Article: 2016 Report Cards: Infield

[nater79a]

As big a season as Dozier had I think you need to lower the grade somewhat. Mostly for the unevenness of it.

 

Through May 31st, Dozier slashed .202/.294/.329 with only 5 HR's. Big reason why the Twins quickly fell off the A.L. map. Don't think this can be ignored when coming up with a grade.

[howieramone2]

 

all he had to do was beat out Plouffe at third who was on the DL for the majority of the season

Vargas doesn't play 3B. If you mean Sano had to beat out Plouffe, never in a million years. Bad hands, lack of agility, and poor instincts. You do realize, Molly didn't play Sano at 3B on a regular basis until the last 6 games when there were no longer any wild card implications to any team. 

[Mike Sixel]

 

Vargas doesn't play 3B. If you mean Sano had to beat out Plouffe, never in a million years. Bad hands, lack of agility, and poor instincts. You do realize, Molly didn't play Sano at 3B on a regular basis until the last 6 games when there were no longer any wild card implications to any team. 

 

I do realize Molly didn't care about preparing HIS team for the future, yes. 

[Nick Nelson]

 

Grades are a bit bullish, especially relative to expectations set out at the start of 2016.  

The cumulative GPA for outfielders and infielders equates to 2.08, which is slightly above a C. Seems about right to me for an offense that was roughly average and scored the most runs of any Twins team since 2010. Don't expect the pitching grades to be so kind

[Nick Nelson]

 

Murphy's 'F' grade should be an incomplete. He only had 82 PA. Yes, he hit poorly, and then was sent down.

It's mostly intended an assessment of the players' MLB performance, but also a review of their seasons as a whole. For instance, Buxton gets a slight boost for responding so well in Rochester when demoted (.927 OPS in two stints). Meanwhile, the reason Murphy only got 82 PA with the Twins is because he couldn't hit his way out of Triple-A all summer. So that factors into the bad grade and I don't know why it wouldn't.

[Richie the Rally Goat]

 

Vargas doesn't play 3B. If you mean Sano had to beat out Plouffe, never in a million years. Bad hands, lack of agility, and poor instincts. You do realize, Molly didn't play Sano at 3B on a regular basis until the last 6 games when there were no longer any wild card implications to any team. 

nope, I mean Vargas had to hit well enough to create a need to move Sano to 3rd. Agreed with Mike, Moli failed to prepare his team for the future, and that did impact players performance on the field.

[howieramone2]

 

nope, I mean Vargas had to hit well enough to create a need to move Sano to 3rd. Agreed with Mike, Moli failed to prepare his team for the future, and that did impact players performance on the field.

So the team which had the most errors in the AL, needed Sano to add another 25-30? Unless someone puts a gun to his head, you will never see Molly play Sano at 3B on a regular basis.

[Mike Sixel]

 

So the team which had the most errors in the AL, needed Sano to add another 25-30? Unless someone puts a gun to his head, you will never see Molly play Sano at 3B on a regular basis.

 

That would be bad, imo. Some players get better, like Koskie, some don't. But, if you are going to lose, you should try to, you know, take risks and let players grow (or not).

 

I take it you'd just move Sano to DH now?

[Richie the Rally Goat]

 

So the team which had the most errors in the AL, needed Sano to add another 25-30? Unless someone puts a gun to his head, you will never see Molly play Sano at 3B on a regular basis.

the guy hadn't played his "natural position" in 3 years, lets see what he can do. I'm not saying gold glove, but maybe passable if you give him a chance. If you never give him a chance and can't see the writing is on the wall for Plouffe to get non-tendered, then Moli deserves to be stuck w/ a terrible fielding team.

 

Back to the subject at hand, I do agree that the fielding was terrible and would grade the hitters slightly lower than Nick did because the fielding was so bad. Compared to Nick's 2.08, I would have been closer to 1.9. I think Mauer, Rosario, and yes Sano should have had slightly lower grades.

 

Rosario and Sano I would have stuck with them in LF and 3B respectively. I would have given Mauer more time off and away from 1B to rotate in Vargas more.

[howieramone2]

the guy hadn't played his "natural position" in 3 years, lets see what he can do. I'm not saying gold glove, but maybe passable if you give him a chance. If you never give him a chance and can't see the writing is on the wall for Plouffe to get non-tendered, then Moli deserves to be stuck w/ a terrible fielding team.

 

Back to the subject at hand, I do agree that the fielding was terrible and would grade the hitters slightly lower than Nick did because the fielding was so bad. Compared to Nick's 2.08, I would have been closer to 1.9. I think Mauer, Rosario, and yes Sano should have had slightly lower grades.

 

Rosario and Sano I would have stuck with them in LF and 3B respectively. I would have given Mauer more time off and away from 1B to rotate in Vargas more.

No so. In 2015 he played half the season at 3B for Rochester. He played 9 games at 3B in The Show, because he wasn't good enough to earn more time. We all remember what happened last year. He was terrible.

Edited December 28, 2016 by howieramone2

[twinssouth]

49 rbi's from a 1st baseman, making what $18 mil or more, now looking at part time playing, C grade seems quite generous for Mauer. Based on his salary alone seems more like a D grade.

[DrNeau]

 

49 rbi's from a 1st baseman, making what $18 mil or more, now looking at part time playing, C grade seems quite generous for Mauer. Based on his salary alone seems more like a D grade.

 

On this forum, he gets a generous grade. Back on planet Earth, a .389 SLG, 11 HRs and 49 RBIs -- for a 3-hole-hitting AL 1B -- equal an F. 

[snepp]

Joe ranked roughly 20th among major league first baseman (per war), I'd have put him the C-/D+ area.

 

An F? No. Plenty with worse production than he provided.

[DrNeau]

Joe ranked roughly 20th among major league first baseman (per war), I'd have put him the C-/D+ area.

 

An F? No. Plenty with worse production than he provided.

Right, but there were only 23 MLB 1B with a qualifying amount of plate appearances. Still an F for me.

[snepp]

Roughly 20th among the top 30 in plate appearances.

 

Still not an F, unless you're going to start adding additional letter grades for those that were clearly worse (and in some cases, far worse).

[DrNeau]

Roughly 20th among the top 30 in plate appearances.

Right but now you're counting part-timers. Of course Mauer would rank higher than all of those who played less (actually not the case). There were only 23 MLB 1B with a qualifying amount of plate appearances in 2016.

 

Joe was:

* 22nd in HR (2nd to last)

* 23rd in RBI (DEAD LAST)

* 22nd in SLG (2nd to last)

 

That's an F.

Edited December 31, 2016 by DrNeau