Article: Gleeman & The Geek, Ep 252: The Robbie Grossman Experience

[John Bonnes]

Aaron and John talk about Eddie Rosario's demotion and Robbie Grossman's arrival, Jose Berrios' disaster start, Phil Hughes' shoulder problems, Minnesota Corn Growers' groundskeeper contest, Brian Dozier's ongoing struggles, and Terry Ryan's quotes about the sorry state of the team.You can listen by downloading us from iTunes, Stitcher or find it at GleemanAndTheGeek.com. Or just click the Play button below.

 

   

 

Click here to view the article

[Vanimal46]

Gleeman and John brought up in the podcast that it appears that the Twins are sick of the prospect experiment for now, and we may not see a majority of the prospects until August/September. IIRC, Gleeman's reasoning for this is because the Twins desperately want to be a 90 loss team instead of a 100+ loss team. 

I agree with them that it appears the team is sick of seeing prospects fail. Though it's very disappointing that they're not taking the time in a lost season to get these young players real experience on the MLB roster. 

As a fan, there's nothing worse than watching a team full of stop-gap players with a limited or no future on this team. 

[Seth Stohs]

It's awful to watch right now, and using stop gaps is not fun either... but I have no problem with Buxton, Kepler, Polanco, Rosario, Walker playing every day and getting a ton of at bats and make some adjustments and succeed (hopefully). What I don't want them to do is see a two-week hot streak and call a guy back up. Let them get a month or two of at bats. 

 

Berrios will be back, but he needs to find some control (much less command).

 

Chargois could be ready now. Not sure this is the atmosphere to throw him in, but any time. 

 

I'll likely watch full games against in late July and early August, but I think this is the right plan. They'll still get 150+ plate appearances over the final two months, which is a decent amount.

 

Oh, and I don't know that they're so much "sick" of watching prospects fail as much as they're just sick of all the losing, regardless of who is playing.

[Vanimal46]

 

It's awful to watch right now, and using stop gaps is not fun either... but I have no problem with Buxton, Kepler, Polanco, Rosario, Walker playing every day and getting a ton of at bats and make some adjustments and succeed (hopefully). What I don't want them to do is see a two-week hot streak and call a guy back up. Let them get a month or two of at bats. 

 

Berrios will be back, but he needs to find some control (much less command).

 

Chargois could be ready now. Not sure this is the atmosphere to throw him in, but any time. 

 

I'll likely watch full games against in late July and early August, but I think this is the right plan. They'll still get 150+ plate appearances over the final two months, which is a decent amount.

 

Oh, and I don't know that they're so much "sick" of watching prospects fail as much as they're just sick of all the losing, regardless of who is playing.

I don't know the first thing about what's best for each of these individuals. Even though that doesn't stop me from commenting on it! Yes, I agree the best plan for now is to get these guys 1-2 months worth of ABs in AAA and hope 1 or multiple prospects figures out their flaws.

 

In the mean time, I can't think of a worse scenario from a pure entertainment standpoint for fans. When Berrios was up for his brief time, his starts were appointment TV for me. Same with seeing Buxton, Sano, Rosario, Meyer, Polanco and Kepler for the first time - following their success and failures. For the time being, I just can't get excited to watch the stop-gap players on this team.

[Darius]

Is Bonnes concerned that the Twins will take his credentials? I mean, he can't honestly buy into some of the stuff he claims he does, can he (defending roster moves, the Twins prospect development/general team building philosophy, Terry Ryan's abilities as a GM, down playing the country club atmosphere, etc)?

 

The guy clearly has a lot knowledge when it comes to sabremetrics and advanced stats, and Twins history. But, it's kind of mind boggling how anyone can objectively look at the Twins organization and think it's anything other than a raging two-plus decade garbage fire...from the ownership, to TR, to St. Peter, to Antony, to the scouts, to the minor league staffs, to the trainers...basically all the way down the line.

 

It has to be a "good-cop/bad-cop" schtik for the podcast, right?