Good call HB.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/team ... acts.shtml


Pineda, Odorizzi, Perez and Gibson contracts up. That's 4/5 of their rotation.

If I remember correctly both Cruz and Schoop signed 1 year deals before this season.

The good news for the Twins is their young core of Kepler, Polanco, Rosario, Buxton, and Berrios are all stars and still young and cheap.

That rotation though will need some major plugging.

Shane Bieber struck out the side in his inning of work tonight and won the MVP award!!

First player in All Star game history to strike out the side in an inning. That's crazy.

That's surprising. But in any case, good job by our No. 5 starter!

Hand on the other hand showed the erratic side we've been witnessing lately.

Nice honors for Sabathia.

a Dr. friend explains leukemia is several different blood cancers. The "chronic" type Cookie's been diagnosed with is far less dire than the "acute" which was Ernie Davis'. He says that with medication it is possible to carry on a normal life.

An article on Jon Lester, survivor, working with Anthony Rizzo - another survivor. This is doable for Cookie.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/176 ... eeper-cubs

TFIR:

Going back a couple days ... on Bauer ... we have to trade him some time between now and next years deadline. We have him under control next year too. And maybe for less than he made this year in arbitration cause he's having a bit of a down year.

Common sense would say we would get more now cause other team would have another year of control. But how much more?

Since we are making a run and more in the playoff picture, do you ride it out with him one more year and see if he can help us in October? Take a little less this winter or next summer? Is the amount more we would receive now worth making another run this year? As we've seen in '97 and '16 a team can get hot and surprise you.

Honestly I could go either way. If Kluber and Cookie were healthy and for sure 100% heading down the stretch I would trade him for sure right now. But as it is I'm not so sure. We might need him this year. I'm leaning towards waiting to trade him, this winter or next deadline. I mean, we've received nice hauls for a few month rental in the past. (MIchael Brantley!)

If we do decide to trade Bauer now, I do not trade him to the Yankees, or any other AL contender. That could come back to bite us, this October or next. Trade him to an NL team. There is literally like 10 teams in NL right now still in playoff hunt.

I'm with you, HB. Trade him or don't. Not our decision. I'll trust the organization judgement. Can't bitch too much about recent decisions.

Uncertain too. I had assumed the trade this year was inevitable and intelligent but that was before we turned on the offense and started to win most of our games. Clevinger and Bieber along with Plutko Plesac and Civale seems unlikely to make the playoffs; unless we pick up a pitcher in the deal for Bauer I think we'd be blowing the chance. But speaking of Brantley, we certainly don't want to wind up getting nothing for Trevor. Indians have good long-range success in dealing Lee [Carrasco] and Sabathia [Brantley] and Choo [Bauer, and that was an off season deal]

If you are offered a good deal take it.

I think that is the approach I would take too. If someone blows me away go with it. If not, ride him out at least this year.

How the team plays the next 2 weeks may tell the tale too. Start off against the Twins, then 7 games against Tigers and Royals. We win all 3 of those series we may have to ride it out.

My belief is that Trevor is the best pitcher we will see for a long time. We have some good replacements, but you do not come across a talent like Bauer very often. I love the Charlie Findley idea of doing free agency every year, and applaud Trevor for embracing that. His last outing with a runner on third with one out tells you what kind of pitcher he is. Keep him as long as he wants to stay. Future HOF.

Kinda odd to kick this in, but did you guys see the interview with Bieber on MLB Network BEFORE the game?

He went on for awhile about a drill that Bauer showed him that he believes has helped him this year.

So Coach Bauer has his value too. We know he helped Clevinger. Just another factor.

I actually think the "take it if we get blown away" approach is what they did this past offseason and apparently didn't get blown away.

So yeah, same plan.

I agree that Bauer has a HOF career ahead of him; really knows baseball; works like the devil, keeps himself in great condition and helps his teammates. But he doesn't want to stay anywhere longtime, so he'll have to be traded at some point. to an NL team I hope and in the off season most likely.

Agree civ. If he does continue a Hall of Fame trajectory, his one year deals will soon get to $30 million then beyond.

A team like ours can't spend that kind of money on one guy. Especially when it seems this organization knows how to turn out starting pitchers.

And especially if we can get REAL hitters in exchange for him.

Back to the coaching/Bauer angle - this from a Red Sox site regarding JD Martinez:

I remember last year, it was his first year and everyone wanted to go to J.D. for advice. Even me a couple times,” Xander Bogaerts said. “Whenever stuff isn’t going right, you either go to the hitting coach or you go to J.D. He’s definitely changed a lot of us on this team with the mind-set and the advice. He’s definitely huge.”

So players do look up to high achieving peers and will go to them for advice.

Zack Meisel
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Carlos Carrasco was standing on the field for the Stand Up To Cancer ceremony, and he turned toward Shane Bieber.

Carrasco: "I said, 'Oh, you're going to get MVP.' He said, 'Shut up.'"