Keith Law will be in Beloit tomorrow

That may be... and I also think a lot of Law, btw... but if you're going to call in to question a young player's work ethic (which Law clearly is doing here) and not just his defensive abilities, then I think you should give a little more detail concerning your basis for doing so. I'd like to know if Law watched pregame infield or spoke to coaches or scouts or maybe team mates or someone within the Twins front office. Did Sano's body language give a hint as to his mindset defensively? Was he slow to cover a base or get in to cutoff position?

I've seen Sano play 6-7 times this year and there's no question that his defensive skills are below average at 3B, so if Law had simply commented on defensive shortcomings, there'd be no question here. But his comments concerning Sano's "disdain" for defense go deeper than lack of ability and I expect more from a writer I respect as much as I do Law if he's going to call a young man's character in to question.

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Originally Posted by Jim Crikket

Since Law's column is "Insider Only" it's probably not OK to post it here.

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Why, is TD owned by ESPN?

No, its just that it is not free material so copy/pasting the article is not allowed. It is a respect issue I guess. Even a legal issue for that matter.

I posted an article by KLAW a while back and Bonnes got mad:angry: and deleted it. He was right to do it...

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Originally Posted by DPJ

http://insider.espn.go.com/mlb/blog/...-potential-mlb

I'll post the article if one of the admins says it's ok.

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Nope, sorry. Even if it wasn't insider only, we still can't allow the story to be copied over. It's a copyright issue.

But thank you for the link.

Here's my twitter length synopsis of Law's take on each player:

Sano – Helluva hitter, both power and contact, but doesn’t seem to care much for defense.
Rosario – Played CF and looked good there. Offensively, he’s interesting but seemed off balance in that game.
Vargas – Legitimate power, but Law is afraid he won’t make contact at higher levels and he has a DH’s body.
Taylor Rogers – Reliever looks like a legitimate left specialist. 87-89 fastball with a slurve.

Law responded to a question in the comments of that article, about Sano going to 1B: "If third doesn't work out I'd put him in right field. He's not a slug."

This is same I've heard from almost every take I've read and have seen in person. Sano is a big boy, but he's not exactly "slow". He gets moving pretty good around the bases and is in no way pushing a plow out there. 1B is usually meant for guys who have no business playing elsewhere because of their combination of size/speed (big AND slow), etc...(like Vargas) but Sano's not in this category... yet. He's a better athlete at this stage than a 1B-man usually is (which is often why some give hope for him sticking at 3B). Plus he's got that rocket arm that would absolutely be wasted at 1B...

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Originally Posted by Steve Lein

Law responded to a question in the comments of that article, about Sano going to 1B: "If third doesn't work out I'd put him in right field. He's not a slug."

This is same I've heard from almost every take I've read and have seen in person. Sano is a big boy, but he's not exactly "slow". He gets moving pretty good around the bases and is in no way pushing a plow out there. 1B is usually meant for guys who have no business playing elsewhere because of their combination of size/speed (big AND slow), etc...(like Vargas) but Sano's not in this category... yet. He's a better athlete at this stage than a 1B-man usually is (which is often why some give hope for him sticking at 3B). Plus he's got that rocket arm that would absolutely be wasted at 1B...

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There is Travis Harrison coming up who also is not a big boy (like Vargas or Adam Walker) and still does not have a position. And the OF situation is a bit crowded as is. I think that the Twins will try to keep Sano at 3B as much as possible. I'd love to be able to go back and read what they were saying about Koskie's potential at third ;)

I'm a little thrown by Law's comments on his defense. He makes it sound like he doesn't care, and having seen Sano play 6 games at 3B this year, I not once got that sense. The two games I saw in early June, he was a butcher but it wasn't a lack of effort. When I saw four games in August, and watched him in BP and taking grounders, he cares and he does work at it. he still takes grounders at SS, and I've seen him show great athleticism and hands there. I've seen him shagging balls in the outfield, in centerfield, and he does run quite well. Despite 41 errors, I would leave him there and keep working with him at it.

I don't think Law meant that Sano actively was dogging it out there. I took it is a situation where Sano clearly doesn't enjoy playing defense and doesn't look comfortable. If someone isn't enthusiastic about learning something, it's a problem even when they technically do what is expected in terms of practice and effort.

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Originally Posted by Steve Lein

Law responded to a question in the comments of that article, about Sano going to 1B: "If third doesn't work out I'd put him in right field. He's not a slug."

This is same I've heard from almost every take I've read and have seen in person. Sano is a big boy, but he's not exactly "slow". He gets moving pretty good around the bases and is in no way pushing a plow out there. 1B is usually meant for guys who have no business playing elsewhere because of their combination of size/speed (big AND slow), etc...(like Vargas) but Sano's not in this category... yet. He's a better athlete at this stage than a 1B-man usually is (which is often why some give hope for him sticking at 3B). Plus he's got that rocket arm that would absolutely be wasted at 1B...

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Having never watched Sano play but reading this and other things about him- would Glenallen Hill be a good comp for Sano?

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Originally Posted by DPJ

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Originally Posted by Jim Crikket

It appears that Law only stuck around Beloit for the Friday night game, which is unfortunate. Hard to give much credibility to any opinion based on one game/

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He does say that "although the sample here is just three plate appearances" I've read enough of this man that he'd be cold dead in the ground before he based an opinion off 1 game. He's simply reporting what he saw that day, NTM the reports from other scouts and publications that say the same thing about his defense and I don't think he's making some wild opinion off one game.

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He does a lot of research but this might have been the only time that he has actually seen Sano play in the last year. I think he sees a lot more MiLB games than a few years ago but I still remember his top 100 comments from a few years ago. He started about 25 of the comments with 'when I saw this player at the futures game, he...' He made it sound like the minor league baseball that he watched all year was the futures game.

At this point all I care about is Sano's bat. I'm giving him a 1% (or less) chance at being a starter at 3B. The final nail in the coffin will be that his bat will be ahead of his defense (similar to Myers/Harper recently) and you'll have to make a decision about whether to keep him in the minors because of his defense or call him up because of the bat.

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Originally Posted by notoriousgod71

Having never watched Sano play but reading this and other things about him- would Glenallen Hill be a good comp for Sano?

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As far as body type? Sure...