Five Games, Seven Runs

[Halsey Hall]

 

My list of demands for the FO

 

1. Bring up Arcia for Robinson.  Although Arcia hasn't shown any consistency at all we need power and he can provide that. 

2. Bye bye Boyer.  No explanation necessary.

3. Lose Duensing.  O'Rourke has shown he can be the lefty specialist (and then some) out of the pen.

4. With our depth of pitching in the minors, look to them to fill voids in the bullpen.  Atcher, Berrios, Duffey potentially.  If anything, those in the MLB haven't seen them before and in the very least that gives them an edge over the options we have now. 

5. Give Pelfrey a big ole handshake and say "thanks for pitching well above what we expected" and try and deal him for best available offers.  

6. May should fill Pelfrey's spot in the starting rotation.  I know he can be a successful reliever but he was and still is one of our top 5 SP options.  Play him as such...

7. With the inactivity and disappointingly producing Jepsen at the deadline, all fans over the age of 21 should be comped a free beer as an apology.

 

Thoughts?  Shall we start a petition?

This is about pitchers.  We need some hitting, the pitching hasn't been that bad.  We need to score some runs.  It's looking like a sweep and back to .500 with the .400's next.

[jimbo92107]

 

While very few would disagree that Mauer's lack of production isn't a problem, he's still owed $69M after this season.  No team has cut bait on a player and eaten that much conract, you can't expect the small market Twins to be the first.  He's also the local guy that puts casual fans in the seats. 

 

Whether Mauer plays 1B or RF, he's blocking Kepler either way, if that's the guy we are concerned with getting playing time, Mauer's position has little bearing on the situation.  We can throw our hands in the air about the Mauer situation all we want, but there's not much that can be done about it so the front office will have to focus on the areas that can be fixed.

I agree that Joe Mauer is a hometown hero, but when was the last time somebody went to a Twins game just to see him? There's nothing special about Mauer as a player anymore. As a first baseman his fielding is about average, and his hitting is a bad fit for that position, where you want a power hitter. He's also lost about 50 points off his career batting average, and the ball no longer jumps off his bat with the same velocity.

 

At this point Mauer is indeed blocking the emergence of Max Kepler, whose speed and bat appear ready for the jump to the major league level. If the Twins want to continue their slow ascent in quality, they have to be willing to make changes to improve the long-term quality of the lineup. That includes moving Mauer to a platoon role, and same goes for Torii Hunter. Both older vets need to make room for younger, faster guys like Kepler and Arcia.