Squirrel

lol ... you guys crack me up ... this is the regular route of a rookie ... up, the other team adjusts, down, pitcher will adjust (hopefully), up, other team adjusts, down ... etc

I'm back to working a couple of evenings a week. I have limited time during game time.

I want the Mariners and Blue Jays to win all their remaining games the Yankees and Red Sox to get beat up on by their opponents

Joe Ryan activated, Charlie Barnes options to AAA ... Ryan on the mound tonight vs the Tigers (check out the game thread)

In last night's game thread, @sampleSizeOfOne asked us to share what our most memorable moments were as Twins fans. This was mine ... and I've had many ... three years ago tonight (Sept. 30, 2018), this was the only baseball moment that moved me to tears. Joe Mauer was a special player, and I say that as one who wasn't pie-eyed over him, but nor was I a detractor.

Huh ... I didn't get that far into my thinking, but that is a very pragmatic way of doing it.

I'd say that's definitely true for the backups on the 26-man ... but I'm not so sure that one or two of them could be a good option in AAA for depth? There are a lot of 'it depends' in all of this because, well ... it depends! lol. All I know is that you have to cautious about who you keep with as much as who you drop. Fun and frustrating puzzle to mull over.

Right. Which is why I went from 'Oh, this is easy' to ... okay, really, really NOT. Heh. My hunch is a few will be released immediately at the end of the season because we have several players on the 60-day IL that room will need to be made for them. And then when rule 5 comes around, this becomes yet another discussion. I was trying to be 'efficient' by sorting it into parts, but maybe we should have put EVERYTHING in here at once? That said ... haven't seen you around lately! Glad to have you back and hope you are well!

Stop it ... this isn't discussing the topic at all. If you don't like how the other responds to the topic, then walk away and stop engaging. Seriously.

What about Refsnyder? Prospect additions will be yet another discussion and component of all of this. Part of my thinking was ... you can't just jettison players. it's more complicated than that. You really have to decide who to keep and who is expendable. And, as I said (I think I said), we won't see removals come all at once and/or immediately. They will remove people when they absolutely have to. Garlick being on the 60-day IL ... that decision will come at the end of the season. They will have to either make room for him or let him go. I could see with both Garlick and Refsnyder being offered minor league deals. In the end ... this exercise show me just how little I know and just how much I should never be in charge of such decisions

I don't even know ... do teams keep to a certain split?

Lewis isn't on the 40-man yet, but he will need to be added.

Yeah ... it's really hard to know where the thinking is. Garlick and Rooker both have options, so I'd say Refsnyder is the odd man out of those three. I'm not sure who provides the most value, maybe none of them, but I can't see them keeping all of them. Simmons is an obvious gone, but ... and I hope not ... but they could re-sign him? But if they do, (but oh man, I hope they don't) likely won't happen immediately, so they can use his roster spot up front and make room again for him later. They will have to find roster spots for Kirilloff and Garlick (if they keep him) at the end of the season. That is accomplished with Maggi and Simmons gone. I think they keep people on until they have to remove them. Pitchers will be an interesting discussion. I split this up between position players and pitchers because I just thought it would be too long a list to go through at once, but maybe I should add them in and make this one discussion? And then you start thinking about the rule 5 adds ... so many related parts.

Oooou ... another moment ... when the Twins beat the Tigers to become the AL Champs in 1987 ... how many went down to the dome for an impromptu rally waiting for the arrival of the team to come home from Detroit? Wow ... so awesome!!!!!

We’ve had several threads/articles lately about next season … what you think the 2022 lineup will be, who do we want to sign, what are our positions of most need, will certain players have a place on the team next year. All very good discussions. And not too far in the future, we’ll be having discussions on which prospects should be added to the roster. But before we get to all of those, there are larger looming discussions and decisions regarding the 40-man roster … who stays, who goes. When I thought about doing this thread, I ran into a lot of difficulty exactly how to do this. It seemed easy enough initially … who should the Twins jettison? Well, after thinking about it, a lot, hemming and hawing, trying to learn more about the status of individual players (something I am not well-versed in, I fully admit), and after discussing with others what I wanted to discuss, (thank you @ashbury, @Otto von Ballpark and @Brock Beauchamp), I realized the question might not be ‘who do we jettison’, but rather’ Who should we keep?’ I found the question to be, well, daunting. It’s really a big puzzle when it comes down to it. Time is a precious commodity. You want to maximize the time you have of your best prospects/players, so you don’t want to add them before they are ready, so you can capitalize on their best years; and don’t want to jettison a struggling player too soon, only to see them finally figure it out elsewhere. We’ve been down that road, too. Once a player is added, removing them certainly means losing them, if they have any kind of potential, great or small. You want to make sure you’ve really done your due diligence to determine the value you have. So, this 40-man thing is one to be cautious with. In a recent conversation I had with Brock, he said this: “I think of it this way: about 35 spots of the 40-man are locked down with good prospects or MLB veterans. An org might play fast and loose with those final 3-4 spots but they spend A LOT of effort avoiding tampering with that 35 unless they have confidence in what they’re doing.” So … part one of this discussion … position players on the Twins’ 40-man roster … who should the Twins keep? We won’t see these decisions come to fruition all at once. It will happen gradually. I’m sure the Twins have made some decisions already, but others will ‘hang out’ until which time the Twins either feel they have a better replacement, decide to make trades, need the space for prospect additions, or feel they’ve just reached the ‘end of the road’ with them. So … of the listed players, who would you keep? Discuss any reasoning below. STATUS PLAYER Options FA FA if outrighted? 28-man Luis Arraez 2 in 2026 (arb eligible 2023) YES 28-man Byron Buxton n/a FA in 2023 YES 28-man Jorge Polanco 0 signed through 2023, club options for 2024 and 2025 YES 28-man Josh Donaldson n/a signed through 2023, club option for 2024 YES 28-man Max Kepler n/a signed through 2023, club options for 2024 YES 28-man Mitch Garver 2 FA in 2024 YES 28-man Miguel Sanó n/a signed through 2022, club option for 2023 YES 28-man Nick Gordon 0 YES 28-man Andrelton Simmons n/a At end of season 28-man Ryan Jeffers 2 28-man Willians Astudillo 1 YES 28-man Jake Cave 1 FA in 2025, arb eligible 2022 YES 28-man Brent Rooker 2 60IL Kyle Garlick 1 YES 60IL Alex Kirilloff 2 10IL Rob Refsnyder 0 YES 40-man Ben Rortvedt 2 40-man Drew Maggi 3 YES 40-man Trevor Larnach 2 40-man Gilberto Celestino 1 YES Many thanks to Otto who did this chart for me, and I filled in some of the contract info, and to Brock and Ash for bearing with my endless questions.

I was never one of those 'starry-eyed' Mauer fans, I wasn't one of his detractors, either. He is and was a special talent, though. So one of my moments will always be in his last game when he came out in his catcher gear, to end his career where it started, as a catcher. I think it was the only time I was ever moved to tears over a game moment. That I recall, anyway.

Top of the first I left to go make some dinner for myself ... come back and the Twins are up 3-0 ... I always miss the good stuff ... ?

I think you are doing quite a bit of 'hind sighting' in this statement. At the start of the season, none of those positions were question marks, per se. Yes, with both Buxton and Donaldson, there were injury concerns, but none of those positions were question marks. Maybe left field was a question mark of who, internally, was going to slot in there, but it wasn't such a question mark that we needed to sign anyone long term for that position. And, when the season started, they had a lot of outfield depth. The problem were injuries, not only to the starting players, but also to our depth. I think the FO can be criticized for this season, mostly with pitching, but not with the positions above. Unless you didn't like the Donaldson signing, I think you are hind sighting quite a bit of this.

Where do you think they will push him to next year in terms of innings?

I'm not sure where he should top out in 2022. It's been a unique situation, with 2020 a missed year for so many, but I think he could (should?) be pushed. Depending on his off-season regimen, I would start him similarly in the beginning of the season and hopefully get him to go longer into games by the end. I think 150 is definitely doable, and hopefully higher. Too many questions that I don't have the expertise to answer. That lost year has certainly messed with development all the way around, but I think by next season, it should be 'back to normal' for the most part and with big steps forward

What happened before the game started was the highlight. The game itself? Well ... can't win them all.

Well, Mauer's in the booth with him ... he could correct him

That Simmons hit looked like something Rosario would do ... high ball out of the zone and reach up and take a swat

He is on a family bereavement leave ...

Wow ... what a catch!