Benching Sano two days in a row

[DaveW]

Seriously? Good lord, every time Molitor takes a step forward he takes 3 steps back.

 

Benching your best player back to back games bc of a 4 game slump? Give me a break.

[drjim]

It's not a punishment.

[yarnivek1972]

Of course he ended up pinch hitting in the 7th yesterday. So, he really wasn't off.

 

And if you think he doesn't need it, you haven't been watching him swing the last 4-5 days.

[Linus]

Might have been a good decision with the breaking ball Cobb had.

[DaveW]

Your best player should be playing every day. He never should be getting two days off in a row because of a 4 game slump

 

Especially when said player is less than 25 and your team is In First place.

 

Unreal.

[DaveW]

Of course he ended up pinch hitting in the 7th yesterday. So, he really wasn't off.

 

And if you think he doesn't need it, you haven't been watching him swing the last 4-5 days.

What's a better way to break out of a slump?

 

Face live pitching?

 

Sit on the bench?

 

Hmmmmmm

[Bark's Lounge]

Maybe I am totally wrong with this speculation - but maybe Sano is a little banged up and needed light duty for a couple of days. I'd rather the Twins observed this or were told this by Sano.

 

A few PA's lost in late May is better than losing those in August or September. He is a big guy, problems occur in those type of players.

[SwainZag]

I don't have a problem with it.  8 K's in a row and 11 of his last 14 going against a guy with a pretty nasty breaking pitch.  I'm sure he spent time in the cage yesterday and today and will probably be back in the lineup tomorrow.  Sometimes you need to sit back and take a breather and regroup.  It's not like he didn't get into the game yesterday, a game the Twins won anyways.

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

Sitting down Sano was/is the right call, but I agree with your take on Molitor.

[strumdatjaguar]

Chris Archer looked good on Friday, but Sano looked completely lost!   Get him in the cage to get his stroke back!

[DaveW]

Vargas and Escobar played instead of Sano today.

 

They went 0-12

 

This loss, like so many before is on Molitor. Should have fired him after last season.

[yarnivek1972]

Vargas and Escobar played instead of Sano today.

 

They went 0-12

 

This loss, like so many before is on Molitor. Should have fired him after last season.

This loss is on Kintzler, period.

[DaveW]

This loss is on Kintzler, period.

Or the 28 men LOB by the Twins...

[Squirrel]

Vargas and Escobar played instead of Sano today.

They went 0-12

This loss, like so many before is on Molitor. Should have fired him after last season.

If you want to talk about why we lost in 3 different threads, I'm going to merge them all.

[DaveW]

If you want to talk about why we lost in 3 different threads, I'm going to merge them all.

Two different threads.

 

This one specifically deals with benching Sano. The other is all encompassing.

[TheBoofIsLoose]

Sano has been struggling, so Molitor wanted to give him a full day off. He wasn't able to do it Saturday so he tried today. I'm not an ardent Paul supporter, but this seems like a non-issue especially for a series in May. Besides in this thread we have blamed Molitor, Kintzler, and the Twins offense for the loss, seems like the team played a bad game and the blame doesn't lie with one person.

[akmanak]

You dont sit a player who has smashed the ball 3 weeks ago and was looking like he was an all star. You play him and hope he goes on a run. If this was the case everytime someone slumps than we should of sat Dozier and Buxton for a good part of the year.

[glunn]

As others have observed, we don't know whether Sano might be exhausted or suffering from a minor injury. Placing blame based on incomplete information can be unfair in some instances.

[DaveW]

As others have observed, we don't know whether Sano might be exhausted or suffering from a minor injury. Placing blame based on incomplete information can be unfair in some instances.

Well they(Molitor) should probably communicate that. Also if he was dealing with an injury, why let him play today multiple innings at 3rd?

[glunn]

 

Well they(Molitor) should probably communicate that. Also if he was dealing with an injury, why let him play today multiple innings at 3rd?

For all we know there is a good reason not to communicate the reason. Perhaps he drank too much alcohol and got sick, which would be a situation that should be handled internally.

 

As for letting him play in the field, I don't believe that this was planned -- he came in as a pinch hitter in a close game that the Twins wanted to win so bad that they asked Duffey to pitch even though he threw 30 pitches on Saturday -- a calculated risk.

 

And perhaps a decision was made that he needed a mental health break, which again would be something that should not be shared with the public.

 

It's OK for fans to speculate about stuff like this, but it seems to me that we should always take into account that there may be factors that we don't know about.

 

The only things that fans know for certain is what we can see and what we are told. What I see is a team that is winning far more games than expected, and for that reason I believe that Molitor and the FO deserve some benefit of the doubt.

 

 

[DJSim22]

 

What's a better way to break out of a slump?

Face live pitching?

Sit on the bench?

Hmmmmmm

 

There is a mental side to the game.  He's not a robot. 

[DaveW]

For all we know there is a good reason not to communicate the reason. Perhaps he drank too much alcohol and got sick, which would be a situation that should be handled internally.

 

As for letting him play in the field, I don't believe that this was planned -- he came in as a pinch hitter in a close game that the Twins wanted to win so bad that they asked Duffey to pitch even though he threw 30 pitches on Saturday -- a calculated risk.

 

And perhaps a decision was made that he needed a mental health break, which again would be something that should not be shared with the public.

 

It's OK for fans to speculate about stuff like this, but it seems to me that we should always take into account that there may be factors that we don't know about.

 

The only things that fans know for certain is what we can see and what we are told. What I see is a team that is winning far more games than expected, and for that reason I believe that Molitor and the FO deserve some benefit of the doubt.

Molitor lost about 30 more games then expected last year, winning a few more in April and May doesn't make me give him the benefit of the doubt at all.

 

According to everything he said: he sat Sano bc of the 8 straight strikeouts two days in a row.

 

That's what he is saying, that is what we have to go by. Could it be some massive cover up to protect Sano from these hypotheticals? Sure. But it certainly doesn't appear to be so (since he PH in both games anyways!)

[Squirrel]

Molitor lost about 30 more games then expected last year, winning a few more in April and May doesn't make me give him the benefit of the doubt at all.

According to everything he said: he sat Sano bc of the 8 straight strikeouts two days in a row.

That's what he is saying, that is what we have to go by. Could it be some massive cover up to protect Sano from these hypotheticals? Sure. But it certainly doesn't appear to be so (since he PH in both games anyways!)

I'd sit him for a game after 8 strikeouts, too. But when he pinch hit in Saturday's game what did he do? Yup. Not sure that was the best call to sit him a second game but I'm not sure it was a wrong one, either. There is a mental aspect, and people do tire. Molitor is closer to Sano than either of us and probably has some first-hand info on every player we don't have. The 8 strikeouts in a row are significant enough, 9 if you count Saturday's game, to give him some rest. If he's not back out there today, however, then I'll wonder more along the lines that you jumped to yesterday.

 

And this from one who is not a big fan of Molitor, never has been, didn't even want him hired. But am not going to get overly anxious from his decision to sit Sano Saturday and Sunday.

[SwainZag]

 

Molitor lost about 30 more games then expected last year, winning a few more in April and May doesn't make me give him the benefit of the doubt at all.

According to everything he said: he sat Sano bc of the 8 straight strikeouts two days in a row.

That's what he is saying, that is what we have to go by. Could it be some massive cover up to protect Sano from these hypotheticals? Sure. But it certainly doesn't appear to be so (since he PH in both games anyways!)

 

Just curious, do you think a different manager would have won 90 games with the Twins roster last season?

[twinsnorth49]

 

Or the 28 men LOB by the Twins...

I thought it was on Mollie for benching Sano?  I guess it's the same thing though, because surely if Sano had been given an opportunity he would have cashed some of those runners in.............oh wait. 

[twinsnorth49]

 

Vargas and Escobar played instead of Sano today.

They went 0-12

This loss, like so many before is on Molitor. Should have fired him after last season.

I think Sano has struck out that many times in the last 3 games alone, as long as we're playing hindsight. He's also hitting like a buck and a half at DH so far this year, 

 

I'm no big Mollie defender by any means but blaming this loss on sitting a struggling player for a 2nd game is a bit over the top. Now if he sits again today, I'll jump on the bandwagon and bring my torch. 

[Brock Beauchamp]

 

Molitor lost about 30 more games then expected last year, winning a few more in April and May doesn't make me give him the benefit of the doubt at all.

I'm not a huge Molitor fan - the Molitor we were sold and the Molitor on the field are two different things, though it has improved a bit this season - but if we're going purely on results, Molitor's teams overperformed in 2015, vastly underperformed in 2016, and are overperforming again two months into the 2017 season.

 

I still think the guy has a ton of room for improvement but if you count 2016, then you need to count 2015 as well (and also give a nod to the surprising start to 2017).

[mickeymental]

 

Or the 28 men LOB by the Twins...

according to the espn box, the twins left 17 on base yesterday, one less than the rays.

[jimmer]

 

according to the espn box, the twins left 17 on base yesterday, one less than the rays.

Yeah, it'd be hard to leave 28 men on base when only 24 men got on base :-)

[Seth Stohs]

It was at this time last year that Molitor gave Brian Dozier two games off in a row and he took off after that.

 

In 2015 when he was returning from TJ surgery and in AA, he was really struggling, and Mientkiewicz gave him two straight games off. When he returned, he was on fire and a month or 6 weeks later, he was up with the Twins.