent short stops, and there is no reason the Twins can’t sign one of them.

Falvey and Levine weren’t hired to hand out 9 figure contracts to free agent starting pitchers. Nor do I want them to. In the spirit of Halloween, there’s a cemetery full of horrible FA SP investments in the last decade. That will sink a team like the Twins.

In 2019, you would think a historic offense would score more than 7 runs total in 3 games.

Rare look inside the board room with Jim Pohlad, Derek Falvey, and Thad Levine.

Thanks for pointing this out. I agree that there’s been a lot of talk recently about aces and spending $30 million a year for Rodon. Frankly, the offense never held up their end of the bargain in 2022. The Twins caught fire early on in the season by winning 1 run games and the pitching staff over performing. If we didn’t get that early season surge, this would have been a 90+ loss team. It was expected the pitching staff would cool off, and the offense to heat up in the summer months. That never happened. The pitching staff, minus the infamous Pagan blow ups, held their own and prevented an even worse season from happening. IMO something has stunk with the long term core position players for a few years now. There were too many times to count over the season when an inning got off to a good start, runners in scoring position, only to strand them. If we lose a top of the order hitter in Correa, and replace him with a bottom of the order hitter like Iglesias, Mondesi, etc. it’s going to be disastrous.

Shameless plug… we had a debate about that! I still think a strong offense is more important in the grand scheme of things.