Isn't this a better overall mix?

[IndianaTwin]

In the spring of 1991, I updated my answering machine every couple days with a message about why I thought the Twins were going to the World Series. I say that not to suggest that I’m a genius, but rather to say that I’m optimist. To speak to the not-a-genius part, I was also very high on the 2011 team coming out of spring training. Boy was that a clunker!

 

I’ve spent the last couple of winters thinking that we’re making progress, but when I came back to a read a few postings today, it seemed like the pessimists were yelling a lot louder than the optimists. Call me nuts, but don’t we have more reason for hope than we did at this point a year ago? Forgive the length, but here’s what I see.

Starters
2015: Gibson (29 years old; 32 starts; 108 ERA+); Pelfrey (32-30-97); Hughes (30-25-94); Milone (29-23-106); Santana (33-17-104); May (26-16-104); Duffey (24-10-134); Nolasco (33-8-62)
2016: A similar amount of Gibson; less Pelfrey; Hughes is more like 2014 than 2015; Milone’s a wash; a full season of Santana; more of May, either as a starter or as a reliever; possibly more games out of Duffey, though probably not as good each time out; Nolasco can’t be any worse; add Berrios. Isn’t the 2016 scenario a better overall mix?

 

Bullpen:
2015: Besides May (see above), the 10 guys who got the most innings were Boyer, Graham, Fien, Perkins, Duensing, Thompson, Jepsen, Pressley, Tonkin, and O’Rourke. 2016: Watching from a distance, it’s hard to get a feel for this. But among those guys, Boyer, Duensing, and Thompson are gone, and I haven’t heard any weeping. We have a whole season of Perkins, but not sure if the net of that is an improvement. A whole season of Jepsen is an improvement. If May is in the bullpen the whole year, that’s an improvement over a half-season of May. Graham, Pressly, Tonkin and O’Rourke are all 28 or younger, so I’d like to think they should improve in net – were any pitching over their heads? Is Meyer still part of the plan? The other guys on the 40-man are Chargois, Darnell, Dean, Landa, Melotakis, and Rosario. We’re deep into the pen by now, but I hear about prospects that you folks think are pretty good. Isn’t the 2016 scenario a better overall mix?

 

Catcher
2015: Suzuki (123 starts), Herrman (32), Fryer (7)
2016: Suzuki underperformed last year, right? And we added Murphy and now Hicks. Isn’t the 2016 scenario a better overall mix?

 

1B
2015: Mauer (135), Vargas (14), Plouffe (13).
2016: I get the elephant in the room stuff with Mauer. But if he plays 135 games, isn’t he more likely to improve than regress? If Vargas gets more than 14 starts, it’s because he’s improved. Add Park to the mix. Add a full season of Sano to the mix somewhere. Isn’t the 2016 scenario a better overall mix?

 

2B
2015: Dozier (157), Escobar (4), Nunez (1).
2016: Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t the 2B situation about as settled as anything on this list? Dozier’s 28, so in mid-career. This seems like a wash.  And assuming that he’s healthy, it seems like his 2014 is more typical (and a little better) than 2015. I don’t know that 2016 is a better scenario than 2015, but it doesn’t seem any worse.

 

SS
2015: Escobar (71), Santana (65), Nunez (23), Polanco (3).
2016: All four are still on the roster. Escobar is 27 and didn’t play over his head, did he? Santana can’t be any worse. Nunez is what he is. Polanco’s 22, so he only plays if he’s good. Isn’t the 2016 scenario a better overall mix?

 

3B
2015: Plouffe (138), Nunez (9), Sano (9), Escobar (5), Bernier (1).
2016: Ah, third base. But the starters of 161 games are still on the roster. The incumbent is still only 30. In looking at his last four years, he appears to have underperformed a bit last year. So, if he plays, it seems like we might get a little better performance in 2016. If not, it probably means a lot more Sano, which seems like a good thing as well. Isn’t the 2016 scenario a better overall mix, potentially by a bunch?

 

LF
2015: Rosario (83), Robinson (32), Escobar (27), Arcia (14), Hicks (4), Nunez (2).
2016: Robinson and Hicks are not on the roster. Rather than trying to speculate on who’s playing which position, can we assume that a full season of Rosario playing somewhere is more production than what we got out of LF last year? If he’s not playing LF, can we assume that one of the other likely candidates will be pretty productive, though it may be a downgrade defensively? But really, isn’t the 2016 scenario a better overall mix?

 

CF
2015: Hicks (87), Buxton (35), Schafer (20), Robinson (14), Rosario (3), Santana (3).
2016: Hicks, Schafer, and Robinson are gone. I’m going to work at this one a little differently. Our assumption is that Buxton will get at least 87 games. Don’t we assume that he’ll give us more in his last 87 games than Hicks gave us in his 87 starts, perhaps a lot more? Okay, next let’s say that Buxton gives us 87 + 35 starts. Given that Buxton was good defensively but lousy offensively, can’t we assume that his first 35 starts won’t be any worse than his 35 starts last year, and potentially a lot better. That leaves us the 40 games started by the other four guys. I’ll be honest -- I think the Sweeney signing was a nice low-risk option. I could see the other 40 games being started by 1) Sweeney, who would be no worse and perhaps better than the last four were; 2) Buxton winning the job out of spring training and being no worse and perhaps better than the last four as he gets his feet wet; 3) somebody else, who would be no worse and perhaps better than the last four. So, isn’t the 2016 scenario a better overall mix? Given our expectations for Buxton, maybe a whole lot better?

 

RF
2015: Hunter (121), Rosario (30), Hicks (4), Arcia (4), Robinson (2), Kepler (1).
2016: Hunter’s gone, and you can’t quantify leadership. But it seems like the on-field analysis that he was so-so with the bat and a toadstool on defense. As we look at 2016 and recognizing that I’ve allocated all of Rosario to left, we’re really talking a whole new mix. I haven’t allocated Sano anywhere. If he plays most of his time here, isn’t a full season of him a major upgrade offensively and no worse defensively than Hunter? If Arcia/Kepler/Walker/Sweeney plays the bulk of time, isn’t it because they’ve earned their keep? They have shown that they are no worse defensively than Hunter (maybe better, at least in the case of Sweeney) and perhaps at least a bit of an upgrade offensively, maybe even a large upgrade. So all in all, though it’s tough to make this a certainty, isn’t the 2016 scenario a better overall mix, maybe a whole lot better?

 

DH
2015: Help me out here. Where do I find the games started at DH without looking at each individual player? But at any rate, I did find that Sano started 69, Vargas started 29, and Mauer 19. That leaves 45, which I assume were kind of scattered around.
2016: Sano was a monster in those 69 games, but the rest of our DHs were nothing special. With injuries and attrition, it seems feasible that Sano starts 69 games here, which would seem a wash with last year. For the other 93 games, isn’t a combination of some games from Sano, Park if he’s not at 1B, and whoever’s best among Vargas/Arcia/Kepler/Walker and other guys getting a day off defensively better than what we got out of 93 games of whoever-is-not-named-Sano last year. So, isn’t the 2016 scenario a better overall mix?

 

Summary

In summary then, I offer three questions or comments. If you respond, please indicate which part you are responding to.

1-As I go through the lineup, I don’t see any place where we should be expected to be worse. There are a few places that seem like a wash, a few that COULD be somewhat better, a few that SHOULD be somewhat better, and a few that could be a whole LOT better. So, isn’t the 2016 scenario a better overall mix? If so, how much better? If I’m missing the boat, where?

2-I have chosen not to play the “but we could be a lot better still if we only did this” card. It seems like there is plenty of that going around on other articles and forums. If you want to make a comment on this one, feel free, but separate it from responses to No. 1.

3-I also haven’t played the “but will it be good enough to make the playoffs” card. There’s too much unknown in that – injuries (both to the Twins and other teams), luck, moves that other teams make, luck. Oh, and luck. I approach life as saying all a person can do is try to increase the likelihood of good things happening. If you want to make a comment on how this improvement stacks up, feel free as well, but separate it from responses to No. 1.

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

 

1-As I go through the lineup, I don’t see any place where we should be expected to be worse. 

Responding to number 1: In the outfield, I do think the defense will be worse, at least as long as Buxton is in AAA. Imagine last years outfield without a Buxton or Hicks. I do think Sano will be a worse fielder than Hunter turned out to be. Hunter began horribly but started playing better out there as the season went on. We can expect Sano to be somewhere on the spectrum of guys we ran out there in 2014--hopefully you don't remember back that far. Somewhere between Colabello, Kubel, Escobar, and Santana. I can already see Sano jogging in to field a soft line drive for the third out, nonchalant, shades on the bill of his cap, and then braking hard and turning tail as the ball flies over his head and two important runs score. Or having poor technique on a sacrifice fly situation, and tweaking his shoulder making a 380-foot throw he's never attempted before. Sano will probably be fine, but people have a right to be concerned about little stuff like that.

 

There are just too many ifs. If Perkins can ever pitch a whole season again. If Mauer bounces back. If the catching situation improves. We each have our own ifs, so the effect of all these threads amplifies, and in my opinion it's not as negative as it seems.

[glunn]

This could be a good thread if people can stay on topic.

[stringer bell]

Just heading off to work, but here's my concern: "Mix" isn't optimum. Too many low OBP guys, too many RH bats and arms. Way too many "ifs". I don't like the idea of Sano becoming an outfielder and I think banking on Park is another gamble.

[sorney]

I think, if you take the optimistic view on each and every mix/combination/scenario you laid you, sure it looks great and should provide for a fun summer.  However, rarely does everything turn out.

I could be convinced of just about any one thing on your list as a true/likely outcome, but I don't think I can be convinced that all of them come true.

[DaveW]

The Twins were bottom 5 in the majors last year for offensive WAR

They were bottom 7 in the majors last year for wRC+

They were 3rd worst in OBP

They were bottom 10 in Slugging

 

I would say that they MUST be better than last year if they hope to have any shot at 80+ wins, much less the playoffs or titles.

 

Assuming nobody gets hurt, we need Buxton, Park, Rosario and Murphy all to step up big time, while nobody else regresses to have a legit shot IMO.

 

I'm just not seeing a team that can win more then 80 games this year as its currently constructed. Now, if you trade Milone and Plouffe and open up spots for Sano at 3rd, May at SP and find one more RP? Then we might be talking.

[Vanimal46]

Like sorney said, I can be convinced that any one thing on the list can be a likely outcome, but there's a lot of hope involved in that thinking. The 3 biggest question marks I have are:

 

- Byung-Ho Park - we may be putting the cart before the horse already penciling him in as the full-time DH who can contribute right away. But we'll find out quickly in ST and the first month or so into the season whether he can adjust to MLB pitching. 

- Bullpen - you're right that no one's weeping over losing Boyer, Thompson, and Duensing. However, the young arms we're all counting on may not come to the rescue until June/July. I'm not sure if the overall mix is better than last year if we're counting on the recent minor league signings to contribute until the prospects are ready. 

- Who's replacing Hunter's leadership? From a stats perspective, I'm sure the Twins can find a solution to replicate or even improve from Hunter's numbers last year. I don't know who's going to take over his role as the club house leader. Mauer's not that guy... Dozier?? A surprise candidate like Sano? 

[Loosey]

What's an answering machine?

[stringer bell]

In 2014, the team was far better in all the stats that Dave mentioned. They added Hunter and Rosario and a half season of Sano offensively and subtracted really not much and fell to a bottom quartile offense. Santana, Arcia, and Vargas disappointed or outright disappeared. Was 2014 the outlier or was 2015 more accurately what the offense is and is going to be? I think that several guys will get better or would figure to be about the same--only Rosario and Sano have much basis for regressing, so I think the overall offensive output will be improved, but not by much. I really don't want to see much of an outfield that has both Sano and Arcia in it because of how bad the defense would be. The pitching should be better, but that seems to be the ultimate crapshoot as far as projecting who performs well or not. 

[Mike Sixel]

This is a great, well written, well thought out, piece. Wow. Nice work.

 

I do think the roster has more talent. I do not agree that will necessarily mean more wins.

[Oldgoat_MN]

I appreciate optimism. It's more fun.

 

Responding to Part 1:

 

I don't really believe that any MN Twin position player had a career year. There is upside available with all of them.

 

Plouffe established himself as an above average 3B. According to FanGraphs he was worth $20 million last year. I actually expect him to hit a little better in 2016 than he did in 2015. His BABIP was .284. No luck played into his season at all.

 

The insistance that Sano is going to be an unusually poor fielder I believe is a little overstated. He won't be an All-Star OF in his first season out there, but you can't have a man his age acting as simply a DH. He's too athletic to sit on the bench. You could put him at 3B, but he'd be replacing an above average 3B in Plouffe.

 

All in all I am not sure we have a post-season bound team. 

 

But we might.

[Thrylos]

Still a bit to tell about, since there are a good 2 months of work to figure out the 25, but here is my take:

 

a.  As far as bats go, here is the 2015 OPS+ by position:

 

C 76
1B 86
2B 111
3B 96
SS 110
LF 100
CF 78
RF 77
DH 99
PH 15

 

Got to figure out the Sano/Plouffe thing but, as is:

CF, DH, will likely get lower in 2016; C might be the same, 1B, 3B, RF, and the bench better increase.

 

b. cannot talk about pitching at this point.  Too many things in flux

 

c.  This is important:  

Cannot look at teams in a vacuum.  Part of the reason that the 2015 Twins were that good was because the 2015 White Sox, Tigers and Indians under-performed.  Got to factor their improvement over their 2015 versions to how the Twins will potentially end up in 2016

 

[DaveW]

Good point about the central, which was weak last year, but should be better this year.

 

The Twins went 25-13 against the Indians and White Sox. Can't count on that again IMO

[Old Twins Cap]

It's good to have an optimist on this site, where criticality is the norm.   So, I really like this article, as I believe that actual fans, their energy, their positivity, their informedness -- that contributes to the performance of the team on the field.  Bring that excitement to Target Field, it's contagious.

 

All that said, the big caveat about this analysis:  the Twins don't play against themselves.  They play other teams.  If the other teams are better, make better pitches, play better defense, run faster, hit better -- that's the governing factor in performance.

 

The Twins players may be better on paper than in years past, but they play baseball on the field and by that measure, one needs to consider the quality of their competition.  The Twins, better on paper, could still end up with a worse record on the field.

[Otto von Ballpark]

 

DH

2015: Help me out here. Where do I find the games started at DH without looking at each individual player?

For starts by position, check B-Ref's "Defensive Lineups" (under the "Other" tab) and look at the bottom of the DH column:

 

http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/MIN/2015-lineups.shtml

 

For stats by position (including all appearances at the position, not just starts), you can look under B-Ref's batting splits for the team, and clicking on a position brings up the player-by-player breakdown:

 

http://www.baseball-reference.com/play-index/split_stats_team.cgi?full=1&params=defp%7Cas%20DH%7CMIN%7C2015%7Cbat%7CAB%7C

 

Or at Fangraphs, select the position in the Splits drop-down menu:

 

http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=bat&lg=all&qual=y&type=0&season=2015&month=44&season1=2015&ind=0&team=8&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0

[IndianaTwin]

 

Responding to number 1: In the outfield, I do think the defense will be worse, at least as long as Buxton is in AAA. Imagine last years outfield without a Buxton or Hicks. I do think Sano will be a worse fielder than Hunter turned out to be. Hunter began horribly but started playing better out there as the season went on. We can expect Sano to be somewhere on the spectrum of guys we ran out there in 2014--hopefully you don't remember back that far. Somewhere between Colabello, Kubel, Escobar, and Santana. I can already see Sano jogging in to field a soft line drive for the third out, nonchalant, shades on the bill of his cap, and then braking hard and turning tail as the ball flies over his head and two important runs score. Or having poor technique on a sacrifice fly situation, and tweaking his shoulder making a 380-foot throw he's never attempted before. Sano will probably be fine, but people have a right to be concerned about little stuff like that.

 

There are just too many ifs. If Perkins can ever pitch a whole season again. If Mauer bounces back. If the catching situation improves. We each have our own ifs, so the effect of all these threads amplifies, and in my opinion it's not as negative as it seems.

Thanks for the feedback. I did realize that "overall outfield defense" doesn't fit into my schematic real well, and it is hard to imagine it being as good as last year. Those innings of Rosario-Buxton-Hicks were pretty sweet.

 

I was probably too hard on Hunter in suggesting that others won't be worse. Even as he slowed, one thing he had going for him was the instinct to do the right thing. So unlike me in slow-pitch softball, he's not going to compound not getting to a ball by throwing it to the wrong base. Put another way, even if Sano or someone else is able to get to the same number of balls and have a similar, he may be less effective than Hunter.

[IndianaTwin]

 

 

This could be a good thread if people can stay on topic.

And we're off to a good start. Good feedback, folks.

[IndianaTwin]

 

 

Just heading off to work, but here's my concern: "Mix" isn't optimum. Too many low OBP guys, too many RH bats and arms. Way too many "ifs". I don't like the idea of Sano becoming an outfielder and I think banking on Park is another gamble.

But "mix" is also reality. I think there were less than four guys per team on average throughout MLB that got 500+ ABs. What I like is that there are generally options. The standard answer around the diamond isn't usually "Starter + Punto."

[IndianaTwin]

 

 

I think, if you take the optimistic view on each and every mix/combination/scenario you laid you, sure it looks great and should provide for a fun summer.  However, rarely does everything turn out.

I could be convinced of just about any one thing on your list as a true/likely outcome, but I don't think I can be convinced that all of them come true.

I'm with you that not all the combos are going to turn out well. That's the odds working. But the encouraging sign to me is that there seems to be very few guaranteed declines. And in a greater number of places than not, we seem to be playing with dice loaded in our favor. That beats the alternative.

[IndianaTwin]

 

The Twins were bottom 5 in the majors last year for offensive WAR

They were bottom 7 in the majors last year for wRC+

They were 3rd worst in OBP

They were bottom 10 in Slugging

 

I would say that they MUST be better than last year if they hope to have any shot at 80+ wins, much less the playoffs or titles.

 

Assuming nobody gets hurt, we need Buxton, Park, Rosario and Murphy all to step up big time, while nobody else regresses to have a legit shot IMO.

 

I'm just not seeing a team that can win more then 80 games this year as its currently constructed. Now, if you trade Milone and Plouffe and open up spots for Sano at 3rd, May at SP and find one more RP? Then we might be talking.

That's the tricky part, and the stats you list are the puzzling part of last year. Later posters talk about the human factor. I think of it this way. Every team has some sort of base and then plays within +/- some margin of that. So you might say that last year's team was a 78-win team that somehow found a way to win five more games. I'm not suggesting that the talent is 10 games better than last year by any means, so I could also easily see a scenario where we essentially have an 83-win team that finds a way to five fewer games and ends up at 78. That happens too, but the former is more fun!

[IndianaTwin]

 

 

Like sorney said, I can be convinced that any one thing on the list can be a likely outcome, but there's a lot of hope involved in that thinking. The 3 biggest question marks I have are:

 

- Byung-Ho Park - we may be putting the cart before the horse already penciling him in as the full-time DH who can contribute right away. But we'll find out quickly in ST and the first month or so into the season whether he can adjust to MLB pitching. 

- Bullpen - you're right that no one's weeping over losing Boyer, Thompson, and Duensing. However, the young arms we're all counting on may not come to the rescue until June/July. I'm not sure if the overall mix is better than last year if we're counting on the recent minor league signings to contribute until the prospects are ready. 

- Who's replacing Hunter's leadership? From a stats perspective, I'm sure the Twins can find a solution to replicate or even improve from Hunter's numbers last year. I don't know who's going to take over his role as the club house leader. Mauer's not that guy... Dozier?? A surprise candidate like Sano? 

 

We're three-for-three in having the same questions. What I like about the Park signing is that it's relatively low risk and that we should find out the result early, as you mention. Your summary of the bullpen is why I'm generally on board with May in the bullpen in the early season. I'm not ready to give up on him as a starter, but he's one of the closer things to a sure thing that we have down there. As for Hunter's leadership, I don't see an obvious candidate either, but it's hard to see those things from a distance. I wonder about Dozier, too. One also hopes that the cumulative effect of a year's maturity across the board from guys also helps incrementally. I think it also helps that some of them have already played together in the minors, since they may already have a sense of who they look to for that stuff. It also can't come from staff, but I've been encouraged by what people seem to say about the coaching staff compared to past ragging about them.

 

[IndianaTwin]

 

 

What's an answering machine?

Off-topic.

 

But clearly deserving a "like" and a thoughtful response. An "answering machine" was this contraption that actually recorded your phone calls on something called a "tape." It was typically connected to another box by a long thing "wire" (sometimes known as a "cord" or "cable"). The second box had a round thing on top with holes. You'd stick your finger in one of the holes and spin it around from seven to 10 times to call someone.

 

These devices are typically found in one of two places -- museums and my parents' basement.

[IndianaTwin]

 

 

I appreciate optimism. It's more fun.

 

Responding to Part 1:

 

I don't really believe that any MN Twin position player had a career year. There is upside available with all of them.

 

Plouffe established himself as an above average 3B. According to FanGraphs he was worth $20 million last year. I actually expect him to hit a little better in 2016 than he did in 2015. His BABIP was .284. No luck played into his season at all.

 

The insistance that Sano is going to be an unusually poor fielder I believe is a little overstated. He won't be an All-Star OF in his first season out there, but you can't have a man his age acting as simply a DH. He's too athletic to sit on the bench. You could put him at 3B, but he'd be replacing an above average 3B in Plouffe.

 

All in all I am not sure we have a post-season bound team. 

 

But we might.

Encouraging words on Plouffe, and I'm with you on the analysis of Sano.

[IndianaTwin]

 

 

Still a bit to tell about, since there are a good 2 months of work to figure out the 25, but here is my take:

 

a.  As far as bats go, here is the 2015 OPS+ by position:

 

C 76
1B 86
2B 111
3B 96
SS 110
LF 100
CF 78
RF 77
DH 99
PH 15

 

Got to figure out the Sano/Plouffe thing but, as is:

CF, DH, will likely get lower in 2016; C might be the same, 1B, 3B, RF, and the bench better increase.

 

b. cannot talk about pitching at this point.  Too many things in flux

 

c.  This is important:  

Cannot look at teams in a vacuum.  Part of the reason that the 2015 Twins were that good was because the 2015 White Sox, Tigers and Indians under-performed.  Got to factor their improvement over their 2015 versions to how the Twins will potentially end up in 2016

a - A much more concise way of getting through the offense, but my boss would tell you that it's not first time someone's been more concise than me! You folks have now observed this. But our conclusion seems similar.

b - Of course we can talk about our pitching -- we've got no games to watch and nothing else to do!    But to sort of paraphrase Doc and Marty McFly, I do like that the number of starter options we have does give us some "flux capacity," if you will. Groan.

c - Always tough to deal with this. I like that we haven't done knee-jerk reactions to say that "we need x because the Tigers did y and the Indians did z." (I try not to talk about the White Sox in .) But I agree that none of those teams can be counted out because of their underperformance last year that likely will lead to bounceback. I especially am concerned about the Tigers, though I think they could also go flop.

[IndianaTwin]

 

 

Good point about the central, which was weak last year, but should be better this year.

The Twins went 25-13 against the Indians and White Sox. Can't count on that again IMO

And that's the explanation of finishing above .500. I live in northern Indiana. If we're going to beat up on two teams, there's not a better pair!

[IndianaTwin]

 

 

 

The Twins players may be better on paper than in years past, but they play baseball on the field and by that measure, one needs to consider the quality of their competition.  The Twins, better on paper, could still end up with a worse record on the field.

Don't know if my "Old Twins Cap" is older than yours, but someone made a helpful comparison to the 1980s and I wonder if it fits. I went to college for the first time in 1984, with the Twins still in first when I went out the driveway. Hrbek, Puckett, Brunansky were on board and I was pumped. They were probably a 76-78 win team, but they found a way to go 81-81. There was reason for hope in 1985, but they fell backward in the standings. They only won 77 games with a lineup that was young and had potential. Then in 1986, they fell even further to 71 wins and it's like "what the heck is this garbage? I thought these guys were good." But then in 1987, about the time I'd started to give up on them, they took off and I was waking the neighbors as I watched Darrell Evans get picked off third and Kent Hrbek hitting grand slams.

 

With the way we overperformed last year, my hope is that we don't have to go through the 77 and 71 win seasons to get to where we could be, but if we do, I also hope that we can still see improvement in the process, which gets to a few of the "we might be more talented, but we might not win any more games." I generally agree with those, by the way.

 

There's perhaps parallels with the Royals here. I think there's was more consensus on their future potential in say 2012 than there may have been in 2014 when they put it together.

[IndianaTwin]

 

 

For starts by position, check B-Ref's "Defensive Lineups" (under the "Other" tab) and look at the bottom of the DH column:

 

http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/MIN/2015-lineups.shtml

 

For stats by position (including all appearances at the position, not just starts), you can look under B-Ref's batting splits for the team, and clicking on a position brings up the player-by-player breakdown:

 

http://www.baseball-reference.com/play-index/split_stats_team.cgi?full=1&params=defp%7Cas%20DH%7CMIN%7C2015%7Cbat%7CAB%7C

 

Or at Fangraphs, select the position in the Splits drop-down menu:

 

http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=bat&lg=all&qual=y&type=0&season=2015&month=44&season1=2015&ind=0&team=8&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0

Thanks. I knew it was there somewhere!

[Danchat]

I haven't really thought about the possibility of Park being unimpressive and earning a trip to AAA. I suppose Sano could just slide right back into DH and let someone else play in the OF.

[FunnyPenguin]

Hey Just wondering, how do I start a forum on here?

[Vanimal46]

 

Hey Just wondering, how do I start a forum on here?

 

If you're on the page where you can view all of the forums, there should be a black button on the right hand side of the screen saying Start a Topic.