TJ got to step into the (fake) shoes of Falvine for a couple days

. How did he do this year?"It’s that time of year again — our friends over at Royals Review convened the annual MLB GM simulation. Like last year http://www.padresfanproshop.com/authentic-brad-hand-jersey , I got to play GM for the Twins for a few days. With a flurry of trades and a few free agent signings, I put together a team I think should be able to take advantage of our weak AL Central competition and make a deep playoff run. The short version of the rules are:We rewind to the end of the regular season. The assumption is your GM has resigned and been replaced. The new GM is free to set their own organizational philosophy.Each team has a “recommended” budget. We weren’t concerned with the 40 man roster, or options.Players with no-trade clauses could not be traded (this includes players with 10-5 rights). Players with limited no-trade clauses could be traded, but the commissioner/super agent reserved the right to veto it if he thought the player would not accept the trade.Minor leaguers could be traded, but must be specified. No Players to be Named Later. Cash could also be dealt, but the amount must be specified.Teams were free to frontload or backload contracts, although player preferences are for contracts not to be backloaded. Anything ridiculous would not be accepted. We could offer player, club, mutual, and vesting options.Top offer was typically taken, although there may have been exceptions if a player had a preference on where he wants to play (big market over small market; older vet may want to play for a “winner.”)No negotiating long-term deals for players that are not free agents (just to keep things sane.)The Roster I’ll give you the full rundown of how things unfolded and my logic in a bit, but with no further ado, here is the opening day roster for the 2019 fake Twins.Pitchers:RHP Zack GreinkeRHP Jose BerriosLHP Steven MatzRHP Frankie MontasRHP Michael PinedaRHP Shane CarleRHP Joe SmithLHP Paul FryRHP Brandon KintzlerRHP Trevor HildenbergerLHP Sam FreemanRHP Brad BrachInfielders:Miguel Sano (R)Jonathan Villar (S)Zack Cozart (R)Joe Mauer (L)Ehire Adrianza (S)Outfielders:Eddie Rosario (L)Max Kepler (L)Avisail Garcia (R)David Peralta (L)Catchers:Mitch Garver (R)Blake Swihart (S)Willians Astudillo (R)DH:Chris Davis (L)The following players will be waiting in the minor leagues for an opportunity, which will surely come.Pitchers:RHP Fernando RomeroLHP Stephen GonsalvesRHP Kohl StewartLHP Adalberto MejiaRHP Zack LittellRHP Aaron SlegersLHP Steven BraultRHP Chase De JongRHP Alan BusenitzRHP John CurtissLHP Gabriel MoyaLHP Andrew VasquezRHP Tyler DuffeyRHP Carson FulmerRHP Matt BelisleRHP Blaine BoyerLHP Zach DukePosition Players:IF Hanser Alberto (R)IF Kevin Newman (R)IF Drew Ward (L)OF Zack Granite (L)OF LaMonte Wade (L)OF Brandon Barnes (R)C Raudy Read (R)C Rene Rivera (R)Before you beat me up too much in the comments, lets roll through how this happened, and the logic involved.The MovesPrior to the start of free agency, teams had a 48-hour “legal tampering” period where they could engage with each other on trade talks, and a couple deals started here. I entered the simulation with the idea of fielding a competitive team in 2019, but truly competing in 2020 and 2021. That evolved a bit based on the way things played out, but the first few deals played out with this mindset. I also valued positional versatility very highly, which I’m sure you noticed from my final roster. Almost every position player can cover two or more positions at a reasonable MLB level.The Angels offered Cozart in exchange for Robbie Grossman, and I accepted. Grossman is a nice role player, but a bit redundant, and we needed some middle infielders. Cozart was a nice piece to add because he can play second base, third base Matt Szczur Jersey , or shortstop. He was an all-star in 2017, and hit well for years in Cincinnati before struggle in LA this season. Perhaps stepping out of the bright lights, and in to a smaller market will help him. He is 32, but we are only on the hook for two years of his salary. He will be my starting second baseman in 2019.The second trade hurt a bit more, moving Jorge Polanco to the Pirates, and picking up Kevin Newman and Steven Brault. Again, I was looking at delaying my window a bit, and as much as I hated to break up Kramer and Newman, adding the pitcher seemed to be worth the slight step back. Newman can, again, play third, second, or short; plus has a slightly higher ceiling than Polanco. He probably takes over from Cozart in 2020. Brault is a left-handed pitcher who can fit into the back end of a MLB rotation, and is still pre-arbitration.I also started to put together the framework of the deals for Davis and Villar, and for Greinke at this stage, although they took a bit longer to develop. As free agency opened up, trades were still flying around, but there was one player I knew I wanted to offer a deal to — Joe Mauer. I gave Mauer his choice of three offers. Offer one was a position in baseball operations that would have him home every night. Offer two was a one year deal for $7.5 million; and offer three was a three year deal at $17.5 million, with $6.5 million in year one, and mutual options at $5.5 million in years two and three. Mauer chose to accept the one year deal, and return to the team.Once I knew the Mauer deal was in place, my interest in trading with the Orioles waned a bit. They wanted out of Davis’ contract, and we had the space to absorb it, but I already had two first basemen in Austin and Mauer. In return for taking Davis’ contract I wanted Villar. Once Fry, an intriguing lefty reliever http://www.padresfanproshop.com/authentic-brad-hand-jersey , was thrown in, it just came down to price. The O’s wanted Gordon plus another prospect, and we settled on Anthony McIver. Villar is under arbitration through 2020, and would serve as a good stop-gap until Royce Lewis or Wander Javier was ready for the big time. Villar has played primarily shortstop, but has also played a lot of second base, and a total of six positions. When I took on Davis’ contract, my thought was to eat about 2鈦? of his salary, and shop him. I ended up getting a bit more interest in Tyler Austin, so moved Austin and kept Davis. Although Davis struggled last season, he isn’t far removed from an all-star appearance, and is only 32 years old. He may never hit .260 again, but if he can hit 35 home runs, he has value. With most of my core under arbitration until at least 2021, paying Davis $17 million per year through 2022 won’t handicap me too much, and he can always be moved with some cash later. Fry is an interesting pitcher. He’s a 26-year old left-handed reliever who pitched well in his debut season with Baltimore. Think of him as a slightly better version of Gabriel Moya.A lot of other teams expressed trade interest in various Twins outfielders. would make this many trades in real life. But it was fun. Your TurnAs always, a ton of thanks go out to Max Rieper for putting this on, and a shout out to my fellow GM’s. If any of you want to jump in the comments with your side of the story, Twinkie Town would love hear your takes.Time for you to sound off. A couple quick polls, and then lets hear the comments! There’s no real truth anywhere, what are we to do with any of this silly information"Reports out of Las Vegas running up to the opening of Major League Baseball’s Winter Meetings, and even on the first actual day of whatever goes on there, were that talks were “intensifying” around the Tribe trading their A-1 ace, Corey Kluber. It was news that was as expected as it was depressing. The names alleged to be coming back to Cleveland were mostly Dodger outfielders, which softens the blow some of course, but rumors that Kluber might be leaving actually starting to calcify were hard to hear. Except that they’re not true. Or maybe they are. And that’s why this is the blurst week in baseball.See Trevor Hoffman Jersey , when a front office — or the President of Baseball Operations no less — says something like “ We were sitting here eating lunch by ourselves going, ‘Oh, really. Who is intensifying those talks?’ I’m not sure who is having those talks intensified.” you start to get a little confused, frustrated, wary, the whole gamut of emotions surrounding being yanked around. It’s still fun to hear the rumor a little bit, but having it get shot down is a little stupid to have to deal with.Because there’s surely something there. Somewhere. The question is what. I know media figures get a bad reputation for just throwing stuff out there because it’ll all stick, especially this time of year. And I don’t mean to dog Jon Morosi, the progenitor of the tweet that started this whole mess, but you could make up any rumor you wanted at this point and someone is going to bite. Especially when it’s about the Indians trading a pitcher. Throw in Kluber’s name specifically and you run the news cycle for at least half a day. But it can’t just be made up whole-cloth. That’s a great way to nuke any level of credibility you might have.But we aren’t going to get anything out of it, are we. No confirmation can even be hoped for, even a half-hearted one. Because of course the Indians are going to deny it. Hell, so are the Dodgers. Morosi has a heck of a track record as a reporter, or at least a hell of a clip book. He’s written across the country in Seattle and Detroit, and now for MLB.com. So he’s got the contacts. But he’s also written two articles about this same Kluber deal in the last week and a half, and now he’s tweeted about it a handful of times in the last 36 hours. Not to say he’s banging a drum or anything, but he’s definitely working an angle in an effort to get clicks and whatnot. As long as there’s real bones to the reports, there’s no reason to complain of course.Problem is, nothing at the meetings is ever corroborated until it is. What are we as outsiders and fans to do? Live at the whim of a reporter and the team he’s hounding? Who are we to give more credence to at this point? It feels wrong to just get yanked around by this. At the same time though, It’s not like any of it matters, not really. It’s fun, right? Perhaps that’s the only way to approach any of this. They need to trade someone anyway. Might as well get wrapped up in the storm and just enjoy the ride. Or get Mad Online and yell at someone on Twitter. Or in the comments below, if you want. Either is a great way to stay warm on a cold December night.