34 thoughts on “November 27, 2023: The North”

  1. Saturday, Estrellas defeated Escogido 5-4. Miguel Sano was 1-for-3 with a home run. Jurickson Profar was 2-for-4 with a home run. Willy Vasquez also homered. The win went to Jorge Martinez (1-0), who pitched three innings of relief, allowing one run on one hit and striking out two. Neftali Feliz pitched a scoreless inning, striking out one, to get the save (6).
    Sunday, Estrellas defeated Escogido again, 1-0. Miguel Sano was 0-for-3. Rainer Nunez was 1-for-3 with a double. Elvis Alvarado got the win (2-0) with a perfect inning of relief, striking out one. Neftali Feliz got the save (7), pitching a perfect inning and striking out one.

    Caribes did not play Saturday. Sunday, Caribes defeated Magallanes 2-1. Willians Astudillo was 1-for-3. Luis Sardinas was 2-for-3. Andres Sotillet got the win (1-1), pitching two shutout innings while giving up a hit and a walk.

  2. Cardinals collecting ex-Twins. First they signed the pitcher with the most starts since 2014 and now Gray keeps Rhu_Ru company .

    The deal is more than $50 million, and early in the offseason, so the Twins get a good compensation pick for it.

      1. RIP Twins 2024.

        Why they were unwilling to bump up payroll for at least one more run with Correa I do not understand.

        1. I don't think anyone really expect Gray to stay. I am surprised they didn't make more of an effort to keep Maeda.

          1. Do we know they didn't make more of an effort to keep Maeda? I thought I read that they did make a run at him. Like every year, the front office will get accused of "not trying" to sign players, or we will hear "they really only pretended to try".

            Regarding "RIP Twins 2024". Too early to tell what the F.O. will do. We are never movers and shakers early in free agency. We tend to wait out the market and look for value on the fringes. We have seen the Twins make more moves the past 3 years than typical for this franchise. Lopez and Correa were pretty big moves in my book. I imagine they will sign another veteran starter for depth, but they have 4 or 5 legit average to above average starters. Personally, I would not have signed Maeda or Gray for how much they went for. We are not a market that can throw that much money at starters on contracts through their 38 year old seasons. Both have had plenty of health issues and are risky moves.

            1. I don't know what the Twins did or didn't do, but Maeda signed for two years, $24 million. That seems to me like a pretty reasonable contract. I've never heard that he was unhappy in Minnesota, so it seems likely to me that if the Twins had matched that, he'd have stayed. They apparently didn't. It surprised me that they didn't.

              1. I saw on the tweets machine (perhaps Doogie?) the Twins were willing to do a 1 year deal but Maeda/Boras wanted a minimum of 2 years

                1. I kind of understand that from both sides. Maeda is old and has basically always had trouble staying healthy, so he wants as many years as possible, but Maeda is old and has basically always had trouble staying healthy, so the Twins are worried about the second year on the deal. The current depth chart for the Twins according to fangraphs is:

                  Lopez 4.1 WAR
                  Ryan 2.6 WAR
                  Ober 2.0 WAR
                  Paddack 1.8 WAR
                  Varland 1.3 WAR
                  Woods Richardson 0.4 WAR
                  Festa 0.1 WAR
                  Canterino 0.3 WAR

                  Yeah, it would be really nice to have Gray (3.2 WAR) and Maeda (2.1 WAR) back for next season, but I'm cautiously optimistic that they can find more cost-effective ways to improve the team.

                  Arguably, the money they might have spent on Gray and/or Maeda is better spent on bullpen depth, so they can protect the leads that they do get.

            2. Overall, I agree.

              The problem I have is that the team announced they would reduce payroll the year after they had their most successful playoff run in thirty years. They blame their television contract that they negotiated and signed.

              Just absolutely awful messaging.

              1. The TV contract expired after this past season. I believe they are anticipating the next contract coming in $20 - $25 million less than the past one. It's a common problem throughout the league for mid to small market clubs. Yes, the messaging sucks. However, it would be worse messaging to run a lighter payroll without explaining why.

                1. They had a poor TV deal before and there will still be a noticeable drop as the TV deal bubble pops. This will hit other teams very hard. Good time for the Twins to fix that messaging by signing a deal with no blackouts.

                2. And it doesn't change anything in my mind. This is still a terrible time to cut payroll. Each round they advance in they playoffs is more money now and years of goodwill.

                  They have the money. Yes, they may lose money in one year (or may not), but they are making money.

                  Cut back in a rebuilding year. Not now.

          1. Exactly, it is still up in the air, but they have been very open about the fact they will have to drop some payroll due to the uncertainty. They are not the only team in this boat.

  3. Twins starting rotation next year:
    Pablo
    JoeRyan
    Bailey
    Varland?
    Is Tyler Mahle still under contract?
    Simeon Woods Richardson/Randy Dobnak piggyback games?

      1. Considering Paddack pitched in the postseason in relief, he's at least healthy enough for that. I expect him to be the fourth starter, possibly with an innings limit, and the Twins to sign another starter to stash Varland in St. Paul as depth.

        Mahle is a free agent. Here are the starters Gleeman listed that are currently on the roster:

        In: Pablo López, Joe Ryan, Bailey Ober, Chris Paddack, Louie Varland

        Others on the 40-man roster: Simeon Woods Richardson, Brent Headrick

      2. I forgot about him
        With 3 good to great SP coming back its not a total rebuild but losing Sonny hurts. (Im also glad he got paid)

        1. Ryan and Ober both need to take significant steps forward for "good-to-great" to hold. They were more like "average-to-good".

          1. they are more good than great, but good (or even average) is better than what a lot of teams are sitting on right now!

            1. Yes, compared to our starting pitching many prior years, this is a solid group. I especially am interested in seeing what Paddack will do, as he looked very good in relief at the end of the season. My worry is how many innings can we get out of him, and Varland, if they are both in the rotation.

              Also... there is plenty of chatter regarding the Twins being more open to trading for starting pitchers versus signing via free agency. I could see them sending Polanco down the road for decent starter on their last year or two of team control. We will see.

              1. My worry is how many innings can we get out of him, and Varland, if they are both in the rotation.

                I think this is a problem most teams have in their rotations. There were only 43 pitchers that threw at least 162 innings last year and only 28 pitchers that had at least 32 starts (which is 1/5th of a season). And even 162 innings seems like a pretty low bar for a full-time starter -- that's averaging 5 innings per start when you would typically hope that they would average closer to 5.5 or 6.

                I'd say that pitcher injuries are some kind of epidemic these days, but I guess historically there weren't a lot of pitchers that would throw 32 starts in a season, even going back to shorter rotations (or no set rotation at all, which apparently used to be fairly common if you go back before, say, the '60s.)

                1953 -- 15 pitchers on 16 teams, 0.9 per team
                1963 -- 37 pitchers on 20 teams, 1.8 per team
                1973 -- 54 pitchers on 24 teams, 2.2 per team
                1983 -- 43 pitchers on 26 teams, 1.6 per team
                1993 -- 50 pitchers on 28 teams, 1.8 per team
                2003 -- 54 pitchers on 30 teams, 1.8 per team
                2013 -- 42 pitchers on 30 teams, 1.4 per team
                2023 -- 28 pitchers on 30 teams, 0.9 per team

                So I guess we're back to the '50s now? There were also only 21 pitchers with 32 starts in 2022. I don't know the answer, but I hate seeing so many pitchers get injured.

                1. I have thought a lot lately about pitcher injuries. Without looking at historical data, I feel like pitchers are pushing their arms to the edge of physical tolerances, more than ever. They are tinkering non-stop to get those extra 3-6 MPH on their pitches. They are spinning the ball at a higher velocity than in the past. I just think the shoulder and elbow were not made for the amount of torque they endure. So, if this is the case, I don't think there is an answer other than "deal with the carnage". Which is sad.

                  1. Also a lot more pitching early in their life. MLB sees the result of that, at least the ones that survive high school and college/MiLB, 15-20 years later.

                    1. Pitchers used to be taught to pace themselves, so they could go deep into games. Now, about the same time teams started putting in pitch limits and innings limits, pitchers are told to go as hard as they can for as long as they can. That doesn't seem to be better for pitchers' health.

                    3. It's a bit counter-intuitive, but I think that the more that they can push the pitch clock to smaller intervals, the better it will be for the pitchers. They can't throw as close to 100% in each pitch if they have less recovery time versus pitches.

                      A more extreme measure would be to do something like requiring the starting pitcher throw seven innings or allow 5 runs. If pitchers knew that they had to go that deep in a game, their approach would be different. If someone got hurt early, you'd be forced to allow the necessary runs to get it to 5 runs allowed -- through automatic walks or something similar. It would be unfortunate for a starter to get injured that way, but if we're serious about starting pitchers going deep into the game, I don't see a real way around it other than making it mandatory through a severe rule like that.

Comments are closed.